Chapter 479 The Palace Maid Wants to Retire (5)
The day after Qingxing was asked to go to Hongmei Garden to find the pomegranate tree, the eldest daughter Li Minghui asked for leave, saying that she was sick and could not come to class. Wen Shichu knew it very well. It must be that the marquis's wife discovered the affair between her daughter and Zhou Shaowen, and in order to avoid complications, she made Li Minghui "sick".
But these had nothing to do with Wen Shichu. She asked Qingxing to discover the scandal personally because she had already done her best because the people in the Marquis' Mansion were nice to her. She couldn't help with anything else.
Li Mingxiu and Li Mingan had no idea what had happened to their eldest sister. They were still lively and clever. In class, they were only concerned with competing with Wen Shichu in wits and courage. They wanted to be lazy and looked carefree. They had no idea that their reputation and even their future marital happiness were almost ruined by their eldest sister.
A few days later, Wen Shichu was summoned by the marquis's wife.
The marquis's wife sent all the servants away and only let Qingxing stay.
"Aunt Wen, I asked you to come here to thank you, because it was because of your reminder that Minghui did not make a big mistake. It can be said that all the girls in our Li family, whether married or unmarried, are grateful for your help and keeping their mouth shut." The Marquis's wife spoke directly and frankly.
She now looked haggard and tired, obviously because she worried a lot about her eldest daughter's affairs. However, she was still amiable and did not use her status and power to force Wen Shichu to shut up about her family's scandal. Instead, she sincerely expressed her gratitude with gifts.
"Qingxing, take out all the things I want to give to Aunt Wen." The Marquis's wife ordered Qingxing.
"Yes." Qing Xing answered, and then took out an exquisite and gorgeous treasure chest. As soon as Qing Xing opened it, a dazzling light immediately burst out from inside. When Wen Shichu took a look, he couldn't help but be amazed by the box full of jewels.
"These are just small gifts, not a token of respect." Madam Hou pushed the treasure chest in front of Wen Shichu and said with a wry smile, "Aunt, please don't refuse. I know that you are a person of high moral character, prudent and reserved, and will not tell anyone about the scandal of my disappointing daughter. So these gifts are not hush money, but simply a token of gratitude to you. If you don't accept them, I will be very worried."
Since she said so, could Wen Shichu still refute it? Even if it was for the sake of Mrs. Hou's heart, she should accept these things. After all, although Mrs. Hou said that these were not hush money, for a wealthy family, what they said might be different from what they thought. These gifts, even if they were thank-you gifts, were hush money.
So Wen Shichu was very tactful: "Thank you very much for your generosity, Madam. Don't worry, Madam, I don't know anything. Every day, apart from teaching the young ladies, I plant flowers and plants in my yard. I don't even go out of the yard, so I am very closed to the outside world."
After hearing what she said, the Marquis' wife felt a lot more relieved. She had thought about killing Wen Shichu to silence him in order to prevent her daughter's scandal from being exposed, but she was not a cruel person after all. Moreover, the other person had reminded her with good intentions. Should she be ungrateful?
So after discussing with her husband, the Marquis's wife decided to give him a generous gift as a reward and to keep him silent. Wen Shichu turned out to be a smart and sensible man just as she expected. Moreover, as someone who came out of the palace, he understood the importance of being cautious in what he said and did and of pretending to be deaf and dumb.
Wen Shichu thus received a treasure chest. She took it back to her own small courtyard, opened it, and took a good look at the gift sent by the marquis's wife.
This treasure chest contains not only valuable jewels, but also a land deed and several silver bills of large denominations.
The title deed turned out to be for a hot spring resort outside Beijing. Hot spring resorts were such rare treasures that they were out of stock nowadays. There were countless dignitaries in Beijing who wanted to get one, but unfortunately almost no one would trade it. But the Marquis's wife actually gave it to Wen Shichu so easily!
This is a huge expense. Although this hot spring villa is not big and its location is remote, it is worth a fortune. The Marquis's wife gave her this villa as a thank-you gift, which shows that she is really grateful to Wen Shichu.
Of course, no matter how valuable this farm is, to the Wuyang Marquis' family, it is not as valuable as the reputation and future of their own female members. So the Marquis's wife probably understood this and generously gave it to Wen Shichu.
In addition to the title deed to the hot spring manor, those large-denomination silver bills added up to a total of 20,000 taels of silver. Wen Shichu was once again amazed at the generosity of Mrs. Hou. It was obvious that their family cared about their daughter very much. He hoped that Li Minghui could understand the painstaking efforts of her parents.
In addition to the land deeds and silver bills, those jewels were also valuable, but Wen Shichu's own companion space had collected countless more precious and rare jewels of the highest quality, so she didn't feel too much about them and just put them aside, planning to take them out and wear them from time to time.
During the holidays, Wen Shichu immediately went to the hot spring villa given to her by the Marquis's wife. She planned to inspect it first to see if there was anything that needed to be renovated. After all, she planned to come here to soak in the hot springs in the winter and have a good time, so it couldn't be built too casually.
When Wen Shichu arrived at the manor, she found that the situation was much better than she had imagined. Perhaps the Wuyang Marquis' family had used this hot spring manor before, so everything was well maintained. There were several pools where the hot springs were located, and it was obvious that the whole family could come and take a bath.
Wen Shichu remodeled the villa according to the design scale of a modern hot spring villa, drew up the blueprints, and hired people to renovate the villa.
The transformation could not be rushed, so she left enough silver to the manager of the manor and rode down the mountain along the road.
Her hot spring manor was a bit remote, so she was the only one going down the mountain. The horse walked slowly down, and the sound of horse hooves made the forest even quieter. There were not even a few birds singing. Wen Shichu couldn't help but feel that a group of bandits might emerge from the mountains at any time...
Maybe she was a jinx, and good things don't work, but bad things do. Just when she was thinking about the bandits, there were actually other horse hoof sounds coming from not far away. Those horses were galloping, and the hoof sounds were getting closer and closer, and appeared in front of Wen Shichu almost in the blink of an eye.
There was only one way up and down the mountain, so Wen Shichu and the visitor met head-on. Because the visitor's horse ran too fast, he almost hit her. Fortunately, the man who came on horseback was an excellent rider. At the moment when the horse was about to hit Wen Shichu, the man pulled the reins of his horse, causing the horse to neigh and raise its hooves, and stop in front of Wen Shichu.
Wen Shichu looked expressionlessly at the tall man on horseback in front of him. He wanted to kick him off his horse. This guy was charging recklessly. Wasn't he afraid of hurting someone? Did he think that he could do whatever he wanted just because this place was remote?
This is the only chapter for tonight. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
