Chapter 491 – Rainy Day and Father Wants to Receive a Person (1/2)
Rainy Day and Father Wants to Receive a Person
An shi’s words caused Feng Jin Yuan to become a little angry: “I will naturally make sure to make up for that amount of money later. It is unrelated to this matter.”
An shi went against this crime and added: “But husband also took another Su Zhou embroidery three days ago, but he did pay at that time. Also, it just happened to be 200 taels. It was paid with banknotes.” An shi was completely puzzled, “Husband, what are you buying so many celebratory embroideries for?”
The words celebratory embroideries caused everyone to freeze. The so-called celebratory embroideries were not just a single type of embroidery. Instead, they were things that could be used for joyous occasions. For example, during weddings, childbirths or when one succeeded in imperial examinations. Normally, the color and pattern would have a joyous scene, thus people would call them celebratory embroideries.
But the Feng family had been conducting a funeral over the past few days. What was Feng Jin Yuan buying celebratory embroideries for?
Everyone turned their gaze on Feng Jin Yuan. Cheng Jun Man was the fastest and was the first to say: “When mother was being moved, there was no Su Zhou embroidery in the new coffin. Is husband certain that those embroideries were bought for mother?”
Feng Zi Rui pondered while saying: “When I saw father leaving, the Su Zhou embroidery that he held was indeed red. Teacher said that red must not be used during a funeral. It’s impossible that father does not even know this, thus they were not bought for grandmother.”
With a young child exposing the matter, Feng Jin Yuan felt that he had lost even more face. He had that he could not find a crack to crawl into to hide from others. He hated even more that he could not strangle all of his wives and children.
In the end, he still valued his face. Seeing that he was about to lose control of the situation, he quickly shot a look to He Zhong to disperse the citizens standing in front of the entrance. He Zhong glanced at Feng Yu Heng. Seeing that she did not express anything, he led the family’s retainers to disperse the crowd.
On one side, the servants were dispersing the crowd. On the other side, Feng Jin Yuan was negotiating with his second daughter: “If there is something to talk about, can we talk about it back in the manor?”
Feng Yu Heng glanced at him and asked: “Why did father not think to discuss the matter of the coffin earlier in the manor? You had to force this imperial daughter to pay that 600 taels in front of all those people?” Although she said this, she did not deliberately embarrass him any further. Instead, she turned around and entered the Feng manor, going straight in the direction of Peony courtyard. In regards to this father, she felt that she was about to lose that last bit of patience that remained. This person never knew how to stop before going too far. He also never knew what sort of person he could plot against and what sort he could not. Thinking back to when Feng Jin Yuan was given a government post after being the top-ranked scholar, who knew how much wealth the Yao family spent to help this mediocre person reach the prime minister’s position.
Feng Jin Yuan followed closely behind her the entire time; however, he did not forget to fiercely glare at An shi a few times. A hatred within the family could not be shown to the outside world. Why was it that all of the problems in his family were all well-known?
As he remained puzzled after thinking it over many times, Fen Dai, who had been following further behind said to her personal servant: “When you get back, ask concubine mother. Did she receive any Su Zhou embroideries from father over the past few days.”
The group of people finally returned to the main hall. Originally, this hall had been turned into a mourning hall. After the matriarch was moved to her coffin in the morning, the servants returned it to its original arrangement. Feng Yu Heng found her own spot and sat down. The people that followed her in also sat down.
Feng Jin Yuan very shamelessly sat in the seat that had always belonged to the matriarch. In his eyes, the matriarch was no longer in the family. He was now the eldest, thus he ought to sit there. But he very quickly realized that something was off because everyone had turned their eyes on him. In their eyes, there were two very clear thoughts. One was querying and the other was contempt.
He wanted to get angry; however, he was truly uncertain and a little disturbed and even more afraid.
Cheng Jun Man was the first to speak; however, the words that she said caused everyone to be stunned. She said: “A few days ago, Jun Mei and I went into the palace to see aunty. While eating with aunty, we heard aunty mention that while snuffing out the remaining evil forces of Qian Zhou, they found on their list that there was a maidservant that had come with Kang Yi that was missing. After inquiring, it was said that the servant had been beaten to death by Kang Yi because of a mistake many months earlier. At that time, nobody thought anything of it. A master beating a servant to death could not be more normal; moreover, it was a servant from Qian Zhou; however, for some reason, why is there a knot in my heart that I can’t seem to get rid of?”
She had brought this up as though she was speaking about the daily life. Feng Yu Heng looked toward Feng Jin Yuan and found that Feng Jin Yuan’s face was extremely pale, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
Feng Yu Heng curled up the corner of her lips into a smile and asked Cheng Jun Man: “It’s just a servant. Why has mother brought this up?”
Cheng Jun man pondered for a while then said: “I entered the Feng manor after Kang Yi. After we sisters arrived in the Feng manor, we did not pay too much attention to the servants at her side. Speaking about it, I indeed cannot recall when one went missing. But… I could occasionally hear husband call out a name while dreaming. It seemed to be…”
“Was it Xiao Jing?” Cheng Jun Mei finished her sentence, “Did elder sister also hear this name?”
Cheng Jun Man nodded, “Xiao Jing is the one. At first, I did not think much of it. After all, even if husband had a close female friend outside, it’s nothing major. But for some reason, that girl from Qian Zhou keeps coming to mind. Perhaps I have been overthinking it.”
The fear in Feng Jin Yuan’s heart had reached a certain degree, as he did not even dare pick up the cup of tea brought up by the servant. He feared that he would knock over the cup of tea with his trembling hands.