After Maidong’s wife returned, she sent word back to Baihe Town, informing Old Madam Ren about the day’s events.

However, although Ren Yaoqi’s letter had been delivered, ever since Maidong’s wife arrived, Ren Yaoqi had never received another letter from Xiao Jinglin. Maidong’s wife dutifully monitored all the correspondence sent in from the outer courtyard, but could only return empty-handed. She also reminded Ren Yaoqi every few days to send a visiting card to Yanbei Prince’s mansion requesting an audience with the Princess Consort. Ren Yaoqi complied, but the Princess Consort consistently refused to see her. In the end, Maidong’s wife had no choice but to report the truth to Old Madam Ren.

Old Madam Ren now had little time to manage the third branch’s affairs. After the official division of the Ren family’s East and West mansions, the Second Old Madam of the East mansion decided to depart for the Capital, and Second Master Ren would accompany her. However, Second Madam Su Shi decided to temporarily remain in Yanbei to look after things, having Second Master Ren take several concubines and their two sons together. Ren Yaoting said she wanted to stay and accompany her mother, so she didn’t follow her grandmother and father this time either.

The East mansion’s Old Madam seemed to be planning a long-term stay in the Capital, packing up all valuable items regardless of their weight or bulk. However, since both the East and West mansions originally belonged to the Ren family, some of the East mansion’s furnishings, though used by the East mansion, were ancestral property of the Ren family and by rights shouldn’t be removed from the ancestral home.

But Liao Shi didn’t care about this point. In her mind, since these items were on East mansion territory, they had been allocated to their branch.

Old Madam Ren had been so angered by Liao Shi these past few days that she nearly spat blood. Old Madam Ren wasn’t a particularly petty person – for ordinary items, she would have turned a blind eye and let Liao Shi take some small advantages. However, the East mansion contained two folding screens, two pairs of vases, and some calligraphy and paintings that were antiques collected at great expense by the late Great Master Ren Baoming to enhance the family’s prestige. It had been agreed that these would only be passed down to the eldest son of the main branch, but this time, Liao Shi wanted to ship all these items to the Capital.

Old Madam Ren invited Second Madam over to reason with her emotionally and logically. Second Madam Su Shi was quite reasonable and went back to persuade Liao Shi not to take these items away, saying that carrying such things would be inconvenient on the journey. But not only did Liao Shi refuse to listen, she even scolded Su Shi away, calling her a traitor who helped outsiders. Then, still furious, Liao Shi spread rumors among relatives that Old Madam Ren was mean and harsh, wanting to drive their branch out with nothing. Since Liao Shi planned to live permanently in the Capital anyway, she wasn’t afraid of falling out completely with Old Madam Ren, nor did she care about her reputation anymore.

Those collateral branches that had been separated from the Ren family in the previous generation now began to emerge and stir up trouble for entertainment.

Besides his two legitimate sons Ren Yongxiang and Ren Yonghe, Great Master Ren Baoming had also had illegitimate children. However, after Ren Baoming’s death, they had been given very small portions of money and driven out to live separately. Over the years, they had very little contact with the main Ren family branches except during New Year festivals and ancestral worship.

Now that the East and West mansions were dividing, such vast Ren family properties naturally made some people envious. There were naturally many who came forward to make sarcastic remarks.

Whether it was the East or West mansion, both had been quite lively recently, keeping Old Madam Ren very busy.

Finally, Liao Shi left. As for those ancestral properties, Old Madam Ren swallowed her anger and paid money to buy them back, hoping in her heart that once Liao Shi left, she’d never return.

Not long after Liao Shi and Second Master Ren departed, Fifth Master Ren also wanted to go to the Capital. Ren Shimao had originally traveled between the Capital and Yanbei, and he had been involved in some of the Capital’s business ventures. Sometimes, when business involved both Yanbei and Jiangnan, Old Master Ren would entrust everything to Ren Shimao. It was only because both the Ren family and the fifth branch had encountered many major incidents in recent years that Ren Shimao had been held back.

Ren Shimao’s trip to the Capital this time was actually to relax. He wanted to take Lin Shi and their children together.

Ever since Old Master Ren had used the method of withholding monthly allowances to teach Ren Shimao a lesson, the relationship between Ren Shimao and Lin Shi had been hot and cold. Later, Ren Shimao remembered that Lin Shi had never left Yanbei and recalled that when they first married, he had promised Lin Shi that he would take her to see the Capital if he had the chance. So he thought of taking Lin Shi and the children to live in the Capital for a while. If this trip could help them forget the unpleasant things that had happened recently, that would be good.

When Lin Shi learned of this, she was very moved and remembered the tender affection from when they were young. The couple began to get along as sweetly as honey again. Lin Shi also began to prepare for the Capital trip in high spirits.

Old Master Ren happened to have some matters he wanted Ren Shimao to handle, so he didn’t prevent him from going to the Capital. However, both Old Master Ren and Old Madam Ren were somewhat dissatisfied with Ren Shimao wanting to take Lin Shi along as well. Unfortunately, Ren Shimao was very determined this time. Since Old Master Ren’s health had just recovered, he didn’t have the energy to manage him, so in the end, he could only let him be.

Everyone in the fifth branch was very excited about this trip. When Ren Yaoyu came to Yunyang City to bid farewell to her maternal family before departure, she even showed off smugly in front of Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua, magnanimously expressing that she would bring back some Capital specialties for her sisters when she returned. Ren Yaohua nearly rolled her eyes to drive her away.

Fifth Master Ren had originally planned to take his whole family for a year or two before returning, but unexpectedly, the fifth branch’s carriages and horses couldn’t continue their journey when they reached Xuzhou.

The reason was that Fifth Madam Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu, mother and daughter, had fallen ill.

Both Fifth Madam Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu’s illnesses came very suddenly. They had been fine when they left Yanzhou, but when they reached Dezhou, the mother and daughter began to suffer from acclimatization, developing rashes on their faces.

For people who rarely traveled, experiencing some symptoms of acclimatization on their first long journey wasn’t strange, so apart from being more careful with their diet, Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu didn’t pay much attention to it.

Unexpectedly, as they continued their journey, the rashes on Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu’s faces became increasingly severe. What had originally been prickly heat-like rashes turned into chickenpox-sized bumps, then developed into pustules. When you got close, you could even smell a fishy stench. By the time they reached Xuzhou, both were running persistent low fevers.

This greatly alarmed Fifth Master Ren. They stayed in Xuzhou to treat Lin Shi and her daughter’s illness, but after consulting many physicians, none could determine the cause. Some doctors even said they might have contracted an epidemic disease, frightening all the maids and old women serving Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu so much that they dared not approach them.

Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu’s illness dragged on for a month like this. By the time the Ren family received news, Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu were already on the verge of death. Many doctors who saw them later said there was no hope and told Fifth Master Ren to prepare for their funeral. This caused Fifth Master Ren, stranded in an unfamiliar place, immense pain.

Fifth Master Ren wrote back asking the Ren family to send people to bring them home. Even if Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu couldn’t be saved, Ren Shimao didn’t want his wife and daughter to die in a foreign land. Moreover, he wanted to return to see if Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu’s condition was indeed due to acclimatization. He couldn’t help but hope that perhaps they would recover without medicine once they returned to Yanbei.

However, when the Ren family received the letter, they were reluctant to let Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu return when the cause of their illness was still unknown. What if it were an epidemic? The entire Ren family couldn’t all die to accompany Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu!

So Old Madam Ren sent a steward to stabilize Fifth Master Ren, promising to send several famous doctors from Yanbei, asking Fifth Master Ren not to rush to bring them back.

The Ren family’s attitude shocked and enraged Fifth Master Ren, who was experiencing tremendous pain. He had never imagined that when he most needed his family’s help, the Ren family would treat his wife and daughter this way.

Although Fifth Master Ren hadn’t made any great contributions to the Ren family after reaching adulthood, under Old Master Ren’s education, he had always put the family first. When working for the family, he had been diligent and conscientious. Even though he knew that according to the Ren family’s established rules, he wouldn’t inherit much of the family property after Old Master Ren’s death – Fifth Madam had even quarreled with him several times over this, complaining that he was rarely in Yanbei to accompany her because he was busy with Ren family affairs, saying he was making wedding clothes for others.

But Fifth Master Ren still conscientiously carried out the tasks given to him by Old Master Ren and First Master Ren, never developing any crooked thoughts due to Lin Shi’s provocations. In his heart, he was a member of the Ren family. The Ren family had raised him, so it was only natural for him to work for the Ren family. Moreover, Fifth Master Ren felt that First Master Ren wasn’t someone who would ignore brotherly affection – when he took over the family, he would surely treat his brothers well.

But this time, Fifth Master Ren doubted himself for the first time.

Since the Ren family didn’t want Fifth Master Ren to bring the dying Lin Shi and Ren Yaoyu back to the Ren family, Fifth Master Ren, heartbroken and angry, could only seek help from his third brother, Ren Shimin.

Ren Shimin did remember their brotherly bond. He had Li Shi send people to clean up the retreat house in Yunyang City, sent people to find physicians, then dispatched several stewards with men to fetch Ren Shimao.