Third Master Chen was so angry his hands clenched into tight fists. He averted his eyes and said nothing—now whether he stuck his neck out or pulled it back, it was death either way. His legitimate mother wasn’t going to let him off anyway, so he wasn’t planning to kneel and beg for mercy anymore. His legitimate mother wished him dead; even if he begged for mercy it would be useless. Better to be more resolute. It was just that his wife and children were innocent. Thinking this, he decided to shoulder everything himself.
Old Madam Chen was also utterly astonished. She hadn’t wanted to make the matter blow up at all. Even though the one who died was a capable servant at her side, compared to the Chen family’s reputation, this wasn’t much. Once the matter blew up—Elder Chen having entered the Ministry of Justice prison, the Chen family falling apart, plus the matter of brothers fighting over property and dividing the household becoming public—there would be no benefit whatsoever to the Chen family.
Their own household sent the notice? She couldn’t help but think of her eldest daughter-in-law, and couldn’t help cursing this stupid woman who accomplished nothing but ruined everything a million times in her heart. That self-important woman had sent the notice, and now the matter had really blown up!
Litian quickly discovered Nanny Wu lying on the ground with no breath left. He stepped forward and checked her breathing with his hand. Seeing she had no breath, he turned back to ask: “May I ask what position this person held in your honored household?”
He hadn’t expected the Chen family to come to Shuntian Prefecture so late to submit a notice about a murder case. This was a troubled time—why wasn’t the Chen family staying quietly put at a time like this, and instead bringing a case to the authorities? But since they had submitted a notice, he had no choice but to come. Although Elder Chen was in the Ministry of Justice prison, so far the presiding judges hadn’t found even a trace of evidence against Elder Chen, which showed how extensive Elder Chen’s connections were and how brilliant his methods. He was just a small constable who didn’t have the audacity to go against the Chen family. Even the Prefect himself had gotten up in the middle of the night, ordering them to personally come to the Chen residence to see exactly what was going on.
Old Madam Chen stood frozen in place. Now they had already seen the corpse, and so many officials had come… Thinking of this, Old Madam Chen couldn’t help but grow even angrier. It was all that stupid eldest daughter-in-law’s fault—she had actually led the officials into the inner quarters!
She quickly made her decision, glancing coldly at Third Madam Chen whose eyes were nearly bulging out of their sockets, and told Litian matter-of-factly: “When you get down to it, it’s nothing much—just my third daughter-in-law accidentally pushing and causing a servant to collide…”
She actually directly gave up Third Madam! Third Madam Chen was both shocked and frightened. In her wildest dreams she never imagined the Chen family would be so ruthless, using a servant’s life to report to the authorities. She increasingly felt the Chen family was a wolf’s den, and looked mournfully at Third Master Chen, tears flowing down like water.
Third Master Chen had no solution either. He knew his legitimate mother’s ruthlessness. Since his legitimate mother had gone to Shuntian Prefecture to submit a notice, this clearly meant she loathed the third branch to the core and wasn’t giving the third branch any way to live at all. His heart turned to ash, and the gaze he directed at Old Madam Chen was icy cold.
Litian examined the large cart that was still dripping blood, the cart that had killed Nanny Wu. He walked forward a few steps, his mind racing through how this matter should be resolved. He still had to first ask the Chen family’s intentions, to see whether the Chen family actually wanted to punish their daughter-in-law, or wanted to settle this matter without a sound—generally, if a family didn’t want to deliberately make their household scandals public, they wouldn’t report to the authorities over a servant’s life. Thinking of this point, Litian believed he had guessed Old Madam Chen’s thoughts. He carefully examined the large cart for a while, then looked up and saw the trunks on top of the cart. Casually, he flipped through the contents inside. But with this casual flip and glance, he suddenly noticed something wrong. He saw this year’s spring imperial examination questions!—He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He frantically shuffled through a few more times and unrolled the scroll, whereupon he saw an essay written by Third Master Chen. He knew it was Third Master Chen’s because it had Third Master Chen’s seal on it.
Now this matter became interesting. Litian continued flipping through impassively and found several IOUs.
He looked back at Third Master Chen. Third Master Chen’s face was already ashen as death, his eyes closed in an appearance of resigned submission to execution.
His thoughts racing, he had already gathered all these items and held them in his hands. After thinking, he didn’t remove them from the trunk but closed the lid, turned back to look at Old Madam Chen and said: “Since Old Madam says so, we’ll still need to trouble Third Madam to come with us. These things—”
Old Madam Chen said: “These things are private property of the household. The third branch was making a fuss about dividing the household and wanted to secretly transport things out. Nanny Wu blocked them from moving things, which is why she met this vicious end.”
Since the matter had already blown up whether she wanted it to or not, Old Madam Chen had no other choice. Third Master Chen spouted complete nonsense—who knew what he might say in the future? Better to fix his reputation now as ungrateful and disregarding familial kindness, so he could never hold his head up again. Forget about being an official—even what he said, no one would be willing to listen.
Litian nodded calmly: “If that’s the case, we’ll transport these things back to the yamen first. In the future, when your honored household brings the inventory lists, you can come to the yamen to claim them?”
Old Madam Chen nodded. In any case, transporting the things to the yamen would let everyone see that the third branch truly wanted to empty out the Chen residence, not caring one bit about trust, duty, or familial affection. This was also good.
Litian directed people to take Third Madam Chen away, then calmly led his people to bid farewell to Old Madam Chen. He exchanged courteous pleasantries with Second Master Chen and First Young Master Chen, but once out the door his expression changed. When they reached the corner, he stopped the cart and first took out all those items to look through them once, then gathered them all into his own bosom.
The night deepened. Fang Xiaoru was practicing calligraphy in his study when Madam Fang personally brought in bird’s nest soup, and only then did he stop his brush.
Madam Fang handed him the bird’s nest soup, then put away his copybook for him and personally tidied the desk surface. Only then did she raise her eyes to look at him, unable to help asking: “Master, can Litian truly accomplish this?”
Fang Xiaoru drank all the bird’s nest soup in one go, set the bowl to the side, wiped his hands, and seeing Madam Fang’s deep worry, smiled and nodded to reassure her: “Don’t worry. Litian is a clever man, and moreover, a clever man who knows Censor Tao. He knows what he should do.”
That’s why he had people from Shuntian Prefecture go to the door, specifically selecting Litian for night duty, precisely because Litian had the ability to burst open this hole.
Now the matter of the Chen household’s division would spread throughout the capital at the latest by tomorrow, and the case of Third Madam Chen killing someone would also cause a citywide uproar, because the reason Third Madam Chen killed someone would shake the capital—she had killed to cover up her husband’s acceptance of bribes on behalf of Elder Chen.