“You… you’re extorting us!”
Gu Jinghuai glared at Divine Physician Mu through gritted teeth, forcing himself to shout:
“You and her conspired over those account books! I’m going back to ask my mother!”
He turned to leave, but Yun Shuyao called after him.
“Heir Gu, don’t rush off. Since we’ve checked the accounts and you’ve made such bold promises, there has to be an outcome.”
Yun Shuyao looked at the people gathered around them and spoke loudly:
“Everyone heard him, didn’t you?
The heir of the Yong’an Marquis’s Residence said I wouldn’t have to pay a single coin—but he’ll repay the seventy-two thousand taels in medical expenses!”
The people nodded. Someone called out:
“That’s right! We all heard him!”
“If the Marquis’s Residence tries to welsh on the debt, we’ll make sure everyone in Kyoto learns the truth!”
Gu Jinghuai’s shoulders slumped. The eyes fixed on him pricked like needles.
He clenched his teeth and didn’t dare answer. He fled so quickly that even his page couldn’t keep up.
Watching him disappear around the street corner, Divine Physician Mu sighed.
“Shuyao, girl, I know you’ve finally had your say, but when you marry into the Marquis’s Residence, you’ll have a hard time of it…”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Mu.”
Yun Shuyao lifted her gaze to the vast sky. Her voice was soft but firm.
“I will never marry into the Marquis’s Residence!”
Divine Physician Mu didn’t try to dissuade her again. He only shook his head.
In this world, how could a woman hope to defy her father’s wishes?
But Yun Shuyao offered no further explanation.
No one would understand. Someone who had already died once had nothing left to fear.
From now on, she would live every moment according to her own wishes.
Yun Shuyao bowed to the crowd.
“The Marquis’s Residence certainly won’t repay the money, so please spread the word about what you saw and heard today.
As thanks, I’ll provide all the plain rice porridge you can eat for a month.”
Cheers erupted from the crowd.
Sunlight spilled through the clouds and fell across Yun Shuyao’s face, lending her a bold, carefree air.
She knew this fight to break off the engagement wouldn’t be easy to win. But no matter how much stood in her way, she wouldn’t back down!
Yong’an Marquis’s Residence
When Gu Jinghuai pushed open the door to the main room, Madam Su was trying on an ornate hairpin in front of her dressing mirror.
Yun Shuyao had sent it over last month, saying it was a new design from Jiangnan.
Hearing the noise, Madam Su turned around slowly, reproach in her eyes.
“You’re a grown man. Can’t you announce yourself before coming in?”
She glanced at her son’s red-rimmed eyes and realized something was wrong.
Gu Jinghuai ignored her question, his chest heaving.
“Mother, did Yun Shuyao really pay for all your medicine over the past five years?”
Madam Su’s fingers paused on the hairpin. Then she gave a scoff and tucked it back into her hair.
“So what if she did? She’s going to be my daughter-in-law. Isn’t it only right that she show me filial respect by buying me a few medicinal ingredients?”
“Only right?”
Gu Jinghuai slammed his hand onto the table, knocking over a teacup.
“Do you know how much was spent over those five years? Seventy-two thousand taels!”
“How much?”
Madam Su’s voice shot up, and she sprang to her feet as if pricked by a needle.
“That’s impossible! It was only tonic medicine to treat my heart condition. How could it have cost that much?
Is she trying to extort the Marquis’s Residence?”
“Extort?”
Seeing the panic in her eyes, Gu Jinghuai felt a chill run through him.
“Divine Physician Mu’s ledger records everything clearly! Five years ago, when your heart condition flared up, she had someone search beyond the passes for that thousand-year-old blood ginseng… Then the spring before last… and last winter…”
With every item he named, Madam Su’s face grew paler. At last, she turned away and stiffened her neck.
“So what if she spent it? She did it willingly!
She was the one who kept rushing to bring things to us. Now she’s digging up old accounts and demanding repayment? What kind of sense does that make?
Besides, if she hadn’t bought such expensive medicine, would it have cost so much? If we’d bought it ourselves, we wouldn’t have spent even a tenth of that.
And my condition hasn’t improved much these past few years, either. That just proves Divine Physician Mu is all reputation and no substance!”
“Willingly? It hasn’t improved?”
Gu Jinghuai’s voice trembled. Thinking of his mother’s increasingly rosy complexion, in this life and the last, he didn’t know what to say.
Then he remembered Yun Shuyao’s pale, emaciated face as she died before him, and pain pierced his chest like an icicle.
“Mother.”
He drew a deep breath, trying to suppress the emotions surging within him.
“I’ve already promised her in front of everyone. The Marquis’s Residence has to repay this money.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
Madam Su stared at him as if he were a monster, her voice shrill enough to pierce the ears.
“More than seven hundred thousand taels! Where do you expect me to find that kind of money?
There may not even be seven thousand taels in the Marquis’s Residence treasury right now!
If she really dares to press you for it, I’ll go make a scene at the Duke Zhenguo’s Residence. I’ll make sure everyone in Kyoto sees how she bullies her future mother-in-law!”
“You’re going to make a scene?”
Gu Jinghuai closed his eyes. The crowd’s jeers outside Jishi Hall still rang in his ears.
“Do you know how many people were watching outside Jishi Hall when we went over the accounts today?
By now, surely everyone in Kyoto knows the Marquis’s Residence used our future daughter-in-law’s money to pay for your treatment!
If you make another scene, do you want people pointing at the Gu Family and calling us shameless?”
“I don’t care!”
Madam Su threw herself into a chair and slapped the table as she shouted:
“I’m not paying it back!
If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll keep paying for my medicine like she has been!
She dares to come after me over money? Just wait until she marries into this family. I’ll teach her a lesson!”
“Enough!”
Gu Jinghuai bellowed. Madam Su jumped, then stared at him in a daze.
He pointed toward the door, his voice harsher than she had ever heard it.
“This is no time to talk about that!
Father cares most about the Marquis’s reputation. If he finds out you’ve taken advantage of Yun Shuyao and made the whole matter public…”
At the mention of the Marquis, Madam Su’s shouting stopped abruptly, and the arrogance vanished from her face, replaced by fear.
She knew better than anyone that her husband might seem mild-mannered, but he valued the Marquis’s reputation more than his own life.
If the Marquis learned of this, she might not even be able to keep her position as lady of the household.
As they stood there in a tense silence, the steward’s panicked voice came from outside:
“Madam! Heir! Something’s wrong!”
The curtain was pulled aside, and the steward hurried in with eight or nine shopkeepers, every one of them ashen-faced.
Shopkeeper Liu stood at the front, clutching a ledger and trembling like a leaf.
“Madam, Heir… Miss Yun went to eight or nine of the shops yesterday, and… and checked the accounts…”
Gu Jinghuai stared at him.
“What right did she have to go to the Marquis’s shops and check the accounts?”
“Because she owns them!”
Another shopkeeper wailed.
“Miss Yun said the shops were part of her dowry… She exposed all the false accounts we’d been keeping.
She calculated how much we’ve embezzled over the past few years. It comes to more than seven hundred thousand taels!
She said if we can’t make up the shortfall within three days, she’ll take us to court!”
“More than seven hundred thousand taels?”
Madam Su’s vision went black, and she nearly collapsed. A maid caught her and kept her upright.
She pointed at the shopkeepers, her voice shaking uncontrollably.
“You… you useless fools! What have I been keeping you around for? You can’t even fool a mere girl?”
The shopkeepers didn’t dare talk back. They only begged her over and over.
“Please, Madam, save us! Miss Yun said if we don’t make up the losses, she’ll send us to prison in Shuntian Prefecture!”
How could Madam Su possibly come up with seven hundred thousand taels? She turned to Gu Jinghuai as if he were the last lifeline she had.
“Jinghuai! Think of something, quickly! Your father mustn’t find out! If he learns I diverted so much money…”
Gu Jinghuai didn’t respond. His mind had gone blank.
More than seven hundred thousand taels? Add the more than seventy thousand taels in medical expenses, and the total came to nearly eight hundred thousand.
“How can those nine newly added shops belong to Yun Shuyao? Aren’t they the Marquis’s property?”
Gu Jinghuai murmured in disbelief, his face burning with shame.
When he heard the sum, he too had shuddered and stood there completely dumbfounded.
The arrogance with which he’d declared in front of the medical hall that Yun Shuyao was paying for everything was gone.
Only one question remained, repeating in his mind:
“How are we going to repay this much money?”
“Repay it? Absolutely not!”
Madam Su snarled, her face twisted.
“Yun Shuyao’s maternal grandfather is the richest man in Kyoto. Do you think she cares about a mere seven hundred thousand taels?
She’s just throwing a tantrum. Go appease her, and that’ll be the end of it!”