In the small living room of the Lin Mansion, the second and fifth concubines were playing cards with the eldest young mistress and the concubines in the fourth young master's room. When they heard from the servants that Tang Wan had arrived, no one responded and they all stared at the cards in their hands.

The second concubine played the east wind, but it was touched by the eldest young mistress on the opposite side.

"Oh dear, what are you saying? Why did you touch it again? I've been sitting here for several rounds without touching a tile, you know that."

The fifth concubine reluctantly withdrew her hand, which was about to draw a card, and suspiciously looked the two of them back and forth. With her cheeks slightly puffed out, she said, "Could it be that you two, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, are up to something?"

Fifth Concubine was a former dancer at the Paramount Ballroom, and Lin Qinghai had just taken her in a few days ago. The eldest young mistress disapproved of her petty manner. With her slender white fingers raised, she picked up the cards on the table, placed them in front of her, and glanced at her sideways, "Concubine, you're overthinking it. This little bit of money is nothing. Do you think everyone is so short-sighted?"

The fifth concubine was speechless. Although she hadn't been in the Lin mansion for long, she had already found out everything she needed to know.

The eldest daughter-in-law was a second wife, seven or eight years older than her, almost thirty. Her family had connections in the Nationalist government, holding some kind of position. Even Lin Qinghai showed her some respect. No one in the household dared to offend her.

The fifth concubine, having been rebuffed, lost face. Seeing the servants standing still and noticing that the second concubine showed no displeasure, she coldly reprimanded, "What are you waiting for? Now that Miss Tang is here, why don't you invite her in quickly? Do we have to go and greet her?"

Knowing that she was taking her anger out on her after being scolded, the maid didn't dare to say anything more, immediately agreed, and turned to run out.

"Why are you running around? They're not even important guests, it's not that big of a deal," Fifth Concubine grumbled in a high-pitched tone. The servants heard this, but dared not slow down; they had been waiting outside for some time. If they went out too late, the manager would scold them.

After leaving the coffee shop and getting into the car, Ji Mingkai didn't say much. Thinking about Xu Keke's attitude towards Ji Mingkai earlier that day, Tang Wan felt uneasy. But she was in a hurry to get to the Lin mansion, and it wouldn't be appropriate to bring Ji Mingkai along. She unusually took the initiative to tell Ji Mingkai that she would come to see him later. But Ji Mingkai wasn't as happy as she expected; he gave a perfunctory reply, pointed to a spot on the side of the road, told the driver to stop, got out of the car, and drove off.

As the car drove forward, Tang Wan only saw Ji Mingkai's figure disappear into the alley. She felt as if she had lost control of Ji Mingkai again, and this sense of powerlessness made her very uncomfortable. She actually wanted to follow him and see what was going on, but she still instructed the driver to take her to the Lin Mansion.

Besides his legal wife, Lin Qinghai had five concubines. The first wife had no children and spent all her time smoking opium in her room, rarely receiving guests. The second concubine had given birth to three sons for Lin Qinghai and now managed the household affairs.

"Greetings to the two concubines. Greetings to the eldest mistress and the concubines." Tang Wan, dressed in men's clothing and behaving like a man, placed her hat in front of her chest and nodded slightly in greeting.

The second concubine, with a cigarette dangling from her lips, remained silent. The eldest wife and the fourth wife's aunts, holding mahjong tiles, also kept quiet.

Only the fifth concubine, who had just won money by winning the lottery, smiled and made arrangements, saying, "Oh, don't be so polite. You come here every day like family. There's no need for formalities. You're indeed a young lady from a prominent family, with so many rules."

"Look at what you're saying, 'Miss from a prominent family.' We're from the countryside, and we don't know the rules of the city. If there's anything we can't do, we have to rely on the concubines and grandmothers to remind us."

The fifth concubine wanted to say a few more words to her, but the second concubine glanced at her and scolded her, "You're so slow, hurry up and arrange the cards."

Fifth Concubine stuck out her tongue and dared to continue, her slender fingers dancing, her bright red nails flying up and down, her jade bracelet occasionally touching the jade pendant, making a pleasant sound.

Tang Wan stood awkwardly to one side, watching.

Seeing that the clothes had been dried for a while, the second concubine lazily spoke up, "Didn't the steward tell Miss Tang that the master went out early this morning and isn't at home? The third concubine must have gone to the theater."

"Replying to Second Madam, the steward knew I was in a hurry and was afraid I would run away and Mr. Lin would come back, so he told me to wait here."

Hearing that the master would be back soon, the second concubine didn't dare to go too far. Pointing to the sofa to the side, she said, "Otherwise, Xiao Wu will say you're being too polite. Why are you still standing? Hurry up and sit down. And those people downstairs..."

The second concubine turned to the maid who was following her and said, "Tell someone to serve Miss Tang tea. You people should at least say something before you move. Don't you know any manners?"

Tang Wan could easily tell that the words were referring to her, and she quickly stood up again before sitting down. "No need, no need, I reckon Mr. Lin will be here soon."

"Hey, Lao Liu always follows you around, where is he today?" The old lady was arranging the cards in front of her and didn't even look at her.

"Just now outside, the Sixth Young Master got into a misunderstanding with someone in the foreign concession and was taken away by the police. I came back to tell Mr. Lin about it."

As soon as Tang Wan spoke, the second concubine and the first wife quickly exchanged a glance.

Grandma ignored the cards and stared at Tang Wan. "What's going on? Isn't he always with you, busy with that film company? What misunderstanding could there be?"

“We wanted to hire a screenwriter, but he wouldn’t come after we asked him several times. Today, after hearing the news, we went to the coffee shop. The sixth young master saw that he didn’t know what was good for him, so he tried to scare him with a gun. As a result, the police arrested him.”

The young mistress played with her cards without playing a single one. "Screenwriter? Is the screenwriter that important?"

The others didn't urge her; they all listened attentively to what Tang Wan had to say.

“Grandma, you don’t know, we had a script we liked, everyone was ready, and the set was all set. But then the Huazhong Drama Club decided to make a movie too. They kept the script for themselves. We can’t just throw our money away. We thought if we got the screenwriter over, the script would come too. But the screenwriter isn’t interested.”

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