Тhе асtiоns оf the Zhou sistеrs аnd Оld Маdam Guan thorоughlу offendеd Madаm Dоng.
Shе shut hеrsеlf in hеr inner chаmber and wept for two full dауs. Onlу when shе hеаrd thаt Chеng Lu hаd rеturnеd did shе rush to thе main hall as if сlutсhing at а life-saving straw.
"Еldest Young Мaster, Еldеst Yоung Маstеr, sоmething terriblе hаs haрреned!" Нer еуes werе swоllen likе walnuts, making it impоssible to seе сlеarlу. Pushing awaу thе рersоnаl mаid suрроrting her, shе dаshed tоward thе figure standing in thе cеntеr оf the hаll drеssеd in dаrk blue robes. "Yоur father, your fathеr is in trouble!"
Aсcording tо the rulеs оf Yuelu Аcademy, students from out of town could arrange their return home based on their circumstances. However, just before the New Year, Cheng Lu had been summoned by a professor at Yuelu Academy to help compile a collection of essays from three years prior. He was only released after the Laba Festival. Fearing he would miss the ancestral worship on New Year's Eve, he rushed back day and night. Yet before he could even steady himself, his mother hurried out in a panic, shouting something about his father being in trouble.
His father had been dead for ten years—what trouble could there possibly be?
Exhausted, hungry, and cold, Cheng Lu had little patience for Madam Dong.
"Mother, can you not be more composed?" he said impatiently. "Can you wait until I change my clothes and have a cup of hot tea before speaking?"
"You... you haven't changed yet!" Madam Dong stammered, hastily straightening herself. Remembering the distressing matters, she wanted to cry again, but her tears seemed to have dried up like a parched well. Her eyes ached with dryness, yet she still dabbed at them with a handkerchief. "Eldest Young Master, you have no idea what your father has done behind our backs! And now, it's all come to light. When he was alive, he never cared for us, mother and son. Even in death, he's bringing disaster upon you..."
"Mother!" Cheng Lu's face turned ashen with rage as he roared, "Do you even know what you're saying? With all these servants around, how will you ever hold your head up again!"
Madam Dong shrank back in fear.
Cheng Lu frowned and ordered her personal maid, "Lianxiang, take Madam back to her room."
Lianxiang trembled with fright and hurried to support Madam Dong.
But Madam Dong did not obediently follow the maid back to her room as she usually would. Instead, she clutched Cheng Lu's sleeve, half-pleading and half-terrified. "Eldest Young Master, come to me as soon as you've changed. I have something urgent to tell you." Then, remembering that her son might not have eaten, she added, "If you haven't had your meal yet, have the servants bring it to my room. You can eat while I speak. This matter is very important."
Her son had always admired his father. If he were to hear unfavorable things about his father from the servants, she feared he would have no one to comfort him in his grief.
Cheng Lu grunted with a furrowed brow. Only after Madam Dong had left the hall did he instruct Zhao Dahai, "Quickly deliver all the local specialties we bought from Changsha Prefecture to the various households in Nine Prosperities Lane. Tomorrow is Little New Year—any later would be inappropriate."
Zhao Dahai repeatedly acknowledged the order.
Cheng Lu returned to his inner chamber with his servant Songqing.
Moxiang had not known when Cheng Lu would return. Since the start of the twelfth lunar month, she had cleaned the side room where Cheng Lu stayed every day, just as she did when he was home. Upon hearing that he had returned, she hurried out to greet him.Cheng Lu was quite pleased to see the room clean and tidy despite not having announced his return in advance, with even the painting in the main hall appropriately depicting an auspicious scene of "Snow Foretelling a Bountiful Year." He nodded slightly and rewarded Moxiang with five taels of silver.
Overjoyed, Moxiang promptly instructed the maids to fetch water for Cheng Lu to wash up. She also sent a young maid to inform the kitchen of his return and prepare some of his favorite dishes and wine.
Cheng Lu recalled his mother's words.
Though his mother could be unreliable at times, she cared deeply for her children. Knowing he had just returned, she wouldn’t have insisted on speaking with him before he had eaten unless something truly alarming had happened.
Could it be that something had happened to his father?
The thought crossed his mind, and he spat in disgust.
His mother was muddle-headed, and now he was following suit, echoing her words!
After a moment’s thought, he said to Moxiang, "Serve the meal in my mother’s room. I wish to speak with her."
Moxiang respectfully complied. Only after Cheng Lu had washed up and changed into a lotus-purple brocade robe from Huzhou did she accompany him to Madam Dong’s room.
Madam Dong immediately dismissed all the maids and servants around them. Clutching her son’s hand, she couldn’t help but cover her eyes and wail dryly: "That wretched father of yours, even in death he causes trouble..." She told Cheng Lu how the Zhou family had discovered that Lanting had falsely transmitted Madam Zhuang’s dying wishes, leading the Zhou sisters to uncover Cheng Bai’s conspiracy with Xinlan to murder Madam Zhuang.
But before Madam Dong could finish, Cheng Lu flew into a rage, roaring at her: "Who fed you such nonsense? How could Father, such a good man, conspire with a lowly maid, and one married to a merchant at that? Others may lack sense, but must you follow suit? What have you been doing all day at home? I work tirelessly to support this family, not so you can parrot slander about my father!"
Madam Dong was so terrified by her son’s ferocious expression that she collapsed into her chair. Had it not been for the backrest, she might have fallen to the floor.
Cheng Lu looked at his mother with a mix of pity and disgust.
Rubbing his temples, he said wearily, "Alright, Mother, I shouldn’t have shouted at you. But what you said is too outrageous. Please don’t speak like this again. I think you have too much idle time. If you’re truly bored, visit the temple more often, like Old Madam Guo. Recite sutras, copy scriptures—anything but listening to rumors and taking them as truth!"
Madam Dong was illiterate; how could she copy scriptures?
But at that moment, Cheng Lu forgot this, and so did Madam Dong.
Seeing her son’s expression soften, Madam Dong gradually regained her strength. She burst into tears and cried to Cheng Lu: "Eldest Young Master, I’m not talking nonsense, I truly am not... Those two maids have already been imprisoned."
Cheng Lu was stunned.
Madam Dong recounted in detail how she had pleaded with the Cheng family for his future, finally grasping her son’s hand and saying, "If you hadn’t returned, I wouldn’t have known what to do. What if others find out about your father’s deeds? Think about it—could you still become an official? What would become of our family? Wouldn’t your ten years of diligent study be in vain? And you haven’t even married yet!"
Cheng Lu’s face turned deathly pale. "Mother, are you saying you pleaded with Zhou Shaojin, and not only did she refuse to spare us, but she also scolded you harshly?""Yes!" Madam Dong now found Zhou Shaojin utterly displeasing no matter how she looked at her. Fearing her son’s heart might remain fixated on Shaojin, she exaggerated, "Her words were truly vile! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed Zhou Shaojin could say such things. Even a market shrew would have more manners than her..."
Cheng Lu wasn’t really listening to what Madam Dong was saying; his expression was somewhat dazed.
Right! How could the Cheng and Zhou families let him off so easily?
So they had a backup plan after all!
They probably still didn’t know who he really was, did they?
Trying to pin a crime on him wouldn’t be so easy.
If the Zhou family had indeed sent those two maidservants to the magistrate’s office under that pretext, he needed to hurry and get hold of their confessions. He had to see if he could find any loopholes between the lines.
Cheng Lu was a man of action. He called out loudly for Mosong, only then realizing his mother was still clutching his hand, chattering on about Zhou Shaojin’s faults.
He quickly said to his mother, "Don’t worry about this matter. I have my own plans. Just remember that Father was a good man, and all those words are slanders spread by people with ulterior motives."
Madam Dong, who had always obeyed her son without question, was now deeply skeptical. She hesitated and stammered, "This time, it might not just be rumors. I heard that Xinlan admitted your father once gave her a full set of gold hair ornaments, and Xinlan’s husband confirmed that wretched maid really did have such a set. At the time, she said it was a gift from Madam Zhuang, so her husband didn’t suspect anything..." At this point, she couldn’t help but gnash her teeth. "If your father hadn’t died so early, he would probably have taken that trash into his household long ago..."
Cheng Lu didn’t like hearing his mother speak of his father this way. He interrupted Madam Dong unhappily, "Didn’t I tell you? Those are all lies! Fabrications by the Zhou family!"
Perhaps the mention of the gold hair ornaments stirred something in Madam Dong. She pressed on relentlessly, "What good would it do the Zhou family to do this? I don’t think it sounds like the Zhou family spreading rumors!"
Cheng Lu was exasperated by his mother’s stubbornness and couldn’t help but reply coldly, "Haven’t you realized yet? The Zhou family is trying to retaliate against your son!"
"Why would they want to retaliate against you?" Madam Dong was stunned. "You haven’t done anything to wrong the Zhou family, have you?" Before she finished speaking, she exclaimed, "Oh!" and hurriedly added, "Could it be that the Zhou family resents you for falling for Zhou Shaojin? But that doesn’t make sense either. If that were the case, the Zhou family could simply marry Shaojin off to someone else. Why go to the trouble of offending you? Are they afraid you’ll rise to prominence in the future and come back to settle scores with them?"
Faced with such a mother, Cheng Lu felt utterly helpless. Without malice, he explained the longstanding feud between the Cheng and Zhuang families to her.Madam Dong stared at her son in shock, unable to regain her composure for a long while. When she finally did, she could no longer contain her anger. Pointing a finger at her son’s nose, she exclaimed loudly, “When did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me? You clearly knew Zhou Shaojin is Zhuang Liangyu’s daughter, yet you still insisted on marrying her? How could you have the nerve to ask me to propose to the Cheng family on your behalf? If you bring her into our home, what will we become? Aren’t you afraid of being pointed at and mocked on the streets, with people saying that both father and son are shameless—the father liking the mother, the son liking the daughter—trampling our family’s dignity underfoot…”
Cheng Lu felt utterly helpless.
“Mother, could you please lower your voice? Aren’t you afraid of being overheard?” he said, as if conceding. “I only just found out myself. Otherwise, why would I have even considered marrying Zhou Shaojin? Now that you know the truth, please stop believing those baseless rumors. I’ve already earned my scholarly rank, so I no longer need to rely on the Cheng family for everything. From now on, you should just stay at home peacefully as the lady of the house.”
Madam Dong was half-convinced, half-doubting.
But Cheng Lu had no time to spare for her.
He needed to find a way to obtain the testimonies of Xinlan and Lanting.
※
Sisters, there are only two updates today. This is today’s installment.
o(n_n)o~
※ (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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