Chapter 59: Give Her a Letter of Divorce

Song Mingting stood there with a ferocious expression, his fists clenching so hard they cracked, his eyes filled with seething hatred and rage.

"No! A person like that does not deserve to be our mother!"

Just the thought that his eldest sister had been angered into fainting by such a person, and had even been forced to become a concubine, made him want to hack that woman to pieces.

The other members of the Song family who had regained consciousness either kept a silent vigil or joined in condemning Madam Song.

"The mistress has truly gone too far this time. Eldest Miss went to through all this trouble and exhausted herself just so our journey of exile could be a bit more comfortable and secure, yet the mistress still turns around and pulls such a malicious stunt."

"From now on, I will never call her mother again. Just as Second Brother said, a person like that doesn't deserve to be our mother."

Master Song completely agreed with what Song Mingting and the others had said. With a gloomy face, he declared, "Since she insists on acting this way, I will divorce her and send her off to be someone else's concubine."

Forcing himself to stand up, he found paper and a brush in the cart and quickly drafted a letter of divorce.

After pressing his personal seal upon it, he instructed Song Mingting, "Mingting, wake the Li woman up so I can hand her the divorce paper."

Song Mingting had genuinely considered patricide, but his last shred of reason reminded him that he could not commit such an act here.

"Alright!"

With a tense, stern expression, he walked over to Madam Li and swung his hand, delivering several hard slaps across her face.

The blows snapped Madam Li back to consciousness. Dazed, she muttered, "I... ouch, why does my face hurt so much?"

"Li woman, this is your letter of divorce." Master Song tossed the paper before her, his voice laden with disgust.

"From this moment on, you and I are no longer husband and wife, nor are you the mistress of the Song family."

Dumbfounded, Madam Li stared at the paper lying before her, her mind buzzing with confusion as she failed to grasp what had happened. "Master..."

Weeping, she knelt before Master Song and pleaded, "Master, I haven't done anything wrong. You can't divorce me."

If she were truly cast aside with a divorce, she would become the laughingstock of the entire social circle, an indelible stain upon her reputation for the rest of her life.

Master Song looked down at her from on high, letting out a cold, mocking laugh. "You haven't done anything wrong?"

"Do you take me for a fool? You clung to the Prince of Ding, trying to forcibly shove Shishi into his household as a concubine!"

His voice suddenly rose a few notches, carrying boundless rage. "Having a mother like you is the greatest disgrace of Shishi's life!"

Madam Song guessed that the Prince of Ding must have exposed her.

Putting on the guise of someone acting for the sake of the family and Shishi, she cried pitifully, "Master, I was only thinking of Shishi's future."

"Shishi has already reached marriageable age, her engagement has been broken off, and we are currently enduring exile."

"If she doesn't marry soon and her reputation is completely ruined, she won't even be able to find a husband if she wants to, and she'll drag the family's reputation down with her."

Suddenly, a figure rushed forward and began raining blows and kicks down upon her.

"I'll teach you to talk nonsense! I'll teach you to spout filth from that dog mouth of yours!"

With fury contorting his face, Song Mingting struck her blow after blow. "Shishi has already been angered into fainting by you, and you're still sitting here yapping away with your blind nonsense."

"Will you not be satisfied until you've literally scared Shishi to death?"

"Mingting!" Song Mingting was forcefully pulled back by Song Mingxuan, who rebuked him, "If you keep doing this, you'll just be handing others a weapon to use against us."

"Besides, what if she uses her injuries as an excuse to latch onto us and make a scene? What then?"

Human hearts are naturally inclined, and he was no exception.

No matter how respectful and filial he had been to his parents in the past, when it came to matters concerning Shishi, he would always side with his eldest sister.

Moreover, the fact that they had been able to live such a stable and comfortable life along the road of exile was entirely thanks to Eldest Miss.

Naturally, his loyalty lay with her.

Pointing at Madam Li with lingering fury, Song Mingting said, "Eldest Brother, did you hear the things she just said? Every single word was a deliberate trampling on Shishi."

"It's bad enough that she turned a blind eye to how much Shishi has sacrificed for this family, but now she pulls something like this."

Outraged, he spat in Madam Li's direction. "She claims it's for Shishi's and the family's own good, but I see right through her—she just wanted to use and manipulate Shishi to secure a comfortable life for herself through the Prince of Ding."

Casting a look of utter loathing at Madam Li, Song Mingxuan said to Song Mingting, "Father has already divorced her, and none of us will ever pay her any mind again. That is the greatest torment we could inflict upon her."

"Instead of wasting your breath here, you'd be better off going to check on Shishi."

Every single word felt like a sharp blade piercing deep into Madam Li's heart. "No, no, no!"

She crawled on her knees toward Master Song, pleading, "Master, I was only doing it for—ah!"

Master Song kicked her over to the ground with a heavy rage. "Stop waving that hypocritical banner in front of me!"

"I suppose our family pampered you far too much, which is why you had the leisure to hatch plots against Shishi."

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Fortunately, I have already divorced you. You have no relation to my family whatsoever, and you will never again have the opportunity to harm Shishi."

With that, he turned away to check on Song Song Shishi.

Madam Li sat slumped on the ground in a daze, unable to comprehend how things had come to this.

She truly had been considering the welfare of Shishi and the family.

Shishi was already sixteen; if she didn't marry soon, she would be considered an old maid, and by then others would be picking and choosing her rather than the other way around.

Why couldn't any of her family members understand her?

The members of the Song family crowded around Song Song Shishi, their faces etched with worry and concern.

"Just look at how pale Eldest Miss's complexion is; you can tell just how much grievance and anger she suffered. Hearing about it alone makes my blood boil with rage. How could such a malicious person even exist?"

"She did it for her own selfish gains, so how could she not be malicious? It's just pitiful for Eldest Miss. We never saw this side of her before."

"It really is strange. All along the way, she was so protective of Eldest Miss. Why would she suddenly rush to force Eldest Miss into marriage, even willing to let her become a concubine?"

"Do you think she only became like this recently?" Bai Bohan seized upon the crucial point, his eyes darkening slightly.

Song Song Shiyue gave a heavy nod. "Answering the Prince of Ding, during the period when our family was first exiled, she was not like this."

"Even when Eldest Miss forcibly broke off her engagement with Cui Jing, she merely worried over Eldest Miss and never insisted that Eldest Miss had to marry anyone."

"Lately, though, goodness knows what got into her—she started forcing Eldest Miss to marry, and even demanded she become a concubine."

Bai Bohan rubbed his chin, his thoughts spinning. Is it possible that someone whispered something in Madam Li's ear and provoked her?

If that were the case, under these circumstances, Madam Li might have blurted out who had said what to her.

Yet she had mentioned no such thing.

Was he overthinking it?

"Lord Song, do you think there is something suspicious about this?" he asked Master Song.

Master Song understood the implication behind his words. "It certainly sounds like there's more to it."

"Though not necessarily; it's also possible she simply lived too comfortably along the exile road and began letting her imagination run wild."

Bai Bohan said, "If Lord Song doesn't mind, I would like to interrogate Madam Li."

Master Song indicated he had no objections. "I, too, wish to get to the bottom of what really happened."

Pausing for a moment, he added, "Even if she truly was manipulated by someone else, I will not take back the divorce letter."