His gaze seemed to take on a tangible form, winding around her like silk threads, tightening with each turn.
Song Wanchu's palms were sweating. She didn't dare to raise her head, let alone meet Liang Yuzhou's eyes.
The old lady chuckled. "What secrets? Wanchu is filial. She gave me the heirloom of her grandmother to wear and told me some things about the old lady when she was alive. It just made her a bit sad."
"Really?"
He seemed to believe it, yet also seemed not to. He was like a man shrouded in a layer of cold air.
Song Wanchu was already having trouble breathing.
Suddenly, Qiao Ying rushed in from outside. She first glanced at Song Wanchu and then reported to the old lady, "Suyue said outside that the wife of your brother is here. She has been invited into the Shuiyun Residence. Suyue asked the second mistress to go back. She said the wife of your brother seems to be in a hurry."
Song Wanchu's heart skipped a beat. A sense of foreboding welled up in her.
It was almost dark. Unless something serious had happened to her aunt's family, her aunt would never come at this time.
The old lady quickly said, "Wanchu, go quickly."
Song Wanchu didn't even have time to make eye contact with Liang Yuzhou before she rushed away.
A hint of worry creased the old lady's brow.
"Her aunt doesn't come to our mansion often. Something must have happened to the Qi family."
Liang Yuzhou suddenly sneered. His deep, black eyes stared at the old lady.
"Grandmother, have you promised Wanchu anything that I don't know about?"
His tone was very respectful, but the old lady could detect a hint of urgent interrogation.
The letter of releasing the concubine hidden in her sleeve seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.
"Why do you suddenly ask this?"
Liang Yuzhou knew that the older one gets, the craftier one becomes. With a simple counter - question, the old lady not only revealed nothing but also threw the question back at him intact.
He decided not to beat around the bush anymore.
"Late last night, Wanchu had all her dowry transported away. Do you know about this?"
The old lady's heart tightened suddenly. Her hand unconsciously grasped the red sandalwood Buddhist beads that Wanchu had given her.
So Yuzhou had already noticed something was wrong.
He had long had a premonition that Wanchu would leave him.
Although her heart was in turmoil, the old lady remained calm on the surface. "I've long since stopped managing things. Those are all Wanchu's things. How she disposes of them and where she transports them is her freedom. We have no right to interfere."
"For a married woman to transport her dowry out of her husband's house, what does this represent? Do you really not understand, Grandmother?"
Liang Yuzhou's handsome face was cold. There was a hint of anger in his tone. "You look energetic. You don't seem so muddled that you're oblivious to the world."
The old lady frowned. "If you care so much about Wanchu, why did you say you didn't love her and break her heart?"
Liang Yuzhou's heart felt as if it had been pierced by a cold wind. The pain seeped out from the depths of his flesh.
"It's not that I don't love her. It's that she doesn't love me..."
...
As soon as Song Wanchu entered the gate of the Shuiyun Residence, Wen Shi rushed up and grabbed her hand.
Her eyes were swollen and red from crying.
"Wanchu, something terrible has happened. Your uncle has been arrested by the Dali Temple!"
It was like a thunderclap exploding in Song Wanchu's ear.
On the way back, she had thought that something bad might have happened. She had even prepared for the worst, which was that Liang Yuzhou had discovered that she had secretly transported her dowry out of the mansion...
"Uncle has always been law - abiding, paid taxes on time, and never done any shady business. Why would he be arrested?"
Uncle's caravan was about to set off, but something had suddenly happened at this critical moment. It was too strange!
Wen Shi was crying so hard that she could hardly catch her breath. Her voice was hoarse.
Suyue and Nanzhi one stroked her chest to help her calm down, while the other quickly handed her a cup of throat - moistening tea.
After taking a sip of tea, Wen Shi managed to speak hoarsely. "This morning, some people from the Ministry of Revenue suddenly came and said they wanted to check the goods going out of the city. They had already checked them before, but for some reason, they came again. Your uncle thought it was strange, but he still opened the warehouse and let them in. Who would have thought that there were an extra 500 catties of salt in the warehouse!"
Song Wanchu's heart sank suddenly.
The laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty were very strict about the sale of private salt. An individual could not sell more than 1,000 catties of salt at a time, and a very high tax had to be paid.
"Uncle has always been very cautious in the salt - trading business and never taken any chances."
Song Wanchu said, "The extra 500 catties of salt must not have been secretly added by him. Someone in the caravan must have wanted to take advantage of the large quantity of goods to avoid taxes and make more money."
Wen Shi nodded sobbingly. "Your uncle was arrested by the people from the Ministry of Revenue and taken to the Dali Temple. Lord Shi of the Dali Temple quickly found out that it was a small boss in your uncle's caravan who had secretly stuffed the salt in, taking chances. He has already confessed his crime and pleaded guilty. But the people from the Ministry of Revenue said that your uncle was guilty of negligence and would also be sentenced to five years in prison!"
Song Wanchu's face instantly lost its color.
Uncle was clearly being wronged!
The officials from the Ministry of Revenue were avoiding the main issue and clinging to Uncle's mistake.
It was an obvious case of targeting!
Who wanted to harm Uncle?
Subconsciously, the arrogant and venomous face of Yu Huiyan popped into Song Wanchu's mind.
Her brother had been arrested by Liang Yuzhou, and her father, Yu Jingnian, had once been the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and had deep connections in the ministry.
Yu Huiyan wanted to take revenge on her and was using Uncle as a scapegoat!
Although there was no solid evidence to prove her conjecture, a woman's intuition told her that it was the Yu family that was manipulating all this in the dark!
"Wanchu, your uncle is the pillar of the family. Once he's in prison, I'm like a headless fly. Your cousin and your elder brother are far away in the south of the Yangtze River. They can't help in time. I had no choice but to come to you to discuss this."
Song Wanchu knew that her aunt would never come to the mansion so late unless it was absolutely necessary.
Her aunt was born into a wealthy merchant family in the south of the Yangtze River. She had four elder brothers above her and was the darling of the family. After falling in love at first sight with Uncle, she married him and was doted on by Uncle.
On a normal day, she just drank tea, met with noble ladies, and went shopping. The most she had ever worried about in her life was the matter between Song Wanchu and Liang Yuzhou.
If it weren't for her aunt's foresight, there wouldn't have been the letter of releasing the concubine.
Uncle's family was her maternal family. She couldn't just sit back and do nothing.
"Aunt, don't panic. Let's first find a way to meet Uncle. I think if Uncle can produce evidence that the small boss deliberately deceived him and that he was completely unaware, there's still a chance to reverse this situation."
"Yes, yes, that's right. Lord Shi is impartial and will surely handle the case justly. Even if we have to pay a large fine, our family will accept it. But your uncle must not go to prison!"
Song Wanchu glanced at the sky outside. The sky was filled with red clouds.
"At this time, Lord Shi must still be handling cases in the Dali Temple. We must act quickly. Aunt, let's go now!"
She told Nanzhi to quickly tell the servant to prepare the carriage.
"But..." Wen Shi frowned deeply, looking worried. "It's true that Lord Shi is impartial, but he's also well - known for being unyielding to human feelings. Can we two women persuade him to let us see your uncle?"
Song Wanchu pursed her pale lips. "If necessary, we can just use Liang Yuzhou's name. Lord Shi is on good terms with Liang Yuzhou. Although I'm not in his favor, I still have the title of a noble concubine of the Duke's Mansion. He should give us some face."
"What's the matter that's making my wife so troubled?"