There was no accumulated snow on the bluestone slabs outside the Mingquan Courtyard. Wang Gui's forehead was pressed against the stone slabs, only feeling the icy cold touch of the stone slabs like a knife, almost slicing open his skull.
Wang Gui just remained kneeling and prostrating like this, waiting for Chen Ji to appear.
However, Chen Ji still hadn't appeared after a long time.
Not far from the Mingquan Courtyard was the Qunfang Courtyard where the maids lived. Hearing Wang Gui's shouts from inside the dormitory rooms, maids draped clothes over themselves and came out to watch the commotion. For a time, several heads were squeezed in front of the dormitory courtyard's doors.
In the deep night, freezing cold and ground frozen solid, the young maids were shivering from the cold, their hands turning purple and noses red, yet they refused to miss out on this good show.
A slender and frail maid narrowed her eyes, carefully identifying the figure of Wang Gui's back. "Isn't that the steward?"
A slightly older maid said disdainfully, "He isn't any steward anymore; call him Wang Gui."
The slender maid gave an 'oh'. "So Wang Gui was beaten with the staff and has now come to yield and submit to the Third Young Master? Look at his back, it's still bleeding. If he kneels for a while longer, he'll probably freeze to death."
The older maid spat to the side. "Serves him right! Over all these years, other than the first-class maids serving right beside the Young Masters, Master, and Madam, who among us hasn't been taken advantage of by him?"
The maids of the Chen Estate were divided into three classes.
The first class served right beside the masters. Their monthly silver allowance was the highest, and their status was also the highest.
The second class were the maids and strong servants who managed the miscellaneous chores within the estate. Every second-class maid and strong servant managed seven or eight third-class maids under them, which could be considered living a comfortable life.
The most miserable were this current group of third-class maids. Their monthly silver allowance was extremely low, and twenty to thirty of them lived crammed together. If they wanted to marry, they could only marry the tenant farmers on the Chen Estate's farmlands or the shop assistants in their stores.
At this time, seeing that Chen Ji still hadn't appeared after a long time, the maids whispered and chattered among themselves: "How strange. The Third Young Master was usually the most soft-hearted and cowardly in the past. With Wang Gui begging him like this, why hasn't he come out yet?"
The slender maid lowered her voice. "Perhaps after going out to study medicine for two years, his personality has changed?"
That older maid scoffed. "Impossible. Rivers and mountains are easy to change, but a person's innate nature is hard to alter. A person's personality wouldn't just change casually."
Speaking up to this point, she turned her head to look at a young maid behind her. The other party's hair was combed into simple double-tufted buns, her round face still retaining a childish air, and her eyes were bright and lively.
The older maid said to her, "Xiaoman, you used to serve beside the Third Young Master in the past. Now that he has returned, why don't you go beg Madam to assign you back to the Third Young Master?"
That maid with double-tufted buns, 'Xiaoman', muttered in a low voice, "Sister Liqiu, I won't go. Following him, day after day all I suffered was cowardly grievances."
'Liqiu' poked Xiaoman's forehead with her fingertip, feeling Hate Iron for Not Becoming Steel. "You useless thing. If you return to his side, wouldn't you become a first-class maid again? The monthly silver allowance directly increases by three hundred copper coins! If you disdain his cowardly nature, you just need to endure it until you reach the age to marry out of the estate. You could even secure a dowry. It's still better than us marrying tenant farmers and carriage drivers."
Xiaoman kept her head lowered. "It's not exactly that I disdain him either; it's just that I find it unbearable to watch him be so cowardly and useless. Anyway, whoever likes it can go. For a mere extra three hundred copper coins in monthly allowance, it's not even enough to compensate for the cowardly grievances suffered... Sister Liqiu, I want to stay in Luo City. This way, I won't have to serve anyone, and I'll just grow old and die here."
"Not marrying?"
"Not marrying."
Liqiu said in a lowered voice, "You don't know, do you? The Third Young Master recently received two thousand five hundred taels of silver from that newly established Preparation Bureau. His days have gotten much better."
Xiaoman's eyes widened. "That much?"
While breathing warm air onto her hands and rubbing her icy cold hands together, Liqiu said casually, "Following the Third Young Master now, although you might suffer a bit of anger sometimes, he is soft-hearted. When it's time for you to marry, if you beg him nicely, who knows, you might just be able to secure an abundant and generous dowry."
At this time, a maid let out a light sound of surprise. "Could it be that the Third Young Master's personality has truly changed and he has hardened his heart? Does he truly plan on letting Wang Gui freeze to death here?"
Xiaoman curled her lips. "How could that be possible?"
Just as her voice fell, the courtyard doors of the Mingquan Courtyard opened with a creak.
Xiaoman hurriedly said, "See? I told you so."
...
...
In the dark night, Chen Ji pulled open the courtyard doors. Wearing a large cloak, he stood inside the threshold and asked calmly, "What is the steward doing kneeling in front of my door in the middle of the night?"
Wang Gui said in a panic, "This lowly one is no longer the steward; the Third Young Master can just call me Wang Gui. This lowly one came here tonight only to beg the Third Young Master for your magnanimity and generosity, to pardon this lowly one."
Chen Ji said casually, "Caning you with the staff was Lord Chen's decision; begging me is useless."
Slamming his head against the ground, Wang Gui knocked his forehead onto the bluestone slabs until it bled. "Third Young Master is a great person with a great capacity for forgiveness. As for the matters of the past, everything was this lowly one's fault. If you are angry, just give this lowly one a good thrashing. It's just that this lowly one's mother at home is sixty-seven years old, still waiting in the capital for this lowly one to return. If you do not forgive this lowly one, this lowly one is afraid I won't even have the chance to care for her in her old age and see her off at her deathbed."
Chen Ji remained impassive.
Ruling the world with filial piety was the ancestral teaching of the Ning Dynasty's founding emperor. Even for figures like Elder Liu and Wang Daosheng, when their fathers passed away, they still had to resign from their official posts and return home for mourning period, wasting three whole years.
For Wang Gui to take off his upper garments in the freezing winter to Bear the Brambles and Plead Guilty, wishing to return to the capital to serve his birth mother, it already showed a sense of thorough repentance and a willingness to sacrifice his life to seek Benevolence.
If Chen Ji accepted Wang Gui's Bearing the Brambles and Pleading Guilty, it would become a beautiful tale in the Confucian scholarly circles, highlighting Chen Ji's heart of Benevolence and Righteousness. If Chen Ji let Wang Gui freeze to death here, it would be considered unbenevolent, and spreading word of it would damage the Chen Family's face.
Wang Gui wasn't genuinely seeking Chen Ji's forgiveness either; rather, he was performing a ruse of inflicting self-injury to win sympathy.
And this ruse wasn't meant for Chen Ji to see, but for Chen Liqin. What the other party was betting on was that Chen Liqin would care about the Chen Family's face and also care about the bonds of affection with his wet nurse.
Chen Ji pondered for a moment. "You wish to serve your birth mother, naturally carrying a heart of utmost purity and filial piety. I am naturally willing to help you fulfill this."
Wang Gui raised his head, his eyes filled with hope. "The Third Young Master has forgiven this lowly one? Can this lowly one follow you back to the capital?"
Smiling, Chen Ji said, "What I meant was, I will just dispatch someone to fetch your mother to Luo City, and that will be fine."
"Ah?" Wang Gui was absent-minded for a moment.
Pointing at this Chen Estate, Chen Ji said, "Once we head to the Capital City, this place will be left vacant and empty. I will pay the carriage and horse fees to bring your mother here. When the time comes, you can settle her in my Mingquan Courtyard. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Luo City has beautiful mountains and clear waters, a place where outstanding people are produced by the region's spiritual energy. It is exactly a good place for retiring in old age."
"This..." Wang Gui hesitated. His eyes darted around slightly, and he quickly reacted: "Third Young Master, this lowly one's mother's years are already high, her Vital Energy and Blood both weak and deficient. I am afraid she will not be able to endure the hundreds of miles of hardship on carriages and horses."
Chen Ji calculated the time. "If we take a fast boat along the Grand Canal from south to north, she will arrive in ten days."
Wang Gui steeled himself and insisted, "This lowly one's mother gets seasick."
Letting out a sigh, Chen Ji said, "Then there's nothing that can be done. I also wished to help fulfill your filial piety, but no methods will work. Hurry and go back. If you continue kneeling like this, you will soon die from losing body heat."
Prostrating himself once again, Wang Gui remained kneeling for a long time without rising. "If you do not forgive this lowly one, this lowly one will kneel to death right here."
Chen Ji fell silent.
The young maids of the Qunfang Courtyard held their breaths. Their heads stacked one atop another outside the doorframe, secretly observing.
Liqiu sighed with emotion, "This Wang Gui is actually quite a ruthless character. Is he betting that the Third Young Master's heart is soft, not daring to truly cause a loss of human life?"
Xiaoman curled her lips. "If it were me, I definitely would have let him kneel to death right here. Just watch, the Third Young Master will definitely swallow this cowardly grievance down. If he didn't have this personality, he wouldn't have been manipulated and pushed around by everyone in the previous years."
In front of the doors of the Mingquan Courtyard, Chen Ji asked softly, "Steward, do you truly not plan on getting up?"
Wang Gui said, "If the Third Young Master does not forgive this lowly one, this lowly one will not get up."
Chen Ji nodded. "Alright, if you won't get up, then don't get up. I will take you to seek Lord Chen to judge the reasoning."
Prostrating on the ground, Wang Gui said, "This lowly one won't go... What are you doing?!"
In the next moment, Chen Ji stepped out of the doors, grabbed Wang Gui's wrist, and dragged him toward the depths of the Chen Estate.
Struggling, Wang Gui let out sounds like a pig being slaughtered: "Let me go!"
However, no matter how he struggled, he couldn't break free from those hands that gripped like iron pincers.
Wang Gui could only lay on his back, allowing Chen Ji to drag him, getting further and further away on the bluestone paved path.
The maids outside the doors Looking at One Another. Unsure and astonished, Liqiu said, "I didn't see wrongly just now, did I? The Third Young Master just dragged Wang Gui away like that?"
Gripping the doorframe sideways, Xiaoman muttered, "He actually... actually just dragged him away like that?"
"The Third Young Master's strength is so great!"
They had imagined ten thousand possible ways this could end, such as Chen Ji softening his heart and forgiving him, Wang Gui being unable to endure it and leaving on his own, or Chen Liqin arriving.
Yet they had absolutely never expected that Chen Ji would actually drag Wang Gui away barehanded.
For a moment, the maids were somewhat at a loss for what to do. Looking at her former master's back, Xiaoman also suddenly felt a bit dazed and bewildered.
...
...
Outside the Wenhua Courtyard, Chen Ji knocked the door forcefully while dragging the crying and screaming Wang Gui. Without even having properly arranged his clothes, Chen Liqin hurriedly and frantically pushed out the doors: "What is the meaning of this?!"
Clasping his hands in a greeting outside the doors, Chen Ji said, "Lord Chen, Wang Gui went to the Mingquan Courtyard in the middle of the night to kneel, wanting to Bear the Brambles and Plead Guilty. He said that as long as I do not forgive him, he will kneel and freeze to death outside my door. I cannot make the decision for this matter, so I pulled him over to Lord Chen here to make the final judgment."
Looking at Wang Gui, Chen Liqin said angrily, "What kind of madness has possessed you?!"
Kneeling and crawling over to Chen Liqin's side, Wang Gui endlessly kowtowed and admitted his fault: "Master, this lowly one knows his mistakes, this lowly one knows his mistakes! I implore you, please do not leave this lowly one in Luo City. You also know that my elderly mother at home has high years; she cannot lack someone by her side to look after her, ah."
Chen Liqin frowned.
Wang Gui continued, "Whenever mother mentions you, she always says you are the most benevolent, kind-hearted, and cultured. Acknowledging proper etiquette, even at three years old you knew to yield the largest pears to your older brothers and mother. She also mentioned holding your hand to stroll through the Lantern Festival, saying that at four years old, you could guess all the lantern riddles..."
Weeping bitterly, Wang Gui cried, "Master, she accompanied you until you were fourteen years old, looking after your daily life and meals day and night. How can you bear to see her spend the rest of her life in lonely bitterness?"
Feeling annoyed and depressed, Chen Liqin said, "Enough!"
Wang Gui shut his mouth and remained silent.
The so-called wet nurse was not only responsible for nursing, but continually took care of the young child's daily life and meals, imparting foundational knowledge, and accompanying them until adulthood.
Within the deep palaces and grand mansions, the wet nurse filled the void of a mother. When many nobles and high officials reached adulthood, they even treated their wet nurse as half a mother, providing for her care.
Chen Liqin was precisely like this.
At this time, recalling various events from the past, Chen Liqin subconsciously looked at Chen Ji. "You... His actions this time, it seems he truly has feelings of remorse."
Unfazed, Chen Ji asked, "What is Lord Chen's meaning?"
Remaining silent for a long time, Chen Liqin said, "His mother's years are indeed already high... Previously, he made a mistake out of momentary foolishness, but Wenzong has already caned him. Now he has also come to Bear the Brambles and Plead Guilty, so he must surely know to repent and reform. Of course, I will not let him continue to be the steward either; he will merely follow us back to the capital. What are your thoughts on this?"
Chen Ji pondered for a moment. "Lord Chen, why not return Wang Gui's indenture contract back to him, releasing him to return home, no longer working in the Chen Estate."
Chen Liqin was somewhat put in a difficult position. "I once promised his mother that I would give him an errand/position... How about this: we shall observe him for a period of time. If he shows any signs of acting like a petty villain again, I will expel him from the estate. If he truly turns over a new leaf, we will also give him this opportunity to start anew as an honest person."
Gazing at Chen Liqin in the dark night for a long time, Chen Ji took a step back, smiled, and clasped his hands, saying, "No matter; I shall leave it all up to Lord Chen's decision."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Chen Liqin lowered his head and angrily rebuked Wang Gui at his feet: "Why aren't you rolling out of here already! Making a fool of yourself here! Roll back to your room! Don't appear before Chen Ji to annoy him before we return to the capital."
Wang Gui scrambled up in a panic. "This lowly one understands, this lowly one understands!"
...
...
Returning to his sleeping quarters and donning his clothes properly, Wang Gui limped out through the side courtyard gate of the Chen Estate. Turning down several small alleys, he knocked on the door of a house.
The courtyard doors opened. A beautiful, charming woman said with pleasant surprise, "Husband, today isn't an off-duty day, why have you returned in the middle of the night?"
Wang Gui said tremblingly, "Help me inside first."
Supporting him, the woman said with worry, "What happened to Husband? Why are you limping?"
His face an iron-blue color, Wang Gui didn't explain a single word, merely instructing in a low voice, "Pack things up. Prepare to return to the capital in a few days."
Supporting Wang Gui so he could lie face down on the bed, the woman rubbed his icy arms and legs to help him warm up.
When she saw the wounds on his back and buttocks, her heart ached so much she shed tears. "Husband, what happened to you, ah? Who beat you into this state? Let's go report to the Government Office!"
Without speaking, Wang Gui allowed the woman to rub for a long time before finally catching his breath.
"You are not allowed to report to the officials. This matter is beyond the Government Office's jurisdiction," he instructed with his eyes closed. "Pack up the gold, silver, and valuables in the house properly. Tomorrow, summon a carriage driver from the transport guild, and find an Escort Agency to guard them, transporting them to the capital. Do not travel together with the Chen Family. Transport the valuables separately to the capital and hand them over to my mother."
Giving an "Ai" sound, the woman agreed.
Opening his eyes, Wang Gui said, "Where is the chest I brought back on the day of the military mutiny? I want to take a look at it."
Bending down, the woman struggled to pull out a wooden chest from under the bed and opened it. Inside, it was completely filled with gold and silver jewelry. Madam Liang's former most treasured Phoenix Crown with blue flower forehead ornaments also lay prominently amongst them.
On the day of the Liu Family's military mutiny, Chen Liqin and Zhang Zhuo were placed under house arrest in the prefectural yamen, while Madam Liang had hidden away in a countryside manor outside the city.
Seizing the opportunity, Wang Gui amassed quite an amount of wealth and property. Later, he pushed all the responsibility onto the Liu Family's armored soldiers, secretly appropriating a chest full of gold, silver, and valuables for himself.
At this time, seeing the chest of gold and silver jewelry was still there, Wang Gui let out a long sigh of relief.
Wang Gui's gaze fell on the Phoenix Crown with blue flower forehead ornaments. This was precisely an item Madam Liang wore on her head when she was married off.
A moment later, Wang Gui's gaze flickered unpredictably between darkness and light. "Put this jewelry on your head."
Letting out an "Ah" sound, the woman's face showed joy, but her mouth yielded modestly, "Why does Husband want me to wear this Phoenix Crown jewelry? I am not worthy to wear such a fine item."
Furious, Wang Gui rebuked, "If I tell you to wear it, then wear it! Cut the crap!"
Sitting aggrievedly in front of the dressing table, the woman faced the brass mirror and put the jewelry upon her head.
Narrowing his eyes, Wang Gui looked over. In the dim room, the woman's facial features were already blurry and indistinct. All that remained was that Phoenix Crown jewelry shining brightly in the faint candlelight.
The woman had only just finished putting on the jewelry when she saw Wang Gui crawl down from the bed. Ignoring the pain over his body, he pressed the woman firmly against the dressing table and flipped up the hem of her clothes from behind.
"Husband, don't be like this, you still have injuries on your body..."
"Shut up."
"Husband, there seems to be a raccoon dog cat (lihua cat) looking at us from the window lattice."
"Shut up!"
(End of this chapter)