Chapter 6 Xie Yushu is my newlywed wife!
Two errand runners from Fanlou carried two large food baskets into the courtyard and laid them out one by one in the room where Granny Xizhi lived.
The maids and nannies in the courtyard couldn't help but peek out from outside the door, whispering in amazement at the delicacies they had never seen before.
"These... were all sent to me by Madam?" Xizhi wasn't sure either. This fish sashimi alone must have cost at least ten taels of silver, right? Although she often saw it at the Yong'an Marquis's residence, she had never eaten it before and never even dared to think about it.
The errand runner replied with a smile, "That's right, Miss Xie specifically instructed that it's for you, Granny Xizhi."
"How could I possibly handle so much by myself?" Granny Xizhi was stunned. Just as she was about to ask how much money it cost, she heard Granny Pei's scolding voice coming from outside, which dispersed the maids and old women who were watching the commotion.
Xizhi knew that Pei's mother, Li Huixian, must have come.
As expected, Li Huixian, supported by her nanny, stood angrily at the door. Her eyes almost bled when she saw the dishes on the table. She had eaten and seen the Yongyi Earl's Mansion when it was at its peak. If her husband hadn't died young and her uncle Pei Heng hadn't disappeared on the battlefield, the Earl's Mansion wouldn't have fallen to such a state, with even the concubine's daughter-in-law being so lawless!
"The food has been delivered; we'll come to pick up the plates later." The errand boy bowed respectfully to Li Huixian and Granny Xizhi.
Li Huixian was furious. When did this lame old servant become worthy of standing in front of her?
Lianxiang, the old woman beside her, understood what she meant and stopped the errand boy, asking, "Bring me the bill. Is my young mistress charging the Yongyi Earl's Mansion?"
The errand runner handed over the receipt and replied with a smile, "So Miss Xie is the young mistress of the Earl's mansion. This is her transaction record; it's already settled."
"Is it settled?" Granny Lianxiang took the receipt and presented it to Li Huixian.
Li Huixian's brows nearly shot up when she saw the amount of silver on the table—forty taels of silver! Not just forty taels, but a lame old servant worthy of a forty-tael feast! His life would only cost a hundred copper coins! Whose money was Xie Yushu spending? Wasn't it the thousand taels of silver he had extorted from her and Shilin?
The errand runner smiled and said goodbye without offering any explanation.
Li Huixian was furious and had nowhere to vent her anger, so she ordered her men to smash the whole table of food! She was determined to bring Xie Yushu down with her!
Granny Xizhi couldn't stop them. Watching several burly old women rush in and overturn the table, she felt both heartbroken at the wasted food and sorry for Miss Yushu. If it weren't for her family's support, how dare the Pei family dare to bully Miss Yushu like this! Only four days into their marriage, how were they going to endure the rest of their days…?
"This is the Earl's mansion. You old servant, remember who's in charge!" Granny Lianxiang said, then helped Li Huixian leave the courtyard.
Li Huixian was still indignant. She showed the receipt to Pei Shilin and told him to take good care of Xie Yushu's money and dowry, saying that she was no good daughter-in-law.
Pei Shilin knew perfectly well that the money was given by Song Jie, a full two thousand taels of silver.
He could hardly imagine what Xie Yushu had done for Song Jie at the Prime Minister's residence last night—it was worth two thousand taels!
Was Xie Yushu alone at Fanlou?
He couldn't wait a moment longer, so he ordered a carriage to be prepared. He would personally go to Fanlou to fetch Xie Yushu back; she had to come back immediately.
But to everyone's surprise, the manager of Fanlou said that Xie Yushu had already left.
Despite the stares of everyone, Pei Shilin couldn't bring himself to ask: "Did she come alone? Were there any other men with her?"
What will others think of him if he asks that question?
He turned and left Fanlou, looking at the bustling street, suppressing his anger. Where could Xie Yushu be? The Yong'an Marquis's Mansion didn't welcome her back, so she couldn't possibly have gone to the Prime Minister's Mansion again, could she?
※
"Congratulations, host, you have gained 1 point of cuckold value and 1 point of heartthrob value." The system's voice came suddenly.
Xie Yushu was picking men in the labor market in East Alley, never expecting that his "green hat value" and "popularity value" would increase. He glanced at the task interface and saw that Pei Shilin's value had increased the most. He was too lazy to investigate what was wrong with Pei Shilin and focused on selecting men.
She offered a price far exceeding the market rate, so the brokerage owner brought over his best men, introducing them to her as all trained martial artists, some of whom had worked as bodyguards and were more than capable of protecting her home.
Having money is great; tall, strong men lined up for her to choose from.
Xie Yushu selected two strong men who were skilled in martial arts and signed a one-year employment contract with them. Their task was simple: to act as her bodyguards and, incidentally, to drive her carriage.
She just bought a carriage, so she won't have to rely on the Pei family's carriages for transportation anymore, which will be much more convenient.
Just as she was about to leave, someone gently tugged at the hem of her skirt.
She looked down and saw a very thin person huddled in the corner at her feet. The person was filthy and swarming with mosquitoes and flies. The hair was tangled and covered the face, making it impossible to see the person's features. All she could see was that the rope binding the person's feet was rotting inside the flesh.
"Madam, be careful." Jin Ye quickly protected her, pulled up her skirt, and whispered, "There are many beggars and child sellers here. They will surround you and ask you for money when they see you are so generous."
The two burly men she had just hired also separated the beggars who surrounded her and tried to protect her as she left.
This feature has appeared before, when she was facing Pei Shilin, Song Jie and others.
The system explained to her that not everyone can accumulate "charm" and "cuckold" points, just like the two burly bodyguards she just hired, Wang An and Zhao Feng, because they had no role in the original storyline and were not romanceable.
In other words, the person lying on the ground who is about to die has an important role in the original drama?
She didn't remember there being such a character or such a plot point in the script.
"Because you, as a substitute female supporting character, would not normally encounter him," the system explained. "But now that you have increased your popularity, important characters will be attracted to you and approach you, increasing the chances of you meeting them."
So that's how the "charm value" is used! She only has a few points and she can already encounter important characters. What would she be like if she had 1 million charm points?
Xie Yushu squatted down, wanting to see if the person was male or female, and what they looked like.
An old man immediately came over and said, "Madam, would you like to buy him? This is my son. His family is so poor that they are starving to death. You can buy him to be a servant or a stable boy. All you need is a little food. It only costs one hundred copper coins."
"You're ripping us off for a hundred copper coins!" Jin Ye immediately said, "Your son looks like he's about to die, and our lady will have to pay for his medicine after buying it!"
“That’s right, that’s right,” Silver Sprout chimed in. “I only spent fifty copper coins to buy it.”
Xie Yushu felt terrible. The original drama was supposed to be a satisfying one, but it was only satisfying for the male and female leads. The female supporting character, Xie Yushu's biological mother, Qiao Bao'er, was sold into the Yong'an Marquis's mansion for only three hundred copper coins, less than one tael of silver.
A person's life is not even as valuable as a dish at Fanlou Restaurant.
She glanced again at the dying man; his trembling fingers were trying to pull at her skirt, as if he were making a weak plea for help.
Xie Yushu eventually had Jin Ye give the old man one hundred copper coins, and then had Wang Anxian take him to see a doctor. He only took Zhao Feng with him and rode back to the Pei residence in a new carriage.
She had barely left the labor market when three muscular, tall men grabbed the old man who was selling his son, and secretly took him onto a cargo ship and threw him into the hold.
Inside the cargo hold sat an injured man, shirtless, changing his bandages.
"General, the old man says the person has already been bought." The three men bowed and said, "The buyer is Madam Pei from the Earl of Yongyi's mansion."
"Young Madam Pei?" The injured man looked up, his face obscured in the dim light. He asked, "Pei Shilin is married?"
His subordinate replied that the wedding had just taken place a few days ago.
He sneered, "How filial! My life hangs in the balance, and my good nephew is on his wedding night." He lowered his head and cleaned away the rotten flesh on his chest, enduring the pain as he reapplied the ointment. After a moment of consolidation, he said, "Keep an eye on the Earl of Yongyi's mansion and make sure he's alive."
Once his injuries had healed, he personally went to the mansion to kidnap people.
※
Thunder rumbled outside again; it had been sunny in the morning, but turned cloudy in the afternoon.
When Xie Yushu returned to the mansion, Granny Xizhi had already cleaned up the messy room.
If it weren't for the errand boy from Fanlou coming to collect the plates and bowls, only to find a pile of broken plates, Granny Xizhi would have planned to keep the matter a secret.
Xie Yushu was genuinely angry for the first time since transmigrating. She was angry that the Pei family mother and son had gone too far in wasting food, and she was also angry that Granny Xizhi actually wanted to tolerate it.
Let her endure it? Absolutely not!
Xie Yushu sat in the bridal chamber and instructed Jin Ye and Yin Ya to pack up all of Pei Shilin's belongings and send them to his study.
She gave the deliveryman from Fanlou a tip, but not the money for the broken plates. She told him to ask the Pei family for the money, and whoever broke the plates should pay for it.
Seeing that she was angry, Granny Xizhi felt sad and knelt down, leaning on the table, to admit her mistake.
Helpless, Xie Yushu tried to help her up, but she grabbed his hand and burst into tears.
“Miss Yushu, how could this old servant not know you've been wronged? But… but please listen to this old servant's advice: without the old lady, there will be no one in the Yong'an Marquis's mansion to stand up for you.” Xizhi was in tears: “If that heartless mother and son of the Pei family find something to hold against you and divorce you, you… you'll have nowhere to go…”
She couldn't continue, but Xie Yushu understood that Xizhi was holding back her anger for her sake.
Why did Xie Yushu, despite being tormented like that in the original drama, not dare to rebel against Pei Shilin? Because the Yong'an Marquis's mansion would neither support her nor take her in after her divorce.
If she were divorced, she would have no choice but to return to her mother's home, which would undoubtedly plunge her back into the mire. She would have to bear the stigma of being divorced for being unfaithful, and be pointed at and gossiped about. Moreover, neither she nor her mother had any means of making a living.
"To be blunt, once you're married, how can you avoid being tormented by your mother-in-law? Miss, please bear with it and stop wasting money. Save it carefully so you can plan for the future." Xizhi also felt frustrated, not knowing what to do when she thought about her young lady having to spend her whole life in such a place.
"Get up first." Xie Yushu pulled her up, and seeing how much she was crying, he sighed and said, "The more you endure, the more you gain. Haven't I endured enough in the past? Did everyone bully me because I wasn't tolerant enough? No, it's because they thought I was easy to bully, but now I'm not easy to bully anymore."
She wiped away Xizhi's tears, "Now I'm going to be my own support, and you should be the ones who are most loyal to me. You have to believe in me."
Xizhi nodded repeatedly: "This old servant believes Miss, but..."
"No buts." Xie Yushu interrupted her. "Just you wait and see. At the latest tonight, no one in the Pei family will have an easy time."
She glanced at the gloomy sky. Was Song Jie about to have another attack? Those who have tasted the sweetness of success find it harder to endure the pain.
※
"Prime Minister!" Cang Shu rushed into the bedroom, kicked away the incense burner, snatched the red-hot pine wood from Song Jie's hand, grabbed his hand, and was horrified to see the bloody mess in his charred palm. "Your hand... doesn't it hurt?"
Song Jie seemed oblivious to the pain of the burns on his palms; his lips were cold and purple, and the bone crevices were both painful and itchy from the cold invading them, as if a hundred ants were gnawing at them.
Cangshu skillfully treated the burns on his palms, his brows furrowed and his heart aching. He was a beggar boy rescued by Song Jie, and from the day he followed Song Jie, he had watched the young Song Jie suffer from this poison. Every summer, the poison would flare up, and each flare-up would last at least seven days.
It's so painful. The old Song Jie could at least find some relief by relying on Miss Jia Ning...
Panpan whimpered by the bedside, as if it understood that Song Jie was in pain.
Cangshu tried to pry open his mouth to force the medicine in, but when he did, he found that Song Jie's mouth was full of blood from biting his lip in pain. "Young Master."
His eyes were bloodshot as he addressed Song Jie as before: "Please invite Miss Xie here. Even if you treat Miss Xie as Miss Jia Ning for the time being, you'll feel a little better, won't you?"
He didn't know which name made Song Jie open his eyes. His eyes became misty from the cold, as if covered with a layer of frost. His bleeding hand moved slightly. It was too cold, so cold that he missed the fiery cheek in his palm last night...
※
As darkness fell, Pei Shilin dragged his weary body back home. He had been busy all day dealing with his younger brother's affairs, and as soon as he stepped inside, he received a bill from Fanlou demanding compensation for the broken plates.
Since it was his mother who smashed the plate, he had no choice but to pay compensation.
Unexpectedly, when I entered the study, I saw that all my clothes and bedding had been thrown onto the side couch.
Li Huixian angrily followed behind him, cursing Xie Yushu, saying that there was no woman in the world who would drive away her husband! She must have set her sights on that high-ranking official Song again; her heart has wandered...
Pei Shilin was already annoyed, and hearing this only fueled his anger. He shouted angrily, "Enough!"
Why send a newlywed wife to serve another man? Isn't it just to save her good-for-nothing son?
This was the first time Li Huixian had been scolded like this by her son. She was both shocked and angry. She shouldn't have married Xie Yushu, a concubine's daughter. If Xie Jianing were still alive, Shilin would have married the real daughter of a marquis long ago. Would he have needed to beg for help everywhere to save Shibin? It would have been just a matter of a word from Xie Jianing!
She gritted her teeth and endured the pain, taking the tea from Lianxiang and handing it to her son herself. She asked cautiously, "How is it? That family still won't budge? Are they determined to sue Shibin? Shibin has been locked up for almost a month now. When will he be released? I don't know how much suffering Shibin has endured in prison..."
Pei Shilin, holding his aching forehead, hated his mother for being so foolish as to spoil his younger brother: "That person only had one son, and he was driven to his death by your son. And now you still feel sorry for your son suffering so little?"
“It wasn’t Shibin who killed him, it was his son who owed money…” Li Huixian wanted to defend her son, but Granny Lianxiang gently tugged at her sleeve, signaling her not to continue.
She had no choice but to swallow her anger and ask, "Has Prime Minister Song said anything? Didn't he promise to help? Should we send someone to ask him...?"
Before she could finish speaking, she was silenced by Pei Shilin's icy glare.
Li Huixian was even angrier and couldn't help but say, "We've already sent Xie Yushu to the Prime Minister's residence. How can Prime Minister Song go back on his word? Are we just going to swallow this bitter pill?"
"Isn't this embarrassing enough?" Pei Shilin slammed his hand on the table, his face turning green, about to vent his anger.
The gatekeeper rushed in from outside, saying, "The Prime Minister's carriage has stopped at the back gate again, and that servant named Cangshu has come again, saying he wants to invite the Madam to come over..."
Pei Shilin could no longer hold back. He stood up and rushed out like a god of war.
Li Huixian couldn't stop him and was so frightened that she chased after him.
Pei Shilin rushed out the back door and said directly to the servant Cang Shu outside, "Go back to the Prime Minister's residence and tell Song Jie! Don't push your luck! Xie Yushu is my newlywed wife!"
Cang Shu's cold face showed no emotion; he simply raised his hand and tossed a cloth bag to Pei Shilin's feet.
The cloth bag opened, and a set of blood-stained clothes and a clump of black hair fell out.
Pei Shilin's mind went blank for a moment. He heard his mother scream behind him, followed by her terrified cries: "It's Shibin's clothes... What happened to Shibin? What did they do to Shibin!"
Amidst the weeping, Cang Shu said to the pale-faced Pei Shilin, "Young Master Pei, our Prime Minister only invited Madam Pei to the mansion for a chat. You'd better not misunderstand."
A note from the author:
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I'm giving out red envelopes today too~ Hehe, I love reading your comments [shy]
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