When Madam Rong saw that Ren Yaoqi had come to visit her again after not too long, she didn’t say anything. She instructed the kitchen to prepare several dishes that Ren Yaoqi loved and kept her for the meal.
While having tea after dinner, Madam Rong said, “I heard that two days ago, that young master from the Zeng family was summoned back to Ningxia by General Zeng.”
Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi looked up: “Oh? Zeng Pu was worried about leaving his son in Yunyang City.”
During the period when the Ren family was in trouble, several families close to the Zeng family were successively eliminated by the Yanbei Prince’s residence. Anyone with discernment knew that the Yanbei Prince’s residence could not tolerate the Zeng family stirring up trouble under their very noses.
Although Ningxia did not belong to the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun under the Yanbei Prince’s residence, the people in power in the Ningxia region had always been supported by the Yanbei Prince’s residence, so Ningxia was still under the control of the Yanbei Prince’s residence.
Generations of Yanbei Princes had considered resisting the Northern Di and Western Yi as their responsibility, and similarly, the southern court had also lost control over the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and Ningxia.
Now that the court was extending its hand to Ningxia, the Yanbei Prince’s residence would naturally not sit idly by. At this time, it was safer for the son of the Ningxia General to remain in Ningxia.
Madam Rong said, “Being worried is certain, but I also heard that the Zeng family intends to form a marriage alliance with the Wu family, the former Ningxia General’s family.”
Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi was startled: “The Wu family? Wu Xiaohe’s daughter? The Zeng family wants to marry into the Wu family?” Wu Xiaohe only had one daughter, which was Wu Yiyu.
Madam Rong nodded and smiled: “I heard that the Wu family’s madam has this intention, but the Wu family’s eldest miss is unwilling. She even said that if Young Master Zeng dares to come to Ningxia, she’ll take his life. Quite a few people are waiting to see the joke.”
Ren Yaoqi shook her head. The Wu family’s eldest miss dared to say anything.
However, Wu Yiyu and Zeng Kui… there was no such thing in her previous life.
In her previous life, Zeng Pu didn’t need to use marriage alliances to consolidate his position in Ningxia, and Xiao Wei hadn’t completely fallen out with the Yanbei Prince’s residence at this time.
In this life, Zeng Pu hadn’t been able to control the situation in Ningxia and could only seek allies to the greatest extent possible. After losing the support of the Yanbei Prince’s residence, Xiao Wei was also urgently wanting to continue standing firm in Ningxia using her status as the widow of the former Ningxia General, so both sides found common ground.
However, none of this concerned Ren Yaoqi. As long as Zeng Kui could stay as far away from Ren Yaohua’s life as possible, that was good enough.
As Ren Yaoqi was preparing to take her leave from her maternal grandmother’s house, Madam Rong suddenly called out to stop her, arranged her hair at the forehead gently, and said warmly: “Qi’er, as a woman, you only have one chance to choose in your lifetime. Grandmother hopes you will be cautious.”
Ren Yaoqi was slightly stunned: “Grandmother…”
Madam Rong gently patted her hand: “Grandmother knows you are a good child, and you know proper boundaries in your conduct and actions. I’m saying this not with any other meaning, I just hope you won’t regret the decisions you make in your youth in the future.”
Ren Yaoqi was silent for a while, then asked softly: “Do you regret it?”
Hearing this, Madam Rong was startled, then smiled and shook her head, sighing: “No regrets. I have no regrets to this day.”
Ren Yaoqi thought for a moment, nodded, and said to Madam Rong: “I understand, Grandmother.”
Madam Rong sighed softly, touched her head, and said nothing more.
On the way back from Madam Rong’s place, Ren Yaoqi kept thinking about what Madam Rong had said: “No regrets. I have no regrets to this day.”
When Madam Rong was originally selected by Noble Consort Wan to be the Princess Consort of Prince Xian, her birth status was naturally not low. However, later her family was implicated and exterminated by Prince Xian, her clan members were scattered, and she had fallen from being a prince’s primary consort to her current circumstances. Yet she could still smile in front of her and say she had no regrets.
Ren Yaoqi could sense that there was no forced meaning in Madam Rong’s statement of having no regrets.
What about herself?
Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help wondering, if it were her, could she also manage to have no regrets throughout? Ren Yaoqi lowered her head and stared blankly at the natural wood grain patterns on the small table in front of her, as if in a trance, not coming back to her senses throughout the journey.
It wasn’t until they reached the family gate and Pingguo somewhat cautiously called out, asking Ren Yaoqi to get off the carriage, that she broke free from her thoughts.
When getting off the carriage, Ren Yaoqi thought that achieving “no regrets” shouldn’t be too difficult. As long as one’s heart remains steadfast and consistent throughout, how could there be so much “regretting past decisions”?
News of Concubine Fang’s disappearance quickly reached the Fang family. Fang Yacun repeatedly sent letters inquiring about Concubine Fang’s whereabouts from the Ren family. Each letter was more earnest than the last, but the tone of the writing contained both worry and urgency while also implying an aggressive edge.
Old Master Ren knew that Fang Yacun was secretly putting pressure on the Ren family, but he had sent people to turn over the entire Yanzhou and still hadn’t found a trace of Concubine Fang. Even Nanny Yu, who had disappeared together with Concubine Fang, had completely vanished without a trace.
Old Master Ren felt that ever since he had been so angered by his son that he vomited blood last time, his health had become increasingly worse than before. Yet the Ren family was still beset by internal troubles and external threats, precarious in the wind and rain.
Old Master Ren could only grit his teeth and persevere while entrusting some matters that he had previously been reluctant to delegate to his eldest son, Ren Shizhong.
At this very time, the Second Old Master, who had already split from the family and moved out, wrote from the capital saying that some connections that had previously been established were now having problems again, requesting that the Second Old Master help smooth things over for the sake of being family.
The Second Old Master thought that his elder brother was dissatisfied with him splitting from the family, so he was secretly making moves to make him suffer some hardship as a lesson. After all, the connection with Fang Yacun and the palace was established by Old Master Ren, and they had benefited from it.
The Second Old Master had even severely scolded his wife, Madam Liao, for this, blaming her for falling out with the Western residence too early. So when he wrote to Old Master Ren, his tone was very respectful. Now that they had split from the family, their branch could only rely on these properties in Jiangnan for their livelihood.
While Old Master Ren wrote back to comfort his younger brother, telling him to be at ease, he was thinking that it must be because Fang Yacun, seeing that they still couldn’t find Fang Shi, assumed that the Ren family had secretly done something to her, so he was using this method to force them to hand over the person.
Old Master Ren could only secretly resent that Concubine Fang’s disappearance had come at such an inopportune time. But apart from sending out more people to search for her, he was truly at his wits’ end.
Not long after, another letter came from Fang Yacun saying that he would personally come to Yanbei shortly.
This showed that Fang Yacun truly cared about his sister Fang Yaru, but it made Old Master Ren even more troubled.
What made him even more frustrated was that Ren Shimao seemed to want to break away from the Ren family. Not only had he brought his wife and children to live in Yunyang City without returning home, but he had also moved out of the Ren family’s retreat house and rented his courtyard to live in Yunyang City. When Old Master Ren instructed Old Madam Ren not to give any more money to the fifth branch, there was no reaction from Ren Shimao’s side.
After going through such a life-and-death ordeal, both Ren Shimao and Lin Shi had become much more enlightened. At least Fifth Master Ren would no longer brood over spending his wife’s dowry money, and Lin Shi would no longer consider trivial matters more important than her husband and children.
However, Ren Shimao also discussed with Lin Shi that after their daughter’s situation improved, he wanted to find some shops in Yunyang City to do business and support the family. Lin Shi didn’t understand these matters, but she said she would let Fifth Master Ren make his own decisions. Her mother came to see her every few days and secretly gave her quite a bit of private money for household expenses, so Lin Shi wasn’t short of money.
Ren Yaoqi had also learned all this news from Fifth Master Ren.
Regarding Fang Yacun’s plan to come to Yanbei, after hearing about it, Ren Yaoqi merely smiled and said nothing.
As for Fang Yacun, before coming to Yanbei, he was delayed by family affairs at the Fang household.
The reason was that the old madam of the Fang family, for some unknown reason, suddenly announced publicly that she wanted to adopt the newborn son of Ninth Master Fang to be under First Master Fang’s name to continue the family line.
Because Old Master Fang had been quite a philanderer in his lifetime, although Old Madam Fang had only given birth to a son and daughter, and her son was simple-minded, there were quite a few concubine-born sons and daughters.
Fang Yacun and Fang Yaru were just two among her many concubine-born children. The other concubine-born daughters had all been carelessly married off by Old Madam Fang, while the concubine-born sons were driven out of the Fang family to establish their households outside.
Old Madam Fang had been a ruthless character in her youth, especially after Old Master Fang’s death. All her accumulated resentment toward those concubines and their children completely erupted, and she showed no mercy when she struck.
So, compared to the other concubine-born children of the Fang family, Concubine Fang and her brother Fang Yacun were quite fortunate. Fang Yaru had married into the Ren family as a favored concubine with no worries about food and clothing, and Fang Yacun was even designated as the future head of the Fang family.
Of course, this was also related to Concubine Fang’s cunning nature and her skill at planning for herself and her brother.
Ninth Master Fang was also one of the many concubine-born sons of the Fang family. Because he was premature and physically weak, Old Madam Fang hadn’t paid him much attention, raising him like a cat or dog. When he came of age, she drove him out to fend for himself.
Fang Yacun didn’t even have much of an impression of this ninth brother, thinking that after being driven out of the family, he had quietly died somewhere. He never expected that he would suddenly appear now, having had a son who was to be adopted by the simple-minded First Master Fang Yaxun to continue the family line.
First Master Fang Yaxun, who was Old Madam Fang’s only legitimate son, had been born simple-minded. However, Old Madam Fang had still married him off early, hoping he could have children to inherit the Fang family.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as wished. First Master Fang seemed unable to procreate.
Old Madam Fang had successively taken three concubines for him, but their bellies never showed any movement.
Finally, it was First Master Fang’s primary wife who, blushing and stammering, told Old Madam Fang that a certain part of First Master Fang that should be hard seemed to have never actually hardened.
Now, Old Madam Fang was truly anxious.
She had tried every method to cure her son’s condition, even secretly inviting some courtesans into the residence to enlighten First Master Fang. Unfortunately, this fool seemed to be simple-minded not just in his head.