Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 114

The Wang Family, only recently returned from the provinces, had been extraordinarily lively these past two days.

They held a grand housewarming banquet, only for a building to catch fire that very night.

Then, every day afterward, someone came to demand money.

Madam Chen and Chen Tingting had been confined to the residence and were suffocating with resentment. The matter had failed, but at the very least, they had to recover their money!

When the servant sent to demand repayment returned empty-handed on the first day, Madam Chen knew something was wrong.

Had she run into a laolai—one of those shameless debt dodgers who simply refused to pay up?

She had only just handed over those fifty thousand taels. No household could possibly have spent money that quickly.

And what message had the servant brought back?

“Lost?”

Who were they trying to fool?

Suppressing her fury, Madam Chen summoned the servant and ordered, “If she refuses to pay, go to her door and demand it every day!

“She made such a mess of the task and still wants to pocket my money? He’s only a provincial graduate—has he grown tired of living? Go! Pound on their door!

“Tell her that if she still refuses to repay me, I’ll tell everyone she tried to sell the position of wife to her own nephew—the general! Then none of us will have anything good!”

Servants from the Chen household arrived wave after wave.

At first, the Wang Family could still invite them into the courtyard.

But those early servants would sit there from morning until night without seeing either Master or Madam Wang.

Later, they grew wiser and simply refused to enter. They stood outside the gate and howled, whether anyone opened it or not. Now they would not go inside even when invited.

The Wang Family’s neighbors went from astonishment and confusion to such familiarity that if the servant pounding on the gate forgot his lines, they could finish them for him.

How did they know the words?

Ha! There were only a few lines.

“Why put on airs when you don’t have the ability to back them up? How shameless do you have to be to owe money and refuse repayment?”

“And with conduct like this, they go around claiming to be the uncle and aunt of the General of the Northern Pacification!

“They won’t even repay such a small amount. Did the Wang Family come back to the capital just to sponge off people?”

An uninformed bystander asked, “What? Isn’t the Wang Family related to the General of the Northern Pacification through his mother? General Cang won’t help them?”

Someone else immediately chimed in, “What maternal family? Where were they when the Marquis of Northern Pacification’s Mansion fell into decline? Where were they when the General of the Northern Pacification nearly starved while fighting outside the capital?”

“Exactly! One of my relatives lives near their family!

“He said that the moment the Marchioness of Northern Pacification died, the entire family fled as fast as they could because they were afraid of being implicated!

“They even asked the neighbors whether anyone wanted to buy their belongings.

“They paid no heed to their own sister, who had not even been buried yet, much less the young General of the Northern Pacification!”

For a time, many older residents who remembered the matter spoke up to confirm it.

“That’s right! I’ve lived on this street for years. By the time the Marquis of Northern Pacification arrived carrying the child, the house was already empty. The two of them wore mourning white and stood right here for a very long time!”

Chef Xiang, who had come out to purchase supplies and started the discussion, turned and walked away with his deeds and name concealed.

He had not lied. Neither the marquis back then nor the general now had received the slightest care from that couple.

The teahouses near the Wang residence had recently made money hand over fist. From ancient times to the present, the people of Huaxia had never changed in their love of watching a spectacle!

The proprietors beamed from ear to ear. Who could have expected this windfall?

Wang Wenshan and Madam Wang had not dared leave home for several days.

“Hurry and get rid of that Chen Family servant! Stop him from shouting outside the gate!” Wang Wenshan snapped.

He had upheld a scholar’s integrity all his life. When had he ever suffered humiliation like this? His face had been utterly disgraced.

“Do you think I don’t want to?” Xu Wanxin demanded.

“That servant said Madam Chen gave them a strict order: they may not leave without the money! They belong to an official household! What am I supposed to do?”

She felt wronged too. Did she gain any glory from hearing the Chen servants curse so viciously outside her gate?

She could imagine exactly what Madam Chen thought of her. The money had been delivered one day and disappeared the next?

Heaven have mercy!

She truly did not know which accursed thief had stolen those fifty thousand taels!

“If I find out who stole my money, I will grind their bones to dust!”

*Knock, knock, knock!*

“Master, Madam,” the steward called from outside.

“Come in!” Madam Wang said impatiently.

The steward entered, his old face crumpled with worry, and bowed.

“Master, Madam…”

“What is it now?” Madam Wang asked with a headache at the sight of him.

“Madam, the Xiao Family has announced that none of its businesses will work with us again.

“Most of the wine our restaurants and shops currently sell comes from the Xiao Family…”

Madam Wang felt as though someone had struck her head with a hammer. Her ears buzzed.

How had this happened? She truly had not been the one who plotted against Miss Xiao!

“And whose bones are you planning to grind to dust? They’re about to chew up even the scraps of our bones!

“Sell the shops! Hurry and sell the shops and land! Dispose of the holdings in the south too. Gather enough money to repay Madam Chen first!” Wang Wenshan roared.

“Those are ancestral properties! And what about my dowry?”

This time, Madam Wang truly began to cry.

She had returned to the capital hoping to bask in reflected glory and make money. Instead, after only two days, she had fallen so far that they had to sell their ancestral property and her dowry!

Even after ten years in the south, they had never reached this state.

“Then tell me what else we can do! Did you not accept Madam Chen’s fifty thousand taels? Do you dare report it to the authorities?

“Or do you have another solution?”

Wang Wenshan was beside himself with rage. What kind of disaster was this? Before he had even taken the first step toward obtaining office, they had offended two high ministers of the court!

One was the Minister of War, the other the Minister of Revenue.

Madam Wang’s sobbing quieted. She asked tentatively, “Why don’t you ask Mingxu to lend us some?”

Wang Wenshan stared at her in disbelief.

“Have you gone mad? I am asking whether you have gone mad!”

Madam Wang’s eyes shifted. Ultimately, all this had happened because of him. She would stop arranging women for him. Was it too much to ask him for a little loan?

“Have you listened to what people outside are saying now?

“They say that I, Wang Wenshan, am an Ah Dou beyond saving! That I failed to gain any advantage from the Marquis of Northern Pacification’s Mansion back then and now returned to exploit the General of the Northern Pacification!

“Are you determined to make those accusations true?”

“I don’t care how you handle it! But if you dare ask Mingxu for money and anyone learns of it, just watch me—I’ll repudiate you!”

“Oh, so that’s it, Wang Wenshan! I knew you wanted to repudiate me!

“Now that we’re back in the capital, you think you’re important again? Don’t forget why I lost that child or why I can no longer bear children!

“And now you say you want to repudiate me? Why didn’t you say that when I miscarried for your Wang Family?”

Madam Wang sprang up from her stool.

“Look at you! I am discussing serious matters. Why are you dragging up the past?”

“What am I dragging up? …”

Seeing the situation, the steward did not linger. He withdrew from the couple’s bedroom and remembered to close the door behind him.

Sigh. Why had they not simply managed their affairs honestly?

He doubted he would remain steward here much longer.