Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Crawl Between My Legs, and I'll Let You Leave! "It's really tough on Wuliang. That Jia Qingcheng is truly ugly. If it weren't for her family's wealth, she wouldn't even be qualified to carry Wuliang's shoes." "Exactly. The ugly girl knows her place. See, she's been trying to please our Pei family all along, afraid that I, her future mother-in-law, might make things difficult for her." "But Jia Qingcheng is about to marry Prince Chu, and Prince Chu is on the verge of death..." "That's why Jia Qingcheng needs to curry favor with our Pei family. In the future, when she becomes a widow, only our Pei family will take her in." Everyone chimed in with flattering remarks, which lifted Madam Pei's spirits even higher. Suddenly, the steward's delighted voice came from outside, "Madam, the eldest young master has returned!" "Oh my, my imperial physician son is back!" The Pei family members hurried out to welcome him, and after Pei Wuliang stepped down from the carriage, he was stunned by the scene at his doorstep... "Jiaojiao, why are there so many people?" Song Jiaojiao also found it strange and frowned, saying, "Brother Wuliang, they all seem to be your relatives. Oh no, this is bad!" "Jiaojiao, what's wrong?" "Son, you're back! Your mother is so proud of you!" Madam Pei rushed forward and grabbed hold of Pei Wuliang, who was still completely bewildered. After all, he couldn't figure out why he had failed the selection today, and why his home was in such a commotion. It looked quite lively. "Mother, what is this?" "A celebration banquet! Didn't you have that ugly girl come back to prepare it for you? Go on in—all your relatives and friends are here, all here to congratulate you." What! Upon hearing this, Pei Wuliang grew even more furious. He turned around to look at Jia Qingcheng, who had just arrived and was stepping down from her carriage at that very moment. "What are you doing? Who gave you permission to hold a celebration banquet? Are you trying to embarrass me even more?" What's going on? Madam Pei was confused. "Son, why are you scolding Qingcheng? Didn't you tell her to come back early to prepare?" "Yes, Pei Wuliang, didn't you tell me to come back early to prepare your celebration banquet?" Jia Qingcheng looked completely innocent. "You!" Pei Wuliang was momentarily at a loss for words. "Mother, call it off, call it off right now! This is a disgrace!" "Why would you call it off for no reason? All your relatives and friends are here. They just want to congratulate you—nothing more. Don't misunderstand them. They're not trying to bask in your glory, and no one is asking you for favors." Pei Wuliang: "..." "Hurry up, let's go inside!" "Hey, Mother..." Pei Wuliang was dragged into the courtyard by Madam Pei. Seeing this situation, Song Jiaojiao was also anxious. She turned to look at Jia Qingcheng, who was watching the show from the side. "Sister, you've gone too far!" "Why would you say that, little sister? You just heard it yourself—Pei Wuliang told me to come back and prepare the celebration banquet for him. Before this, I had no idea he would fail the selection. Now that the banquet has begun, this is beyond my control." "You..." Ugh, she needed to hurry inside and stop this farce! Song Jiaojiao rushed in with her people, while Jia Qingcheng stood at the Pei family's doorstep, a trace of mockery flashing in her eyes. In her past life, it was right here that she had prepared a celebration banquet for Pei Wuliang. At that banquet, Pei Wuliang had drunk too much and been very happy—so much so that he even publicly joked that her face looked like a game of Go. Back then, she had dismissed it as drunken nonsense. Now, looking back, everything had shown signs all along. In her past life, Pei Wuliang had always despised her ugliness, but he had hidden it extremely well, never letting her discover it. Looking at the Pei residence, identical to how it was in her past life, with the same lively scene, Jia Qingcheng felt nothing but irony at this moment. "Miss, how did you know Pei Wuliang would fail the selection?" Chunyan had finally figured things out a bit. Knowing her mistress's temperament, she would never willingly come back to prepare a celebration banquet for Pei Wuliang. But now, she understood. Her mistress must have known in advance that Pei Wuliang would fail, so she deliberately did this—with the goal of making Pei Wuliang lose face completely in front of his relatives and friends. The celebration banquet was all prepared, but the man had failed the selection. Just thinking about it was satisfying! "Chunyan, shall we go in and take a look?" Before Jia Qingcheng even entered the gate, she saw many relatives and friends leaving in disappointment. Naturally, they were all discussing along the way what had happened—how could he have failed the selection when everything had seemed so promising? By the time Jia Qingcheng entered the Pei residence, she saw the guests leaving one after another, clearly disappointed in Pei Wuliang. "We're leaving!" "Don't go, please!" Jia Qingcheng pretended to call out to the Pei family's relatives, but when they saw her, they ignored her and left. Well, that was fine—in her past life, these people had treated her the same way. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen through Pei Wuliang's schemes back then. She had eagerly treated these relatives well, looking after almost all of Pei Wuliang's relatives and even his pack of friends. But she knew that those people were polite to her on the surface while spending her money and mocking her ugliness behind her back, saying she wasn't worthy of the Pei family's eldest young master. This life, she wasn't going to indulge them. "Miss, isn't that the young miss from the Li family?" The young miss from the Li family—Li Sisi? Jia Qingcheng thought of her past life. Li Sisi loved nothing more than going to the shops to buy jewelry and clothes, yet every time she put it on Jia Qingcheng's account. For Pei Wuliang's sake, Jia Qingcheng had turned a blind eye to it and treated this cousin from the maternal side as one of her own. Unfortunately, her goodwill had never earned her any respect. So in this life, she chose not to greet Li Sisi and walked straight past her. Naturally, Li Sisi noticed her too... "Miss, isn't that Jia Qingcheng? Why didn't she come over to greet us when she saw us?" Only then did Li Sisi notice Jia Qingcheng's arrival. She immediately snapped, "Stop right there! I was wondering who it was—turns out it's our famous ugly woman of the capital." Li Sisi had a loud voice, and her shout drew everyone's attention. Jia Qingcheng halted her steps and cast a cold glance at Li Sisi. That look of disdain instantly ignited Li Sisi's fury. "Jia Qingcheng, what was that look just now? Why don't you go look in a mirror and see what you actually look like? How dare you look down on me?" Jia Qingcheng didn't want to bother with Li Sisi. She only wanted to go inside and see how much of a fool Pei Wuliang was making of himself. "Cousin, you must have misread. There's nothing of the sort. Chunyan, let's go!" Jia Qingcheng simply walked away, giving Li Sisi no chance to react. This was unacceptable to Li Sisi. Everyone in the capital knew that Jia Qingcheng was head over heels for her cousin, and everyone had seen all the things Jia Qingcheng had done for him over the years. She was desperately in love with her cousin, and naturally she was always courteous to the Pei family. Every time she saw Li Sisi, she would greet her from afar. And now she was ignoring her? Had Jia Qingcheng grown a leopard's heart and a bear's gall? "Stop right there! Who said you could leave?" Li Sisi blocked Jia Qingcheng's path, refusing to let her go. "Say what you meant just now. What was that look? You dare to look down on me? What right do you have? Do you even deserve to?" Faced with such humiliation, Jia Qingcheng only darkened her face and stared at Li Sisi, saying in a low voice, "Move aside!" What? She was telling her to move aside? Absolutely ridiculous! An ugly woman desperately throwing herself at her cousin, and she dared to throw a tantrum at her? Today, she would definitely teach her a lesson on behalf of her cousin. Li Sisi had never suffered such humiliation. She immediately decided to get back at Jia Qingcheng. She spread her arms wide to block the way, clearly picking a fight. "If you want to pass through here, fine. Crawl between my legs and I'll let you through. How about that?"