Chapter 35: The Cousin Who Swiped New Year’s Money
The Marquis of Guangling returned to the Marquis’s Mansion and, seeing Du Yu who came to greet him, slapped him in anger first.
“What a fine mess you’ve made!”
Du Yu was stunned by the slap but didn’t dare say much, chasing after to ask for the whole story, and was dumbfounded too.
In the past, no matter how outrageous the Du Family was, Yan Bei at most would just summon them for a scolding and never interfere in their affairs.
This time they had already tried to be as low-key as possible, suppressing the shadows existing in the He and Zhang Families to the least conspicuous level, so how did Yan Bei still latch onto it?
What does a thorough investigation mean?
It means that no matter how much effort they had put in before, no matter how perfectly they had mended the fold after the sheep was lost, it was absolutely impossible to completely extricate themselves from this case!
He would eventually trace it back to the Du Family!
Du Yu was ruthless at heart, and after being stunned for a moment, he said, “Though the Prince is… the first ruthless person to kill his teacher while ascending to power, he hasn’t made any big moves in the three years since entering the capital. Our Marquis’s Mansion is a major asset to him. Even if he uncovers something, he’s unlikely to enforce the law impartially and cut off his own wings, right? What benefit would it bring him to truly send us to the guillotine?”
“Have you really forgotten that there’s still a knife hanging over our heads?” The Marquis of Guangling gritted his teeth and glared at him. “If the Prince’s Mansion traces it to us and uncovers our connection to Princess Yongjia, guess whether that person behind the scenes would allow us any chance to reveal the truth to the Prince?”
Du Yu was instantly stunned.
Three years ago, the Du Family, even with three heads, wouldn’t have dared to hatch a plot to murder Princess Yongjia.
They, who had been selling off ancestral properties for years, also couldn’t have the capability to set up such a huge trap, gathering so many assassins disguised as bandits to commit murder.
Even less possible was for them to readily fork over tens of thousands of silver taels as reward money to seal the mouths of the He and Zhang Families after succeeding!
So, after them, there was still one more person.
But they absolutely, absolutely could not speak of it!
Once they did, not only would he and his son be finished, the entire Marquis’s Mansion would surely be completely done for too.
Probably even more thoroughly than the He and Zhang Families had died!
Wealth and honor are sought in danger; one cannot forget the danger once obtaining wealth and honor!
Prince Jingyang’s Mansion does not form factions with any family in the court; even the Emperor’s maternal Mu Family, multiple times using the Emperor’s favor to try to curry favor with Yan Bei, was treated by Yan Bei with impartial disregard.
No one can fathom Yan Bei’s depths.
The person behind the scenes naturally wouldn’t allow him to touch this matter either.
“Then the Prince has ordered us to send the files; what should we do now?” Du Yu was truly at a loss.
“Grab hold of Xu He! Urge him to quickly propose marriage to the Duan Family and wed!” The Marquis of Guangling suddenly turned around, his eyes red with ferocity. “Xu He is the Emperor’s personally selected top scholar, placed in the Imperial Secretariat; he’s a man wanted from above. Stabilize this matter first! Understand?!”
Du Yu hurriedly agreed.
At the threshold, he turned back and asked, “Father, who exactly is this person behind us?”
The Marquis of Guangling lifted his still angry face: “What?”
“I just feel we’re too passive. It’s been three years; though the promises given back then have all been fulfilled, he hasn’t shown his face once. If there’s any mishap in the future, we won’t even know how we’ve been brought down.”
The Marquis of Guangling’s gaze darkened. Standing by the case for a moment, he looked over: “Go handle the matters first.”
Du Yu pressed his lips, nodded, and left.
Only when there was no sound under the door did the Marquis of Guangling straighten his waist, turn, pass through the curtain, and lift the peony painting hanging on the wall.
Beneath the painting was an iron mechanism; pressing it open revealed the hidden compartment concealed in the wall.
He took out a broken beaded bracelet from it, gritted his teeth and clutched it in his hand, then slowly put it back as if it weighed a thousand pounds.
……
Even before making a move on the He Family, Wei Zhang had already gone to the Marquis of Guangling’s Mansion to scout.
Though the Marquis’s Mansion also had deep courtyards, compared to Prince Jingyang’s Mansion, it was not worth mentioning.
Apart from the hidden sentries guarding day and night, Wei Zhang really couldn’t find a gap to enter; the rest had all been scouted clearly.
He Jianzhong had mentioned the mechanism behind the peony painting in the study before dying; wall mechanisms were nothing more than metal hidden compartments, common items for Imperial City Department people. Even if Xiao Huo couldn’t handle it, Wei Zhang could.
Right now, they were stuck on how to avoid the now-vigilant Du Family father and son and enter the mansion unnoticed.
Prince Jingyang’s Mansion suddenly issued a notice seeking a person, and without probing his purpose, just considering the relationship between the Prince’s Mansion and the Du Family—even if they succeeded at the Du Family upon return, how would they handle the Prince’s Mansion side afterward?
After Wei Zhang and the others left, she had been pondering the map left by Zhang Shaode.
Only when her vision gradually dimmed did she come back to herself; unexpectedly, it had turned dark without her realizing.
And Wei Zhang and the other one still hadn’t returned.
She got up and went out; Lan Qin was cooking, Hua Lin was fiddling in the medicine room. She walked in: “No news from Wei Zhang and them yet?”
Xu He was from Luoyang, not from a humble family but not prominent either; his father was a county magistrate in the south, and he had stayed in their ancestral home studying with his mother. After becoming top scholar, he brought his mother to the Capital City too. They lived in an alley just two streets from the Marquis’s Mansion. And after over half a year, his father was still posted elsewhere.
If the Xu Family’s threshold was high, they wouldn’t have let Xu’s father remain a county magistrate a thousand li away. Nor would they accept the Marquis’s Mansion’s matchmaking to marry into the Duan Family of a fifth-rank official.
So logically, Xu He’s background should be easy to investigate; it shouldn’t take a whole day this long.
“You’re asking me? How would I know? I only know how to treat illnesses and dispense medicine.” Hua Lin weighed the medicinal herbs while lightly snorting through his nose, full of defiance, but his honorifics were not one bit lacking.
Yue Tang glanced at him: “I remember when you used to go to the Prince’s Mansion to treat Mother’s illness, you weren’t like this. What, now that Mother is gone, you’re putting on airs as my maternal uncle?”
“You still remember I’m your maternal uncle?” Hua Lin seemed to have his tail stepped on, instantly putting hands on hips and sticking out his neck.
Yue Tang smiled: “Of course I remember. Besides that, I also remember you embezzling my New Year’s money.”
Hua Lin immediately wilted, his face flushing red: “I already said that was a misunderstanding…”
Yue Tang didn’t argue.
Hua Lin was a direct branch son of the Hua Family; the Hua Family had practiced medicine for generations with great renown, but they had a past grudge with the Imperial Family early on, thus never involving themselves in Imperial Family matters.
But Princess Duan and Hua Lin were cousins.
Therefore, when the Princess Consort was gravely ill, the Hua Family stepped up without hesitation.
That was when Yue Tang met Hua Lin.
After Princess Duan passed away, Hua Lin followed his father back to the mountains.
Later, when she gave birth to A Li, fearing an accident, she had Hua Lin on standby in Bie Ye in advance.
The “embezzling New Year’s money” she mentioned had happened on the last New Year’s Eve before Princess Duan’s passing.
Yue Tang leaned her lower back against the desk, lightly supporting herself on the table edge with both hands, then gazed darkly ahead at the full cabinets of medicinal herbs: “Tell me, that day you clearly put your own New Year’s money in the lotus flower vase, and mine was in another vase. Mother surely knew I had mixed them up, but why did she insist on giving them all to me?”
