Volume 2: Eagle vs. Dragon Chapter 42: The Righteous Servant Crosses the River
Ma said, "If it is Haocai who marries over, even if she is a fool, as long as she is in that position, the people in the Wu family will all lean towards her. We can arrange two capable old servants and trusted maids to help her, and we can always win her over. If she is loyal, the property will be in Haocai's hands . In this way, although these properties will no longer be under the Ye family, you, the head of the family, can still have a say. Head of the family, don't you agree?"
Ye Dalin glared at Ma and angrily said, "Women's views! Are you planning to let Haocai marry in place of Youyu? Do you think this is a play? Do you think this is a play on the stage? Will the Wu family watch a replacement daughter-in-law come in for no reason?! Old Wu is just sick, not confused, and Wu Chengjian is not someone who can be fooled. Even the witness is Pan Youjie, will he let you women play around?!"
Although Ma was somewhat afraid of her husband in major matters, she had thought this matter over carefully, so she was not panicked. She spoke softly, which stunned Ye Dalin.
"Master, I'm not the one who's confused, it's you." Ma said, "If it was just the marriage of our children, it would be fine, but since it's a big business under the name of the marriage of our children, then we should naturally follow the business path. It's about the alliance between the two families, so who is the one getting married? Even if the one from the Wu family who came to get married was not Wu Chengjian, but Guang'er who was not yet an adult, we would have no choice but to acknowledge him. Even if Wu Chengjun, a sick man, wanted to marry a young girl to bring good luck, and brought a rooster to the wedding ceremony, haven't you heard of such a thing, Master? It's the same here. When the wedding was approaching, my sister fell ill. In order not to delay the auspicious time and the friendship between the two families, my elder sister temporarily took her place to get married. There are many such things in the world - in short, we can just find an excuse when the time comes."
Ye Dalin frowned, seeming to be tempted, but still felt that the matter was difficult to handle.
"As for the witness..." Ma said, "Master, do you think he will go along with it or will he jump out to oppose it after he finds out?"
Ye Dalin looked at Ma in surprise. This wife of his not only had absurd and despicable ideas, but was also so shameless that he felt... What a good wife!
Ma said, "If it really comes to that, it won't be the Wu family forcing the Ye family to bow their heads, but Pan and Ye forcing the Wu family to acquiesce in this marriage. Master, what do you think?"
Dongxue was inside the gate of Chenglu Garden, shouting so hard that her throat was bleeding from coughing up blood. However, the gatekeeper outside the gate seemed to have a heart of stone and did not respond at all.
Dongxue knocked on the door, her knuckles were scratched and blood stained the door, but the wounds were quickly frozen and the door remained motionless.
At this time, it was just as Ye Youyu said, crying to the sky and the earth for help, but no one answered.
The weather is getting colder.
The cold in the south is accompanied by humidity, so sometimes it is even more terrible than in the north.
When Changzai went to the utility room to light the charcoal fire, he rubbed his hands together and jumped on his feet. However, no matter how cold the weather was, his head did not freeze, and he could understand the utility room manager's rolling eyes.
After the masters went to Henan, the unfriendly attitude towards him in the Ye residence became more serious. Changzi felt that something might be wrong. He quietly ran to Yingyang Garden, but found that Yingyang Garden had been dispersed and all the maids and servants were gone. No one knew where they had gone.
"This isn't right," Changzi thought to himself, "Didn't they say that only Sister Dongxue went to Henan?"
The more he thought about it, the more suspicious he felt. The more suspicious he became, the more worried he became: "Will there be any accidents with the third lady?"
He had just returned to his residence and found the floor in a mess as soon as he entered the door - all of his clothes and quilts. He was furious and was about to explode, but he found that the eyes of the servants around him had changed again: no one was afraid of him anymore, and everyone seemed to have heard something, and their original timidity suddenly turned into cold and fierce attitude.
Changzi, who was about to lose his temper, stopped suddenly. Although he was young, he could tell right from wrong.
Then, someone called out from outside the door, reminding him to go and pour out the night incense.
Changzi was stunned, but laughter came from the servants' room. Everyone's eyes said: After going through so much trouble, you still have to go and pour the night incense!
Changzi lowered his head. Although his hands and feet were still cold, he couldn't even jump. He walked out with stiff legs to the corner that he was very familiar with, looking at the toilets covered with a layer of frozen feces.
He knew that things had changed drastically, but he was not worried about himself, but about Ye Youyu.
"Third Miss...are you...are you...ok?"
While squatting beside the toilet and mumbling, a person suddenly appeared beside him. Changzi looked up and called out in surprise: "Zhong...Zhong Ye."
Ye Zhong lowered his eyes for a long while before he said, "The third young lady is in Chenglu Garden."
"Ah?" Changzi didn't understand.
"In the southwestern corner of Yejiayuan." Ye Zhong said this and left without saying anything else.
Changzi looked at his back and felt a chill running up his spine.
He didn't know what the Yejiayuan in Henan was like, nor did he know where Chenglu Garden was, but Master Zhong wouldn't tell him these two sentences for no reason.
He thought for a moment but couldn't figure it out, but he thought to himself: "No matter what, I have to see the third girl first!"
He touched the silver he had collected close to him - that was all his property, and he had never left it for a moment during this period. Taking advantage of the dusk, he crawled out of the Ye residence through a dog hole, then asked for directions along the way, ran to the dock, paid the money reluctantly, and hired a boat to sail directly to the vicinity of Ye's home.
Ye Garden was the same as Wu Garden. Although the fine decoration inside was not yet complete, the whole garden was already surrounded by a wall. Changzi walked around the wall for a while but couldn't get in. He looked at the gate from a distance and didn't dare to go in. He found the side door and saw that the gatekeeper was a stranger. He jumped over and said, "Ah, uncle, I'm from the north, west gate, Ye, Ye's house. Master Zhong asked me to come and tell the master something."
The gatekeeper was an old man who was stationed by the Ye family in the Yejiayuan in Henan. He didn't know much about the affairs of the Xiguan mansion. Seeing that Changzi was dressed like a second-class servant of the Ye family and could call out Ye Zhong's name, he let him in.
It was already dark by then. Changzi thought about Ye Youyu's teachings, looked at the North Star, and determined the direction to look in the southwest.
The Ye family's home covers a large area. The Ye family came here just for the wedding. Less than one-third of the servants came, and they were all concentrated in the main courtyard. The more remote the place, the fewer people there were. Changzi didn't meet many people along the way. When he met someone, he nodded generously, and no one suspected him. He found a courtyard in this way. The other courtyards either had doors open with lights on and people coming in and out, or the doors were closed. Only this courtyard was very dark, with the door closed, but there was someone guarding outside. Changzi felt that this courtyard was unusual. He didn't disturb the person guarding it, but quietly moved closer and looked at the plaque in the moonlight. He had good eyesight, and he could see the plaque clearly under the stars and the moon. He happened to recognize the last two characters of the three words "Chenglu Garden".
Changzi thought to himself, "It must be here. The third girl is going to get married, but she is locked up in this kind of haunted place. There must be something fishy going on here!"
He didn't dare to go through the main gate, so he went around the wall to look for it. There was no dog hole, but Chenglu Garden had a fish pond, and the fish pond was full of running water. The designer of Ye Garden was a skilled craftsman, so he led the water into the garden and out again.
Changzi guessed that he could dive in. He tried the water and found it was as cold as ice that had just melted. His skin felt like being pricked by needles. He jumped by the water and thought, "Miss San is so good to me. Changzi, we should repay her kindness."
He gritted his teeth, took off his coat, and stepped into the water despite the severe cold. He almost got cramps from the cold as soon as he entered the water. Fortunately, he was used to hardship, so he endured it and groped around. Sure enough, there was a hole under the wall for water to flow in and out, which allowed him to enter the garden.
When he emerged from the fish pond, not only Ye Youyu was surprised, but Dongxue also screamed in fright.
Fortunately, she had been shouting for a long time and the gatekeeper didn't pay attention.
The master and servant were in such a miserable situation that they didn't even turn on the lights. The yard was dark at this time. Ye Youyu stared at the dark figure emerging from the water until Changzi shivered and called out, "Third...Miss......"
Ye Youyu was surprised and touched: "Changzi?" He hurriedly called Dongxue: "Come over and help!"
The two hurriedly dragged Changzi out and helped him into the house. Ye Youyu shouted again: "Quickly bring a quilt and light the charcoal!"
After wrapping Changzi in the quilt, he felt better. Ye Youyu asked Dongxue to quickly boil some hot water and hot soup, and then asked, "Changzi, why are you here?"
Changzi shivered and said, "I was called to the Yexiang Zhongye again. Suddenly, Master Zhong came to tell me that you were in Chenglu Garden. I thought something was wrong, so I came here in the dark."
Ye Youyu was such a clever person that he understood everything immediately after hearing a single word. He was deeply moved and grabbed Changzi's hand to rub it to warm it up. Changzi was so scared that he pulled his hand back: "No, no!"
Ye Youyu couldn't wait for the hot soup and hot water to come, so he said, "Let's go to the kitchen."
The two rushed to the small kitchen where Dongxue had just lit the fire. The master, servant and three of them gathered around the fire, and the coldness was slightly reduced. Changzi then stuttered about what had happened in the past half day. Dongxue also told them what had happened since crossing the river. Then the two of them looked at Ye Youyu, asking her to make the decision.
While they were talking, Ye Youyu had been thinking about it countless times. After she was locked up in Chenglu Garden, she thought about getting married soon and no one cared about her when she was in trouble - especially her "fiancé" Wu Chengjian didn't care about her - so she couldn't help but feel sad for herself. At this time, seeing Changzi doing this for her, the girl's sadness disappeared temporarily, just like the coldness of winter being driven away by the fire. She regained her rationality and suppressed all kinds of negative emotions. She had guessed many things and said to Changzi and Dongxue, "This must be the madam's idea. If it was Dad's idea from the beginning, things would not be like this."
Dongxue asked, "What exactly does Madam want to do?"
Ye Youyu said: "Of course I want my second sister to marry Hao Guan in my place."
"This..." Dongxue said: "Will this work?"
Ye Youyu said, "As long as Madam can convince Father, then it may not be impossible. Father hasn't come to release me yet, so he must have been convinced by Madam."
Dongxue was so anxious that tears were about to fall when she heard this: "Then...then what should I do?"
Ye Youyu said: "At this point, only one person can turn the situation around."
Dongxue asked: "Who?"
Before Ye Youyu could answer, Changzi shouted, "Hao...Hao Guan!"
Dong Xue said happily, "Yes, Hao Guan! Find Hao Guan! As long as we let Hao Guan know about this, he will definitely find a way to rescue us."
Changzi said: "I, I, I will go right now and find...him!"
The two looked at Ye Youyu excitedly, but saw that she still had a worried look on her face.
Dong Xue said, "Miss, can't you find Hao Guan?"
Ye Youyu's breathing was a little unstable: "If we can find him... as long as he is willing to help, of course it's possible... as long as he is willing to help..."
