Just a Wet Nurse, Just a Plaything? Everyone Wept After My Death - Chapter 60
Chapter 60
“I’ve been falsely accused! General, I didn’t do it!”
Faced with Huo Xiao’s murderous glare, Shen Yingyue went deathly pale. Clutching the baby, she shook her head desperately.
“It was Miss Liu… She snatched Huzi away. I only went to take him back after I heard him crying! She’s the one who pinched him!”
“Silence! You vicious woman! Even with death staring you in the face, you still dare slander your mistress!”
Liu Ruyan had already hidden behind Old Madam Huo, who had arrived shortly after. Tears streamed down her delicate face, and her body trembled like a leaf in the wind.
“Aunt, you must stand up for me!
“I only meant to help Sister Shen hold the baby, but she accused me of not knowing my place and snatched him back. Then she secretly pinched her own little nephew to vent her anger… If Cousin hadn’t returned in time, who knows what else the poor child might have suffered?”
Old Madam Huo trembled with heartache at the sight of the livid, shocking bruises on her eldest grandson’s leg. After hearing Liu Ruyan’s accusations, her fury erupted.
“So this is what you are! A venomous, black-hearted wretch!”
The Old Madam slammed her cane against the ground and pointed it at Shen Yingyue’s nose.
“I said from the beginning that we couldn’t keep a husband-jinxing widow like you! Now, because of your own petty resentment, you’ve attacked a baby barely a month old!
“If you’re already this vicious, what will you do in the future? Murder your own husband?
“Someone, drag this vile servant away! Bring out the family rod and beat her mercilessly!”
At the Old Madam’s command, two burly matrons immediately stepped forward. Without giving Shen Yingyue a chance to resist, they tore the wailing Huzi from her arms and moved to force her to the ground.
“No… I didn’t do it! It really wasn’t me!”
Shen Yingyue struggled desperately and looked toward Huo Xiao, her last hope.
“General, please believe me! I’m the one who raised Huzi to this age. How could I ever bear to hurt him?
“Look at the size of those marks. They were made by long fingernails! I keep mine trimmed down because I care for the baby every day!”
She held out both hands. All ten of her fingernails were neatly trimmed to the quick, without even the slightest bit of length.
Huo Xiao merely glanced coldly at her hands and said nothing.
As far as he was concerned, there was nothing a woman wouldn’t do once she flew into a rage.
Besides, between Shen Yingyue, a lowborn woman who had only recently entered the household, and Liu Ruyan, the well-educated cousin he had watched grow up, he was naturally more inclined to believe Liu Ruyan. Ruyan could not even bear to step on an ant. How could she possibly pinch an infant?
Shen Yingyue, on the other hand, had just burned her hand. It seemed far more plausible that she had been in a foul mood and taken it out on the baby.
“Beat her! Beat her to death! Once she’s dead, drag her out and feed her to the dogs!”
When Old Madam Huo saw that her son remained silent, she took it as tacit approval and immediately ordered the matrons to raise the heavy punishment rod.
Just as the arm-thick staff was about to crash down on Shen Yingyue’s slender back…
“Wait.”
Huo Xiao, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
The two matrons froze with the rod suspended in midair.
Frowning, Huo Xiao glanced at the bloodless Shen Yingyue, then at his still-wailing son. He rubbed between his brows in irritation.
“Mother, that’s enough.
“She still has to nurse Huzi. If you cripple her with a beating, what will Huzi eat?”
“What will he eat? Are there no other wet nurses in the world? Must we hang all our hopes on this crooked tree?” Old Madam Huo refused to relent.
“Huzi won’t feed from strangers. He’ll only take her milk.”
Huo Xiao stepped forward and stood in front of Shen Yingyue. Though his tone remained hard and cold, his defense of her allowed no argument.
“Forget the family punishment.”
The tension holding Shen Yingyue together abruptly gave way, and she collapsed to the ground. She thought that, in the end, he must have believed her at least a little.
But Huo Xiao’s next words doused her hopes in icy water, plunging her into an abyss of cold.
He looked down at Shen Yingyue as she knelt on the ground. There was no warmth in his eyes, only disappointment and warning.
“You may be spared the harshest punishment, but you will not escape discipline.
“Shen Yingyue, regardless of whether you pinched him, the child was crying in your arms, and he was injured in your room.
“As his wet nurse, you failed to watch over him and allowed the Young Master to be harmed. That is a dereliction of duty!”
Shen Yingyue’s head snapped up, and she stared at him in disbelief.
She had failed to watch over him?
Liu Ruyan had clearly snatched the baby from her, and Huo Xiao himself had chosen to leave at that moment. Yet now, he intended to place all the blame on her?
“General…” She opened her mouth to defend herself.
“Enough.”
Huo Xiao cut her off coldly and delivered his final judgment.
“Considering that you have generally been diligent in caring for Huzi, you will be spared the beating this time.
“Instead, you will forfeit three months’ wages as punishment.
“If this happens again, you will not be shown mercy!”
Three months’ wages.
Six taels of silver.
To Huo Xiao, that amount would not even cover a single night of drinking and entertainment. But to Shen Yingyue, it was the money she had painstakingly saved to buy Nuannuan warm clothes for the winter. It was also the money she needed to escape and build a new life.
“…Yes.”
Shen Yingyue lowered her head, digging her fingernails deep into the dirt.
She stopped trying to defend herself because she finally saw the truth.
In this man’s heart, justice was nothing more than whatever he decided it should be. He cared about his cousin’s reputation and his mother’s dignity. The only things he did not care about were her innocence and the wrongs she had suffered.
“Thank you for your generosity, Cousin.”
Standing off to the side, Liu Ruyan’s lips curled into a smug smile. Her challenging gaze swept over Shen Yingyue, who remained kneeling on the ground.
As long as her cousin no longer trusted this woman, Shen Yingyue’s days in the household were numbered.
Huo Xiao failed to notice the silent battle raging between the two women.
He believed he had handled the matter with perfect fairness. He had spared Shen Yingyue a beating, preserved his mother’s and cousin’s dignity, and still punished Shen Yingyue for her “negligence.”
It was the perfect solution.
“Enough. Everyone, leave.”
Huo Xiao picked up the still-sniffling Huzi. Without sparing Shen Yingyue so much as a glance, he turned and strode away.
The wind swept fallen leaves across the desolate courtyard.
Kneeling on the cold ground, Shen Yingyue watched the man’s retreating figure. The last trace of admiration she had held for his supposed heroism crumbled completely into ash.
