Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 302 The incident came to light
Since her last bout of madness, Madam Zheng has been confined to the east wing and forbidden from going out, while her son Zhang Yi has been moved to the backyard to recuperate. In the east wing, besides Madam Zheng and a group of servants, there is also her newborn daughter.

"Why is it so quiet today? Has that young lady woken up yet? Tell the wet nurse to eat a lighter diet. I heard her sobbing this morning and it sounded like she was phlegming."

Madam Zheng spent the whole morning chanting sutras in the Buddhist hall. When she came out of the hall and returned to her room, she found that it was quieter than usual. She first asked a question casually, and then instructed, "Send that little girl to the old lady's place again tonight, so that she can see how clever and lovely she is."

She knew that her previous loss of control had already made Madam Yuan disgusted with her. To change Madam Yuan's opinion and attitude towards her, she could only keep emphasizing her contribution of bearing children for the Zhang family and make Madam Yuan realize that she was the undisputed first wife of the Zhang family in this generation, and that she was not someone that a bastard or illegitimate child could provoke!

"Just now, the old lady ordered someone to take the young lady away, along with Xu Niang and Peng Niang."

The maidservant beside her quickly stepped forward to answer.

No wonder the courtyard is so deserted.

Upon hearing this, Madam Zheng nodded, then sighed inwardly that it was a pity her youngest daughter wasn't a boy. If she were a boy, it would undoubtedly make her position in the family more secure, and when she grew up, the two brothers could join forces to fight against Zhang Dai, that bastard, making it even harder for him to gain a foothold in the family, not to mention stealing the fortune of others!

After a simple meal, Madam Zheng noticed that the sun was gradually setting outside the hall and immediately frowned, saying, "Has Su Qiniang not returned yet? This foolish woman has become increasingly lazy lately. Even when asked to go out and buy bone-healing medicine for my husband, she is so slow. If she misses the time for my husband to take his medicine, she must be severely punished!"

While she was still raging, she was unaware that Su Qiniang, along with Xu Niang, Peng Niang, and several other maids who had been serving her for years and had recently been summoned to the back hall, were all kneeling in the back hall with fearful expressions, not daring to look up at the stern-faced old lady, Madam Yuan.

At this point, several maids confessed that Zheng had intended to use witchcraft to harm people. Yuan suppressed her anger and continued to press for details: "Which wicked woman instigated her mistress to commit this sinister and harmful scheme?"

"Last year, the mistress instructed Su Qiniang to keep a close eye on Liu Lang, falsely accusing him of contracting the plague and forbidding him from returning to the east wing, instead placing him in a separate garden. Su Qiniang firmly believed that Liu Lang would not survive, but unexpectedly, Liu Lang's life was not meant to end..."

Seeing that their scheme had been exposed, the servants no longer cared about the loyalty of protecting each other and tried their best to shift the blame onto others in an attempt to lessen their own guilt.

Zhang Daili listened to the confessions of several servants by his grandmother's desk, which could be considered as filling in the gaps in the malice and harm that these people in the house had done to Zhang Luonu before he transmigrated to this world.

"I...I'm innocent, Madam..."

Upon hearing this, Su Qiniang's face turned pale with fear. Just as she was about to speak a few words in her defense, Madam Yuan slammed her hand on the table in anger and shouted, "Slap her! Give this wicked woman ten slaps first, then let her speak! You audacious wicked servants, do you even know who the master of this house is? How dare you mistreat my grandson like this! Aren't you afraid of being cursed and never being able to reincarnate!"

Several maids recounted in fits and starts the various things Zheng had done since entering the household, even detailing the old stories of how Zhang Dai's birth mother, Wu, had been neglected, ostracized, and bullied in the family. As Yuan listened, her face turned frosty, and she repeatedly exclaimed angrily, "Such wicked deeds! How could a virtuous woman from a respectable family do such things? I never imagined that my hospitable hospitality would lead to the arrival of such a poisonous creature who plots against the family!"

Upon hearing the servants' accounts, Zhang Dai realized that Zheng Shi's private conduct was quite extensive. Besides her actions against him and his birth mother, she had also embezzled family wealth and squandered it on others. The money she used to help her mother's brothers was relatively small; the majority was spent on Buddhist rituals.

Take the case of using sorcery to murder Zhang Dai, for example. It cost four or five thousand strings of cash, and it involved more than just this one monk; there were other passing sorcerers involved as well, which is now impossible to trace.

Upon hearing that Zheng had spent so much money, Zhang Dai couldn't help but sigh inwardly at how foolish the woman was. If she had been willing to give him that sum of money directly, he might have packed up and run away long ago, instead of staying in the Zhang family and causing all the subsequent trouble.

Based solely on the accounts of these servants, Zhang Dai roughly calculated that Zheng had distributed at least 100,000 strings of cash over the years, sometimes even an entire estate, including the people and the land, as alms to the Buddha.

The reason Zhang Jun took the initiative to expose his family's financial situation last year was because his family's deficit was becoming increasingly difficult to conceal, so he resorted to this tactic to balance the books by including the amount of his family's deficit.

Hearing that his scumbag father had gone to great lengths to clean up the mess Zheng had made, Zhang Dai couldn't help but sigh that even a worthless man could have some genuine feelings.

When she saw that his grandmother was also surprised, she couldn't help but realize that their family was really wealthy. Zheng's actions were not particularly thorough or meticulous, but Yuan seemed to have been oblivious to it all these years. That could only mean that these expenses were all small amounts and did not affect the normal maintenance of the family affairs, so she did not pay attention to them or investigate them in depth.

It's truly a case of the rich feasting while the poor rot!

Zhang Dai thought to himself, "Is it possible that if we deal with a few more big rats like my grandfather, the crisis of the Tang Dynasty's golden age can be resolved?"
"Lock up these maids, and also guard the east wing. Do not allow them to communicate with outsiders!"

After understanding the situation, Madam Yuan gave a stern order. Only after several servants were dragged away did she turn to Zhang Dai, her eyes red-rimmed, and beckon him, saying, "Good child, come to your grandmother. These past years, I've been senile and ignorant, unable to recognize the traitors within the family. You've truly suffered! It's remarkable that you've had such a strong will, surviving abuse and growing up to be successful. This is thanks to your mother's spirit in heaven, protecting me!"

Zhang Dai knelt down beside his grandmother, listening to the old woman's rambling.

Although his grandmother usually kept a low profile, she was very shrewd when it came to matters. It was clearly impossible for her to be completely unaware of the situation and kept in the dark until now. Zheng was not a particularly scheming person; many of her emotions and methods were quite overt.

The reason I usually didn't ask was twofold: firstly, my son was already married, and too much interference would inevitably turn mother and son into enemies; secondly, the young Zhang Luonu at that time was somewhat naive and mischievous, and didn't show any talent that required special care.

Therefore, even if Madam Yuan knew about certain things, she would not easily express her opinion and would pretend not to know. However, she did not expect that Madam Zheng would become more and more audacious under this blatant indulgence. Now, Zhang Dai was no longer a dispensable junior in any respect and had to be taken seriously and appeased.

Even if Zhang Dai understood all this, his grandmother had already belittled him as a senile old man, so how could he still hold a grudge against his previous indulgence of Zheng?

Let bygones be bygones. The most important thing now is to deal with the problem of Zheng Shi. So he looked at his grandmother and asked, "Now that the whole story is clear, how does Grandmother plan to handle this matter?"

"Alas, I never imagined that this wicked woman had caused such deep trouble! I am also in a state of confusion and do not know how to deal with her. Let's wait for your father to return home and then discuss it in detail."

Upon hearing this question, Madam Yuan first shook her head in a daze, then her expression turned resolute: "But no matter how it is dealt with, my grandson must not be wronged any longer! My family can never tolerate this wicked woman in the house again, otherwise my children and grandchildren will be harmed by her!"

Upon hearing Yuan's statement, Zhang Dai felt reassured. After a moment's thought, he added, "I think that whatever the family decides to do, we should inform Father so that he can return home as soon as possible!"

"But he is far away in Zhengzhou, busy with state affairs, and now this family tragedy has struck. It's too much trouble for him to travel back and forth..."

Madam Yuan felt a little sorry for her son and didn't want Zhang Jun to run around for this troublesome matter.

"No! I am the master of this house. I should tell him everything in detail. If he is not there, no matter what I do, it will be difficult to convince him. He may even mistakenly think that I am disrespectful, which is why my wife is so resentful of me. How will father and son get along in the future?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Dai said seriously, "Zhengzhou is not far from here. It can be reached in two or three days by fast horse. Only after Father returns can things be properly handled. If he does not return, he may be ridiculed for being incompetent in managing a household, let alone governing a prefecture, which will inevitably hinder his future."

He insisted that Zhang Jun return home, not to make an example of Zheng Shi, but to let Zhang Jun clearly understand how the matter was handled, so that he wouldn't use this incident to embarrass him in the future.

"He should be recalled immediately, and servants should be dispatched to the prefecture at full speed!"

Upon hearing this, Madam Yuan nodded hurriedly, but couldn't help but say bitterly, "Choosing a wife who is not virtuous has brought trouble to my children and grandchildren! This matter should serve as a warning. In the future, when you and your nephews are considering marriage, you must prioritize character over family background!"

Grandfather and grandson discussed locking down and controlling personnel to prevent the news from leaking out, but by evening, Zheng Shi had not seen her servants return, and she began to feel uneasy. Especially when a maid informed her that many more servants had been added to the entrances and exits of the east wing, she became even more anxious.

"Who ordered you to enter this place and cause such disturbance? Do you think my east wing is a prison, and all the inhabitants here are criminals?"

She arrived at the gate of a courtyard and saw more than a dozen servants holding sticks standing there. Her expression immediately changed, and she pointed at them and shouted, "All of you, get out of here! Anyone who lingers here will be severely punished!"

"Please forgive us, Madam. We were only here on the orders of the Old Madam to protect her. We would never dare to enter and cause any disturbance. Please rest assured and return home, Madam."

A manager quickly clasped his hands and said respectfully.

How could Madam Zheng possibly be at ease? Upon hearing this, her face paled even more. She hesitated inside the door for a moment, feeling that she couldn't just sit and wait for her fate. She immediately rushed out while shouting, "I want to see the old lady! How can she not remember my contributions to this family by bearing children for us, and make things so difficult for me just because of an illegitimate child? Does she think my maternal family has no one to rely on?!"

The servants naturally dared not step forward to stop her with their bodies and sticks, but two female servants who were waiting there rushed forward, grabbed Zheng's arms without saying a word, and dragged her back to the east wing. No matter how much she screamed and struggled, she remained silent.

(End of this chapter)