Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Smashing Her Mother's Memorial Tablet! Cancel her initiation ceremony into the clan? Jia Qingcheng's brows knitted into a tight knot, like two caterpillars forcibly squeezed together. Her face was deliberately made ugly, which naturally took considerable effort. Therefore, every facial movement she made made her face even uglier. Such an ugly appearance only made Song Jiaojiao want to mock her. "Sister, you're not jealous that I'm going to marry Brother Wuliang, are you? Is that why you're deliberately causing trouble to stop me from being added to the Jia family genealogy?" Jia Qingcheng didn't want to explain herself and said nothing. But Chunyan, standing nearby, couldn't stand it anymore. "Young Miss Biao, you must not speak nonsense. My young lady is not that kind of person. It's because the Master—" "Still trying to make excuses! Father never said he would cancel it. It was you—it must have been your idea, wasn't it?" Song Jiaojiao stepped forward and berated Jia Qingcheng, but Jia Qingcheng didn't want to engage with her. She merely said calmly, "Father is unconscious. There's no one to preside over your ceremony." "Hmph, don't think I don't know. You did this on purpose, didn't you?" "What are you talking about?" "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Jia Qingcheng, you're nothing but an ugly-faced villain. You don't want me to join the Jia household, and you don't want me to take half of your medicine formulas when I marry out!" Jia Qingcheng didn't want to explain. "This is the ancestral hall. No nonsense here." "So what if it's the ancestral hall? Today I must be added to the family register, and no one can stop me!" "Song Jiaojiao, how did you become like this? Father's life hangs in the balance, and you're here making a scene?" "I'm making a scene?" Song Jiaojiao suddenly laughed, her smile dark and sinister. "It's you, you ugly thing—you did all of this. Otherwise, how could things be so coincidental? It was you. You didn't want me to join the Jia family, so you harmed Father." Jia Qingcheng still didn't want to argue. There was no point in saying more. "Guards! This is sacred ground—the ancestral hall. Escort the Young Miss Biao out." "I'm not leaving! No matter who comes, I'm not leaving today! If you won't let me into the family register, then no one can make me leave." "Young Miss Biao, have you gone mad?" Chunyan truly felt that Song Jiaojiao had gone crazy trying to get into the Jia family register. But Jia Qingcheng could see through Song Jiaojiao's intentions clearly—she wanted to join the Jia family and become one of them. It was also for those secret medicine formulas of the Jia family. She would never let the Jia family's secret formulas fall into someone else's hands. "Sister, enough. How about we make a deal?" A deal? This girl was insane. To get into the family register, she would say anything. Seeing that Jia Qingcheng didn't move, Song Jiaojiao knew she had her attention. "I knew it. All of this was you meddling behind the scenes. Otherwise, why would Father suddenly collapse?" "You suspect I caused Father's coma?" Jia Qingcheng never imagined that Song Jiaojiao would blame her for this. She admitted she didn't want Song Jiaojiao to join the Jia household, but she would never do anything to harm her father. It was all just coincidence. "Isn't it? Sister, there's no one else here. These dead nameplates—they can't hear us either!" "How dare you! These are the ancestors of the Jia family! Show some respect!" "Ancestors?" Song Jiaojiao glanced at her. Ugly, pathetic, useless—that was the impression Jia Qingcheng gave people. She was so pathetic she couldn't even hold onto a man's heart, letting someone else swoop in and take her place. "Song Jiaojiao, don't you dare!" "I'll dare all I want today! What can you, you ugly thing, do about it?" Suddenly, Song Jiaojiao snatched her mother's memorial tablet and held it high above her head. This sent Jia Qingcheng into a panic. "What are you doing?! Put my mother's tablet down!" "Your mother's tablet?" Song Jiaojiao suddenly burst into laughter. "Haha, sister, I said you were stupid, and you really are. Take a good look—is this really your mother's tablet?" Jia Qingcheng's face darkened. "What do you mean?" "You come here to pay respects every day, but you've never checked if it's genuine. This piece of wood—no need to keep it!" "Don't!" With a loud crash, Song Jiaojiao viciously smashed her mother's memorial tablet. As the broken tablet shattered into pieces, at that moment, Jia Qingcheng's fury reached its peak! "Mother!" She lunged madly toward the shattered tablet on the ground, but suddenly, one piece was viciously stomped under Song Jiaojiao's foot. And she knelt beside Song Jiaojiao, begging her to return the broken tablet. "Move aside!" "I won't give it to you. What are you going to do about it?" "Song Jiaojiao, you're insane! Insane!" "I'm insane? Look at yourself right now—which of us looks more insane? I'm beautiful and refined, while you—what do you look like?" What did she look like? She truly looked neither human nor ghost... "Take your foot off!" Beneath it was her mother. Watching her mother's tablet shattered into pieces, at that moment, she truly had the urge to kill—to take a sharp knife and plunge it straight into Song Jiaojiao's heart! "Sister, don't throw such a fit. Just promise me—write my name into the family register. Once I'm a true member of the Jia family, I'll have a new tablet made for you. How about that?" "Dream on!" Jia Qingcheng pushed Song Jiaojiao away with all her strength, and Song Jiaojiao tumbled to the ground, her head striking the altar table in an instant... In an instant, blood flowed freely... "Miss Biao!" Everyone was terrified and rushed to see how Song Jiaojiao was—she was about to be married, and she couldn't afford to have her face scarred. But Jia Qingcheng was consumed by guilt over her mother. She never imagined that Song Jiaojiao would go to such desperate lengths just to be added to the family registry. "Mother, I'm sorry. Your daughter is useless—I couldn't even protect your memorial tablet. I'm sorry!" "Miss, please don't be like this. The Madam won't blame you." "Miss Biao, your head is bleeding." Her head was bleeding? Song Jiaojiao, however, didn't seem to care at all. She simply looked at Jia Qingcheng, whose face was streaked with tears, a look of vengeful satisfaction in her eyes. "Jia Qingcheng, you are truly beyond foolish. Take a good look—is this really your mother's memorial tablet?" What? Only then did Jia Qingcheng examine it closely, only to discover that the characters on it had been pieced together, and after that hard fall, it was just an ordinary wooden board... "How... how could this be? The tablet was placed here by Father's own hands!" "Call you a fool, and you really are one!" Song Jiaojiao had injured her forehead, but fortunately the bleeding wasn't severe. She pressed a silk handkerchief to the wound, yet approached her like a madwoman. "Everyone knows this secret—even I, an adopted daughter from outside, can see it clearly. Grandfather despised your mother's merchant-class origins and forbade her spirit tablet from entering the ancestral hall to receive incense and worship. And you, you fool, have been piously worshipping a rotten piece of wood for years. Haha, how ridiculous!" Grandfather... Grandfather had been in poor health since his early years and had always been recuperating in the inner quarters. He forbade anyone from disturbing him, and over the years, she only went to pay her respects during festivals and special occasions. And Grandfather would only give a few brief words before dismissing her... "Why?"