Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 108

“Mingxu, when did you come out?”

Madam Wang’s smile was stiff. Only after all outsiders had left did she finally dare ask the question.

“Before the fire started,” Cang Chuli replied coldly.

Although he had started the fire himself, his answer was not technically false.

Wang Wenshan and Madam Wang were both rendered speechless. What they had done was hardly honorable.

After choking on their words for a long while, they finally managed, “All that matters is that you’re alive. All that matters is that you’re alive!”

“May I ask whether Lord Wang knows what happened to the belongings that were originally in my mother’s room?”

Cang Chuli did not mention being drugged. He asked only this one question, yet it embarrassed Wang Wenshan so thoroughly that he could not step down with dignity.

When the Wang Family prepared to leave years ago, they had never intended to return.

They sold everything in the residence that could be sold. Naturally, they disposed of the things in Jingniang’s maiden room as well. Any small valuables that failed to sell were simply taken with them and used on the journey.

In truth, it was not only her room.

The old master’s belongings had been handled the same way.

They had left in such a hurry that everything in the elderly couple’s rooms was bundled up and taken away, then sorted out on the road.

There simply was no one left to question Wang Wenshan about those things now.

“I thought Master Wang sent me to rest in Ruyi Courtyard because you wanted the sight of old belongings to remind me of my mother and my childhood, so that I might lend you some assistance.”

Cang Chuli’s words were so blunt that Madam Wang uncomfortably stretched her neck.

“But when I returned and saw desks, banquet tables, and couches I had never laid eyes on before, for a moment I wondered whether this general had misunderstood.

“Or did Master Wang forget that I had once visited this place? Is that why you made my mother’s maiden room no different from an ordinary guest room?”

Xia Heng curled her lip at the words.

They had sent him to a place where he had spent time as a child, but replaced every last piece of furniture and every personal belonging.

What sort of nostalgia were they trying to invoke?

They could not even put on a convincing act.

Wang Wenshan could hardly admit that he had been afraid they would not have enough money back then. He hemmed and hawed without producing an answer.

“If Lord Wang has time for these crooked little schemes, perhaps you should first devote some thought to putting your residence in order.

“When you have failed so badly at both ‘cultivating yourself and regulating your family’, what exactly do you hope to accomplish in that round-collared scholar-official’s robe?”

Cang Chuli’s cool gaze settled on him. Only then did the reality of the situation sink into Wang Wenshan’s heart.

It was over. There was no hope of having his nephew recommend him for office now.

Madam Wang bit her lower lip resentfully and glared at Cang Chuli. She desperately wanted to throw caution aside and curse him.

But the two servants behind him, obviously trained fighters, were staring at her with hostile expressions.

It was almost as though they were waiting for her to say something.

Cang Chuli slowly walked past Madam Wang and looked toward the house engulfed in towering flames.

This had once been his mother’s maiden quarters. Now, the two people before him had used their plot to turn it into a cage meant to imprison him.

He smiled mockingly.

“There is one thing Madam Wang said incorrectly, however. Mingxu truly is a bloodthirsty man.”

Madam Wang spun around in terror.

He had been conscious then?

“Those people were indeed killed by Mingxu.

“There are many more people Mingxu wishes to kill. If you live long enough, you will naturally see them die one by one.”

Madam Wang stared at Cang Chuli’s back in horror, her voice trembling slightly.

“You… You dare threaten me?”

“Mingxu does not quite understand Madam Wang’s words. Was it not the Wang Family that tried to kill me?”

Cang Chuli turned around.

“And as this general just said, first you must live long enough…”

“No… Mingxu! That isn’t what happened!”

Madam Wang tried to explain, but Cang Chuli had already led his people straight out of the residence.

—

At Minister Chen’s residence, Chen Liang could hardly believe his ears.

“What did you say you did?”

“Father! I didn’t know Cang Chuli would go so far as to burn Ruyi Courtyard to the ground!

“That was the courtyard where his mother once lived!”

Chen Tingting could not be entirely certain that Cang Chuli had started the fire.

But the two servants had clearly said that after carrying him inside, no one else had come out. Then Ruyi Courtyard suddenly caught fire, and Cang Chuli appeared behind the crowd fully conscious.

No matter how she turned it over in her mind, she could not understand how he had managed it. But the fire had to be connected to Cang Chuli!

“Do you think your father has held this office for too long? Is that it?”

“Oh, don’t shout at Tingting. Haven’t you always known she is fond of Cang Chuli?” Madam Chen said, shielding Chen Tingting behind her as she faced her husband.

“Fine! I won’t shout at her! Then you tell me what you were trying to do. Will you only be happy after you have cost me my post as Minister of War?”

Chen Liang was so furious his lungs felt ready to burst.

“I refused when you suggested sending Tingting to the General’s Mansion last time.

“She is a respectable young lady from a noble household. It isn’t as though this minister’s residence cannot afford to support her. Why must she lower herself to mingle with a crowd of concubines?

“Yet you sent Tingting there behind my back. Are you truly her mother?

“Fine. Children and grandchildren have their own fortunes. I decided not to interfere with whatever you wanted.

“But what was the result? Tell me!

“The very next day, she came home crying and screaming, while I had handed Cang Chuli three hundred taels of gold for nothing!”

Chen Liang shouted himself hoarse, then turned to glare at Chen Tingting.

“I thought you had given up! What is this now?

“Tell me, how did you dare plot against Cang Chuli?

“Do you know how many court officials he has brought down in less than two months since returning to the capital?

“My former subordinate Wang Jian died under mysterious circumstances and even left a suicide note. I do not believe for a single moment that Cang Chuli had nothing to do with it!

“He purged the Ministry of Revenue from top to bottom!

“Even the First Prince of Tujue has failed to gain an advantage over him!

“Do you think your father has lived too long?”

Chen Tingting stood stunned beneath her father’s tirade. In all her memory, he had never lost his temper with her like this.

She burst into tears.

“I did it for our family too! Aren’t you always saying at home that if we won Cang Chuli’s favor, it would save us years of struggle?

“If I married Cang Chuli, he would be the General of the Northern Pacification and you the Minister of War. Who in the capital could possibly contend with us?”

Chen Liang looked utterly heartsick.

“We would have to survive long enough to enjoy it!”

Madam Chen’s eyes shifted at the side. One look at her guilty expression told Chen Liang everything. Clutching his chest, he asked, “What else did you do? Tell me all of it at once!”

Madam Chen wanted to cry as well.

“I didn’t do much. Madam Wang merely said Cang Chuli was her nephew and had lost both parents, so naturally he should obey his aunt in matters of marriage.

“I thought that if we could bring the match about, you would gain another powerful ally, so I…”

Minister Chen felt as though he could no longer draw breath.

From the sound of things, she had created an enormous disaster for him.

Seeing his reaction, Madam Chen threw caution to the wind.

“I gave her fifty thousand taels. She said she would use a few tricks to have Cang Chuli and Tingting spend some time alone in a room. After that, Cang Chuli would have to marry her whether he wanted to or not!

“Husband! Husband! Someone, hurry! Fetch the household physician!”

After hearing her explanation, Chen Liang failed to catch his breath and fainted outright.

His final thought before losing consciousness was one of utter despair.

What a sin!

A virtuous wife spares her husband calamity.

A foolish wife ruins three generations!

The ancients had not deceived him!