Xuan Wenyang's courtyard was brightly lit, with servants standing inside and out.
"Your husband is ill, and you still have the mind to dress up?"
As soon as Shen Fuyan stepped through the door, Old Madame Xuan caught sight of the light makeup on her face and hurled a cup of hot tea at her.
The tea stained the hem of Shen Fuyan's lake-blue Heavenly Fragrance Gown. She raised her eyes faintly: "If Mother has anger, there's no need to direct it at me. It wasn't I who urged the Second Lord to go to the Piaomiao Pavilion."
Old Madame choked on her breath. Remembering that she still needed to coax Shen Fuyan into handing over ginseng, she quietly swallowed it down.
"It's Mother's fault. Seeing Wenyang like this all of a sudden, I lost my senses."
She clutched at her chest, her face grief-stricken.
"Doctor, must it be thousand-year ginseng? Would hundred-year ginseng do?"
The doctor had already said it had to be thousand-year ginseng. Seeing the situation, how could he not understand that this mother-in-law was trying to force her daughter-in-law to foot the bill?
He had seen plenty of sordid affairs within powerful households. He merely shook his head: "Old Madame, hundred-year ginseng won't be effective enough. Second Lord Xuan's illness came on suddenly. Please bring the ginseng quickly."
"Fuyan, you heard him too," Old Madame said, having gotten the doctor's confirmation, and turned to her. "Our Prime Minister's household is clean and honest, we don't have many fine things. Now that your husband is ill, no matter who pays, let him get through this first."
"No matter who pays—the Prime Minister's household can pay too," Shen Fuyan said with a faint smile. "My dowry originally included three thousand-year ginsengs, but they were all used up on you. Right now, I truly can't produce any."
"What?" Old Madame's face went rigid. "I'm neither sick nor suffering. When did I consume three of your ginsengs? Don't talk nonsense!"
"Mother has forgotten. Let me remind you."
Shen Fuyan seated herself leisurely in a chair.
"On the second day after I entered the household, you said you couldn't catch your breath and asked your daughter-in-law to slice ginseng and steep it in water for you. You drank it for months. A year ago during the summer floods, you were deficient in blood and qi, and your daughter-in-law brought another one…"
"That's only two. Don't think you can secretly pocket the rest!"
Reminded by her, Old Madame finally recalled that this had indeed happened.
"Filial respect to one's mother-in-law is only proper. You needn't use this as an excuse to complain. There's still one last one—bring it out!"
Under the lamplight, Old Madame's wrinkled face looked sinister and terrifying.
Like a ghost come to claim a life.
Shen Fuyan said unhurriedly: "The last one—two months ago, you said a relative outside was critically ill and took it from me."
"What? That was thousand-year ginseng you gave then?"
Hearing this, Old Madame nearly toppled backward.
There was a distant branch of her natal family that often came to sponge off them. Two months ago, they had even carried a stretcher to the back gate of the Prime Minister's residence.
Madame Li, without blinking, had asked Shen Fuyan for ten taels of silver and a ginseng to give them.
After all, it wasn't her money, and she could earn a reputation for generosity.
"Mother's natal family—naturally they should be given the best."
Shen Fuyan took a sip of tea.
Old Madame nearly fainted.
Thousand-year ginseng! Her son's life-saving medicine!
"Then hurry and bring out a thousand taels of silver. Go buy some outside!"
At this point, there was no choice but to go buy thousand-year ginseng.
A cold glint flashed in Shen Fuyan's eyes: "The public accounts don't have that much anymore. Recently, taking a concubine and setting up an opera troupe cost quite a bit."
"How could that be? What about your dowry?"
"A dowry is a dowry. A grand Prime Minister's household, foremost among the pure officials—why do you always scheme after your daughter-in-law's things?" Shen Fuyan said with a half-smile.
Old Madame had no time to argue with her. She saw Xuan Wenyang's face growing paler and paler.
She quickly called to her eldest daughter-in-law, Madame Tian: "Go out quickly—buy one, or get one on credit—just get a thousand-year ginseng."
Madame Tian was dumbstruck.
It wasn't her husband who was in trouble!
She was, after all, the lady of the Chancellor's household—and she was being sent out to beg for credit? Was her mother-in-law senile?
"Mother, it's so early in the morning, why not let a servant—" Madame Tian had barely begun to deflect when First Master Xuan stepped up and dealt her a slap.
"Second Brother is on his last breath, and you still won't go?!"
Madame Tian's face swelled on one side from the blow. With a soft sob, she lowered her head and hurried out the door.
Shen Fuyan watched coldly.
In the past, the Chancellor's household had squeezed only her. Now that they found her difficult to manipulate, the burden had been shifted onto Madame Tian.
Truly, they drank this one's blood, then went to devour that one's flesh.
"That courtesan outside has been brought back. Go deal with her—she's the reason my son has ended up like this. She must pay with her life!"
The Old Madame's head ached at the sight of Shen Fuyan. Seeing her sitting there drinking tea, she couldn't resist assigning her a task.
In the past, when Shen Fuyan managed the household, everything ran in perfect order from top to bottom. Handling a mere courtesan should be well within her capabilities.
Shen Fuyan walked out and saw a seductive woman kneeling on the ground, with a worried-looking Xu Mengyu standing nearby.
She had not yet been formally taken into the household, so on an occasion like this, she could not go inside.
"Madam, is Wenyang all right?"
Seeing her come out, Xu Mengyu hurried over.
"Didn't you watch him collapse on top of another woman? Why ask me?" A frosty smile played at the corners of Shen Fuyan's lips. "Keeping a mistress and visiting brothels—this is the literary integrity you so admire!"
Her eyes blazed, staring Xu Mengyu down until guilt stirred in her heart.
"If you hadn't been so overbearing, Wenyang wouldn't have taken me out to find relief. He wasn't like this before—it's this household that's too suffocating!"
Xu Mengyu pressed her lips together stubbornly. "You already have his love and respect. Why cling to one matter and refuse to let go? If you'd just soften, we could all be living in harmony by now."
She didn't understand why Shen Fuyan had to be so unyielding.
A virtuous wife and a beautiful concubine—she held the position of principal wife in the Chancellor's household, had a legitimate son under her name, and Xu Mengyu and Xuan Wenyang were devoted to each other. With the inner household stable, wasn't this the situation everyone was happy to see?
"Harmony?" Shen Fuyan lowered her eyes. "I'm to be your abacus, your purse, your wet nurse, so that you two can fornicate without a care in the world—is that what you mean?"
"You!" Xu Mengyu's face flushed red with anger at the vulgarity in her words. "No wonder—a military man's daughter. So crude!"
"Someone come," Shen Fuyan called to the household servants without expression. "Miss Xu has spoken disrespectfully to the principal wife. Ten slaps."
"What are you doing!" Xu Mengyu shrieked. "I am Chen'er's birth mother! How dare you!"
"I am the principal wife!" Shen Fuyan's expression was stern. "Even if you enter the household, you will still be a concubine, a slave of the second branch. And since your name isn't in the family register, you are nothing but a lowly kept mistress! According to the law, insulting an official's kin is grounds for me to send you straight to the Shenxing Division!"
The servants had all been won over by Shen Fuyan. At her words, they came forward, pinned Xu Mengyu down, and dragged her away.
To the sound of slaps, Shen Fuyan walked step by step toward the kneeling courtesan.
"Get up."
Looking at Miss Xiu's seductive, alluring features, she thought of Pei Yanwei, and an inexplicable irritation rose within her.
"Thank you, Madam," Miss Xiu said, rising to her feet and doing her utmost to defend herself. "Actually, Second Master Xuan hadn't yet—with me… He had drunk Aphrodisiac Wine before, and got overexcited."
Xuan Wenyang really was useless beyond measure.
Shen Fuyan pressed her lips tightly together. She knew what the Old Madame meant—nothing more than to squeeze a sum of compensation silver out of Miss Xiu, and then use the opportunity to have her killed to vent her rage.
But Xuan Wenyang brought this upon himself—why harm innocent, pitiable people?
"It's fine, you may go back. This matter will not be pursued further."
After a long pause, she set the matter aside lightly and signaled Lu Bai to escort Miss Xiu out.
Just as dawn was breaking, Madame Tian walked into the largest pharmacy. She had barely mustered the nerve to ask for credit on ginseng when Pei Yanwei suddenly burst in with a squad of Jinyiwei.
"The Jinyiwei is handling a case—bystanders disperse!"
Before they even finished speaking, Madame Tian retreated in terror.
"In all the capital, only this shop has thousand-year ginseng. What do we do now?"
Clutching her half-swollen face, she steeled herself and simply headed straight back home.
He wasn't her man anyway! If the Second Master died, First Master Xuan might still have a chance to rise!
No sooner had the Old Madame heard that Shen Fuyan had released the courtesan than she saw Madame Tian return empty-handed—so furious she fainted dead away.
When she finally came to and saw the room full of people waiting for her to make a decision, she gritted her teeth and called Madame Tian into the side room.
"I have one more plan. You will handle it personally."