Ren Yijun’s words showed no mercy at all. Old Madam Ren’s face alternated between red and white, as if she might faint at any moment.

Eldest Madam rubbed Old Madam Ren’s chest while turning to scold softly: “Is that any way to speak? Shut your mouth quickly!”

Ren Yijun stubbornly retorted: “I’m afraid if I shut my mouth today, someday our entire family will lose their lives due to such ignorance and short-sighted greed!”

Old Madam Ren clutched her chest, pointing at Ren Yijun with trembling fingers: “Rebellious! All rebellious! If you don’t want to be a descendant of the Ren family, then get out!”

Ren Yijun laughed coldly, turned around, and left.

Ren Yiyan looked somewhat anxious, took a few steps to catch up, calling “Third Brother,” then looked back at Old Madam Ren and Eldest Madam.

Eldest Madam still cared for her son. Her earlier public scolding of Ren Yijun was because she feared he’d be blamed by Old Madam Ren, so she secretly gave her eldest son a meaningful look.

Ren Yiyan said, “I’ll go talk to Third Brother.” Then he chased after him.

The eldest Madam had the Third Young Madam Qi Shi bring ginseng tea for Old Madam Ren to drink. When Old Madam Ren looked up and saw Qi Shi, she was reminded of those disrespectful words Ren Yijun had said earlier and became very angry. She waved her hand at the tea bowl in Qi Shi’s hands, venting her anger: “You get out too!”

Qi Shi seemed to have anticipated Old Madam Ren’s movement and alertly dodged to the side, then smoothly handed the tea bowl to the senior maid Shanhu while smiling apologetically at Old Madam Ren: “Yes, yes, I’ll get out right away! Please take care of yourself and don’t get angry.”

After speaking, Qi Shi ran out at a speed that left others unable to react.

Everyone: “…”

Old Madam Ren was once again overcome with anger and fainted on the kang bed.

The roomful of people busied themselves again calling for a physician, feeding Old Madam medicine and ginseng tea, and keeping very busy.

After Qi Yuegui left Ronghua Garden, she happened to see Ren Yiyan, who had earlier chased after Ren Yijun, asking a maid if she had seen where Third Young Master went since he hadn’t found Ren Yijun nearby. The maid shook her head, saying she hadn’t seen him.

Qi Yuegui thought for a moment. Without alerting Ren Yiyan, she jogged back to Qingfeng Courtyard herself.

Qi Yuegui searched all around Qingfeng Courtyard and finally found Ren Yijun sitting casually on the grass in the small flower garden where he grew orchids.

“Young Master, you certainly ran fast today. I just saw Eldest Young Master chasing after you, but couldn’t catch up.” Qi Yuegui walked over carelessly and sat down beside Ren Yijun.

Ren Yijun pushed her away, glaring fiercely: “Get away! Who permitted you to come close?”

Although Ren Yijun looked fierce on the surface, his push wasn’t very forceful. Qi Yuegui cooperatively moved away a bit with his push, grinning: “Oh, I forgot to ask Young Master’s permission. Ahem. May I approach your esteemed person?”

Ren Yijun’s originally unresolvable depressed mood was mostly dispelled by Qi Yuegui’s unreasonable troublemaking. He snorted and turned his face away.

Qi Yuegui then eagerly moved closer again. This time, Ren Yijun didn’t chase her away.

The two just sat like this in the grass for most of the day, with Qi Yuegui being rarely quiet, neither noisy nor troublesome.

When Ren Yijun came back to his senses from his brooding, he glanced at Qi Yuegui and suddenly felt that this foolish woman had quiet and pleasing moments too.

Seeing Ren Yijun looking at her, Qi Yuegui immediately gave him a big smile, showing her small white teeth: “Young Master, have you finished thinking through your troubles and come back to your senses?”

The corner of Ren Yijun’s mouth twitched, feeling that he must have been dazing too long and his head wasn’t clear, to actually think this woman was pleasing.

“Can’t you just not open your mouth to speak?”

Qi Yuegui was puzzled: “If I can’t open my mouth to speak, what’s the mouth for?”

“Eating! Don’t three big bowls of rice per meal block your mouth?” Qi Yuegui had a large appetite. Every time Ren Yijun ate with her, he could see the shocked expressions of the maids. In the end, Ren Yijun could only chase all the maids away so no one would serve them. Otherwise, under those gazes, no one except Qi Yuegui herself could eat.

Qi Yuegui looked at Ren Yijun with disdain: “Marry a man, marry a man, clothing and food! You can’t carry on your shoulders or lift with your hands, can’t even tell the difference between leeks and orchids. Following you, being able to eat my fill is the only good thing.”

Ren Yijun now finally understood the feeling his grandmother had when she wanted to strangle him after he said those words earlier.

But today Qi Yuegui’s words left Ren Yijun unable to get angry, because he thought there really might come a day when he couldn’t even support a wife who only asked for three big bowls of plain rice per meal without being picky.

Qi Yuegui had already prepared to run with Ren Yijun chasing angrily behind her, but instead saw that Ren Yijun didn’t lose his temper over her words, but rather sat there in a daze.

Qi Yuegui couldn’t help but secretly reflect – had today’s words been too harsh and made this young master stupid with anger?

So Qi Yuegui tried to comfort him with careful words: “Uh… there’s more than one good thing, like you don’t hit women (actually can’t beat them), you let me eat most of the dishes every meal (because too picky and small appetite), upright character and don’t like to philander (no energy for it?)…”

Ren Yijun didn’t hear Qi Yuegui’s internal complaints, and his expression warmed slightly. After thinking, he asked with feigned casualness: “If someday in the future you could only eat two bowls, no, one bowl of rice per meal, would you resent me?”

Qi Yuegui looked at Ren Yijun warily upon hearing this.

Ren Yijun also felt that being unable to support his wife was very shameful. He coughed lightly, his eyes wandering: “It’s not that there definitely wouldn’t be food to eat, it’s just that maybe…” Finally, Ren Yijun seemed unable to bear Qi Yuegui’s reproachful gaze and said somewhat awkwardly with feigned fierceness: “I’ll give you half of my bowl, that should work!”

Of course not! Young Master, is that a human portion? That’s a cat’s portion! Half wouldn’t even be enough to pick teeth with!

Qi Yuegui gritted her teeth and squeezed out a smile: “Young Master, if there’s no white rice, would coarse flour steamed buns be enough?”

Ren Yijun frowned in confusion: “Coarse flour steamed buns? What are those things?”

Qi Yuegui gestured with her hands: “You haven’t eaten them, but ordinary families outside eat them often. One bowl of white rice could probably be exchanged for five or six coarse flour steamed buns. If I ate those, five or six per meal would be enough, which is equivalent to the cost of one bowl of white rice.”

Ren Yijun couldn’t help but glance at Qi Yuegui, thinking to himself that this woman was quite easy to support!

Qi Yuegui looked at Ren Yijun eagerly: “Young Master, would this work?”

Being looked at like this by Qi Yuegui, Ren Yijun suddenly felt somewhat guilty and remorseful, and his heart felt particularly uncomfortable.

He pressed his lips together, turned his head away, and said somewhat awkwardly in a rough voice: “Don’t worry, I’ll try my best to let you eat white rice every meal.”

Supporting the family was originally a man’s responsibility, Ren Yijun thought. If there came a day when the Ren family fell or he was forced to leave the Ren family, he could read and calculate. As long as he was willing to swallow his pride, there were still many things he could do.

Today, when Fifth Master Ren Shimao and Lin Kun went to the authorities to find connections, Ren Yiyan had also followed them out. Ren Yiyan and he went to find Secretary Yang to inquire about the situation, but happened to accidentally overhear a conversation between Secretary Yang and an aide to Magistrate Mu. It was their conversation that made Ren Yijun perceive the crisis hidden behind the Ren family’s incident this time. Although he rarely went out, he was still a scholar, and he was much more sensitive to political issues than his third uncle Ren Shimin.

On the way back, he and Ren Yiyan met Lin Kun, and the three exchanged information.

From the conversation between Secretary Yang and that aide that Ren Yijun and Ren Yiyan had overheard earlier, besides their Ren family, two other previously prosperous families in Ningxia had also fallen on hard times for various reasons.

Even the Su family in Yunyang City had encountered some troubles with their horse ranch operations. Originally, all the war horses for the Yanbei army over the years had been provided by the Su family’s ranch. But last autumn and winter, when the Yanbei army was fighting the Liao people, the Su family’s horses were discovered to have problems. Later investigation revealed that the Su family had been feeding the horses problematic fodder.

This year, after the Yanbei army replaced a batch of war horses, they didn’t buy horses directly from the Su family’s ranch as in previous years.

Over these years, a group of herders had privately united to resist the Su family’s monopoly over horse ranches in the northwest region. The Su family had originally not taken these people seriously.

The Su family’s horse ranch was able to dominate and even monopolize the war horse market among northwest ranches for good reasons. The Su family’s horses had shiny coats, were fat and strong, fast, and had good endurance. Besides having plenty of money and people, the Su family also had secret horse-raising techniques passed down through generations and occupied the most fertile grassland in the northwest.

With their ability to raise the finest war horses, the Su family’s position in Yanbei was also unshakeable, because the Yanbei army needed war horses.

But surprisingly, after spring this year, the Yanbei army had other herders and the Su family all bring horses together, then selected the best war horses from among them.

Although the Su family’s war horses were excellent, other herders didn’t lack good horses either. Though some were uneven in quality, some herders relied on their ancestral techniques to raise horses no worse than the Su family’s.

So although the majority of war horses selected this time still came from Su family ranches, the Yanbei army also purchased some from other herders. The Su family’s monopoly position in war horses had been broken.

Ren Yijun felt that all these incidents coming together weren’t simple.

Whether it was the two families in Ningxia who had fallen on hard times or the Su family, they had all been relatively close to the Zeng family recently. The Su family even had marriage ties with the Zeng family. Now they had to add the Ren family to the list.

Ren Yijun couldn’t help but suspect that the Zeng family’s recent moves had been too aggressive and had already displeased the Yanbei Prince’s Mansion.

He was a scholar – he had heard stories about making an example of someone to warn others.