Cui Yingtang and Cui Yingyu stood before Old Madam Cui and Song Chuyi for a long while without reacting, both wearing expressions of utter shock. After quite some time, it was still Cui Yingyu who reacted faster, almost forcing words through clenched teeth: “Copper mines?!”
Who didn’t know what secretly mining copper meant?! This was an earth-shattering matter. Back in the day, the Cui family ancestors had already surrendered all copper mines in full to the national treasury, and because of this the founding Emperor had specifically granted the Cui clan a half-year tax exemption in Jinzhong. Now to be entangled with copper mines again—wasn’t this clearly deliberately opposing Emperor Jianzhang, snatching silver from Emperor Jianzhang’s own pocket?!
“So the two uncles truly knew nothing at all.” Song Chuyi’s tone held neither disappointment nor despondency as she looked at them and slowly sighed. “I’ve always heard that the Cui clan governed their household well and was a rare prestigious family. But the prestigious families in my understanding are not like this.” Taking the most recent example, the Song family—Song Chengru was not the Song clan’s patriarch, yet because he was the most outstanding among the Song clan members, those Song clan descendants would inevitably exploit his reputation to act with impunity back in their hometown. Song Chengru had never tolerated such behavior—catching one meant expelling one from the clan. In Song Chengru’s words, a gentleman does not stand beneath a dangerous wall, and a thousand-li dike can be destroyed by ant holes. The family business he had worked so hard to build for the Song clan could not be ruined by these worthless, shortsighted, unfilial descendants. He established clan schools—Song clan descendants in the hometown, regardless of whether they were from the main line or how distantly related, were all accepted as long as they were willing to study. Throughout the year he also provided them with new clothes and grain.
When the Song family patriarch back home repaired the ancestral hall or purchased land, everything had to follow proper procedures and be recorded in account books for the clan elders to review first before being sent to the capital for Song Chengru’s decision.
This was the true path for a family to prosper and flourish. In comparison, the Cui family—this ancient clan that had been passed down for so many years—could actually have such oversights. It was simply incomprehensible.
Song Chuyi’s words were like a slap across the faces of Second Master Cui and Third Master Cui. The two exchanged glances before frowning and telling Old Madam Cui: “The account books on the surface have no errors. Who knows what kind of accounting master he hired to smooth over all the accounts. Moreover, our family’s dividends truly don’t differ much from previous years’ amounts. Our Cui clan has registered banks and pawnshops of our own, yet we’ve never handled such large sums of silver.”
The implication was that Cui Shaoying had indeed been specifically concealing this from the first branch. The income from mining should logically be an astronomical figure—that he would rather not use the family’s banks to launder the money meant there was indeed a massive network of connections behind him.
At this point Cui Shaoting no longer had any trace of the ‘improper’ air from when he first met Song Chuyi. He stood up and paced around the room for a while before immediately turning to look at Old Madam Cui: “Mother, Shaoying seems to have been going out frequently since last year, saying it was for other matters, but the horse trading business cannot be taken lightly—he wanted to gain experience to help Shaoting in the future. I’ll send people right now to bind up all the stewards he relies on and interrogate them thoroughly.”
Cui Yingyu also felt this matter must first be investigated clearly, otherwise pulling one thread would move the entire fabric, and the whole Cui family would suffer misfortune. This risk was simply too great—no one dared take it: “Second Brother speaks reasonably. When Second Grand-Aunt came today, didn’t she say that this year she wanted to buy more breeding stallions to expand the business further, and even planned to have our first branch invest more silver to take the lion’s share of dividends? I think Second Grand-Aunt may not necessarily be ignorant of these matters either. Just to be safe, I believe we must also question Second Grand-Aunt.”
Right now the entire second branch could forget about extricating themselves—the greatest fear was that even the third branch was implicated. Old Madam Cui felt her head splitting with pain. She steadied her mind and thought carefully for a moment before turning back to look at Song Chuyi and asking her: “Xiaoyi, in your opinion, if we start investigating within our own household first, will it alert the enemy?”
Lai Chenglong’s arrival had already alerted the enemy—no amount of further alerting could make things worse. Song Chuyi shook her head and shared her thoughts: “We should still investigate from within the household first. If all the problems truly originate from the second branch, at least we can think of solutions first. The only question is how to summon the entire second branch to the first branch without alarming those outside?”
What could now be confirmed was that Cui Shaoying absolutely could not be acting alone. If he had accomplices outside and managed to send messages out opportunistically, or if the matter blew up and attracted the attention of his outside confederates, that would be yet another troublesome affair.
Old Madam Cui pondered for a long while before suddenly instructing Second Master Cui: “Go—Xinghai Tower at the northeast corner is the tallest building. Set a fire there and say that I was inside with Miss Luan and Xiaoyi admiring lanterns and we’re all trapped inside.”
Given such a serious incident, it was perfectly natural for the West Residence to seek help from the East Residence. Second Old Madam and Third Old Madam would inevitably be alarmed and rush over. Taking advantage of this opportunity, they would trap everyone in the West Residence so they had no way to transmit messages out, then go to the outside shops to capture those stewards whom Cui Shaoying heavily relied upon and interrogate them thoroughly.
When Cui Shaoying received news of the fire at the West Residence, he was still wearing his outer robe while discussing Lai Chenglong’s matter with someone, his face involuntarily covered with a layer of frost. No matter what, Lai Chenglong’s arrival meant the capital had caught wind of things, and he couldn’t help feeling somewhat anxious: “Originally when the Grand Imperial Grandson personally brought the Imperial Sword to quell the rebellion in Yangquan, I felt something was wrong and that we should have stopped immediately. But you people insisted on being so greedy—”
Before he could finish speaking, he heard urgent knocking at the door, followed immediately by a servant saying in panic that the West Residence had caught fire, and Old Madam Cui along with the young miss from the capital were trapped inside Xinghai Tower.
With such an incident occurring and Old Madam Cui’s status being so prestigious, he as the clan leader absolutely could not be absent. He kicked a stool somewhat irritably and stood up rubbing his temples with some impatience: “I cannot not go, otherwise by tomorrow I’ll be drowned in spit.”
Strangely, the person opposite him also stood up along with him, saying in a calm voice: “I’ll go with you to take a look.”
“You’re going too?” Cui Shaoying’s steps halted as he turned back to look at him. “Aren’t you afraid of being recognized?”
Because several lanterns were lit in the corridor, the man’s features were finally revealed at this moment. He exposed a mouthful of incomplete and rotten teeth in a smile: “Back then she cursed me as scum. Now let’s see if this scum stands before her—will she recognize me or not.”