"What?" Xia Qinghe's eyes widened in shock. "Have Fang Qiao teach me? She's just a second wife—even if she's favored at home, she's still only a concubine's daughter! What right does she have to be compared to my mother?!"
"Smack!" A slap landed across Xia Qinghe's face. Xia Chumei's hand stung from the force, his handsome face twisted with fury, yet his words came out dripping with feigned anguish.
"Miss!"
Yunxin and Cuilv cried out in alarm, rushing forward to shield her.
"Xia Qinghe! If it weren't for you, why would I have remarried so early?! And you dare to be ungrateful? I, Xia Chumei, how did I raise a daughter like you?! If you weren't still young, I'd throw you out of this house to taste the hardships of the world!"
Xia Qinghe reached up to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth. Her face stung fiercely—it was probably already swelling. This worthless father of hers really didn't hold back! But she kept her tone defiant.
"Then go ahead and throw me out! The threshold of this Xia estate is far too high for me! If you don't want to be my father, I don't want you either! Why do you keep saying it's all for my sake? It's clearly for your own future! Even if you beat me to death, I won't let you take away my mother's dowry today!"
"Wretch! You unfilial daughter! How dare you speak such treasonous words! Someone! Lock her in her room and make her reflect on her sins! No one is to give her any food!" Xia Chumei was livid, deciding that a couple of days locked up with nothing to eat would temper her stubborn streak.
"Master! Master, please spare the young miss! This servant is willing to take her punishment!" Yunxin and Cuilv knelt, begging him, but Xia Chumei ignored them entirely, flicking his sleeves and storming off.
Fang Qiao gave a subtle nod, and the waiting maidservants grabbed Xia Qinghe, dragging her into her room. The lock clicked shut with a "clack," and even the windows were sealed. Yunxin and Cuilv, frantic, pressed themselves against the door, trying to console her. The two of them truly couldn't understand—just yesterday, the young miss had said she needed to keep her composure, so why was she butting heads with the master today?!
The storeroom was emptied in no time, and even the cook in the courtyard was dismissed. Only Yunxin and Cuilv remained, along with two maidservants guarding the courtyard gate.
Xia Qinghe sat on the bed, hugging her knees, staring blankly ahead. She'd already applied some medicine from her space to her injured face, so it no longer looked so alarming. This outburst today had been deliberate on her part—she wanted to test Xia Chumei's limits. She hadn't expected much, but the result chilled her to the bone. Still, after this ordeal, no matter how she treated Xia Chumei from now on, she'd never feel guilty on behalf of the original owner again.
Yet her heart ached—perhaps it was the original owner's lingering emotions. A dull heaviness pressed against her chest.
"Miss? Miss?" Yunxin called out anxiously, slipping a steamed bun through the crack in the door.
She got off the bed and walked to the door. "Yunxin, I'm not hungry."
"Miss, please eat a little! Your health matters most!" Xia Qinghe thought for a moment, then took the bun anyway. She didn't really need it, but Yunxin and the others had no idea she couldn't go hungry.
"Yunxin, any word from Fourth Miss Xia?"
"I haven't asked yet, but I'll go now. Do you have any instructions, miss?"
"If you find Mama Lin and Taohong, don't let them come back. Give them this and tell them to return to the Lin family." Xia Qinghe went back into the room, retrieved some banknotes, and pressed them into Yunxin's hands.
"Miss…" Yunxin wanted to ask why, but then it hit her—if Mama Lin and the others went back, wouldn't the old madam be able to send someone to fetch the young miss? Yes, that must be what the young miss was thinking too.
"Miss, I know that the old lady on that side must have been thinking of you all these years. Once she gets word, she'll surely send someone to pick you up." Ruxin kept talking to herself, but Xia Qinghe remained noncommittal.
She rarely heard her mother mention her maternal grandparents' family. When she was little, it came up occasionally, but she couldn't remember much. She only knew from her mother that her grandmother's family was very good, but in the later years, it was rarely mentioned. If her grandparents' family truly cared for them, they would have sent word all these years—and after Mother Lin went to the Netherworld, no one even came. Why that was, one could easily guess.
Still, she wasn't worried in the slightest. Since she couldn't stay in the Xia family, she could leave. With Mother Lin's dowry in hand, she wouldn't starve in the short term. Once she was a bit older, she could support herself.
That evening, Ruxin came again, her expression somewhat complicated.
"What is it? Did something happen to Mother Lin and the others?"
"No, no—I already found Mother Lin and Taohong. They're fine. I gave them the bank notes, and Mother Lin took Taohong and left overnight. I heard something from Xia Si, though—something about the master."
"What news?"
"Xia Si said that once, while drinking with the steward, the steward let it slip that the master… keeps a mistress outside, and has a son and a daughter. And those children… are older than you, miss." After saying this, Ruxin carefully watched Xia Qinghe, afraid she might be upset. To her surprise, her young mistress's face showed no expression at all.
Xia Qinghe truly felt nothing. For her, this was actually good news—it only proved that Xia Shimao had indeed treated Mother Lin exactly as she had suspected. It also served as a warning. No wonder Xia Shimao had always been cold toward her—he'd already had children for years.
Now Fang just arrived and couldn't even tolerate her—so what about those children who suddenly appeared, older than her?! Xia Shimao had hidden this well. He probably wasn't just afraid of Fang causing a scene; he was more afraid she'd go back to her maternal family and report him.
"Do you know where they live?"
"I didn't ask."
"Have Xia Si find out the exact address. Keep it to yourself for now—we'll deal with it later."
Dismissing Ruxin, Xia Qinghe blew out the lamp and went straight into her space. She ate and drank her fill, set an alarm, and went to sleep.
When she woke again, it was already the hour of the tiger (3–5 AM). Her small frame pressed close to the door, holding a long object which she fiddled with until—"click"—the lock opened.
Xia Qinghe cracked the door just wide enough to slip through, avoided the old woman guarding the gate, and quietly left the Qinghe Courtyard.
She knew the way well. Arriving at the estate's storehouse, two iron locks barred the door, with no one guarding it. She easily picked the locks and went in. With a small wave of her hand, Xia Qinghe swept Mother Lin's dowry along with the estate's valuables into her space. Since this was a theft, it had to look like one—anything valuable, take it all!
Xia Qinghe showed no mercy. After finishing, she even staged the scene a little, then left, perfectly satisfied. She returned smoothly to her room, climbed into bed, and went back to sleep!
The next morning, while she was sleeping soundly, she was woken by the noise outside. Xia Qinghe rubbed her eyes and sat up just as the door was thrown open with a bang.
"Xia Qinghe! Did you do this?!" Fang stormed into the room, only to see Xia Qinghe looking like she'd just woken up, hair in complete disarray.
The trace of suspicion in her heart gradually died down bit by bit. With so many things, how could she, a mere child, have stolen them? But how could she be willing to let go of this opportunity to vent?
"What are you talking about? What did I do?"
"Don't play dumb. Was it you who found someone to steal from the manor's storehouse? You resent us for taking away your mother's dowry, so you've been holding a grudge! So you found someone to steal it. You ungrateful little wretch, biting the hand that feeds you!" Fang shi was so furious she couldn't be bothered to keep up the pretense of being the matriarch of the household, and piled all the blame onto Xia Qinghe's head.
"Oh? The manor's storehouse was robbed? What does that have to do with me? Instead of going to report it to the authorities, why are you here making a scene?"
This one remark reminded Fang shi. Upon first hearing that the storehouse had been robbed and seeing so many valuable items vanish into thin air—including her own dowry among them—her heart had nearly shattered. In her heated state, she hadn't even thought of reporting it to the authorities. "Don't be too smug. In the back courtyard of this Xia Manor, you can't overturn the heavens!"
She came in a fiery rush and left in a fiery rush. A theft at the county magistrate's household—that was no small matter. Xia Shimei urged the constables under the magistrate to solve the case and find the culprit as quickly as possible.