Chapter 115 The Qi-Liang Border (Twenty-Seven) A wife has her responsibilities. ...
Si Rou's outburst caught everyone off guard, and they couldn't help but look at each other in bewilderment. Only Enoki remained calm, sitting in her chair as Si Rou shook and pounded her, her body just an empty shell, as if she had lost her soul.
Xu Bai couldn't hold back any longer and stood up, pulling Si Rou away. "What do you mean by that?"
Si Rou glared at Enoki with tearful eyes, "Ask your mother! Ask her, see if she has the face to talk to you!"
The implication was clear: his mother was having an affair with his elder brother. Xu Bai understood, but could only remain silent, stealing glances at Enoki.
An unusual silence fell over the room. The sun shone in at an angle, and Xu Yun lay motionless on the ground like a stone statue. His pale blue face shone with a radiant glow, but everyone was secretly pondering and speculating.
After a while, Yu Qi walked over to Xu Bai and Si Rou and said, "If we're talking about the person in the Qi family who values face the most, it has to be you, Mrs. Qi. You're afraid that the affair between Second Aunt and Qi Xuyun will be exposed, so you want to kill Chen Zifang and Fan Yi to silence them, right?"
Upon hearing this, both Xu Bai and Man Bao showed expressions of astonishment, while Si Rou and Enoki remained unchanged, as if they had not heard anything. One remained as still as a wooden sculpture, while the other's face was filled with hatred.
In the silence, Yu Qi chuckled lightly again, "Mrs. Qi, if you keep pretending to be stupid now, you probably won't be able to get away with it. You'd better tell the truth."
After being called repeatedly, Si Rou finally came to her senses, wiped away her tears, and said coldly, "What are you saying? I don't understand what you're saying."
Yu Qi glanced down at Xu Yun's corpse. "Hearing you ask this, I'm a little confused. Did you kill him for your son or just to save face?"
As he spoke, he turned his gaze back to Si Rou's face, smiling as he strolled around the hall. "Let me guess, I think you committed this crime mostly for your own sake. You were born into an official family in the capital, and from a young age you were taught that reputation and honor are more important than life. For you, the reputation of the Qi family as a scholarly family is more important than anything else. So when I refused to marry into your Qi family, I hurt your pride, and you held a grudge against me. That's why you invited me to Si Shi Xuan that day. Actually, you had already come up with a plan to frame me then."
Si Rou glanced at him sideways, "I don't understand what you're talking about."
"Since you don't understand, let me say a few more words. Anyway, it's just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt."
Si Rou was speechless. Yu Qi continued, "The day after the fire at Si Shi Xuan, the servants dug up Chen Zifang's body. You were indeed quite frightened at the time. Of course, a young lady who has never even killed a chicken would be scared if she suddenly killed someone. However, you are a resilient and tenacious woman, and you quickly recovered. But you chose to continue to pretend to be crazy so that you could avoid our questioning. However, today you let it slip to Yu'er because you were in a hurry."
Xu Bai glanced at Si Rou, then walked up to Jiu Li and asked, "What happened?"
"When we went to Madam's room at noon, don't you remember what Madam said to me?" Jiuli turned to the side and looked at Sirou across from her. "Madam said that we didn't need to visit her every day. That's strange. How come Madam's memory suddenly became so good? She just remembers that my uncle and I visit her every day?"
At that time, Xu Bai was only focused on finding out where Xu Yun was and didn't pay attention to what Si Rou was saying. Now, hearing what Jiu Li said, it was indeed strange. Besides, she had always said that she didn't like strangers coming and going in her house, which must have been her intention to stay away from Yu Qi and the others' investigation.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Si Rou turned to the side, glanced at them, and said frankly, "My memory is sometimes good and sometimes bad, what does that prove?"
Jiuli smiled and said, "This certainly doesn't count as much evidence, but what if there are witnesses?"
"What witness?!"
Jiuli turned her gaze to Enoki's face on the chair, her voice softening considerably, "Second Aunt, what you said to me this afternoon, I originally thought you wanted to exonerate Brother Qi, but I just realized that you actually wanted to take the blame for Madam, didn't you? You must have already sensed something, you've long suspected Madam, but you are a concubine, always under the control of the principal wife, you've been afraid of her for decades, so you dared not report her."
When Enoki heard the question, she slowly raised her head, her eyes darting around the hall, unable to find a place to settle, before lowering them back to the ground. She then slowly shook her head with a smile and said, "I'm not lying to you. I killed the person. Why don't you believe me, you silly girl?"
For some reason, these words seemed to pierce Xu Bai's heart, causing him a sudden pain. He looked at her, still hesitating, when Jiu Li had already gone around to her side.
"You're lying! You can't even say what the murder weapon was that killed Chen Zifang!"
“I already told you, the murder weapon was something I picked up casually in Sishixuan. Since Sishixuan burned down, the murder weapon was naturally destroyed as well.”
Jiuli chuckled softly, "The murder weapon couldn't possibly have been burned, because it was a bag of silver, which was hidden in a box under Madam's bed."
Si Rou, standing nearby, jolted and blurted out, "No way! That's not true!"
"Who said there isn't!" a resounding voice suddenly interrupted from outside the door.
Everyone looked over and saw Zhang Da carrying a bundle in. He threw it on the table and, while untying it, said to everyone, "This is silver that was confiscated from Madam Qi's room. Each ingot is ten taels, and there are sixteen ingots in total. There is bloodstain in the hole of each ingot."
Yu Qi walked over, picked up the silver, and examined it. Then Jiu Li walked over, pulled out the fine hairpin from her hair, and scraped some out to test it. When Si Rou saw the bloodstains on the handkerchief, she panicked, her eyes darting around. Her mouth moved, but she couldn't utter a word for a long time.
At that moment, Enoki suddenly knelt on the ground with a thud, "I killed him! I killed him by burying him in silver!"
Xu Bai frowned and pulled her back. "Madam's chest for storing silver is always locked. How could you possibly have taken her silver?"
Enoki stared blankly, unable to find the words to respond.
Yu Qi suddenly exclaimed, "Mrs. Qi, Chen Zifang also tried to extort money from you, didn't she?!"
Si Rou was jolted by the drink. She slowly glanced around, her gaze blank for a moment, before nodding slightly and chuckling. "A servant who dares to bully me deserves to die. I have no regrets about killing him. How dare a servant try to extort money from his master?" She glanced at Enoki with a disdainful smile. "I'm not a concubine, I'm a mistress! How can I allow a servant to ride roughshod over me!"
It turned out that Chen Zifang had first extorted a sum of money from Enoki, which was then squandered in a few days. He then began to scheme to extort money from Sirou. Firstly, Sirou had more personal savings than Enoki. Secondly, Sirou was a person who cared a lot about her reputation, so he thought she wouldn't dare to refuse.
So that day, he came to Sirou and told her about Xuyun and Enoki's affair, demanding two hundred taels of silver, or he would expose the matter.
Si Rou was shocked and doubtful when she heard this. It took her a while to find her voice. "You dare to make up something like this? I think you don't want to live!"
Even so, his voice trembled as he spoke, and he couldn't help but believe it himself. Perhaps this lackey wasn't making it up; thinking back over the years, there were indeed clues to follow.
"If Madam doesn't believe me, I'll go and get the talisman paper from Baiyun Temple for you to see. Also, a few days ago, when I went to the yamen to deliver clothes to the master, I told his son that the master had gone to Nantou Mountain. I was quite puzzled; what was our master doing going to Nantou Mountain without anyone with him? So I went to Nantou Mountain. Do you remember those two thatched huts at the foot of the mountain, Madam? I saw the master there, and I also saw our second concubine—"
He chuckled furtively, "Although I couldn't hear what they were saying or doing while I was hiding outside, think about it, if it were something perfectly legitimate, why would they go to such a deserted place, without anyone by their side? If you think there's nothing between them, you're probably not afraid of what others might say, since you're innocent and have nothing to hide."
Si Rou sat on the couch and shivered. This was terrible! If this kind of shameful thing got out, the spittle would probably drown the entire Qi family!
Although the family is not as good as before, the reputation of a scholarly family is still there. Since the passing of her elder husband, she has been the only one who has managed the family for so many years. Although Enoki helps her with some housework, she is still a concubine and does not have the responsibility of the family's rise and fall. Unlike her, even if the current respectability is just an empty shell, she still has to maintain this glamorous facade.
She had no choice but to agree, but she was afraid that giving him two hundred taels of silver out of the blue would arouse suspicion among the people in the room. She was also extremely flustered and couldn't even find a reasonable excuse for it, so she said, "Wait for me at Sishixuan when it gets dark, and I will bring you the silver."
After dinner, Si Rou dismissed the maids, dragged out a trunk to count the silver, spread a gray satin cloth on the bed, picked up the silver ingots one by one, closed the trunk and pushed it back under the bed, then sat on the bed and became lost in thought.
The last rays of the setting sun danced on her face, the cold golden light forcing tears to well up in her eyes. How could a wife's life be so difficult? In her youth, even without her husband's love, she had to maintain a dignified and magnanimous demeanor, treating Enoki differently from others. Even if Enoki made a grave mistake, she couldn't scold or beat her, otherwise it would be considered jealousy. After her husband's death, she had to manage everything for him and their son, even worrying about his marriage. Yet, even a doctor looked down on the Qi family.
As darkness fell, she took advantage of the maid's sleep and quietly slipped out of the second gate with the silver. Walking along, gazing at the pale moon, she thought, "Women like Enoki, who become concubines, have their own advantages that Enoki can't match. They can be weak and incompetent, shameless, spending their lives seeking a man's favor. If their husbands are pleased, even after their husbands die, they can still win the favor of other men."
But this man is her son! Her husband betrayed her, and her son betrayed her too! Yet she still has to find a way to protect them. This is her lifelong responsibility and her sense of dignity.
With these myriad thoughts in mind, she walked to the Four Seasons Pavilion. By the moonlight, she saw that Chen Zifang had arrived early. Perhaps he had been waiting for a while, for he was dozing off on the table.
She walked over and smelled the strong odor of alcohol on him. Suddenly, she thought, "How can someone who drinks so often be trusted? Who knows what might happen if he gets drunk and says something he shouldn't? Not only will her son's reputation be ruined, but the entire Qi family will collapse."
In a flash, she raised her purse and resolutely smashed it down on the back of Chen Zifang's head!
Once she started, killing people didn't seem so scary anymore. Later, she killed Fan Yi and Tian Qing.
"I only wanted to kill Fan Yi, but Tian Qing ended up sharing a room with him." Si Rou tilted her head back, her face smiling in the sunset.
Yu Qi walked up to her and asked, "How did you know that Fan Yi also knew about this?"
“It’s the eldest mistress.” Si Rou turned to look at Man Bao. “She withdrew one hundred taels of silver from the official account. Wang Mama told me, and I was very surprised. Then I remembered that Chen Zifang said that he only found out about the affair between the second mistress and Xu Yun because of the wishing charm that the second mistress hung at Baiyun Temple. I then thought, our eldest mistress has always been frugal, so how could she suddenly have such a large expense when the Taoist priest from Baiyun Temple came to our house?”
“I was just suspicious at first, but then Wang Mama came back from outside that day and chatted with me. She said that in the afternoon she saw two of you following Fan Yi into a money exchange. She was also curious, so after your people left, she went in to ask a few questions and found out that Fan Yi had exchanged two hundred taels of silver at the money exchange. After thinking about it, I understood. Fan Yi must have known that too, and that's why he took the opportunity to extort two hundred taels of silver from our eldest mistress.”
Manbao replied blankly, "Every time I asked him for two hundred taels, I didn't have that much, so I had to borrow one hundred taels from the government office to make up the difference. But I was afraid that if other Taoist priests saw this cash and asked him about it, wouldn't that cause more trouble? So I specially asked my maid to go to the bank to deposit it and exchange it for banknotes for him."
Yu Qi asked Si Rou, "Then how did you poison the two Taoist priests?"
“There were two loose bricks in the guest room they were staying in. I pried them off. I split a bamboo pole in half, stuck it through the hole, aimed one end at the spout of the teapot, and poured the oleander sap from that end into the teapot.”
She looked at Xu Yun on the ground with a half-smile, half-sigh, "No one knows this house better than me, every brick, every tile, every blade of grass, and every tree. But I don't really understand my own son. There are so many women in the world, why do I like her so much!"
With that shout, she lunged at Enoki, yelling, "You seduced him! My son has read so many sage books, how could he do such a shameless thing! It was you, you took advantage of your remaining charm, seducing him when he was young and impulsive, and knew nothing about love between men and women! I've never wronged you, I've been good to you! I didn't hold it against you for stealing my husband, and now you've come to ruin my son!"
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Author's note: Thank you for reading.
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