Chapter 92: Divorce the Husband

Mrs. Han gave a cold laugh. With a touch full of nostalgia, she ran her hand over the whip’s handle, weathered by the years. It had been specially made for her by her father, General Han, and in her youth she had often used it. After she married, she had put it away and never touched it again.

It was a black bamboo-section whip, four and a half feet long, tapering at the front and thickening toward the back, with ten joints in all. The tip was very fine, bristling with dense, needlelike spikes.

Seeing Shen Zhifeng try to run, Mrs. Han flicked her wrist and lashed out again, aiming straight for his heart. Shen Zhifeng panicked and threw up a hand to block it. With no clothing to soften the blow, the skin from his palm to his wrist split open at once.

“Ah!” Shen Zhifeng cried out in pain, clutching his hand and dropping to one knee.

Such a commotion naturally alarmed the steward and guards outside the study.

But seeing that it was actually the usually gentle and virtuous madam wielding the long whip with such fierce authority, none of them dared rush in directly. When one servant sensed trouble, he hurried off to Emerald Willow Hall to fetch the old dowager.

“Madam, Madam, please calm yourself!” the steward cried anxiously.

Calm down? How could she calm down? Her only daughter had been given a sterilizing poison, and it had been done through her own hands...

Every time she thought that she had nearly ruined Qingyun’s entire life, Mrs. Han’s heart trembled with pain, as though countless daggers were stabbing into her chest.

Her gaze turned savage, like a mother wolf guarding her cubs, as she demanded sharply, “Shen Zhifeng, why did you order Aunt Feng to drug her? You knew I never eat game, didn’t you? You counted on Qingyun being unguarded with me, didn’t you? How cruel of you! She is your daughter, our only daughter!”

Shen Zhifeng had not expected Mrs. Han to uncover the matter so quickly. With bloodshot eyes and veins bulging at his neck, he shouted, “Mrs. Han, you crazy woman! I don’t know what nonsense you’re talking about. Hurry up and call the household physician for me. I’m telling you, if I—”

“What will you do?” Mrs. Han cut him off at once. “Since you dared lay hands on Qingyun, what use is there in keeping those hands of yours?”

With that, she flew into a frenzy, lashing him again and again.

If it had been before, Shen Zhifeng would never have been suppressed so easily by Mrs. Han. But after so long of soft living, added to Shen Qingyun’s drugging him and the greed of Lady Jiang’s family during this period, his body was already a hollow shell, weak beyond measure. He could not fight back at all and could only dodge in disarray, though he was still inevitably wounded.

A smell of blood spread at once.

By the time the old dowager arrived, panting hard, what she saw was Mrs. Han holding a bloodstained whip while Shen Zhifeng, covered in wounds and splashed with blood, crouched in the corner of the study begging for mercy. Shock nearly made her faint on the spot.

“What is this? What is going on? Mrs. Han! What are you doing? Good heavens, put that whip down at once!” the old dowager shouted in alarm, rushing forward to examine Shen Zhifeng’s injuries.

The household physician had also been summoned. Seeing the scene, he roughly understood what had happened and could only lower his head and step forward to give Shen Zhifeng a simple dressing first.

He could not help sighing inwardly. It was not strange that the madam had acted this way; indeed, the duke had gone too far.

But when the old dowager saw Shen Zhifeng’s hands mangled beyond recognition, she could not suppress her rage and began hurling abuse at Mrs. Han, crying as she cursed, “What wickedness is this? If I had known long ago that you, Han Rou, were so disrespectful to your husband and dared beat people, I never should have let my son marry a shameless woman like you!”

Mrs. Han drew back the whip, tears in her eyes yet smiling coldly. “Why don’t you ask your dear son Shen Zhifeng what evil he has committed!”

The old dowager’s eyes flew wide. No longer wearing her usual composure, she sprayed saliva as she shouted, “Ask what! You, Han Rou, are already a daughter-in-law of our Shen family. My son can make you do anything, and you must bear it. That is your fate; you have no one to blame but yourself! After all these years, you still cannot bear him a son, and now you even dare beat your husband. Do you believe me when I say my son will divorce you? Let’s see who would still want you, you barren trash!”

“Divorce me?” Mrs. Han bit her lip hard. She had not expected the old dowager to speak such heartless words. “Fine. Then write the divorce papers. But first I need to take inventory of my dowry.”

At the mention of the dowry, the old dowager’s expression froze. Suddenly, she calmed down.

Shen Zhifeng endured the pain and said, “Mrs. Han, Mother only said that because you angered her. Hurry and apologize to her! What you claim I did, I never did. Go back to your Warm Jade Pavilion now. Without my orders, you are not to step outside!”

This was clearly meant to place Mrs. Han under confinement.

“Why should I apologize? Shen Zhifeng, place your hand on your conscience and answer me. For all these years, I have managed everything in the Duke’s household, and I have not wronged you in the slightest.”

Mrs. Han forced back the choking ache in her throat and asked, “And what about you, Shen Zhifeng? Dare you look into my eyes and say how you have treated me? You broke your promise first and harmed our children afterward. If anyone should be divorced, it should be I, Han Rou, who divorces my husband!”

At those words, the room fell silent.

The old dowager was just about to unleash another tirade when Shen Zhifeng suddenly lifted his head and stared at Mrs. Han, his eyes burning with hatred. “Divorce your husband? You have the face to say that? Han Rou, what you owe me, you will never repay in this lifetime!”

Mrs. Han swayed. “What do I owe you!”

“The Emperor is wary of the Han family. If I had not married you, how could I have gone so long without making any mark in the court? You ruined my future for the rest of my life. You should be repaying me like an ox or a horse! And I still let you live in comfort as the duke’s wife. Han Rou, don’t know what’s good for you!”

The old dowager also straightened her back. “My son is right! It is your Han family that owes us! Besides, just look at you—unable to bear a son and jealous to boot, refusing to let him take concubines. You should have begged to leave long ago. It is only because my son has been so devoted to you that you’ve been spoiled rotten! Mrs. Han, hurry and bring the miracle doctor here!”

Mrs. Han seemed to have heard the greatest joke in the world, and she laughed until tears spilled from her eyes. “If your son Shen Zhifeng had not sworn back then that he loved only me and would never take concubines, do you think I would have married into this duke’s household?”

She swept her gaze around the study. “The murals on these walls, the paperweights on this desk, every last large and small thing here came from my dowry, from the Han family. Shen Zhifeng, you are arrogant yet inept, narrow-minded and short-sighted. That you even have an office at all is only thanks to your ancestors’ blessings. You ought to be burning incense in gratitude. If you have the ability, then go to the battlefield and earn merit with your life. Dare you?”

These words clearly struck Shen Zhifeng where it hurt.

All along, he had hypnotized himself into pushing every grievance and disappointment onto Mrs. Han, taking comfort in the convenience of living off the Han family’s support while resenting others for looking down on him because of it.

“Han Rou, must you make your words so absolute?” Shen Zhifeng gritted out each word, his eyes already showing unmistakable killing intent.

Seeing this, Mrs. Han’s heart turned to dead ash. “There is nothing more for us to say. Let us separate at once!”