Chapter 49 Xue's Counterattack
After the Zhu family left, Qin Zhi also stood up to say goodbye. Mother Zhao was still waiting for her in the West Market with the dairy sheep.
Mrs. Song was now extremely grateful to Qin Zhi, and sincerely invited Qin Zhi to stay for a meal. Qin Zhi declined because she missed her family. Mrs. Song saw that she was really busy, so she stuffed a purse into her hand, saying that it was a reward for her to make cakes at her home, and she couldn't refuse it, and then she told Madam Sun to prepare a carriage to send Qin Zhi home in person.
Mother Sun and Qin Zhi went to the West Market together first, brought back the dairy sheep, and then personally sent Qin Zhi back to Shitou Village.
At the Zhu Mansion, Zhu Mingyang was thrown into the Zhu family ancestral hall by Xue and forced to kneel. Outside the hall, there were two old women with great martial arts skills guarding it.
Xue took Zhu Mingyue back to her Wangyue Tower and asked someone to invite Doctor Zhao from Jihetang. Doctor Zhao prescribed some medicine for Zhu Mingyue to recuperate, and Zhu Mingyue fell asleep after drinking it.
Xue had a capable man under his command named Cao Ce, who was extremely intelligent and good at planning, but he was loyal to the Xue family.
Xue ordered Cao Ce to secretly investigate the incident of Zhu Mingyue falling into the water. Cao Ce took the order and left.
The maid from Wangyue Tower came over to report: "Madam, Madam Li from Songheyuan is here. The old lady asked you to go to her Songheyuan to discuss the matter of the young lady falling into the water."
Xue directly sent the maid away and asked her to ask Mama Li to tell the old lady not to rush and to wait until Zhu Mingyue recovered before going.
When Mrs. Zhu heard what Mrs. Li said, she was so angry that she smashed all the cups on the table.
Old Madam Zhu personally brought the guards from the mansion to the ancestral hall and tried to take Zhu Mingyang away by force. However, the two gatekeepers did not even let them in and knocked down all the guards in a few moves.
Old Mrs. Zhu was so angry that she felt dizzy. After returning to Songheyuan, she immediately ordered the maid to call Xue to take care of her.
When Xue heard this, she was so angry that she laughed. She told the maid to keep a good look after Zhu Mingyue and took her people to Songheyuan.
In Songhe Courtyard, Bai was helping Old Lady Zhu drink medicine with a distressed look on her face, muttering, "I'm not framing my sister-in-law, she's just too unreasonable, she ignored my mother when she sent someone to call her over, she really doesn't care about my mother at all."
The old lady sighed, "Who said it wasn't true? I am her mother-in-law after all. I asked her to come over to take care of her illness but she refused. How could the eldest son marry such a thing?"
"Old lady, be careful with what you say," Xue came in and continued, "Old lady, you are just a second wife, you have to behave like a concubine in front of my mother-in-law's tablet. Since she is a concubine, how can a legitimate daughter-in-law take care of a concubine? If it gets out, people will say that my Zhu family has a weak family tradition and let a concubine climb over our heads."
"You," Mrs. Zhu was so angry that her chest hurt. Xue, the bitch, kept calling her a concubine. This was an eternal pain in Mrs. Zhu's heart. Mrs. Zhu was originally a concubine of the old master. She was promoted to the second wife after the original wife passed away. However, the old master never abolished her slave status.
"Old lady, please stop spreading the rumor that your eldest daughter-in-law came back from the capital to take care of you. You know why I came back. I turned a blind eye to many things. But you should never target my sister Yue. Don't forget that the old man had already handed your indenture contract to your husband before he left." After saying this, Xue strode away.
Old Mrs. Zhu was so angry that her teeth were bared, and Mrs. Bai was so angry that her veins were popping out.
Two days later, Cao Ce had found the eyewitness who witnessed Zhu Mingyue falling into the water.
The witness was the wife of a wealthy businessman. She just happened to meet her childhood sweetheart by the lake. The two chatted for a few words beside the reed marsh and then encountered Zhu Mingyang pushing Zhu Mingyue into the lake. Fearing that they would be exposed, the two sneaked away from the other side.
"Madam, I have already made arrangements for that lady, and she is willing to come out to testify." Cao Ce said.
"You did a good job. Tomorrow I will go to the county government to sue Zhu Mingyang for murder." Xue was actually quite heartbroken. She had fed such a vicious and ungrateful person for so many years.
The next day, Xue took Zhu Mingyang to court. Based on the testimony of eyewitnesses and irrefutable evidence, Zhu Mingyang was convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
It was not until this time that Zhu Mingyang realized that Xue was really taking revenge on her, instead of just scolding her a few words when she did something wrong as she had done before.
Zhu Mingyang knelt down and begged for mercy, asking Xue to let her go, she knew she was wrong.
Xue just looked at her coldly and asked her to go to jail to repent.
Bai and Mr. Zhu came to beg her, but she ignored them.
Xue took good care of Zhu Mingyue every day. Fortunately, after Zhu Mingyue's recovery, her complexion became better and better, and she was in good spirits.
In addition to taking care of her daughter, Xue also assigned a capable maidservant to sell off the property in Qingzhou Prefecture as soon as possible.
Most of these were her own dowry. When the Zhu family was declining, she married into the family with a grand wedding dress and contributed a lot of her dowry to maintain the daily expenses of the Zhu family.
A small part of it was the dowry of her mother-in-law Gao, but it had been transferred to her husband's name. It was the output of the shops and fields in the dowry that made Yuan, the second wife, live a prosperous life.
I just treated the old ones as food for the dogs, and now I am selling them all. I will not come back unless something serious happens.
The maids around Xue were all brought from the capital, and within a few days, all the shops and land were sold. The price was not too high, fortunately there was no loss.
As for the current house of Zhu Mansion, the title deed is in the name of my husband, and I hold it in my hands, so I won't sell it for the time being. If their second branch continues to commit suicide, it's no wonder they are so cruel.
The Zhu family was originally a poor merchant family, with very few land and shops. Bai's husband, Mr. Zhu, had no business sense at all. He spent his days walking his bird and playing with crickets, or hanging out in brothels. Without the subsidy from Xue's dowry, they were bound to be unable to make ends meet. But this was what Xue was happy to see.
After dealing with these properties, Xue visited the Song family and the Qin Zhi family successively with generous gifts, the former to apologize and the latter to express his gratitude.
After finishing all this, Xue returned to Beijing with her daughter and servants in a grand procession.
It was a few days later that Mrs. Zhu learned that Xue had dealt with the property here. Mrs. Zhu was so angry that she almost broke her teeth. Although those properties were not hers, she had used them for so many years and had naturally wanted to take them for herself. Suddenly, all of them were dealt with. Isn't this digging out her heart?
Before long, rumors started spreading outside.
Mrs. Zhu, who was only a concubine at the time, drugged the original wife, causing her death, and then designed to let the old man take her as his second wife. Fortunately, the old man was thoughtful and gave the second wife's indenture to the original wife's son for safekeeping.
The rumors in the town were all about the evil step-wife's retribution. The rumors became more and more intense, and the old lady was so angry that she wanted to go out and confront the man, but now that they were being spread everywhere, who could she confront?