northernbook Chapter 118 Stolen Silver, Shen Qingtan the Little Crybaby
Chapter 118 Stolen Silver, Shen Qingtan the Little Crybaby
Shen Shaobai knelt down by the pit, reached his hand into the pit and carefully felt around, confirming that it was a thick wooden plank, and from the edges he could tell it was a wooden box.
A wooden box buried in the stable... Could it be hiding some unspeakable treasure?
He wiped his face with his sleeve, smelled a stench of horse manure, and gagged with a gurgling sound.
Shen Shaobai's face turned ashen; he had never suffered like this before in his life.
Ever since he discovered that his older sister had been deliberately swapped into another marriage, and went to argue with his parents, he was tied up and sent to the Liu family ancestral home in Guanzhou.
Therefore, the walls of the Liu family's ancestral home were raised by a factor of two to prevent him from climbing over them to escape.
He had figured out the mansion in the past few days. There were guards everywhere in the mansion, making it too difficult to escape.
The only unattended place was the stable, where there was only one groom.
Two days ago, he managed to get information out of the stables by talking to the groom and learned that there were barren mountains outside the walls of the stables.
After that, he bribed the stableman with silver, and at night he would change into the stableman's clothes and go to the stable to dig a tunnel.
Today, the entire household was busy preparing to receive the Earl of Yongyi, so they relaxed their surveillance on him, and he sneaked over to continue digging the tunnel.
To everyone's surprise, a major discovery was made!
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Shen Shaobai picked up a hoe and continued digging with practiced ease.
A short while later, they dug out a box.
Next to this box, there are several other boxes.
The wooden box had a lock, which Shen Shaobai smashed off with a hoe and opened.
Inside, there were neatly arranged ingots of gold, estimated to be fifty taels each.
Shen Shaobai stared in astonishment. This...this is way too much gold!
His eyes were almost blinded by the light.
Then, he glanced at the wooden boxes peeking out of the pit, dug them all out, and opened the lids.
There were six chests in total, two of which contained gold and the rest contained silver.
Shen Shaobai quickly realized something was wrong. The Yongyi Marquis's Mansion had long since declined and was only able to live a decent life thanks to the Chengen Marquis's Mansion. Where would they get so much gold and silver?
Suddenly, he realized that all the stewards and servants in the Liu family's ancestral home were arranged by Madam Shen.
So, was this gold buried by the Marquis of Chengen's mansion?
Shen Shaobai's expression turned grim, as if he had just thought of something.
The disaster in Guanzhou was very serious. The government said that it would open the granaries to lend grain to the people, but the grain did not reach the people at all. Instead, it went into the grain shops in large quantities and was sold at a price higher than pork.
Looking at the boxes of gold and silver in front of him, he knew almost without thinking where these boxes of gold and silver ingots came from.
With a sour face, Shen Shaobai buried the box back down.
For the next two days, Shen Shaobai pretended nothing had happened and continued digging the tunnel at night.
-
The steward of the Liu family hoped that Earl Yongyi would return to his ancestral home, but Earl Yongyi was preoccupied with the grain in the granary, so he naturally did not return to his ancestral home. However, an unexpected person came.
The steward sized up the man in front of him. He was dressed in a light green silk robe with smooth pleats, and his black boots were covered in mud and dust. He looked travel-worn and introduced himself as the heir of the Marquis of Chengen's mansion.
"Where is my third brother?" Shen Shaoheng arrived under the stars and moon, utterly exhausted. He sat down in a nearby chair and said, "Please bring him out. My second uncle asked me to bring him something."
"The Marquis instructed this old servant that Master Shen has committed a grave offense and must be confined. During this time, no one is allowed to see him. Only those with the Marquis's token may be granted an audience." The steward respectfully asked, "Did the Marquis give you a token to deliver to Master Shen?"
"What terrible mistake has my third brother made that he's locked up here and can't be seen by anyone? Could it be that you, you unfilial servant, are maliciously keeping him locked up?"
Shen Shaoheng sneered, "Don't try to make a big deal out of nothing. I'm going to see my third brother today. If you try to stop me, I'll have to report you to the authorities and accuse you of insubordination by kidnapping your own master."
The steward remained unmoved and said without changing his expression, "Your Highness, this old servant is merely following orders."
Seeing that this person was unyielding and unmoved by either soft or hard approaches, Shen Shaoheng was about to signal to his servant when a figure appeared in the front hall.
"Oh, Third Brother, you've finally shown your face." Shen Shaoheng's anger dissipated, and he put on a smiling face: "I was just wondering, could it be that the master and mistress of your mansion are in the capital because of the distance? Your servants have turned the tables and dare to disrespect their young master."
The steward's expression changed, and he was about to stop Shen Shaobai from meeting with Shen Shaoheng.
Shen Shaobai lazily lifted his eyelids with his phoenix eyes and looked coldly at the steward: "What, you won't let me leave the manor, not even to receive guests?"
Just as the steward was about to speak, Shen Shaoheng interrupted him: "Third brother, when I came to Guanzhou, the Emperor sent an imperial envoy to deliver an imperial edict. If you are controlled by this wicked servant, I happen to know the imperial envoy, so I will ask him to stand up for you."
He paused, then continued, "These arrogant and unruly servants have always amassed quite a bit of wealth within the household, haven't they?"
The manager's expression changed.
Shen Shaobai's patience ran out, and he snapped, "Get out of here!"
The steward is dishonest. Shen Shaoheng previously said he was not afraid to report it to the authorities because the officials in Guanzhou had close ties with the Marquis of Chengen.
Now that an imperial envoy has arrived in the capital, and Shen Shaoheng speaks of the envoy with great familiarity, he dares not confront him directly. He can only swallow his anger and retreat, pondering how to send a letter to Marquis Chengen.
After the steward left, Shen Shaobai led Shen Shaoheng to his courtyard.
As soon as the door closed, he asked impatiently, "Big brother, how is big sister?"
He usually doesn't listen to Shen Qingtan, loves to go against her, and always tries to make her angry.
But that was just playful banter between siblings; he didn't really mean to make her suffer.
She and Zhao Jue had been betrothed since childhood, and she had started embroidering her dowry a few years ago. She must have been looking forward to marrying Zhao Jue, but when she got married, her parents changed her groom.
How heartbroken she must be if she can't marry the man she loves?
He went to question his parents, but they said they owed Shen Mingzhu too much, and it would be too cruel to marry her off to a sickly man and leave her a widow.
They treated Shen Qingtan like a precious jewel, and she lived a life of comfort and ease in the Marquis's mansion, never experiencing the slightest hardship. As the elder sister, she should be considerate of her younger sister.
Shen Shaobai thought they were simply unreasonable. If they felt indebted to Shen Mingzhu, why didn't they find her a good marriage in the first place?
Why does he have to compete with Shen Qingtan?
He intended to go to the Duke's mansion to find Shen Qingtan, but he was tied up and dumped here.
Shen Shaobai said somewhat irritably, "Big sister is very delicate. I can make her cry over the smallest things. If she suffers such a big injustice, won't she become a little crybaby?"
Shen Shaoheng thought to himself that Shen Qingtan was living a very comfortable life.
In the past, when she was made to cry by Shen Shaobai, she didn't really cry; she just cried on purpose to show Shen Shaobai and force him to back down and submit.
Shen Shaoheng saw through it but didn't say anything. Instead, he put on a pitying look and sighed, "My younger sister's life is really hard. Her husband has been sick twice in such a short time since they got married."
"The dowry that Second Aunt prepared for her, Madam Zhao the Second wanted to take away from her. She was all alone in the Duke's mansion, with no one to rely on and no one to stand up for her."
Shen Shaoheng frowned deeply as he recounted Shen Qingtan's misfortunes one by one: "She was falsely accused of murder by her second sister when she returned home after her marriage. When she attended the birthday banquet of the Marquis of Yongyi, her second sister accused her of having a problem with the birthday gift she gave. Now that her second sister is pregnant, she publicly urged her eldest sister to have a child as soon as possible. Who doesn't know that her eldest sister's husband is infertile? Isn't this deliberately reopening her eldest sister's wounds?"
Finally, Shen Shaoheng sighed heavily again: "When I saw my younger sister the other day, I was shocked. She was a completely different person."
She was completely different from the innocent and kind woman she was before she got married; now she was as cunning as a honeycomb.
From Shen Shaoheng's few words, Shen Shaobai imagined Shen Qingtan as a helpless and bullied person, hiding under the covers and wiping away tears all day long, becoming haggard and thin as skin and bones.