Contentment with modest wealth

Chapter 268 You can know a person's face but not their heart!
Deep within Dengyou Hutong, in a courtyard with a large pomegranate tree planted inside the walls, where laughter and music could be heard even before dusk, was Yixianglou, Yan Qu's favorite haunt.

Lu Jia said that there was a seventeen-year-old girl in Yixiang Pavilion who had been eyeing Yan Qu for a long time, so she asked Changfu to come here to inquire, and he got the results immediately.

How Lu Jia found out about this remains a mystery, but the information was extremely accurate. If one wanted to get the information to Lu Ying's ears without leaving a trace, this would be a good choice.

Since Yan Qu frequently visits this place, it's likely that his entourage also frequents it. The most convenient way is to have this news relayed back to the Yan family through one of Yan Qu's associates.

The difficulty lies in how to get this message to the Yan family without the messenger noticing.

Fifteen minutes after Shen Zhui came to his door, Xie Yi and his men stood with Shen Zhui in Dengyou Hutong.

Xie Yi didn't want to come here either, but how could he possibly go against the iron-willed Second Young Master Shen, who grew up in the yellow sands of the Northwest?
Rather than being persuaded, he practically dragged me there!

Xie Yi had absolutely no room to refuse!
"Don't just stand there, hurry up and think of something! My teacher told me to hand in my homework tomorrow afternoon, or it will be too late!"

Look how anxious he is!
Xie Yi was covered in sweat, gave him a resentful look, and then forced himself to send Chang Fu away: "Take some men upstairs and see if you can find anyone from the Yan family."

Changfu and his team acted with remarkable speed; they left immediately after receiving the order.

But Shen Zhui didn't quite agree: "That won't work. You have to rely on luck. What if they don't come? Are you going to just sit here and wait for them to come?"

"I can't just go to the Yan family to invite them over."

Shen Zhui, holding the sword at his waist, chuckled and said, "It's not impossible to invite him over."

Xie Yi glanced at him: "What do you mean by that?"

Shen Zhui bent down and whispered a few words in his ear.

Xie Yi's eyes brightened slightly, and he nodded involuntarily, "That's right." But after thinking for a moment, he added, "There's still one thing missing!"

After saying that, he turned around and ordered, "Go get me some paper and a pen!"

Shen Zhui asked, "Why are you getting paper and pens?"

"I'd love to hear about the calligraphy of that seventeenth young lady!"

……

As night fell, Lu Ying went to the main room as usual to pay her respects to her parents at dawn and dusk.

Madam Yan glanced at her face discreetly, and in front of Madam Jin, several concubine's wives and daughters, she beckoned her to her side: "Poor thing, how come you've had so much going on these past two months? It seems you haven't been eating or sleeping well. Here's some soup, drink it quickly."

The voice was as warm as the spring sun, but the fingers that brought the bowl were cold and devoid of warmth.

Lu Ying obediently accepted it, thanked her, and drank it.

Back in the room, Granny Li immediately greeted her: "We've got some information about what Grandma asked us to find out yesterday!"

Lu Ying stopped at the threshold: "So fast?"

Granny Li pulled her into the house, then turned around and closed the door. She then took out a piece of paper from her sleeve: "Grandma, look quickly!"

It was a note with neat handwriting, on which was written a five-character poem that Yan Qu was once quite proud of!
Lu Ying immediately frowned: "This is a woman's handwriting. Where did it come from? Who wrote it?" "Hasn't Third Master been staying at the mansion these past two days? About an hour ago, someone suddenly came to the gatehouse looking for his servant Yang Qing."

"Because I was ordered by my mistress to find out the details, I dared not miss it, so I had someone follow him. Who knew that the place he went to was Yixianglou in Dengyou Hutong."

"It turns out that Third Master has a lover in Yixiang Pavilion, named something like Seventeenth Miss! Yang Qing went there to see her."

"When the men who had been sent away saw Yang Qing come out, they stayed behind to inquire and learned that the Third Master had returned to the mansion the day before because the First Master had specially sent someone out to find him the night before!"

Lu Ying said, "Since he was sent out to search the night before, why did he only return the next morning?"

"It is said that the master's men did not find Yixianglou the night before, and it seems that they still do not know the exact whereabouts of the third master!"
"It was only after Third Master heard the news that he returned."

Lu Ying sat down: "Yan Liang? He's too busy with things at home and in the government, how could he have the time to care about this?"
"If you were going to take charge, why didn't you do it sooner?"

"grandmother!"

Lu Ying had barely finished speaking when Ying Zi came in again: "Grandma, the people that Granny Li sent out earlier overheard the eldest mistress's people talking at Yixiang Tower..."

"The Jin family?" Lu Ying suddenly looked up. "What is she doing sending people there?!"

“I don’t know!” Yingzi shook her head. “But it was the servants she brought from the Jin family that went, there’s no doubt about that.”

After saying this, Lu Ying and Granny Li immediately looked at each other.

"Could it be her?" Lu Ying stood up, stroking the table. "Is she the one secretly sabotaging me?"

“That makes sense!” Granny Li stepped forward. “The master wouldn’t easily concern himself with such trivial matters. As the mistress said, if he wanted to, he would have done so long ago. The eldest mistress stays in the mansion all day long. Back then, the mistress wasn’t married into the family yet. If she wanted to know where the third master was, she would have found some clues.”

"If Madam had known about the connection between Third Master and Yixianglou all along, she would have only needed to whisper in his ear, and he would have had no reason not to listen!"
"The people looking for Third Master that night didn't go to Yixiang Pavilion. It seems that it was just that Madam was inconvenient to directly point out the place to Third Master!"

Lu Ying gritted her teeth.

Yingzi was puzzled: "Why would Madam do this? Our grandmother has never offended her! Whenever we met before, she always treated her as her sister-in-law. Even before our grandmother married into the family, she never lacked things from our grandmother!"

“The past is the past, now we are sisters-in-law. How can the Jin family compare to the Lu family?” said Granny Li. “The young mistress of the Yan family is not just a simple housekeeper, but more importantly, she is a good wife and mother. The eldest mistress is guarding against our grandmother because of her good background, hoping she will rise up and gain favor from her parents-in-law!”

“Grandma,” Granny Li stepped forward, “this person is insidious and ruthless, we must be on guard! The eldest mistress goes to the main house to show filial piety whenever she has free time. Please don’t act rashly again!”

Lu Ying clenched her teeth even tighter.

"You can know a person's face but not their heart." Yingzi also found it unbelievable. "I always thought that Grandma was kind and friendly, but it turns out she's a smiling tiger!"
"Since she wants to compete for favor, then let her compete. Is our grandmother really inferior to her?"

"Go out first." Lu Ying slowly raised her eyes. "Close the door behind you."

The two people inside looked at each other, then shut their mouths and left one after the other.

Lu Ying sat down, looking at the crackling lamp wick, and suddenly reached out and pressed her palm down on the lamp flame, instantly suffocating it!

In the darkness, only her low, slow, cold sneer could be heard.