“Very good.” Madam Xu’s expression turned cold. She turned to Lin Youyou and said, “Youyou, bring a stool down from the carriage for Mother. I’ll sit here and wait.”
“Alright.” Lin Youyou raised an eyebrow slightly.
Her mother… seemed to have changed as well.
The kind and somewhat weak woman she used to be would never have done something like this before.
It seemed that the assassination attempt had changed her mother too, at least a little. Lin Youyou was actually glad to see it. In these grand noble households, weak people simply could not survive.
The servant snorted coldly.
“If there’s no matriarch or legitimate young miss in this household, then there isn’t one. Even when our masters return, it’ll still be the same. If you want to wait, then wait. I’d like to see how our master deals with you later.”
Madam Xu elegantly straightened her clothing and sat calmly on the stool before the gates. Her voice was light and composed.
“I’d also like to see how your master plans to deal with me.”
Time passed little by little.
More and more idle townspeople gradually gathered near the gates. After hearing others quietly explain what had happened, all of them wore shocked expressions.
Something like this could happen in the capital?
A household couldn’t even figure out whether they had a matriarch or not?
Or were these two women simply here to cause trouble?
Hearing that Lord Lin would soon return, the crowd became even more excited. Such entertainment was rare—they hadn’t seen anything this lively in days.
As time passed, the crowd at the entrance continued to grow.
Madam Xu remained seated there as steady as a mountain, while Lin Youyou stood quietly beside her, silently guarding her mother.
As usual, Lin Chaowen returned from court by carriage.
But suddenly the carriage came to a stop.
He frowned. “Why have we stopped?”
“Master, commoners have blocked the front gate of the residence. The carriage can’t get through,” the coachman replied respectfully.
Hearing this, Lin Chaowen lifted the carriage curtain. Seeing a crowd gathered before his residence, he bent and stepped out of the carriage with the coachman’s assistance, then slowly walked toward the crowd.
Someone spotted him in his court robes and immediately shouted,
“Lord Lin has arrived!”
The moment those words rang out, the people in front quickly parted to form a path for him, as though they had specifically been waiting for his arrival.
Although Lin Chaowen was puzzled, he still walked inward step by step.
The moment he passed through the crowd, the first thing he saw was the familiar yet strangely unfamiliar figure seated beneath the gates of the residence.
Time had clearly left traces upon her, yet beauty remained undefeated by age. With a single glance, he seemed to see once more the young woman he had once pursued with all his life.
A wave of emotion surged in Lin Chaowen’s heart.
He hurried toward her, completely ignoring the servant’s eager expression of wanting to complain, and entirely failing to notice the legitimate daughter who had left him since she was only five or six years old.
At that moment, both his eyes and heart contained only his wife.
Lin Chaowen crouched halfway down before her, his body trembling slightly as he looked up at her foolishly with a grin.
“Madam… you’ve finally returned.”
Madam Xu snorted coldly and glanced sideways at the refined and still handsome middle-aged man before her.
“Oh? Isn’t there no matriarch in the Lin Residence? Then how could Lord Lin possibly have a wife?”
The moment he heard that, Lin Chaowen’s legs went weak.
Thud!
He dropped straight to his knees before Madam Xu.
The corner of Lin Youyou’s mouth twitched. She immediately turned her head away, unable to bear looking at her father any longer.
By tomorrow—no, probably by today—the entire capital would know that Lord Lin was henpecked and terrified of his wife.
Even the Emperor might hear about it.
Honestly…
Before they had even entered the residence, her father had already managed to give her mother the reputation of being a fierce shrew.
Her father truly was impressive.
“W-What?” Lin Chaowen knelt on the ground, looking utterly confused as he turned toward the servant.
The servant’s face had already turned deathly pale. With a thud, he collapsed to his knees in terror.
“M-Master, this servant truly never heard that our residence had a matriarch. So when Madam claimed to be the wife of this household, I only spoke to drive them away…”
At that point, even without anyone saying another word, Lin Chaowen’s own face had darkened like the bottom of a burnt pot.
“You don’t even know who belongs to our household or who the matriarch is?”
“I-I really didn’t know! Madam has never returned before. I’ve only worked here for three years, and I’ve never once heard about Madam or the young miss. Their names weren’t even listed in the household relationship register kept at the gate, so…”
The servant looked on the verge of tears.
After all, he truly had never heard of the existence of a matriarch or legitimate young miss.
And the household relationship register he had been given indeed contained no mention of either of them.
If he hadn’t been absolutely certain there was no matriarch, how could a mere gatekeeper possibly dare stop the wife of the household outside the gates?
A cold glint flashed through Lin Chaowen’s eyes.
“Give it to me.”
The servant immediately handed over the booklet.
Lin Chaowen flipped through it from the first page to the last, yet nowhere could he find the names of his wife or daughter.
The coldness in his eyes deepened.
He truly hadn’t expected that someone would dare seek death like this.
“I’ll dock one month of your wages and sentence you to ten strokes of the board. Do you object?”
The hand clutching the booklet had turned pale white.
“This servant thanks Master.” How could the gatekeeper possibly object? This was already the best possible outcome. The master had clearly shown mercy since it truly hadn’t been his fault.
Throughout the entire matter, Madam Xu remained silent. Nor did she kindly plead for Lin Chaowen not to punish the servant.
After all, Lin Chaowen was currently establishing her authority. How could she possibly undermine him?
Lin Chaowen then ordered the servant,
“Open the main gates wide. Welcome Madam and the young miss home.”
“Yes, yes! This servant will do it immediately!”
The servant hurried off respectfully to make arrangements.
Only then did Lin Chaowen turn back toward Madam Xu, who still sat steadily upon the stool. Wearing a flattering, almost fawning smile, he said foolishly,
“Madam, let’s go inside.”
Madam Xu looked at Lin Chaowen, who was lowering himself so obediently before her, and elegantly extended her beautiful hand.
Lin Chaowen immediately wiped his hands nervously against his official robes before carefully reaching out to support her.
“Madam must have suffered from the long journey. Let’s go inside first.”
Only after helping Madam Xu up did he finally look toward the daughter he had ignored the entire time.
“You must be Youyou. Come inside as well.”
Lin Youyou nodded helplessly and followed behind her parents into the residence.
Her face remained expressionless at her father openly showering everyone with affection.
One day, she’d make sure to flaunt her own love in front of them too.
Still, it was a pity.
The plan she had prepared earlier—to resolve things with force and slap her father in the face—was now impossible to carry out. Somehow, she felt a little unwilling to let it go.
Walking ahead, Lin Chaowen naturally had no idea what his outwardly calm and elegant daughter was currently thinking.
Otherwise, he probably would have kicked her straight back out the gate.
The Lin Residence was not small.
Its layout was the proper, conventional design of a scholarly family estate—a six-courtyard residence built according to regulations.
The first three courtyards formed the front residence, while the latter three made up the inner quarters for the women of the household.
As they walked through the covered corridors, there were artificial rock gardens, ponds, and koi fish swimming among blooming lotus flowers.
Small pavilions stood amidst bamboo groves and flowerbeds.
The entire residence was spotless.
The furniture was made from redwood and aged sandalwood, with elaborately carved beams and painted rafters, blue bricks, and dark tiled roofs.
The entire estate possessed an elegant antique charm.
Servants hurried busily about their work, but whenever they saw the three of them, they immediately stepped aside respectfully to clear the way.