Fan Liangdi had made up her mind. Since she dared to strike even against the current Crown Prince’s eldest grandson, how could she possibly take a defenseless old woman and young girl seriously? She immediately turned to look at Nanny Fang: “Go and summon His Highness the Prince.”
Nanny Fang felt afraid just looking at her expression, yet didn’t dare question her affairs. She sighed and quickly went out to send someone to fetch Prince Dongping from His Highness’s quarters.
Zhou Weiqi was currently overwhelmed by the Jiangxi case. Although the general punishments had been decided, there were still many details that required careful consideration. After all, this was a major case involving an entire province’s officials. These past few days, he had been roasted over the fire daily by Meng Jiming and Elder Du—these two spoke nicely, saying they had asked him to serve as supervising judge, but they were both old foxes who had cultivated into spirits. They praised and coaxed him, insisting he make decisions on every matter. Whenever he tried to gloss over something vaguely, these two would smile without warmth and say they couldn’t make the decisions themselves, that His Majesty had specifically appointed him as supervising judge, and so forth.
He was truly being tormented to exhaustion—if this wasn’t handled properly, offending people went without saying, and he might even displease his Imperial Grandfather. Prince Dongping knew well that he wasn’t as favored and valued by his Imperial Grandfather as Zhou Weizhao was. Although this assignment was a hot potato, it was just as Qian Ying had said—he had to do it properly. Offending those officials was still better than offending Emperor Jianzhang.
In short, everything had been going poorly for him lately. Now hearing his mother was requesting him, he came over without even changing his clothes. Seeing that Fan Liangdi’s spirits were fairly good, he breathed a sigh of relief—she was his mother after all, and he was worried. Seeing his mother’s spirits were still good, and that his father had specially assigned Chen Dezhong to help him these past days, his heart settled down.
Fan Liangdi pulled him close to look at him for a while. Seeing his eyes were full of red bloodshot lines, she couldn’t help but feel extremely distressed: “If you’re tired, rest properly. Can it be that they would truly work an imperial grandson to death over this case?!”
Emperor Jianzhang didn’t have many grandsons altogether. Adding those born to the princes, there were only four or five in total. Imperial grandsons were extremely precious. Zhou Weiqi smiled and shook his head: “Father sent Master Chen to help your son. These past days have been much easier. We’re also approaching the case’s conclusion. After this busy period passes, there won’t be much left to do.”
Fan Liangdi nodded and instructed Lianqiao to go to the kitchen and stew some soup that would clear heat and purge fire for Zhou Weiqi. She also dismissed all the servants, only then pulling her son close to tell him about Old Madam Chen’s matter.
Zhou Weiqi’s first reaction was to gape, looking at his own mother somewhat incredulously: “How much silver?”
Fan Liangdi repeated it: “Over two hundred thousand taels of silver.” She looked at her son with heartfelt sincerity: “We’re true mother and son—Mother won’t hide things from you. To tell you honestly, do you think your father isn’t angry with me about this incident? If it weren’t for your maternal uncle from Xibei and your maternal grandfather pooling together one hundred and seventy thousand taels of silver, I wouldn’t have been able to pass this hurdle. Silver is too important to us.”
Silver was important to everyone! Zhou Weiqi naturally understood. Qian Ying had already been cultivating a base of supporters for him, but cultivating a base also required money. Money was needed everywhere, yet he was merely a prince who didn’t hold any proper position—where was he supposed to get silver?!
His heart pounded like drums as he looked at his mother. After a long while, he finally recovered and asked with parted lips: “But how could Maternal Grandfather’s family agree?”
Fan Liangdi naturally didn’t need to avoid any topics with her son. Hearing this, she said: “Naturally they wouldn’t agree. Your eldest cousin has also passed the xiucai examination. At his age and with his status, becoming a xiucai is already quite remarkable. The family values him highly, and he’s the legitimate eldest son. If we really stuffed this criminal official’s daughter onto him for the sake of silver, I fear it would create a rift between everyone in the future.”
Zhou Weiqi also understood this point and nodded: “Mother speaks correctly, but why did Mother still agree to Old Madam Chen?”
Fan Liangdi explained her original plan, concluding with: “Now that I’ve carefully thought it over again, I feel my initial idea was too rash. If she goes to the Fan family, she’ll still be connected to them. If someone with ulterior motives discovers this and makes an issue out of her death, even if it doesn’t implicate you and me directly, once rumors spread it will inevitably affect us.”
Zhou Weiqi vaguely guessed what his mother intended to do. He turned to look at his mother and asked somewhat hesitantly: “Then Mother’s meaning is that you want to midway…” He held back, swallowing the words “silence her,” “seek wealth and harm life.”
Fan Liangdi nodded, her expression very resolute: “I’ve thought it over repeatedly—this method is most appropriate. One old woman and one young girl on the road, without many servants attending them. Being robbed by mountain bandits on the road would be perfectly normal. There’s no need to even leave the corpses behind—the Chen family won’t mobilize their forces over an orphaned girl who refused to return to the clan with them. Even if they wanted to, they no longer have that capability.”
Wealth moves the heart. Having grown to this age, Zhou Weiqi understood very well the importance of silver. Zhou Weizhao had the entire Lu clan supporting him, and he still had Empress’s private treasury supplementing him. But on his side, although the Fan family also had plenty of money, and his maternal uncle also had silver, none of it was his—it all belonged to his father, the Crown Prince. It couldn’t reach his hands. He lowered his eyes in contemplation for a moment, then nodded in agreement with his mother’s idea: “Since it’s like this, there’s no other choice.”
Hearing her son say this, Fan Liangdi smiled and nodded: “I don’t trust others to do it. Select a few from your own people and personally handle this matter.”
The people currently under Fan Liangdi’s control all required the Crown Prince’s permission to deploy. But this batch of silver—Fan Liangdi temporarily didn’t want to hand it over to His Highness the Crown Prince. She didn’t want the Crown Prince to know.
Prince Dongping acknowledged with a sound, then repeatedly confirmed with Fan Liangdi the seal’s shape and the characters carved on it. Turning back, he summoned his trusted confidants to relay instructions, repeatedly warning them that they absolutely could not leave any traces, could not reveal their identities, and that the betrothal contract and seal must be brought back intact and complete, and so forth.
While he was instructing people, Song Chuyi was also instructing Ma Changjiang and Ma Wangkun: “There are still people staying there continuing to follow the Chen family grandmother and granddaughter, aren’t there? Immediately relay the message and have them watch this pair of grandmother and granddaughter carefully. There should be movement on that side very soon.”
Having gone through so many incidents, Song Chuyi had figured out Fan Liangdi’s temperament—she absolutely wasn’t someone who could accept losses, and she was ruthless enough to be cruel. She had previously agreed to Old Madam Chen certainly for the Chen family’s assets, but now that the Chen family assets were in hand, how could she possibly truly keep the Chen family’s people?
Ma Changjiang and Ma Wangkun exchanged glances, then voluntarily requested orders from Song Chuyi: “Miss, this matter sounds urgent. Why don’t we personally make a trip? Should we bring them back?”