Shanhu immediately remembered that this nanny was the same one who had escorted Fourth Miss Ren Yaoyin back to the Ren family’s retreat house last time. Her surname seemed to be Duan.

Indeed, Shanhu heard Ren Yaoqi ask: “Nanny Duan, may I ask when the Princess Consort might be free to see me? I’ll come to pay my respects another day.”

Nanny Duan shook her head: “The Princess Consort has no free time recently. Miss Ren Fifth, please return.”

Ren Yaoqi glanced at Shanhu, hesitating about whether she should leave.

Shanhu had served Old Madam Ren for many years and was quite quick-witted. She immediately stepped forward with a smile: “How have you been recently, Nanny Duan? Before coming today, our Old Madam still mentioned you, saying that Fifth Miss has been under your care.”

As she spoke, Shanhu grasped Nanny Duan’s hand and slipped a purse containing ten taels of silver into her sleeve. The purse had been prepared on Old Madam Ren’s instructions before she came. She had prepared five or six such ten-tael purses, plus some smaller red packets, for emergencies.

Shanhu reminded Nanny Duan of the last time she went to the Ren family’s retreat house when Old Madam Ren had generously rewarded her with a mutton-fat jade toad ornament. Her expression softened considerably as she nodded and exchanged pleasantries: “How has Old Madam Ren’s health been recently?”

Seeing an opening, Shanhu felt delighted, and her smile became even more ingratiating: “Our Old Madam is doing well. Today, she specially sent our Fifth Miss to pay respects to the Princess Consort. Unfortunately, we happened to arrive when the Princess Consort was busy. I suppose we’ll have to come another time?”

Nanny Duan thought for a moment, then nodded: “The Princess Consort indeed doesn’t want to receive guests today.”

Hearing Nanny Duan say “doesn’t want to” rather than “isn’t convenient,” Shanhu’s heart skipped a beat. She probed: “In your opinion, when would be a good time for me to come again?”

Nanny Duan was silent for a moment, sighed, but was unwilling to say more, only saying: “Please return.” After speaking, she turned and went back into the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion, ignoring Shanhu’s calls from behind.

With Nanny Duan’s departure, Shanhu felt even more uncertain. But since the Princess Consort had clearly stated she wouldn’t receive guests, they couldn’t force their way in – this was the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion after all.

Shanhu looked at Ren Yaoqi with some difficulty: “Fifth Miss, this…”

Ren Yaoqi shook her head: “If the Princess Consort won’t receive guests, I have no choice.”

Shanhu sighed: “Then we can only return first and report back to Old Master and Old Madam.”

So Ren Yaoqi took the carriage back to the Ren family. After all this trouble, by the time Ren Yaoqi’s carriage reached Baihe Town, it was already dark.

People from various branches of the Ren family were still gathered in Ronghua Garden and hadn’t left, though Old Master Ren and Eldest Master Ren were nowhere to be seen. Additionally, the Old Madam from the East Mansion couldn’t sit still and had returned home first.

It turned out that after Ren Yaoqi left, more news had continued to arrive. The authorities had previously sealed the Ren family’s three coal mines and taken over the Ren family’s coal shops in Yanzhou. Unexpectedly, today many miners at the mines had caused an uproar, jointly filing complaints that the Ren family treated human lives carelessly and routinely withheld pay and abused miners.

One wave had barely settled when another arose. Subsequently, a mountain owner whose land was adjacent to one of the Ren family’s coal mountains also took the opportunity to sue the Ren family for secretly mining beyond their boundaries and hollowing out his mountain.

This matter of mining beyond boundaries was originally the mountain owner kicking them while they were down, because there had been an agreement between the two families before, and the Ren family gave him a sum of silver every year. But unexpectedly, this lawsuit led to the discovery that the Ren family had secretly hidden weapons in abandoned mine shafts.

When this matter came to light, everyone was in an uproar.

Whether under the Great Zhou ruled by the Li Dynasty or under Yanbei ruled by the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion, it was strictly forbidden for private individuals to hoard large quantities of weapons. In the Ren family’s abandoned coal mines, several hundred bows and arrows and over a hundred simple sabers had been discovered. Although the quantity of weapons wasn’t too large, the consequences of this matter itself might bring could be serious or minor.

Old Master Ren and Eldest Master Ren had been invited by the authorities not long after Ren Yaoqi left because of this matter. With the pillars of support gone, the Ren family was also in chaos.

Old Madam Ren was also anxious, but could only keep people from various branches and wait for news from outside while discussing whether there were any good countermeasures.

As soon as Ren Yaoqi entered the room, everyone’s eyes turned to her, as if hoping to see some turning point from her. Old Madam Ren even immediately stood up and asked somewhat urgently: “How was it? Did the Princess Consort see you? What did she say?”

Ren Yaoqi shook her head: “The Princess Consort didn’t see me.”

As soon as Ren Yaoqi’s words fell, the room became quiet. The Ren family members looked at each other with increasingly somber expressions.

Old Madam Ren frowned: “You didn’t see the Princess Consort? What happened?”

Shanhu stepped forward and told Old Madam Ren about today’s events and what Nanny Duan had said. Old Madam Ren’s expression changed, and she transferred her anger to Ren Yaoqi, pointing at her and scolding: “Didn’t the Princess Consort usually have an excellent impression of you? She even sent you things several times. How could she not see you?”

Ren Yaoqi shook her head. What needed to be said had already been said by Shanhu, and she had nothing more to add. Old Madam Ren was taking out her frustration on her because she had nowhere else to vent her anger.

Fifth Master Ren said, “Mother, if the Princess Consort said she wouldn’t see Yaoqi, she couldn’t force her way in. Now Father and Big Brother have both been invited by the authorities, and we don’t know when they’ll return. Don’t get angry – think of ways to solve the problem first.”

Old Madam Ren angrily replied: “Then you tell me what to do!”

Fifth Master Ren looked at Third Master Ren: “How about Third Brother and I go to the authorities to see if we can find out any news?”

Old Madam Ren initially wanted to nod, but then thought that Old Master Ren and her eldest son had already been called to the authorities and hadn’t sent any news back after more than two hours. What if the other two sons also got trapped there? She shook her head: “What use would it be for you to go? Better to send more quick-witted stewards to wait at the authorities so they can report back promptly if anything happens.”

Fifth Master Ren could only send more stewards out.

Second Master Ren, who had been sitting on the side holding a string of prayer beads as if in meditation, seemed to be called back to the mundane world. He turned his prayer beads while murmuring: “How did all these things happen at once? Could it be that the Ren family’s luck is bad this year?”

Old Madam Ren remembered what Old Master Ren had said before leaving and couldn’t help frowning tightly: “Bad luck can be remedied with money, but we fear we’ve offended villains!”

Hearing this, everyone couldn’t help but look at Old Madam Ren.

Fifth Madam was impatient by nature and quickly pressed: “Mother, what villains? Do you mean someone is deliberately trying to harm our Ren family?”

Old Master Ren had also wondered if it was because the Ren family planned to form a marriage alliance with the Zeng family that angered the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion, causing the Prince’s Mansion to want to teach the Ren family a lesson. That’s why he had Ren Yaoqi go to the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion to test the Princess Consort’s attitude.

Later, when the authorities came to the door saying they had discovered weapons in the Ren family’s abandoned mine shafts, Old Master Ren was shocked but began to suspect whether this was something the Han family had done for revenge. After all, if the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion wanted to teach the Ren family a lesson, there would be no need to go around such a big circle and scheme to frame them.

Ren Yaoqi had just heard the conversation between Ren Shimao and Ren Shimin and learned about the weapons discovered in the Ren family’s mine shafts and that Old Master Ren and Eldest Master Ren had been invited by the authorities. She was also pondering this in her heart.

Based on Ren Yaoqi’s understanding of Xiao Jingxi, Xiao Jingxi indeed wouldn’t stoop to such framing just to teach the small Ren family a lesson. She also thought of the Han family, who had been quiet for a long time.

But whether the Han family could hear the news so quickly and kick the Ren family when they were down at this juncture, because the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion had given some hint, Ren Yaoqi wasn’t clear about.

Having the Han family come forward to deal with the Ren family was indeed quite convenient.

Because Old Master Ren hadn’t made the feud between the Ren family and Old Master Han public among the younger generation, Old Madam Ren said that one sentence and then kept quiet.

Everyone ate dinner in the flower hall of Ronghua Garden, but before they had properly started eating, a steward who had gone out to gather information came running back, sweating profusely.

“Old Madam, this is terrible! Old Master and Eldest Master have been arrested by the authorities.”

Old Madam Ren’s hand trembled, and she dropped her chopsticks. When she stood up, she became unsteady and nearly fell, her lips trembling: “What, what did you say? What arrest?”

Eldest Madam quickly supported Old Madam Ren while also changing color: “What exactly happened? Speak slowly!”

The steward panted: “Originally, the authorities said they were bringing our Old Master and Eldest Master in for questioning, but after our masters went in for most of the day, they still hadn’t come out. Seeing it was getting dark, this servant could only spend fifty taels of silver to find Secretary Yang to inquire about the situation. After waiting nearly an hour, Secretary Yang finally sent word, but it was telling us not to wait and to hurry back to find someone to discuss how to get our masters out, because Old Master and Eldest Master had already been arrested for the matter of secretly storing weapons and were locked up in the government prison.”

Because the Ren family was generous with their spending, they usually had fairly good relations with the authorities. So when they encountered problems that were hard to resolve, they would also consult with the government office, and sometimes even borrow the authorities’ help to deal with one or two errant servants. But the Ren family masters had never imagined they might enter the government office and not come out.

Even when Old Master Ren and Eldest Master Ren left the Ren family, they hadn’t considered the possibility of being detained.

The women were all shocked and terrified by this news. Old Madam Ren’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

Eldest Madam, who was closest to Old Madam, couldn’t hold her up and nearly fell herself, quickly calling for help: “Come quickly and support Old Madam! Fifth Sister-in-law, go have someone fetch a physician…”

Everyone in the Ren family was thrown into panic by Old Master Ren and Eldest Master Ren being imprisoned and Old Madam Ren fainting.

Second Madam remained calm in the crisis, first helping Eldest Madam lead people to carry Old Madam to the inner room, then invited a physician into the mansion to treat Old Madam Ren.

Second Master Ren, Third Master Ren, and Fifth Master Ren were also caught off guard. After the physician examined Old Madam and said she had only suffered from anger attacking her heart and was in no mortal danger, they hurriedly went out to gather their stewards to think of countermeasures.