Tian Benchang’s words created waves of sensation throughout the court.
Most of the spectators were gossip lovers, and the Tian family affairs had been the biggest scandal lately. To outsiders, the Tian family’s property case had seemed like an endless maze for the Tian brothers, but if what Tian Benchang said was true, it was like finding a village of bright flowers behind dark willows.
Meanwhile, Zhenniang, who was watching the proceedings, understood everything clearly. Earlier, Luo Wenqian had whispered this matter to her. When Master Tian had met with Luo Wenqian, besides arranging the loan, he had also stored a box at Yihou Bank. Inside the box was a letter—his will.
In truth, knowing about this had put Luo Wenqian in a difficult position. He viewed the Tian family as enemies, and his loans to them were essentially investments aimed at controlling Tian Mo and ultimately reclaiming his family’s ink workshop. However, he hadn’t expected Old Master Tian to play such a clever move by storing the will at Yihou Bank. Because of Luo Wenqian’s antagonistic relationship with the Tian family, no one could have anticipated this strategy. For Luo Wenqian, the Tian family drama was a play through which he hoped to reclaim his ink workshop, so he couldn’t get entangled in the will case. However, as the owner of the bank where Old Master Tian had stored the letter, his professional integrity demanded that he safeguard it properly.
One could say that Old Master Tian had played this hand beautifully.
“So there was another will. I knew Tian Huai’an couldn’t have been so foolish,” Old Lady Li nodded from the side. Previously, no one could understand why Tian Huai’an would leave his family fortune to a concubine.
“A will? Where is this will?” Tian Benchang’s words made the Prefecture Magistrate furrow his brows.
“It’s stored at Yihou Bank,” Tian Benchang stared at Luo Wenqian as he spoke.
“Oh? Master Luo, is this true?” The Prefecture Magistrate turned to ask Luo Wenqian.
“Yes. Old Master Tian did indeed store a letter at my bank,” Luo Wenqian replied with clasped hands. Having purchased his official position, he didn’t need to kneel in such circumstances.
“Well then, please have Master Luo retrieve it so we can verify it in court,” the Prefecture Magistrate ordered.
“In that case, I request Young Master Tian to provide the password,” Luo Wenqian stated, following bank procedures.
“Very well.” Tian Benchang nodded, then asked for a brush and paper to write down a password composed of his eight birth characters. He handed it to Luo Wenqian, who verified it and signed it before giving the paper to the yamen runners to retrieve the item from Yihou Bank’s warehouse.
Yihou’s warehouse also maintained a money chest for handling the bank’s business.
Immediately, two yamen runners accompanied Tian Benchang to Yihou Bank, where the manager verified the password again. With Luo Wenqian’s signature, they retrieved the box Old Master Tian had stored there and gave it to Tian Benchang. The box still bore its original seal.
They quickly returned to the yamen with the box.
Meanwhile, Wang Decai and Chungzhi, kneeling in the main hall, maintained calm expressions but felt extremely uneasy inside. They truly hadn’t expected the old master to have made such arrangements.
“Manager, if there is a will, what should we do?” Chungzhi asked anxiously in a low voice.
“We’ll deal with whatever comes,” Wang Decai replied, while internally considering how to extricate himself from this situation if Tian Benchang truly had Old Master Tian’s will.
Just as the two were desperately thinking of escape plans, Tian Benchang returned to the hall with the two yamen runners. They immediately presented the box to the Prefecture Magistrate, who broke the seal in court and removed the letter.
“…All Tian family properties are to be inherited by my eldest son, Tian Benchang… My health is failing, and I have recently observed that Spring is unsettled in her position. Therefore, I leave this will be stored at Yihou Bank. All matters after my death shall follow this will; anything else is not to be trusted…”
The letter contained more, but these were the most crucial lines. Particularly, the phrase about Spring being “unsettled in her position” essentially condemned Chungzhi of a serious crime.
“It’s fake! This will is fake! Your Honor, please help this concubine!” Chungzhi nearly fainted upon hearing the will’s contents. Forgetting all propriety, she stood up from the ground and tried to rush forward to tear up the letter.
The two yamen runners forcefully pushed her back down.
“Fake? Aunt Spring, why don’t you examine the seal, fingerprint, and handwriting on the will? Besides, you were the one who kept the seal. I’ve been in prison—how could I have forged anything?” Tian Benchang asked coldly.
Chungzhi had no response to this.
She now understood that Old Master Tian had prepared everything in advance. She felt bitter resentment—the old master had claimed to care for her, yet in the end, he still left everything to his eldest son and even branded her with the crime of being “unsettled in her position.” Old Master Tian had deliberately cut off all her escape routes.
The Prefecture Magistrate then ordered someone to bring the Tian family seal records to verify the seal, fingerprint, and handwriting on the wall. Finally, they confirmed that the will was indeed written by Old Master Tian himself.
With this conclusion, the Tian family property case was essentially settled.
And since this will was genuine, it was obvious that the previous will kept by Chungzhi was fake.
“Spring, Manager Wang, what do you have to say for yourselves now?” The Prefecture Magistrate struck his gavel heavily.
A concubine plotting against her husband, a servant plotting against his master—Huizhou hadn’t seen such a serious case of betrayal in many years. Such cases severely damaged public morals, and the Prefecture Magistrate decided to impose a heavy sentence.
Chungzhi knelt on the ground, trying to mumble some defense, but faced with Old Master Tian’s handwritten will, she had no way to justify herself.
“Your Honor, I have something to say,” Tian Benchang spoke up from the side.
“Speak,” the Prefecture Magistrate said.
“When I previously got into trouble, my wife and children were fortunately taken in by Second Young Master Tian. When the Emperor ascended the throne and granted amnesty, I was fortunate to receive imperial grace. However, Huizhou is thousands of miles from Qiongzhou, and if not for Second Young Master Tian sending someone to deliver provisions, I might never have returned home. It can be said that I owe my present situation entirely to Second Young Master Tian’s great kindness. After returning to Huizhou, I was again employed by Second Young Master Tian as the family manager. Grateful for his kindness, I have always maintained proper conduct. When Second Young Master Tian was expelled from the family due to involvement in the land dedication case, I believed he would eventually return. After Old Master passed away and Concubine Spring inherited the estate, I found many suspicious points. Therefore, I decided to stay and serve Concubine Spring while investigating the truth, hoping to repay Second Young Master Tian’s kindness. However, I regret that I achieved nothing, and Concubine Spring’s plot to seize the family fortune had nothing to do with me.”
Tian Benchang spoke at length, completely distancing himself from Concubine Spring’s scheme to seize the family property.
Zhenniang had seen shameless people before, but never anyone this shameless. She wanted to curse out loud while also admiring Wang Decai’s quick wit. Everyone knew of Second Young Master Tian’s great kindness to Wang Decai. If Spring didn’t have leverage over Wang Decai, his explanation might have gotten him off the hook. Thinking this, Zhenniang clenched her fists.
“What did you say?” At this moment, Spring stared at Wang Decai in disbelief.
As a former courtesan, all she had wanted was a home to call her own. When Second Young Master Tian bought her and gave her to Old Master Tian, using her beauty to secure favor was her only path forward.
Her struggle with Madam Tian was inevitable—if she didn’t fight, Madam Tian wouldn’t have tolerated her existence. This made her hated by the eldest young master, so her strategy had always been to curry favor with the second young master while suppressing the eldest, preventing him from regaining power.
She had succeeded in this regard and felt satisfied, as having the second young master in charge meant she was still respected as a concubine.
After all, she had helped establish the second young master’s position.
However, after Wang Decai came to the Tian family, his ambition proved excessive, and now it was clear he was also ungrateful and cruel.
But one’s private desires and lust shouldn’t be too strong—if they are, one becomes vulnerable to exploitation by petty people. This was exactly what happened to her. When Old Master Tian was gravely ill, Wang Decai often used family matters as an excuse to liaison with her, and because her private desires and lust were too strong, she quickly fell for his suggestions.
Wang Decai said neither of the Tian brothers could be allowed to remain. With the eldest in prison, they didn’t need to worry about him for the moment, so when the Xu family’s land dedication case exploded and the second young master was imprisoned, she incited the Tian clan members to expel him from the family, using fear of implication in the case as an excuse.
Then, when Old Master Tian was critically ill, she used the seal in her possession to write a will herself, even forcing the old master’s hand to make a fingerprint. With this will, she obtained the family fortune, and this was what had angered the old master to death.
What had the old master said before he died? “Karma—you adulterous couple will face karma.”
Of course, at the time, she hadn’t taken those words seriously.
She had been full of schemes, planning that after a few years, when everything had blown over, she would marry Wang Decai with the Tian family fortune, and Wang Decai had promised to divorce Su Shi then. At that time, she would be the proper wife and finally have a family of her own.
What a dream it had been.
Now she was awake, and karma had indeed come. Wang Decai was nothing but an ungrateful wolf.
Concubine Spring crawled two steps forward on her knees to Wang Decai’s front, staring at him intently.
“Your Honor, every word I spoke is true,” Wang Decai wouldn’t even look at Concubine Spring.
“Such truth indeed, but if you think I’ll take all the blame alone, I’m not willing. Wang Decai, do you remember what I once said?” Concubine Spring spoke viciously.
“Concubine says many things daily, this servant truly doesn’t know which words you mean,” Wang Decai replied, keeping his eyes lowered.
“Don’t remember? I’ll make you remember.” Spring suddenly smiled, then with a wave of her hand, before anyone could react, she used scissors hidden in her sleeve to slash Wang Decai’s throat.
Blood splattered all over Spring’s face and hair, making her look terrifying.
“Ah…” Wang Decai clutched his spurting throat with his hands, looking at Spring in disbelief. As Spring’s face grew increasingly blurry to him, Wang Decai finally remembered what she had once said. One time in bed, Concubine Spring had told him: “Decai, don’t betray me, or I won’t let you live even if I have to die.”