Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 583 Vicious
Xu Shu stared at the woman, a faint smile appearing on her lips. This was the first time she had shown such a smile since becoming the leader.

It happened naturally, without any hint of insincerity, though it looked somewhat horrifying.

The woman's body indeed shrank back.

Xu Shu said, "How do you know she's on our side? Back then, the old leader trusted Xie Yisong just the same way. If my father hadn't overheard Xie Yisong's conversation with the Imperial Guard Commander and risked his life to send out the message, the Holy Sect would have ceased to exist long ago."

"Although we all come from the Xu family of Jiangling, we are a collateral branch and have never been recognized by the Xu clan."

“Madam Xu can marry Xie Yisong, but I cannot marry Xie Yizhi. That’s the difference. In their hearts, the collateral relatives are nothing but ants. Xie Yisong took advantage of my father’s acquaintance with the leader, and had my father persuade the leader to accept the court’s offer of amnesty, while secretly gathering troops to annihilate the Holy Sect.”

"At that time, in order to put the old leader at ease, my father took our whole family as hostages in the Holy Church. If something really happened, how could our whole family survive? Does Xie Yisong really care about the lives of our whole family?"

As memories flooded into Xu Shu's mind, she recalled how Xie Yisong had agreed to the amnesty and would petition the court to reinstate her father. In return, the Xie family would agree to her marriage with Xie Yizhi.

It turned out to be a trap.

They were all stepping stones for Xie Yisong to get promoted and make a fortune.

Xu Shu took a deep breath: "So why should I leave his daughter a way out?"

The woman clearly hadn't expected the leader to react this way. Her face turned pale, her lips trembled, and only now did she realize that she had said the wrong thing.

She thought the leader would really let them go.

"Find all those people from Jiangling," Xu Shu instructed Xue Er, "and deal with them thoroughly, leaving no one alive."

The woman inside the house was grabbed by the arm and dragged outside. Soon, her screams came from outside as several sticks mercilessly struck her abdomen.

The woman's voice came through intermittently: "Master Xie has been wronged... The court really wants to offer him amnesty... Someone... deliberately framed him."

Xu Shu sat down: "Find out exactly when they started to become disloyal?"

Xue Er whispered, "I will interrogate them one by one. There will always be someone who is afraid of death." Especially after seeing the woman's miserable appearance, someone will surely confess the truth.

Xu Shu said, "Even now, some people still believe that Xie Yisong really wants to be recruited by the government."

Xue Er gritted her teeth: "The bodies of Xie Yisong and his wife should be dragged out and their bones crushed and scattered to the winds."

“What’s the use?” Xu Shu said, “There will still be people who use what happened back then to cause trouble in the sect. They are ultimately not convinced that a woman like me is in charge of the Holy Sect.”

Xue Er's face turned fierce: "Rest assured, Your Excellency, I will definitely bring those people to justice... Once they are dead, they will naturally stop talking nonsense."

After saying this, Xue Er paused for a moment, wanting to say something, but ultimately couldn't speak.

Xu Shu said, "Speak your mind..."

Xue Er then stammered, "Some people say that Your Excellency is going to Bianjing, and will leave the Holy Church to do..."

Xu Shu suddenly smiled: "What?"

“Marrying into the Xie family and becoming the wife of the Privy Councilor,” Xue Er said, “is probably why some people in the sect have other ideas.”

Xu Shu said, "He's just a Privy Councilor, how can he compare to the Holy Church?"

Xue Er's face lit up with joy: "Your Excellency is right."

"Go do your work," Xu Shu said. "Once the affairs of the sect are settled, we still need to go to Bianjing to deal with the trouble left behind by Qiao Si."

Xu Shu stopped talking, and Xue Er immediately went to do his work. Tonight, many people were destined to be killed, but as long as the Holy Church could be restored to stability, it would all be worth it.

Xu Shu sat in front of the bronze mirror, looking at her own face. Whenever she saw this face, she couldn't help but think of her elder sister.

Of the Xu family, she was the only one who resembled her eldest sister. She became close to her sister because of this and often visited her home. That's why she met the Xie brothers at the Xu family's old residence.

The eldest sister liked Xie Yisong, while she was in love with Xie Yizhi.

They originally thought they would marry into the Xie family together, but the Xie family refused to agree to the marriage because the father was convicted of a crime and dismissed from his post.

Xu Shu looked in the mirror and said, "You were the one who kept saying you would help me find a solution."

“If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have persuaded my father to risk acting as a lobbyist for Xie Yisong.”

Unexpectedly, this led to her taking advantage of him.

She was there when that unfilial son was taken away. Seeing her elder sister die tragically, she couldn't bear it and let the child go.

If she had known this would happen, she shouldn't have been so soft-hearted.

The kind of parents you have will determine the kind of daughter you raise.

“Soon,” Xu Shu said to herself in the mirror, as if speaking to her elder sister. “I’ll send her to reunite with you all right away.”

……

Bianjing (Kaifeng)

Zhang Sanlang stood at the South City Wharf, watching as Madam Xie boarded the carriage, followed by several merchants who also mounted their horses, and the group gradually disappeared into the distance.

Zhang Sanlang wanted to speak, but his throat itched and he coughed.

Last time at the porcelain shop, Zhang Sanlang was terrified when he saw Chen Yixiu and the others being arrested. He fell ill that very night and has not recovered since.

The doctor said he had caught a cold, but Zhang Sanlang knew that he had a mental illness.

The Zhang family wanted to use Chen Yixiu and others to seize the position of the head of the porcelain business. Although he only had this idea, in Madam Xie's eyes, he was already in cahoots with Chen Yixiu and others.

The thought that Yaozhou Kiln might be destroyed in his hands kept him up at night.

As he had expected, Madam Xie opened a coal kiln in Bianjing to fire porcelain, and today was the day to open the kiln. Madam Xie invited many kiln owners to come and see the porcelain, but the Zhang family was not among them.

Master Zhang patted his son's back and said, "Don't worry. Yaozhou is a major kiln. We also have porcelain to send to the market. It's such a big deal. Master Xie can't just give up. We still have a chance."

Zhang Sanlang shook his head: "These days, my son has finally figured out why Xie Xinglao wanted to re-sign the contract."

Looking at his emaciated son, Master Zhang felt that his son was somewhat deranged, but he dared not go against his wishes: "Why?"

Zhang Sanlang, panting, asked, "Father, have you seen the porcelain from the coal kilns in Daming Prefecture? Is it different from the porcelain from our coal kilns?"

Master Zhang nodded: "The colors are more vibrant, but... that's just the porcelain kiln in Daming Prefecture, it has little to do with our Yaozhou kiln. Besides, we can also repair the coal kiln..."

Zhang Sanlang shook his head: "It's too late. Madam Xie has passed on the firing techniques of the coal kiln to those porcelain kilns. They will soon be able to use the new kiln to fire many new shapes. At that time, the market will be full of such porcelain... Our old porcelain will inevitably be impacted."

"Firing porcelain in a coal kiln would greatly reduce our costs. How can we possibly compete with them?"

If there were only one coal kiln in Daliang, it would be uniquely outstanding.

The rest of the porcelain kilns could only look on with envy.

However, if many coal kilns suddenly appear in Daliang, and each kiln, relying on the coal kilns, produces new styles of porcelain, then that will become the prevailing trend.

For kilns that missed out on this boom, it was a heavy blow.

(End of this chapter)