The Black Chamber Dream: Daiyu's Revenge

Baoqin was referring to the spice shops of the Xue and Xia families.

When Xia Jingui divorced Xue, she took a fancy to the Xue family's spice shop, but the Xue mother and daughter refused to give it to her. After a long dispute, they still couldn't get it done. Xia Jingui came up with a solution: she used money to bribe several employees of the Xue family's spice shop and opened her own shop after the divorce.

When the Xue family mother and daughter saw that Xia Jingui had opened a spice shop, they quickly sent someone to inquire. Within a few days, they discovered that several of their own shop's employees had betrayed them and were now working for Xia Jingui's shop. This infuriated the Xue family mother and daughter.

That's not all. Xia Jingui's business is really good at managing things. More than a year has passed, and her spice shop is becoming more and more prosperous, taking away a lot of business from the Xue family's spice shop.

"Ever since Baoyu's wife got involved with Princess Rui, it was Princess Rui's flower shop that initially stole the Xia family's flower and tree business. Baoyu's wife then set her sights on the Xia family's spice shop. Although some high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital have switched to the Xue family to continue buying from them because of the Rui family, Baoyu's wife is still not satisfied," Baoqin told Daiyu. "I heard that a few days ago, the shop assistants from the Xue family went to the Xia family's shop to provoke them."

It seems that it's true; when you're sleepy, someone will hand you a pillow.

“If we guide them, the Xue family might even want to take over the Xia family’s shop.” Baoqin’s brother told her last month that the two families’ shops were now in a huge dispute. “When my deceased cousin was alive, he was very arrogant and even seized other people’s shops. Now, Bao’s second madam is much more cautious, but she and her daughter Xia Jingui can’t control their tempers.”

That's true. The Xue family was coerced by Xia Jingui into agreeing to the divorce, and they even had to give Xia Jingui ten thousand taels of silver. The Xue mother and daughter probably can't get over the anger they feel.

"So, Sister Qin really wants to see them make a fool of themselves?" Daiyu said with a smile.

Baoqin told Daiyu without any hesitation, "Ever since Bao Er's wife got involved with Princess Rui, my brother's business has been greatly affected. We all know that she is taking this opportunity to get revenge. In that case, it would be best if we could teach her a lesson."

“Of course, and I’m not afraid to tell you that when the little princess had the accident at the horse farm, it was Bao Er’s wife who suggested that Princess Rui’s wife do it. However, it was originally aimed at me.” Seeing that Baoqin was straightforward, Daiyu told Baoqin about her own situation. “But in this case, the Xia family would have to step in. But you know the Xia family, they are shameless. Such a sword is definitely a double-edged sword.”

Baoqin naturally understood Daiyu's meaning: if one were to use Xia Jingui and her daughter as a sword, one must be extremely cautious, otherwise one would harm both oneself and others.

“Your Highness need not worry. Coincidentally, my brother also has some business dealings with the Xia family. Their most trusted manager, Sun Jiaming, has a good relationship with my brother.” Baoqin felt more confident seeing that Daiyu did not object. If it were just her own family and the Xia family, it would definitely be very troublesome. But with the addition of the Prince Yijun’s Mansion, even if the Prince Yijun’s Mansion did not need to intervene, it would be a different story.

"Then I'll leave this matter to you." Daiyu decided to tell Baoqin more as well. "What I need is for the Xue family to seize someone else's shop. When the time comes, make a big fuss and report it directly to the Shuntian Prefectural Magistrate. You don't need to worry about the rest."

Baoqin was a smart woman, and she immediately understood that there must be a deeper meaning behind this, but she did not press for details, because she knew very well that if Princess Yijun felt that she needed to know something, she would naturally tell her; if she was not told something, she did not need to know.

Sometimes, knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing.

“Then, I will go back and discuss it with my brother. When it’s time to take action, I will naturally inform the Princess in advance.” Baoqin stood up to take her leave.

"Since Sister Qin is here, let's have a simple meal together," Daiyu said with a smile, inviting Baoqin to stay for lunch.

It wasn't just about inviting Baoqin to stay for dinner; there was probably also news coming from Zijuan's brother. Daiyu's idea was that information exchange would make things easier.

Sure enough, Zijuan brought news, but it wasn't from her brother; it came from her mother's side: Bao Er's mother had been going to the Rongguo Mansion every day for the past five days, and the mother and daughter were discussing something.

"It seems my aunt is even more impatient," Baoqin said with a smile. After finishing her meal, she chatted with Daiyu for a while before getting up to take her leave.

Baoqin was also very proactive. Five days later, she sent a message to Daiyu. Seven days later, something happened in the capital that many people liked to talk about during their leisure time: two spice shops were almost fighting over business.

What people talked about even more was that the lady of the Xia family shop shamelessly cursed and yelled at the shop entrance.

What people talked about most were the words the woman used to hurl insults.

"Pah! I bet you never intended for me to divorce you in the first place. Now that you see my spice shop is making money, you're all jealous and resorting to underhanded tactics to steal my business."

“I know your Xue family is a wealthy and powerful merchant family. They don’t care about my spice shop. They just want to take revenge on me. What can I, a weak woman, do?”

"You deserve to have no sons. Your son forcibly took women from the common people, and His Majesty, being wise, had him beheaded. You still do these things, aren't you afraid of being childless and having no descendants?"

.......

As a result, the people, who love a good show, naturally dug up all the old, trivial matters of the Xue family.

This includes Xue Pan killing someone and being beheaded, Xue family daughter marrying into Rongguo Mansion, and even the Xue family's past robbery of someone else's shop.

These events, vividly recounted by those with ulterior motives, reached Aunt Xue's ears. Unlike her daughter Xue Baochai, Aunt Xue was not as composed. Upon hearing the story, she became furious, her face turning red with anger, and immediately ordered someone to gag Xia Jingui.

The old women sent out by Aunt Xue stepped forward menacingly, but Xia Jingui was prepared and immediately started shouting and screaming, giving a vivid performance of being a victim.

Furthermore, the Xia family had already sent someone to the Shuntian Prefectural Government to submit a petition. Because this matter had recently become very popular, and the Shuntian Prefectural Government had received guidance from the Dali Temple, they quickly accepted the petition and immediately dispatched yamen runners to investigate the situation.

They caught the women sent by the Xue family red-handed in the street, and in doing so, it seemed that they had all the witnesses and evidence.

Although the Xue family has not yet forcibly seized the Xia family's shop, their actions are already highly suspicious.

The constables arrested Xia Jingui, the old woman sent by the Xue family, and several key employees and took them all to the Shuntian Prefecture government office.

Sensing that something was wrong, Xue's servant quickly ran back to inform Aunt Xue.

"Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, that's alright, I'll go to the Rongguo Mansion to inquire." Aunt Xue didn't take it seriously at all. Now her daughter was on good terms with the Princess Consort of Rui County, not to mention her own brother, Prince Teng.

Chapter 160 It's Too Late to Realize

When Aunt Xue arrived at the Rongguo Mansion, she went straight to see her daughter. Now that her daughter was the head housekeeper of the Rongguo Mansion, the maids and servants were incredibly enthusiastic towards Aunt Xue.

However, upon hearing her mother's words, Baochai immediately sensed that something was amiss: "Mother, what did you say? What about the Shuntian Prefect?"

Aunt Xue remained unconvinced: "That wretched woman from the Xia family is overestimating herself. She thinks reporting it to the authorities will do her a good job. Doesn't she realize what kind of family we are...?"

"Mom, no, hurry, hurry..." Xue Baochai realized halfway through her sentence that it was probably too late. "You're saying that the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture has already arrested the man?"

Seeing her daughter's anxious face, Aunt Xue realized something was wrong: "Yes, this shouldn't be a problem, right? Why don't we send someone to the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture to inquire about it?"

Baochai sensed something was wrong and quickly told Wenxing to invite Jia Qiang over.

When Jia Qiang arrived, Baochai quickly asked him to inquire about your situation with the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, and took out a silver note: "Brother Qiang, this matter needs to be handled quickly. Go and see what the Prefect's attitude is."

Jia Qiang, who was now helping Baochai with her work and had received many benefits, immediately set off with the silver notes in hand: "Second Aunt, don't worry. The Prefect will probably have some reservations. After all, it is a Duke's mansion, and there is also Prince Teng."

Baochai didn't think so in her heart: If the prefect really thought this matter was not important and dared not offend the Duke's Mansion or her uncle, he shouldn't have arrested the person directly. But now that the person has been arrested, who knows what he's thinking.

Hopefully, this prefect only wants to embezzle some money, and we can settle things with money later.

As soon as Jia Qiang arrived, he realized something was wrong: after revealing his identity, he spent some money to find a constable at the yamen. The constable went to inquire for him with great enthusiasm, but after a while, he came back to tell him that their prefect was busy and could not see him.

Since the other party was nowhere to be found, Jia Qiang had no choice but to inquire with a few constables. However, they knew nothing, only that their superiors had ordered the arrest of people. They didn't say anything else. Now, those who had been arrested, including the woman from the Xia family, were all separated and imprisoned.

He had no choice but to return and tell Baochai that he had not found out anything on this trip.

Upon hearing this, Baochai knew that the matter was likely to become complicated.

Baochai pondered for a while and said, "Alright, you go back and rest first. I'll think of a solution to this."

Then Baochai asked a maid to invite Jia Huan over. After all, Jia Huan now held an official position, and it was likely that his presence would be more effective than Jia Qiang's.

Ever since Baochai helped him secure an official position, Jia Huan, while not entirely obedient to her, was certainly quite willing to run errands for her. When it came to matters concerning the Xue family shop, Jia Huan immediately offered to visit the prefect.

Baochai gave the silver notes that Jia Qiang had returned to Jia Huan.

Looking at the silver notes, Jia Huan was secretly delighted: It seems that his second sister-in-law is really rich. No wonder she is from the Xue family, the imperial merchants.

Jia Huan took the silver notes to Shuntian Prefecture, gave his name, and handed the yamen runner some loose silver. The runner smiled and quickly went to deliver the message for him.

The current Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, Han Tiandong, upon hearing that the man was an official from the Imperial Household Department and a member of the Jia family, decided to meet with Jia Huan after some thought. It wasn't because of Jia Huan's status, but rather because he felt that if he didn't meet with him, the Rongguo Mansion would keep bothering him, and it would be troublesome if someone kept coming.

Han Tiandong was promoted to Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture at the beginning of the year. He had some connection with the Peng family, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, so he had already received some advice: the previous few Prefects of Shuntian Prefecture were all corrupt and lawless, and many of them were deeply involved with those old noble families. His Majesty hates these people the most. If he could find out something from this, especially if he could shake the old families of the Four Kings and Eight Dukes, that would be even better.

As a new broom sweeps clean, Han Tiandong, eager to make a name for himself, had naturally reviewed all the cases from the past twenty years.

One of the cases that caught Han Tiandong's attention was a case from the time of Lord Zhang Youshan: a father and son were executed and committed suicide out of fear of punishment, respectively, due to fabricated charges.

Following the clues, Han Tiandong discovered some leads: the Zhang family owned hundreds of acres of fertile land in He'an Village. This was a place very close to the capital, and not many people owned such land.

Zhang Youshan's identity is somewhat sensitive: he is the father of Zhang Guangsheng of the Imperial Household Department and the maternal uncle of Princess Rui.

Just then, Han Tiandong received a report from the Xia family, who insisted that the Xue family was trying to seize their shop.

The two cases share some similarities. Han Tiandong wasn't in a hurry to make a decision; he needed to investigate them thoroughly.

The fact that the Rongguo Mansion kept sending people over made Han Tiandong somewhat dissatisfied: although he knew that the Xue family and the Rongguo Mansion had a close relationship, Han Tiandong was unwilling to be disturbed while investigating the case.

Therefore, when he met Jia Huan, Han Tiandong was very direct: "Lord Jia, this is a government case, and I will not disclose any information before the case is closed."

Jia Huan thought Han Tiandong was trying to embezzle money in a roundabout way, so he quickly smiled and took out a silver note: "Master Han, you've worked hard, I know that. This is just a small token of my appreciation."

Han Tiandong increasingly felt that something was amiss. He glanced at Jia Huan and waved his hand, saying, "Lord Jia, you misunderstand. I came to see you to tell you that the Rongguo Mansion should stop bothering us, or don't blame me for being ruthless."

After saying that, he picked up his teacup. Jia Huan saw that the other party meant to see him off, so he could not stay any longer and had to get up and take his leave.

Jia Huan did not immediately return to report to Baochai. Now that he had the silver notes, there was no reason for him to take them out. He was now in the Imperial Household Department and had many places where he needed money.

Baochai waited anxiously inside the mansion, but Jia Huan didn't return until the afternoon. Jia Huan, being greedy, told Baochai, "Second sister-in-law, don't worry. The magistrate has taken the money, so he will naturally do things for us."

Baochai felt much relieved when she heard that the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture had accepted the money. Then she heard Jia Huan say, "The Prefect said that since everyone knows about this matter, it is not appropriate to release the person immediately. We have to wait until the discussions outside have subsided before we can talk about releasing the person."

Baochai thought it made sense and nodded, praising Jia Huan: "Third Brother is really good at handling things. You've worked hard this time."

Jia Huan showed no sign of guilt, smiled and said a few words before taking his leave.

Baochai, who thought everything was really alright, received some rather unexpected news from Jia Qiang four days later.

"Second Aunt, I'm afraid this is bad. The manager and all the staff of the spice shop have been taken away by the people from Shuntian Prefecture."

Upon hearing this, Xue Baochai realized that things had really gotten out of hand.

"Qiang-ge'er, hurry up and see if you can find out what's going on?" Xue Baochai's heart skipped a beat, as if something big was about to happen.

However, neither Xue Baochai nor the Rongguo Mansion received timely information. It wasn't until the Censorate began impeaching the Zhang family and the case reached the Emperor's ears that the Rongguo Mansion finally received the news.

Baochai knew that this time it was really over.

Chapter 161 Uncovers Old Case, Ministry of Justice Conducts Thorough Investigation

Han Tiandong was willing, and the Censorate was interested. So when Han Tiandong sent a twelve-year-old case to the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, having heard the news, immediately began to impeach the Zhang family.

The difference is that Han Tiandong's investigation focused on the Zhang brothers, Zhang Youshan and Zhang Youliang, forcibly occupying farmland and their collusion with the people, while the Censorate impeached Zhang Guangsheng of the Imperial Household Department for abusing his power for personal gain—when the Imperial Household Department made purchases, it often required merchants to send huge sums of money to the Zhang family, rather than considering whose goods were of better quality.

Even more coincidentally, the Empress felt slightly unwell a few days ago, and the Imperial Hospital said it was due to the dryness and heat of autumn. After all, the cool autumn weather had just arrived and the summer heat had not yet subsided. With the Mid-Autumn Festival just around the corner, the Emperor did not think much of it and directly handed over the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet to Consort Wu.

Consort Wu had no idea that the Censorate would impeach Zhang Guangsheng. All the chrysanthemums for the Imperial Household Department were purchased from Princess Rui's flower room. As soon as the incident came to light, Consort Wu quickly took remedial measures, which prevented the chrysanthemums from being damaged, but at the cost of subsidizing a considerable amount out of her own pocket.

While the situation with Consort Wu could be salvaged, other matters concerning Zhang Guangsheng's Imperial Household Department were much more difficult to remedy.

Both cases were related to the Zhang family, which enraged the emperor. He immediately transferred the cases to the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review, and ordered Han Tiandong, the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, to assist in the investigation.

Only then did Guo Chongyi understand why her brother had sent a message saying that the Xia family had a solution. Now that the matter had been submitted to the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review, and the Emperor was furious, everything would surely come to light.

So Guo Chongyi couldn't help but touch her belly. The baby was already more than six months along. If she continued with the original method, the baby would not be able to be saved. Now that she could save the baby, Guo Chongyi was naturally very happy.

Some were happy while others were sad. When Prince Rui returned from court, he gave Song Huilan a cold shoulder.

"What's wrong with you? Who upset you?" Song Huilan was still completely unaware of what was going on.

"You still have the mind to stay at home? I advise you to go home quickly and ask your mother if your family is involved." Xiao Tingkai was in a very bad mood. Now that this matter has blown up, his father's face was so ugly, and Zhang Youshan was his wife's maternal grandfather, and Zhang Guangsheng was his wife's uncle. If the Song family was implicated, or even his own family, then it would be troublesome.

But he forgot how many good things the Zhang family had given to the Prince Rui's mansion during festivals ever since Song Huilan married into the family.

Upon hearing Xiao Tingkai's sarcastic words, Song Huilan frowned immediately: "Your Highness, please speak plainly. Why bother? If my family is really implicated, do you think Your Highness can remain unscathed?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Tingkai realized that his attitude just now was problematic. Thinking of the Song family's support for him all along, and how important the Song family is to him now, he quickly changed his tone and put on a very concerned expression.