In her past life, the second and third sons born to Hu Huiniang were both registered under Jiang Li’s name.
Jiang Li had disciplined them strictly and hired famous teachers to instruct them, which eventually allowed them to get ahead in life.
However, during this period, their progress was disrupted countless times by Hu Huiniang.
Even though the two children were registered under Jiang Li, they still lived with Hu Huiniang on a daily basis, so their characters ended up following hers.
It was only later that Jiang Li discovered that after she disciplined the two children during the day, Hu Huiniang would badmouth her in front of the children every night.
As a result, the two children not only failed to feel close to their nominal mother but also grew to resent and loathe her.
Jiang Li withdrew her thoughts and, under the gazes of the ingrates present, she also let tears fall.
“It is my incompetence; I couldn’t keep the Jiang family’s shops running and even had to pour my own dowry money into maintaining them. It is all my fault for not being able to help my brother-in-law.”
The Yin family cared about their reputation. Seeing Jiang Li say this in such a pitiful manner, they found it difficult to say anything else.
Furthermore, they had long known that Jiang Li was incapable, so perhaps she truly had no money left in her hands.
Yin Hongcai did not want this disgraceful scene to continue, so he told Jiang Li to go back first.
Jiang Li was naturally happy to leave; she had no desire to deal with Yin Chengzhou’s affairs.
But on the surface, Jiang Li still feigned a submissive appearance, pretending to be concerned for her brother-in-law.
“I have heard that if a husband dies on the battlefield, the imperial court grants a sum of money. Why not use this money to fill the hole for my brother-in-law, so he can study well in the future and never touch gambling again?”
Only Master Yin and Madam Fan knew about the pension money granted by the court.
As soon as Yin Chengzhou heard about the pension, his eyes lit up instantly.
“Father, Mother, quickly give me Big Brother’s pension money. I will definitely be able to turn the situation around and earn even more money.”
Yin Hongcai desperately wanted to slap him and roared: “You brat really are tired of living, wanting to use the money your big brother earned with his life to gamble! I think we shouldn’t care about him; we should just let the people from the gambling den chop off one of his hands.”
Yin Hongcai had not expected his youngest son to be so foolish at a time like this. Fortunately, his eldest son had not actually died on the battlefield but was still alive.
When his eldest son returned, he would be able to take over the mantle of the Yin family, rather than handing it over to a fool like his second son.
Yin Chengzhou almost blurted out, “Isn’t Big Brother still alive?” But thinking that Jiang Li was still there, he swallowed those words back down.
Madam Fan hurriedly sent her two daughters-in-law away, and the family of three began to deliberate in the hall.
Yin Chengzhou only wanted more money to return to the gambling den and win back his losses.
Yin Hongcai disagreed, thinking the brat just wanted to ruin the family.
Madam Fan was torn; she could not bear to part with her eldest son’s pension, but she also did not want to see her second son’s hand chopped off. She was extremely conflicted.
In the end, Madam Fan finally reached an agreement with Yin Hongcai to secretly sell the items in the manor that were not often used to scrape together enough money for the second son to pay off his gambling debt.
At the same time, they forbade him from going to the gambling den again.
Yin Chengzhou was very dissatisfied with this. In his view, his parents were short-sighted and stubborn; there were clearly ways to make money faster, but they refused to support him.
If his parents would help, he wouldn’t have to suffer the hardship of studying, and within a few years, he could provide the Yin family with a better life.
Yin Chengzhou pondered these things in his heart, but he didn’t say them out loud, only thinking of finding another opportunity.
…
Jiang Li did not care about the Yin family’s plans. As long as they didn’t scheme against her, she didn’t care.
After walking out of the front hall, Jiang Li received another system prompt.
[Ding! Detected that the ingrate Yin Chengzhou has developed a gambling addiction. Rewarding the host with one Deep Sea Night Pearl.]
Hearing the system prompt, Jiang Li thought there would be some medicinal pills, but she did not expect it to be a night-shining pearl.
When she returned to Qinghe Courtyard, she took out the night pearl and examined it carefully.
It was indeed of top-tier quality; the system was very generous.
It just so happened that Jiang Li wanted to quietly open a jewelry shop. When that time came, she would use this night pearl as the shop’s signature item to establish its reputation.
However, she hadn’t decided whose name to register the shop under.
It had to be someone she could trust who would not arouse the suspicion of the Yin family.
If she truly couldn’t find anyone, Jiang Li planned to use the Disguise Pill provided by the system to pose as a non-existent person.
But that would lead to other troubles; after all, the system only gave her two Disguise Pills, and she wasn’t sure if the system would grant her more in the future.
Even the system could not be sure about this, stating only that the rewards were random and could not be chosen.
No matter; there was no rush to open the shop. After all, the Yin family wouldn’t agree to let Jiang Li leave the Yin residence anytime soon.
Jiang Li needed to proceed step by step, letting the Yin family realize that she had no utility value at all.
Wangyou told Jiang Li the news she had gathered.
“Miss, it has been verified; A-Gua was not lying. She did indeed follow her mother to the capital to find her father. Her father is indeed Pan Shiyan, but the person who drove her and her mother out was Pan Shiyan’s mother, Madam Song. Madam Song did not like her daughter-in-law after the two were married, so she took advantage of Pan Shiyan going to the capital for the imperial examinations to separate them. Over the years, Madam Song has often tried to arrange matches for Pan Shiyan, but he has rejected them all. Pan Shiyan has always been looking for his wife and daughter, but the people he sent out were all bribed by Madam Song.”
Jiang Li hadn’t expected it to be like this. Even if Madam Song disliked A-Gua’s mother, she was still her daughter-in-law, and furthermore, A-Gua was Madam Song’s biological granddaughter—how could she ignore her?
It seemed she needed to see A-Gua, tell her these things, and see if A-Gua was willing to see Pan Shiyan.
Jiang Li said: “Wangyou, help me with a disguise; I am going out for a while.”
Wangyou agreed and prepared a maid’s outfit for Jiang Li.
After changing her clothes, Jiang Li did not leave through the Yin family’s main gate, but found a deserted spot to climb over the wall.
Disguise pills were rare, and Jiang Li did not intend to use them without necessity.
Since it was just leaving the Yin residence, she could do it without anyone noticing, thanks to her martial arts skills.
When Jiang Li arrived at the back courtyard of the pastry shop, she saw A-Gua sitting on a small stool, helping to pick out beans.
The small A-Gua held a basket in her arms, picking out beans one by one with a serious and earnest expression.
Seeing this picture, Jiang Li couldn’t help but curl the corners of her lips.
She had already heard from the employees that A-Gua was a very well-behaved child who did whatever she was told.
She ate and slept well every day, making her very easy to look after.
In addition, the child was born lovely, so the pastry shop’s staff all liked talking to her, and some would even bring her clothes from their homes.
Jiang Li’s heart felt much more at ease. Although the child had done something wrong, it was because she had no choice.
At such a young age, she had experienced being driven out of her home by her grandmother and the illness and death of her mother, having nowhere to go and having to live under the roof of others.
Now, it seemed she still had a chance to be guided back to the right path.
In fact, after having been hurt by the ingrates of the entire Yin family in her previous life, Jiang Li had an instinctive distrust of people.
But she also knew that the ones in the wrong were the Yin family, not other people.
Her kindness had never been a mistake.