Chapter 58 The Yang Family
As the first hint of dawn appeared on the horizon, a terrified scream suddenly pierced the sky.
The maid Xiaoyu covered her mouth, her face pale, and looked at the dead Yang family matriarch on the floor of the room with fear in her eyes.
He tried to back away, but his limbs went weak and he collapsed to the ground. Then, as if being chased by a ghost, he scrambled away.
The night watch maid, Xiao Cui, who had collapsed behind the pillar, was awakened by the scream. She slowly got up, touched the back of her neck, and couldn't help but cry out in pain.
Suddenly she remembered something, and in an instant, she stood up in alarm and rushed into the room.
Upon seeing the First Madam's tragic death, he was instantly terrified.
The exquisite candlestick tip was violently shoved into his throat, and the baby-sized candle on the candlestick was forcibly stuffed into his mouth. His vomiting eyes were filled with terror and fear.
Xiao Cui collapsed to the ground in despair, thinking that with the First Madam dead, she figured she was doomed too.
She was a maid who kept watch at night, yet she caused the death of the First Madam in her room. The Master will definitely not let her off the hook.
Before long, a large group of people arrived outside, led by a middle-aged man named Yang Zhengxian, the patriarch of the Yang family.
The Yang family in the north of the city started their business with unique and rare spices. In just ten years, they opened twenty spice shops under their name, Chenmengxuan, starting from the capital and spreading to various prefectures.
He was a true merchant, and even royalty and nobles would come to his shop to buy spices.
But merchants are always just merchants, not respectable and not fit for high society. In order to make connections with the powerful and influential, Yang Zhengxian had no choice but to marry into the Sun family, a family with a long history of officialdom.
Although they have fallen on hard times, and their son in this generation only obtained a minor official position of the seventh rank, they are still from a poor family, and even a starved camel is bigger than a horse.
Because of this connection, his spice shop was able to expand beyond the capital.
But now that their own daughter has died in the Yang family, the Sun family will definitely not let them off easily if they investigate.
The thought of this made him break out in a cold sweat, and he rushed inside.
A long line of concubines followed behind him, their eyes filled with schadenfreude.
Seeing the terrible state of the woman, Yang Zhengxian turned to the maid and roared in fury, "Is this how you take care of Madam? What exactly happened last night?!"
"What were the maids on night watch doing? Why didn't anyone notice the murderer's whereabouts?!"
No one spoke; everyone was quiet.
Xiaoyu dared not say that she was a night watch maid, for fear that the master would sell her to a slave trader to do hard labor.
Xiao Cui was the lady's personal maid, and she dared not utter a sound at this moment.
"Since no one is willing to admit their dereliction of duty, and since you are all so negligent in your duties, Steward Wang! Have all the servants and maids in the Madam's courtyard beaten to death!"
The man dressed as a butler quickly stepped forward, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said tremblingly, "Yes, sir."
"No, sir!"
"Spare me! Spare me... Master, it was Xiaoyu who was on duty last night!"
Xiao Cui screamed in anguish.
Xiaoyu trembled upon hearing this and knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.
"...Master...Master, spare me! I have an elderly mother in her sixties and a three-year-old brother at home. Please, spare me!"
"Drag him away!"
Yang Zhengxian's face was ashen, his eyes filled with ruthless killing intent, showing no mercy whatsoever.
Regardless of the circumstances, the first priority should be to have the derelict person flogged to death, in order to quell the Sun family's anger.
The concubines were immediately filled with fear, trembling and stumbling. They never imagined that a single sentence could cost so many lives.
But the one who died was the First Madam, so the lives of these lowly maids were not a pity at all.
The servants rushed in, one on each side, and dragged her by the arm as they walked out.
In a fit of extreme terror, she suddenly remembered that she had vaguely woken up for a while on the way last night, and cried out anxiously, "Master! I saw the murderer!"
"It's true! This servant really saw it!"
She screamed and struggled desperately, her body and limbs twisting and turning, filled with a will to survive.
"etc!"
Yang Zhengxian called out to them.
He walked up to her, his face cold and condescending, and asked, "Who is it?! Who is the murderer?"
"Yes, yes..."
Xiaoyu suddenly became hesitant, as if even she herself wouldn't believe what she was saying.
Just as he was about to lose his patience, she said, "It's a paper doll! A paper doll from the funeral parlor."
"Nonsense!"
Yang Zhengxian roared, his face filled with the rage of being mocked, "Drag her away and beat her to death!"
She cried out, "Master, it's true! She looks exactly like Miss Baozhen! I saw it with my own eyes..."
Baozhen!
A considerable commotion immediately arose among the concubines. Not all the concubines were present, and one of them, the most favored concubine, Lady Ye, was pregnant, so the master had ordered that she not be disturbed.
Yang Zhengxian had two wives. Before he became wealthy, his first wife, who had always been by his side, was pregnant with a son who was about nineteen years old. She was inspecting shops in various places to prevent anyone from stealing or misappropriating silver.
Later, in order to climb the social ladder, he married his current wife, the eldest daughter of the Sun family, and divorced his ex-wife, who had stood by him through difficult times, thus vacating her position as his legal wife.
Less than two years later, his divorced wife died in despair.
His current wife also has a son who is about nine years old.
Five years after their marriage, he met Aunt Ye, who was being mistreated by her husband's family. He fell in love with her at first sight and felt pity for her. He spent money to buy her from her husband's family.
A year later, Aunt Ye gave birth to a baby girl named Baozhen.
But the good times didn't last long. Just two years old, she fell into the water and died in the lotus pond.
Rumors are circulating that the First Madam's son pushed Miss Baozhen down, and that the Second Young Master killed Miss Baozhen.
But no one dared to mention this in front of the master, because the first person to do so had his tongue pulled out by the first wife for the crime of gossiping and was sold to a human trafficker.
Their fate is now unknown.
Yang Zhengxian stared at her suspiciously, as if observing her expression to see if she was lying.
Xiaoyu's face was pale. Although she was panicked, her words were earnest and firm, and it was not clear that she was lying.
Miss Baozhen has been dead for three years, how could she possibly come back to life?
For a moment, everyone, including the servants, looked at each other, filled with doubt.
Suddenly, someone noticed two keywords and exclaimed softly: "Paper doll..."
It is said that paper dolls with spiritual power can be possessed by wandering ghosts, who then use this body to return from the underworld to the human world to seek revenge on those who killed them.
The mention of ghosts and spirits instantly caused widespread panic.
"Tell me in detail how you saw it."
Xiaoyu hurriedly broke free from her restraints, crawled over, and recounted in a trembling voice everything she had seen last night.
"Could it really be a precious treasure?"
"Otherwise, how could those paper figures look exactly alike!"
"Yes, it seems that Miss Baozhen falling into the water back then was not an accident at all."
The concubines whispered amongst themselves, covering their mouths with handkerchiefs. Although it sounded far-fetched, they were genuinely happy that the First Madam had died.
The First Madam is jealous and ruthless. When the Master brought them into the household, she gave them a potion that would prevent them from having children. To this day, apart from Concubine Ye, none of the others have any offspring.
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