Chapter 070

Chapter 70: You can’t say I’m lying just because you killed them all

Yu Zhi Yi said: “After Madam Zhang picked up that painting and learned the woman in it was your sister, she started to track your sister’s movements. With her status she should never have been able to reach the level of Duke Yong’s Manor, but luck helped her, or maybe effort did. When Treasure Pavilion launched new items one day, she met your sister at the door and heard your sister tell a close friend that she would go to Tian Yin Temple outside the city in two days to burn incense.”

She continued: “She knew this was her only chance. She bribed a band of beggars, bought them decent clothes, had them change, and sent them to ambush on the road to Tian Yin Temple. When Duke Yong’s Manor’s carriage passed by, they attacked.”

She added: “Even though the young lady of Duke Yong’s Manor traveled with bodyguards and maids, Madam Zhang had paid off twenty beggars. With numbers on their side, the manor’s six bodyguards were no match.”

She said: “Right then, Madam Zhang led another six bodyguards to arrive ‘by chance.’ Once the beggars saw their payer come, they made a token show of resistance, then threw down their weapons and ran.”

She explained: “Afterward, those beggars, carrying their new clothes and the huge sum of five taels each, slipped away to other cities. So even when the duke searched the whole Capital City, he could not find where they went.”

She concluded: “Because of this, Madam Zhang and your sister became close friends. Later she got her wish, married into Duke Yong’s Manor as the heir apparent’s consort, and climbed a high branch.”

In her past life, after she married into Duke Yong’s Manor, Madam Meng always said she had climbed a high branch. Now Yu Zhi Yi was giving that line back to her.

Yu Zhi Yi said: “At first, Madam Zhang truly felt grateful to her husband’s elder sister, and there was some real sisterly feeling.”

She went on: “But soon she discovered the trick in that painting.”

She said: “When she saw the deposit slip worth one million taels, her gratitude and goodwill cracked. Jealousy and resentment took their place.”

She continued: “She could not understand why, even as the heir apparent’s consort, she got no extra benefits and had to live on only a few dozen taels a month, always tight with money.”

She added: “Yet that elder sister-in-law, already married out, could still receive the family’s full care. One million taels. Even if she became duchess later, the money flowing through her hands would not reach that much.”

She said quietly: “Her mind went off balance.”

By then, the emperor had already ordered the painting opened. There was a hidden layer inside. But the deposit slip that should have been there was gone. The tear marks showed it had been opened years earlier, matching Yu Zhi Yi’s words.

Yu Zhi Yi said: “For a moment Madam Zhang wanted to take the slip and withdraw the silver. But she knew money stored under a noble’s name would draw suspicion if the wrong person came to take it. The bank might notify the duke the moment she left. What waited for her would be more than prison, so she forced down her greed and burned the slip.”

She went on: “But a slip can burn and greed can be pressed down. Jealousy, like vines in a dark, damp place, grew wild until it became a thick, airless forest.”

She said: “Every time the elder sister-in-law returned to Duke Yong’s Manor, your mother-in-law and your husband greeted her with smiles. When they faced Madam Zhang, they wore impatience. Compared side by side, her reason was torn by jealousy.”

She continued: “She began to think: if that person were gone, all would be well. Then mother-in-law and husband would no longer see that eyesore, only her.”

She said: “A chance soon came. Your elder sister-in-law found her husband had a mistress and came back to Duke Yong’s Manor in tears. The Old Duchess and the duke were away. Only you, her sister-in-law, and the younger family members were at home, so she poured out all her grievances to you.”

She added: “You promised that when the old lady and the duke returned, you would tell them. After your sister-in-law left, you did speak to your mother-in-law and your husband, but your words were not the same as Miss Zhang’s original words.”

She explained: “With clever phrasing, you made the people of Duke Yong’s Manor think that once Miss Zhang married, she cared only about her husband and not her natal family. Then, before Miss Zhang, you made her feel that a married daughter is like water thrown out and will not be valued again.”

She said: “Back and forth, both sides’ prejudice grew deeper.”

She continued: “Later, both sides sensed something wrong and wanted to question each other face to face. But right before they could meet, Miss Zhang’s father-in-law got into trouble, and her husband’s family asked her to help bail him out.”

She added: “Miss Zhang only knew her father-in-law was in trouble, not what it was. People at Duke Yong’s Manor did know. Her father-in-law had taken bribes, and the late emperor had ordered him beheaded. It was impossible to free him. But they did not know that their daughter and sister did not know this.”

She said: “So both sides talked past each other and could not meet in the middle. They ended on bad terms.”

She went on: “The matter failed. Miss Zhang’s father-in-law was sentenced, and a few days later he was executed.”

She concluded: “This made Miss Zhang’s standing in her husband’s house fall to the bottom. Guessing that her natal family did not value her, her in-laws began to torment her without fear.”

She said: “At first she still tried to return to the manor to report, but Madam Meng had been guarding against her. She had already set watchers at every crossroads. If they saw any of Miss Zhang’s people, she sent her own plants to drive them off at once.”

She finished: “Over time, Miss Zhang lost hope.”

She added: “Later, she found her husband kept a paramour and wanted to bring the paramour’s son into the house to be raised under her name. She refused. He hit her. Then he beat her to death.”

After Yu Zhi Yi finished, the great hall grew so quiet a pin could be heard. Many eyes turned to Madam Meng, full of disbelief.

The women especially, no matter what face they showed, felt a secret wave of respect. This was Duke Yong’s Manor. Yet Madam Meng, born from a small household, had stirred two mansions by herself and played everyone in circles.

Duke Yong’s eyes turned icy, sharp as shards of ice. He looked at Madam Meng and asked: “Is what she said true?”

Madam Meng trembled and gritted her teeth: “Master, do not listen to her nonsense.”

Yu Zhi Yi said evenly: “You cannot claim I am making things up just because you think you removed everyone who took part back then. I never shoot in the dark. Even with fortune-telling, something mysterious as it is, I like evidence.”

She smiled at Madam Meng and said: “Too bad. When you went around cutting the grass and pulling up the roots, you missed a witness.”