The glowing light of the setting sun intermingled with the clouds at the edge of the sky, falling upon Yin Weiyue’s face. Her sharp, cunning black eyes seemed as if they were fiery, golden eyes forged in a furnace, causing the person before her to have nowhere to hide.
“I see that Third Aunt has a face slick with oil, which goes to show you must be eating quite well on normal days, unlike us in the eldest branch where every single one of us has grown thin as a bamboo pole. Look further at Third Aunt’s outfit: from your makeup, to your jewelry, to your clothes, down to the curved-toe shoes on your feet, one certainly cannot tell that you are currently under house arrest.
Compared with my mother-in-law, apart from being unable to leave the manor, you look like you’ve turned the tables and become the managing matriarch of the Huo family. Look again at us in the eldest branch—even Grandmother only barely has a single silver hairpin to bind her hair.”
Mrs. Chen raised her hand to slap away the finger pointing at her belly, but unfortunately, Yin Weiyue swiftly pulled her hand back, leaving her to slap empty air.
Thus, she had no choice but to force a sophistical argument: “That’s because your eldest branch is accustomed to extravagance and doesn’t know how to make slender streams flow long! You pawned your belongings long ago, so who can you blame now that you can’t get enough to eat?!”
In response to her argument, Yin Weiyue merely let out a cold snort.
“When the decree was issued back then to search, confiscate, and put the Huo Manor under house arrest, it explicitly stated that out of consideration for the three generations of service by the Huo family, everyday necessities were to be left for the Huo family young and old, and the household was not to be entirely confiscated. At that time, the chief official in charge of the confiscation was Zhu Guangye, an Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate who was on good terms with the Fourth Prince. This man had always been a rival to my father-in-law, so he was extremely harsh when searching and confiscating the eldest branch.
Apart from leaving behind some clothes, bedding, furniture, pots, pans, bowls, and basins according to the decree, let alone the courtyards, the base of walls, and beneath the stoves, he even had the pond searched multiple times for fear that the eldest branch had hidden riches. It was only thanks to Eunuch Wang, the Emperor’s personal attendant who accompanied him beside, that Zhu Guangye did not dare to drive the eldest branch to absolute ruin and instead acted according to the decree. Otherwise, the eldest branch would have starved to death long ago.
However, when it came time to search your third branch, it was far more lenient. Zhu Guangye had a personal grudge against my father-in-law, so Eunuch Wang could not openly protect us for fear of bringing more disaster upon the eldest branch. But knowing that the eldest and third branches were born of the legitimate line and shared the same blood lineage, he helped openly while protecting in secret. The third branch only had its explicit household wealth confiscated, while the things hidden in secret were all preserved. Even few of your clothes and furniture were impounded.
Before leaving, Eunuch Wang quietly instructed Third Uncle that the reason so many things were left for the third branch was entirely because His Majesty wanted to preserve the Huo family, and told Third Uncle to send half of the items to the eldest branch after the court officers left.”
The preface of the original web novel was written like this: although Zhu Guangye belonged to the Fourth Prince’s faction, he also had his own set of official tactics, so he naturally did not dare to excessively brush off Eunuch Wang’s face. After all, behind this eunuch was the Emperor.
Although the old Emperor’s actual power had been stripped away, an emperor without real power was still an emperor, and he had plenty of ways if he wanted to kill an official. Therefore, he granted Eunuch Wang a favor and showed leniency exclusively toward the third branch.
In truth, Zhu Guangye had his own calculations as well. Although the eldest and third branches were born of the legitimate line, under endless house arrest, human nature was the thing least able to withstand the test. He seemed to have already foreseen the scene of the Huo family members fighting to the death for this batch of wealth, which was far more interesting than directly starving Huo Anjiang’s dependents to death.
Yin Weiyue continued: “Yet what about your third branch? You eat well and drink well yourselves, and except for the Old Mrs. receiving a dozen or so pastries from you each month, when have you ever cared about anyone else in the eldest branch?
Filial piety toward the Old Mrs. is an obligation the third branch ought to fulfill in the first place. The other two concubine-born branches have their own birth mothers and grandmothers, so it might be excused if they lacked true feelings for the Old Mrs. in the face of great disaster, but you in the third branch are her own son and grandson. House arrest is approaching two whole years now, yet you haven’t even sent over a single bowl of dry cooked rice! Are you worthy of the late Old Master? Even I feel embarrassed for the third branch!”
This speech of Yin Weiyue’s could be said to have stirred up thousands of waves.
For the past two years, Mrs. Chen had kept this matter tightly concealed, forbidding anyone from revealing even a single shred to the outside. She also frequently put on an act by taking bedding and clothes to the guards outside to pawn for food as a cover.
The Old Mrs.’s second legitimate son—that is, Third Master Huo Anzong—was perpetually henpecked and terrified of his wife; unable to manage household matters, he simply became a hands-off boss. His two concubines were lowborn concubines elevated from second-tier maidservants who, if they wanted to survive, had to obey Mrs. Chen’s every command. As for Mrs. Chen’s three daughters, they had been in cahoots with her since childhood and had long been egged on by Mrs. Chen to be dissatisfied with the eldest branch everywhere, so they naturally would not go and speak out.
As for the female lead Zhang Yulin, although she was kind-hearted, she was no saintly white lotus. After marrying into the family, because her maiden family’s official rank was low and humble, she was created difficulties everywhere by her mother-in-law and three sisters-in-law. Currently overwhelmed with protecting herself, she naturally would not actively tear down her mother-in-law’s stage to draw hatred.
Meanwhile, the male lead Huo Kai was extremely filial toward Mrs. Chen. Although he couldn’t be considered a mama’s boy, he was extremely helpless against his old mother’s antics of crying, throwing tantrums, and threatening suicide. For the sake of peace and quiet, he simply went along with his mother.
However, he swore he would never stand by and watch his eldest uncle’s family starve to death, intending to secretly aid them later if the eldest branch truly ran out of grain. That way, he could avoid noisy bickering in the manor should the matter explode, which might lead to the guards discovering the hidden wealth and causing everything to go down the drain.
In this way, Mrs. Chen successfully kept the eldest, second, and fourth branches in the dark.
Hearing Yin Weiyue’s words, although Mrs. He and Mrs. Su felt furious in their hearts, as nieces-in-law they could not easily offend Mrs. Chen explicitly on the surface. But Huo Wanying could endure it no longer. Although she had been taught since childhood to be gentle, modest, courteous, open-minded, and generous, every person has a temper.
Previously, she could choose not to fuss over it, but house arrest had been going on for nearly two years now. Even if the eldest branch economized on food and clothing, eating only one meal a day, they did not know how many more years they would be under house arrest. At present, the most valuable thing in their hands was Grandmother’s walking stick, but they did not dare to easily use it up, because that was the eldest branch’s final line of survival.
Although they all knew that the Huo family had not had nine generations executed but was merely under house arrest—which showed the Emperor trusted the Huo family—they did not know when this house arrest would ever end. Not to mention that all the adults in the family were starved to skin and bones, even several of the children were about to be starved into bean sprouts.
Eldest Brother Huo Yuan had four children: the oldest was six, the second was four, and the youngest was a pair of dragon-and-phoenix twins who were just over one year old. Back when Eldest Brother had just been thrown into central prison, Eldest Sister-in-law discovered she was one month pregnant.
Days under house arrest were difficult; Eldest Sister-in-law’s body suffered due to lack of nutrition, and the pair of twins were born at just over eight months. It was only thanks to Heaven opening its eyes that they survived. Twins were hard to raise in the first place and could currently only drink breast milk, but food was insufficient and Eldest Sister-in-law resolutely refused to eat more, leading to a complete lack of milk for the two children to drink.
Although Second Brother Huo Jian married only three months later than Eldest Brother, the bond of children came late for the couple, and currently they only had a three-year-old son.
Adding nine-year-old younger brother Huo Dong, their eldest branch had a total of six children to raise. Yet the third branch had no children and only nine adults. If it was truly as Mrs. Yin said, that Eunuch Wang had specially left half of the items for the eldest branch, then they absolutely had to demand them back, otherwise what would become of the children?
Huo Wanying asked with an expressionless, cold voice: “Third Aunt, is what Seventh Sister-in-law said true?”
Mrs. Chen blamed herself for being careless in forgetting to take off her hairpins and jewelry before coming over. If the eldest branch truly wanted to go get the items, she could only bite down firmly and claim there were none.
“Nonsense! Even the tables and chairs in the main hall of the third branch were taken away, so where would there be any other household goods? The jewelry on my person was hidden at the time and wasn’t turned up during the search, but it’s only these items on my body! Originally, when we couldn’t open the pot to cook, I was going to take them to pawn, but my Kai’er was filial and insisted on pawning his own remaining bedding, choosing to sleep on bedboards every day just to leave these few pieces for me! Besides, aren’t you all wearing silver hairpins on your heads as well? Why cry poverty to me!”
After speaking, Mrs. Chen began flailing her hands and feet again, crying recklessly in a mess.
Yin Weiyue inserted a sentence out of nowhere: “The main hall is empty, but wasn’t that because you were afraid of attracting attention, so you hid the things inside the bedrooms? Except for the two concubines who don’t have any, they are in your room, Third Uncle’s room, Huo Kai and his wife’s room, and yes, also in the rooms of my three eldest sisters-in-law. If Third Aunt insists stubbornly that there are none, why don’t we call everyone along to go and take a look?”
“You!” Mrs. Chen was choked up, her face turning flushed red as her fake crying froze on her face in complete surprise.
“What right do you have to go look?! My home was confiscated once by the imperial court, and now it’s going to be confiscated a second time by you, the eldest branch?! What a sin! How did the Huo family give birth to you little bastards?!”
The moment Huo Wanying saw Mrs. Chen’s appearance, she knew that what Yin Weiyue said was the truth.
She did not care how Mrs. Yin had discovered the clues; instead, she was thankful to her for exposing this matter. The items Eunuch Wang had instructed the third branch to give to the eldest branch were things she had to go get back. They had to hold out until the day the Huo family’s grievances were cleared and vindicated, and could never let the brothers’ children starve to death.
Over here, Mrs. Chen did not know Huo Wanying’s determination. She scrambled up from the ground, wiped her tears with a handkerchief, and thought in her heart that even if she tore her face apart with the eldest branch, she could not give them the money and property.
The eldest branch was a pile of old, weak, sick, and disabled people. Although this Yin Weiyue before her had a formidable maiden family and a sharp mouth, she was ultimately a married-out woman and nothing to be feared.
Yin Jianzhang had sought a imperial decree of divorce for her and even delivered three meals a day; this pampering was already good to the extreme. Could he possibly make a major fuss for her sake again? Impossible! She herself had a father in the maiden family of the second rank, yet wasn’t he equally useless?
Because Mrs. Chen herself had never received paternal love, she severely underestimated Yin Jianzhang’s love for his daughter.
Mrs. Chen was still immersed in her self-righteous thoughts. In her eyes, the only one in the eldest branch who could manage things was Huo Jun, but he could only be counted as barely half a man. With that frail appearance of his, her Kai’er could puncture his body with a single pinky finger.
So, what did she still have to be afraid of?