Madam Fan pretended to know nothing as she left Madam Yu’s room with a smile.

Mobian saw her come out empty-handed, and her expression changed slightly.

Seeing this, Madam Fan gave her a look, signaling her not to ask anything, and the two returned to their room one after the other.

Mobian immediately closed the door and asked anxiously, “First Young Mistress, did Madam take your silver?”

Madam Fan nodded, her expression somewhat unsettled.

Mobian became anxious: “What will we do? If something happens to the Young Master…” She then suggested, “Why don’t we take more silver over? Without the Young Master, what use is having silver?”

“What do you know!” Madam Fan scolded her in a low voice. “How could the Yu family not have even this small amount of money? It’s just that they don’t have that much cash right now. Mother-in-law’s actions clearly show she wants to appropriate my savings. If you don’t believe me, just wait and see. The silver I’ve given will surely be like throwing a meat bun to a dog—gone with no return!”

“But…” Even so, Mobian still felt Madam Fan’s actions were somewhat unjustified. “What if the Young Master questions it…”

“Let him question it if he wants!” Madam Fan sneered. “In his heart, I’ve long been a stingy and jealous woman. Even if I were to cut out my heart, he would only find it bloody and messy, soiling his hands. Why should I subject myself to such humiliation? Mother-in-law has always disliked me, always thinking I was the reason Yu Jingxiu broke off his engagement with the Fu family, causing them to remain childless now. She doesn’t consider that I was just a girl raised in seclusion, never leaving the inner quarters, how would I know all these machinations? Yet she blames everything on me, and no matter how attentive, filial, or yielding I am, I cannot move her heart. Do you think that if I gave all my savings, she would view me differently? Even if she momentarily appreciated it, if I offended her again someday, she would likely berate me fiercely again.” At this point, Madam Fan remembered the sympathy in the servants’ eyes when Madam Yu scolded her, and Yu Jingxiu’s resolute back when he moved to Zhenjiang Alley. It felt as if a small knife was slowly cutting at her flesh. “Since nothing I do can please them, why should I flatter and curry favor with them?”

“As the saying goes, adversity reveals true feelings,” Mobian didn’t quite agree with Madam Fan’s approach. “This is still an opportunity!”

Hearing this, Madam Fan’s gaze became evasive.

She said softly, “Mobian, do you think Yu Jingxiu and I can ever be as good as before?”

“Of course!” Mobian replied without hesitation. “One grows wiser after a setback. After this incident, the Young Master will know who truly cares for him…”

But Madam Fan shook her head lightly and said softly, “After Min shi, there may be Li shi, Zhang shi… I’ve seen now. When you please him, he thinks you’re wonderful in a thousand ways; when you displease him, there’s nothing good about you. How can I guarantee that I’ll please him for a lifetime!” As she spoke, she looked up and smiled at Mobian, but her smile was full of mockery. “I remember clearly how he moved to Zhenjiang Alley; you may have forgotten, but I haven’t. He didn’t leave any face for me.”

Mobian lowered her head.

“Forget it, let’s not talk about this anymore,” Madam Fan waved her hand, appearing weary.

Mobian didn’t want to say more and said with a smile, “I’ll pour you a cup of hot tea.” Just as she finished speaking, a young maid came in to report: “First Young Mistress, Madam Shu is here.”

Madam Fan and Mobian exchanged glances and invited Madam Shu in.

After exchanging pleasantries with Madam Fan, Madam Shu got straight to the point: “…Madam says that the Master will visit Lord Ji at the Court of Judicial Review tomorrow. She remembers that there’s a pair of Ru kiln plum vases in the Young Master’s study and asked me to take them for the Master to bring as gifts to Lord Ji tomorrow.”

Madam Fan couldn’t hide the shock in her eyes.

The pair of Ru kiln plum vases was communal property, merely placed in Yu Jingxiu’s room. It was legitimate for Madam Shu to retrieve them under Madam Yu’s orders.

She and Mobian found the pair of vases, carefully wrapped them, and gave them to Madam Shu.

Madam Shu left with the vases, smiling.

“You see!” Madam Fan said to Mobian through gritted teeth.

Mobian’s face was full of shame.

Madam Fan then took her to the inner chamber and took out the red gold jewelry from her dowry: “Pawn it all and exchange it for banknotes.”

“How can we do this?” Mobian shook her head repeatedly. “These were made from the calligraphy and paintings your mother sold to make jewelry for you…”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want them to fall into my mother-in-law’s hands,” Madam Fan interrupted Mobian. “As long as we have silver, we don’t need to worry about gold and silver jewelry.”

Mobian had no choice and, early the next morning, found an excuse to go out.

Concubine Fei, who had been keeping a close eye on every movement in the Yu household, knew of Mobian’s whereabouts before nightfall.

After some thought, she gathered her valuables and went to Madam Yu.

“…I only discovered that Miss Mobian went to the pawnshop.” Concubine Fei’s face showed guilt after an apparent realization. “Although these items are few, they represent this concubine’s sincerity. Please accept them, Madam.”

The items were worth only a few hundred taels of silver, which Madam Yu didn’t particularly value, but she appreciated Concubine Fei’s attitude. She didn’t decline and had Madam Shu take the items, then exchanged a few kind words with Concubine Fei before the latter took her leave.

Madam Yu’s face immediately turned ashen.

She instructed Madam Shu: “Find out exactly what she pawned.”

Madam Shu fearfully complied and quickly discovered what items Mobian had pawned.

Looking at the list written on red gold-flecked paper, Madam Yu was so angry that her lips turned purple. She called for Yu Huai’an and handed him the paper: “Items have been stolen from the inner courtyard. Mobian is suspected. Submit this list of missing items to the Shuntian Prefecture and have them send some reliable people to handle the matter.”

Yu Huai’an kept his head low, not daring to raise his eyelids, and respectfully responded with a “Yes” before heading to the Shuntian Prefecture.

By noon, yamen runners had arrived at the door.

When Mobian was called to the front gate, she thought it was a delivery man bringing the emerald flowers she had ordered. She never dreamed that she would be arrested and taken to the Shuntian Prefecture…

Within the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Madam Fan received the news.

She was so frightened that her legs went weak. It took her some time to stand up with the support of her maids before going to see Madam Yu.

“Mother, please save Mobian,” thinking of Mobian’s loyalty to her over the years, Madam Fan’s tears fell uncontrollably. “All those jewelry pieces were mine. I asked her to pawn them…” At this point, she grabbed Madam Yu’s skirt as if clutching a lifeline. “Didn’t you say that silver was needed to bribe the Court of Judicial Review? I asked Mobian to pawn the items to gather some money for Depu, but I was afraid you would say something, so I hid it from you…”

“Silly child, what does this have to do with you?” Madam Yu said with a mix of amusement and annoyance as she took Madam Fan’s hand. “She is a servant, and you are the master. She must serve you. Don’t cover for her in everything just because she has been by your side for a long time. You’re not helping her; you’re harming her…”

The mother-in-law’s smile was as warm as the March sunshine, yet Madam Fan shuddered.

She widened her eyes as if seeing Madam Yu for the first time.

“Mother, it was me,” she kept saying, but her tone grew increasingly dejected and helpless.

Madam Yu smiled and said, “If you say it was you, fine. Tell me, how much silver was pawned? Where is the silver?”

Madam Fan’s lips trembled as she was about to speak, but held back.

Madam Yu smiled and picked up her teacup.

Madam Shu walked in, quickly glancing at Madam Fan, and said, “The people from Shuntian Prefecture just said that Mobian has confessed to everything. According to the law, she should be beheaded. They asked me to inform Madam.”

Hearing this, Madam Yu gave a satisfied “hmph.”

Madam Fan collapsed to the ground.

Seeing this, Madam Yu said, “Madam Shu, quickly help the Young Mistress up.” Then she casually said to Madam Fan, “We only have two hands and two eyes; we can’t manage everything. You shouldn’t blame yourself too much.” Then she said to Madam Shu, “The First Young Mistress no longer has her maid. Select two capable ones from my room to serve her.”

Madam Shu smiled in acknowledgment and, with another older servant, helped Madam Fan back to her room.

When Concubine Fei heard about this, she laughed coldly several times and went to comfort Madam Fan.

Madam Yu didn’t care about these matters and focused solely on Yu Jingxiu.

Elder Yu used all his strength but couldn’t secure Yu Jingxiu’s release. Fearing his son would suffer in prison, he had to send stewards to deliver meals to Yu Jingxiu every day. The jailers took advantage, demanding five taels today, ten taels tomorrow. Apart from the twenty thousand taels used to bribe officials at the Court of Judicial Review, the other thirty thousand taels were spent bit by bit like water being poured away.

Fortunately, a large portion of the loaned money was collected back, preventing them from being completely stretched for funds.

However, Elder Yu began to see through the scheme.

Despite being a first-rank Elder of the Cabinet, he still had to pay bribes to visit his son in the Shuntian Prefecture prison, and even then, the amount wasn’t small. Lord Ji kept making excuses, saying that Min Shi was pregnant and couldn’t be tortured to obtain a confession, so he couldn’t exonerate Yu Jingxiu. He told Elder Yu to remain calm, assuring him that he would find a way to get the confession, after which Yu Jingxiu could be released.

This was a ploy to extort money from their family!

He was frantic. He approached everyone he should and even those he shouldn’t, but still couldn’t get Yu Jingxiu out.

Elder Yu steeled his heart and sold several shops the family owned in the capital to fill that bottomless pit.

The brothers Yu Guozheng and Yu Guocai were alarmed to learn of their nephew’s imprisonment.

The two were extremely anxious and rushed to the capital on horseback to discuss strategies with Elder Yu.

“The most important thing now is not to get Depu out of prison,” the eldest Yu brother, Yu Guozheng, said. “It’s to preserve Depu’s scholarly title—without it, his life is effectively over.”

Elder Yu and his brother Yu Guocai remained silent.

Unless they could prove that the man surnamed Guo was making false accusations, how could they possibly preserve the scholarly title?

Yu Guozheng and Yu Guocai tried various approaches in the capital but returned empty-handed.

By now, Yu Jingxiu’s case could no longer be suppressed. Rumors spread in the capital saying that Yu Jingxiu had had a secret relationship with the daughter of his teacher Fan Dakun. To marry Madam Fan, he had driven his fiancée, the Fu family daughter from Huayin, to her death.

When Madam Yu heard this, she was furious and shouted in anger: “That bastard Zhao Ling! Even a cornered rabbit will bite; does he think our Yu family is a soft persimmon he can squeeze however he wants?” She continued, “If he’s not afraid of losing face when it involves his woman, what do we have to fear? Does he think he’s the only one who can speak? We have mouths too!”

This time, Elder Yu remained silent and did not stop her.

So Madam Yu and Yu Huai’an discussed how to spread counter-rumors.

However, just as they had settled on a plan, news broke that the Marquis of Xiping had colluded with Elder Yu to privately sell war horses.

Elder Yu finally realized he had been tricked.

“So this was his trump card. He sat in his chair, unable to move for a long time. “Using Depu to divert our attention, and by the time we realized something was wrong, it was too late to prepare and respond…”

In an instant, Elder Yu’s face turned ashen.

Madam Yu no longer cared about rumors and gossip; her hair turned white overnight.

But even this couldn’t prevent Elder Yu from losing power.

In early June, Elder Yu was exiled to Zhuanglang Garrison and was to depart immediately.

The Emperor, considering Elder Yu’s two generations of service to the court, commuted Yu Jingxiu’s death sentence. However, his scholarly title was revoked, and he was demoted to a commoner.

In mid-July, Elder Yu, due to his advanced age and the hot weather, couldn’t endure the continuous journey and died of illness in Pingliang.

Thus began the decline of the Yu family of Fengle Ward in Nanjing.

When the news spread, it merely elicited a sigh from people.

Zhao Ling’s third sister’s husband, who was walking with Zhao Ling behind the Zhao family villa at Yuming Mountain to escape the heat, asked Zhao Ling in confusion: “Why did you plead for Yu Jingxiu? Otherwise, he would have been executed long ago!”

Zhao Ling, gazing at the lush greenery rustling in the wind, said: “I’ve always felt that death brings an end to everything and is the most comfortable state. It’s the living who truly suffer.” He looked at his third sister’s husband with a smile, revealing snow-white teeth. “Third brother-in-law, don’t you agree?”

The third sister’s husband was speechless.

The cheerful laughter of children drifted faintly in the wind, like wind chimes, clear, melodious, and carefree.

(End of the Book)