By mid-June, Pang Kunbai's robbery finally came to an end.

Originally, Pang Yulou wanted to say a few good words for her nephew, but because of Duan, she and Wang Yingxue were accused of instigation. Wang Xu would naturally not admit that Wang Yingxue was involved in this matter. The daughter-in-law was the one who was wrong. Her daughter was just deceived. She wanted to divorce Pang Yulou. Wang Zhishao brought his two sons, Wang Tan and Wang Shan, to kneel in front of Wang Xu's house to plead for his wife. Only then did Wang Xu change her mind and let Pang Yulou set the rules in front of her. Pang Yulou did not dare to say a word. She served her mother-in-law diligently every day, hoping that this storm would pass as soon as possible. She did not dare to mention Pang Kunbai at all.

Dou Shiying was furious.

He threw a copy of "Nu Ji" to Wang Yingxue and asked her to copy it in the room. She could leave the room only when she finished copying a thousand copies. Then he handed over the affairs of the inner house to Gaosheng's daughter-in-law, depriving Wang Yingxue of her housekeeper's rights in disguise, and chose a date to send Wang Yingxue back to her hometown in Zhending to be under the control of the second wife.

Wang Xu was horrified.

Wang Yingxue has no children, which is a source of worry for her.

If Wang Yingxue was sent back to Zhending, given her age, she would never be able to have a son in her lifetime!

She personally pleaded with Dou Shiying.

Dou Shiying remained unmoved and showed unprecedented toughness.

Wang Xu had no choice but to ask Dou Shishu for help.

Dou Shishu smiled and said, "This is my seventh brother's family affair. As a brother, it is not appropriate for me to interfere." But he hinted to Wang Xu, "Don't mention me. Even if Shou Gu pleaded for my seventh brother's wife, saying that as long as the Pang family paid 20,000 taels of silver, I would not pay any attention..."

Wang Xu's eyes lit up. After returning home, she forced the Pang family to pay Dou Zhao 20,000 taels of silver.

Where can the Pang family get such a large sum of money?

Wang Xu sneered: "Then take your daughter back. Our family can't afford such a wasteful thing!"

Pang Yulou was so angry that he sent his personal steward to persuade his three brothers: "As long as we have the green mountains, we will never be short of firewood. Without the big tree of the Wang family, we will not be able to keep any more money."

Pang Jinlou urged his father: "Of course, our ancestral property cannot be sold. My second brother's wine shop, teahouse, and my third brother's bank and pawnshop are worth at least 20,000 taels of silver. If that's not enough, use our grocery store as collateral and borrow more money. With the grocery store, those banks will dare to lend us money, and we will have the capital to make a comeback."

The grocery store is Pang Jinlou's business.

Pang's father nodded continuously, and regardless of whether Pang Yinlou and Pang Xilou agreed or not, he directly asked someone to buy it out, and collected 20,000 taels of silver, which he sent to Xidou.

Pang Yinlou and Pang Xilou kicked the door of Pang Jinlou's house and chased him to beat him.

Pang Jixiu's wife, Chen, was watching the show with a giggle, sitting on the side with her elbows folded.

Pang Jixiu was furious and yelled at Chen: "You dare not help to separate the second and third uncles! If anything happens to my father, I will divorce you immediately."

Chen was not afraid at all.

Pang Jixiu would not be happy unless he told his wife twice every day that he wanted to divorce her.

She dragged Pang Jixiu's clothes back to the house.

"For what Pang Kunbai did, the Dou family showed mercy by not beating him to death. You still want me to help you fight? You wish." Chen said disdainfully, and called the maid to pack up the boxes. "You and I will go back to my parents' home for a few days and come back after this matter is settled."

Pang Jixiu turned away in anger.

However, Chen grabbed the back of his collar and dragged him from the door to the middle of the main room.

"I'm talking to you seriously, you have to listen to me!" Chen's face was stern, and her big eyes like copper bells were ferocious. "Come back to my parents' home with me immediately and stay for a few days. My mother hasn't seen you for a while, and she said she misses her son-in-law very much."

You can't beat them, and they don't care if you scold them.

Pang Jixiu stomped his feet.

Chen giggled and held Pang Jixiu's hand and walked out of the room.

Pang Yinlou’s wife was lying on her back in the front yard, “Pang Jinlou, you bastard, you instigated dad to sell our shop. What can we use to pay for Kunbai’s medical treatment? Poor Kunbai, he’s like a living dead…”

Pang Jixiu became anxious and pointed at Pang Yinlou's wife and said to Chen: "Look!"

"What's there to see?" Chen walked out without looking back. "If he's dead, then he's dead. People like him are just wasting food and cloth and taking up space!"

Pang Jixiu was so angry that he was speechless.

Chen raised her hand and stuffed him into the carriage.

Her maid jumped onto the carriage, whipped it, and the carriage rumbled out of the Pang family.

Dou Zhao naturally didn't want Wang Yingxue to come back.

Out of sight, out of mind!

She asked Suxin to tell the Pang family, "This twenty thousand taels of silver is compensation to us. If you want me to speak well of her in front of my father, ask them to bring another five thousand taels of silver."

The Pang family complained bitterly but dared not refuse, so they borrowed five thousand taels of silver from the moneylender and sent it over.

Dou Zhao wrote a letter to his father. He said that if there was no mistress in the inner house, people would gossip about it. Since the Gaosheng family was in charge of Zhongfu now, he should keep Wang Yingxue by his side and let her spend less time with relatives in the future. Besides, he really didn't want to live under the same roof with Wang Yingxue.

However, Dou Shiying was determined to leave Wang Yingxue out in the cold. He agreed to leave her in Kyoto, but suggested that Dou Ming return to Zhending and be disciplined by Dou Zhao.

Dou Zhao refused.

Dou Shiying sent the person back directly.

The ten-year-old Dou Ming had delicate features and a slender figure, and she had already revealed a hint of tenderness, like a willow in the wind. But at this moment, her snow-white face was tightly drawn, and there seemed to be a fire burning in her big almond-shaped eyes, like a rose with thorns instead of a daffodil blooming by the water.

"Don't think I like you coming back," Dou Zhao said lightly while sitting on the armchair in the main hall. "If you want to blame someone, just blame the Pang family. There's no need to get angry at me." Then she pointed in the direction of Qixia Courtyard and said, "You will live in the west courtyard in the future. I will assign Du Ning to you. You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't intrude into my main courtyard or disturb Aunt Cui in the east courtyard." After that, she stood up and said, "Let's go. I'll take you to pay respects to Aunt Cui!"

Her sister's cold eyes, calm demeanor, and her absolute confidence that everything in the world was under control made Dou Ming feel like she was back in her childhood. She did not dare to act rashly, but she also felt a gnawing hatred in her heart.

"What right do you have to order me around?" She couldn't help but scream with her fists clenched, and said without thinking, "She's just a concubine, don't even think about me paying my respects to a concubine!"

Dou Zhao stood still, looking at her coldly without saying a word.

A woman dressed as a nanny hurried forward and covered Dou Ming's mouth: "Miss Fourth, please don't be offended. Miss Fifth is just angry. No, she is not angry with you, she is angry with the old man..." Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

Dou Zhao recognized her.

In her previous life, she was the housekeeper that Wang Xu found for Dou Ming after he went to Kyoto. Her surname was Zhou, and she had a somewhat indirect relationship with the Xu family. She was very loyal to Dou Ming and managed Dou Ming's affairs in his house very well.

I didn't expect to meet you again in this life.

She smiled and said to Dou Ming who was struggling in Nanny Zhou's arms: "Don't bring disgrace upon yourself. This time, I will only punish you to kneel in the flower hall for half an hour. If it happens again, I will make you kneel in the courtyard of the North Building Ancestral Hall for two hours. If you don't believe me, just try it!"

Dou Ming glared at her.

Dou Zhao ordered Madam Zhou: "Let her go. This is not the palace of the emperor. This is the Dou family. There are great aunts above and nieces below. If I don't teach her a lesson, she will only ruin her reputation and make herself ignored by everyone by being so aggressive."

Nanny Zhou nodded repeatedly.

Dou Zhao heard her whisper to Dou Ming, "A good man never suffers a loss in front of him," and slowly loosened her hand.

Dou Ming indeed stopped talking.

Dou Zhao and she went to live with their grandmother.

They were all her granddaughters. The grandmother was very happy to see Dou Ming. She held her hand and kept asking her if she had eaten well and slept well on the journey. She also asked Hong Gu to move all the delicious food in the house for Dou Ming to eat.

Dou Ming didn't like the Dou family at all, and she looked down on her grandmother's food. But when she saw Dou Zhao standing beside her with a smile but a look of fear in his eyes, she reluctantly tried to please her grandmother.

Grandmother sighed inwardly as she watched. After letting Dou Ming go back to rest, she said to Dou Zhao, "Your father sent her back probably because he didn't want Wang to raise her in a wrong way. As her elder sister, you have to take more responsibility for some things." She also advised her, "You may be sisters in this life, but not in the next. This is also your fate."

Dou Zhao really wanted to say that she and Dou Ming had been sisters for two lifetimes...but she didn't want to worry her grandmother, so she responded respectfully.

Grandmother smiled and hugged Dou Zhao, saying, "I knew our Shougu was a generous and sensible child!"

"She thinks so too." Dou Zhao said.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so polite when she spoke just now.

As the thought flashed through her mind, she burst into laughter and her mood suddenly improved.

After returning to the house, Dou Zhao called all the housekeepers to the flower hall and redistributed the personnel in the house.

The servants in the stove, the laundry room, the stable, the carriage house, and even the night watch were all divided into three groups: the people in the east wing served Aunt Cui, the people in the main courtyard served her, and the people in the west wing served Dou Ming. Gao Xing managed the people in the east wing and the main courtyard, and Madam Zhou managed the west wing. The expenses of the public palace were also divided in this way.

Nanny Zhou was very surprised and called out "Fourth Miss" hesitantly, but Dou Ming interrupted her and said, "You are the one my grandmother gave me, so why should you be so unworthy?" Then he said to Dou Zhao, "You are very knowledgeable!"

No one has ever dared to talk to Dou Zhao like this.

All the maids in the room lowered their heads in fear, and for a moment you could hear a pin drop in the house.

Dou Zhao picked up the teacup and gently brushed the tea leaves floating on the cup with the lid. The jade bracelet on his hand jingled, like a drum beating on people's hearts. The atmosphere was depressing and heavy.

"Dou Ming, does your knee hurt?" Dou Zhao asked her softly, "Can you kneel for another half an hour?"

A hint of ferocity flashed across Dou Ming's face.

After paying her respects to her grandmother, Dou Zhao ordered her to kneel in the flower hall as punishment. She did not take it seriously, but was forcibly dragged into the flower hall by a maidservant beside Dou Zhao. She knelt for half an hour, and her knees still hurt.

"Dou Ming," Dou Zhao said, "I treat you as my sister and let the maids in my house treat you as a lady, but if you don't respect this respect, I can also treat you as a stranger, and the maids in my house don't have to respect you anymore."

Dou Ming glanced at Su Xin behind Dou Zhao and became silent.