"Returning to Before Husband's Castration" 《回到老公自宫前》Chapter 38
Lu Ying continued to read the confession, Wang Da Xia guessed Wei Cai Wei might be the second young lady He who had lost her memory when she suffered a fever while on the run, he who was usually lazy became more diligent, he wanted to dig out his eyes to take a closer look.
Zhou xiaoqi’s confession said, ten years ago, after the Genxu revolution, the court were clearing officials who neglected their jobs, everyone was in danger, Chen qianhu was very afraid of taking responsibility, he secretly sold off all the estate the He family had entrusted him with, exchanging it for twenty thousand silvers to bribe Yan Shi Bo. Afterwards Chen qianhu sure enough managed to keep his position, nothing happened to him at all, only Yan Shi Bo kept this secret.
Lu Ying used the red brush to circle this part and wrote it in her small notebook.
This was memorised in Wang Da Xia’s mind.
In the evening, when Lu Ying brought the notebook to Lu BIng to pay her respects, Wang Da Xia ran to Wei Cai Wei to tell her everything he had seen, he said: “...You have to be careful, firstly, you are still a suspect, secondly, even though Zhou xiaoqi didn’t have the opportunity to tell Yan Shi Bo about you, but based on Yan Shi Bo’s influence, he will find out about you eventually. This Yan Shi Bo wouldn’t be as kind to you as Lu Bing and Lu Ying.”
Wang Da Xia was very concerned about her, Wei Cai Wei knew he had good intentions, but she was resolute in not admitting it, “I’m really not the second young lady He, but thank you anyway, I’m well aware of the situation.”
Wang Da Xia said: “You’re brain was fried by a fever when you were young, of course you don’t remember, but not remembering such horrific events is good, it would be best if the missing second young lady He isn’t you.”
At this moment a guard came to deliver dinner, three meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, as well as a soup, the staples were rice and steamed twisted bread rolls.
Wang Da Xia wanted to stay and eat, he commented: “Meals for guests and the communal meal I have in the dining hall is different, even the rice is whiter, look at that bitter melon cooked with meat, so much minced pork is stuffed in the bitter melon, the bitter melon is about to explode. The bitter melon with shredded pork I had at the dining hall this afternoon— only a little bit of meat could be found in a bitter melon.”
“Such a bitter melon and shredded pork, when the chef in the dining hall served me, he was trembling.”
Wang Da Xia stretched out his arm, like he was suffering from a stroke, shaking like the dining hall chef, “He even dropped the top piece of meat on the spatula with his trembling!”
Hearing this, Wei Cai Wei couldn’t help laugh: “Fine, fine, I can’t finish this by myself anyway, if you don’t mind, stay and eat with me.”
Just as I wanted, Wang Da Xia said: “Then I won’t be impolite.”
The two sat opposite each other, Wei Cai Wei raised her chopsticks first, Wang Da Xia hurriedly picked up his chopsticks after, placing a piece of bitter melon with pork into his bowl.
Wei Cai Wei raised her chopsticks, but she picked up an empty soup bowl and placed a piece of steamed twisted bread roll into it then placed the bowl in front of the empty seat beside her, placing a pair of chopsticks on top.
Wang Da Xia felt the bitter melon wasn’t tasty, he stopped and said: “I know you’re not a widow, why are you still making an offering?”
“Oh, I’m used to it.” Wei Cai Wei said: “Besides I still need to practise medicine as a widow in the future, it’s better to make an offering each meal in case my identity is exposed, it wouldn’t be good if others found out, I’ll stop after three years of mourning.”
Wang Da Xia placed the bowl with the bread roll in front of himself, stealing food from the dead.
“You—” Wei Cai Wei had just thought he had made some progress, now he started acting up.
“I’m not eating this for free.” Wang Da Xia said: “I’m letting you keep that `deceased husband Wang erlang` memorial tablet, I won’t make a fuss over you using my surname and position in the family, but the prerequisite is when I eat alone with you, you can’t offer food to your pretend dead husband.”
Wang Da Xia spoke of the tablet to actually agree with Wei Cai Wei continuing to practise medicine as a widow.
He couldn’t be inferior to that old-fashioned Lu Ying.
“Fine.” Wei Cai Wei said: “Manager Chen and Li Jiu Bao have personally seen that memorial tablet, if the name changed, I would have to make up a fengshui reason to place the memorial tablet in a locked room, I wouldn’t be able to place it in public in the central room to avoid suspicion. Since you’ve agreed, I won’t take the trouble.”
“It’s a deal, the bread roll is mine.” Wang Da Xia picked it up, biting half of it off in one go, it was gone by the second mouthful.
Seeing Wang Da Xia eating happily, Wei Cai Wei thought: “This guy only remembers to eat and not hate, last night he was still saying I hurt him and wouldn’t talk to me, appearing to what to cut ties with me, today I treated him to a plate of grapes and a meal, now he’s changed his mind.
He really is…easy to coax.
Wei Cai Wei picked up a pair of clean chopsticks for serving, placing a piece of marinated beef into Wang Da Xia’s bowl, “I’m still taking medication, I need to eat light food, eat the meat.”
Wang Da Xia smiled brightly.
Elsewhere, after Lu Ying and Lu Bing finished dinner, she went over the main points of Zhou xiaoqi’s confession and reported to her father.
Lu Ying said: “...I think there must have been an exchange between assistant minister Yan and Chen qianhu, this must have something to do with He qianhu. Chen qianhu gave assistant minister Yan twenty thousand silvers from actually selling the He family’s property. This is why I feel like even if nothing happened between Chen dailang and young lady He, the two girls wouldn’t have been able to live for long, because they would have found out sooner or later that their family property had been taken by Chen qianhu.”
“Chen qianhu bought two official slaves, it was very clever for them to keep them in a farm outside the city, firstly he could maintain his reputation as being thoughtful of his old friend He qianhu, secondly in such a rural place, there aren’t many people, just outside the house was Xisanli river, faking a death by drowning is very easy, no one would look too closely into the death of two offical slaves, that way the secret could be kept forever.”
Lu Bing was sitting in a wheelchair, he said: “You make a lot of sense, I can’t believe I misjudged Chen qianhu, he was actually this ruthless, lacking in humanity. Back then they were both my old subordinates, they were in charge of collecting all kinds of information. When I established a suicide squad to cut off the end of the refugees fleeing into the city, suicide squads never come back and was voluntary, He qianhu was the first to step forward. Later the evidence of him withholding military information was found in He qianhu’s room, a warning from a embroidered uniform guard’s secret agent in Mongolia who discovered An Da Han might lead troops south, however he didn’t report this to me. At that time that’s when I realised, He qianhu had voluntarily joined the suicide squad to make up for his mistake.”
“According to martial law, having made such a grave mistake, the whole family would be executed and their property confiscated, but because I felt since he had already died in battle, I plead for his two innocent daughters to be made official slaves, leaving him with two descendants, what’s more Chen qianhu made a solemn vow to look after them so I didn’t continue looking into it.”
Lu Ying asked her father, “Did Chen qianhu find the report warning An Da Han might invade?”
The father and daughter thought alike, Lu Bing instantly knew what his daughter meant, “You mean to say, it was actually Chen qianhu who withheld the information, he used He qianhu as a scapegoat, pushing the blame onto him, after all a dead man couldn’t clear his own name.”
Lu Ying nodded, “I’ve worked in the embroidered uniform guards for one year now, apart from normally spoiling his unworthy son, Chen qianhu wasn’t too bad, he didn’t seem like someone evil enough to take someone’s property and force young lady He to death. One may know a person for a long time without understanding his true nature. Since he can do such ruthless things, isn’t it easier for him to frame a dead person.”
If they hadn’t dug up young lady He who had died with her baby, Lu Ying wouldn’t have thought of this.
Lu Bing shook his head, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, it wasn’t Chen qianhu who discovered it. After He qianhu’s death, the soldier who was in charge of cleaning out his room for others to use found it.”
Lu Ying said: “Then that soldier must have received money from Chen qianhu and deliberately found it. Father, who is he? Is he still in the embroidered uniform guards?”
Lu Bing still shook his head, “That soldier is masked Wu in the storehouse, he didn’t clean his gun barrel properly, half of his face was blown off, he shouldn’t have received money, if he really did take Chen qianhu’s bribe, he would have already gone off to live comfortably, why would he bother wearing a mask every day to guard the storehouse to make money.”
Because he wore a mask or half a mask all year round, people in the embroidered uniform guards called him mask Wu, his real name had already long been forgotten.
Lu Ying had just brought Wang Da Xia this morning to “visit” mask Wu to remind him to clean his gun everyday, warning him of what would happen if he was lazy.
Lu Ying said: “Then before mask Wu went to tidy up He qianhu’s room, Chen qianhu sneakily placed the report into the room, waiting for someone to discover it. They had been friends for so many years and were related by marriage, after He qianhu joined the suicide squad, he even entrusted all his family property to Chen qiahu, it would be very normal for Chen qianhu to have his room key.”
Lu Bing nodded, “That is logical and fits, but he’s already dead, the dead cannot testify.”
“Maybe not everyone who knew about this has died.” Lu Ying took out a small notebook, turning to the next page, “Why is assistant minister Yan so concerned about Chen qianhu’s death? He even especially summoned Zhou xiaoqi to find out if Chen qianhu had mentioned the He family before his death?I feel assistant minister Yan ought to know something.”
Lu Bing felt his daughter was indulging in a fantasy, “Assistant minister Yan is a very busy person, those who want to speak to him queue from one end of the street to the other but might not definitely see him, even I have to send a message before seeing him, you can see him just because you want to?”
Lu Ying said: “Isn’t second sister pregnant, I’ll bring some presents to visit her at Yan residence, then I’ll find a way to see her husband’s father, he would give some respect to second sister.”
Yan Shi Bo had six children in total who were alive, six sons and two daughters.
Amongst them, his wife madam Liu, a daughter of marquis of Anyuan, Liu Wang Xun, had given birth to one son and daughter, her son Yan Shao Ting was the second-eldest child, and was the only living son of his first wife, Liu Ying’s second sister was married to Yan Shao Ting.
And Yan Shao Ting’s older sister, eldest daughter of the Yan family, the emperor had personally acted as matchmaker and married her to Yanshenggong1, Kong Shang Xian, when young lady Yan married she became madam Yanshenggong.
As long as there was a need for scholars, Yanshenggong would never be disposed off, even if one day great Ming is destroyed, Yanshenggong would still be Yanshenggong.
It’s because Yan Shao Ting had such a good background that Lu Bing married his second daughter to him.
With such a powerful husband and older sister-in-law to support her, the second young madam Yan, madam Lu, had a very good position in the Yan family.
Lu Bing asked: “Even if you succeed in seeing assistant minister Yan, how are you going to approach the subject?”
Lu Ying thought about it, she said: “I’ll pretend to be a youngster concerned for her elder, telling him that after Zhou xiaoqi was tortured he began to spew rubbish, he even dared to take a swipe at assistant minister Yan, he ought to die, I already taught him a lesson. Then I’ll observe assistant minister Yan’s reaction, see what he says.”
Lu Bing shook his head, “No, you’re still too young and thinking about this too simply. Assistant minister Yan is known as a genius, as soon as you speak, assistant minister Yan would know of your intentions, besides alerting him, he might not take action against you considering his identity, but towards me and the Yan family’s attitude towards your sister will definitely change.”
“I’m not scared of him, I don’t mind scrapping with him but your sister is pregnant, married to his family, she can’t do as she wishes in her husband’s household, she’s the first wife, matriarch of the Yan family, a lot of eyes watch her, she needs to be think carefully, don’t make things difficult for her.”
Lu Bing was a kind father, he had planned everything for his daughters, they were both as equally important to him, even if he favoured the fourth daughter the most, Lu Bing still takes into consideration his other daughters.
This wasn’t the way to go, Lu Ying also wouldn’t harm her pregnant sister for the sake of case, she tapped the table in agitation, “Why do women have to marry? After marriage she loses freedom, eldest sister is the madam of duke Cheng, second sister is matriarch of the Yan family, third sister is married into the cabinet minister Xu’s family, they are all rich and powerful families, everyone envies them, but since my three sisters have married they are not as happy as when they were at home as young ladies, I will definitely not marry.”
Seeing Lu Ying angry, Lu Bing hurriedly coaxed his daughter, “Don’t be impatient, wait until I’m better, I’ll personally find assistant minister Yan, it’s easier for adults to speak to each other, Chen qianhu probably doesn’t mean a lot to him, we’re related afterall, when it comes to benefits, people go after good rather than bad, he can’t possibly disrespect me over a dead person. Be good, endure it for the moment.”
Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives, as soon as he had spoken, a guard came to report from outside, “Lord Lu! Assistant minister Yan has arrived, he had gone to my lord’s residence first but you weren’t at home so he came to the yamen to find my lord.”
Lu Bing panicked, as I am right now how can I meet him? Especially his genius relative?
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