If it weren’t for his trust in Manager Tong, Yu Wen would never have laid out everything when he went to find him. In the eyes of ordinary people, Yu Tang investigating Wei Xiaoshan’s case was quite outrageous, but in Yu Wen’s heart, he was actually very proud. He felt that if his daughter who stayed at home could not support the family’s affairs, even if they brought in a son-in-law to live with them, that man would merely father children, expand the family tree, and inherit the Yu family surname. Once he and his wife passed away, Yu Tang might not be able to control her son-in-law and children well, and in the end, Yu Tang herself would be the one to suffer.
Manager Tong asked him whether Yu Tang knew about Wei Xiaoshan’s matter. After hesitating for a few moments, he frankly told Manager Tong: “She knows. Moreover, she was the one who discovered something was wrong. She was also the one who found ways to investigate Xiaoshan’s case.”
Manager Tong was extremely surprised, but thinking it over carefully, since this young lady had dared to come to the shop run by the Pei family to trick him, she couldn’t possibly be timid. After his initial surprise, he actually laughed and said to Yu Wen: “This daughter of yours is certainly different from others.” Then thinking of Wei Xiaoshan’s death, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the child. However, since Wei Xiaoshan was already gone, saying such things would only make people sadder. His thousand words all turned into a single sigh as he said: “At least it’s Xiaoshan’s good fortune that he won’t die with grievances.”
But if they hadn’t encountered their A’Tang, wouldn’t this calamity have been avoided?
At this moment, Yu Wen suddenly understood Yu Tang’s feelings a bit, understood why she would take such great risks to investigate the truth of Wei Xiaoshan’s death.
Thinking that this was the daughter he had raised, he couldn’t help but straighten his spine and discuss with Manager Tong: “You are a man of insight, so naturally you would praise her like this, but I’m afraid…” that Third Master Pei might not think this way. Yu Wen thought to himself, but it wouldn’t be proper to criticize Pei Yan in front of Manager Tong, so he could only say tactfully: “Haven’t many people been saying things like ‘a woman’s lack of talent is itself a virtue’ recently?”
Manager Tong didn’t really know Pei Yan’s views on this matter. He paused slightly and said: “Don’t worry, when I see Third Master, I’ll carefully consider how to tell him.”
Yu Wen breathed a sigh of relief.
Manager Tong went to report back to Pei Yan: “Miss Yu does know about this matter. The Yu family feels very sorry toward the Wei family, so they’ve been secretly investigating this case all along.”
Pei Yan was practicing calligraphy.
On the long nanmu writing desk lay slightly yellowed rice paper. The flower vase held white camellia flowers. Huzhou brushes made of Xiangfei bamboo were neatly hung on a rosewood landscape brush rack—simple and elegant, revealing the remoteness of ages past.
“So you’re saying Miss Yu also agrees to have me act as mediator?” He leisurely finished copying the last stroke, placed the brush in his hand on the brush mountain on the desk, took the hot cloth that the young book boy A’Ming handed him and wiped his hands, speaking very casually.
Manager Tong was at a loss for words, not knowing how to answer for quite a while.
Naturally, Yu Wen was the one who made decisions in the Yu family’s affairs. Which family’s daughter could bypass her father and show her face in public? Yet listening to Third Master’s meaning, this matter still depended on Miss Yu’s opinion.
Although Third Master had only just taken over the Pei family, he was after all the Pei family’s clan head. Being able to ask him to come forward as mediator, the Yu family should be grateful beyond words—how could Miss Yu, a young lady, dare to have any objections? Even if Miss Yu did have objections, would Third Master really act according to Miss Yu’s wishes?
Manager Tong couldn’t quite understand what this situation was about.
Pei Yan smiled knowingly.
Manager Tong probably had no idea at all what kind of person Miss Yu was. No wonder—besides himself, who else would have encountered Miss Yu making trouble two or three times over?
Without waiting for Manager Tong to understand, he continued: “The Li family’s marriage proposal was rejected, so they harmed the person she was matched with. The Yu family didn’t report this to the authorities, but instead asked me to be mediator. Have they thought about what the result might be?”
Setting aside everything else, at least most of the gentry in Lin’an City would come to know about this matter. Even though this matter was the Li family’s fault, the public would mostly place the blame on the woman’s head, thinking that if the woman hadn’t been so unrestrained, how could she have aroused the man’s jealousy? In the future, it would be very difficult for Miss Yu of the Yu family to marry into such families, or into families that had marital connections with them.
Now Manager Tong understood.
He couldn’t help but breathe a secret sigh of relief.
That’s what he thought—why would Third Master, in acting as mediator for the Yu family, find Master Yu’s opinion unimportant but need to ask Miss Yu’s opinion?
It turned out he was worried that Miss Yu was young and didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.
As long as Third Master didn’t misunderstand that Miss Yu was indifferent to what the Li family had done, that was good.
Manager Tong hastily said: “According to Master Yu’s meaning, this matter should originally have been reported to the authorities, but as you know, Magistrate Tang is someone who doesn’t much like to handle affairs. They were afraid… that the real murderer would escape without a scratch, free and unpunished, without even anyone knowing about it.”
In other words, the Yu family knew that even with evidence proving the Li family had instigated the murder, asking him to come forward as mediator would still make it difficult to bring the murderer to justice.
After all, the Li family only had two sons. If this matter was instigated by Li Jun, that would be one thing, but if it was instigated by Li Duan, the Li family would probably rather have Li Jun take the blame than allow Li Duan to face the law.
A’Ming brought in tea and refreshments.
Pei Yan invited Manager Tong to drink tea, while he himself slowly sat in the grand armchair behind the large desk, picked up his brush again, and said: “Then I’ll act as this mediator.”
Manager Tong hadn’t expected Pei Yan to agree so readily. Overjoyed, he quickly stood up to thank Pei Yan.
Pei Yan smiled and said: “Don’t thank me too early—just hope the Yu family won’t resent me later.”
“How could that be!” Manager Tong said urgently. “Master Yu understands all the stakes involved, otherwise he wouldn’t have come to ask you. Master Yu told me that he doesn’t expect any particular result from this matter—he’ll be satisfied if everyone can just know what the Li family has done.”
Pei Yan nodded and smiled: “That won’t be a problem.”
Manager Tong thanked him repeatedly. When leaving, he couldn’t help but sigh: “Master Yu must be quite troubled right now. Before you act as mediator, he really should inform the Wei family!”
Listening to this, Pei Yan suddenly felt a few degrees of curiosity and instructed Pei Man: “Keep an eye on it and let me know when the time comes.”
Pei Man acknowledged the order, but couldn’t stop muttering in his heart.
He had formerly been Third Master’s steward, only managing the important matters around Third Master. Even the previous head steward, because of Third Master’s strong personality, couldn’t manage him. After Third Master inherited the position of clan head, he nominally took over the head steward’s duties, but actually still focused mainly on Third Master’s personal affairs. Third Master’s attention had never been on this small Lin’an City.
When had the trivial matters of an ordinary family fallen under his purview?
Pei Man shook his head. Although filled with doubts, he still conscientiously sent people to watch the Yu family.
Yu Wen was indeed troubled over how to tell the Wei family about this matter, but unexpectedly, it was Wei Xiaochuan who broke the impasse—he told his parents the truth about Wei Xiaoshan’s death.
Master Wei and Mrs. Wei were grief-stricken. When they first learned the news, they both felt regret, thinking that if only they hadn’t arranged the match with Yu Tang, this wouldn’t have happened. But when reason returned, they felt deeply ashamed of that little bit of regret they’d just felt.
The Yu family were victims too.
What normal person would kill someone just because a marriage proposal was rejected?
Thinking this way, they felt all the more the goodness of Yu Tang and the Yu family members. Not only had they not concealed the matter after the incident to protect their daughter’s reputation, they had even actively investigated the murderer and found ways to punish the culprit.
After the couple bitterly cursed the Li family, they discussed with red eyes and felt this matter couldn’t just let the Yu family stand forward alone. Their son—not knowing the cause of death was one thing, but now that they knew, they should join the Yu family in demanding justice from the Li family.
Master Wei told his eldest son Wei Xiaoyuan about this matter, then took Wei Xiaochuan to the Yu family.
As soon as Yu Wen saw Master Wei, he felt so ashamed he didn’t know where to put his hands and feet, and apologized to Master Wei with a red face.
Master Wei had just finished crying and comforted Yu Wen with red eyes: “Your family didn’t expect to encounter such a family of madmen either. Is your daughter all right? Having experienced such a thing, she must be the most heartbroken. Tell her that our family are all reasonable people—we won’t blame her. Tell her to feel at ease about visiting our home.”
What else could Yu Wen say?
Yu Tang had supposedly been obediently following his punishment these past two days, properly practicing her calligraphy, but her spirits had always been low—her heart must have felt very bad. Now the Wei family, enduring the pain of losing their son, still came to comfort Yu Tang… He bowed deeply to Master Wei.
Master Wei hastily helped Yu Wen up. Thinking “what parent doesn’t worry for their child,” he felt unprecedentedly close to Yu Wen for a moment. He simply did a good deed to the end and instructed Wei Xiaochuan: “Little Five, I think you should go tell her! Have a good talk with your Sister Yu.”
Wei Xiaochuan, with a serious face, nodded solemnly and went to find Yu Tang.
After learning that Pei Yan had agreed to act as mediator, Yu Tang breathed a long sigh of relief.
Since it was confirmed that the Li family had done this, she would not let it rest.
If she couldn’t deal with the Li family openly, she would do it secretly.
But right now she still didn’t know exactly who in the Li family had masterminded Wei Xiaoshan’s murder. And then there was the map—in her previous life, the Li family had definitely gotten their hands on it, otherwise they couldn’t have suddenly started doing maritime business.
This life, they could forget about it!
Yu Tang began to carefully recall matters from her previous life.
For instance, what the nephews from Lin Shi’s maternal family had said when they visited the Li family, what had happened, which unfamiliar families the Li family usually sent festival gifts to, and which families’ wives and madams Lin Shi was close to.
These seemingly trivial details could tell her about the Li family’s network of connections, allowing her to find ways to unravel the threads and discover the reason for the Li family’s rise to prosperity in her previous life.
Right now, the first matter was that map.
After practicing the large characters she needed to practice that day, Yu Tang spread the map on her desk and carefully observed it.
Wei Xiaochuan knocked on the door several times but she didn’t hear. It wasn’t until Wei Xiaochuan called to her from outside that she came back to her senses and went to open the door.
“Sister, are you all right?” He had been holding back his tears for fear that his sorrow would make his parents more upset. Now, facing Yu Tang who had plotted together with him and whom he thought was very capable, he finally broke down and shed tears, choking out: “My family all knows now. They said when the time comes, they’ll go with your family to the Pei family.”
This was the first time Yu Tang had seen Wei Xiaochuan cry like a child. She couldn’t help but feel somewhat heartbroken as she touched his head and gave him a handkerchief to wipe his tears: “We’re going to seek justice, not to fight. What do we need so many people for?”
She intuitively felt that Pei Yan was not someone who liked crowds.
“That Third Master Pei would help us this time—I find it quite unexpected,” she said wistfully. “When the time comes, we’ll just listen to him.”
In her previous life, Pei Yan had only acted as mediator two or three times, but each time he was praised, which showed he was quite fair in his conduct.