After Yumo left both sat down ignoring what she had just said
"Auntie. Don't you think Yumo went too far?" Meixuan asked
"Don't worry. She is just caught up In the moment of loosing that vixen. Don't worry, give her some more days and she'd forget that vixen" Ning Ruomo said as they both laughed
The door opened
They turned—expecting a maid. Instead, Madam Leng stood in the doorway, her expression unreadable, but her eyes burned with quiet rage.
The laughter died immediately.
"I see the silence of this house suits you," Madam Leng said coolly. "You've both made yourselves comfortable in the echo of someone's heartbreak."
"mother—" Ruomo stood, straightening her blouse. "It's not what—"
"Sit."
The sharpness of the word cut the air. Ruomo obeyed without thinking.
Madam Leng stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.
"So it brings you joy, does it?" she asked, walking slowly to the table. "That girl, leaving this house with nothing but her name—and even that you tried to tear from her."
"She was never meant to carry the family name" Meixuan said, quieter now.
"Then are you?" Madam Leng asked
"Yes" Meixuan replied
"No," Madam Leng snapped. "The family name is meant for her. She simply bore it with more grace than either of you ever have. Even when your son tore her down and made her nothing"
The silence pressed in.
"You sneered at her pain. Rejoiced in her humiliation. All because you were too small to accept her presence," she continued. "Tell me, does it taste sweet, that tea you sip over someone else's suffering?"
Ruomo's fingers tensed around her cup. "We didn't mean to—"
"You didn't 'care' to stop," Madam Leng said. "And now, you smile while the house bleeds. You find joy in people's sorrow"
Meixuan looked away, her jaw tight.
"You may not have hurt her family. But you delighted in the ruin. That makes you no better than the hand that lit the match."
The words struck deep.
Madam Leng's voice dropped lower.
"I watched her walk away that night. Alone. Proud. Silent. And I wondered, at what point did this family become too arrogant to know love when it stared them in the face?"
Neither woman spoke.
"She endured everything with dignity. Never once did she shame you publicly, though God knows she had reason. She protected this family's name even when we did not protect her. Even when we make her fall"
There was a long pause.
Then Madam Leng said quietly, "You shamed this family more with your smiles than any scandal could."
Ruomo's face crumbled. "I didn't think—"
"No, you didn't," Madam Leng said. "And now you must sit with that."
Meixuan swallowed, her voice hoarse. "Will she come back?" she asked shocking herself
"She shouldn't," Madam Leng said honestly. "Not until the soil here is clean. Not until you can look her in the eye without seeing the woman your son tried to destroy."
As Madam Leng turned and walked away, the air behind her was suffocating.
And for the first time, Ning Ruomo and Leng Meixuan felt something unfamiliar settle into their chests
Regret.
Not for losing Lu Jingyan.
But for smiling when they should have wept.
Both wanted to say something but couldn't find their voices. Ning Ruomo just quietly went up the stairs to her room while Leng Meixuan sat back down not having the strength to do anything. She thought back at what Leng Yumo said and what madam Leng said as she bowed her head in deep regret
"Truly they've wronged her"