Chapter 110 Remorse

"I understand, I'll take care of it right away."

Having received his master's order, Wei Hu ran as fast as he could.

That evening, Xie Qi received news that Cui Cheng had left in a hurry and was rushing north.

"Did he leave any instructions for anyone before he passed away?"

Wei Hu shook his head: "No, when I went there, Manager Cui was just about to go to the shop to ask the master for leave. As soon as I mentioned the earthquake in the north, he got anxious."

"He did give me a few instructions, but they were all about the server room. He also asked me to tell the old man why he left."

Wei Hu took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it to Xie Qi: "This is a letter left by Steward Cui for you, sir. I have read it. He only explained the reason for his departure."

Xie Qi glanced at it twice, then casually tore it up: "Go take a walk in the courtyard and pass on a few words of gossip along the way."

"I'm the best at this kind of thing. What does Master want me to say?"

Xie Qi said, "In the afternoon, a man from Taicang came to see Manager Cui. I don't know what he said to Manager Cui, but after hearing it, he burst into tears. Without having time to explain anything, he packed his bags and left."

"Taicang? Didn't you say you were from the north?"

Xie Qi shook his head: "Let's talk about Taicang."

After thinking for a moment, he added, "While we're at it, let me mention the eldest young mistress's premarital pregnancy and her lack of favor after marriage."

"I understand, sir. I will make sure to spread the word about it in a grand and impressive way, without any mishaps."

After Wei Hu finished speaking, Xie Qi waved for him to leave.

The next day, the servants in the mansion began to mention Cui Yulin one after another.

"Yes, I haven't seen Cui for a while. Has he never come back since he went to Huizhou with the young master?"

A few cleaning women gathered in twos and threes in Tiqi Courtyard, discussing Cui Yulin.

“Young Master Cui used to love following the young master around, but we haven’t seen him for so long. Has something happened?”

An old woman clicked her tongue twice: "I heard that someone came to see Cui Cheng yesterday. After saying a few words, Cui Cheng started crying and wailing, and he almost fainted."

"Is it that serious?"

"Yes, I wonder what happened to them."

Xie Xuchuan had just woken up when he heard several old women whispering in the courtyard. He went closer and listened for a moment, and heard that Cui Cheng had learned of Cui Yulin's death.

His face immediately turned pale, and he hurriedly asked, "Is what you're saying true? Did someone really come from Taicang yesterday looking for Uncle Cui? Was it really Taicang?"

"Young Master."

The old women were startled, but seeing that Xie Xuchuan didn't seem to be blaming them, they nodded and said, "Yes, we all saw it. It's from Taicang."

"Yes, yes, the third girl in the main kitchen said she heard crying, it was very mournful."

"Young Master, do you think it's possible that something happened to Cui boy?"

One of the older men asked directly, "Young Master, you are closest to Cui, do you know where he went?"

"Why haven't I seen him for so long? He asked me to dry some osmanthus flowers, and now that I've finished drying them, where has he gone?"

With each question, Xie Xuchuan's face paled a little more.

He abruptly took a few steps back: "Where is Uncle Cui...?"

"They said they went to find someone, and they left yesterday, right? They left overnight without even packing their things."

"They're gone..."

Stumbling back to his room, Xie Xuchuan slammed the door shut and sat alone inside.

After a long period of time, the pain of Cui Yulin's tragic death at sea had finally subsided, but this morning, it all came back to haunt us.

“Yulin…”

Xie Xuchuan's eyes were red as he wiped away the tears welling up.

Cui Cheng was the manager of the Xie family's loom workshop. He was very skillful and could make or repair various looms according to blueprints.

Although Uncle Cui worked for the Xie family, he was different from the other long-term laborers.

He grew up in the Xie family with Cui Yulin when he was a child.

Cui's mother passed away early, and Cui's uncle only had one son, Yulin. Seeing that it was not easy for a widower to take care of a child, his father put Yulin in his own room.

When they were young, Yu Lin was closer to him than Xie Qi.

He took advantage of his grandmother's doting love and his mother's pampering to do many naughty things.

When he was a child, his grandfather had a valuable imported mirror. Out of curiosity, he secretly took it and played with it, but accidentally dropped it on the ground and shattered it.

Knowing that he was afraid of his grandfather, Yu Lin took the blame upon himself, nearly getting beaten to death by Uncle Cui.

One summer, he saw lotus flowers blooming in the pond at home, so he jumped in to pick some and give them to Yuanzhu.

Unfortunately, the pool was much deeper than he had imagined. He panicked as soon as he jumped in and almost drowned.

After being rescued, his mother slapped him for the first time.

The father raised a long stick, intending to use family discipline, but Yu Lin knelt on the ground, saying that it was the father who encouraged him to go into the pond to pick lotus flowers.

Upon hearing this, the mother slapped Yu Lin hard across the face, leaving him unable to hear for more than half a month.

Another year later, he developed smallpox.

The disease was contagious, and his mother locked him in his room, not letting him go out. He found it boring, so Yulin climbed in through the window to keep him company, bringing him all sorts of books to pass the time.

He once asked Yu Lin if he was afraid of getting sick, and Yu Lin said he wasn't afraid, otherwise he wouldn't have come to see him.

At that time, he and Cui Yulin were inseparable; they were master and servant, and also brothers.

Even when Yuanzhu's mother passed away, and his mother wouldn't let him go out for fear of him being infected by the Shen family's white curse, it was Yulin who stood at the base of the wall so that he could step on him to climb over the wall and go out.

They were young and short then, and even with Yu Lin's shoulders on his back, he still couldn't climb over the wall. So Yu Lin let him step on his head to climb over the wall and find Yuan Zhu.

After Yuanzhu's mother passed away, he longed to see her so much that he did as she asked.

Yu Lin did many things for him without ever complaining.

On one occasion, the two of them secretly ran into the backstage of the opera troupe to watch the actors putting on makeup and were caught. It was Yu Lin who covered for him and told him to run away quickly.

He was frightened and ran away alone.

Later, Yu Lin was caught by the troupe leader, but he refused to say whose child he was, and even more so, he refused to implicate anyone...

That time, Yu Lin was whipped more than a dozen times by the troupe leader...

He knew that Yu Lin was never a cowardly or weak person. Yu Lin did not want to go to sea because she was afraid of death, but because she was worried about Jiang Wansu and the child in her womb.

If anything goes wrong, his beloved family and children will surely have no way to survive.

It was him, it was him who kept urging Yu Lin to board the ship, making Yu Lin risk his life for a future.

It was he who personally placed a death warrant on Yu Lin's body...

Thinking of Cui Bolin's old age and the pain of a parent outliving their child, Xie Xuchuan felt a lump of guilt in his chest that he couldn't swallow.

If it weren't for him, Yu Lin wouldn't have died such a tragic death.

With Jiang You's downfall and the Jiang family's decline, if it weren't for his insistence on sending Yu Lin to sea, Yu Lin would probably have already won the heart of a beauty, married Wan Su, and lived a happy life.

Thinking of this, Xie Xuchuan could no longer hold back and bit his arm, crying silently.