Jiang Mingyi glanced at his mother. "A few days ago, the princess asked me for jewelry. If you had given me the money to buy some on the spot instead of just grabbing a hairpin from the storeroom and asking me to give it to her, this whole mess wouldn't have happened. From today onwards, Su's dowry is off-limits! Especially, it cannot be sent to the princess's residence!"
He paused before explaining, "Of the five thousand taels I took, two thousand were intended for the princess to buy her a brand new set of jewelry, as she was probably really angry today. The other three thousand taels were for finding that assassin organization called the Nine Dark Gate. The Su family's residence is protected by the Xuan King's guards, so if we don't spend this much money, we simply can't get rid of them!"
Lady Yong'an reluctantly agreed, "Remember, you absolutely cannot fail again!"
As long as Su is eliminated, she can spend the dowry she left in the Jiang family however she wants.
The biggest mistake was that she never expected the Su family to come to the capital! And they even dared to make a scene in public, which really made her chest ache with anger!
...
As expected, the Yong'an Marquis's mansion became the laughing stock of the capital city's residents from the very next day onward.
In particular, Xiao Youran incorporated the scene of the mother and daughter being beaten after coming to demand their money into the children's drama "The Execution of Chen Shimei," once again putting the Jiang family and the Qingping Princess's mansion in the spotlight.
For several days in a row, the lively atmosphere in the Jiang residence became a popular topic of conversation among the people.
Meanwhile, Xiao Youran sent a guard to keep an eye on Jiang Mingyi, while she herself went to several well-known silver shops in the capital city. After looking around, no one knew what she said to the shopkeeper.
A few days later, Jiang Mingyi, trying to please her, placed a set of ruby jewelry he had specially bought in front of Princess Qingping. "My lady, calm down. Look at this set of jewelry, isn't it much more precious than that phoenix-eye hairpin?"
Princess Qingping swept her headdress to the ground and yelled, "Is this your ex-wife's dowry again? Your Jiang family's behavior is truly disgusting!! How dare you bring your ex-wife's dowry in front of me, what were you thinking?! Now not only has your Jiang family lost face, but my face has also been trampled into the mud!"
Jiang Mingyi picked up the item, annoyed, and said firmly, "Absolutely not! I bought this from that Fu Yin shop for over five thousand taels of silver! It's still warm, my wife. Mother knows she was wrong. This money came from her own savings, saying she wanted me to buy you a nice set of jewelry to apologize. Don't be angry!"
Princess Qingping felt a little better after hearing him say "I know I was wrong" and "apologize" over and over again. She then let him insert the hairpin into her hair and huffed, "Don't let anything that makes me lose face like this happen again!"
Jiang Mingyi nodded immediately, “Wife! Jiang Quan is not coming back! The guards that Prince Xuan sent to the county princess’s mansion are quite formidable. I’ve been searching for people from the Nine Dark Sect to take action against these past two days, and this… I’m afraid it will cost quite a bit of money…”
Princess Qingping was even angrier upon hearing this, "You've come here to ask me for money?! You said you'd do it cleanly and decisively, leaving no room for future trouble!"
Jiang Mingyi quickly coaxed, "Princess, my title of Commandant of the Imperial Household hasn't been issued yet, and my salary hasn't arrived either, has it? The people of the Nine Dark Gates aren't easy to bribe; it definitely won't be possible to get them without three thousand taels of silver! Good wife, just lift a finger, and once we get rid of that mother and daughter, all this trouble will be gone!"
The princess could only grunt unhappily, indicating her agreement.
Meanwhile, Madam Gao was informing Lady Yong'an about the new play, "The Execution of Chen Shimei," saying, "Mother, this must have been done by that vile woman, Su! Now the whole capital knows that our Jiang family is keeping the dowry of our divorced wife and not returning it!"
Lady Yong'an was so angry that she pounded her chest.
The youngest daughter, Jiang Mingwei, snorted, "If you ask me, Second Sister-in-law's dowry is hers, so she should be allowed to take it! Mother, you can keep it and not return it, but you won't allow others to say anything?"
Lady Yong'an was even angrier and reached out to hit her, "You traitor! If you hadn't ruined your sister-in-law's plan to divorce that slut last time, we wouldn't be in this mess today!"
Jiang Mingwei jumped up, "Mother, since childhood, Grandfather has taught us to be upright and honest! You used such despicable means just to frame my second sister-in-law and force her to leave the family? Even if you succeeded in framing her, you can still take her dowry with you!"
Gao's lips twitched as she listened. Wasn't this her mother-in-law's idea for her second uncle? Did she think she wanted to harm people?
In this day and age, reputation is of paramount importance. To frame Su Shi is tantamount to taking her life! If it weren't for her mother-in-law's promise to secure a high-ranking official position in the capital for her husband if she were to marry into the Princess's household, she wouldn't want to be involved in any murder.
Fortunately, although the conspiracy failed, Su was a woman of strong character and divorced her second uncle.
That's good, at least we didn't do anything so terrible.
Jiang Mingwei continued rambling on, "Luckily, I stepped in and stopped all of this, otherwise my second sister-in-law would have surely committed suicide to prove her innocence! What was wrong with her coming to ask for her dowry a few days ago? Mother, why didn't you just give it to her?"
Lady Yong'an was so angry she was about to hit her again, "You keep calling me 'Second Sister-in-law,' don't you even respect your Princess Second Sister-in-law anymore?!"
Who was she unwilling to return the dowry for? Wasn't it for the sake of the entire Jiang family, and for Jiang Mingwei's dowry?!
Madam Gao sighed. She knew why her mother-in-law didn't want to return Madam Su's dowry.
Anyone who has seen such immense wealth, and who has it in their own coffers, would be reluctant to return it.
Seeing that her mother was still avoiding the topic of the dowry, Jiang Mingwei said simply, "Mother, I did promise my second sister-in-law that we would arrange a time to deal with it together another day! I don't care, once you've sorted it out, I'll have my second sister-in-law come over to check the list!"
Lady Yong'an threw the cup in her hand away, yelling, "Get out! Are you my daughter?!"
Jiang Mingwei jumped up and down as she ran out, "Of course I'm your daughter! I only advised you to return the dowry to your second sister-in-law for the sake of the Jiang family's reputation..."
"Get out—" was met with a furious shout from Lady Yong'an.
...
After Ye An submitted the memorial, the court quickly established a "Court Fundraising Office" under the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue. Notices were promptly posted to raise funds widely, historically known as the "First National Bond of the Sixteenth Year of Shunqing," which pioneered the national bond fundraising in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Kyoto was the first place to start raising funds. When the powerful and wealthy merchants saw that the imperial court was guaranteeing the funds and that they could earn two percent interest a year, they thought that with the current famine and rising grain prices, their money would become less and less valuable, or that there would be a large influx of refugees and if a peasant uprising broke out, they would not be able to protect their wealth. So they decided to deposit their money in the imperial funds, just like depositing it in a money shop.
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