This night marked Sang Zhixia’s first evening after being reborn, and it also heralded the first great calamity in the century-long history of the Jiaxing Marquis Manor.
The candle flames burned relentlessly, and the people’s hearts trembled without cease.
It was Sang Zhixia’s first time experiencing such a scene, and she instinctively clung close to Xu Ao, not daring to move an inch.
Xu Ao stood as if petrified, remaining deathly silent amidst the endless weeping, his breathing barely audible.
At the eunuch’s command, countless sword-wielding guards stormed into the depths of the exquisitely adorned marquis manor, carrying away one heavy chest after another amid desperate chaos.
Family wealth vanished like flowing water. The masters of the three branches of the Xu family were forced to change out of their luxurious garments and stand together, watching the guards come and go with panic and fear, stifling their sobs as they swallowed their cries.
The great tree had fallen overnight, leaving the family broken and its members lost.
By the following afternoon, the busy confiscation squad, having toiled for a full day and night, finally found a moment to catch their breath.
Eunuch Hu looked at the several large chests of land deeds and account books carried by his attendants and sighed, “Truly worthy of a century-old marquis manor. The family’s wealth is indeed substantial.”
“But after such a long ordeal, you must all be exhausted. The Emperor, mindful of past kindness, has specially permitted you to set off for the northwest tomorrow. Rest well in the prison tonight and await your journey tomorrow.”
“Xu Shizi, if you please.”
Before the Jiaxing Marquis Manor was confiscated, Xu Ao had held a sinecure at the Grand Temple.
No one knew the way to the prison better than he did.
Sang Zhixia, terrified and trembling with fear, followed Xu Ao closely, not daring to fall behind. By sheer chance, she ended up in the men’s prison, and surprisingly, the jailers turned a blind eye and did not intervene.
She made the best of her mistake, shrinking her neck and finding a corner to sit on the floor, beginning to ponder the predicament before her.
In the Jiaxing Marquis Manor, the old madam and the old master were counted as one branch, while the remaining three sons formed three separate branches.
Xu Ao, as the eldest legitimate son of the eldest branch, inherited the title of Shizi.
Below him were a three-year-old brother and a sister not yet two years old. The one who had caused this disaster was his own father.
To their left was the old master, who had fainted from shock. To their right were Second Uncle Xu and Third Uncle Xu.
The children of Xu Ao’s generation from the various branches were imprisoned in the farthest cells, which she could not see clearly from her position.
However, she could look up and see the opposite cells, which held all the female members of the Xu family’s older generation.
It was only upon looking that she realized how lively it truly was.
Second Aunt Xu, hailing from a merchant family and perhaps timid by nature, had attempted to hang herself with a white silk scarf as soon as the confiscation squad barged in. She was carried to the prison unconscious and had yet to wake up.
Third Aunt Xu, the legitimate daughter of a scholarly family, appeared much calmer on the surface, but her eyes were brimming with tears, and she trembled like a sieve.
As for her nominal mother-in-law, Xu Wenxiu…
She seemed to be made of water.
She had been crying for a full day and night, and her tears showed no sign of stopping.
“It’s over… it’s completely over now…” her nominal mother-in-law wailed, covering her face as if her heart would break. “How could the marquis be so foolish? How are we supposed to live now…”
Xu Ao clenched his jaw so tightly it seemed about to shatter, and he spoke word by word, “Mother, Father would not do this.”
“Are you still making excuses for him?” Second Uncle Xu snarled. “If not for your father’s delusions, how could the Xu family have suffered such a calamity?!”
“Your father committed treason! He alone has doomed the entire Xu family!”
Veins bulged at Xu Ao’s temples as he gritted his teeth and remained silent.
Second Uncle Xu was still cursing furiously: “I always said that eldest brother’s reckless actions would bring disaster upon the Xu family sooner or later, but no one would listen! Now look! It’s all…”
“Cough, cough… Second Brother…”
Third Uncle Xu suppressed his coughs and said bitterly, “What’s the use of saying these things now that we’re in this situation? We should be thinking of a way out.”
“That’s right… think of a way…”
The old lady, who had fainted from fright several times, grabbed her second daughter-in-law’s hand and sat up, saying anxiously, “Quickly send someone to deliver a message to Yunyan! Have Yunyan persuade Prince Lu to help our family!”
Xu Yunyan was the old lady’s youngest biological daughter, married into Prince Lu’s mansion as the Lu Wangfei.
If she could persuade Prince Lu to intervene, there might still be a slim chance of turning things around.
Thinking of this, she grew so agitated that she grabbed a passing jailer and said, “Xu Ao, quickly send someone to Prince Lu’s mansion to deliver a message! Tell them the Xu family is in trouble! Have the Lu Wangfei help us think of a solution!”
Xu Ao, deafened by her shrieking, said dejectedly to the jailer outside the cell, “Xie San, do me a favor and go once.”
The jailer sighed and left.
Seeing this, the old lady forcibly reassured herself, muttering like a madwoman, “Yunyan will definitely think of a way… she definitely will…”
Sang Zhixia watched coldly, silently curling her lip.
She felt the old lady’s expectations were bound to be utterly disappointed.
The commotion of the Jiaxing Marquis Manor being raided had shaken the entire capital; even street vendors and porters could casually gossip about it—how could the Lu Wangfei not know?
She knew, yet remained silent and inactive. Her stance was already so clear—why waste the effort?
However, she couldn’t muster any sympathy.
Because her own maternal family wasn’t much better off either…
Sang Zhixia sighed, picked up some dry grass from the ground, and muttered vaguely, “Before the raiding party arrived, did you already get wind of it?”
Xu Ao remained silent, as if his tongue had been cut out.
Sang Zhixia understood without words. She used the dry grass to draw a checkmark on the ground and sighed, “Then tell me, did my maternal family also know long ago?”
In the original host’s memory, although Xu Ao had a notorious reputation as the number one frivolous playboy, her own noble and talented eldest sister had been deeply in love with him.
Because she succeeded in marrying Xu Ao, that woman had enjoyed quite a period of glory.
If she hadn’t heard rumors, how could she suddenly fall out of love?
Not only did she fall out of love herself, but this shameless woman also found a substitute to marry in her place…
Sang Zhixia, forced into this substitute marriage, clicked her tongue with complex emotions and said gloomily, “I knew it… how could any good fortune ever come my way…”
An orphan in her previous life, and in this life, not an orphan but worse than an orphan.
She’d had more than enough of this bumpy fate.
After hearing this, Xu Ao’s jaw tightened even more, and Sang Zhixia lost all desire to speak.
She threw the grasshopper she’d woven onto the ground, clasped her hands behind her head, and leaned against the wall.
There was no hope of escaping—without travel permits or identity documents, and on the court’s exile list, being caught meant instant death.
But the northwest was said to be bitterly cold and harsh, barely sustaining any life.
Apart from the few things she’d managed to hide during the chaos, she had nothing to her name. The only thing she could offer was her farming skills, honed through years of study and research.
Could the land in the northwest even grow edible food?
Would she starve to death in the northwest after failing to cultivate the land?
As for these vicious feudal classes who had dragged her into exile with them—she couldn’t count on them at all.
Sang Zhixia sank into silent self-doubt and growing sorrow, while frightened weeping and wailing echoed incessantly from the cells opposite and in the corners.
Amid the continuous cries, dawn finally broke.