But He Shun shrank his shoulders, glanced at him timidly, and still spoke the news he least wanted to hear: “Something went wrong. The fourth branch of the Chen family, somehow—first they handed over the silver to the people sent by Master Wei, and they also accepted that seal. Originally it was a fair exchange of goods and payment, but when Master Wei went to deposit the silver…” He swallowed hard, so nervous he nearly bit his own tongue. After a tremor, he dared to continue: “When Master Wei wanted to first deposit the silver at the escort agency to transport it to the bank, people from the Chen family came with government officials, saying that Master Wei and his group had conspired together to rob the ancestral offering silver from their clan.”
Zhou Weiqi felt somewhat dizzy from what he said. He raised his hand to stop him, shook his head in extreme irritation, and after a long moment, with bloodshot eyes, repeated: “The Chen family people accepted the seal, but in the end still brought officials to arrest people?”
Fan Liangdi had clearly confirmed repeatedly with Old Master Chen back then. Old Master Chen had also said that the Chen family clan members recognized the seal but not the person—no matter who it was, whoever went with the seal could take that silver. He had already handed the seal to Wei Yansheng. Wei Yansheng had sent someone with the seal to collect the silver. How could the Chen family people have run off to report this to the authorities?!
He Shun’s usually nimble tongue was somewhat tied. He nodded repeatedly like pounding garlic: “They reported it to the Xiangfan prefectural yamen. Master Wei was caught red-handed on the spot. The Chen family clan members insist with one voice that it was their ancestral offering silver, just withdrawn from the bank, prepared to build a new school for the clan and repair roads and bridges for the village, but it was robbed by Master Wei and his men. They even wrote a formal complaint. The Xiangfan Prefect accepted it, and now Master Wei is being held in the prison…”
He Shun had only returned the day before yesterday to report that Wei Yansheng had already made contact with the Chen family people, found out clearly that the silver was with the fourth branch, and would soon be able to get the silver. But in just two short days, how had things changed?
He Shun seemed to know his confusion. He shrank his shoulders and licked his lips: “These two letters arrived one after the other. Master Wei probably didn’t expect that what was already a done deal would suddenly turn direction. This later letter was written by him in prison and entrusted to someone to send out. Your Highness… should we think of a way to first get Master Wei out?”
Zhou Weiqi felt as if he had fallen into a large net that had already been woven, crashing around inside the net in confusion, not knowing where the exit actually was. He sat quietly thinking for a while. Only when Qian Ying and the others arrived did he turn his head to look at them: “Have we fallen into someone else’s trap?”
Otherwise, how could the Chen family suddenly break faith? Since Old Master Chen had been so confident in saying that the seal alone could retrieve the silver, there was no reason the Chen family people would dare not follow the rules he had set—Old Master Chen was the outstanding figure of the Xiangfan Chen family clan. The Chen family village’s ancestral hall, school, and the clan’s communal fields were all established by Old Master Chen. His prestige among the Chen family clan members was beyond question.
Qian Ying hit the nail on the head: “Riches move people’s hearts.” Seeing Zhou Weiqi suddenly raise his head, he sighed: “It’s also that we were too hasty. Once we got the seal, we rushed to Xiangfan without any regard, without any preparation at all.”
“We snatched the seal from the hands of Sixth Miss Song. After snatching the seal…” Qian Ying looked at Zhou Weiqi, his face solemn: “After snatching the seal, we all overlooked one point—since Sixth Miss Song could snatch Miss Chen from Liangdi’s hands, she may not be unaware that Miss Chen had the seal on her. Since she knows…” He paused: “Since she knows of the seal’s existence, and knows it was Liangdi who sent people to assassinate Miss Chen, then she can certainly guess that we were the ones who snatched away the seal. And since we took the seal, we certainly wouldn’t just leave it sitting there. Naturally, the sooner we get the silver in hand, the more at ease we’d be.”
Huang Yiqing, another retainer who had been silent the whole time, also nodded: “Too careless. We never thought that Sixth Miss Song would tamper with the Xiangfan Chen family.”
This hardly needed thinking—the most reasonable explanation was that Song Chuyi had already sent people to Xiangfan beforehand, establishing connections with the Chen family ahead of time. Just as Qian Ying said, riches move people’s hearts. The Chen family’s backer, Old Master Chen, was already finished. No matter how much the Chen family clan members respected him, they still had to think for themselves, for their children and grandchildren. The Chen family hadn’t produced any talented people over these years anyway. Now that the clan school had finally been established and several young men had passed the provincial examinations, even if they were thinking of their own family clan, as long as the people sent by Song Chuyi analyzed the pros and cons for them a little and incited them from within, they would easily develop the idea of keeping the silver for themselves. Naturally, they would follow the advice of those people and trap whoever came with the seal to retrieve the silver in Xiangfan.
Qian Ying’s expression was not good: “The Xiangfan Prefect acted so quickly—I’m afraid connections there were established long ago. This Sixth Miss Song really does things like a snake. Once she bites someone, she won’t let go until she tears off a piece of your flesh.” His heart was angry, so his words inevitably became somewhat harsh: “I’ve really never seen such a young lady—without a sound…”
Zhou Weiqi’s expression was even worse than his. He paced irritably behind the desk several times, his hand tapping on the table: “So what do we do now?”
The Chen family people said the silver was theirs, and they could produce evidence—such a large sum of silver had been deposited in the bank all along, and there were plenty of people at the bank who could testify. In contrast, Wei Yansheng had nothing but that seal. But how could he produce this seal?
Zhou Weiqi couldn’t help but curse. In his heart, he also thought Old Master Chen stupid—for all his supposed cleverness, if he were truly clever, he should have realized it was unreliable to deposit the silver with his clan members. Look, as soon as he was ruined, people simply didn’t regard him as important anymore. If he had deposited the silver in a money house or bank and directly retrieved it with a token, wouldn’t there be none of these problems?
Qian Ying and Huang Yiqing exchanged a glance, both seeing the difficulty in the other’s eyes. If the connections at the Xiangfan Prefect’s office had been established by Song Chuyi’s people, this matter was truly somewhat difficult to handle—with both human and material evidence present, what else could Wei Yansheng do but wait to meet his doom?
After a moment of silence, Huang Yiqing asked hesitantly: “Otherwise, go ask the Crown Prince?” Seeing that Zhou Weiqi seemed about to get angry immediately, he quickly said: “Speaking of this matter, it’s actually both big and not big—it’s just the Chen family clan members insisting with one voice that Master Wei robbed the silver. If the Chen family clan members changed their story, wouldn’t everything be fine? If His Highness is willing to intervene, the Chen family people won’t fail to show tact.”