All the bad things seemed to converge on her in an instant. At this moment, Third Madam Chen was indeed in dire straits, just as the Song family had anticipated. Her head buzzed with severe pain, as if it would explode at any moment. Yet her husband still wore a stern expression, glaring at her with wide eyes and scolding her harshly: “You foolish woman, dumb as a pig! Now everything’s ruined! We’re all finished!”
If this matter were to be pursued, it would inevitably alarm the family, and they would have to use the family’s connections to urge the authorities to handle it. But once the family was alarmed, he would have even less ability to hold his head up at home in the future. He was already suppressed to the point of being unable to raise his head.
Looking at Third Madam Chen, who stared at him in shock with tears streaming down her face, he was entirely immersed in fury and spoke without restraint for a moment: “Now even Qing’er’s dowry is gone. What sins did I commit to marry you, this pretentious woman? You are simply the root cause of calamity in our household. First you offended the Song family, causing Father to severely reprimand me. Now you’ve harmed our daughter. I’ve truly had enough of you!”
As he scolded energetically, Third Madam Chen gradually progressed from shock to heartbreak to numbness. Trembling, she pointed at Third Master Chen. After a long while, she spat fiercely, forcing Third Master Chen to close his mouth. Only then did she point at him with shaking hands: “Speak with your conscience! What calamity to the household? When I was going to lend money at interest, what did you say? When you saw there was money coming in, you even told me to lend more. Moreover, so what if all this money went down the drain?!” Her voice suddenly became shrill: “None of this money belonged to you surnamed Chen! You don’t have the ability to dig money out of your family’s gold and silver nest. All this money was from my dowry! My dowry! You say I lost Qing’er’s dowry—you really have the face to say these things. This silver was all mine. You as a father, with just those two portions of salary all day long, what’s that enough for? It’s not even enough for you to socialize with colleagues and superiors. If it weren’t for me—if it weren’t for me, could you sleep peacefully as Third Master Chen? Expecting that stingy old woman in your family to support you? You’re dreaming! Now that something’s happened, everything has become my fault.” She truly felt wronged. Before lending at interest, they had indeed earned silver. But who knew that in the blink of an eye such a major incident would occur? She was now as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, yet instead of helping to find a solution, her husband only kept pushing all responsibility onto her, as if she had willingly thrown all the silver away without it returning. Madam Fang had also lost a large sum of silver. Although she felt terrible, no one had heard that Minister Fang wanted to divorce Madam Fang.
Third Master Chen was rendered speechless, his face flushing red to his neck. Fuming with rage, he slammed the door and left. Before leaving, he threw down one more line: “I can’t and won’t manage this matter! If the silver is gone, at worst our daughter won’t marry!”
Third Madam Chen cried until she was covered in tears and snot. With great difficulty, she finally came around under her daughter’s coaxing and consolation. Holding her daughter, she was overcome with grief: “I truly—truly have no way to live anymore.”
Comparing oneself to others only brings anger. Chen Mingqing pressed her lips together silently, patting her mother’s back without a word. She personally directed a maid to go out and fetch hot water. She wrung out a cloth herself to wash her mother’s face, then sighed and sat across from her mother: “If the silver is gone, it’s gone. Mother, don’t make yourself ill over this. Even more, don’t harm your harmony with Father.”
Third Madam Chen’s heart felt even more distressed. Her daughter was excellent in every way. In her view, she wasn’t inferior to Chen Mingyu at all, but her fate was poor—she was born from her belly, and the Third Master Chen she married happened to be a concubine-born son.
Everyone said Old Madam Chen was so shrewd and formidable. Her maternal family always scoffed at this, saying that if she were truly formidable and shrewd, she should raise her concubine-born sons well too. There was no sense in raising one’s legitimate sons well while raising the concubine-born sons to be incompetent and drag down the legitimate sons and daughters. That Old Madam Chen could do such a foolish thing showed she wasn’t very clever. Yet she always prided herself on being shrewd and formidable, wanting to compare herself with Old Madam Song and Old Madam Du. She couldn’t even compare to one of their toes.
But these complaints could only be thought in her heart. After all, they couldn’t resolve the predicament before her. Third Madam Chen looked worried and distressed, feeling her head was about to split. Holding her daughter, she felt somewhat disheartened for a moment.
She had racked her brains so much to plan for Third Master Chen, yet Third Master Chen always acted as if everything were natural and expected. When silver came in, he beamed with joy, calling her “Madam” front and back. When the silver was gone, he glared at her with red eyebrows and green eyes as if she were his enemy. What was the point of marrying such a person?
Chen Mingqing held her arm, her face also inevitably tinged with worry. She truly didn’t care about dowries or such things. From childhood, she had known how difficult things were for her mother and knew that all these years, her father’s expenses had come from her mother’s dowry. As the eldest daughter, she had long since learned to manage household affairs and knew how much weight their family carried. To outsiders, they naturally appeared infinitely glorious, having a grandfather who was an Elder. But their own father was merely concubine-born. Grandfather didn’t concern himself with inner household matters—those were entirely controlled by Grandmother.
Outside, a maid knocked on the door. Seeming to know the atmosphere inside was poor, she waited a long time until Chen Mingqing called her in before carefully entering. She said softly: “In a few days, there will be a prayer ritual at Qingxu Temple. Old Madam says to have Madam and Fourth Miss go together.”
After the major incident at Huangjue Temple, ordinary wealthy families now all rushed to Qingxu Temple for blessings and fulfilling vows, especially since the imperial family’s prayer assembly this year was also held at Qingxu Temple.
Third Madam Chen hastily wiped away her tears and agreed. No matter how angry she was, her daughter’s matters couldn’t be delayed. Her daughter was betrothed to the third son of Minister Tong’s family. The Tong family had just had the incident of Miss Tong’s suicide by poison. This was likely a ritual for Miss Tong. This absolutely couldn’t be delayed, otherwise they would think this side didn’t know proper etiquette, and Chen Mingqing’s days would be difficult after marrying over.
She pulled her daughter to her side and stroked her for a while, gritting her teeth and holding back tears: “Don’t worry. Even if I risk this life of mine, I’ll gather enough dowry for you and let you marry in grand style.”
Naturally, she didn’t dare compare with Chen Mingyu. Old Madam was so partial that she practically wanted to give everything to her. But at least it couldn’t be too shabby. That Madam Tong came from the Marquis Wuning’s manor, and the Marquis Wuning’s manor was utterly lawless.
Chen Mingqing sighed, her face very calm: “Mother, everyone has their own destiny and karmic connections. What’s meant to be yours will be yours in the end; what’s not meant to be, don’t force it. What’s mine is mine. What’s not mine is useless even if seized. Don’t do foolish things for me and my brothers anymore. Living your days well is more important than anything.”