Outside the window, Liu's vision went dark as she heard this, and she only managed to avoid falling by holding onto the porch pillar. She had calculated everything, predicting Su Hongye's negligence in managing the rear quarters, predicting Su Jinli's weakness and vulnerability, but she hadn't anticipated this girl's audacity to overturn the table at her coming-of-age banquet, nor had she anticipated her husband, always a hands-off manager, to be so furious. She should have had Madam Zhou steal the stack of account books at night and burn them clean in the incense burner. She suddenly glanced at Madam Zhou, who was shivering beside her. The woman was ferociously picking at the moss in the cracks between the stone slabs with her fingernails. The cold sweat on her plump face trickled down her wrinkles, leaving two pale furrows on her rouge-painted cheeks.
"Master! Master, please think twice!" Liu suddenly cried out, throwing open the carved wooden door. Her hair was half loose, and her black hair hung messily on her cheeks, with a few strands sticking to her sweaty forehead. She threw herself in front of the desk, and her silver hairpin fell at Su Hongye's feet, rolling with a small sound on the blue bricks. "The Wang family is a hereditary earl. If Jinli marries into the family, she will be the legitimate wife. How many people have been trying to get a chance to marry into this family! Jinli must have misunderstood. I will go to the Wang family and explain. I will ask them to write off their gambling debts and give Jinli ten times the dowry..." Her voice was as sharp as a cat's meow, and her saliva splashed on the pages of the account book, mixing with the tea stains.
"Explain?" Su Jinli stepped forward, standing in front of her father. She looked at Liu's red and swollen eyes—evidence of her crying all night in Jingsi Hall. The makeup at the corners of her eyes had been smudged, revealing fine, spider-web-like wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Su Jinli's lips curled up in an icy arc, like the icicles hanging from the eaves in the twelfth lunar month: "Stepmother, do you want to explain the three thousand taels of gambling debt that Wang Erlang owed Jufulou, or the five hundred taels of 'bride price' you accepted from the Wang family? That five hundred taels of silver is enough to buy twenty maids like Madam Zhou, right?" Her eyes swept over the terrified Madam Zhou beside her, who collapsed to the ground with a plop.
"You are slandering me!" Liu was hit in a sore spot and screamed as she grabbed Su Jinli's wrist. Her sharp nails almost scratched her moon-white sleeve. "Those five hundred taels are a gift from the Wang family! They are used to buy Jinli's dowry because of me, their stepmother! You motherless girl, don't be ungrateful..." Her words became more and more hysterical, revealing the cigarette stains on her back teeth.
"Enough!" Su Hongye suddenly picked up the account book on the table and threw it hard in front of Liu. The mulberry paper spread out, and Wang Erlang's signature was right in front of Liu's pale face. The crooked pen portrait was mocking her embarrassment. "From today on, you are confined to Jingsi Hall. Without my order, you are not allowed to step out of the courtyard!" His chest was heaving violently, and his hands were shaking as he pointed at Liu. The jade belt buckle with python pattern on his cuffs hurt the back of his hands. "The key to the household..." He paused, his eyes swept over the trembling Liu Cheng, and then fell on the pomegranate tree outside the window that was so prosperous that it was a bit dazzling. "Leave it to Qingyao to take care of it!"
Liu slumped against the cold blue bricks, watching her husband's resolute back as he turned. The hem of his dark official robe brushed against her hair, stirring it with a gust of wind, further ruffling the scattered strands. She glanced at Su Jinli's eyes, cold as ice—those eyes held no trace of a girl's fear, only a penetrating indifference, as if watching a clown's final act. The sunlight streamed through the lattice-patterned windows, casting a pale golden glow on her scattered hair, but it couldn't warm the sudden chill rising in her heart. She suddenly realized that her most proud plan had been shattered, like a fallen teacup, from the moment Su Jinli overturned it at her coming-of-age banquet. The incense in the censer still burned, its smoke swirling as she imagined the rest of her life. Just like the smoke, seemingly swirling and colorful, it would eventually dissipate in the wind, leaving not a trace behind. The only sounds left in the study were Su Hongye's heavy breathing and a few dog barks coming from some distant courtyard, making the mess in the room seem particularly desolate.
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