Chapter 250

Chapter 250: Xin An vs. Tang Gang

In the Marquis’s residence, the arrangements of fresh flowers throughout the estate were either added by each courtyard on its own or replaced regularly by the estate’s gardeners to ensure nothing wilted.

The flowers removed during replacement were carried away but not entirely discarded; after being trimmed and revived, they were either sent to other courtyards or set out in the gardens. Unless something was especially precious or particularly favored by a master, there was no great fuss made over it.

Auntie Cai seized on this point, saying: “Every seven days a gardener delivers flowers to Qiu Shi Courtyard. The flowers that are swapped out are still in good condition; the gardeners can’t bear to throw them away and send them to Chunhua Garden instead. What is so strange about that?”

[Xin An felt she would be killed by Auntie Cai’s stupidity; that woman was better suited to swaggering around on the strength of Tang Rong’s influence, and using her head was not her line of work.] She said, unhurried and cool: “Even if that is so, those flowerpots were moved back and forth; how can you be certain I was the one who did it?”

She added, voice turning colder: “If I truly meant to harm your three mistresses, would I need to go to such trouble? Do you think I am as brainless as you?”

The whole thing disappointed her; such clumsy tricks left her with no room to play. [If it kept on like this, she might as well stomp off to live at the Xin residence in a huff; otherwise she would look petty.]

Auntie Cai grew flustered. She had intended to take more time and arrange things more artfully, but then she received news that the second young master next door had earned military merit, which would only make him more favored in the residence. On top of that, Xue Yu suddenly clutched her stomach in pain, and the pain was severe. So Auntie Cai struck in haste, thinking that with the couple next door both out, she could say whatever she liked. If anything happened to Xue Yu’s pregnancy, given how the Marquis had always disliked the second son, he certainly would not listen to a word he said. Moreover, the second son had a poor temper; father and son would likely quarrel face to face, and even if he had earned merit it would be of no use.

It was a tidy vision and a precise reading of Tang Gang’s mind; Tang Gang did react exactly as she expected, flying into a thunderous rage the moment he heard and cursing Tang Mo. But Madam Wang ignored all that and sent for Qin Bai, and she even alarmed the Grand Matron; that was how Auntie Cai lost the initiative.

Auntie Cai insisted, aiming her words at Xin An: “Who can know what the Second Young Madam is scheming in her heart? But what the Daoist priest said today is fact: someone deliberately altered the feng shui of Chunhua Garden and secretly practiced witchcraft to curse the three little masters who have not yet been born.”

Xin An countered, her tone flat: “If that is the case, why did Madam and the two concubines suffer abdominal pains one after another?”

Auntie Cai snapped back: “Then we ought to ask how you have been serving them.”

Xin An turned slightly and asked, each word sharp: “What Daoist priest? Where was this Daoist priest invited from, and who invited him?”

She continued, voice light but barbed: “True Daoist priests cultivate in remote mountains, while frauds roam the streets. If we go by his words, then Mother deliberately sought to harm her own son. You should know that Chun Hua Courtyard was originally prepared for the second young master.”

Auntie Cai became stubborn and aggressive in her poverty of reason, saying: “Someone later changed the feng shui of Chun Hua Courtyard.”

“How was it changed, and where were the alterations?” Xin An remained calm: “In the past six months, was it the layout of Chun Hua Courtyard that shifted, or did Qiu Shi Courtyard so much as break ground? Even the three voodoo dolls in your hand were found in flowerpots. Have some evidence before you speak.”

She pressed on, eyes sliding to Madam Wang as she spoke: “And when you went out to invite a Daoist priest into the inner rear residence, did you seek Grandmother’s permission, or Father’s, or did Elder Sister-in-law agree?” Madam Wang gave a slight shake of her head. A cold smile curved Xin An’s lips as she said: “You brought an unrelated man into the women’s quarters without authorization. You say he is a Daoist and that makes it so? How do I know you did not bribe him in advance? Even if he is a Daoist, he is still a sound and able-bodied man. You are very bold.”

Auntie Cai panicked. If she did not fetch the man herself, would Madam have allowed her to send for anyone?

She glanced at Tang Gang’s face and grew even more afraid. But Xin An had no intention of letting her off: “Never mind a noble house; even in a common family, the women’s quarters are not a place men may enter at will. Today you can bring back one Daoist; tomorrow, will you bring back a gang of bandits? This is the Tang family’s marquisate, not your Cai family’s. What exactly is your intention? Do you think the name of our house is not loud enough already, or that your family’s Heir Apparent’s head is not shiny enough?”

“Silence,” Tang Gang barked, anger flaring. “Do not spout nonsense.”

Xin An turned to face him and said: “Father, this matter was not done by my husband and me. We have no reason. If you think we hate Elder Brother and Elder Sister-in-law, consider this: from the wedding to now, their days have been a mess. If we had wanted to do anything, would we have waited until now? The night of the charcoal poisoning, my husband could have pretended not to realize what was happening and neither cared nor intervened. When he brought the estate physician to the ancestral hall, you and Elder Brother had already fainted.”

She gave a cold, improper little laugh: “To say something ill-suited to the occasion, if we really harbored designs, you and Elder Brother would already have passed your first seven-day memorial. I would already be Marchioness of the marquisate.”

She did not flinch beneath Tang Gang’s murderous gaze, but pressed on: “There is a saying, to catch a bandit, seize the leader first. Why would I pass over those who are easy to deal with and go curse babies still in the womb? Would that not be a thankless waste of effort?”

“What charcoal poisoning?” The Grand Matron had not known; those who knew had found it shameful and had not told anyone else. Madam Wang told her then and there. The Grand Matron shuddered with fear, and at once she felt certain of Tang Mo’s innocence. Xin An was right: had he harbored any evil intent, he had only to feign ignorance that night. It showed that at heart he was still good.

Auntie Cai was stunned; she had not known about it either. She hurried to say: “It was the Second Young Madam. It must have been her jealousy. They married on the same day, yet she has had no news, while Chun Hua Courtyard has reported joy again and again. She could not bear it and did this. Saving the Marquis and the Heir Apparent was only to win herself a good name.”

At that, Madam Wang scolded Auntie Cai roundly. Tang Gang still said nothing, though in his heart he likely thought much the same as Auntie Cai.

Xin An was speechless. One look at Tang Gang’s face, and she found him detestable. He never distinguished right from wrong, and even if he was partial, he insisted on lifting one by stepping on the other. At once her words became knives, and she aimed them at him: “Grandmother, Father, Mother, I do not want to say more. If Father believes my husband and I are guilty, believes that my husband saved Father and Elder Brother with ulterior motives, believes that we are as unfit for Qiu Shi Courtyard as the gossipers and that charlatan Daoist claim, or even unfit to live in this residence at all, then say the word. We are people who care for our dignity; we will not cling here.”

“Since Elder Sister-in-law conceived, I have been cautious a thousand ways and ten thousand. And yet in Chun Hua Courtyard today this one clutches her belly and tomorrow that one panics in her heart. Idle talk comes by the basketful, and every sentence points at my husband and me. If they are not saying that Mother schemed to change their courtyard, then they are saying that my husband and I have ill fortune that curses Elder Brother’s heirs.”

“How many months has it been? When those bellies grow big, are my husband and I still supposed to go on living? And when the children are born and one bumps a head or scrapes a knee, will that also be blamed on our iron-hard fate that curses heaven, earth, and the people next door?”

“For harmony in the marquisate, my husband and I will move out at dawn tomorrow. We will return after Elder Brother’s children have married and had children of their own, so long as people will stop saying that we curse our grandnephews.”

Tang Gang’s eyes bulged with rage. He wanted to scold Xin An but remembered his status as a father-in-law. He thought Madam Wang would teach her a lesson, but Madam Wang already had tears on her cheeks, and the Grand Matron’s expression was worse still; she glared at Auntie Cai with fury.

Steward Zhang’s men questioned the servants of both courtyards thoroughly; all professed ignorance. The gardeners cried their innocence even louder. Before anything could be made clear, a serving lad ran in at top speed, shouting: “Marquis, this is bad, very bad!”

Just as Tang Gang was about to roar, the runner blurted: “The Heir Apparent is in trouble.”