With these words, Old Master Gu suddenly stood up and rushed toward the solid wood offering table in the mourning hall.
“Old Master!” Bai Jinxiu’s eyes widened as she opened her arms to stop him, but she was knocked down along with Old Master Gu.
The mourning hall instantly erupted into chaos, with people pulling at Old Master Gu while others rushed to help Bai Jinxiu.
The common people were stirred to righteous indignation.
“The Duke Mansion is too unlucky! Are they giving the Duke Mansion’s widows any way to live? In one day, they’ve nearly forced two lives from the Duke Mansion to their deaths! What sins have been committed? Doesn’t this clan fear divine retribution?!”
“Bah! How utterly shameless! With such a great funeral in the Duke Mansion, instead of quickly sending people to help these orphans and widows, the clan acts like bandits seizing family property!”
“Truly insatiable greed! The Duke Mansion gives half its annual income to the clan every year – which family is so generous?! I think it’s because the Duke was too kind-hearted, making those wolf-hearted, dog-lunged creatures increasingly unsatisfied, thus brewing such great disaster for the Duke Mansion’s widows.”
“I see they’re just bullying the Duke Mansion for having no men left! The Duke Mansion’s men died for Kingdom and people, and this shameless clan has the nerve to bully their widows?!”
Seeing the people’s angry emotions, Bai Qiyun stepped back two paces to stand with his two illegitimate cousins, clearly shaken and confused by the earlier “Duke’s spirit manifestation.”
“What is this commotion?!”
The Duke Mansion’s heir’s wife, Dong Shi, supported by Bai Qingyan, slowly entered the mourning hall. Dong Shi’s maternal authority was quite imposing.
“Making such a disturbance – are you trying to alarm the Grand Princess?!”
Old Master Gu felt deeply ashamed and kowtowed heavily: “My Lady! This old servant failed to speak with loyalty and righteousness. This old servant is unworthy to be a Duke Mansion servant!”
Dong Shi walked to Old Master Gu, helped up the red-eyed old man, and said: “Why does Old Master say such things? Your family has followed the Duke Mansion generation after generation since Emperor Gaozu’s time, working hard for the Duke Mansion through the ages! How could I not know this?!”
“My Lady!” Old Master Gu wept with tears streaming down his face, choked with emotion and unable to speak.
“Though this time the Duke Mansion must bankrupt itself to barely raise the silver for purchasing farmland for the clan and renovating ancestral halls, temples, graves, and schools, I, Dong Shi, swear here that I will use my entire dowry to provide for the loyal servants and household slaves who have worked hard for the Duke Mansion. As long as I, Dong Shi, have a mouthful of rice to eat, I will never let anyone in the Duke Mansion go hungry.”
“My Lady!”
“My Lady!”
The Bai family servants and household slaves all knelt, grateful for Dong Shi’s grace.
Though Dong Shi was a woman of the inner quarters, she was someone with both deep schemes and decisive judgment.
Bai Qingyan looked at her mother with a heart full of admiration and respect. Earlier, her mother had held her back, waiting in the rear without showing herself, until Old Master Gu was driven to attempt suicide and ignited the fire of anger in the people’s hearts. Only then did her mother unhurriedly come out to control the scene.
Today, her mother declared before the mourning hall that she would use her dowry to provide for the Bai family’s loyal servants and household slaves. This meant that when they returned to Shouyang in the future, when the clan saw the Duke Mansion’s grand procession of returning servants and saw that the Duke Mansion’s food, clothing, and lifestyle remained as before, they could no longer use clan righteousness to force the Duke Mansion to contribute silver for the clan, since what was being used was all her mother’s dowry.
No matter how shameless the clan might be, they couldn’t claim contributions to the clan should come from a clan member’s wife’s dowry, much less stretch their hands so far as to investigate a Bai family daughter-in-law’s dowry.
Otherwise, which family would dare marry their daughters to Bai family men in the future?
She had thought of a method, but her mother had made her method even more comprehensive. Regarding these household matters, she still had much to learn from her mother.
“This time for the clan, we at the Duke Mansion have bankrupted ourselves to raise the silver! But I must also speak clearly to my clan cousin first…” Dong Shi looked at Bai Qiyun, speaking word by word with voice like a bell: “This time in contributing for the clan, since our Duke Mansion has dismantled our household and scattered our assets to shoulder the heavy burden, next time if the clan has any needs, don’t set your sights on us widows’ dowries again. After all, our dowries must support our daughters and feed these loyal servants and household slaves who have served the Duke Mansion faithfully! When we return to our old home in Shouyang, we still ask the clan to give us Duke Mansion widows a way to survive, a bit of peace.”
Bai Qiyun stood with his two illegitimate cousins. He should have defended the clan’s reputation, but thinking of the earlier windless candle flickering and twice-broken incense, he pressed his lips tightly together, not daring to speak.
Reputation was the foundation of a clan’s standing in the world.
He had never expected that this group of women and girls from the Duke Mansion, who would depend on the clan for their livelihood in the future, would disregard even the foundation of noble families and completely tear away the facade of the clan.
If Bai Qiyun’s father, the current clan leader, knew of this, Bai Qiyun’s legs might not be spared.
“It doesn’t matter if the Duke Mansion’s wealth is scattered. Fortunately, we women still have our dowries – how could we fear being unable to support our children and the Duke Mansion’s loyal servants and household slaves?!” Fifth Madam Qi Shi, pregnant and supported by her nanny, also came to the mourning hall. She respectfully bowed to Dong Shi: “As long as we can spend silver to buy our Duke Mansion widows a way to survive and prevent the clan from forcing us to death, what does it matter if the Duke Mansion’s wealth is scattered?! Not only is there the sister-in-law’s dowry, but also mine. Sister-in-law… all of us in the Duke Mansion are in the same boat. There’s nothing we cannot overcome!”
Fourth Madam Wang Shi, who had been leaning against her son’s coffin unwilling to cling to life, spoke with a hoarse voice: “And my dowry!”
“And mine! Though my dowry cannot compare to my eldest sister-in-law’s, back then it was also a ten-li red wedding procession… the dowry flowed like water, being carried for an entire day!” Third Madam Li Shi came upon hearing the news, her voice arriving before her person.
Since ancient times, married women have regarded their dowries as more important than their lives! When the clan forced the Duke Mansion to bankrupt itself to buy safety with silver, the Duke Mansion’s various madams stood up, declaring their willingness to use their dowries to support the Duke Mansion’s remaining children and provide for the Duke Mansion’s servants and household slaves!
In such a comparison, what magnificent bearing the Duke Mansion’s madams showed! And what sordid behavior the Shouyang Bai clan displayed!
Among the common people, there were families where the men had died, leaving no male heirs. Which of those orphaned daughters and widowed mothers could preserve the property their men had left behind? Most were seized by the clan.
Who would have thought that even a noble family like the Bai family would be so sordid?
Bai Qingyan lowered her heated eyes. She had always known her aunts were righteously loyal. Though the various households inevitably had quarrels and unpleasantness in daily life, when truly facing difficulties, the Bai family was incredibly united.
This… was the reason the Bai family had thrived for hundreds of years, with glory growing ever more prosperous and flourishing.
In this world, only blood kinship cannot be measured by silver – grandfather’s words were not wrong…
“The Duke once said that the Duke Mansion is the most distinguished family of the Bai clan, and contributing to the clan is proper and fitting. The clan had no intention of forcing the Duke Mansion’s widows! This is merely the Duke’s dying wish, so the clan leader sent this clan cousin to discuss the matter with the heir’s wife. For the heir’s wife to speak thus truly embarrasses the clan! Making the world think our Bai clan leader seizes widows’ property! If this is the case… the clan dare not accept the Duke’s kind intention!”