Chapter 11 Chapter 11 "I am indeed a noble son, eating noodles...
Everyone comes to oppose her!
The eldest young lady was filled with hatred.
She knew that the Third and Fourth Households would only speak in sarcastic terms, so she turned to the old lady and said, "Mother, you really can't just ignore it. The master has been in prison for two days and one night. Jingzhao Prison is where the most vicious criminals are kept. The master is in danger every day he's in there. I don't care, but since the master calls you mother, you can't just stand by and watch him die!"
The eldest young lady simply threw a tantrum and acted like a spoiled brat.
The old lady was helpless. She could only stamp her feet and say, "Okay, okay, I promise you, when the Duke comes back, I, an old woman, will shamelessly ask for your help one more time, okay?"
The eldest young lady's wife was delighted: "Thank you, mother!"
The Third and Fourth Masters didn't even bat an eyelid when they heard what the old lady said, each of them seemed to be thinking about something.
The Third Young Master's wife couldn't help but look at the Fourth Master and his wife, and couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips and chuckle.
The fourth young master's wife kept her head down as usual, seeming to be very timid and frightened.
The eldest young lady's wife gave the old lady some advice: "Mother, you are the Duke's legitimate mother. As long as you insist that the Duke release the person, the Duke will not dare to refuse. If he refuses, it would be disrespectful..."
"The Duke is back!"
When the eldest young lady heard the servant's report, she was so startled that she almost bit her tongue.
Everyone looked outside the hall and saw the Duke, dressed in a purple court robe, walking straight and tall from the middle door.
...
"What, he really came back?"
Jasmine rolled off the bed when she heard Shancha's words. She had told the eldest young lady that the Duke would be back at noon, but that was just a lie to get out of the situation.
In the end, the person really came back.
"Quick, put on my makeup and comb my hair."
She didn't have much time left. She had to get herself ready before the master came in.
But what was unexpected was that after Jasmine dressed herself up, she sat in the room for most of the hour but no one came.
Jasmine realized belatedly that this guy might be in trouble.
...As soon as the Duke entered the living room, the old lady came to greet him and grabbed his arm. The old lady looked as if she was unable to speak, yet she couldn't help but say:
"Erlang, I don't mean to embarrass you. I really have no other choice. Considering how much I've worked for this family for half my life, please help me and rescue your brother, okay?"
When the Duke heard this, he wanted to pull his hand back, but the old lady held it tightly. If he used more force, he was afraid he would hurt the old lady.
The Duke had no choice but to say, "Mother, please don't mention this matter again. His Majesty has long ago ordered court officials not to enter brothels and gambling dens, but my eldest brother has refused to change despite repeated warnings. If we release him today, we would be slapping His Majesty in the face."
These two sentences made the old lady look embarrassed. She glanced at the eldest young lady's wife and said to the Duke, "It seems that this is indeed inappropriate. Then, Your Majesty, how long will he be imprisoned?"
The Duke knew that if he didn't explain things clearly today, he would have a headache.
Since the matter wasn't confidential, the Duke said, "Your Majesty's point is that anyone who frequents such filthy places must have more serious problems. We won't release them until Your Majesty has thoroughly investigated the matter."
"What?!"
The Third Master, who had been to the casino quite often and had just escaped this disaster by luck, jumped up from his chair in shock.
Everyone thought that His Majesty simply disliked officials going to entertainment venues, and that he would arrest and beat them up, with the maximum punishment being dismissal or two years in prison.
But if your majesty's purpose is not limited to this, then the matter is serious. People may die. If the crime is more serious, then the lives of the entire family will be in danger!
The entire Duke's Mansion was thrown into panic.
The Third Master ran up to the Duke and asked, "Will there be any problem with my eldest brother?"
The Duke: "We are still investigating, so we don't know yet."
The Fourth Master asked, "Second Brother, do you know which official is in charge of this case?"
The Duke: "Minister of Personnel Yin Wei."
Hearing this, everyone looked at the Fourth Master.
The Fourth Master served as the Right Vice Minister in the Ministry of Personnel.
The Fourth Master also stood up, his expression a mixture of realization and fear. "No wonder, no wonder when I went to work this morning, the Minister let me rest without saying a word."
The Third Young Master's wife murmured, "I heard that Minister Yin is a ruthless and impartial man. His Majesty sent him because he has no intention of leaving anyone alive."
The old lady looked at the Fourth Master, not daring to speak. But she gripped the Duke's arm even harder, her face brighter than before. "Erlang, is there something wrong with our Duke's Mansion?"
At this moment, everyone was looking at the Duke.
The Duke spoke frankly: "His Majesty dislikes collective punishment. Since it is my eldest brother who has committed a crime, as long as it is found to be not related to the Duke's Mansion, the Duke's Mansion will be fine."
Except for the eldest young lady, everyone else, including the old lady, visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
"What do you mean?"
The eldest young lady looked at the faces in front of her in disbelief, and without caring about her image, she shouted, "It was your Duke's Mansion that begged me to marry you!"
The eldest young lady pointed at the old lady and said, "Mother said that the Duke's Mansion will not be divided, and that the family will help and look after each other in the future. Over the years, all my dowry has been subsidized to the Duke's Mansion. Now that the master is in trouble, you family want to clear yourself of it. What's your reason?"
The Duke disliked the eldest young lady's shrewish behavior and said coldly, "Yan Bo made the mistake online. Even if he is exiled or beheaded, it is what he deserves."
In this Duke's Mansion, the eldest young lady is only afraid of two people, one is the old Duke who has been dead for more than ten years, and the other is the young Duke in front of her.
The father and son are exactly alike. To be exact, the young Duke is even more pedantic and difficult to communicate with than his father.
The Duke stood there, still imposing and intimidating. The eldest young lady's wife was already stunned by the shock, when she heard the Duke say, "My sister-in-law's dowry went to subsidize the Duke's Mansion? What does that mean?"
These words made everyone present look unhappy.
The eldest young lady's wife came to her senses. She knew that if the master really died, not only would she be finished, but her two children would be left without anyone to take care of them, and she would probably also be branded as the son of a treacherous minister.
I'm afraid the lives of both mother and son are over.
The eldest young lady's wife made up her mind and said to the Duke, "That's right, I remember every penny. The old lady said that she needed to repair the mansion and took it from me. When the old Duke was seriously ill that year, the old lady also said that she wanted to buy him a thousand-year-old ginseng to prolong his life. I paid for it. The third master lost money gambling and came to me to borrow money."
Seeing the eldest young lady throwing mud at the third house, the third young lady's wife immediately retorted, "You're talking nonsense! I paid you back the money I borrowed from you that time."
The eldest young master's wife looked at the third young master's wife with amusement: "Which time was that?"
The eldest young mistress turned to look at the Third Master again. "I remember the Third Master asked me to borrow money more than once. Two months ago, the Third Master lost again in gambling and was afraid that the Duke would find out when he returned, so he came to me. Did the Third Master admit it?"
The Third Master was speechless with an embarrassed look on his face. The Third Young Master's wife gritted her teeth and glared at the back of the Third Master's head, but of course she couldn't say anything either.
This is clearly true.
The Fourth Master said, "Dad is seriously ill and needs ginseng to stay alive. I remember everyone praised my eldest sister-in-law for being filial to my father. What does my eldest sister-in-law mean now?"
The eldest young lady's wife said: "That's a thousand-year-old ginseng! Even if you have a fortune, you may not be able to buy it. It's because the old lady came to me crying so hard many times that I couldn't bear it, so I asked my parents for it."
There are some things that the eldest young lady doesn't want to say. Who knows how many times she has been looked down upon by her brothers, sisters-in-law and younger sisters-in-law because of that ginseng.
The eldest young lady's wife stared at the old lady and said, "In the past ten years, Mother has taken money from me twice just to renovate the Duke's Mansion. And then there are things like gifts for others, and every birthday celebration for Mother, all of which I paid for!"
The eldest young lady looked at the Duke and said, "If you don't believe me, I'll bring you the account book and you'll know everything! It clearly shows the time, place, person, and purpose of everything."
The Duke was shocked. If the eldest young lady hadn't said it in front of everyone, and his brothers and the old lady hadn't refuted it, he definitely wouldn't have believed it.
Now, he knew the eldest young lady's wife was probably telling the truth. The Duke asked the old lady, "Mother, the Duke's Mansion isn't wealthy, so they wouldn't have to borrow money even for renovations. What's going on?"
The old lady leaned against Madam Qian and said weakly, "I don't know that the Duke is not at home. Ever since your father passed away, the Duke's Mansion has lost its backbone. You brothers haven't divided the family property, and such a large Duke's Mansion requires money everywhere. I have no choice but to do this. But I thought that in half a year, when the Duke gets married and there is extra money in the mansion, I will pay her back."
Madam Qian said, "Please forgive me, my Lord. The old lady did ask the eldest young lady for money, but none of it went to our lady. She had no choice but to do this for the sake of the Duke's Mansion. My Lord, please don't misunderstand the old lady."
The Duke nodded with a heavy heart. He said to the eldest young lady's wife, "Sister-in-law, please confirm how much money the Duke's Mansion has spent on you over the years. I will return it all to you."
The eldest young lady's wife: "You can't pay it back!"
The Duke: "Sister-in-law, please tell me what you want."
...
"...Then the eldest young lady mentioned a number. The Duke thought she was joking, so she asked Cuizhu to fetch her account book. The Duke even had the chief accountant verify a few items on the spot and found that they all matched. The Duke said he would give her a year and would definitely pay her back after a year. The eldest young lady was not happy about it and said that the money didn't need to be paid back. They were all family. As long as they could find a way to rescue the master, she would burn the book and write off everything. What do you think the Duke said?"
Jasmine didn't even have to think: "Should Master say that we should keep things separate, or should he let the eldest young lady go directly to Jingzhao Prefecture to sue him?"
Shancha was surprised. "You guessed right! That's what the Duke said. If the eldest young lady doesn't want to wait, she should go to Jingzhao Prefecture and let the prefect of Jingzhao make a judgment for her. The old lady and the third and fourth masters panicked when they heard this, saying that we are all family and there is no need for that. The Duke then said that the property of the Duke's Mansion should be sold off. The old lady and the others reacted even more strongly. I wonder if the Duke has escaped yet."
Jasmine glanced at the clepsydra and saw it was already past 5:00 PM. The Duke must have skipped lunch.
As soon as she knew he was back, Jasmine asked someone to serve the meal. It became cold in a short while, so Jasmine took it to the small kitchen to heat it up.
Afraid that the Duke would be disappointed by the sight of the steamed yellow vegetable leaves, Jasmine saw that the Duke was about to return, so she asked someone to cook a bowl of refreshing noodles.
When the noodles were delivered, the Duke just came back.
Jasmine knew he must be very upset at the moment, so she was very well behaved. With a slight smile on her face, she held the bowl of noodles in front of the master, said nothing, and looked at him with a gentle and considerate expression.
The Duke had forgotten that he had not had lunch. When he saw a bowl of noodles with green cabbage and a large, fragrant pork trotter, he finally felt hungry.
Take the bowl of noodles and start eating.
Although the Duke is a warrior, he is the eldest son of the Duke's Mansion after all. The rules he followed since childhood have made him develop the habit of being dignified and elegant when eating.
Jasmine propped up her chin and silently watched the man in front of her eat noodles. She sighed in her heart, "It turns out that someone can chew a pig's trotter so elegantly."
The most important thing is that the Duke ate it very cleanly and very quickly. In a blink of an eye, the bowl was empty, leaving only a pile of shiny meat and bones on the table.
The Duke put down his chopsticks, looked up, and saw his aunt looking at him with gentle eyes.
The Duke asked, "What's wrong?" Jasmine praised him, "You are indeed a noble son. You can even eat noodles so elegantly."
The Duke disliked flattery, but this was his concubine, and more importantly, she was speaking with such seriousness that the Duke's face inevitably twitched.
The Duke discovered that his concubine was looking at him with her head tilted and winking at him.
The Duke sighed, "Do you know what happened in the guest hall today?"
Jasmine was confused and wondered what he meant.
Then the Duke continued, "I didn't realize that the eldest young lady had subsidized the Duke's Mansion with one million taels over the past ten years. The national treasury's disaster relief in the past two years was only one million taels. This money must be returned to my sister-in-law."
Jasmine knew that this master thought she was curious about the living room. But she really wasn't, so how could she dare to ask.
Didn't she just want to make him happy?
Can this be misunderstood?
Afraid that the master would misunderstand her as a nosy person in the future, Jasmine quickly waved her hands and said, "Master, you misunderstood. I saw that you were in a bad mood and wanted to tease you, not to meddle in your affairs."
The Duke nodded: "It's okay." Then he talked about what happened in the guest hall.
Jasmine was in a complicated mood. She really wanted to hear it. Who doesn't love gossip? But she was a concubine after all, and a concubine had to do her duty. She knew that she should cover her ears to things she shouldn't know.
Jasmine thought to herself, it was you who insisted on saying this, so it’s not her fault.
After figuring out that the responsibility wasn't hers, Jasmine naturally pricked up her ears.
The Duke told what happened in the guest hall and also expressed his own troubles.
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