Ex-Wife is a Big Villainess

Seeing the glaring crimson bloodstains by the door, Jiang Shouzhong and Lu Renjia were suddenly alarmed and immediately forced the door open.

The next moment, a blood-stained kitchen knife shockingly slashed towards them!

Lu Renjia's expression changed abruptly, instinctively raising his right arm to shield his face, his left hand simultaneously pushing Jiang behind him.

Clang!

The sharp blade of the knife struck Lu Renjia's right arm, actually emitting a crisp metallic clang.

Immediately after, there was the sound of a woman's involuntary scream.

The kitchen knife then fell to the floor.

As both men steadied themselves and looked, they saw a woman standing before them.

The woman had slightly dark skin but was somewhat attractive, dressed in a tight-sleeve short blouse and coarse skirt. Despite conservative clothing, her graceful figure could not be concealed.

At this moment, the woman was splattered with blood.

She appeared panicked and pale.

"Zhao Di?"

When Lu Renjia saw the woman's face, he immediately said, flustered, "I mean, sister-in-law, what are you doing? Were you planning to butcher us?"

Before his words were finished, slapping sounds came from beneath the table. It was a hen with its neck cut, clumsily scrambling under the table, splattering fresh blood everywhere.

Seeing this, Jiang Shouzhong and Lu Renjia understood the reason.

Zhao Di, still terrified and trembling, jumped upon hearing Lu Renjia's accusation, stammering, "I... I was... killing the chicken..."

Zhao Di, a native of Fengcheng Longsu.

Seven years ago, her parents sold her to a cloth merchant in the Capital as a concubine.

She should have been well-cared for, but a year ago, the cloth merchant accidentally drowned in a river while negotiating a deal.

After this disaster struck the household, the merchant's jealous legal wife promptly threw her and her five-year-old daughter out, without a penny, leaving them to fend for themselves in the streets.

Zhao Di had no choice but to survive on needlework and odd jobs with her daughter, living a rather constrained life.

One day, Zhao Di was harassed by hooligans on the street and happened to be seen by Zhang Yunwu, who stepped forward and rescued her. From then on, their interaction grew, forming an emotional bond that eventually led to marriage.

However, the neighborhood was abuzz with gossip that Zhao Di had married the rough Zhang Yunwu only because she saw his official status and sought protection for her daughter.

But regardless of what was said, after marriage, the couple actually got along very well.

"Killing a chicken doesn't require such force, does it?"

Lu Renjia withdrew the iron stick back into his sleeve, grabbed the struggling hen, picked up the kitchen knife from the ground, and asked, "Where is Zhang? What kind of man is he, letting his wife do such heavy labor, has his brain turned to mush?"

By then, Zhao Di had also calmed down a bit and spoke in a low voice: "I wanted to nourish my mother-in-law's health. It was originally Wu who was supposed to do the slaughtering, but he suddenly mentioned that a case had occurred, so he left. I thought killing a chicken wasn't difficult, so I decided to give it a try..."

"Well, that was a fine trial, almost butchered me and Jiang too,"

Lu Renjia skillfully took up the knife, approached the basin, and with one stroke severed the hen's neck arteries and windpipe, mocking, "Old Jia's bones might not nourish your mother-in-law, but Jiang could, with his tender skin and soft flesh."

Zhao Di looked embarrassed, and lowered her eyes in awkward silence.

As Jiang Shouzhong picked up a mop to clean the floor, the woman quickly stepped forward, "Jiang, I can take care of this."

"You go change clothes first, that's quite frightening," Jiang Shouzhong said with a smile.

Watching Zhao Di's blood-stained appearance, Jiang's head throbbed with pain, and visions of the woman lying in a pool of blood flashed before his eyes.

The bloody scene and the current sight of the woman alternated in his mind.

Sometimes grey and cold, at other times warmly dazzling, all of which made him feel dizzy and nauseous.

Zhao Di, looking down at her disheveled appearance, blushed even more and hastily apologized before hurrying to the adjacent room to change her clothes.

"Jiang, don't think about sneaking a peek at your sister-in-law changing clothes, Jia here has a kitchen knife and no brotherly feelings," Lu Renjia joked, holding the chicken upside down to drain its blood.

Coming back to his senses, Jiang Shouzhong suppressed his discomfort and coldly snorted, "Put a cork in your own lecherous eyes first."

After a quick cleanup of the living room floor, Jiang Shouzhong went to the inner room to visit Zhang Yunwu's bedridden elderly mother.

When Jiang Shouzhong first arrived in the Capital, although Zhang's mother was frail, she was still mobile and very kind.

Knowing Jiang Shouzhong was living alone, Zhang's mother often asked Zhang Yunwu to bring him home for meals. Even though her own home conditions were poor, she occasionally stewed meat for Jiang Shouzhong.

However, as her illness worsened, Zhang's mother eventually became bedridden.

Fortunately, Zhang Yunwu was filial, and his wife was very caring towards his mother, and with a lovely granddaughter to chat with her, she was spared seeing the harsh realities of the human world.

After all, the saying "A long illness tires out even the most filial child" is not spoken in jest.

Upon entering the room, a strong pungent smell of medicine hit him.

The entire room appeared quiet and dark.

Only the faint morning light filtered through the yellowed window paper, casting a soft beam on the bed.

Zhang's mother lay in the bed, silently sleeping.

Tortured by illness and hardened by a lifetime of labor, he was not yet fifty years old, but his forehead was already etched with deep wrinkles, and his hair was sparse and gray.

Jiang Shouzhong was reminded of Ms. Zhang's kind and hearty face, sourness unwillingly crept into his heart as he sat by the bed and gently held her slightly cold and coarse hand.

Since traveling across time, apart from Ye who had always taken care of him in Anhe Village, only from Ms. Zhang could he feel that warm, sweet familial affection.

Unfortunately, birth, aging, sickness, and death are beyond anyone's control.

Ye had died in the massacre at Anhe Village, and Ms. Zhang probably did not have much time left either.

After staying for a short while, estimating that Lu Renjia had already prepared the old hen that was meant to nourish Ms. Zhang, Jiang Shouzhong decided not to disturb the sleeping elderly any longer, preparing to leave as he still had important matters to handle.

But as he was about to rise, he suddenly froze in place.

Jiang Shouzhong slowly lowered his head, his gaze landing on the floor by the bed corner—there was a droplet of reddish-brown blood!

"Hmm? Did that old hen also run into this room?"

Jiang Shouzhong's eyes flickered for a moment.

Just as he was about to bend down to check, suddenly a dry and emaciated hand fiercely grasped his wrist.

Jiang Shouzhong jumped in fright.

Turning his head, he saw Ms. Zhang, who had just been sleeping deeply on the bed, now had her eyes open.

However, her usually gentle gaze was different now; intense fear filled the depths of her eye sockets, and her body was trembling violently.

Ms. Zhang's dry lips parted as though she wanted to say something, but her throat could not produce any sound.

The fearful look in her eyes turned into one of pleading and despair.

Jiang Shouzhong's expression abruptly changed, about to shout for Lu Renjia.

Suddenly, an intense pain struck his skull, as if a cluster of steel needles exploded inside his head, tearing it apart.

Bloody and fragmented images rushed into his memory storage like a surging tide.

A woman's nearly severed slender neck.

A little girl's dead body.

A man's angry, contorted face.

Until an ax covered in blood chopped down, startling Jiang Shouzhong abruptly from the illusion.

"Jiang?"

A soft voice suddenly came from the doorway.

Jiang Shouzhong swiftly turned his head, his bloodshot, profound eyes staring towards the doorway.

The woman stood against the light at the door, her posture graceful.

Appearing somewhat hazy and indistinct.

Seeing that it was Zhao Di, who had changed clothes, Jiang Shouzhong finally came to his senses, turned his head to look at Ms. Zhang, and found that she was still sleeping, as if what he had just seen was merely an illusion.

"What's wrong, Jiang?"

Noticing the man's unusual behavior, Zhao Di asked with concern.

"It's nothing."

Jiang Shouzhong exhaled a cloud of stale air, glanced at Ms. Zhang again, stood up, and walked out of the room, casually asking, "Has Xiao Yue been behaving at school recently? She hasn't been scolded by the teacher again, has she?"

"That girl was making a fuss about not going to school this morning, saying she was afraid of being spanked by the teacher. Looks like she's stirred up trouble again…"

Zhao Di revealed a helpless smile, gently closed the door to the room, cutting off their conversation.

As the wooden door closed, the room once again fell quiet.

Ms. Zhang, still sleeping on the bed, continued to have her eyes closed, but a tear slid from the corner of her eye.

"Yao…"

Ms. Zhang's lips moved slightly.

---

[A reader privately asked how many cases there are in this book. I forgot to mention this earlier, so I'll reveal it now. The protagonist is not only in the imperial court but also amidst the larger society, so there is only one case in this book, from beginning to end.

To be precise, one conspiracy, running throughout the text. This is to prevent the story from collapsing and to better focus on controlling the main storyline, ensuring the reader understands and better shaping the characters and supporting roles.

It's like pulling a strand of wool, ultimately unraveling an entire sweater.

The characters' introduction in the first volume will be quite condensed, thoroughly explaining the characters' relationships and background. With the launch of the new book, updates won't be plentiful. Those familiar with my style know my novels start slow, leading many readers to habitually stockpile chapters, planning to binge all at once.

However, during the new book phase, I still ask everyone to click more, increasing follow-up reads, otherwise, if the performance is too weak, the website won't recommend it, making it hard even to get listed.

I've tried to speed up the pace and plot the story in the early stages of this book. Once it's listed, the update speed will soar, and it will not be too late for everyone to stockpile then. So, when you're free, click through a few pages, scroll to the last one, considering it a follow-up read.

If you really want to save up and binge, you can set up automatic reading, leave your phone aside, and let it automatically flip to the last page. Heh heh.]