What transpired next happened with the speed of divine judgment. She walked toward him with a calm that was somehow more terrifying than rage.
The court women, sensing the killing intent in her presence, immediately retreated. They jumped from his lap, stepping backward, creating distance between themselves and Luo He as though he had suddenly become toxic.
Luo He stood immediately as well, positioning himself once she rose, as if instinctively understanding what was about to occur next.
Jin Mulan reached him, and without hesitation or warning, she raised her hand and struck him directly on the head with the full force of her anger.
It looked painful for an external observer, but she held back quite a bit, showing she still wanted him to survive after her assault.
Because for a weakling like her useless husband, it's hard to handle the full brunt of her martial arts. Luo He acted as if he nearly fell.
The impact seemed severe enough that for a moment, the world were to compress around the sensation of the blow. And Luo He proudly immersed in his character acting as if he was truly a daze.
But he remained standing, despite the trauma. His expression how ever was shifting into something appropriately chastened.
"Aren't you shameless?" Jin Mulan demanded, her voice carrying fury that was theatrical in its intensity, but actually present deep within her heart.
However the fury was clearly not directed at him but rather at the court women who had orchestrated this assault. "You little idiot. Don't you have any manners?"
"Don't you poor fool understand that other women shouldn't be flirting with you while your own wife watches? Aren't you even a little ashamed?" She kept on accusing him, her finger pressing into him.
She held him by the collar and her finger pointed at his face with obvious displeasure. But everyone in the gathering understood the truth.
Every word of accusation was directed not at Luo He but at the court women who had attempted to seduce him. In her eyes her husband was the victim, and that said a lot about their relationship.
The court women had planned for this moment. They had anticipated that Jin Mulan would strike one of them, would injure someone, would damage her own reputation through violence.
They had positioned themselves to fall, to accuse her of assault, to create a scandal that would devastate the couple's credibility. But she lashed out on her husband, and that can't be held accountable in any genuine regard.
Jin Mulan had done something far more strategic than violence. She had scolded him. She had demonstrated her fury, her possessiveness, her control but without creating any physical evidence that could be used against her.
The court women did not retreat, despite their meticulously laid scheme crumbling before their eyes. If anything, they became more shameless. More brazen.
More willing to debase themselves for a shot at bringing her down. "Oh, lady Mulan," one of them purred with a vicious smile.
"You really should keep your husband on a tighter leash. Men like him have a weakness for wandering off. Especially when there are willing mouths to satisfy him elsewhere."
Another laughed, sharp and cutting. "Can you really blame us for trying? If you can't keep him satisfied, why shouldn't we?"
"A man that neglected will come running the moment someone actually bothers to show a little interest in him." A third shouted. Another stepped closer, deliberately pushing the boundary.
"What a pathetic husband you have. You turn your back for one moment, and he's already desperate to escape that ice cold bed of yours. We practically had him begging to stay with us. Begging."
Their laughter was cruel, designed to wound. "Perhaps all those stories about general Mulan's fearsome reputation were just that, stories."
"Perhaps your husband simply doesn't fear you anymore. Perhaps he's tired of being controlled by a woman with ice in her heart."
"Maybe that's why he was so eager to let us touch him. He was starving for actual warmth, actual affection."
Every word dripped with calculated venom. They weren't just mocking her anymore. They were testing her, probing for the exact moment her control would shatter.
They wanted her to move. One step closer. One accusation hurled their way.
One finger pointed in their faces. That was all they needed.
They had choreographed every moment. The stumble backward, the theatrical fall, the anguished cries that would echo through the entire hall.
They'd rehearsed their victim's tears until they could summon them on command.
They'd perfected their trembling accusations, ready to swear before every noble present that she had assaulted them in a jealous rage.
They were shameless enough to sacrifice their dignity, just to throw themselves on the ground like animals, if it meant destroying her reputation in front of everyone who mattered.
Because they believed, with absolute certainty, that if Jin Mulan came within arm's reach, they would succeed. One touch. One push. One moment of uncontrolled fury.
That's all it would take to drag beautiful and arrogant Mulan down into scandal and disgrace. They really envied her and so they studied her extensively and knows exactly where to push.
And they were willing to lower themselves completely to make it happen. Because the rewards, if successful, would seem the sacrifices look virtually insignificant.
So they kept provoking her. Kept pushing. Kept throwing sharper insults, meaner jabs, more vicious implications about her husband's wandering eye.
Her apparent frigidity, her desperate need to control him because she couldn't satisfy him properly. In the end they used the most disgraceful weapon to be used against a woman, infertility.
Every remark was designed to be just cruel enough to sting, just pointed enough to draw blood, yet crude enough to stay within the bounds of courtly banter.
A kind of mockery that, if she retaliated, would appear as if she couldn't take a joke. They were counting on her pride.
Counting on her fury. Counting on the moment she would snap and give them exactly what they wanted.
But Jin Mulan did not step toward them.
She did not dignify their filth with so much as a glance. To her, these shameless creatures had ceased to exist.
Her entire attention remained locked on the man before her. This useless, disappointing, utterly fortunate husband of hers.
She kept him pinned by his collar, her grip firm enough that he couldn't escape even if he tried. And she continued her scolding with the same fierce intensity.
Every harsh accusation seeming to be aimed at him, while everyone in that hall understood the truth, every word was a blade aimed at the women lurking in her periphery.
The court women had prepared themselves to be victims of violence.
Instead, they were being ignored. Rendered so irrelevant, so insignificant, that Jin Mulan couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge their existence.
They had expected to be pushed. They had wanted to be struck. They were shameless enough to throw themselves on the ground and lie through their teeth if it meant her destruction.
And yet here they stood. Frustrated, humiliated, their entire scheme reduced to nothing by a woman who simply refused to give them what they wanted.
They had become nothing but spectators to their own failure.
Jin Mulan released her grip on Luo He's collar and pulled him close by his sleeve instead. She raised herself slightly on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.
A gesture that was both affectionate and possessive, that communicated to everyone present that "This man is mine. This relationship is real. You cannot damage what we share." Kind of aura.
The mark she left with that kiss was deliberate. Everyone watching understood that despite Luo He being a kept man.
Despite the power dynamic that suggested he should be ashamed of his position, Jin Mulan genuinely loved him more than anything.
She trusted him completely. The bond between them was not a political arrangement but something far deeper.
The court women realized in that moment, that they had failed entirely. And they would continue to fail, because no external pressure could damage a relationship built on genuine connection.
More attempts at humiliation would come as the day progressed. But for now, Luo He and Jin Mulan returned to their table.
Holding hands, genuinely becoming pleased with each other as partners, in the way that transcended performance or strategy.