Su Xuening frowned and looked at Su Feiling: "What brilliant idea do you have, Second Sister?"

Upon hearing Su Feiling speak, Madam Zhong instantly grasped at her as if she had found a lifeline, anxiously looking at Su Feiling and waiting for her to save her dowry.

But Su Feiling didn't say anything to Su Xuening. Instead, she looked at Madam Zhong and said, "Mother, you should take it out."

"What?" Zhong was completely bewildered, her mind not quite processing what Su Feiling wanted her to produce.

"It's the Mu family's dowry!" Su Feiling reminded her softly.

Now Su Xuening is unwilling to suffer a loss and wants to use her mother's dowry to offset Mu's dowry.

She had just calculated that Su Xuening had chosen the best of her mother's dowry. The value of those dowries was no less than that of the Mu family's dowry. If they were to replace them, it would be quite uneconomical. It would be better to return the Mu family's dowry.

When the topic of Mu's dowry came up, Zhong's expression turned sour, and she said in a low voice, "I don't have any of Mu's dowry left."

If she could afford it, she wouldn't have let Su Xuening touch her dowry.

"How is this possible? Where did you go with all that stuff?" Su Feiling looked at Zhong Shi in disbelief.

Does she even know the value of these things? She just did a rough estimate, and the missing Mu family dowry is worth at least several hundred thousand taels of silver. She's only been in charge of the Mu family dowry for three months. Where has she spent so much money?

Seeing Su Feiling's serious expression, Zhong finally panicked and whispered, "Your older brother took them all."

Ever since she took over Mu's dowry, Yuan'er has been asking her for money every few days, and she even coaxed her by saying that Mu's dowry is so big that no one would notice if one or two items were missing.

She figured it was Mu's dowry anyway, so she might as well spend it. She was only going to let Yuan'er use it. Every time he asked for it, she would give him a house deed and a land deed. She never expected that in just three months, Yuan'er would have used up so much of Mu's dowry!

What she didn't expect was that Su Xuening would make her return all of her dowry, and even take the best part of it. If she had known this would happen, she definitely wouldn't have indulged Yuan'er.

Upon hearing this, Su Feiling was utterly devastated, and her gaze towards Zhong Shi instantly turned cold: "Your eldest brother took it all? Does that mean your dowry all went to your eldest brother?"

She clearly said that most of her dowry would go to her. She knew she was going to marry into the royal family, and without a strong dowry, who would respect her?

But she still let Su Linyuan squander all of her dowry, which was all meant for her!

Feeling extremely guilty under Su Feiling's gaze, Zhong stammered, wanting to explain something, but couldn't utter a single word.

Su Xuening had no interest in watching the mother and daughter act, and looked at Cen Jinfeng: "Thank you for your trouble, Lord Cen."

Cen Jinfeng nodded and was about to rewrite the house deed and affix the official seal when he saw that Madam Zhong was making a fuss again: "No, you can't touch my dowry. It's a serious crime to misappropriate my dowry without my permission."

Su Xuening ignored her completely and looked at Cen Jinfeng, asking, "May I ask Lord Cen, what is the punishment for my second aunt's act of stealing my mother's dowry?"

Cen Jinfeng glanced at Madam Zhong. After all, he was the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture. His imposing gaze made Madam Zhong's heart tremble uncontrollably.

"That depends on the value. If the embezzlement is of minor value, a few lashes and compensation will suffice. But if the value is high, then you could go to jail."

"Judging from what we have so far, it's already worth over ten thousand taels of silver, and the rest hasn't been settled yet." Su Xuening looked at the dowry chests with a heavy gaze. If even the deeds to the property are so much less, one can only imagine what the rest are worth.

"With hundreds of thousands of taels of silver involved, besides paying compensation, she would have to serve at least ten years in prison." Cen Jinfeng hadn't expected Zhong to be so audacious as to embezzle so much of someone's dowry.

No wonder Miss Su wanted to appeal to the Emperor; the second branch of the Su family had indeed gone too far.

"Judging from Lord Cen's words, even if he goes to jail, he must return the compensation money," Su Xuening asked deliberately.

Cen Jinfeng raised his eyebrows noncommittally: "That's natural. Since ancient times, no one can touch a married woman's dowry. It is protected by law."

Su Xuening was satisfied and turned to Zhong Shi: "Second Aunt must have heard everything. Pay back this money first. If Second Aunt is willing to go to jail, I can send you there!"

Zhong was instantly furious: "Su Xuening!"

"Enough!" Before Zhong could even react, Su Renyi said in a deep voice, displeased, "Pay them what you owe them, and stop making a fool of yourself here!"

It's obvious that Su Xuening is no pushover. Now that even Cen Jinfeng has been invited, she still wants to take advantage of his dowry? How could that be possible!

Instead of arguing here, it's better to pay up the money quickly and avoid becoming a laughing stock.

Su Renyi spoke up, and with Cen Jinfeng in charge and so many guards around, even if Zhong Shi was unwilling, she could only swallow her anger for now.

Cen Jinfeng personally rewrote the house deeds, land deeds, and field deeds, changing the Zhong family's name on these contracts to the Mu family's name, and also affixing the official seal of Shuntian Prefecture.

"Everything's ready." Cen Jinfeng handed the completed transfer contract back to Su Xuening.

After Su Xuening checked everything and found no problems, she looked at Cen Jinfeng and said, "Thank you for your help, Lord Cen. If you want to ask me about my mother, we'll have to wait until we've divided the family property. Please take a moment to rest and have some tea, as a kind of witness for us."

"Alright."

The maids served tea to Cen Jinfeng, who was happy to watch the commotion from the sidelines.

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