"Perhaps that Madam Dong found herself a new lover and wants to leave Master Dong, but how could Master Dong agree to that? So he brought people to drag her back."
"Well said, brother…"
For a moment, everyone stared at Master Dong with sympathetic looks, as though the top of his head were already bathed in a green glow. This only made Master Dong's expression darken further. He bellowed, "You foolish woman, look at what you've done!"
Madam Dong hovered in midair, her face streaked with sorrow as she gazed down at Master Dong. Her voice was laden with grief. "Dong Hai, do you truly not feel even a shred of affection between husband and wife?"
Dong Hai's face twitched faintly, a flicker of inner struggle flashing through his eyes. He let out a sigh. "Tianhe, if you still hold even a trace of what we once shared, you will obediently return with me to the Dong family, and from this day forward you will never again leave Taiping City. You and I will grow old together as husband and wife."
Tears streamed down Madam Dong's face. She shook her head. "Dong Hai, you know why I want to leave. You know what I'm going out there to do. Don't make this harder for me."
Dong Hai's voice turned sharp. "You are pushing the Dong family toward destruction!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" The tears fell in great heavy drops from Madam Dong's cheeks, her face saturated with self-blame and guilt—as though she had truly committed some unspeakable atrocity. The onlookers watched in utter bewilderment, having no idea what was actually going on.
"Come back with me, and I will let today's matter go. The Dong family will let it go as well. You will still be the mistress of the Dong household!" Dong Hai extended one hand upward toward her, gesturing for Madam Dong to come down.
Tears poured from her eyes like rain, but she only shook her head, again and again.
The tenderness on Dong Hai's face gradually drained away, replaced by cold severity. At last, he lowered his outstretched hand and spoke in a calm, measured tone: "The foolish woman Shi Tianhe, having married into the Dong family, has borne no children in a hundred years. The sin of leaving no heir is grave. She is also vain by nature and prone to comparison and competition, tarnishing the reputation of the Dong family. Worse still, she shamelessly stole the Dong family's clan-protecting treasure, bringing disgrace upon us all. Today, I, Dong Hai, acting in my capacity as patriarch of the Dong family, hereby declare that Shi Tianhe is cast out of the Dong family. From this day forward, all bonds between husband and wife are severed, and we shall have no further connection!"
The moment these words left his lips, the crowd erupted in commotion.
The local warriors of Taiping City were especially stunned, their eyes wide with disbelief.
Although they had rarely met Madam Dong in person, there had been plenty of rumors circulating through the city—rumors that she was a kind and compassionate woman, one who frequently offered aid to the city's poor. Yet now, according to the Dong family patriarch, she was apparently a shameless, vain schemer.
But rumors were only rumors, weren't they? If her own husband said so, how could it be false?
Moreover, she had actually stolen the Dong family's clan-protecting treasure! That was no longer a matter of poor character—it was outright moral corruption.
Everyone sighed and shook their heads, baffled as to why Madam Dong would throw away her perfectly good life to do such a thing. No wonder the Dong family had sent out a whole group of Elders to deal with her.
Would any man tolerate having a wife like that?
"Pfft—" A soft sound rang out. Shi Tianhe, still hovering in midair, suddenly coughed up a mouthful of bright crimson blood, a flush of red spreading across her face. The blood soaked the front of her robes, vivid and jarring.
Her body swayed slightly. She pressed a hand to her chest, as though enduring the agony of ten thousand ants gnawing at her heart. She gazed down at Dong Hai below, her expression one of utter despair. She had never imagined that Dong Hai could truly be so heartless.
A single night as man and wife creates a hundred days of affection—and she and Dong Hai had been married for a full century.
Back then, she had not hesitated to offend her own Master, even being expelled from her sect, swearing she would be with Dong Hai no matter what. In the end, she had gotten her wish, but she had not set foot in her sect for a hundred years since, and the many junior and senior sisters she still held dear in her heart, she had never seen again.
She had stayed with the Dong family all along, at Dong Hai's side, believing she had found the man of her life. Yet in the end, he had plunged a blade deep into her chest.
The man she had treated as her sky, her earth, her one and only in this lifetime—had driven that blade into her heart without hesitation.
"Master, there's more to this than meets the eye!" Ji Yao had been watching for a while and suddenly spoke in a soft voice to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai curled his lip. "It's someone else's business. Why get so involved?"
Though he said that, he felt a pang of sympathy in his heart. Shi Tianhe's eyes, brimming with despair, were like windows shrouded beneath a thick layer of dark clouds—not a sliver of light breaking through. She was clearly in the depths of heartbreak.
He paused, then said, "Yao'er, should we help her?"
Ji Yao replied, "Whatever Master decides."
"Sigh!" Yang Kai couldn't help but let out a long breath. Though he wasn't particularly eager to meddle in today's affair, the Dong family had clearly gone too far—Dong Hai most of all. A married couple who had lived together for a century surely understood each other better than anyone. Even if there were disagreements, couldn't they just sit down and talk it out? Was there really need to cast her out of the family and sever their marriage bond in front of a crowd like this?
How was she supposed to go on living after this?
This man had no sense of responsibility whatsoever. And Shi Tianhe had been blind to have followed a man like this.
"Hahahaha—" High in the sky, Shi Tianhe suddenly burst into wild laughter, blood still trickling from the corner of her lips, a ghastly sight.
The laughter was filled with bitterness, sending a shudder through everyone who heard it.
"Dong Hai!" Shi Tianhe suddenly cried out in a sharp, piercing voice. "For the sake of the Dong family, you would go to such lengths—you really are a most… capable patriarch!"
"There is no use saying more!" Dong Hai was unwilling to continue this drawn-out spectacle. With so many warriors watching, the longer this dragged on, the more face the Dong family—and he himself—would lose. He waved his hand lightly. "Elders, strike!"