Contentment with modest wealth

Chapter 320 Taking the Long Way Around Instead of the Nearby

Madam Yan's eyes were like nails, fixedly fixed on Lu Jia's gaze.

Lu Jia neither retreated nor flinched, not even flinching.

Lu Ying, who was standing nearby, was already shaken by Lu Jia's words.

It was already surprising that Lu Jia seized on Jin's mistakes and put the unsuspecting Madam Yan in the spotlight, but she never expected that Lu Jia would drag the Jin family into this matter!

This is no small matter. The Yan family has always preferred to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty go free; they treated Lu Jia this way, and they will certainly do the same with the Jin family!
She stood there for a while, clutching her palms, then stepped forward and said, “Mother! My sister’s reminder is very reasonable. If my sister-in-law had succeeded in harming someone that day, my father would have had no reason to tolerate it. Wouldn’t that have driven my father away?”

"Even after all this, he hasn't turned against the Yan family. How can the Yan family still trust him? At this critical juncture, my sister-in-law's actions are definitely not innocent!"

"Shut up!"

Madam Yan clenched her fists. Then her gaze sharpened: "Show them out!"

Lu Ying paused.

Madam Yan stood up and looked intently at Lu Jia: "Girl, you'd better be telling the truth."

Lu Jia also stood up: "If you want to deal with me, Madam, you can do so at any time. I, Lu Jia, have no ability to turn the world upside down."

Madam Yan gave a deep, cold snort and walked out with a flick of her sleeve.

Lu Ying saw her to the door, then looked back at Lu Jia. The two of them went out one after the other and headed towards the front yard.

A large number of people from the Yan family still followed behind, with the people leading them being from Madam Yan's quarters.

The two sisters remained silent the entire way. Only after they were seated in the sedan chair did Lu Jia take Lu Ying's hand, smile at her, and say, "Let's go back."

Lu Ying parted her lips slightly, glancing at the servants close behind her out of the corner of her eye. Finally, she pursed her lips and nodded.

As the sedan chair left Yanfu Alley, Yinliu knocked on the sedan chair pole from below: "Young Madam, do you know how dangerous things were at Yanfu before?"

Lu Jia glanced at her: "I know."

She might not know much about the Yan family's shady dealings, but what about the layout of the Yan family's inner quarters?
As she walked towards the back garden, guards stood watch every three or five steps. Last time at Baiyun Temple, it was the guards she brought who protected her from disaster, so Madam Yan would naturally take precautions in addition to that.

They wouldn't openly commit murder, but with a little effort, setting a trap to frame her for "murder" or "arson" at the Yan family's residence wouldn't be difficult. Just like with the Li family they mentioned earlier, they'd pin a label on her first, and once that label was attached, they could then decide how to crush their target.

Of course, that was Lu Jia in the eyes of the Yan family. In reality, even if she really couldn't get away, how could Tang Yu and the others allow the Yan family to succeed?
Before entering the Sandalwood Pavilion, she originally planned to make a scene. Since the Yan family would never trust her again, she might as well go all out and completely break off relations, so as to save herself the trouble of putting on an act with them.

She wasn't really in dire straits within the Shen family. Shen Qingzhou was more worried about her than she was about to make a move. Although her father-in-law, Grand Commandant Shen, didn't like her, he was always ready to stand up for her when necessary. What was she afraid of? Let the Yan family do what they wanted! At worst, Lu Jie could just publicly announce that he was severing his father-daughter relationship with her.

But to her surprise, Madam Yan tried to intimidate her by bringing up the despicable things the Yan family had done. The blood-stained booklet was full of "achievements" by the Yan family. Several of the things she had casually flipped through earlier were things that Lu Jia had heard about in her previous life, and now she finally recognized them.

The Yan family's past crimes are too numerous to list. If she didn't take this opportunity to set fire to their backyard, wouldn't she be betraying Madam Yan's arrangements?
When they were halfway there, she lifted the curtain again and instructed, "If you receive any news from the Lu family in the next few days, keep a close eye on them."

……

Menggang Mountain is located in a strategic northwestern fortress, but because it is far from the northern desert, the surrounding area of ​​more than a hundred miles is all mountains.

The mountain wasn't particularly high, only a hundred or so feet. The cliff where the accident happened was near the summit. The path was only three feet wide, with one side being a mountain wall and the other a sheer drop. Below the cliff was a sheer drop to the bottom, and unless it was a bright, sunny day, you could hardly see the bottom.

Fortunately, the weather has been good for Shen Zhui and his group these past few days, with sunny days, but their operations have not been smooth. Just as Shen Qingzhou and his group had learned before they arrived, there is no road leading down the mountain. Not only is there no road down the mountain, but the several paths that originally led to the bottom of the valley from other valleys have been covered by dense forests.

Fortunately, Shen Zhui knew how to read maps. In the first two days, he repeatedly compared several local mountain maps from the last few decades with the maps, and he discovered three more routes.

At this moment, He Ping also arrived with the Embroidered Uniform Guard. In order to race against them, He Qu found several experienced hunters at the foot of the mountain to lead the way.

But when they explored all three routes, they found that they were either blocked by collapsed rocks or had become dead ends, and they could no longer see what they were originally like, let alone find their way to the deep pool at the bottom of the valley.

"What should we do?" A guard looked worriedly at the flag of the Embroidered Uniform Guard planted high above the cliff. "At their speed, they'll catch up with us soon. If they discover our tracks, it will be difficult for the Grand Commandant and the young master to explain themselves to the outside world."

"What's there to be afraid of?" He Qudong said. "If we can't find them, they might not be able to either. At most, if they come, we can just avoid them."

“But we still need to buy some time,” another guard reminded us. “The deadline the young master gave us isn’t far off.”

He Qu then fell silent, turning his gaze to Shen Zhui, who was still studying the map.

"Assuming the silver fell into the pond with the overturned vehicle, if I were the thief Yan, I would completely block the road after the silver was transported away, making it impossible for anyone to enter."

"But unless all those transporting this batch of silver are members of the Yan family, why would anyone involved be willing to risk their lives for them without leaving themselves a way out?"

Shen Zhui uttered these words as if to himself, and then murmured, "If I were the one transporting the silver, I would at least leave a way out so that if something happens in the future, I can find evidence to exonerate myself."

He turned to look at He Qu and the others: "Don't you agree?"

He Qu was stunned: "What you say makes a lot of sense, young master..."

Shen Zhui straightened up: "If there really is a path, then we won't find it by staying here and searching aimlessly."

"To find the way, we must first find the person who transported the silver."

He Qu said ruefully, "Such a big event couldn't possibly involve many people. Besides the Yan family, it's the Jin family."

"If we want to find the person who transported the silver, we can only start with the Jin family... We haven't really investigated the Jin family's background yet!"

"That's why!" Shen Zhui slapped his thigh. "We've gone to the trouble of going to the capital! Quickly prepare the horses and head back to the capital. Let's go find the Jin family right now!"