After returning to the Cui residence, she still needed to first pay her respects to Old Madam Cui and inform her of her return. When Song Chuyi arrived, she happened to encounter the old madams from the second and third branches discussing matters with Old Madam Cui, so she simply told Linglong in the corridor and turned to head back to Smoke-Fresh Studio first.
Han Yan and Qing Tao were playing with knotted cords. Though they were well-trained temple soldiers who had come down from Dragon Tiger Mountain, they were still young girls at heart, curious about these novel, interesting, and beautiful things that girls liked. Qing Tao was clever and good at reading expressions, so she had easily become friends with Han Yan. Seeing Song Chuyi, they both hurriedly stood up to greet her, welcoming her inside and helping her remove her cloak.
On the stove was still warming the brown sugar steamed snow pear that Qing Luo had specifically instructed be prepared when they went out that morning. Han Yan quickly went to the corridor and brought it in. She heard Qing Tao telling Song Chuyi about what had happened that morning: “Fourth Young Master came looking for you once, saying he had something to tell you. He asked that once you returned, someone should be sent to inform him. Also, Ma Changjiang sent a message through Nanny Xu.”
After changing into everyday clothes in the washroom, Danzhu came, saying that the young ladies were all gathered at Crystal Pavilion for tea and had specially come to invite her to join them. Though Old Madam Cui’s birthday celebration had ended, guests who had traveled from afar, such as the Xie family young ladies, were still staying at the Cui residence as honored guests. Since there were so many young ladies in the household, naturally the other noble daughters of Jinzhong were invited over to socialize together. With matters weighing on her mind, she had no patience to deal with these young ladies, so she shook her head and said she was tired and needed to rest.
After dismissing Danzhu, Song Chuyi drank the snow pear soup and sat in a daze for a while before having someone fetch Song Yan. Song Yan was staying in the East Residence. Though it was just across the way, because the Cui family estate was so vast and extensive, this single summons took a full half hour.
These past few days, Song Yan had to accompany the Cui family adults as an external grandson in receiving and sending off guests, so opportunities to see Song Chuyi had become increasingly rare. From the time they disembarked until now, counting them all up, the two siblings had only met six or seven times. Upon seeing Song Chuyi, he first took her hand and looked her over from head to toe. Seeing that her complexion was fairly good and she had recovered considerably, he finally set his mind at ease, smiling with relief: “Though Qing Ying said two capable sisters had come to take care of you, I still couldn’t help worrying. I haven’t had time to look carefully these past days. Now that I see you, I’ve discovered you really are much better—your complexion looks far better than when you were on the boat.”
Song Chuyi lowered her head and smiled. Seeing him lift the tea lid to stir the tea leaves inside, she asked him: “Qing Tao said you were looking for me?”
Song Yan stopped drinking tea and set the tea cup aside. He looked up at Song Chuyi, seeming somewhat troubled. After hesitating for a while, he still told Song Chuyi decisively: “Sister, I keep feeling that Commander Lai’s purpose in coming to Jinzhong this time isn’t simply to assist the Crown Prince in quelling the rebellion. He even brought his wife—this is completely unlike his usual style. It seems more like he specifically brought his wife to make it more appropriate to attend Grandmother’s birthday banquet and gather intelligence.”
Gathering intelligence. Song Chuyi’s heart turned cold. Before she could respond, she heard Song Yan continue: “Also, ever since Commander Lai came to the Cui residence, I feel that Uncle Ying has been quite abnormal. He usually never personally goes to the second branch’s routine medicine and porridge distributions, but today he specifically went, and he deliberately took me along.”
Cui Shaoying? Song Chuyi immediately grasped the key point and asked him: “Isn’t Uncle Ying the only son Second Madam has left?”
The clan leader of the Cui family was not in the main branch, which was at the height of its power, but rather in the second branch. The position was currently held by Cui Shaoying, born to the second branch’s old madam. Speaking of which, the tea leaves, rice shops, and medicine shops—the businesses the Cui family had developed best in Jinzhong—were all directly managed by Cui Shaoying. He was the helmsman of the Cui family’s current economy.
Song Chuyi’s heart stirred. Feeling she might have grasped the key point, she asked Song Yan thoughtfully: “Are you familiar with Uncle Ying?”
Though they were all uncles, relationships had their distances. She had rarely heard Song Yan mention this Uncle Ying from the second branch. Sure enough, Song Yan shook his head and looked up at her: “Uncle Ying is an extremely busy person. He also has several escort agencies that specifically help the family transport goods, involving many checkpoints and passes. Today when he dragged me along to distribute medicine together, it startled me.”
When things are abnormal, there must be something amiss. Connecting everything together, Song Chuyi felt she had probably touched upon something. She patted Song Yan’s head and told him not to worry: “Uncle Lai’s visit to Jinzhong is indeed not solely for the Yangquan rebellion, but it doesn’t matter—it won’t involve us. Set your mind at ease.”
Ever since being schemed against by Han Zhi, Song Yan had become much more vigilant, always carrying the wariness of one bitten by a snake for ten years afraid of ropes. But in the current situation, this was absolutely a good thing. Only this way would he not carelessly be led into a ditch without even knowing it. After comforting Song Yan, Song Chuyi brought up the matter of accompanying Cui Huaying for her wedding: “Aunt and Grandmother want to ask our own intentions. If you go to Jinling on this trip, you can also visit Uncle’s teacher. For this next trip to Shu to study, you really should have a clever and perceptive person accompanying you.”
Such a person might not be a great scholar of the age like Tang Mingzhao, but with rich life experience, they could be kept at his side at all times as an advisor. If chosen well, their usefulness would be no less than a teacher’s.
When Song Yan came to Jinzhong, he had already heard Madam Cui and Yu Shi mention once that they might have him accompany the wedding party to Jinling. Hearing it again now, he wasn’t particularly surprised. After thinking briefly, he agreed: “Since it’s been said I should go, then I’ll go.” Unlike Cui Shaoying, though Cui Shaoting was the uncle from the third branch, his relationship with him had always been much better than with Cui Shaoying.
Song Chuyi nodded and instructed him a few more things—not to mention to the other Cui family members or Song Ci that Lai Chenglong had ulterior motives in coming to Jinzhong, and not to associate too closely with Cui Shaoying. Only then did she watch him leave.
As soon as Song Yan left, she instructed Qing Luo to find a way to arrange a place to meet with Ma Changjiang and Ma Wangkun.
Fortunately, she had remembered to bring Ma Changjiang and Ma Wangkun when she came to Jinzhong. Otherwise, with such a matter occurring, when she couldn’t announce publicly that the Cui family might truly have people conducting copper mine business, she really would be helpless.
She knitted her brows tightly as she sat by the window. Thinking that Cui Shaoying might truly be involved in these businesses, she felt it was extremely thorny—after all, Cui Shaoying bore the Cui surname and was the clan leader of the Cui clan. If he truly was the one who had done this deed or even the mastermind, how could the Cui family possibly be extracted intact? The same pen couldn’t write two different Cui characters. The court’s collective punishment system was still prevalent at present.