Chapter 200: So what if King Ding?

Shen Xiuhe was actually dismissed from office! Moreover, it was precisely because he had a mistress and an illegitimate child with bad behavior.

There are no secrets in the aristocratic circles of the capital, and the affairs of the Shen family spread quickly. The day after Shen Xiuhe and Xie Yunqing divorced happened to be a grand court meeting. By the time he entered the palace and waited outside the Chongde Hall, his colleagues were already pointing and talking at him from far and near, looking at him with different expressions.

Some people even talked about it without any reservations.

"Tsk tsk, it's rumored that Lord Shen, who treats his wife with equal respect, also has a concubine!"

"It is said that the Second Miss Shen is a concubine's daughter, and the concubine's daughter was taken in and raised by the wife. Lord Shen is very cunning and calculating..."

"Look, the general is here."

Xie Yunqing's brother Xie Fengting walked in expressionlessly, his eyes fell on Shen Xiuhe, and he narrowed his eyes. Shen Xiuhe's expression was slightly tense, and he pursed his lips and bowed: "Thank you..."

Before he could finish his words, he was kicked to the ground by Xie Fengting with a bang.

"Yesterday, Yun Qing didn't even send anyone to inform me. He divorced you quietly. You got it easy."

Xie Fengting spoke coldly, "If I were here, I would make sure you, your mistress, and your bastard child walk out of the Xie family gate!"

The people around him pretended to dissuade him from watching the fun. Chen Xiuhe said nothing as he struggled to get up. After a while, he finally caught his breath and said in a hoarse voice, "I am sorry to Yunqing. Even if brother beats me to death, it is all right."

Xie Fengting sneered: "Who is your brother? Have some shame, Lord Shen!"

There were snickers all around...

When the court meeting began, Emperor Jiaping actually personally inquired about the family affairs of this fourth-rank official, saying that Shen Xiuhe was not upright in his conduct and was not strict as a father...so naturally he was not a good official.

The envoys from the Yuan Dynasty are about to arrive in Beijing, and the position of Minister of the Ministry of Rites is of great importance at this time. It cannot be handed over to someone who cannot even manage his own family affairs.

Just like that, Shen Xiuhe was dismissed from office!

The whole table of food and wine was delicious, but no one could swallow it.

Xue Surong kept muttering to herself, "How could this be possible? How could His Majesty do this... So what if he keeps a concubine? Is this a serious crime?"

Old Madam Shen also looked very unhappy.

After all, she was old and had seen a lot. After a moment of silence, she asked her son in a deep voice, "But is Prince Ding secretly interfering?"

Keeping a mistress is, to put it mildly, licentiousness, and to put it seriously, immorality. If the emperor wants to take advantage of the situation, then "immorality" is naturally a serious crime.

Shen Xiuhe remained silent. After all, he had no way of knowing... but actually, it was not impossible when he thought about it.

But it's too late to say anything now.

Prince Ding is extremely powerful and is deeply trusted by the current emperor. A mere Minister of the Ministry of Rites is indeed no match for him.

Xue Surong kept muttering beside her: "What should we do? What should we do?"

Madam Shen scolded in a deep voice, "Why are you panicking... Don't we still have Nian Nian? Nian Nian has the Crown Prince's token. How can a mere Prince Ding be compared to the Crown Prince?"

At the table, Shen Nian's face turned pale, and he secretly tightened the token in his purse.

In fact, she didn't like the unruly Crown Prince Xiao Nanyu at all... But now, she had no choice.

At this time, Chen Xiuhe spoke slowly: "I have been an official for more than 20 years. Can I not live as an official? It just so happens that we can go far away, buy a house, and live a stable life as a wealthy and independent person."

Now that we are at the center of the storm, even if we have plans, we have to wait until this matter is over.

But Shen Xiuhe didn't want to say these words to these shallow-eyed fools at home. He said calmly: "Why are you panicking? Let's eat."

Xue Surong managed to calm down and forced a smile: "Yes, yes, I will listen to my husband. Let's eat."

The title "husband" made Shen Xiuhe suddenly think of Xie Yunqing again.

His eyes dimmed as he silently picked up his chopsticks...

Before the meal was finished, the gate of the courtyard was knocked. When a group of people came in, the Shen family realized that the house had been sold.

This house was originally under the name of the old lady, but a few days ago, Xie Yunqing had secretly tampered with it and paid off a debt with it.

The debt belongs to the Shen family, but the house used to pay off the debt belongs to Old Madam Shen...

Xie Yunqing spent a long time preparing, and all the accounts were done flawlessly. Old Madam Shen looked at the deed in the hand of the visitor and felt so angry that her head was buzzing.

"Extremely vicious, truly extremely vicious... Xiu He, look at you, you still care about Xie Yunqing, but she doesn't even remember our friendship. She's so cruel!"

Madam Shen banged her cane loudly: "I will go to check the accounts tomorrow, and I will file a petition for an audit tomorrow!"

"No need to go."

Shen Xiuhe said calmly: "I have already seen it."

No matter what, there is still a big family to support here. Before Chen Xiuhe was dismissed from office, he had already used his connections to go to Jingzhao Prefecture... and then he learned a lot of things.

These days, Xie Yunqing pretended to be nice to him on the surface, but he showed no mercy to him behind his back.

Now, the remaining three properties under his and his mother's names are all in deficit. If this house is taken away... they will have very little assets left.

Shen Xiuhe smiled bitterly silently.

Yunqing, you are really cruel!

After Mrs. Shen knew the inside story, she was so angry that she couldn't speak for a long time. It was still Shen Xiuhe who spoke first: "Mother, you should have some money left. Take it out and buy the house first."

Shen Xiuhe naturally knew what Madam Shen had done secretly over the years.

She secretly took away a lot of the profits from those industries as her own money... All in all, Old Madam Shen had at least several thousand or even tens of thousands of taels of silver.

In fact, think about it, most of the family's property is Xie Yunqing's dowry, and later the Shen family's shop was also supported by Xie Yunqing, but his mother kept making tricks to seek personal gain from their own property and save her own money... Xie Yunqing probably already knew all this.

No wonder she showed no mercy.

Fortunately, I still have some money, so it won't be difficult to get through these days.

However, after hearing what Shen Xiuhe said, Madam Shen's expression froze slightly. After a pause, she said, "Come with me."

The mother and son left, and Xue Surong gritted her teeth.

Or he was avoiding her and guarding against her... She was always so selfish, no wonder Xie Yunqing didn't recognize this mother-in-law.

Damn old woman!

On the other side, Madam Shen and Shen Xiuhe returned to their room, and then explained the whole story: most of her private money was used to do business with the Prince's Mansion.

At this point, Madam Shen would not hide anything from her son and explained the whole cause and effect to Shen Xiuhe.

She had a total of 10,000 taels of private money. She spent 3,000 taels on rescuing Xue Surong last time, and then gave 5,000 taels to her daughter Shen Xiang to do business. Now she only had 2,000 taels left.

Two thousand taels can buy a house, but it is difficult to buy a big house in Yongxingfang, especially since a large family needs food and drink, and servants need to be supported.

Madam Shen suggested, "Why not rent a courtyard temporarily? After a while, when the five thousand taels have doubled, we won't have to worry about anything."

Chen Xiuhe frowned helplessly: "Mother, are you plotting against our family property with others?"

Madam Shen immediately said, "What family property? That's the private property of that little girl Shen Ning... Besides, you can see now that the three of them don't treat us as a family!"

Madam Shen sneered, "This matter is of great importance. Your sister said that if it gets out, it will be a capital offense. My son, please don't spread it nonsense... But you just need to know that it won't be long before Xie Yunqing and her daughter are in trouble."

Now, Xie Yunqing and her daughter have been tricked by the Prince's Mansion into hoarding 50,000 kilograms of raw silk, each kilogram worth eight cents, totaling 40,000 taels of silver. It's likely that Xie Yunqing has spent all of his family's wealth to help his daughter.

When the maritime ban is issued, the price of silk will plummet... By then, how much of the 40,000 taels of silver can they get back?

All the losses would go into the pocket of the Prince's Mansion, conservatively estimated at 20,000 taels, and 30% of it would be hers.

Chen Xiuhe frowned, "Mother, you shouldn't get involved in such a big matter. If the situation changes and there's a dispute over money with the Prince's Mansion, how will you and my sister deal with it?"

Old Madam Shen always had her own ideas, but she also tended to listen to her son.

After thinking for a moment, the old lady said, "Then I will go find your sister tomorrow and bring back two thousand taels of silver. It's important to help our family get through this difficult time."

Chen Xiuhe nodded: "Thank you for your hard work."

"Mother is not bitter. As long as I can see my son behave uprightly and no longer have to grovel before that noble lady, my heart will be sweet!"

Shen Xiuhe pursed his lips and said nothing, then took his leave.

When I got outside, I heard Xue Surong arguing with the human trafficker.

Yesterday, Xue Surong ordered some servants and two slaves, and asked the human traffickers to bring more people over today for her and Old Madam Shen to choose from. She knew that all wealthy families did this. If there were many people needed and the business was big, the human traffickers would be very attentive.

But today, the human traffickers brought a large group of people here, and something happened to the Shen family.

He still had some money for now, but it was not enough to buy a house. In addition, Chen Xiuhe was dismissed from office. If he bought a courtyard full of servants at this time, he would simply be laughed at.

But the trafficker came and of course he didn't want to be sent away like that, so he tactfully asked Xue Surong for money for his hard work.

Xue Surong was used to doing business, so how could she lose money in vain? Moreover, the human trafficker said that he brought dozens of people with him, and they would need a lot of money for the journey and food and drink. She wanted to send the people away directly, so as not to offend the human trafficker.

Originally, the human trafficker thought that this was a wealthy family that needed so many servants, so he was already nervous when he arrived at the house.

Not only is the location bad, but the place is also small. Does such a small family need so many servants?

After being dismissed by Xue Surong again, the trafficker immediately became angry: "If you can't afford servants, then don't act so arrogant. You've brought so many people here for you to choose from. What's the point of pretending... Isn't this just cheating people?"

Xue Surong was so angry that she immediately forgot her dignity as a "Fourth Rank Lady" and shouted that she wanted to beat the man out, which made the human trafficker spit and curse at her.

Chen Xiuhe's forehead veins throbbed at the sight, so he simply turned away, out of mind...

On the second day, Madam Shen brought Shen Nian into the gate of the Prince's Mansion.

Princess Shen Xiang was actually annoyed. After all, she had the opportunity to participate in the grand gathering of the noble women in the capital because of the reputation of the Xie family, and her status in the Prince's Mansion was also related to this.

But she was very conflicted. Like her mother, she took advantage of Xie Yunqing's family background, but at the same time she hated Xie Yunqing's arrogance.

That was why Shen Xiang was gloating over Xie Yunqing's misfortune regarding Shen Xiuhe's mistress.

Even though the daughter of the general's mansion is high and mighty, her husband still has a mistress behind her back.

However, she would gloat over other people's misfortune, but she didn't want to see Xie Yunqing break up with the Shen family... In this way, the confidence of her family behind her would be gone.

What was even more unexpected was that her brother was dismissed from office right after that!

Shen Xiang was completely disheveled... If she had not given birth to two sons and a daughter for the Prince's Mansion, her status would have been in jeopardy.

That was why Shen Xiang complained a lot when she saw her mother, complaining that her mother had not handled things properly, causing Shen Xiuhe and Xie Yunqing to divorce and leading to so many troubles.

In fact, Mrs. Shen also felt regretful in her heart... She hated Xie Yunqing's arrogance at first, and his disrespect for her as the mother-in-law, and his refusal to let her mother-in-law take charge of the family. But after they really broke up, she now felt that the arrogance was not intolerable.

Especially after Shen Xiuhe was dismissed from office.

She managed to remain calm and tough in front of her son, but Mrs. Shen was actually in turmoil.

After studying hard for more than ten years, I am now a poor man...

But her son looked very calm, and perhaps there was another way out. Now all she could do was to manage the household well and let her son have no worries.

Because of this, Mrs. Shen endured her daughter's complaints and even explained her purpose with a smile, wanting to get back the two thousand taels of silver.

Shen Xiang was filled with resentment and dissatisfaction, so he said coldly: "Five thousand taels of silver, I can give you 30% of the future profits, but now there are only three thousand taels left, so I can only give you 15%."

Madam Shen looked grim, but now she couldn't offend the daughter of the princess, so she could only accept her, then took the banknote and left with Shen Nian.

Just as the grandfather and grandson were leaving the house, several young people came towards them. They were the daughter of the prince's mansion and several of his friends, among whom happened to be Xu Wanqing.

Someone whispered, “Wanqing, isn’t that your sister Shen?”

Shen Nian pursed her lips, thinking about how to respond, but heard Xu Wanqing sneer.

"What sister? She's just a poor, lowly thing born out of wedlock, not worthy of being on the stage."

Xu Wanqing naturally already knew about Shen Nian's use of Xu Ying... She had originally looked down on Shen Nian because she was a concubine's daughter, and when she learned that Shen Nian actually used the prince to deceive Xu Ying and claimed to help Xu Ying enter the East Palace, Xu Wanqing was filled with disgust and contempt.

Even though she didn't like the Crown Prince, she was still the future Crown Princess. Shen Nian was simply disgusting her.

Xu Wanqing spoke in a disdainful tone, and everyone around her burst into laughter. She walked away without even looking back...

Shen Nian slowly turned his head to look at Xu Wanqing's back and pulled the corners of his mouth.

A cheap thing?

What if in the future, you, Miss Xu, are worse than a cheap thing?

Her friend of more than ten years despised her, and her mother who raised her since childhood hated and abandoned her... Why, and what had she done wrong?

They looked down on her, despised her... but she had to stand high and make them regret it!

And that Shen Ning, did she really think she won?

Isn't it just because he has the support of Prince Ding?

So what if he is Prince Ding? Can he be more noble than the Crown Prince?

She hasn't lost yet, not yet...