Chapter 7: A Loose Tongue, Fuel on the Fire

Chapter 7: A Loose Tongue, Fuel on the Fire

With the current head of the household having spoken, Lang Caimeng hurried forward to pull Lang Jiuchuan up, calling to his wife at the same time: “Wan Fang, take Ninth Sister and settle her down.”

Leave? That was impossible.

If she left, how could she continue absorbing the flow of merit?

“Let go. I’m not leaving. No one will stop me from remaining here to fulfill my filial duty.”

Jiuchuan gave a slight struggle—then crack!

Wu Shi gasped aloud, her face going pale as she stared at Jiuchuan’s hand.

Caimeng too felt something terribly wrong beneath his grip. Reflexively, he loosened his hold, horrified. When had he gained such brute strength? Jiuchuan’s right hand hung limp, boneless, clearly broken.

Every gaze in the mourning hall snapped toward Caimeng. What kind of grudge must he bear against this “country cousin” to use such cruelty?

Caimeng’s face flushed scarlet. Flustered, he stammered, “No, I—I didn’t use any strength! I didn’t mean it!”

Heaven and earth could bear witness—he had only given the gentlest tug. He hadn’t pulled roughly, hadn’t used force. Yet Jiuchuan’s hand was clearly broken. Who would believe him now?

“You—enough! Call for the physician at once!” Even Lang Zhengping was startled. Was this long-absent niece truly so fragile? He dared not scold her further for her earlier sharp tongue; after all, she was his late second brother’s only child, the last branch of that line. And with Cui Shi watching nearby, how could he add harsher words?

Casting a quick, uneasy glance at Cui Shi, Zhengping barked at his son: “Have you no sense of proportion? How could you be so heavy-handed? That’s your Ninth Sister!”

Caimeng nearly choked on his own indignation. I’m innocent! I only tugged her hand—just a little!

Wu Shi trembled as she stepped forward to support Jiuchuan. Her voice quavered: “Ninth Sister, the physician will be here soon. Let’s wait in the side hall first.”

Her concern wasn’t born of affection but of reputation—if word spread that her husband, the eldest son and heir of the main branch, had broken the hand of the second branch’s orphaned daughter during their grandfather’s funeral, they would be drowned in spit and scandal.

Jiuchuan casually shook her broken hand. “No need.”

The sight made Wu Shi’s vision swim; her heart raced wildly.

Unbothered, Jiuchuan grasped her dangling hand, tugged—and crack! She reset the joint herself. With a quick seal of her fingers and a murmured spell, she flexed it again. “All fixed. I can handle it myself.”

Still, she would need to find the right tendons soon to make the repair permanent. Otherwise, this arm would keep breaking at inconvenient times.

Everyone stared at her as though at a monster. A delicate girl, plainly ordinary to look at, yet calmly snapping her own broken hand back into place? Was this even human?

“See? Nothing’s wrong now. I can continue burning paper offerings.”

…Now? At this moment? And that’s what she thought was important?

Cui Shi felt as though she had lived through a lifetime of upheaval in just a few breaths. Her face dark, she strode forward and snapped: “You wretched creature! Come with me at once!”

Jiuchuan froze mid-step. Slowly, she turned, her voice dangerously soft: “What did you just call me—‘wretched creature’?”

For an instant, Cui Shi’s heart lurched violently. Panic fluttered in her chest. She blinked hard, then looked again. Jiuchuan’s eyes were clear, bright, perfectly normal. Had she imagined it?

But just now, she could have sworn she’d seen nothing but two hollow sockets, chilling and empty. Terrifying.

I must have been seeing things.

The crowd sensed the tension between mother and daughter and grew uneasy. Zhengping shot his daughter-in-law a pointed look.

Even if the family quarreled, they could not disgrace themselves before outsiders.

Wu Shi immediately stepped forward again, trying to smooth things over, gently taking Jiuchuan’s arm: “Ninth Sister, let’s go. The physician should still take a look. If medicine is needed, we can’t delay.”

Jiuchuan shook her off with a cold smile, her eyes fixed on Cui Shi. “After more than ten years apart, your daughter returns home—and you call her a wretched creature? Tell me, madam, what crime have I committed to deserve such a name? Simply because I said that this old gentleman’s days are numbered?”

The hall collectively went dark with exasperation. Your mother wasn’t wrong to call you that. You reckless girl! Why bring it up again? We’d just managed to gloss over your loose tongue, and now you’ve dragged the matter back into the open, throwing oil onto the fire!