“Little sister, did you hear a goose honking somewhere?”
Xia Xing’er knew her third brother was teasing her, but she wasn’t angry. She truly loved this atmosphere at home. Knowing that great calamity was approaching yet still maintaining such a mindset—not everyone could do that, but her family had managed it.
She needed to find an opportunity to take out the elixirs. She should go out for a stroll now and prepare some supplies along the way.
“Third brother, I did hear it. Wasn’t that goose just talking?”
Without giving him a chance to react, she continued, “Father, mother, if there’s nothing else, let’s disperse. Everyone should go back and prepare.”
It had been so long since she last went shopping—to be precise, shopping with her own two feet.
Back when she was a wandering spirit, she had followed Ye Qingyu on many shopping trips.
Xia Xing’er returned to her courtyard and summoned her four maids—Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter—along with her two personal attendants.
Before Xia Xing’er could speak, Madam Liu said with a delighted expression, “Miss, we’ve retrieved all the dowry items. You have no idea—when we went to move the things, the looks on the faces of those people at the General’s Manor, tsk tsk!”
At this point, Madam Liu deliberately paused for effect. Dongmei, the most lively and impatient among the four maids, couldn’t wait while the others remained silent. She tugged at Madam Liu’s sleeve, “Madam Liu, don’t keep us in suspense. Tell us quickly what interesting things happened.”
Seeing she had achieved her desired effect, Madam Liu stopped teasing and began recounting everything that had happened at the General’s Manor.
Madam Liu and the others had brought people to the General’s Manor to move the dowry: huanghuali wood tables and chairs, golden nanmu furniture, carved fine wood imperial concubine couches, huanghuali arhat beds, small acacia screens, and purple sandalwood framed jade-inlaid floral throne screens. As long as it was listed on the dowry list, they took everything, unwilling to leave even the slightest bit for the General’s Manor.
The Old Madam had cried as if heaven and earth were moved to tears, cursing Xia Xing’er as disloyal, unfilial, heartless, ungrateful, cruel, and jealous.
Everyone who went were born servants of the Marquis’s Mansion. Hearing such words, who could bear it?
Madam Liu retorted directly, “You shameless old woman, search your conscience. Since my young lady married into the General’s Manor, how has she treated you? You have no heart, but the neighbors all have eyes. Who would say my young lady treated you poorly?”
“And you say my young lady is cruel and jealous? Why don’t you talk about how the General’s Manor treated my young lady? Going off to war on the wedding day, then returning and using military merit to request an equal wife, even demanding my young lady provide betrothal gifts for this equal wife. Later, upon learning my young lady wanted a Divorce Decree, you tried to divorce her to seize her dowry. Every single one of these things was done by your General’s Manor.”
“Aren’t you ashamed when doing these things? Having committed such shameless acts, how dare you shout and scream here? Aren’t you afraid the neighbors will hear? Aren’t you afraid people will point fingers at you?”
“That dowry was accumulated by the Xia family over generations. How dare you think of seizing it for your own use? Pah! Are you even worthy?”
“A family like yours still wants to divorce my young lady? Where do you get the face?”
“Don’t waste any more words on these shameless people. Take everything listed on the dowry list. Don’t leave a single item behind.”
Old Madam was directly berated into a daze by Madam Liu’s torrent of words. Upon careful thought, every accusation was justified, leaving her unable to retort.
Seeing them about to move away the Taotie-patterned jade Ruyi pillow, the nine-colored phoenix-and-phoenix lamp stand, the luminous pearl coral tree, the gold-thread brocade coral carpet, the Huanghuali wood-carved Chilong green stone screen, the Guanghan wood seven-panel folding chair, and the rosewood cloud-pattern carved marble Luohan bed—
Old Madam lunged forward like a madwoman. “These were all given to me by Xia Xing’er as tokens of respect. You cannot take them away—they are mine!”
She wept as if mourning the death of her own mother.
Madam Liu looked at her coldly. “Yours? Are you worthy? Respect? Do you even have any shame? We lent them to you before because you were our young lady’s mother-in-law. Now that you no longer are, of course we take them back. Did you think you could keep them?”
“Tsk, tsk. You Helian family members are truly insatiable. Look at your face—it’s downright disgraceful. Should I fetch a mirror so you can see for yourself?”
Helian Zhi watched the scene, unsure whom to blame—his mother for coveting his former wife’s dowry, or Xia Xing’er’s servants for showing no mercy and humiliating his mother right before his eyes.
In the end, he stepped forward, pulled his mother aside, and comforted her, “Mother, these are mere worldly possessions. If she wants them, let her have them. If you desire such things, I will find them for you in the future.”
Hearing his shameless attempt to twist the truth, Madam Liu thought that anyone unaware of the facts would assume these items belonged to the Helian family and that her young lady was the greedy one, trying to seize property from her former in-laws.
This would not do. “General Helian, that is not how it is. Although these are worldly possessions, they belong to our young lady. They were originally part of her dowry. We are merely reclaiming what rightfully belongs to her.”
Helian Zhi’s grip on his mother’s hands tightened imperceptibly, veins bulging if one looked closely. He roared at Madam Liu and the others, “Take your things and get out of the General’s Manor at once!”
Old Madam, restrained by Helian Zhi, could only curse in fury. “Xia Xing’er is nothing but a vile woman! Once she steps out of my General’s Manor, she will be a discarded wife. Let’s see what respectable family will take her in—what fine man in the capital would marry a cast-off woman?”
Madam Liu looked at the frantic Old Madam and snorted coldly. “There’s no need for you to worry about such matters. You should focus on your own affairs—like what to use to fill these empty spaces.”
As she spoke, she gestured around the emptied room.
“After all, the General’s Manor will soon welcome a new mistress.”
Then she sighed. “Unlike our young lady, who no longer has to cater to an entire household’s every need and has more silver than she knows how to spend.”
She even shook her head in feigned worry.
“Fortunately, the Divorce Decree came in time. From now on, our young lady will have no further ties to your General’s Manor.”
Before leaving, she did not forget to cast a glance at Old Madam’s ugly expression and said coldly, “Take everything away!”
Helian Zhi, hearing her words, glared at Madam Liu with furious eyes and bellowed, “Get out! All of you, get out! Go back and tell Xia Xing’er that I, Helian Zhi, will remember today’s humiliation. I hope she does not regret what she has done!”
One day, he would make Xia Xing’er kneel before him and beg for forgiveness.
Madam Liu said coldly, “I return these words to General Helian as well. I hope you will not regret your decision either. I will convey every single one of these words to my lady without omission.”