Chapter 167: with translation of chapter title

In early winter, the sky grew dark earlier and earlier; just past the you hour, the mansion began to light lamps, and little by little the courtyards inside and outside Prince Rui's residence lit up.

These days, Tan Chun Yuan has been very quiet; aside from the embroidery maids who came daily from Shang Jing to help with the wedding trousseau, no other staff moved about.

Everyone knows that the master of Tan Chun Yuan and the one from Peach Blossom Pavilion are terribly mismatched, yet all hope Su Wanrou will marry soon.

Especially the servants of Tan Chun Yuan, aside from a few maids who might follow Su Wanrou as part of her dowry and wear grim faces, the rest all showed some delight.

They really do not want to serve this difficult master any longer; the Princess Consort is wonderful—she handles affairs fairly and treats people kindly.

After Su Wanrou marries out, they will go before the Princess Consort to ask for a favor, and their days will not be too hard.

However, these past few days, everyone in Tan Chun Yuan has been carefully guarding a secret: ever since Hong Yu brought Miss Jinzhi to Tan Chun Yuan that time, she has not been seen for a long while.

The maids serving in the Warm Pavilion said the master had assigned Hong Yu a special task, sending her out of the mansion to handle it.

Hong Yu is a trusted confidante of Miss Wan, so naturally she did not arouse suspicion among the servants—what master does not have a few shameful matters to attend to?

This time, the door of the Warm Pavilion creaked open, and Su Wanrou stepped out alone, holding a lantern, draped in a gray squirrel-fur cloak, moving gracefully.

Yet she let no one accompany her, and those maids dared not approach her, feeling ill at ease.

Su Wanrou's temperament is strange, her moods unpredictable, and in Tan Chun Yuan this has fostered an aloof indifference to anything that does not concern her.

Even the rough maid in charge of sweeping glanced doubtfully at the hurriedly departing Su Wanrou, while the rest dared not look in her direction.

Su Wanrou did not go out the main gate but went to the Xi Ce Men.

The Xi Ce Men is locked later than other gates, and all the mansion's filth and various sweepings' trash must be hauled out from here.

The gatekeeping matron had already received word of Su Wanrou's arrival and was waiting there; upon seeing Su Wanrou approach, she hurriedly bowed in greeting but before she could utter a few words of flattery, Su Wanrou swept past and ignored her.

She went outside, where an ordinary blue-curtained carriage waited; Su Wanrou lifted the carriage's curtain and climbed in.

Soon the carriage headed toward the filthy alleys of the southern city; after the previous flood in Shang Jing, with Xiao Yin's memorial and Emperor Longqing himself nearly frightened out of his wits by the epidemic that broke out due to sanitation issues.

The environment in the southern part of the city has improved somewhat compared to before; the former muddy dirt roads have now been paved with a layer of blue stone slabs, and the carriage wheels rolling over them emit a series of dull thuds.

Soon the carriage stopped outside an unremarkable compound, a secluded standalone courtyard located on the southern outskirts, with few residents around, making it appear quite isolated.

The courtyard was fairly orderly; hearing the carriage, a middle-aged man stepped out and bowed to Su Wanrou, saying, 'Master.'

Su Wanrou nodded; over these years, Xiao Yin has truly been willing to spend silver on her.

To outsiders, Xiao Yin seems on the verge of destitution, but only Su Wanrou knows he is an extremely wealthy master, granting her extra silver each year in considerable amounts.

Over these years the accumulated sum is certainly not small; she secretly sneered, thinking Xiao Yin likely wants to use this silver to buy himself peace of mind, to buy a life.

After all, without General An back then, there would be no him.

She has always known to keep a retreat for herself; liking Xiao Yin is no falsehood, but not leaving a backup plan is impossible.

These people are the force she secretly recruited outside, nurtured at great expense.

Found them?

Replying to Master: yes, we found them—indeed they had teamed up with Zhao Da, and our men blocked them solidly at the dock; both were trussed up and brought here, Master, please!

Su Wanrou snorted coldly; the reason she dared let Hong Yu handle all her secrets was that she had long ago discovered Hong Yu had never confided them to anyone.

Earlier she had sounded out Hong Yu, who said that this time, when she married, she wanted Hong Yu to be her chief dowry maid, and then have her serve Little General Zhao, bear a son and a daughter, and live together with her in the Zhao mansion.

By then, elevating Hong Yu to concubine, since the Zhao family was the household selected by the Prince for her, they surely could not go far wrong; I hear that Zhao Lang is also quite handsome.

Such conditions would move any maid's heart, yet Hong Yu seemed forced to risk her life, eyes filled with terror as she knelt and begged her, saying she was old and wished to be released from the mansion to live.

This only confirmed Su Wanrou's suspicion that Hong Yu likely had someone she liked outside.

Hah! Little wretch!

Su Wanrou chuckled softly, 'Just a useful dog, yet you dare bite back at me—and let you see what family law really is.'

She stepped inside, and the people outside locked the courtyard gate tightly behind her.

Su Wanrou pushed open the door of the main hall and entered; the hall's door then slowly closed behind her.

The room was somewhat dim, faintly reeking of blood.

Su Wanrou covered her nose with a handkerchief, furrowed her brows tightly, and slowly took her seat in the place of honor.

On the floor knelt two people beaten to a bloody pulp; Hong Yu lifted her head to look at Su Wanrou seated in the place of honor, and in that instant all color drained from her face as her body began to tremble.

Her mouth was stuffed with narcotic paste, she could only whimper incoherently, yet she struggled ceaselessly to kowtow to Su Wanrou.

Beside her knelt a man with fine features, honest and loyal in appearance, his wounds far worse than Hong Yu's, clearly those men had struck with vicious intent.

Hong Yu, because of the Jinzhi incident, had reminded Jinzhi to vomit up the poison she had taken, thereby offending her own master.

She fled the Prince Rui's mansion with the gold, silver, and valuables she had accumulated over the years; she truly had no other recourse, for if there were any way she would have waited until Su Wanrou married and then begged the Princess Consort to release her from the mansion to marry.

But events piled one upon another, and aside from fleeing that devil, she had no other path.

Her acquaintance with Zhao Da came about because Su Wanrou liked candied fruits; Zhao Da carried a pole and sold candied fruits on the streets, and over time they became familiar.

A faint affection flowed between these two lowest of folk; Zhao Da was an orphan whose mother had died half a year ago.

Hong Yu had been sold to the Prince Rui's mansion by her elder brother and sister-in-law to serve as a maid; these years she only knew to come ask for money, never mentioning buying back her freedom.

The only thing she could think of after fleeing the Prince Rui's mansion was to seek Zhao Da, for in Southern Qi the punishment for runaway servants is severe, and even those who abet their escape are imprisoned.

Hongyu didn't expect Zhao Da to help her take a risk, just like that bright sunny day, the handsome-faced peddler smiled, showing his white teeth, and slipped a small packet of candied fruit to her.

She remembered that smile, set against the sunset, beautiful enough to make her remember it for a lifetime.

He asked her the next day whether it was sweet.

She said it was sweet.

From then on, the peddler brought her a packet of candied fruit every day, becoming the only sweetness in her gray life.

Zhao Da could have escaped this disaster, but it was his own fault that brought it upon him.

Hongyu kept kowtowing to Su Wanrou, sobbing as she pleaded.

Su Wanrou's lips curled into a cold, sinister smile as she looked toward Zhao Da, who had fainted to the side.