Chapter 69 Centrifugal Force

Torn between inner turmoil, Sheng Huai'an suddenly knelt down: "Mother, I know you must be very disappointed in me right now, but you've really misunderstood me. Ye Mingzhu and I really have nothing going on; I was framed by Zhang Shuheng..."

"A misunderstanding?" Jia Shi couldn't keep secrets, and she didn't want to now. She pounded her chest, which was feeling heavy, and said with difficulty, "Don't mention Ye Mingzhu to me. I hate Liu Shi right now, I hate Liu Rumei!"

"Don't try to argue with me anymore. Before I beat Liu Rumei to death, she told me everything. But thankfully she's already dead, completely dead. You can just forget about it from now on."

Just as Sheng Huai'an was about to speak, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Madam Jia frowned and said in a harsh voice, "Come in!"

Granny Wang carefully entered the room, walked straight to Jia Shi without looking to the side, and whispered in her ear.

Madam Jia's face changed instantly, and she looked at Sheng Huai'an in disbelief: "You actually sent that lowly maid Yu Shu to save Liu Rumei? Are you afraid I won't let you save her, so you came all the way to Rongshou Hall to keep me occupied? Sheng Huai'an, do you even have any regard for me as your mother?! Is Liu Rumei so important to you, more important than filial piety?!"

"Mother, no!" Filial piety can be overwhelming, Sheng Huai'an quickly said, "Liu Shi is still useful! She can help me write poems, and half of the poems I took out before were written by her! I need to take the imperial examinations, and I can't do without her in my studies of classics and policy essays, she can't die!"

"...What?" Jia exclaimed in surprise, "She wrote poems for you, and they can even help you with your imperial examinations?"

Sheng Huai'an refused to speak further: "Mother, please dismiss everyone else first."

Madam Jia looked at Granny Wang, who immediately knew better than to leave and close the door.

Jia sat blankly at the table.

She suddenly remembered what Liu Rumei had said before, that she would use all her talents to help Sheng Huai'an become famous... At the time, she scoffed at it, thinking that her son was so talented that he didn't need a woman's help at all.

But now...

“Yes.” Sheng Huai’an sighed and said slowly, “My son’s talent is limited. If it weren’t for Liu’s help over the years, I’m afraid my path to the imperial examinations would not have been so smooth.”

Madam Jia murmured, "But the old lady values ​​you highly; she hired a renowned teacher for you..."

“I have dozens of fellow disciples under my teacher!” Sheng Huai’an said. “Mother, my teacher couldn’t devote all his efforts to training me alone, only my sister-in-law could. If it weren’t for that, why would I flatter her or even use underhanded tactics against her?”

"Using methods?" Jia suddenly realized. "You, you wanted to bind Liu Shi, so you devoured her body and made her devoted to you?"

Of course not!

Sheng Huai'an's eyes twitched, and he suppressed his emotions, nodding with difficulty: "Yes."

Jia remained silent.

After a long while, she finally managed to suppress her nausea and said, "Since... Liu is useful to you, I can allow her to continue living. But letting her work for you isn't the only way; it's not just about incest between an uncle and sister-in-law. I still don't approve of you getting involved with her."

Sheng Huai'an quickly replied, "Of course! I was out of my mind and too hasty before, so I didn't act carefully. Now that Mother has reminded me, I will definitely not make the same mistake again."

Jia asked, "How did you meet before?"

Sheng Huai'an hesitated for a moment and said, "I usually go to Qinghui Garden around 9 PM, when no one is around in the mansion."

“Don’t go there anymore,” Madam Jia said decisively. “Meeting at night is bound to cause trouble! From now on, you and she can only meet in the morning when you come to pay your respects to me, and compose poems and essays in front of me.”

Sheng Huai'an hesitated: "But before, Liu was implicated by her younger brother, and the ancestor confined her to her quarters for half a year."

Madam Jia waved her hand and said, "So what? Don't give me any excuses! The old matriarch doesn't live in our house anymore, so I'm the one who calls the shots here now!"

Sheng Huai'an said, "...Okay."

Madam Jia then said, "I'll send two maids over to Madam Liu later, and have them keep an eye on her and on you. You're not allowed to go see her again, or I'll disown you as my son."

Sheng Huai'an nodded: "Okay."

Madam Jia said, "Also, Liu must not have any money on her, lest she become too ambitious. Make her take out another thousand taels, no, two thousand taels of silver, and I will not pursue the shameful things she has done."

In the past month or two, not only have the shops in the mansion stopped generating income, but they have even started to incur losses.

She was bad at business, and no matter what she tried, the shops remained barely thriving. Money was needed everywhere in the mansion, and Sheng Huai'an's expenses were also high; heaven knows how she managed to keep things afloat!

If she could squeeze some money out of Liu Rumei, she could breathe a sigh of relief.

Sheng Huai'an was in a dilemma, but Jia Shi was adamant and he couldn't persuade her otherwise, so he had no choice but to agree.

But he couldn't ask Liu Rumei for help at this time, so he could only look back and see if there was anything he could sell to get money.

He coaxed Jia Shi for a long time, agreeing to many conditions and promising that she would definitely pass the imperial examination with flying colors, etc., until Jia Shi's tightly furrowed brows relaxed a lot and even a smile appeared on her face.

After finally leaving Rongshou Hall, he let out a deep breath, feeling utterly exhausted.

After appeasing Jia Shi, we still need to go to Qinghui Garden to appease Liu Rumei.

Thinking about this makes my head ache even more.

...His mind was in a mess. By the time Sheng Huai'an came to his senses, he had already walked through the secret passage in the study and entered Qinghui Garden.

My sister-in-law suffered such a great injustice, and almost lost her life. She must have had a lot to say and cry about it.

But since we're here, let's go in and take a look.

Sheng Huai'an forced himself to walk inside.

As soon as he entered, he saw Liu Rumei leaning against the headboard, her face pale, wearing only a snow-white undergarment, coughing violently while covering her mouth.

"Sister-in-law!" He rushed to the bedside and patted her back.

After Liu Rumei stopped coughing, he looked at her with a guilty expression and full of pity, saying, "I made you suffer last night. I... I really didn't expect Mother to be so impulsive."

"It's alright." Liu Rumei shook her head with tears in her eyes, without a trace of resentment. "If she hadn't been devoted to you, my mother wouldn't have treated me like this... To put it bluntly, she was just a loving mother."

Sheng Huai'an breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that my sister-in-law understands. But don't worry, I've already spoken to my mother, and she won't bother you anymore."

"Really?" Liu Rumei couldn't believe it; this time, her emotions were genuine.

She didn't believe that Jia would let her off so easily.

Being looked at with such affection and surprise by her, Sheng Huai'an inexplicably regained some confidence.

He smiled and said, "It's true. I shamed myself in front of her, saying that my talent was limited, that most of my previous poems were ghostwritten by her, and that I had plagiarized her talent. I also said that my path to the imperial examinations was impossible without her, and that she had to pave the way for me... In short, in the end, my mother was convinced by me."

“But that’s not fair to you.” Liu Rumei looked at him with the same pity and disagreed, “Why do you have to smear yourself like that? You are clearly more outstanding than me.”

Sheng Huai'an said, "If I don't say it this way, how can I get my mother to stop being hostile towards you? Sister-in-law, you are really important to me, and I'm not lying to anyone about that."

He took her hand and kissed it on the lips: "By the way, Mother knows you don't have any maids here, and she said she'd like to get you two more. She knows she was too impulsive last night, and this is her way of apologizing to you."

Liu Rumei sneered inwardly, but said softly, "Please thank Mother for me."

An apology? More like surveillance.

She needs someone of her own to be by her side, otherwise she will be trapped in Qinghui Garden for the rest of her life and truly become Sheng Huai'an's plaything.

Liu Rumei said softly, "Huai'an, you see, I'm not very mobile right now, and I'm afraid the two little maids won't be able to take good care of me. Could you please send a letter to my aunt and ask her to send my wet nurse over?"

"Alright." Sheng Huai'an didn't want to stay any longer. "Mother might send those two maids over at any time. We can't reveal the secret passage, so I'll go back to my study first. We can discuss how to meet again later."

Liu Rumei quickly said, "Huai'an, my injuries haven't been treated yet, and there's no one to take care of me. Can you call a doctor for me? Otherwise, I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on."

Sheng Huai'an was taken aback, then quickly said, "Of course! I'll immediately ask Fu'an to go to Ping'an Hall to fetch a doctor for you, the best doctor."

The best treatment would have been to buy the "Child Gu" from Ye Mingzhu.

He could only afford to buy one Gu poison, which cost five hundred taels of silver. He had no money left, and he needed to see a doctor to check on his health. He also needed to find a way to raise the two thousand taels that Jia wanted. Where was he going to get so much money?

Liu Rumei replied obediently, "Okay, I'll wait for your arrangements."

As she watched Sheng Huai'an leave in a hurry, the gentle smile on her face faded, slowly turning into sarcasm and indifference.

Jia wanted to kill her, but spared her after discovering she had some use, which shows she didn't really care about ethics and morals.

Sheng Huai'an kept saying he loved her and was willing to tarnish his own reputation for her, yet he seemed blind to her numerous wounds, only fearing that she resented Jia Shi...

She was rescued an hour or two ago, and her injuries still haven't been treated!

Covered in wounds!

How important is she to Sheng Huai'an?

If one day she were to poison Jia Shi or even ruin his career, would he still treat her with the same tenderness and gentleness as he does now?

ha.

Ha ha.