Ji Jinyu did not expect this lawsuit to bring down that corrupt official Dou Shichang, but if it could cause him trouble and give his rivals some leverage, then her efforts would not be in vain.
Ji Jinyu knew that she was no match for Dou Shichang, who had schemed for years, let alone Marquis Kangle, a relative of the imperial family. However, this did not mean she would let go of the hatred from her past life.
As long as she lived, she would fight back. Once she had accumulated enough strength, she would make them die even more miserably than in her previous life.
Hearing the determination in his mother’s voice, Ji Yingming said, “Alright, I’ll go back to my room now and draft the lawsuit.”
As for the father he had never met, Ji Yingming naturally only listened to his mother.
Before bedtime, Ji Shan and Wang Sijin came to their daughter’s room together.
Ji Shan was holding a wooden box containing the savings they had accumulated over the years.
When Ji Shan opened the box to reveal the gold inside, Ji Jinyu couldn’t help but say, “This is your retirement money. Keep it for yourselves. I don’t want it.”
“What’s ours will eventually be yours,” Wang Sijin said as she sat beside her daughter, instinctively touching her forehead to make sure she was no longer feverish before letting out a sigh of relief.
It had been so long since Ji Jinyu had felt her mother’s touch. She turned and hugged her mother, her eyes welling up with tears once again.
Ji Jinyu truly never imagined that in this life, she would have the chance to nestle in her mother’s arms again and be a child once more.
“Mother.”
Wang Sijin was about to speak when she heard the grievance in her daughter’s voice, but her husband’s cursing interrupted her. “That shameless son of a bitch Dou Shichang, why didn’t he just die on the battlefield back then…”
Ji Shan’s curses echoed from the room to outside. Yu Huilan glanced at Ji Nian’an and Ji Nianshu beside her and silently led them back to their room.
“Damn it, what a waste of all the pork I gave the Dou family over the past decade or so. If I had known Dou Shichang was such a little bastard, I would have made the Dou family spit out every last piece of my pork!”
Because the Ji and Dou families were related by marriage, and Dou Shichang had once represented the Ji family by enlisting in the army, the Dou family had never paid much for the pork they bought from the Ji family over the past fifteen years.
Now that Dou Shichang had stirred up such a disgusting mess, Ji Shan was so furious that he wished he could drag every member of the Dou family over and beat them up.
Ji Shan’s words reminded Ji Jinyu of the time in her past life when she had led the Dou family north.
Relying on their connection to Dou Shichang, the Dou family had treated the Ji family almost like servants during the journey north. If they hadn’t been genuinely afraid of Ji Jinyu, who killed without batting an eye, they would have been even more outrageous.
Ji Jinyu was stubborn and unyielding. Seeing how strained her relationship with the Dou family had become, Ji Shan and his wife feared that once they reached the capital, the Dou family would complain to Dou Shichang. To ease the tension, they tried to mend the relationship between their daughter and the Dou family, often being secretly ordered around by them. In the end, their deaths were also inextricably linked to the Dou family.
“It’s alright. I’ll make them spit out everything they swallowed.”
When Ji Shan heard the ferocity in his daughter’s voice, he tried to dissuade her. “Forget it, just consider it as feeding dogs.”
Ji Shan had always thought he was impulsive enough, but his daughter turned out to be even more impulsive than him.
He quickly said, “Our top priority now is to sell off everything we can, so we can leave as soon as possible. Don’t stir up any trouble at this critical moment, understand, Jinyu?”
Ji Jinyu looked at her worried father and replied, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
But Ji Shan couldn’t shake his unease.
He feared his daughter might lead a group to smash the Dou family’s property the next day. If they ended up entangled in a lawsuit, leaving would become far more complicated.
Seeing her father’s doubtful expression, Ji Jinyu reassured him, “Don’t worry, I understand the stakes.”
“I hope so,” Ji Shan replied, pushing a wooden box toward her. “Your mother was right—when things get tough, banknotes are useless. Gold and silver are what truly matter.”
“This contains two hundred taels of gold. It’s all yours. Your mother and I will keep only some loose change for ourselves.”
Ji Jinyu watched as the familiar box slowly closed before her.
In her previous life, when they were forced to leave Cuiyang City, her parents had also taken out these two hundred taels of gold, telling her that if she didn’t want to stay with Dou Shichang in the capital, they had enough money to make a living either in the city or in the outskirts. They urged her not to force herself into hardship.
Whether in her past life or this one, her parents were always her greatest supporters.
“Thank you.”
Ji Shan looked at his daughter in surprise upon hearing her words. “Is this really my daughter?”
Ji Jinyu met her father’s incredulous gaze, couldn’t help but roll her eyes, then turned and buried her face in her mother’s embrace.
She felt that the happiest moment in life was right then, and she was willing to sacrifice everything for such happiness.
Ji Jinyu didn’t keep the money her parents had given her. Not only did she not keep it, but she also handed over the money Ji Yingcai had given her earlier that day, along with all her own savings, to her mother, entrusting her with managing the household finances.
Now, in addition to the two hundred taels of gold from Ji Shan and his wife, the household account included the small stash Ji Yingcai had contributed in the evening, as well as Ji Jinyu’s savings. Altogether, it amounted to roughly five hundred taels of gold and two hundred sixty-seven taels of silver.
Wang Sijin divided the five hundred taels of gold into five portions for safekeeping, while the remaining two hundred sixty-seven taels of silver were set aside for purchasing supplies in the days to come.
After finalizing the plans for the next day, Ji Jinyu finally settled down and fell into a peaceful sleep, clutching her blanket.
The next morning, the first thing Ji Jinyu did after waking up was practice with her blade.
As a child, Ji Jinyu had shown extraordinary talent and immense strength, leading Ji Shan to believe her gifts shouldn’t go to waste. He specially hired a blade-wielding escort to be her teacher.
However, as Ji Jinyu’s skills grew increasingly formidable—to the point where even a dozen escorts were no match for her—Ji Shan hastily called a halt, fearing that if she continued, his daughter might end up dominating the martial world and living a solitary life.
Though Ji Jinyu appeared to have stopped practicing openly, she never truly ceased. She honed her blade skills while butchering pigs and occasionally during hunting trips. Her mastery of the blade reached its peak in her previous life, during the chaos of fleeing and fighting for survival.
When Ji Yingcai stepped out of the side room and saw his mother wielding her blade with fierce, sweeping movements in the courtyard, his eyes filled with admiration. His mother was truly remarkable.
“Mother.”
Ji Jinyu set down the knife in her hand upon hearing her youngest son’s voice. Seeing her mother, who only ever showed a gentle expression toward her younger siblings, Ji Yingcai felt an indescribable bitterness in her heart.
Yet that sense of hurt and grievance vanished instantly when she heard what her younger brother said.
“Mother, I have already drafted the indictment against Dou Shichang.”