This farce temporarily came to an end after Concubine Kang’s collision with the pillar.
The bright hall next door was in chaos, with Nanny Gui directing a roomful of servants and maids coming and going to clean up the mess. From the commotion outside and the suppressed heavy breathing of the little maids, one could tell that Concubine Kang’s collision had been quite severe.
However, Concubine Kang’s legitimate sister-in-law, seeing such a tragic scene, showed no sympathy. Instead, she grumbled angrily from the side: “Using the bitter flesh trick again—as if others haven’t seen opera troupes perform! What a disgraceful creature!”
Old Madam Ren had Concubine Kang carried out and also dismissed Sister-in-law Kang, arranging for her to stay in the outer courtyard.
Old Madam Ren’s head maid Shanhu entered the east side room, saying Old Madam wanted the three Ren sisters to come out.
When the three sisters emerged, Old Madam Ren was reclining on the arhat bed with her eyes closed, resting. The room had been mostly cleaned up—the broken ornaments and vase fragments had been swept away, leaving only several empty spaces on the antique shelf.
The floor was clean, though still showing wet stains. A little maid was trembling as she vigorously scrubbed the pillar, with a copper basin at her feet containing red water. Everyone else was busy with their own tasks, pretending not to see.
Old Madam Ren lifted her eyelids and said to the three sisters with an indifferent expression: “You should return to your courtyards today.”
The Ren sisters said nothing, quietly bowed, and withdrew.
Originally, they hadn’t felt anything, but once they left the main hall and the warm early summer breeze blew over them, Ren Yaoqi recalled the nauseating bloody smell from inside and couldn’t help but frown slightly.
None of the three sisters spoke, walking their paths with lowered eyes, each lost in their own thoughts about what had just happened.
After leaving Ronghua Garden, Ren Yaoyin bid farewell to Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi, going their separate ways.
Ren Yaohua let out a breath and said in a daze, “I just saw blood droplets splattered on the bamboo curtain. For it to splash that far, Concubine Kang must have hit extremely hard. I wonder if she can be saved.”
Ren Yaohua was still young and hadn’t experienced much. She had never truly witnessed matters of life and death.
Ren Yaoqi comforted her: “Don’t worry, her life can be saved.”
Compared to Ren Yaohua’s shock, Ren Yaoqi was much calmer. It wasn’t that she lacked compassion, but she understood people like Concubine Kang too well. Moreover, she had already experienced too many partings of life and death. Whether she wanted to or not, her heart had become much colder and harder than others.
Ren Yaohua was silent for a moment: “The Kang family making such a scene now—is this the Lin family’s handiwork?”
Ren Yaoqi thought for a moment: “They had a hand in it. As for whether the truth is really as the Liu and Kang families claim, that’s no longer important.”
Ren Yaohua’s brow furrowed habitually: “You mean—”
The two had reached the corridor outside the garden. Ren Yaoqi stopped, turned toward the corridor’s edge, facing the garden full of colorful flowers and green shade: “When Concubine Kang was able to enter our gates under those circumstances, besides her good timing, it was also because our Ren family is still somewhat different from those truly prestigious noble families. If this had happened to a family like the Yun family, Concubine Kang could have knelt to death at their gates and still wouldn’t have been allowed in.”
In her previous life, Ren Yaoqi had lived in the capital for many years. Compared to places like the capital, Yanbei had been somewhat influenced by the surrounding nomadic peoples in terms of etiquette and customs. Only truly established families like the Yun family had their own set of rules in conducting affairs.
Take Concubine Kang’s matter—she had conceived illegitimately with Fifth Master Ren without a matchmaker. Strictly speaking, she didn’t even qualify to enter as a concubine. Because prestigious families placed great importance on bloodlines, and Concubine Kang’s secret pregnancy outside was fundamentally unclear.
“So today, when the Kang and Liu families made this scene, regardless of whether Concubine Kang is wronged, she’s finished?” Ren Yaohua finally understood.
Ren Yaoqi nodded. No matter how clever Concubine Kang was, her background was too poor, and having grown up in Yanbei, she simply didn’t understand the rules of true noble families. Concubine Fang was from the south, and the Fang family had some wealth, but they weren’t at the level of established families either. Moreover, when Concubine Fang was young, her legitimate mother couldn’t have taught her these things.
The Ren family had increasingly emphasized their family image over the years, striving to align with established families. Given Old Master Ren and Old Madam Ren’s characters, they couldn’t possibly ruin their family’s reputation for a woman like Concubine Kang. When Old Madam Ren allowed Concubine Kang to enter, she had overlooked this point. Now someone had come to remind her.
“In this round, the reason Concubine Kang and Concubine Fang lost to Eldest Madam Lin and Su Shi wasn’t because they weren’t clever or alert enough, nor because they weren’t ruthless enough. They lost because of their birth status.” Ren Yaoqi calmly reached her conclusion.
As for whose child was actually in Concubine Kang’s belly, that was no longer important.
If Concubine Kang had indeed conceived secretly with Young Master Liu first, as Sister-in-law Kang and the Liu family claimed, then her supposedly clever plan to use Ren Yaoyu to kill her unborn child had now become evidence of her malicious intent to eliminate all traces.
With the child gone, she could no longer explain herself clearly.
Without needing to see Old Madam Ren’s subsequent handling, Ren Yaoqi already understood what fate awaited Concubine Kang. She was all too familiar with how the Ren family dealt with problems.
“They are… killing without shedding blood.” It was impossible for Ren Yaohua not to feel shocked.
She had never known that a trumped-up charge, perhaps merely a rumor, could destroy someone like Concubine Kang.
From Concubine Kang’s actions during her time at the Ren family, one could see that this woman was not easy to deal with. Just from her daring to scheme against her unborn child and today’s tragic manner of proving her innocence, one could see what kind of person this woman was.
Yet now, Eldest Madam Lin might only need to bribe some personal servant of Young Master Liu and spread some ambiguous slanderous words, and this formidable woman became a discarded pawn.
The wars between women in the inner quarters, though without visible smoke, often involved bloodshed.
This was Ren Yaohua’s first real understanding of this.
Seeing Ren Yaohua’s shocked expression, Ren Yaoqi didn’t speak, letting her figure it out herself. Some things could only be understood through experience. She hoped Ren Yaohua could grow up, mature, and understand the rules of survival in the back courtyards.
That afternoon, though the sun was still bright, somehow rain began falling from the clear sky—not heavy, not light. It stopped and started intermittently, drizzling on and off for an hour or two. Such sunny-day showers never lasted long anyway.
Not long after the rain stopped, before it was even dark, Ren Yaoqi heard news brought from Ren Yaohua’s side.
Old Madam Ren had Sister-in-law Kang bring Uncle Liu into the manor, and it was the eldest master who met with them. They talked for less than an hour, and somehow, Uncle Liu obediently led the Liu family people away, not saying a single extra word when leaving.
Given the Ren family’s current status in Yanbei, dealing with a small wealthy household like the Liu family required no great effort at all.
Next came handling Concubine Kang’s matter. Old Madam Ren flatly rejected Sister-in-law Kang’s words about taking Concubine Kang back for punishment, giving her two hundred taels of silver to dismiss her. These two hundred taels weren’t easily earned—when Sister-in-law Kang left, she had pressed her fingerprint on a written document, apparently agreeing to some conditions with the Ren family.
As for Concubine Kang, as if nothing had happened, she remained in her small courtyard at the Ren family, recovering from her injuries. Old Madam Ren said nothing about how to deal with her. To outsiders, it seemed that today’s visit from the Liu and Kang families was just poor relatives calling, who happily left after getting some benefits, not even leaving a ripple behind.
The Ren family’s handling of this matter was both decisive and silent.
Afterward, Ren Yaohua discussed Sister-in-law Kang with Ren Yaoqi.
Logically, for a daughter from a family like the Kangs to become a concubine at the Ren family should be their greatest hope. Ren Yaohua couldn’t understand why Sister-in-law Kang would help outsiders destroy Concubine Kang—what benefit was there for her?
Finally, it was Maid Xiangqin who curled her lip disdainfully: “Didn’t Sister-in-law Kang and Concubine Kang get along badly? Even if Concubine Kang became successful, what would that have to do with her? It would be good enough if she didn’t take the opportunity to sweep her out. These sister-in-law conflicts are all tangled messes. ‘Family harmony brings prosperity’—it’s easy to say, but how many can do it? Most people still scheme against each other to the death over a bit of money.”
Though Xiangqin was later scolded coldly by Nanny Zhou, who suddenly came in and heard her, everyone knew that while her words were crude, they weren’t unreasonable.
Ren Yaohua didn’t mention Concubine Kang again. She also understood that although the Ren family showed no movement now, it didn’t mean Old Madam Ren would let go of Concubine Kang, this “shame.” It was only a matter of time before the Ren family dealt with Concubine Kang.
Concubine Kang’s “heroic and fearless” collision couldn’t change her fate.
But was Concubine Kang someone easy to deal with? Would she meekly wait for death?
Ren Yaoqi said to Ren Yaohua: “Just watch—the good show is still to come.”
Ren Yaoqi continued having people watch Concubine Kang’s side.
After Concubine Kang woke up, she sent a maid from her side to secretly visit Concubine Fang’s Fangfei Courtyard under the cover of night. Though she was anxious, she was still cautious and didn’t dare to openly seek help.
Concubine Fang had also been having difficult days recently. She knew she had been set up.
As for who had set her up, with Concubine Fang’s intelligence, she naturally suspected Eldest Madam Lin, who had visited a few days ago. But being a careful person, she sent people to investigate the details of Eldest Madam Lin’s visit to the manor, then learned from a gatekeeper that after Eldest Madam Lin left, people from the East Manor had boarded her carriage.