Wu Ваоzhаng did not know hоw shе rеturnеd hоme, only thаt аs soon аs she entеrеd thе dооr, dаrkness fell bеfore her eyes аnd shе cоllaрsеd. Whеn shе wokе, it wаs аlrеаdy timе to light the lamрs. Нer рersonal mаidservant wаs holding a bоwl оf mеdiсinе, gаzing аt her with a sоrrоwful eхрrеssion. Sеeing hеr оpen hеr еyеs, the maid eхclaimed jоуfullу, "Thе young mistress is аwаkе, the уоung mistrеss is аwаkе!"
Rushing into hеr rоom in dеlight werе her wet nursе and аnоthеr seniоr mаidsеrvаnt. The two stоod by the bedside, tеars falling as thеy said, "Yоung mistress, уоu’ve finаlly awakened. The physician said you caught a chill and have been unconscious for two days and two nights. If you hadn’t woken, we would have had no choice but to go to Apricot Grove Lane to seek help from Madam Yuan!"
Caught a chill?!
Wu Baozhang struggled to sit up.
Her wet nurse and maidservant hurriedly placed a supporting pillow behind her back.
Wu Baozhang asked, "Where is the young master?"
The maidservant and wet nurse exchanged a glance before replying, "The young master’s injury hasn’t healed yet, so he is resting in bed. When he learned you had caught a chill, he had a servant help him over to see you. But the physician forbade him from leaving his bed, fearing his wound might reopen. That’s why he hasn’t visited you these past two days."
Lies!
Cheng Nuo hated her to the core—why would he come to see her?
Yet Cheng Nuo was the most soft-hearted of men. Perhaps he really had come to see her?
A faint glimmer of hope rose in Wu Baozhang’s heart. She said to her wet nurse, "Help me dress. I’ll go see the young master!"
Her wet nurse’s expression turned slightly panicked. She quickly said, "You should rest a while longer. After you’ve taken your medicine and feel better, it won’t be too late to visit the young master..."
Suspicion stirred in Wu Baozhang’s heart. She pushed her wet nurse aside and ordered the maidservant, "Help me change clothes!"
The maidservant glanced at the wet nurse, not daring to move.
Wu Baozhang flared up in anger. "Do you still see me as the young mistress? Do you all want to be driven out?"
At this, the wet nurse began to weep. "Young mistress, the young master is not in his room. The day after you fainted, he was able to get out of bed. As soon as he could, he left the house and hasn’t returned since. Even the servants attending him don’t know where he went. The master is very worried and sent people to search for him. According to those who reported back, the young master went looking for that Kang Liu Niang. But the Kang family’s shop had already been sold to someone else, and Kang Liu Niang returned to Huixian County. The young master... he chased after her, saying he would give Kang Liu Niang an explanation, that he would... would divorce you..." With that, the wet nurse broke into loud sobs. "Young mistress, what are we to do? If you are divorced, even if the master pities you, there is still the mistress to consider. While you were unconscious these past two days, a letter arrived from Jinling City saying that they have arranged for Master Wu to marry the second daughter of the maternal uncle from the Yin family..."
Upon hearing this, Wu Baozhang nearly fainted from rage.
Her birth mother’s surname was Yin, and this maternal uncle from the Yin family was her birth mother’s elder brother. He was a notorious scoundrel in Meizhou. Later, when her father became an official, this uncle repeatedly exploited her father’s name to oppress the local villagers. Her father had no choice but to hire someone to give this uncle a severe beating, after which he finally settled down a bit. Even so, her father still had to provide a certain amount of silver each year to support this uncle. What kind of daughter could such a family raise, especially a second daughter? Wasn’t this meant to ruin her brother’s future?
And who else could have orchestrated such a thing but her dear stepmother?
Wu Baozhang forced herself to sit up and asked, "Was this the mistress’s idea?"The wet nurse wiped her tears and nodded, saying, "The mistress said that if we keep giving money to the Young Master Yin from the Yin family, he will rely on that silver to live and will never do any proper work. But if we don’t give it, others will say the master is abandoning his first wife, which would harm his reputation. Moreover, the second young lady is about to marry into the Shen family, a prominent household in Jiangnan. We can’t let her become a laughingstock after she marries. The best solution is to marry a girl from the Yin family into our household. In the future, if any issues arise, the Yin girl can step in to mediate. At the very least, she can deal with the Yin family herself—once she marries into our family, she can’t possibly ignore her husband’s household and only think of her own family, right?
"The eldest master agreed.
"The wedding date has been set for October this year."
In other words, her opposition was useless.
Wu Baozhang collapsed weakly onto the bed.
Yet not a single person from the Cheng family came to see her.
Wu Baozhang’s mind was a muddled mess. One moment, she recalled Cheng Lu smiling as he tucked a silk flower into her hair, looking at her with warmth and joy. The next, she remembered him holding a copy of The Classic of Mountains and Seas, gently telling her stories. Then, the scene shifted to him pushing her to the ground, pointing at her nose and calling her a shameless woman. When she looked up, she saw Zhou Shaojin standing behind Cheng Lu, smiling brightly... These fragmented scenes spun like a lantern in her mind, making it hard for her to distinguish what had truly happened from her own wild imaginings. Gradually, she drifted into a daze.
By the time she fully regained her senses, it was already the beginning of August, time to start preparing gifts for the New Year.
Her wet nurse came to ask for her instructions, but Wu Baozhang felt too listless to care. In a hoarse voice, she asked, "Hasn’t the master been managing household affairs these days? Go ask him."
The wet nurse forced a smile and said, "Household matters should naturally be handled by the mistress. It’s just that you were unwell recently, so some matters were entrusted to the master. Now that you’ve recovered, of course, you should be the one in charge..." She lowered her voice and added, "On the eighth day of the eighth month, it’s the hundred-day celebration for Young Master Yun of the Fourth Master’s family at Chaoyang Gate. You haven’t been out for a while—would you like to freshen up and pay them a visit?"
She was hinting that Wu Baozhang could take the opportunity to voice her grievances to the Cheng family elders.
Nowadays, Cheng Wen relied even more on the Cheng family’s main branch. If the elders of the main branch spoke up, Cheng Wen wouldn’t dare disobey.
In Wu Baozhang’s mind, Cheng Lu’s words echoed once more: "You’re not even fit to carry Shaojin’s shoes."
She gritted her teeth in fury, clenching her fists tightly.
To curry favor with Old Madam Guo and endure Zhou Shaojin’s smug looks? Not a chance!
But if she didn’t go... how could she break this deadlock?
Now fully awake, Wu Baozhang quickly began to confront her predicament.
"Has the young master not returned yet?" she asked the wet nurse. "What has the master been doing these days?"The wet nurse timidly looked at her and shook her head, whispering, "The master hasn't returned yet. The father-in-law has been busy at the shop these days." She hesitated for a moment before adding, "However, the brother from over there came by a few days ago. I heard he brought six hundred taels of silver for the father-in-law, which was the income from the estate over there. He also said that the one over there sent him to discuss with the father-in-law, suggesting they sell two pieces of prime paddy fields there and use the silver to help cover expenses here..."
The one over there. That was Cheng Wen's mistress.
Zhou Shaojin sneered upon hearing this, "Six hundred taels of silver? Who does she think she's fooling? The shops the father-in-law gave her alone yield two to three thousand taels of silver a year..."
The wet nurse sighed helplessly, "But she can still manage to deceive the father-in-law. Look at the mistress—she won't part with a single penny. Last month, she even sent a letter asking the father-in-law to send her two thousand taels of silver, saying her nephew was getting married soon and she had to give a generous gift. And look at that brother over there—he even eats at the same table as the servants..."
"Enough. Enough." Wu Baozhang felt a headache coming on and said, "Don't tell me about these things in the future."
The wet nurse fell silent.
She also felt it was improper to meddle in the father-in-law's affairs, but hadn't Wu Baozhang instructed her to keep an eye on things before?
Wu Baozhang felt it would be better if she had just remained unconscious.
She sighed and instructed the wet nurse, "Prepare my clothes and accessories for me! On the eighth, I'll go to Chaoyang Gate for the banquet."
The wet nurse happily went to prepare.
Wu Baozhang sent someone to pay respects to her father-in-law—since she was awake, she ought to greet him. However, since Cheng Nuo was not at home, it was proper to maintain some distance between father-in-law and daughter-in-law, so she sent someone instead.
The person who returned did not see the father-in-law and reported to her, "The father-in-law is speaking with the brother from over there. He heard you were awake and gave some ginseng to the kitchen to make chicken soup for you, saying you should rest well and go to Chaoyang Gate on the eighth to congratulate Master Yun."
Wu Baozhang nodded absentmindedly.
In the study, Cheng Wen's brows were furrowed so tightly they could crush a mosquito.
He paced around the room and said, "Is this your idea or your sister's?"
In the room was another man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with regular features and plain clothing, yet exuding a steady and reliable air that made one feel at ease.
"It's my idea," the man said. "My sister doesn't feel it's hard to follow you. But the children are growing up, and in a few years, they'll need to study and take exams. If things continue like this, what will become of them? My sister wants to go to Hangzhou Prefecture and ask you to arrange for the children's household registration to be moved there. She and the children will live in Hangzhou Prefecture from then on. That's also our hometown. But as soon as I arrived in the capital and saw the situation here, I thought it would be better for you to help the master marry that Lady Kang.
"You come from an official family, so there are some things you might not know. In Huixian County, many people are merchants, and they often travel for business for ten or twenty years without returning home. They can't be without someone to serve them, and they can't have all their children be illegitimate, right? So they marry a wife locally, treating both households as equal..."
Cheng Wen had heard of such things before.
He had even looked down on such families.
But now... he couldn't help but feel a stirring in his heart.If Cheng Nuo were to follow that Sixth Lady of the Kang family to Huixian, he could then send Wu Baozhang back to Jinling to serve his mother, while the woman he kept outside could live with him in the capital along with their child. Although Sixth Lady of the Kang family came from a merchant background, at least her origins were respectable. Wu Baozhang had no children, so when the child was born and returned to Jinling to be registered in the family records, there would be no legitimate son. With everyone on equal footing, there would be no distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children.
Cheng Wen thought more about it and felt this idea was excellent. The more he considered it, the more feasible it seemed.
He grew somewhat excited and loudly called for the steward to come in, instructing him to prepare generous gifts to send to Chaoyang Gate: "...to congratulate Yun Ge'er on his hundredth-day celebration."
Matters concerning descendants were of great importance. If he could secure the approval of the eldest branch, this matter would be foolproof.
After all, Wu Baozhang's father was a fourth-rank official. Who knew if he might one day be promoted to a third-rank provincial governor? If that happened, Wu Baozhang could rely on her maternal family to refuse to acknowledge the child born to Sixth Lady of the Kang family. Even worse, if she claimed that Sixth Lady of the Kang family was merely a concubine in their household—and concubines had no personal property—she could seize Sixth Lady of the Kang family's assets, leaving not a single penny for his grandson and instead using it to support her own family. That would be a disaster!
This matter had to be arranged properly, ensuring Wu Baozhang had no chance to turn the tables.
※
Dear readers, this is an extra update for Shuihualing.
O(∩_∩)O~
PS: I’ve seen your comments saying you don’t like reading about Wu Baozhang... but as this story is nearing its conclusion, some characters and events need to be properly resolved. There’s no skipping over them...
The evening update will still be around ten o’clock.
※ (To be continued ~^~)
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