Chapter 134
The furniture and utensils in the Third Madam's room were smashed to pieces by Yun Kai. When the Third Madam saw him enter the yard, she started to smash things ferociously without saying anything. She quickly asked the maid to fetch the old lady, and without caring about the mess on the ground, she threw herself on the ground and cried loudly.
"How did I offend you that you ignored me as your stepmother and came in shouting and calling for violence? Master, please open your eyes and see how your good son bullied me after you passed away."
"Don't mention my father to me." Yun Kai shouted angrily, "None of you in Mengding Prefecture are worthy of mentioning him."
"Bah." The Third Wife jumped up, hands on her hips, and cursed, "Don't think I'm afraid of you just because you're a chieftain. Even though I'm a concubine, I'm still in the Han family tree. I gave birth to a child for the Han family, and after the master passed away, I lived a quiet and obedient life as a widow. My love for the master is known to the sun and the moon. He's my man, so why shouldn't I mention him?"
Yun Kai disdained to argue with her. He glared at her with murderous eyes and said, "Before, you only brought some money and rice to your impoverished mother's family. We in the Yunxiang Mansion can afford to support your useless family, so we didn't bother to bother with you. But you dared to betray us and colluded with your mother's family to harm my father. You are completely devoid of conscience. You are a bunch of ungrateful wolves in the Mengding Mansion. Every one of you will die."
The Third Wife's blood boiled with rage. She picked up a broken vase from the ground and threw it at Yun Kai. "Bullshit! If you don't like me, just send me to keep the Sixth Wife company, or give me some medicine and let me go keep the Master company. You can't even catch the Master's murderer, but you're trying to pin the blame on me. You're such a filial son!"
Yun Kai tilted his head to avoid the broken bottle and sneered, "I forgot to tell you, the murderer who killed my father has been found. It was my second uncle. He personally confessed that it was your nephew Pu Jiang who gave him the poison. It was also your nephew Pu Jiang who bribed the servants in the kitchen of the Yunkan Tusi Mansion to let him poison him."
Upon hearing this, the Third Madam froze all over and looked at Yun Kai in disbelief, muttering, "Impossible, impossible..." Her eyes went dark and she passed out.
Yueming and the third young lady came over supporting the old lady. The third young lady saw her mother lying in the mess, not knowing whether she was dead or alive, so she rushed over to shake her.
The old lady looked at the mess in the room and asked with a headache, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?"
Yueming probably guessed something and kept his mouth shut.
Yun Kai ignored them and ordered coldly: "Get some well water to wake her up. I still have something to ask her."
The old lady and the third young lady gasped when they heard this. The third young lady desperately protected the third wife and called for the old lady to help.
Feng Xiaosai personally brought a basin of cold water and ordered the servants to pull the third lady away. With a flick of his wrist, he poured the entire basin of water on the third lady's head.
The third wife slowly regained consciousness. Upon seeing the old lady, she rushed over, hugged her legs, and cried, "Madam, help me! Your son is going to kill someone. The mixed-up choreography says that I conspired with my mother's family to murder the master. How could I do such a thing? You know, the master is my support, my heaven! Now that the master is gone, my heaven has fallen! How could I possibly harm him?"
The old lady's bones went cold and her body was shaking. She asked Yun Kai in a trembling voice: "What is going on?"
Yun Kai didn't know how to explain the matter in a few words. He looked at Feng Xiaosai with impatience. Feng Xiaosai understood and waved his hand to the servants to pull the Third Madam away and pin her to the ground.
"How dare you!" the old lady scolded, "She is the wife of the mansion and the widow of the old master. I will not tolerate you mistreating her like this. Let her go now."
The servants did not move.
The old lady looked at Yun Kai sarcastically: "Master, you are so arrogant! It seems that I have reached the age where I am too old to be annoying. It is time for me to go to the temple to chant scriptures. No one will listen to what I say anymore."
Yueming didn't want to get involved in the affairs of this mother and son, but if things continued to develop like this, someone would definitely die in this house.
She whispered, "Mother, calm down. I know you're angry at the Master for being disrespectful to his elders. This concerns the Old Master, and the Master was indeed too impatient. But since it has come to this, why not let the Master finish what he needs to do and get to the bottom of what he needs to know? If he truly has wronged the Third Old Lady, it won't be too late for you to force him to apologize and kneel before the ancestral tablets."
The old lady glanced at Yueming and said, "You seem to be on the same page with him."
Yueming smiled and said, "I was also thinking about reaching a conclusion on the matter between the old master and the eldest master. The master didn't tell you in detail now because he wanted to finish questioning the third old lady first, and then tell you the whole story."
The old lady tilted her head to look at Yun Kai and said, "Since you're busy, I won't bother you any more. I'll go back to my own courtyard and wait for you to give me an explanation." She then glanced at the Third Wife, who was kneeling on the ground and crying bitterly, and said, "Don't bring disgrace upon the mansion by forcing a confession."
Yun Kai bowed his head and replied, "Don't worry, mother. I won't wrongly accuse an innocent person. Those whose hands are stained with blood will not be able to escape."
When Yueming and the old lady left, they asked the servants to take the crying third young lady away as well.
No matter how Yun Kai asked, the Third Madam insisted that she had not done it and had no knowledge of it.
Yun Kai threw the paper and pen to her: "Since you have a clear conscience, do you dare to write a letter to your nephew and ask him to confront Yun Xiang and Second Uncle?"
The third wife wiped away her tears and said, "What's there to be afraid of? Just write it!" Then she went to get a pen.
Yun Kai held her hand and said coldly, "Then just write that you miss home and ask him to come to Yunxiang to see your aunt, and take some things back to Mengding for you. Don't try to play tricks to give him hints. If you don't want to think about yourself, you have to think about my third sister, right?"
The Third Wife flung her pen aside and said, "Then please ask the Master to write a letter himself. I will copy it and will not add a single word."
The person sent to Mengding to deliver the letter came back soon, but the news he brought back was not good news.
Pu Jiang has been missing for several days, and no one knows where he has gone. His life or death is unknown.
The third wife was put under guard, and she would cling to the window every day to cry out for justice. She cried out to the heavens and begged the old chieftain to intervene for her, otherwise she would have no choice but to follow the old chieftain.
For the next few days, Yunkai did not return to his room and stayed alone in the study.
Feng Xiaosai knelt in the middle of Yueming's courtyard, saying repeatedly, "Master is drinking alone in his study, feeling unhappy. I have the audacity to ask Madam Yueming to go and try to persuade him."
Ai Ye Bang fanned Yue Ming while complaining, "He really thinks he's a worm in the master's belly, making decisions and taking matters into his hands. The master is such a grown man, and he has to worry about it after drinking a few sips of wine." Then he said angrily, "The master doesn't know what he means. He doesn't say anything and doesn't go back to the room. The servants think you two are arguing, and I don't know how much gossip they have made behind your back."
Yueming half-reclining on the couch, eyes closed, said to Ai Ye, "If you heard someone gossiping behind your back, you should have just taken him to Feng Er Butler. Why keep those rumors in your heart and make yourself angry?"
Ai Ye curled her lips and said, "Master has ignored you these past few days. I'll go and deal with those gossipy servants, and there will be more seasoning for the meal. It's better if he doesn't care. Those bad things won't affect our yard, and we can have some peace and quiet!"
Yueming opened her eyes and said, "You just love to talk big. The matter between the old master and the eldest master is no small matter. The person they want to arrest hasn't been caught, and there's no conclusion as to whether the third wife is involved in this matter. The master can't explain himself to the old lady, so how can he care about other things? I know you are speaking up for me, but you must also remember that as long as we are in this mansion, we must be united with the people in it. There are some things we can stand aside from, but there are some things we can't."
The reason the young lady's engagement was broken off was ultimately because the old chieftain and the eldest young master had been harmed, leaving the second young master without support. Breaking off the engagement with the second young master was a thorn in their hearts, and if I continued to say more and upset the young lady, I would be punished.
Ai Ye suppressed his resentment, whispered "yes", and asked, "Then shall we let Feng Xiaosai, the servant, in?"
Yueming looked at the sun that had set halfway down the mountain and said, "Go and tell him to go back and serve the master first. I'll be there soon."
Dusk had already arrived, and the afterglow of the setting sun streamed in through the windows, gilding the study table. It was time to light the lamps, but without Yunkai's order, not even Feng Xiaosai dared to enter, let alone the other servants.
Yunkai was sitting at the table, drinking alone under the dim sky, when he suddenly heard the study door creak. He looked up and saw Yueming coming in.
"Why are you here?" He smiled sadly, his smile full of desolation and vicissitudes.
Yueming saw that although his clothes were clean and tidy, there were dark spots on his chin and cheeks, which showed that he had not shaved for several days.
Looking at the food on the round table that was already covered in white oil, Yueming sighed complainingly and said, "Why don't you eat properly?"
Yun Kai smiled and said, "I don't have much appetite."
Yueming understood that if a breath was stuck in the chest and couldn't be released, what could one swallow?
She walked over, her bare feet making no sound on the wooden floor. She reached Yun Kai's side, cradled his head in her arms, and stroked his temples, saying softly, "I understand how you feel, and I know what you're thinking right now. I feel the same way. Last night, I tossed and turned, thinking, if I had held back and not gotten so upset with the Third Madam, you wouldn't have hit Pu Jiang for me, and that wouldn't have sown the seeds of disaster, and Master and Brother Li Yang wouldn't have lost their lives."
Yunkai's shoulders trembled silently. He hugged Yueming's slender waist tightly. His tears soaked her clothes and seeped into her flesh.
It wasn't that simple. No matter how ruthless Pu Jiang was, he wouldn't kill innocent people just for such a small personal vendetta. He was worried that the Yunxiang Mansion would fully support the legitimate heir to the Mengding Mansion.
This is not a personal vendetta, it's a struggle for power!
But even though he knew what was going on, he couldn't help but wonder if everything would have been different if he hadn't fallen out with Pu Jiang.
He recalled Lan Yingde's scolding of him: "You rely on your status as the second young master of the Yunxiang Mansion to act arrogantly and show no tolerance for others. You must know that there are always people better than you. If you meet someone more arrogant and unreasonable than you in the future, I wonder what you will do?"
At the time, he pretended to say, "I finally understood after listening to my father-in-law's teachings." But he had no remorse in his heart. He felt that as the second young master of a chieftain's mansion, if he softened his stance, he would be a weakling.
The result... happened to my father and brother!
The sun eventually set, and night fell. The moon hadn't risen yet, and the room was completely dark. Yueming stood there, letting him hold her in his arms and grieve silently. Feng Xiaosai's voice echoed outside the door: "Master, Madam, it's time to light the lamps."
Yueming was about to ask him not to disturb her, but Yunkai turned her head and wiped her tears on her clothes. She sniffed and said loudly, "Send someone in to light the lamp!"
Feng Xiaosai responded and then said, "Master, Ai Ye said that Madam Yueming hasn't finished her meal yet. Look..."
"Let's set up the meal. Let's set it up in the study so the kitchen can move faster."
Feng Xiaosai breathed a sigh of relief, God, the master is finally willing to eat.
Maids filed in and quickly set the table. Yunkai took Yueming by the hand and sat down. Seeing that today's meal was rather bland, she couldn't help but ask, "What kind of event is this Feng Xiaosai? How come there isn't even a single dish you like?"
Feng Xiaosai wasn't incompetent; he was incredibly good at it. These past few days, he'd been drinking, eating only sporadically or skipping meals altogether. He wouldn't dare order anything heavy, preferring only light, nourishing dishes.
Yueming was just about to pick up some food with his chopsticks when he heard her words. He choked for a moment and said unhappily, "Which of these dishes don't I like? I've told you eight hundred times that I'm no longer picky about food, but you still pick up a scrap of oil and can't refine it, and you keep bringing it up."
Yun Kai smiled bitterly and said, "I just said I was concerned about you, why did it cause so much complaints from you?"
Yueming scooped a bowl of soup and handed it to him: "The more you talk, the more mistakes you make. You should also report the matter of the Third Old Lady to mother and let her handle it. After all, the Third Old Lady is a member of the inner house, so of course mother has to make the decisions on matters of the inner house."
Yunkai didn't take the soup, but looked at Yueming thoughtfully: "Waiting for me here? Want me to push everything onto mother?"
Yueming placed the soup in front of him. "She is your stepmother, after all, and there's no real evidence to prove she conspired with her family to murder the old man and the eldest master. If you were to make the decision, at best you'd be accused of being unfilial, and at worst you'd be accused of mistreating your stepmother. Of course, matters concerning the elders should be left to the elders to handle, so you don't end up in a difficult position."
After saying that, he pushed the soup bowl in front of Yun Kai and said, "Drink it quickly. After you finish eating, go find your mother. Doing things is like eating. Don't wait until it gets cold."
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