Chapter 012

Chapter 12: She Wants to Destroy Chancellor’s Manor

A bold line on the opened letter read: “Du Qing, since you are ready to leave the dark for the light, my heart is very pleased. When I take the Central Plains, I will share the rivers and lands with you!”

Madam Yao glanced at the letter and felt her legs go weak.

“This wasn’t me. I don’t know anything!” Liu Er Gou’s face went ashen, but he still refused to admit it.

Yu Zhi Yi said calmly: “There are fifty taels of silver hidden on the beam in your room. You call it a tip from a fellow townsman. In truth, he gave you two hundred taels. You used one hundred and fifty to buy property in the capital, planning to resign after tonight’s job with the excuse of caring for your elderly parents.”

She continued, her tone light: “The house is at No. 72, Chao’an Street. The deed is wrapped in a red cloth and pressed under the center brick beneath your bed. The name on the deed is your real name, Liu Er Gou.”

Liu Er Gou blurted out, eyes wide: “How do you know everything?”

Yu Zhi Yi only smiled without answering.

At this point, how could Chancellor Du and his wife not understand that what Yu Zhi Yi said was true?

Shaking with anger, Madam Yao snapped at the servant: “Beast! You beast! Chancellor’s Manor has never treated you badly. That gold lion paperweight you broke back then was worth a thousand taels; it was the master’s favorite. The master only gave you thirty strokes of the board. He did not make you pay for it and did not send you to the yamen. You felt no gratitude, and now you do something this vicious!”

Chancellor Du’s face was dark as he said: “Yi’er, take your mother back first.”

Yu Zhi Yi glanced at Liu Er Gou’s gray, hopeless face and nodded.

Madam Yao was still shaken. When they reached Leaning Plum Courtyard, she grabbed Yu Zhi Yi’s hand and would not let her go.

Yu Zhi Yi stayed. [Good. I have other things to handle soon; I can settle them here too.]

An hour later, Chancellor Du returned. It was clear he had dealt with the letter, handled Liu Er Gou, and even discovered who was behind it all.

He looked at his daughter-in-law with open astonishment.

Before this, he had heard of Yu Zhi Yi’s skill from Madam Yao, but he had not taken it seriously, thinking it was luck or exaggeration. Now that he had seen her ability for himself, he knew he had been a frog at the bottom of a well.

“Yi’er, if we had not caught that thief today,” he asked after a pause, choosing the crucial question, “would Chancellor’s Manor have been destroyed because of this?”

Yu Zhi Yi answered readily; Chancellor Du was the most important client she had ever had, and she was happy to clear his doubts: “No. But Father would have gone to prison because of this matter. A few months later, the emperor would find out the truth. Even so, both Father and Mother would have been hurt in body and spirit by the disaster, and they would pass away in a few years.”

Madam Yao’s heart trembled as she gripped Yu Zhi Yi’s hand: “Yi’er, you are truly the lucky star of our Du Clan!”

Chancellor Du strongly agreed. He felt more and more that he had married the right daughter-in-law.

Yu Zhi Yi was a person of principle. Since the jade thumb ring he gave her was valuable, she was glad to say more so he would take fewer wrong turns. Red Luan had told her that only when customers have a godlike experience will they gladly come back again.

She said: “Father is right about who the mastermind is. But as the old saying goes, the King of Hell is easy to face, the little devils are not. That ‘King’ does not dare tear off the mask with Father yet. He only sends little devils to pester you. And the little devil he sent is someone Father would never suspect and trusts very much.”

“It is exactly because of this trust that Father would suffer a big loss.”

Chancellor Du froze for a moment. A face sprang into his mind as he murmured: “You mean, Liu Shan?”

Liu Shan had been his classmate and fellow townsman. At fourteen, Chancellor Du left home and studied under the Son of Heaven’s feet at Joseph Academy. There he met Liu Shan. Meeting a fellow countryman in a strange place made them close.

Later they passed the same round of exams. Liu Shan did not place in the top three, but he became a tribute student and was sent to a remote post as a minor official. Chancellor Du ranked first as top scholar, stayed in Capital City, and was entrusted with heavy duties.

When Chancellor Du later worked at the Ministry of Personnel, he happened to see Liu Shan’s file. He learned that Liu Shan was smart, diligent, and cared for the people, but because he had no powerful patron and had offended local gentry, he had no results to show. Chancellor Du helped him from behind the scenes.

Liu Shan was grateful. He guessed who had helped him, and when he entered the capital, the first thing he did was come thank him. Over time they grew even closer and had been friends and confidants for nearly thirty years.

He could not believe Liu Shan would harm him.

Under Chancellor Du’s resistant gaze, Yu Zhi Yi nodded slowly: “The truth is cruel, but it is still the truth.”

The light in Chancellor Du’s eyes went out at once.

Madam Yao was about to comfort him when Aunt Wen came in and whispered in her ear.

Madam Yao’s eyes filled with surprise. She looked at Yu Zhi Yi without thinking.

[Here it comes,] Yu Zhi Yi thought, and she smiled: “Mother, please say what you need. You don’t have to spare my feelings.”

She had already calculated that trouble would find her tonight, so she had stayed here to wait.

“What is it?” Chancellor Du asked, puzzled.

Looking at Yu Zhi Yi’s calm face, Madam Yao suddenly felt at ease. She said to Aunt Wen: “Let him in.”

“Yes,” Aunt Wen answered, then called to the outside: “Come in.”

A young man dressed as a house servant came in, knelt, and shouted: “Master, Madam, I want to accuse the young madam! She hides evil in her heart and wants to bring harm to our Chancellor’s Manor!”

“What?!” Madam Yao gasped.

Chancellor Du was usually steady. Unless it was his unfilial son’s marriage, a matter of the state, a threat to the whole family, or betrayal by an old friend, little could shake him now. He only gave Yu Zhi Yi a calm look, then measured the servant with a stern gaze: “To slander the young madam, how dare you!”

“Guards, take this insolent wretch away and give him fifty heavy strokes!”

Yu Zhi Yi turned to her father-in-law in surprise.

Chancellor Du stroked his beard and said: “Who you are, your mother and I already know.”

After the trouble at Marquis Wu’an Manor, he had people look into Yu Zhi Yi’s ties with that household. The findings matched Yu Zhi Yi’s own story, and were even more detailed. Over the years, Yu Zhi Yi had cast six hexagrams for Marchioness Wu’an, and all six came true. Though Marquis Wu’an Manor looked fallen now, it had been worse before the marchioness met Yu Zhi Yi. Each time Yu Zhi Yi read a hexagram for her, the manor rose a step.

Still, a daughter-in-law being a master of divination was hard to believe. Also, when Yu Zhi Yi first opened her mouth and asked for his beloved jade thumb ring worth eight thousand taels, he had been too shocked and heartsore to think of her skill.

Now that he had felt it for himself, he would not be foolish enough to believe a cunning servant’s one-sided words. What was more, this sly slave came from the Moon-Viewing Pavilion.

Yu Zhi Yi felt a small warmth in her heart. No matter why Chancellor Du chose to trust her, being trusted felt wonderful.

“Master, this woman really wants to destroy our Chancellor’s Manor!” the man cried as they dragged him out, his tone as if he were thinking only of the manor.

Suddenly, a sharp female voice cut in: “Let him go!”

Relaxing, Yu Zhi Yi looked toward the door. Before long, You Bing Yue came in, supporting the servant.