Chapter 59: Initial clues
Zheng Sirui's philosophy has always been "let go when it's best to let go, and forgive when you can," and this is especially true for Yanru. Having known her for so many years, thousands of days and nights, she certainly knows Yanru's true character, but while she remembers her life-saving grace and their friendship as classmates, she still cherishes Yanru's kindness. She ignores all the gossip and rumors, passing them by without a trace.
Yanru understood this better than anyone else. She was confident that she held an extraordinary position in Zheng Sirui's heart, and over time, she had become accustomed to it. This time, during their disagreement, she had been acting coquettishly and apologizing profusely, but Zheng Sirui hadn't softened her heart. As they departed from the mountain, she only said, "Let's stop here for now."
Xue Jia noticed something was wrong and asked on the way, "What happened between you and her?"
"It's okay. She's too narrow-minded to argue with me about trivial matters. It will be fine in a few days." Yanru didn't think much of it. All day long, she was more concerned about Yi Bin's remarkable business achievements.
Sleeping in the same bed for a long time, it's inevitable that people will share the same feelings. Xue Jia also said, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it, I really can't believe it, the Yi family's daughter is doing well."
Humph, Yanru had been expecting this delicate young lady, a woman who had never touched a woman's home, to elope and live a life of poverty, working the lowest of labors like washing clothes and farming to barely make a living, leaving the world waiting to see a mockery. Who knew that Yi Bin, with such a lowly business as selling herbs on the roadside, would be able to rise from Jinling to the capital? And because she couldn't read the ledgers and manage a business, Wang Xianyi despised her and cursed her countless times behind her back, saying, "I only eat white rice" and "I can't even burn a bunch of rushes." Yanru was jealous of Yi Bin's skills, and thus lost her balance, cursing: "I don't believe she is so capable. Her maternal grandparents' family is a prominent family in Jinling. She is doing business in Jinling, she must have some uncle or cousin to protect her, so she can do so well. Humph, in the final analysis, the greatest ability is to be reborn." At the end, she added in her heart: If I had such a family background, I would have more shops under my control than the stars in the sky, and your mother would only pamper me and serve me, how could she be like now, bullying others in a half-hearted way all day long.
Yanbao picked at her nails and said, "No, sister. She said that her family has disowned her. Her cousin and uncle think she's embarrassing, so they've had people come to her stall a few times to cause trouble. They even beat up her husband and threw away her goods. You weren't listening carefully to what she said?"
Yanru poked Yanbao's head hard and said, "I called you an idiot, and you really are an idiot. You believe everything she says? Who would tell outsiders about these twists and turns? They must be trying to trick us."
Yanbao yawned, leaning against the car wall, feeling sleepy. Her sister had been away from home for several years and had rarely spent time with their mother, yet her posture, tone, and demeanor just now were remarkably similar to theirs. It was as if their mother had traveled thousands of miles and possessed their sister, specifically to scold her for so easily believing in someone of the same sex, and then repeatedly to warn her to be extremely careful with other women, otherwise, if she wasn't careful, her once-in-a-lifetime golden son-in-law would be snatched away by someone else.
Do all women become so mercenary and mean after getting married? But my aunt has been selling tofu in the market, and her words and deeds are still the same as before marriage, gentle and generous. Yanbao lifted the curtain of the car, leaned on the window, and let the wind with the smell of earth and grass flow into the small space that had been closed for a long time and had a turbid smell, thinking about the lessons of life: "It must be because the person I married has problems. My father is useless, and my brother-in-law is so ugly that even monsters would tremble in fear. In the future, I have to be like my aunt and find a gentleman, preferably like Liu Jiansheng who was with You Yanru before, who is well-educated and good-looking. I like good-looking people. Appearance is determined by the heart. How bad can the heart of a good-looking person be? No matter what, I can't become like my mother or You Yanru."
Yanbao looked forward to the future, a smile on her face, letting the bumpy mountain road drag her as she drifted off into a deep sleep. The dream had everything, everything was good, but upon waking, the world, heaven, was a completely different scene. Yanbao yearned for a handsome and talented man, hoping to become another Zheng Sirui. She opened her mouth and unleashed verses of poetry and allusions from ancient times to the present. Unfortunately, Yanbao was still ingrained with Pei Lan's belief that "a little education is good for a woman's marriage, but more is useless." She felt sleepy after flipping through a few books. Finally, with one foot in a prestigious academy and the aura of a scholar shimmering around her, Yanbao simply slacked off, hanging out with her sister and brother-in-law all day—no one knew what they played, but that was how the days went, one by one, a waste.
There is no certainty as to what the future will hold, but at the moment, Yanru has been teaching her by example, and Yanbao has been influenced by her. She has learned to act like a spoiled child, to act pretentiously, to order servants around, to vent her anger through her mouth, to look people down through her nose, to flatter and do bad things with her eyes, and to say "I am a descendant of a member of the Privy Council, and my sister is a goddess of painting" and "You, a lowly person, look down on my clothes." As a result, she has become the Yanru of her student days - even though the two sisters do not look very similar, but when Yanbao stands there, she looks just like a little Yanru.
No matter how long summer lasts, it will eventually end. After the last cicada chirps, Yanbao, carrying two suitcases, steps into Guanyan Academy, officially beginning her life as a female scholar. When her sister was around, Yanru found her chattering annoying, finding ways to wrest things from her room and usurp her possessions, her chatter rivaling the frogs in the fields. With Yanbao gone, Yanru felt completely alone in the vast garden, uncared for, and left feeling endlessly lonely.
"Let's find something to do." Yanru realized she was being lazy. Since Yanbao arrived in Beijing, she had only visited the pawnshop once, and that was to show off her power and status after marriage. She had only gone there briefly and then left. Thinking of Yibin's thriving business, she secretly harbored the idea of managing the pawnshop and becoming a first-class scholar-merchant. She was excited and called for Shanjuan to help her find the pile of books Zheng Sirui had given her. She planned to read them carefully, to equip her mind with the classics of the past.
Shan Juan followed the instructions carefully, dug it out from the corner of the storeroom, and held it in front of Yan Ru: "My dear, this is all moldy and hairy."
Yan Ru was furious and cursed: "You are so useless! You have ruined such a good book."
Shanjuan said, "You said last time that they were getting in the way and asked me to throw them into the storeroom. Then the young master complained that they were taking up too much space for his antiques, so he threw them into a corner to get damp. This is none of my business. I'm only doing what my two masters want me to do."
"Forget it, forget it. I won't read it anymore. If it gets moldy, I'll just throw it away." Yanru felt guilty and didn't bother to argue with the servant. After all, knowledge gained from books is shallow. Just reading is just empty talk. It's meaningless and useless. It's better to go to the pawnshop and do it for real. She made up her mind and got up early the next morning. She followed Xue Jia into the city and asked Mianzong, "I haven't been here for a while. How's business lately?"
Mian Zong replied: "It's okay, that's it."
Yanru said, "Really? I don't believe it. Take the account book and let me take a closer look. Oh, and give me a key to the warehouse."
Mianzong was in a dilemma: "My wife, the account book is not in my hands. My wife took it away and it is now in Xue's mansion. There are only two keys to the storehouse, one is with my wife and the other is with my master. I have to give it to my master after I use it every day."
"What?" Yanru screamed, "Why does Madam have it?"
Mian Zong said, "If my wife wants to see it, I'll give it to her, right? Besides, my lady, you only come once every one or two months. I need to settle accounts with my boss. If I can't find you, then I can only look for my wife, right?"
"Talk back! Talk back! You lowly people who just want to make a living, all you know is talk back! Can't you find me? Where is Daiyuan? You can ask around and find out. This is my pawnshop, why are you letting someone else take the account book?" Yanru pinched her throat and spat. The noise attracted Xue Jia, who stood outside the door and listened to the whole thing. His ugly face was gloomier than a rainy day. He said, "What do you mean by someone else? My mother is someone else?"
Yanru hurriedly explained, "No, no, sir, you misunderstood. That's not what I meant. I meant that since my husband gave me this pawnshop and asked us to run it together, it's not good to have my mother-in-law worry about it for us."
"What do you mean by 'we manage it together'? What's it got to do with you?" Xue Jia retorted. "You've been married here for so long, how many big and small things have you taken care of in the pawnshop? And now all you do is take a nap and pretend to be sick, lying in the back room looking at yourself in the mirror. It's me who's been busy all along, isn't it?"
You can't even read a few characters, and all day you pronounce "zun" as "dian" and write "lu" as "yao". What are you busy with? You're running around like a headless fly, grinning foolishly at distinguished guests, and you think you're busy? Yanru rolled her eyes and tried to bargain, begging Xue Jia to take the account book back from her mother-in-law: "Then I will take care of it from now on. You will take care of the keys, and I will take care of the account book. We will work together to manage the pawnshop business, okay, sir?"
"Why should I give you the account book? Even if I don't show it to my mother, look at it, do you understand it? Besides—" Xue Jia rubbed his chin with his fingers and glanced at Yanru with disdain, "I told you at the beginning that the pawnshop gave it to the daughter of the owner of the largest embroidery shop in Jinling, and you are not one of them. Qixian Pawnshop has such a big porcelain job. You come from a small family and don't have the skills. How can you take on this job?"
With just a few words, Xue Jia effortlessly hit Yanru's weak spot, leaving her stunned on the spot. Even though she felt extremely painful and wronged, she didn't have the courage to curse at him. It was not until Xue Jia patted his butt and left that she lowered her head and sobbed a few times.
Meanwhile, while Yanru was finding things to do in Daiyuan, Zheng Sirui of the Ministry of Revenue was tormented by her constant busy schedule, her mind swirling and her hands restless. For the first half of the year, she'd spent her time worrying about Yanru and Yanbao's arrival in Beijing, leaving her with no time to rest. Then, the rainy season arrived, and Yongzhou was devastated by floods, inundating fields and causing countless casualties. The emperor ordered the treasury to be opened for disaster relief, sending the entire court into a state of panic, with both the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works in disarray. Zheng Sirui and her colleagues from the Ministry of Revenue were locked in the yamen, where they had to study the lists sent by the Ministry of Works, do the accounting, write documents, and submit memorials. They worked day and night, and were so tired that they were dizzy. They were not released from the yamen until the emperor issued an order to allocate funds and the last document on the case was approved. She ended her awkward life of living and eating in the palace. During her day off, she happily made an appointment with Yi Bin to go to Tiekan Temple for a trip. She found out that Yanru had been disregarding the facts behind her back and was trying to take credit for Xue Jia. It was really infuriating.
I'm so angry!
Zheng Sirui brooded for a long time, reflecting on Yanru's behavior over the years, only to find endless disappointment and loss. It wasn't until she returned to court, seated at her desk in the Jiage Library, her mind preoccupied with official business, that her sadness finally eased. After the Yongzhou flood relief effort, Zheng Sirui had spent time with senior officials and superiors at the Ministry of Revenue, learning a great deal. She was once again tasked with clearing and compiling the accounts, finding it much easier than before. She unlocked the door and retrieved the tax ledger, which had previously left her confused, vowing to understand its intricacies.
After half a month of clacking away on the abacus, Zheng Sirui finally caught a glimpse of a clue amidst the piles of figures. The naive young court lady, transformed into a hunting dog, delved into the even older warehouses. Following a single scent through the dusty account books, she finally uncovered the clue.
I had thought something was wrong, but I had never imagined it would be this way. Zheng Sirui gasped in shock at the answer, unable to follow proper etiquette. When the court was dismissed, she once again stopped Lu Zhiling when no one was around, grabbed his arm, leaned over to his side and whispered:
"There's something going on with the largest salt merchant in the capital."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
