Chapter 27 Use it sparingly
Bai Xiuming folded the list and put it back in his sleeve pocket, then called over his subordinates who were waiting outside.
"What are your orders, sir?"
"Move everything here with you."
The subordinate paused for a moment, then immediately nodded in agreement and quickly called for people to come and move the things.
The maid watched as the guards from the Mingjing Division brought out all of her mistress's favorite furniture and decorations, and she didn't know whether she should stop them or not, so she could only look to the steward.
The steward wiped his sweat, stole a glance at the dreadful man, and then lowered his head again. He thought to himself, since the Marquis had already allowed this man to take away the late Madam's dowry, what could the eldest daughter possibly be reluctant to part with her usual belongings?
Adhering to the principle of "out of sight, out of mind," the Marquis of Jinyang remained in the main hall.
Hearing a servant report that Bai Xiuming had ordered the courtyard where Ji Chan used to live emptied, his teeth were grinding together.
"This is outrageous!"
He stood up and paced back and forth in the hall, pondering in his heart that the matter of Lin's dowry should not be blown out of proportion. If it were investigated too deeply, it would not benefit the Marquis's mansion or his two children.
However, this matter cannot be let off lightly. Bai Xiuming is so arrogant that he must be taught a lesson.
It took Xue Shi more than half an hour to retrieve some of the precious items that Lin Shi had brought as part of her dowry from the rooms of the various masters in the Marquis's mansion.
Together with her maid, she inventoried the estates and shops that Lin had brought as part of her dowry; the deeds to the houses and land added up to a small stack.
"Madam, are we handing all of these over?" Xue's maid asked with a tone full of regret.
There's a shop right on the main street, and the rent alone brings in a fortune every month. There's also a farm...
After hesitating for a moment, Madam Xue took out the deeds for the shops and estates and asked her maid to hide them. She then handed over the remaining land deeds and house deeds together.
The guard from the Mingjing Guard who was handling the transaction with her only glanced at the contract before asking, "Among Madam Lin's dowry, there is a manor in the suburbs of the capital and a shop on Tianjie Street, but they are not included. Has Madam Jinyang forgotten about them?"
Madam Xue's expression changed slightly, but she forced a smile and said, "Perhaps you have misremembered, sir?"
The man wasn't angry. He simply said, "I have an excellent memory. If the Lady of the Marquis can't find the contract, I can have someone help. We are the best at searching houses and finding things."
Madam Xue forced a smile: "Perhaps I have a bad memory. I'll have the maid look for it again."
The maid, sensing her signal, quickly found a secluded spot, retrieved the two hidden contracts, and handed them to the guards of the Mingjing Division.
The men Bai Xiuming brought were very efficient; in less than an hour, they had counted, packed, and carried Lin's dowry out.
As Achan sat in the teahouse, watching Bai Xiuming lead his men into the Marquis's residence, a beautiful smile involuntarily curved her lips.
Mu Lin's gaze never left A Chan, and when he saw her smile, he couldn't help but grin foolishly along with her.
He racked his brains trying to find a topic, and when he saw that Achan was staring at the Mingjing Division guards, his eyes lit up. He cleared his throat and said, "I don't know how Marquis Jinyang offended that Lord Bai of the Mingjing Division, that he would bring so many people to attack us."
Upon hearing this, Achan turned her head.
Mu Lin was secretly delighted and continued, "I've long heard that this Lord Bai is eccentric and acts erratically. He made a move today, and I'm afraid he'll be impeached by the Censorate tomorrow."
"Will it be serious?" Achan asked.
"Probably not. At most, he'll be fined or suspended. After all, he's from the royal family, and His Majesty has always been very lenient with them."
Achan asked with interest, "May I ask which royal relative Lord Bai is descended from?"
"He is the eldest son of the Prince of Xiling. I heard that years ago, the Prince of Xiling wanted to depose his eldest son and put his second son on the throne, but His Majesty never agreed. Later, the late Princess passed away, and this heir almost died. It just so happened that Prince Ming was passing by and brought him to the capital."
Mu Lin indeed knew quite a lot, and A Chan listened with great interest. It turned out that Bai Xiuming had such a weak time. It was truly unexpected.
"Does the young lady recognize him?" Mu Lin couldn't help but ask, seeing that A Chan seemed very interested in Bai Xiuming.
Achan immediately denied it: "I don't know him, I was just a little curious."
Having seen the excitement, she decided to leave. Mu Lin had only exchanged a few words with A Chan and hadn't even asked her name yet, so naturally he didn't want her to leave so soon.
Seeing Ah Chan get up, he followed her.
Achan went downstairs to pay the bill and bought a serving of Eight Treasures Cake to take away. Just as the waiter was handing her the packaged cake, a chorus of curses came from outside the teahouse.
Achan, carrying snacks, followed the others out of the teahouse to watch the commotion. On the street outside, a tall, thin man in a gray robe was grabbing a woman's hair and slapping her while spewing out a lot of vulgarities.
The woman looked to be in her thirties. Even though her mouth was bleeding from the beating and her eyes were bruised, her beautiful appearance was still evident.
The man wasn't intimidated by the growing crowd; instead, he cursed even more vehemently: "You slut! I'm still at home and you can't wait to come out and meet a man in secret. Tell me, aren't you a slut!"
The onlookers realized the relationship between the two, and those who had originally wanted to help stopped in their tracks.
If this woman is caught having an affair by her husband, meddling in other people's business can easily get her into trouble.
"I didn't," the woman protested, trying to dodge the man's slap, but he wouldn't listen.
As more and more people gathered, the teahouse owner came out. After recognizing the woman who had been beaten, he quickly told the shop's staff to go up and separate the two of them.
The tall, thin man who had assaulted the man was pulled away by two of his employees, who were still swearing, "Well, this must be your lover. You just wait."
After saying that, he turned and walked away quickly.
The shopkeeper glared at the tall, thin man with disgust, and reached out to help the woman up, but she struggled to her feet on her own.
"Madam Chen, are you alright?" The shopkeeper asked, seeing the woman's injured face.
"Thank you, shopkeeper." The woman touched her swollen cheek. "I'm fine."
Seeing that the shopkeeper hesitated to speak, she lowered her head and said, "Thank you for your help today. I will not order tea at the teahouse from now on."
Because she was skilled at making tea, she had been working as a tea lady in the teahouse these past few days. Now that her face had been slapped like this, and her husband seemed to be an unreasonable person, the shopkeeper didn't want to cause trouble for the shop, so he nodded in agreement.
The woman, surnamed Chen, curtsied to the shopkeeper again, tucked her stray hairs behind her ears, and turned to walk out of the crowd.
At this moment, Achan sensed that several people had appeared behind her. She turned around and saw several young men who seemed to know Mu Lin and were winking at him.
Achan withdrew her gaze, intending to take the opportunity to leave, but then she heard someone behind her say, "That woman just now seemed to be the daughter of the previous Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, Yan Cheng, do you know her?"
"How would I know him?" the man called Yan Cheng replied impatiently.
"I remember that man was demoted for writing an article criticizing your maternal grandfather. As a result, he was killed by a demon not far from the capital. His whole family was wiped out, leaving only this daughter." The speaker sighed, "A perfectly good daughter of an official, now ruined like this, it's really pitiful."
As Achan listened to their conversation and looked at the woman who walked out of the crowd with her back still straight, she felt that she probably didn't need anyone's sympathy.
She didn't listen any further, and after taking a few steps forward, Mu Lin caught up and called out to A Chan, "Miss, could you tell me your name?"
Achan didn't like being bothered repeatedly. She suppressed the impatience between her brows, thought for a moment, and simply said her name: "My name is Ji Chan."
He left without waiting for Mu Lin's reaction.
Mu Lin was taken aback at first, then remembered who Ji Chan was. His expression changed, but in the end he did not chase after her.
Not long after Achan returned home, she heard a knock on the door.
She thought it was Bai Xiuming who came to deliver Lin's dowry, but when she opened the door, she saw Feng Yang instead.
Achan looked Feng Yang up and down and found that his hands were empty.
“Miss Ji, the Garrison Commander asked me to pass on a message to you,” Feng Yang said, standing at the door.
"you say."
"The master said... he has taken the dowry that the young lady wanted from the Marquis's mansion as agreed."
Ah Chan blinked, and then what? Shouldn't they have brought it to her after taking it?
Feng Yang ignored her expression and continued, "The materials you listed will be delivered tomorrow. Please... finish making them as soon as possible so we can retrieve your dowry sooner."
Achan stared in disbelief for a long time before gritting her teeth and saying, "Your master is truly meticulous."
"Miss Ji, you flatter me." Feng Yang looked pleased with himself.
"Oh, right." Feng Yang suddenly remembered another purpose of this trip and said it before A Chan slammed the door panel in his face, "The master said that the young lady's living conditions were simple and he was very distressed to see it, so he gave the young lady some things."
After he finished speaking, he turned to the side, and Achan looked out the door and saw a pile of furniture, ornaments and daily necessities outside.
Those things look somewhat familiar; it seems like they were used by Ji Chan in the Marquis's mansion before.
Feng Yang had the furniture moved into A Chan's house, and because there wasn't enough space, he even took it upon himself to remove her door panels.
Achan always felt that he was secretly retaliating against her.
It took more than half an hour to put the items that were suspected to have been looted from the Marquis's mansion into appropriate places, and the bedroom on the second floor was completely transformed.
Before leaving, Feng Yang added insult to injury: "The master said that the young lady still has at least a hundred taels of silver, so she shouldn't be living in dire straits. If she really feels that the silver is not enough..."
Achan felt a little bit of anticipation.
"Then we'll use it sparingly."
With a bang, the newly installed door panel was slammed shut.
Feng Yang rubbed his nose with his finger. He knew that Miss Ji would be angry after he finished speaking, but since he had lost the bet with Jiang Kai, he had no choice but to go to her door himself.
After closing the door, Achan stormed upstairs to the second floor. She looked at the neatly tidied bedroom, with writing implements and several books on the table by the window.
Those books were all books that Ji Chan used to enjoy reading. When she was kicked out of the mansion, the books were arranged like this, without even changing the order.
How incredibly thoughtful! Does she want furniture and decorations? Where's her money?!
She kicked a chair that had been moved from the Marquis's residence, and ended up hurting her toe. She sat on the chair, clutching her foot, and sulked for a long time.
From this day forward, Bai Xiuming will be the human she hates the most!
The next day, while Achan was still asleep, several people challenged Bai Xiuming during the court assembly.
First, Yan Liru, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, submitted a memorial accusing Bai Xiuming of disregarding the law and discipline, and of using torture on officials of the Ministry of Justice, causing them serious injury.
Before Yan Liru could finish speaking, another censor stepped forward and accused Xiuming of failing to handle the case properly. The murder of Zhao Ming, the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief, had not yet been solved, yet Xiuming was taking the opportunity to suppress dissidents. He demanded that His Majesty punish Xiuming severely.
Marquis Jinyang stood among the military officials, looking at the imperial censor who stepped forward, wishing he could point at Bai Xiuming's nose and berate him for his incompetence. The anger he had suffered yesterday had finally dissipated somewhat.
The emperor, seated on his throne, flipped through the memorials presented to him without even raising his head: "Bai Xiuming, Commander of the Mingjing Division."
"Your subject is here." Bai Xiu ordered his men to step forward.
What do you have to say?
"The case of Lord Zhao Ming has been closed recently."
"Ha, Lord Bai is really good at confusing the public. If the case is closed, then where is the murderer?" The censor who impeached Bai Xiuming sneered.
Bai Xiuming explained, "This case involves Lord Zhao's reputation, so it's inconvenient to discuss it further in court."
Zhao Ming's case was sealed off by the Mingjing Division. The only one who knew the truth was Xue Mingtang, who had gone there first, but Xue Mingtang was not qualified to attend the court assembly.
The censor was indeed dissatisfied with this explanation: "Lord Bai refuses to tell us, could it be that he hasn't found out the truth and is trying to gloss over the matter?"
He then knelt down and reported, "Your Majesty, the Mingjing Division's investigations are unsupervised and they act recklessly. In the long run, this will surely become a great calamity for the country."
"Then tell me, what exactly happened in this case?" the emperor said, sitting on the dragon throne.
"In order to have his son from a concubine recognized as a member of the family, Zhao Ming allegedly murdered his wife, Lin. After Lin's death, he bribed a Taoist priest to seal her soul. Later, Lin transformed into a vengeful ghost and possessed Zhao Ming's son from a concubine, killing Zhao Ming's parents, Zhao Ming himself, and his concubine—a total of four people. This is the whole story of the case." After finishing speaking, Bai Xiuming knelt down and begged for forgiveness, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. Lin disappeared after committing the murders. I was incompetent and failed to capture her."
After Bai Xiuming finished speaking, all the censors in the court turned green.
Is this an apology? This is a slap in the face to the Censorate.
A Left Vice Censor-in-Chief actually kept a mistress.
Not only did they keep a mistress, they even dared to bring her home. If they hadn't been discovered, it would have been fine, but they were found out anyway.
Now it's the Censorate's turn to be punished.
Why didn't they realize so early on that Zhao Ming was such a despicable person?
All the censors fell silent, and the emperor on the dragon throne seemed to have no intention of pursuing the matter further. The court assembly ended abruptly.
After the court session ended, Bai Xiuming walked out, and a hand patted his shoulder from behind.
Bai Xiuming turned his head, and the Ming King, dressed in princely robes, walked up to him with a smile.
The current Ming King looks to be only in his early forties. He doesn't like to grow a beard, and his chin is completely shaved, making him appear several years younger than the emperor.
"I heard you've done something big recently?"
Which one are you referring to?
"Of course it's the one about opening the palace gates to summon the imperial physician. Tell your father quickly, whose daughter is she?"
At this time, the Ming king was no different from those idle men who squatted on the street gossiping about everyone else.
"You already know that."
"Tsk, I thought you didn't like women, but it turns out you prefer ladies from noble families. Do you need me to give you some advice?"
Bai Xiuming turned his head to look at his adoptive father and asked in confusion, "How did you come to the conclusion that I like ladies from respectable families?"
"Isn't that girl the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Jinyang?"
"What kind of well-bred lady is she?" Bai Xiuming said in a strange tone. Thinking of Ji Chan, who had been begging and pleading with him, he really couldn't bring himself to lie to Ming Wang.
"You brat, how can you talk about a young lady like that?" Ming Wang thought Bai Xiuming looked down on Ji Chan's status and wanted to say more, but Bai Xiuming had already left.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
