Hearing this, the onlookers exchanged glances and stopped.

Old Madam Xiang was covered in filth, having collapsed into a pile of vegetable leaves. Although Xiang Mingli was already lying down, he hadn’t been spared either; he too was covered in eggs and vegetable scraps.

Mrs. Wang, standing at the back, hadn’t been hit much. She kept her head down, not daring to raise it for even a second.

"Clan Leader, you must seek justice for me! They are bullying me beyond measure," Old Madam Xiang cried, wiping her face with her sleeve.

The old Clan Leader turned, his mustache bristling with rage. "You injured a General of the nation to such a degree, and you still have the gall to cry?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Clan Leader, I am innocent! It was an accident! Minghou is my own son; how could I truly take a knife to him?" Old Madam Xiang sobbed as if her heart were being torn out.

Anyone who didn’t know the truth might have actually believed her act. After all, people tend to believe that even the most vicious tiger won’t eat its own cubs.

Ye Qianning leaned lazily against the doorframe. In her view, nothing Old Madam Xiang said would matter. Even if it really had been an accident, she couldn’t escape her fate.

"I’ve never seen someone so thick-skinned," Old Man Gu scoffed.

Madam Zhan shook her head discreetly.

Zhan Chi snorted. ’Poor Xiang Minghou, having a mother like that. Since he’s so pitiful, maybe I’ll be a little nicer to him from now on.’

"Cease your twisted arguments! I am perfectly clear on what happened that day. You used every scheme imaginable to marry into the Xiang family back then. I know about every single dirty deed you’ve committed in the Xiang family over the years. Out of consideration for the two sons you bore the family, the clan turned a blind eye to your behavior. But we never expected you to grow even more audacious instead of reining yourself in. You even dared to harm a direct heir of the Xiang family! This crime is unforgivable." The old Clan Leader struck the ground heavily with his cane.

"It wasn’t intentional! It was an accident! It was really an accident!" Old Madam Xiang hated it when people brought up the past, and her tear-stained face stiffened.

"An accident? You and your son both just happened to ’slip up’?" the old Clan Leader demanded.

Old Madam Xiang glanced at the unconscious Xiang Mingli, momentarily at a loss for words.

"What accident? Plenty of people in the mansion saw it! When this old crone stabbed him, she was personally screaming, ’Die, die, die!’ You call that an accident?" Old Man Gu couldn’t hold it in any longer. He pointed to the butler and several familiar-looking servants. "You, you, you, and you! You were all there. Is that not what your old madam was shouting?"

The pointed-out servants kept their heads down, not daring to speak.

"I was present at the time. Old Madam Xiang certainly did not act by accident," said the butler, a clever man who had long since read the situation.

Old Madam Xiang whipped her head around to glare furiously at the butler. "You dare to frame me..."

"Old Madam, heaven is watching what you do. To try to kill your own son... you are truly unworthy of being human," the butler sighed.

"Exactly! And you’re still trying to argue your way out of it? Do you think everyone here is blind?" Old Man Gu said with contempt.

’I really have to hand it to this old hag,’ Ye Qianning thought. ’Her expression switched from mournful to malevolent so fast, it’s a shame she’s not a stage performer. What a waste of talent.’

The enraged Clan Leader struck his cane heavily on the ground again. "Our Xiang clan cannot keep such a venomous woman! The eldest master of the Xiang family is no longer with us. After deliberation within the clan, we have decided to remove you from the family registry. Furthermore, on behalf of the deceased, I will issue you a letter of divorce. From this day on, you have nothing more to do with the Xiang family."

After a moment of stunned silence, Old Madam Xiang roared, "You’re divorcing me? By what right do you divorce me? By what right do you strike me from the family registry? What law did I break by hitting my own son?! On what grounds can you divorce me?!"

"Xiang Minghou is a court official and a General. The assassination of a General is a capital crime."

"I don’t know anything about a ’capital crime’! He’s my son. I gave him his life, so I can take it if I want to! It’s none of your business!" Old Madam Xiang shrieked, craning her neck defiantly.