Xiao You Ran felt a chill in her heart.

I only indulged in my food for a moment, never expecting to cause my mother such suffering.

She knew what intestinal abscess was like in ancient times.

If this were a thousand years later, it would be just a minor surgery, but in ancient times, it could be a terminal illness.

What kind of mess is this?

When Zhao's mother found out, she turned ashen-faced.

Xiao Youran was extremely anxious, frantically pressing, rubbing, and poking the pink and blue bracelet, hoping to wake up the note again and ask for medicine. Unfortunately, the bracelet remained unresponsive.

Before the medicine was delivered, Su Yue was instructed to wipe her mother's vital areas with strong liquor to slightly lower her fever.

But she knew these were only temporary solutions. What methods could actually treat appendicitis?

She racked her brains.

Jiang Youchen was also very depressed.

Su remained in a semi-conscious state.

Little Youran was still young, and while watching over her mother, she drifted in and out of sleep, and before she knew it, another night had passed.

By morning, the brother and sister no longer had the appetite to go to the small wonton stall for a delicious meal; they simply stayed quietly by their mother's side.

...

However, early that morning, the Zhou family's villa was also in an uproar.

"What exactly did my sister-in-law lose?" Guo asked anxiously.

Zhou was trembling all over, clearly very angry, and unable to speak.

Li asked cautiously, "Was it those...gifts that the Jiang siblings sent back?"

Guo was taken aback.

Madam Yun, still reeling from her earlier outburst of rage, angrily cursed, "Who on earth dared to do such a despicable thing?"

Guo finally snapped out of her shock, "Mother, what kind of gift did you give me, sister-in-law...?"

Madam Yun's face showed a look of heartache.

Zhou was also deeply saddened.

Looking at the expressions of her second sister-in-law and fourth sister-in-law, Guo finally understood everything and flew into a rage, "You all knew? You knew but didn't tell me?"

Zhou looked at her coldly and said, "What good would it do to tell you?"

Guo choked. Yes, what could she do even if she knew? Even if she gave the Jiang siblings a lot of gifts, even if the Jiang siblings returned all the gifts without taking a single penny, so what?

Didn't Xiao Xiao take them all down this time?

"Who did this? Have they found the thief?"

At this moment, Granny Li ran in from outside, glanced at Madam Guo with a complicated expression, and then whispered, "Reporting to the Old Madam and the First Madam, we are all here, except for Qingyu."

Madam Guo's expression changed drastically, and she shouted shrilly, "What do you mean by looking at me like that, you old servant? Do you think I would order her to steal?"

Granny Li looked away.

But everyone else's attention was still focused on Guo.

If Guo hadn't treated Qingyu so harshly, how could Qingyu have harbored treacherous thoughts?

Madam Guo hurriedly protested, "Madam, it really wasn't me. I had no idea that my sister-in-law had so many things hidden around her. How could I have instructed Qingyu to steal them?"

Madam Yun sighed, "It seems that it won't be easy for the Yun family to get through this calamity. That Qingyu must have known that our money came from illegitimate sources, and that even if we lost it, we couldn't report it to the authorities. That's why she dared to be so bold."

Li said, "I always thought Qingyu was a good person. I also thought that in this time of great difficulty, those who stayed behind were loyal. But I never expected her to be so black-hearted. We were all wrong about her."

Madam Yu realized the situation was serious and asked in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, are all the things gone? Do you still have the silver notes?"

Madam Zhou sighed heavily, "Besides the hundred taels of silver I gave to Hongyu and Granny Wang yesterday to go shopping, the rest was all packed in a bundle. I figured I'd be leaving this courtyard anyway in a day or two, so I could just carry the bundle and leave easily. Who knew..."

But it made things easier for thieves.

She looked at Granny Wang and asked, "Granny Wang, how much was left from yesterday?"

Granny Wang took out a purse from her sleeve and poured out the loose silver coins inside. "This is all that's left."

It was roughly twenty or thirty taels.

They bought a lot of food and two sets of clothes for each person, which cost them seventy or eighty taels.

This was already extremely frugal. They had never bought clothes and food so cheaply before.

"Is this all there is left?" Guo screamed. "What are we going to do from now on?"

Madam Yun gave her a cold look. "You went back to your parents' home yesterday, and they didn't give you any subsidies?"

Guo's expression changed.

Her family must have given her some silver notes, but why would she take them out to use them unless absolutely necessary?

Besides, she originally went back to her parents' home to gain the support of her father and brothers, and to sever ties with the Yun family through divorce.

To her surprise, her mother not only didn't support her, but also scolded her severely. Left with no other choice, she slunk back home.

She only learned after returning home that her father had been reprimanded by the emperor in court. Under such circumstances, she couldn't very well force a divorce.

At this moment, the third young master, Yun Tiankuang, entered. Seeing all the elders present, he bowed respectfully and said, "Grandmother, Mother, and Aunts, yesterday afternoon I went to the Jingzhao Prefecture to handle the matter of registering my household registration as a farmer. They said they needed to check the number of registered residents before giving a definite answer. This morning, the Jingzhao Prefecture sent an official to report that several villages on the outskirts of the capital are full and there is no extra land to allocate to us. Right now, we can only go to the surrounding counties to inquire, or... return to our original place of residence."

The Jingzhao Prefecture claims that the registered population has been merged, which clearly shows that the Jingzhao Prefecture doesn't want them to stay in the capital.

Back in the day, the Yun family was incredibly prestigious, rising from a fourth-rank general's mansion to a first-rank marquis's mansion.

Now that they have suffered a sudden defeat, they cannot even obtain a peasant's status.

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

Guo quickly brought up her idea again, "Then how about registering them as merchants?"

Madam Yun rolled her eyes at her, not wanting to explain anything further.

Madam Li said softly, “Third sister-in-law, didn’t we say yesterday that merchants for three generations are not allowed to take the imperial examinations? Besides, the Yun family is truly destitute now. Once we’re registered as merchants, we have to pay a poll tax every year. That means we, a group of twenty-odd people, have to pay taxes for twenty-odd people. If the Yun family still had the capital to genuinely engage in commerce, these taxes wouldn’t be a big deal, but look at us now…”

She spread her hands and asked, "Can your sister-in-law come up with the capital to start a business?"

Guo instinctively covered her sleeve, then released it like a thief, saying with an ugly expression, "What money do I have?"

After a moment of contemplation, Madam Yun said, "If it were any other prefecture or county, Qinzhou and He County would only be a three- to five-day journey from here, so it's not far. The county magistrate is an old friend of the Yun family, so he should be willing to accept us."