Chapter 109: The Yuan Family

Xu Zaijing stared into Xie Shi’s eyes, waiting for her to continue.

Xie Shi said:

“Husband, sometimes only women understand women. I think she sees you and Wu Lang riding fine horses, dressed in fine silks, and figures your heart can’t be all bad— isn’t that a decent match?”

Xie Shi continued, watching her husband: “I think Wu Lang is shrewd—he likely misled that woman so she wouldn’t cling to him.”

“Wu Lang does think a lot.”

“With a brother like that, we must support him as much as we can. You said yourself before bed—Wu Lang has caught the Emperor’s eye.”

“My lady speaks truly.”

As they spoke, they gradually fell asleep again.

After the New Year’s Day grand audience, the Great Zhou court took a seven-day holiday.

Key government offices naturally kept staff on duty.

Over these four or five days,

officials and nobles of Bianjing visited relatives; their kinship ties were intricate and tangled,

each passing day made the Yuan family’s scandal spread further through ever more distant kinship links.

The two Zhangs never held back their tactics against the Yuan family—they struck straight at the heart.

With a thread of an issue, these two could dismantle your entire fabric.

On the fourth day, Lady of Shoushan Manor, Lady Yuan, arrived at the Yuan household.

The Yuan family’s main gate was tightly shut, the front uncleaned—clearly closed for days.

Passersby occasionally walked by, whispering and pointing at the Yuan family’s gate plaque.

A servant opened the side gate, and Lady of Shoushan Manor entered the Yuan household.

The entire Yuan household was bleak; servants and slaves had no heart for their work.

Yet Lady of Shoushan Manor still held her head high and walked toward the rear courtyard.

An elderly servant who had served the Yuan family for decades trembled at the sight of her and hurriedly pretended to be busy.

Entering the main hall, servants had already announced her arrival; Yuan Bingkai and the whole family waited inside.

The Huang family of Shoushan Manor was upright,

back when the Yuan family fell from grace and was demoted, the Yuan family’s eldest daughter had already married into the Huang family.

Yet the Huangs did not divorce or mistreat this eldest daughter because of the Yuan family’s decline, but neither could they aid the Yuan family.

Because the late Emperor had been furious; the entire noble class trembled, fearing they would be the next to be implicated and stripped of rank.

Only after the current Emperor ascended the throne did they gain the chance to help the Yuan family a little—mostly through the eldest daughter’s own frugality, saving food and clothing to send aid.

Later, this eldest daughter gathered ample evidence of the Yuan family’s innocence, entrusted to her in-laws to submit upward, which led to the restoration of the Yuan family’s title.

She had cared for Lord Yuan greatly; thus, to some extent, Lord Yuan regarded his elder sister as a second mother.

“Sister.”

Yuan Bingkai rose and bowed respectfully.

Lady of Shoushan Manor sat directly in the main seat; Yuan Bingkai naturally took the lower seat.

“How is Shao Ge doing?”

“Better—he’s taken some tonics to nourish his organs, and he’s nearly back to normal.”

“What of that actor?”

“I followed your advice—he’s been well cared for.”

“Hmm.” Lady of Shoushan Manor nodded.

【Lady of Shoushan Manor will henceforth be referred to as the Yuan family’s eldest daughter.】

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter shook her head: “I came to the Yuan household, and not even a cup of tea?”

She cast a cold glance at the two Zhangs.

Yuan Wenchun hurriedly waved his hand, ordering maids to bring tea.

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter smoothed her sleeves, sat upright, and said coolly:

“Kneel.”

Hearing his sister’s words, Yuan Bingkai rose naturally from his chair.

He knelt before his sister.

She glanced again at the two Zhangs and Yuan Wenchun.

All three hurriedly knelt down.

“Send someone to fetch the divorce decree from beneath the ancestral hall’s plaque. You sign and affix your seal. Wenchun, bring ink, brush, paper, and inkstone—write the decree right here in the hall. Then deliver it jointly to the Clan Office—we cannot afford to keep these two deities.”

After speaking, the Yuan family’s eldest daughter looked at her brother, letting his mind absorb it.

Then calmly added: “Why does it take so long to bring tea?”

The maid outside turned and stood at the door; seeing her masters kneeling, she hurriedly knelt too: “R-returning, my lady—the kitchen fire went out, we’re relighting it.”

“Hmph!”

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter let out a soft huff, making the two Zhangs shudder and lower their heads further.

Then she looked at her brother, puzzled: “Aren’t you going?”

“Sister, after Lantern Festival, I’m taking her to Yangzhou to…”

“Pfft~ Still thinking of proposing to the Sheng family? Has your brain been greased with pork fat?”

“Sis—”

“When you go to court on the eighth, do you think the censors are all useless fools?”

“Sister, it’s just an actor. I’ve followed your advice and treated her well—she can be a concubine. What does this have to do with the censors?”

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter looked at her brother, frowned, and turned to the two Zhangs and Yuan Wenchun.

“You’re still hiding this from him?”

Hearing his sister’s words, Yuan Bingkai looked bewildered: “Hiding what?”

He had been confined to his home recovering, and hadn’t seen any outsiders in ten days.

“Bang!”

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter slammed the table.

“Your family’s affairs are known throughout Bianjing! The Yuan family has become a laughingstock! Your eldest son poisoning your second son is common knowledge!”

“What? What? WHAT!!!”

Yuan Bingkai suddenly stood, glaring at the elder Zhang.

The elder Zhang trembled, voice quaking: “This is just Bianjing gossip—outside the city, even the Eastern Road may not know! Husband! There’s still hope!”

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter said coldly: “Hmph. Still thinking of the Sheng family? First think of the Yuan family.”

Hearing his sister’s words, Yuan Bingkai gripped his chair and collapsed into it, dizzy.

“After court, censors will submit memorials. The Yuan family is finished.”

Yuan Wenchun asked, voice trembling and eyes vacant: “Father, Father—what will happen to our family?”

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter said solemnly: “Demotion and stripping of title.”

What?

The three kneeling below stared in panic—they never imagined it would come to this.

Yuan Bingkai closed his eyes in agony, his spirit crushed.

He sighed endlessly.

He seemed to age rapidly.

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter, cold-faced and hardened-hearted, looked at her brother, now instantly aged,

and her heart ached—she softened.

For she suddenly recalled: when the Yuan family was stripped of rank, she had just become pregnant,

and Yuan Bingkai, fearing she would suffer in her in-laws’ home, visited the Huang household daily, telling her about the horses and oxen he’d cured at Bianjing’s livestock market.

How could she not know? Though it seemed he was merely seeking connections at the Huangs’, wasn’t he truly worried for her—fearing that as the Yuan family’s eldest daughter, she might be abused or even killed because of the family’s fall?

He held his sister close in his heart.

Back then, he was barely a teenager,

how had he grown so old?

The Yuan family’s eldest daughter took a deep breath, suppressing the tears in her eyes.

Enough.

Lady of Shoushan Manor softened.

Chapter Four, continuing to write.

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(End of Chapter)