Chapter 189: Getting Punished
When the first wife heard that her son had kidnapped Xiao An, she hurried to the outer living room and released Xiao An without saying anything. She also said that until Xiao An's embezzlement was investigated , he would continue to be the general manager. When Xiao Jun saw this, he knelt there and said:
"Mother, you can't do that. Xiao An is a suspected criminal. How can you entrust him with such an important task?"
"Jun'er is right. It's just that Jun'er hasn't been in the mansion for the past two years. I don't know how difficult it is for me to manage such a large Xiao Mansion. From the old lady, the eldest master, to the young ladies and young masters, which one is worry-free? If it weren't for Xiao An's meticulous care of everything, which saved me from worrying too much, I would have been exhausted to death. Besides, the Xiao Mansion can't be without a manager for a day. Well, I will be the master today and release Xiao An for the time being. I will report this matter to the eldest master myself. Jun'er, stop talking and get up. The ground is cold."
The eldest lady's words made some people happy while others sad. Xiao An and Aunt Liu both showed joy on their faces. They knelt down and kowtowed to thank the eldest lady, then stood aside and looked at Master Xiao who was still kneeling on the ground.
Xiao Jun felt powerless after hearing his mother's words. After all, his mother would not tolerate disobedience. As a son, he could not change the situation his mother had set. He could only delay until the government came to change the situation. His mother abused Xi'er, and he had no way to do anything about it. However, his Xi'er could not be bullied by a greedy servant like this. Xiao An must be punished.
Good boy Xiao Jun, it seemed as if he didn't hear what his mother said, he knelt stubbornly in front of her, not saying a word. Since no amount of words could move his mother, he could only use his body to block her steps.
The eldest wife made light of the case of embezzlement in Yizhuang, making a big deal out of a small matter. Seeing that her son had apologized and Xiao An had been released, she wanted to get up and return to Yangxin Garden, but her son knelt in front of her stubbornly, preventing her from moving. If she didn't move, none of the servants in the hall dared to move.
Looking helplessly at her son kneeling on the ground, the eldest wife suddenly felt a sense of strangeness. For a moment, she even felt that the person in front of her was no longer the Jun'er who was obedient and filial to her in everything.
Seeing her son kneeling on the ground, she understood that this was his silent resistance to her and his dissatisfaction with her handling of the matter, but she could no longer discipline him with coercion as she had done when he was a child.
The eldest wife didn't understand why her son had to pick a fight with Xiao An. Twenty thousand taels of silver was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the huge assets of the Xiao family. Why did he act like an enemy and had to fight to the death?
Although she could not scold her son for his willfulness like she did when he was a child , she could not just give in to him. The eldest wife actually sat there and argued with her son.
The mother and son froze there for a moment, the atmosphere in the hall became more and more solemn, as time passed, an invisible pressure spread from the mother and son, making the servants in the hall sweat coldly. Xiao An's smile froze on his face. He didn't know why the Second Master was so picky about him. It was only 20,000 taels of silver, and it was not something he did alone. The First Wife handled it so vaguely, could it be that the Second Master didn't know the twists and turns here!
As the Second Master knelt for a long time and could not get up, Xiao An's uneasiness grew little by little. He felt that he seemed to be happy too early.
The eldest wife was wondering how to resolve the impasse between her and her son when a servant came running in and said:
"Madam, Second Master, the prefect of Pingyang Prefecture has sent a bailiff here, saying that someone has reported to the authorities that Xiao An embezzled the prefectural treasury funds, and they want to arrest him for questioning. He is waiting outside now."
With a bang, the teacup in the eldest wife's hand fell to the ground, and Xiao An also sat down on the ground. Facing the phoenix eyes full of hatred, Xiao An suddenly felt clear-headed. The Second Master often went to the East Wing these days, and he knew about his abuse of the Second Mistress. He was standing up for the Second Mistress!
At that moment, Xiao An regretted his actions so much that his intestines turned green. Why didn't he think that when he listened to the first wife and abused the second wife, he would be able to turn things around? He didn't even leave a way out for himself.
When Xiao Jun saw this, he looked up and said to his mother:
"Mother is the mistress of a household and it is not convenient for her to see outsiders. The prefect of Pingyang is here, and I beg you to leave."
The eldest wife stood up silently, her body swayed, and she slowly fell down. Baozhu and Ziyue both supported her, and she shouted in panic:
"Madam! Madam!..."
Xiao Jun knelt on the ground and looked at his mother with a pale face.
…
Xiu'er's unusual calmness made Mengxi smell a scent of danger. She even felt that Xiu'er was digging a big hole for her, waiting for her to jump in.
The Second Master began to frequently go in and out of the East Wing. Every time Mengxi met his deep eyes, her heart trembled with fear and she wanted to run away quickly. She intuitively believed that she could not afford to offend such a Second Master and it would be better to get away quickly.
The change in Xiu'er and Erye's attitude quickened Mengxi's pace to leave the house. Although she had not yet seen what the divorce letter she longed for looked like, Mengxi had already begun to clean up the east wing.
At this time, she was directing Zhiqiu and several others to sort the books in the south room into different categories. Li Du wrote to her the day before yesterday, saying that he and Ouyang Di had bought a manor for her near Luding Mountain. As Li Du and Ouyang Di had been arguing about the location of the outer house, Mengxi finally made the decision herself and asked them to look for one near Luding Mountain. After the manor was sorted out, she began to think about moving the things in the east wing there.
Feeling the Second Master's affection, Mengxi didn't want the Xiao family to know her other identity - the owner of Yichun Hall. This was to prevent the Second Master from going to Yichun Hall to make trouble whenever he wanted to see her, even if she left the house. Even if Yichun Hall was more powerful than the Xiao family, she was unwilling to spend a lot of time entangled with the Xiao family. She could do something else with that time.
Thinking of this, she gave up the plan of forcing the Xiao family to divorce by using the power of Yichuntang. Unless it was absolutely necessary, it would be better to be divorced in other ways; but in this case, the Xiao family would not let her move those books out of the Xiao Mansion with great fanfare, even though she spent all her own money on these books.
So she had to resort to the rat-moving method.
As she was packing, Zhidong, who was keeping watch at the door, ran in. As soon as he entered the south room, he said breathlessly without waiting for the Second Mistress to speak:
"Second Madam, Second Master, Second Master has been punished by the eldest master and has been carried back. Please go over and take a look!"
"Don't be anxious, speak slowly, what's going on?"
"I was guarding the door when I saw a few servants carrying the Second Master back to Xiaoxiang Courtyard. I was very curious, so I went up to ask and was told that the eldest master had used family rules. He had just applied medicine to the old lady and it was inconvenient for him to ride in a sedan chair, so he ordered the servants to carry him back. There were too many people, so I didn't dare to ask why the Second Master was punished. However, I found that Miss Xiu was following him, her eyes were swollen from crying."
After hearing this, Mengxi glanced at Zhiqiu, who quickly put down the book in his hand and said:
"Second Madam, please wait in the room. I will go out to ask around and will be back soon."
"Second Madam, you should go first. After all, you are the legal wife. Second Master has been punished by the family. It would be wrong for you not to go and serve him."
After hearing what Zhiqiu said, Zhichun hurriedly spoke up to stop him.
"Since no one is telling us anything now, we might as well pretend to be deaf"
Zhiqiu said without thinking. In her opinion, since the Second Madam had made up her mind to leave the Xiao Mansion, the life and death of the Second Master had nothing to do with her. She didn't want any sparks to fly between the Second Madam and the Second Master during the period before she left the mansion. To put it bluntly, she was afraid from the bottom of her heart that the Second Madam would fall in love with the handsome Second Master. Even if the Second Master doted on the Second Madam, there were still the First Madam, Miss Xiu, and a bunch of concubines. Their whole family was eyeing the Second Madam covetously.
In a word, in Zhiqiu's opinion, the Xiao Mansion is a fire pit. No matter how good the Second Master is, we should not jump in.
"Just now when I went forward to ask, I saw the Second Master staring at me. I was so scared that I hurried back. It seems that we can't pretend to be deaf anymore."
After hearing Zhiqiu's words, Zhidong said hesitantly, and Zhiqiu glared at her fiercely.
Seeing the girls like this, Mengxi said:
"Miss Xiu is there, so we don't need to rush over. Zhiqiu should go and find out why the eldest master is so angry. Normally, if the second master loses a hair, the whole family will feel distressed for a long time. Why is he willing to hit him now?"
Zhichun said without thinking:
"Miss Xiu's eyes are swollen from crying. Could it be that she and the Second Master did something shameful and got caught? If that's the case, the day when Miss Xiu will get married is not far away."
After hearing what Zhichun said, the room suddenly became quiet. No one wanted to take up this topic. After a while of silence, Zhiqiu said:
"Wait a minute, Madam. I'll go and ask around and be back soon."
Seeing the second wife nod, Zhiqiu dusted off the dust on his body, turned around and walked out.
Zhichun helped the second wife clean up, and the master and servant sat there talking and waiting. After a long while, Zhiqiu came in excitedly, followed by Zhidong and Zhixia. When Zhiqiu came in, Mengxi asked without waiting for her to catch her breath:
"Second Master, what's wrong? Why are you so happy?"
"I have found out everything, Second Madam, this is really great news."
"How can it be a good thing that the Second Master was punished?"
"I went there, intending to wait for Hongzhu to come out and ask her about it, but when Xiao Xia saw me, she started talking to me. It turned out that when the Second Master took over the property outside the palace, he accidentally discovered that Manager An had embezzled the palace's silver. I heard that there were more than 20,000 taels of silver."
"Oh my god! He embezzled more than 20,000 taels! But what does this have to do with the Second Master? Why should he be punished?"
When Zhichun heard this, she couldn't help but interrupt and asked. Mengxi glanced at her and motioned her to shut up. Seeing Zhichun shut up, Zhiqiu continued:
"The Second Master reported the matter to the authorities without even telling the First Master and the First Madam. The authorities came directly to arrest Steward An. The First Madam wanted to stop them but was unable to do so. She was so angry that she fainted. After the authorities took Steward An away, the Second Master knelt outside the First Madam's door to plead guilty. Xiao Xia said that the Second Master knelt for the entire afternoon and his legs were swollen, but the First Madam did not let him in."
"What happened next? Why did you get punished again?"
"Later, the eldest master came back. When he heard about this, he started to use family rules without saying a word. He scolded the Xiao family for raising an ungrateful beast, saying that the Xiao family didn't have such an ungrateful person, so he might as well beat him to death to avoid losing the ancestors. Xiao Xia saw that it was not good, so he hurried to ask the old lady to stop it, but the old lady went too late. The second master had already been hit more than 20 times. When the old lady saw that the second master was covered in blood, she was so distressed that she didn't care about him punishing Xiao An. She scolded the eldest master and took the second master directly to Shouxi Hall, applied medicine, and cleaned him up. Then she ordered people to carry him back."
