Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I said to Concubine Zhao, “Since you don’t want to leave, then stay in Autumn Cicada Courtyard. Another gate will be opened there. From now on, without this Marquis’s permission, you are not to enter the Marquis Manor. Come here once a month to collect ten taels of silver for your living expenses.”

Concubine Zhao was an honest fool.

I was genuinely worried that if I gave her the full five hundred taels, she’d turn around and hand it straight to Madam Song.

It would have been one thing if she wanted to honestly remain a servant herself, but she even wanted to drag her own daughter down into servitude for Madam Song’s daughter.

In the end, she’d done plenty of dirty work, gained nothing from it, taken the blame for plenty, and died the most miserable death of all.

She was the perfect example of someone who loved suffering so much she’d never run out of it.

If I let her come to the Marquis Manor, Madam Song would have endless chores waiting for her every single day.

Concubine Zhao was clearly stunned.

Her lips moved hesitantly, as if she wanted to speak.

I didn’t want to hear it, so I said crisply, “Go. From now on, other than coming here to collect your money, you are not to appear anywhere in the Marquis Manor. Not even the madam is allowed to summon you here. Did you hear me?”

Concubine Zhao was devastated.

Covering her face, she asked in disbelief,

“What did this concubine do wrong? What exactly did this concubine do wrong?”

I only watched her quietly.

I’d heard that when slaves were first freed, they were terrified.

They thought their master had abandoned them, and would desperately try to place the chains that bound them back into their master’s hands.

But once they tasted what it meant to be master of their own life, they would despise their former selves, hate the master they once served, and feel ashamed to even speak of the past.

She was in the first stage.

I would wait patiently.

Under supervision, Concubine Zhao moved into Autumn Cicada Courtyard.

The steward had already received orders: once she finished moving, he was to build a wall between Autumn Cicada Courtyard and the Marquis Manor, then open a gate on the side of Autumn Cicada Courtyard facing the main street.

If Concubine Zhao wanted to come to the Marquis Manor in the future, she would have to enter through the front gate.

By the time all of this was done, I was exhausted.

Madam Song attentively poured me more tea, smiling as she looked at me.

“My lord, what is all this for today? At this rate, the Marquis Manor will be empty. Soon it will be just you and me left.”

What was she so pleased about?

Then it hit me.

She thought her bitter days were finally over, and that she could at last enjoy a private life with just the two of us.

I immediately dumped a bucket of cold water over that fantasy.

“Prepare the carriage. This Marquis will personally bring my eldest daughter back.”

Madam Song froze.

The teacup slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor with a sharp, clear sound.

“My lord, what did you say?”

I had no time to explain.

At this point in the book, my eldest daughter, Chu Wanqing, had fallen seriously ill and had not recovered for a long time.

The people at the estate claimed she had the plague and locked her in the woodshed to fend for herself.

She didn’t die. Instead, her soul traveled through three thousand worlds.

When she woke up, she became a dazzling, peerless young lady and returned in a blaze of glory.

But I always felt that the one who returned then was no longer really her.

I rode off at full speed.

When I arrived at the estate, I found several people dragging her toward the woodshed.

I immediately shouted them down and gathered the tiny girl into my arms.

She was frighteningly thin. Her little face was waxy yellow, and from going so long without water, her lips were covered in layers of dry, cracked skin.

When she saw me, her gaze flickered for a moment, but very quickly, a dead stillness settled into her eyes.

She didn’t trust the original host.

She didn’t think he had come to save her.

Her instincts were right.

But I wasn’t the original host…

I lifted her up and said gently, “Don’t worry. I’m here. Rest well. When you wake up, everything will be better.”

She closed her eyes, but her eyeballs moved restlessly beneath her lids. She clearly didn’t dare sleep, yet she didn’t dare disobey either, so she simply kept her eyes shut and pretended to rest.

I carried her back inside and ordered someone to fetch a doctor.

In this remote place, there was only a barefoot doctor. He came over panting, took her pulse, examined her, and left some medicine behind.

One of the servant women went to boil it.

I fed it to her myself. Once the medicine took effect, she couldn’t hold on any longer and drifted off to sleep.

That sleep lasted a full day and night.

On the second day, Madam Song arrived.

She looked at the trembling servants filling the courtyard, at me with my face like frost, and at the newly awakened Chu Wanqing, who was full of wariness. Then she said coldly,

“You fell ill and still didn’t think to send someone home with word. Putting on this half-dead display on purpose-what, you want everyone to know that I, your stepmother, mistreated you? So young, and yet already so scheming.”

A little girl dressed up as delicately as a porcelain doll peeked out from behind Madam Song.

This was Madam Song’s daughter, Chu Yanran.

She was fair, soft, and pretty, with round bright eyes fixed on the sickly-looking Chu Wanqing as she asked in a sweet voice,

“Mother, who is she? She’s dark and skinny and looks so ugly. Do we really have such an ugly relative in our family?”

Chu Wanqing lowered her eyes and said nothing. Her fists were clenched tight, and the hatred filling her chest showed plainly in the veins standing out on her hands.

I let out a mocking laugh, then said gently, “Yanran, come here.”

Chu Yanran didn’t suspect a thing.

Like a baby swallow flying back to its nest, she threw herself into my arms and smiled sweetly. “Father…”

My expression changed in an instant. I grabbed her wrist, snatched up the ruler, and brought it down hard across her hand.

Chu Yanran let out a sharp shriek. Her pale palm swelled up at once.

“Father, why are you hitting me?”

Panicked, Madam Song immediately got to her feet and rushed over.

I said evenly, “I’m only giving her ten strokes. For every step you take, I’ll add one more. Take ten steps, and I’ll add ten.”

“Master!” Madam Song cried, her eyes reddening with panic.

I held Chu Yanran’s hand firmly and gave her twelve crisp strikes, because Madam Song had taken two steps.

Chu Yanran cried until her whole face was red, all composure gone.

I said flatly, “Crying so ugly-whose ugly little girl is this? So she’s mine after all!”

Chu Yanran froze, staring at me in disbelief. Then she hurried into Madam Song’s arms and sobbed so hard she could barely catch her breath.

Madam Song was furious.

“Master, what exactly has been wrong with you these past few days? Are you really going to stand up for Chu Wanqing? Don’t forget what you did to her mother back then.”

This was a secret shared by the original host and Madam Song.

Back then, the original host’s family had fallen on hard times. By the time the enormous Marquis Manor had been passed down to his generation, only the title remained; there was no wealth left. It was hard enough just to grease the right palms and secure a suitable post.

So he cast aside Madam Song, his childhood sweetheart who had grown up with him, and instead sought the hand of Madam Liu, whose family was immensely wealthy.

Unfortunately, he was the sort who wanted everything.

He got the delicate wife, yet still wanted his childhood sweetheart too.

Madam Liu and Madam Song became pregnant one after the other and each gave birth to a daughter.

Several years passed like that.

As Chu Yanran grew older, Madam Song became unwilling to remain nothing more than an outside woman.

So while Madam Liu was pregnant again, she plotted to make Madam Liu discover her affair with the original host.

Madam Liu suffered a massive shock and died in labor from hemorrhaging, taking the child with her.

But to the outside world, they claimed Madam Liu had suffered this disaster because the baby had been in the wrong position.

They even said that before dying, Madam Liu had left behind final words asking the original host to marry Madam Song so she could take care of Chu Wanqing.

This was the secret shared by Madam Song and the original host.

Now that my temperament had changed so drastically, she was using this matter to threaten me, trying to force me onto the same side as her.

But I could not give her her way.