Er Niang was two years older than him, nearly thirty—how could she remarry a young man only twenty years old? The surname Wang was everywhere on the streets; he must be overthinking it!
Besides, a beggar would have trouble even getting household registration, let alone a merchant travel permit. Who would arrange that for him?
Shen Rusong breathed a sigh of relief. He felt he had overlooked something, yet instinctively didn’t want to dwell on it.
Song Jian also secretly let out a sigh of relief. Both were silently thinking, “Thank goodness, thank goodness.”
“Do you know where she married?”
“That old woman said Old Man Wang refused to tell, only that it was somewhere in Yun Zhou. Old Man Wang said they couldn’t let the toad cling to them again. Once all the arrangements were settled, they loaded a cart with belongings, sent the girl to Xilin Village, and Old Man Wang left directly without even returning to the city.”
He had sent word ahead about his arrival, so repairs and cleaning at the residence had already begun. Er Niang must have known and left her daughter in his care. She truly had the heart to be so resolute!
But Yun Zhou—the southernmost territory of Da Yong. They likely wouldn’t meet again in this lifetime…
“Nine days ago, that Hu Sicai suddenly went to Feng’an Quarter, demanding to enter the residence, but was driven off by the new owner. Then he first went to the pawnshop before diving straight into the gambling den.” Song Jian took out a small cloth bundle from his robe and placed it on the table.
Shen Rusong opened it to find a longevity lock and a pair of silver bracelets, unusually small in size, clearly meant for a child.
“I also went to Xilin Village today. The villagers had nothing good to say about Hu Sicai and his wife. Niu Shi sold many things a few days ago. I checked—they were all everyday items without any markings or inscriptions. Since the villagers had already used them, I didn’t redeem them, fearing they might be too dirty for the young lady.”
“You’ve done well. Go to Cao Mo and draw twenty taels of silver—the extra is your reward.” Shen Rusong picked up the small silver lock, his anger already rising.
First, forcing Er Niang into a distant marriage, then mistreating her daughter. Hah, what a fine Hu Sicai!
Song Jian left the study and stretched.
After running around for days gathering information, he could finally rest.
He ran right into Cao Mo approaching. Hey, what a coincidence!
Just as he was about to ask for the silver, he saw Cao Mo winking and gesturing at him, then standing at the door to ask, “Master, I have something to report.”
Huh, with your tiny mung bean eyes, what am I supposed to see?
He’d heard Lao Mo had been taking a lot of heat from the inner household lately over this matter. Seeing his troubled expression now, it probably wasn’t good news.
Well, settling the accounts could wait a bit longer.
Song Jian patted Lao Mo’s shoulder sympathetically and sauntered away.
Cao Mo felt he’d been having a streak of bad luck lately, always getting dragged into things. Dealing with the mistress was one thing, but who would have thought the Ding family would come to him too?
He and that Ding Du—oh, now reverted to his original name, Ding Wang—weren’t close to begin with, being a generation apart. This old uncle never used to pay any mind to a young upstart like him; he and Song Jian were the ones who grew up together.
This man was never satisfied, scheming to climb higher but miscalculating with his master, ending up losing everything. Among the servants, his story was used as a cautionary tale.
Yet today, he actually came to cozy up to Cao Mo.
First, he sent word asking me to buy ointment for him. When I delivered it, he pulled me in for tea and conversation, probing about the inner household matters in every possible way.
By the time I realized what was happening and tried to leave, he grabbed me again, shoved over a dozen coins into my hand, and asked if I could do him a favor—let him leave the estate tomorrow to seek medical treatment.
What on earth is he trying to do?
“…There’s another matter. Lu Laogou from the front courtyard—he’s not one of our permanent servants, he signed a short-term contract to help guard the estate. He said that a few days ago, the fourth son of the Hu Family was asking him about our family’s recent situation at the gambling den.”
Cao Mo finished speaking with his head bowed. After a long pause, he finally heard Shen Rusong let out a cold laugh: “Since everyone’s restless, let’s just lay it all out and see what he’s up to! Go tell that fellow surnamed Ding tonight—he can leave the estate, but he’s not allowed to bring anything back. Arrange for someone to keep an eye on him!”
“Yes.”
“Keep a tight watch inside the estate too. Don’t let them wander around freely.”
“Yes.”
“In a moment, go tell Lu Laogou to take Hu Sicai out of the estate tomorrow as well, and then…”
“…Yes.”
After Shen Rusong finished giving his instructions, Cao Mo nodded and withdrew.
Just as he stepped out the door, Shen Rusong’s voice came from behind again: “Also, from now on, whether they’re household servants or short-term workers, anyone involved in gambling is not to be hired!”
“Yes!”
In the pitch darkness, Shen Yiyi began her nightly routine: using every language and method she could think of to search for her cheat ability. This had recently become her mandatory pre-sleep ritual.
What if she just hadn’t found the correct activation path for her cheat ability? What if it required something like piety points to charge?
Today’s progress for the cheat-ability-obsessed individual remained zero.
As usual, after giving a negative review to the non-existent transmigration bureau, Shen Yiyi thought about today’s gains.
After the initial excitement wore off and she calmed down, she realized she had learned about the “Dayong Dynasty, Yuan He era,” but so what? What good was that?
She still couldn’t determine whether this “Da Yong” was a fictional dynasty or one of those chaotic, short-lived dynasties from periods like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms or the Northern and Southern Dynasties!
How she wished she had a history book! Still, learning a lot about everyday life was somewhat of a gain.
However, in her excitement, she had gotten a bit carried away and earned another black mark from Niu Shi. Life back in the village would be even harder now, Shen Yiyi reflected.
But once that couple’s beautiful dream shattered, would their ensuing hysterics really be any worse because of this one extra mark?
Those two—
Huh, why are they so quiet tonight?
Shen Yiyi suddenly realized that the usually devastating snoring from the outer room was absent tonight.
Niu Shi had been drifting in and out of sleep. Every time she was about to fall into a dream, Hu Sicai’s tossing and turning would wake her up.
After several times, she kicked him.
Hu Sicai, caught off guard by the kick, jolted in fright and simply sat up.
Seeing he still wouldn’t settle down, Niu Shi grew even more annoyed and hissed in a low voice, “What are you tossing and turning for in the middle of the night? Are we sleeping or not?”
She expected Hu Sicai to fire back with passionate retorts, but she was almost asleep again when a faint, eerie sentence drifted over: “This doesn’t feel right~”
Half-awakened, Niu Shi yawned, “What kind of madness has gotten into you, you dead ghost? Spit it out if you have something to say!”
“Let me ask you, how’s the relationship between Second Cousin and our family?”
“What?”
“She was sold because of my father. I was just born then, but she was already seven years old—how could she not remember? She never gave me a decent look before, treating us like beggars and dumping us in some poor village shack.”
“If it were just watching the kids for a few days, fine. But she’s leaving for good—why would she leave her daughter with us? If it were you, would you?”
There’s such a tangled history? Then why did you only notice this plot hole now?!
Shen Yiyi, who was hiding behind the partition with disheveled hair and bare feet, crawling like Sadako, gave Hu Sicai’s intelligence a thumbs-down.
It wasn’t that she wanted to engage in some creepy crawling performance art—it was just that their voices were too soft, and Da Ya and Hutou’s teeth-grinding was right beside her. If she didn’t get closer, she couldn’t hear clearly.
She had already planned it out: if these two didn’t suffer from the common night blindness of ancient people and discovered her, she’d pretend to be sleepwalking, calmly crawl back, and then absolutely deny everything.
Niu Shi thought about it: if she remarried with Hutou, she wouldn’t necessarily have to send Da Ya to an enemy’s household.
At most, at most, she’d just abandon her to this deadbeat father.
“Maybe, maybe she has no other relatives?—Didn’t her father come later?”
“Right, he ‘just’ came. Couldn’t he even wait a few days?” Hu Sicai emphasized the words, and as he spoke, his thoughts gradually opened up. He felt many things could connect!
“Let me ask you, is the house in Feng’an Quarter good? But why could she only come up with a little over twenty taels?”
“Huh? Didn’t you say she was pretending to be broke to control you—”
“Bullshit! Let’s just say, is it possible she really had no money, that she was just Master Shen’s kept mistress over there?”
“Then, then why did she run when Master Shen came back? Couldn’t she just keep being his mistress?” Niu Shi was confused by his reasoning.
“Who did she run off with?”
“With—!” Niu Shi sat up in a flash. In the darkness, she couldn’t see Hu Sicai’s face clearly, but she still widened her eyes toward his blurry figure.
At this moment, Niu Shi finally caught up with Hu Sicai’s train of thought.
So, her sister-in-law Hu Erniang had taken a lover while Master Shen, her sugar daddy, was away escorting the coffin back home for mourning?!
Knowing the sugar daddy was returning, she quickly eloped with her lover and even sold the house he’d bought for her?!
Who would’ve thought? Was Hu Erniang really this capable?!
Over there, Hu Sicai was already cursing under his breath: “That bitch Hu Erya! Usually acting all chaste and virtuous, she ran off with so much silver and didn’t even give me a single coin! And I still have to cover for her and help her daughter reunite with her family!”
“You still want to reunite her with the family?!” This time, Niu Shi was the first to spot the key point. “Yuan Jie’er is over six years old. Your cousin kept it completely hidden—the Shen family has no idea at all—”
Holy shit! Hu Sicai was stunned: “You, you mean Yuan Jie’er is hers with that traveling merchant—”
“Not necessarily! If it were the merchant’s child, she would’ve run off with him. If she can cheat now, how pure could she have been before?”
Hu Sicai was completely dumbfounded.
Niu Shi, however, grew more excited as she spoke: “In my opinion, maybe she had this child with a previous lover behind the Shen family’s back! The lover ran off, but she couldn’t forget him, secretly raising the child, hoping he’d come back someday. Then, a few years ago, she shifted her affections and found a new lover.”
“This time the Shen family returned, she was afraid her affair would be exposed, so she ran off overnight with her new lover. That man certainly wouldn’t want to raise her illegitimate child, so she had you bring the kid to the Shen family to claim kinship. Finding a wealthy sucker would be the best outcome, fulfilling the bond of having given birth and raised the child. Hah, even if exposed, she’d have dumped the burden anyway—it’s not like she’d be the one suffering!”
In the darkness, Hu Sicai couldn’t see Niu Shi’s chattering face clearly either, but he could hear her heightened emotions. Facing her blurry silhouette, he posed a soul-crushing question: “Now that it’s exposed, aren’t we the ones who’ll suffer?!”
Niu Shi’s voice abruptly cut off.