Chapter 58 Wake Up

Guan Suyi had torn her face with Zhao Luli, so she didn’t speak politely at this moment, and ordered Jinzi to bring the map of the Marquis Mansion and pointed out, “The current Marquis Zhenbei Mansion is the former residence of the previous dynasty powerful official Long Qiu. Long Qiu last position was as Imperial Secretary, and the mansion was built with reference to the grade and ancestral system, originally it was not very spacious, and the population of the Marquis Mansion was simple. Over the years many courtyards were not used, so they were closed, nowadays they’re all in despair, the eaves has declined, and it’s impossible to lived in. If Lord Marquis want to accommodate this many people, you would have to spend a lot of money to repair the mansion.

Having said that, she swung the abacus up and down, put the bead back in its place, and continued, “I will do the calculation for the bill. If the wood is made of inferior elm, the stone is taken nearby, plus build the furniture and purchase the furnishings, add the bedding…,” there was a crackling sound, then she spread her hands, “Total 6,680 taels, if you wipe off the fraction, it will be 6,000 taels. Lord Marquis, this year’s profits from each estates and shops have not yet delivered, where do you find so much silver?”

Zhao Luli felt blood dripping down from his head and thought for a while before saying, “I still have a lot of antique calligraphy and paintings over there. If I take them out and sell them, I should be able to raise 10,000 taels of silver.”

Guan Suyi nodded, “Okay, the money to repair the house is available, but it will take time to collect the money, after all you have to find a buyer slowly, right? Besides, it will take a year and a half to complete the repair of the house, and the Ye family was about to move in, so Lord Marquis please come out with a solution. But I have to say first, the old madam has a problem with migraine, please do not disturb, her main courtyard cannot add more people.

Seeing that Madam seemed to relent, Zhao Luli hurriedly said, “It’s natural.”

“My sister-in-law is pregnant and need to raise her fetus. Mu Mu is sensitive and thoughtful and can’t be frightened, so cannot add people to the second house.” Guan Suyi glanced at him strangely, and found that he was a little low-spirited, but she didn’t know whether it was just her own imagination.

“Naturally, naturally.” Zhao Luli continued to respond.

“I have an undeniable feud with the Ye family. To prevent someone from stabbing my back one day, I can’t add anyone to the main house.” Guan Suyi’s tone was cold and fierce.

“I won’t let the Ye family disturb Madam for half a minute.” Zhao Luli swore quickly and said with a blushing face, “Then does Madam have any arrangements for the next step? I have never pay attention to the affairs of the back house, and I didn’t know there are so many twist and turn in it, managing a family really is no easier than managing the country. Madam’s bitter hardship, madam’s comprehensiveness, madam’s good intentions, I finally understand.”

He paused, as if he still had a lot of feelings to be said, but because his throat was choked, he couldn’t speak for a while, and when the surging shame and remorse were swallowed, he didn’t know how to say it.

Guan Suyi didn’t expect Zhao Luli to be able to speak human words, so she looked at him for a while, then clicked on the map and said, “Among the hundred or so people, the rough servants live together with the Marquis Mansion’s rough servants, anyway, they are all sleep in communal beds, just add a few more beds; the first-, second-, and third-class maids, attendants, and stewards also follow this example. In other words, people who lived alone in the past will now have two, three, or even four people live together, I will hand over such trivial matters to the housekeeper to coordinate and deal with. After all the married women and the elderly are elders, so it’s better to live in a more spacious place, so let them go to the main courtyard of Penglai Garden, and a dozen rooms are enough. Then set up the side courtyard and warm pavilion for the twelve misses to live with Zhao Chunxi. The young masters naturally accompany Zhao Wangshu. In this way, there are still five empty rooms in Jingzhe Tower, leaving it for a few young children and their wet nurses to live in temporarily, it can also barely squeezed them down.”

Zhao Luli nodded again and again and thanked her continuously. Zhao Wangshu was also looking forward to the days of having several cousins every day. Only Zhao Chunxi, whose heart was smashed, but had to pretend to agree.

Guan Suyi glanced at her lightly, patted the old madam who was obviously unhappy, and suddenly changed the subject, “Food, clothing, and housing are all settled, Lord Marquis, don’t think that everything is fine, there are still worse things to come.”

Zhao Luli thought for a moment, then said sadly, “Madam is worried that the Marquis Mansion will get involve with the lawsuit? Please rest assured, Madam, I already have some thoughts, and I will never implicate my wife and children.”

Guan Suyi actually didn’t seem to know him, she looked at him up and down, left and right for a while, until she saw that his face turned red, turned white again, and then turned green, and only then said, “That is just one of the concerns. Based on Lord Marquis’s care for the Ye Mansion, you must be deeply involved in those rotten things in his family, and it’s not easy to clean it up.”

Zhao Luli cupped his hands in despair, “Madam is absolutely right. I’m really stuck in the mud.”

“Daddy!” Zhao Chunxi cried out in fear, only now that she finally shed a few sincere tears and choked, “Are you really going to be implicated? Will something happen to you? Will you be arrested and taken to prison? Will you be like my grandfather, like that…” She didn’t dare to say the word “executed”, and countless fears hit her heart, making her mind buzzing.

Zhao Wangshu finally felt that something was wrong. He jumped out from behind the old madam and said repeatedly, “Daddy will also be arrested and sent to prison? Really? Really?”

“It’s a sin! It’s a sin!” The old madam hugged her grandson and cried bitterly, she couldn’t care about the Ye family outside.

The room was immediately shrouded in miserable gloom, but Guan Suyi remained calm, and waited for their voices to fade away before saying, “Blindly crying won’t solve any problem. At this time the emperor has not yet open the trial, Lord Marquis still have the opportunity to atone your sins with merit. So juts took off your official robe, put thorns on your back, and go to Chengde Hall to confess your sins.”

Zhao Luli felt more and more that his wife was calm and quick-witted, and even thought the situation for him. He couldn’t help softening his face and sighed, “Madam is indeed virtuous and intelligent. I am very relieved to hand over this family to you. To marry you as a wife is really my……”

Guan Suyi was impatient to listen to his compliments and interrupted by tapping on the table, “Let’s settle the Ye family’s affairs first. To settle them, you will not only have to bear financial pressure, but will also cause many far-reaching and negative effects. Can you see clearly those beautiful girls in the Ye family? They are all chess pieces that Ye Quanyong will use to win over other families. They have received special training since childhood, and only know how to compete for favors, prying information, controlling people’s heart, and not understand what lady’s dignity are. Letting them mix together with Zhao Chunxi may make her go down the wrong road, and it will also cause chaos in the back house. Moreover, when Ye Quanyong’s crimes are fully exposed, can you be so sure that these womenfolk are innocent, and there will be no officers who will bring people to catch the fish that escaped the net? What if you accidentally hurt your children? Those who marry the Ye family’s daughter will possibly divorce or discarded them, as they definitely will try to get rid the relationship with the Ye family. If those women come to take shelter with you, will you take them? At that time the Ye family’s daughter will have a rotten reputation. Aren’t you afraid that it will implicate Zhao Chunxi and make her unable to marry? Many of the Ye clan’s young men are a dandy. How many of Zhao Wangshu’s cousins are really promising? What kind of influence will they have on Zhao Wangshu, have you considered it clearly?”

Guan Suyi knocked on the table and pointed out, “For the reputation of your two son and daughter, for their future and marriage, and for the future peace of Marquis Mansion, I suggest you invite them out. Of course, if you buy them a house outside to settle down, I have no objection.”

The daughter-in-law had already spoken to this point, and the old madam thought that her son would find his way back, but he thought hard for a long time, then gritted his teeth, “Madam, you don’t know, my deceased wife Ye Zhen and I got to know each other when I’m poor, we intersect in the calamity, and her death is also because of me. Without her, there would not be the current Marquis Zhenbei Mansion, nor this family’s rich and noble life of. My Zhao family was originally a criminal and lived in extreme poverty at the border, and we suffered a lot of humiliation. If it weren’t for my father-in-law and mother-in-law gave a lot of help, our family would have starved to death long ago. I can’t forget these kindnesses, and I can’t fail to repay them. Madam comes from a Confucian family, and the most important thing is benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith, you should be able to understand me and also to be able to fulfill me. If we get pass this safely, we can live a good life. All the misunderstandings, hurts, and quarrels in the past were all because of me. It is me who didn’t appreciate Madam, blindly demanding, blindly indulging. Instead, we and the beautiful, happy and cheerful little family were ruined into the current fragmented pieces. Madam, it’s me who let you down! Borrowing the words from the people at that time,  I, Marquis Zhenbei, what kind of virtue, what kind of talent do I have to marry you, Guan Suyi, as a wife, if I don’t cherish it, I should really be strikes by thunder!”

Zhao Luli sincerely repented, and also sincerely felt that Guan Suyi was good. It may not be obvious in ordinary times, but in the face of such a catastrophe that endangered the whole family, her calmness, strength, and ability were fully revealed. With her here, there was a stabilizing force at home, and he felt extremely comfortable and at ease.

Guan Suyi’s heart was already cold, she lowered her eyelids and said, “You are pulling a lot of mess, but you are just begging for the Ye Mansion. You still want to take them in, even if they may harm your children?”

“What Madam said is it not frightening words to scare people. I will warn the in-law and Madam Liu to take care of her family. If their mother’s clan is killed, and my Marquis Mansion doesn’t care, nor does the two children care, will the reputation be good? I believe Wangshu and Xi’er won’t meet with damnation nor couldn’t be save. When everyone settles down properly, I will naturally find a way to eliminate all kind of hidden dangers. The most important thing is hurrying up to repair the house, and another thing is to distribute silver to free people from the prison, and the rest can be arranged slowly. It’s not that I don’t want to put them outside, but the Ye Mansion’s case has just broken out, and the situation is still developing. If those who hold grudges against father-in-law take action against them, they will surely die. How can I have the face to see my deceased wife in the underworld in the future? When the storm subsides in the future, I will naturally move them out.”

In fact, Ye Zhen didn’t die at all, so he couldn’t abandon the entire Ye family.

“You don’t have the face to see her, but you have the face to see me.” Guan Suyi sneered.

“I don’t have the face to see Madam either.” Zhao Luli said bitterly, “I want to be loyal, I want to be faithful, I want to be filial, but I am already in such an embarrassing situation, I can’t go up, I can’t go down, I can’t go forward, I can’t go back, beside living in a muddleheaded and confused way, there is no other way to live. Among them, the twists and turns are unbearable, and I ask Madam to forgive me one last time! Madam, I beg you!”

Pulling the pair of children, he choked out, “Hurry up and kowtow to your mother. In the past, you were unfilial and always disobeyed Madam. I will definitely not forgive anyone who makes Madam angry in the future. Your mother is kind and will not leave your (maternal) grandmother alone.”

Zhao Wangshu listened to his father’s words the most, and immediately kowtowed three times. Zhao Chunxi almost crushed the roots of her teeth to keep herself from roaring. Daddy, don’t just think about the Ye family and your mother-in-law, think about us too!

Guan Suyi  saw that the crucial moment was almost here before slowly spoke, “Alright, since you are bent on going your way, I’ll fulfill you.”

The old madam was shocked, and when she was about to object, she was interrupted by her daughter-in-law raising her hand. She took a sip of hot tea unhurriedly and continued, “Look carefully at this map, the main courtyard, the main house, and the second house are on the same line, and the expanse of the three houses is also different from yours. In this case, it is better to build a wall in the middle to separate the Marquis Mansion. The three of you, father and children will live in the east with the Ye family, and I, the old madam, sister-in-law, and Mu Mu, will live in the west. The second brother has established a family, and should have opened a mansion long ago. So let’s just borrow his name first to use, and divide the mansion without separating the family, and the east and west mansion are living independently, and they have nothing to do with each other. What do you think?”

East and west? Such a big change, such a comprehensive plan, such a wonderful idea, afraid it was not a flash of inspiration, right? When Ye mansion was in trouble, when he brought everyone back, she might be already planning this matter, but under her deliberate guidance, he fell into the trap step by step, and food, clothing, housing and transportation have already clearly divided, even if he wanted to oppose, there was nothing to say.

Madam had a meticulous method, very intelligent, and so decisive in her actions! If this time he couldn’t get out unscathed, the Zhao family still had her, and it seemed like he had let go a hundred and twenty hearts, and there was no worries at all. Zhao Luli frowned for a while, sighed for a while, and finally bowed deeply, had no choice but to compromise, “Just follow what Madam said.”

The old madam thought for a while, and acquiesced to this matter, her pale face finally turned red. It’s really a blessing of several lifetimes for my son to be able to marry Suyi. I hope this time he can really get back on the right path and live a good life with Suyi. This wall can be built, but it also can be demolished one day. As the saying goes, without destruction there can be no construction, after it was broken, it can stand up. As long as the husband and are the same heart, there will be a good future waiting in front of them.

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