Old Madam Chen and Second Madam Chen had barely steadied their feet when they saw a corpse. They immediately stood frozen in place, dumbstruck, staring in unison at Third Madam Chen, their faces full of disbelief and terror, as if they’d seen a ghost—and this was all thanks to Third Madam Chen’s background. She was properly from a scholarly family, so how had her conduct come to this?!
Even Second Madam Chen, who always loved to gossip, was struck speechless. She stood there dazed, not knowing how to react. She looked back at her mother-in-law, then at Nanny Wu in front of her whose eyes hadn’t even closed yet, and shook her head, asking in a hoarse voice: “What… what are we to do about this?”
What to do? In any case, they couldn’t alert the authorities and report to the officials, or the Chen family’s reputation would be finished. Even if Elder Chen hadn’t gotten into trouble now, if the inner quarters were unstable to the point of causing a death, that would still be a point for the censors and officials to swarm and attack. What more now? If word got out, the entire Chen family would become the laughingstock of the capital. Old Madam Chen glared at Third Madam Chen through gritted teeth, so furious she laughed instead: “You’ve truly made progress—you dare to kill someone right in front of us. What else wouldn’t you dare to do?!”
Indeed, what had happened to this daughter-in-law? Back when the Song family matter occurred, she had been so frightened she trembled, her legs went weak as she kowtowed begging for mercy. Yet now she could kill without batting an eye. Truly, people die for wealth as birds die for food. For this bit of silver, she’d gone completely mad. Old Madam Chen glared at her, seeing she also seemed momentarily unable to react, and snorted coldly: “You’ve killed someone. According to Great Zhou law, you’ll be subject to flogging!”
In the Great Zhou Dynasty, lives registered under servitude weren’t worth much. If you beat one to death, you could casually pin some crime on them, submit a notice, and the Shuntian Prefecture people would take the hint. They wouldn’t even ask questions, wouldn’t even send a coroner to examine the body. Generally, they’d just have someone drag it to the mass grave and bury it, and that would be that. But if it was truly investigated, killing a servant wantonly would still result in flogging.
Third Madam Chen trembled in fear, her whole person now dizzy, having no idea what she’d done. She clutched Nanny Wu’s outer garment tightly, at a complete loss, only knowing to shake her head, even forgetting to speak.
It wasn’t until Second Madam Chen hurried a few steps forward wanting to see what exactly Nanny Wu had been trying to grab that Third Madam Chen finally realized the trunk contained all of Third Master Chen’s things—poetry correspondence with Lu Bingyuan, IOUs for borrowed money from Lu Bingyuan’s clan uncle, and receipts for taking Zhou Chengfang’s silver. Once these things were discovered by the Chen family, they would definitely be torn to pieces. Third Madam Chen shrieked and lunged forward.
Second Madam Chen was so frightened by Third Madam Chen that her soul nearly left her body. Instinctively tilting to the left, she barely avoided Third Madam Chen’s claws. Heart still pounding, she looked at the seemingly crazed Third Madam Chen and called out in panic to Old Madam Chen: “Mother!”
Old Madam Chen immediately directed several sturdy servants to tie up Third Madam Chen, her eyes full of coldness and displeasure: “Today I absolutely must see just how much you’ve scraped together from this household, enough to be worth killing someone over!”
This was truly something no one could have expected. Who would have thought Third Madam Chen would actually try to kill someone to protect these things? What exactly was she hiding? Old Madam Chen grew suspicious. The third branch was making such a fuss about dividing the household, as if once they shook off the Chen family they could live wonderfully. Could it be the third branch had colluded with people outside?
She was just instructing the servants to unload the trunks for careful inspection when Third Master Chen, who had been arguing with Second Master Chen and First Young Master Chen outside, entered. He even brought quite a few household guards. Seeing this scene, he too couldn’t help but freeze in place.
When Third Madam Chen saw him, she saw her savior. She cried and shouted urgently to tell him: “Master! They’re trying to steal my dowry. I have no way to live. If these things are gone, I won’t be able to go on living!”
She repeated “won’t be able to go on living” several times. No matter how stupid Third Master Chen was, he understood the meaning in her words. He hurried forward several steps to stop the servants, turned to block in front of Third Madam Chen, looked at his legitimate mother and said with righteous indignation: “Since your son has agreed to divide the household, he won’t change his mind. Old Madam, since we find each other mutually disagreeable, why not give each other a way out? Without our third branch, it makes no difference whatsoever to the Chen family…”
To say this in front of so many servants was slapping Old Madam Chen’s face, one merciless slap after another. Old Madam Chen’s complexion darkened as she looked at him, then glanced meaningfully at those trunks: “Just how much dowry Old Third’s wife actually has, we all know perfectly well in our hearts. Since you say these are her dowry and insist on dividing the household, very well—” She paused, turned to instruct her daughter-in-law who stood dumbstruck as a wooden chicken: “Go, go tell Old Second—say it’s my words—there’s no need to wait until tomorrow. Right now, take the notice and go invite the clan elders over. Let’s open the ancestral hall and divide the household right now. Your third brother and third sister-in-law are impatient anyway, and since we’d be forcibly detaining them otherwise with no meaning to it, we might as well fulfill their wishes. Go quickly!”
Second Madam Chen acknowledged and ran out swiftly. At this moment she couldn’t care about propriety or deportment. Her heart was full of panic. After all these years, this was the first time she’d seen a servant die right in front of her. She was actually quite frightened, feeling hazily that the household affairs were growing bigger and bigger, which wasn’t a good omen at all.
Old Madam Chen turned to look at Third Master Chen whose complexion kept shifting between pale and flushed, jerked her chin to indicate he should stand aside: “Let’s all wait for the clan elders then. Whether or not these are dowry items, once the clan elders arrive, it will be clear.”
How could Third Master Chen dare show these things to others? He was so anxious he nearly got mouth sores. Watching his wife continuously make eyes at him, he gritted his teeth, preparing to have people force the matter—they had to move the things out first no matter what, or else the Chen family wouldn’t let them off.
But before Third Master Chen could make up his mind, outside there was a bustle as quite a few torches lit up. He jumped in alarm—though the clan elders lived on the back street, even sending for them couldn’t be this fast, could it?
When he finally saw clearly who had come, his eyes widened again, his neck stiffening as he stared at his legitimate mother, his gaze revealing bone-deep resentment—they’d actually reported to the authorities! His legitimate mother had actually sent someone to report to the authorities first!
The newcomers were from Shuntian Prefecture, wearing green robes with black boots below. Leading at the forefront was a constable who had gained quite a reputation at Shuntian Prefecture these days, called Litian. He courteously cupped his hands toward Old Madam Chen and Third Master Chen: “Intruding into the inner quarters is truly disrespectful. Please forgive us, Old Madam and Third Master. Your household sent someone with a notice saying there was a murder case? We immediately assembled our forces overnight and came. May we know what murder case has occurred?”