Chapter Seventy-Two: But Fists Can Settle Everything

“All right, elder sister, I bought this to give to you,” Shen Fuyu pretended to comfort her, casually picking a hairpin from the table and instructing someone to wrap it up. “It’s my fault, so I’ll use this hairpin to apologize to you.”
But her words and actions were perfunctory, not at all like a sincere apology. Shen Fuyu practically wore her disdain openly: “But there’s one thing I believe I’m right about. There are only a few months left this year, and next year you’ll be eighteen. It’s really time to start thinking about it!”
“I’m only looking out for you.”
“Looking out for me? Shen Fuyu, put away your false concern! Who needs your care?” Shen Tangyu, unable to bear it, hurled the hairpin to the ground. “You clearly can’t stand me and are deliberately humiliating me!”
“That’s right, I’m used to it.”
She didn’t even bother to offer a defense, instead admitting it outright. For a moment, every accusation against Shen Fuyu was stuck in their throats.
Shen Fuyu shrugged and grinned arrogantly, “But what can you do about it?”
“You—!”
Shen Tangyu wanted to win sympathy from those around her, but who would step forward for her? Compared to an unmarried young woman like Shen Tangyu, everyone clearly feared the imperial consort Shen Fuyu far more.
Unable to endure such humiliation any longer, Shen Tangyu, furious and tearful, ran out of the shop. The others resented Shen Fuyu’s brazen behavior, but their words carried little weight, and she was a consort in the palace—they truly couldn’t afford to offend her.
Under the eyes of all, Shen Fuyu swaggered out of the jewelry store with Shen Liyu, merely instructing two guards to follow Shen Tangyu. But in the capital, who dared cause trouble? Shen Fuyu was quite at ease, caring nothing for Shen Tangyu’s fate.
If only some reckless ruffian, some street thug or arrogant young lord would happen to run into Shen Tangyu on the roadside...
Heh, then Shen Tangyu would surely blame everything on her, growing even more resentful!
That way, her anger would swell without limit!
...
“Young master! Young master, don’t run!”

In a secluded alleyway, the man who had just fought for jewelry in the shop was being pursued relentlessly by a middle-aged man.
“Don’t think you can fool me into going back! No doubt it’s another daughter or son of the foster father popping up out of nowhere! I won’t inherit his legacy, all right? Don’t make me meet his children for marriage!”
“The leader’s eyesight is poor—he can’t tell real from fake! Young master, listen to me: he’s only ever loved one woman, and only that woman has borne him a child. You are to marry the leader’s child, there’s no room for negotiation!”
“Marry, marry, marry—why didn’t foster father bring that woman back in the first place?” Deng Qianhua shot him a glare. “If he’d brought her back, we wouldn’t have to wait for impostors to come knocking! Or maybe there was a reason, but there’s no name, no birthmark, only that the person is in Daxun. He doesn’t even know if it’s a boy or girl. Tell me, where am I supposed to find someone to marry for him?”
The subordinate was left speechless. The leader had never described what the woman who bore him children looked like, nor whether the child had any birthmarks, but whenever someone came to claim kinship, the blind leader somehow always knew they weren’t his child.
It was truly baffling!
But no matter how strange, nothing could be done. The leader was eccentric; what he said had to be obeyed, and no one could fathom his thoughts.
“Let’s not talk about this.” Deng Qianhua waved his hand. “Today, a little woman humiliated me. You send two people to kidnap her—she’s really ignorant of the world. I need to teach her that status isn’t everything!”
...
“But fists can solve everything.” Shen Fuyu smiled sweetly at the dozen or so bruised, battered men in black before her. The leader spilled all the details as if beans were being poured from a jar.
“Madam, we were just following orders. We didn’t know who we were dealing with. Please, be merciful!” The group of grown men were thoroughly vexed. They’d thought they were going to kidnap a few young ladies—what could a delicate society miss do? But who could have guessed that this woman disguised as a young lady would smile so brightly and strike so fiercely? Her uncanny skills and invisible weapons caught them all off guard, and she gave them a thorough beating!
If only they’d warned the young master not to act recklessly; women are devils!
“Fourth sister, what should we do now?” Shen Liyu, hiding behind, asked timidly.
“Hmm…” Shen Fuyu stroked her chin. “Well, since I’ve been attacked out of nowhere, I ought to claim some compensation, right?”
“We… we have money, and as for our connections in the world, as long as it’s not too much, the law can’t touch us!” The leader stammered. “As long as you let us off, everything can be negotiated!”
“I see…” Shen Fuyu pondered for a moment, then beckoned. “All of you, drag them to the magistrate.”
“Madam, you can’t break your word!” Though the world of martial arts and the court seldom interfered with each other, if harm came to outsiders, the law would still apply, and falling into the hands of the authorities meant disaster for them.

Shen Fuyu took a small jade seal from her purse, stamped it on a handkerchief, and tossed it to the guards. “I’m the most trustworthy of all.”
“Tell the magistrate not to punish them, then… hang them on the city wall and wait for their master to come collect them. When their master arrives, they can all be released.” Shen Fuyu smiled. “And when your master takes you back, tell him: some people are simply out of your league. It’s best not to make a fool of yourself.”
Amid a chorus of groans, the guards gagged the men and hauled them off to the magistrate’s office as instructed.
The officials were anxious. They knew the imperial consort was currently staying with her family, and their patrols around the capital had been extra diligent these days, just in case something happened. Others didn’t matter, but the consort was pregnant—if so much as a hair was harmed, there would be severe consequences!
And now? A group of martial ruffians were sent straight to the magistrate by Shen Fuyu herself?
The officials looked at the battered faces of the men and wiped cold sweat from their brows, smiling awkwardly, “The Shen family’s guards are certainly formidable. The consort is unharmed, I hope? It was our negligence to let such people slip into the capital!”
“…The consort handled them personally.”
“?”
“She said she doesn’t intend to press charges against them. Let them be hung on the city wall, waiting for their master to pick them up.”
“No prosecution?”
“No, just release them.”
…
By the time Deng Qianhua realized what had happened, he saw his subordinates tied up and hanging half-dead on the city wall, with an official nearby shouting at the top of his lungs.