Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads

Chapter 410: Chapter -410

The grandmother turned her head, fixing the Fourth Groom with a lethally aggressive glare, before violently pivoting to snap at the Marquis.

"See?!" the Grand Madam roared, pointing her cane at her towering, trembling son. "See what type of absolute idiots you bring into this house to marry my dear granddaughter?! Is this how I raised you? I really think I should have thrown you into a river the day you were born! How can my own son be such an incompetent fool that he cannot even discern the difference between a simple tree and a destructive grass?!"

The Marquis lowered his head even further, his face burning with absolute humiliation. In this era, most nobles simply viewed bamboo as a symbol of tranquility and upright character. Almost no one actually knew about its viciously invasive root system. But there was no way he could argue with his mother now.

Heena wasn’t done. She gently tugged on her grandmother’s sleeve, her voice perfectly timed.

"Grandmother, that is not even the worst of it," Heena said softly. She pointed toward the massive pile of silk, jade, and gold that the servants had dragged out of the rooms. "The items we have confiscated from their quarters... they are so obscenely expensive that even *I*, the actual heir to this estate, could never afford to buy them for myself."

Without even turning her head to verify the pile of treasure, the Grand Madam erupted all over again.

"See?!" she shrieked at the Marquis and the Marchioness. "See what type of parasitic scum you have brought into our house! You let them bleed my family dry!"

The grooms standing off to the side—Kavien clutching his bleeding nose, the Second Groom entirely speechless, Orion maintaining a stiff, frozen smile, and the Fourth Groom staring in disbelief—were completely trapped. They didn’t even know what to say.

Then, Heena delivered her absolute masterstroke.

Reaching into her sleeve, she pulled out a delicate, embroidered handkerchief. She sniffled softly, her shoulders dropping as if she were carrying the weight of the world. She brought the cloth to her eyes, flawlessly squeezing out a few genuine-looking tears.

"Grandma..." Heena cried softly, her voice trembling with the perfect amount of perfectly manufactured sorrow. "I know I have not been back for a long time. I know my parents truly do not believe in me or care for me... but I only did this because... because..."

"Because what, my sweet child? Tell Grandma," the Grand Madam cooed, her heart practically melting at the sight of her granddaughter’s tears.

"I just kept thinking... what will the commoners say about us?" Heena sniffled, wiping her eyes. "What will the capital say when they hear we are raising four grown men in total luxury? They are my fiancés, yes, and I accept that. But they are not my *pets*! I do not need to keep them in gilded cages and feed them."

Heena slowly looked up, casting a tearful, deeply sympathetic glance at the four stunned grooms.

"They are *men*," Heena declared, her voice ringing with passionate conviction. "They have dignity! They have their own self-respect! How can strong, capable men handle the sheer humiliation of being completely fed, clothed, and spoiled by a woman’s money before we are even wed?"

The four grooms stared at her, their minds completely short-circuiting.

*This vicious woman!* they all screamed internally. *Look at how brilliantly she is twisting the words!*

But the terrifying part was... it was working. Heena’s logic was an absolute, inescapable trap.

Around the courtyard, the guards and servants exchanged thoughtful glances. For a second, everyone collectively thought, *Wait... the young lady actually has a very good point.*

"Grandma," Heena continued, her voice hitching with a perfectly timed sob. "If we were already married, and they were officially recognized as my husbands living under my roof, I would have been completely fine with providing for them! But they are still just men from outside the family. All this money, all these luxuries... it is being spent by our estate. What would people outside think of them? They would call them shameless gold-diggers!"

Heena turned to look at her fiercely protective grandmother, clutching her hands tightly.

"And worse... what would people think of *me*?" Heena cried, burying her face slightly into her handkerchief. "They would think that your granddaughter is so utterly unlovable, so hideous and bad, that she has to literally buy these grooms with unimaginable luxury just so they will agree to marry her!"

The absolute, suffocating silence that fell over the courtyard was broken only by Heena’s delicate, tragic sniffles.

The trap had been flawlessly sprung, the steel jaws snapping shut with such brutal efficiency that there was literally no way out.

If the grooms opened their mouths to protest and demand their luxuries back, they would be publicly admitting that they were, in fact, shameless, gold-digging pets completely devoid of manly dignity. But if they stayed silent, they lost everything—their wealth, their comfort, and their status in the estate.

Orion, standing stiffly among the grooms, slowly closed his doe-like eyes. *Checkmate,* he thought, a cold chill running down his spine. He finally realized just how terrifying the returned heiress truly was. She hadn’t just kicked down their doors; she had legally and morally locked them out of their own lives.

The Grand Madam, however, did not see a brilliant political strategist. She only saw her precious, traumatized granddaughter weeping into a handkerchief because society might think she was unlovable.

"Who dares?!" the grandmother suddenly roared, her voice echoing like thunder across the entire estate.

She dropped her cane, reached out with both hands, and pulled Heena into a fierce, protective embrace. She patted Heena’s back as she glared over the girl’s shoulder at the trembling Marquis and Marchioness.

"Who dares think my granddaughter is unlovable?!" the Grand Madam snarled, her ancient eyes burning with pure hellfire. "She is the heir to the greatest military house in the empire! She is worth ten thousand of these useless street rats! How dare you force her into a position where she feels she has to *buy* their affection?!"

The Marchioness fell to her knees, completely overwhelmed by the grandmother’s terrifying pressure. "Mother, no! That is not—we never intended—"

"Shut up!" the grandmother barked. She pulled back slightly, wiping away Heena’s fake tears with her own weathered thumbs. "Don’t cry, my sweet girl. Grandma is here. Grandma will fix this."

The Grand Madam turned her wrath toward the four grooms.

"My granddaughter is absolutely right!" the old woman declared, pointing a shaking finger at them. "You call yourselves men? Where is your spine?! Sitting here, rolling in silk and gold paid for by my family, acting like a bunch of pampered concubines! If you have even a shred of dignity left in your bodies, you will gladly hand over every single coin and piece of furniture you took from this estate!"

The grandmother looked at the Marquis. "Starting today, their allowance is cut to zero! They will eat basic meals, wear basic linen, and live in standard guest quarters. If they want luxury, they can earn it themselves! Are you telling me my estate is a charity for able-bodied men?!"