SFS Chapter 123 Encounter with Gu Zongci
Chapter 123 Encounter with Gu Zongci
After Shen Qingtan presented her visiting card to the Lady of Yongyi and was refused, she knew that the Lady of Yongyi was avoiding suspicion.
To confirm her suspicions, she sent Liuyue to knock on the door.
The doorman, however, refused to open the door no matter what.
She instructed the coachman to return to the Duke of Zhao's residence, write a letter, and give it to Tingxue to deliver to Boss Qin. She then arranged for the cloth shop manager to select several bolts of cloth and take the letter to the Earl of Yongyi's residence. Under the guise of delivering cloth, she planned to deliver the letter to the Earl of Yongyi's wife.
She had done everything she could; now it was up to fate.
Shen Qingtan had prepared a set of undergarments for Zhao Yi, which had been washed and scented. She folded them and placed them in the closet. Then she sat on the cushions, embroidering scriptures while waiting for Tingxue to return.
Today, however, I couldn't calm down and felt somewhat restless.
Shen Qingtan couldn't sit still any longer, so she got up from in front of the embroidery frame and prepared to call Liuyue into the room.
At this time, footsteps were heard outside the house.
"Second Madam!" Tingxue rushed in from outside, panting, and said, "The Lady of Yongyi... she's passed away."
Shen Qingtan was taken aback. Her premonition had come true, and she couldn't quite describe the feeling in her heart.
Marquis Chengen is truly ruthless. He killed his own brother, and now he wants to kill his wife's brother's family.
Lady Yongyi has died; will the next one be the Earl of Yongyi?
With the death of the Earl of Yongyi, the information she had gathered was of little use.
Shen Qingtan took a few steps toward the desk and then suddenly stopped.
Marquis Chengen probably already has people on his hands, and he will strike as soon as he finds an opportunity. Even if she sends a letter to Guanzhou now, it will be too late.
“Madam Bo could have survived, since you went to the Bo’s residence to look for her. If she had seen you then, she wouldn’t have died,” Liu Yue said with a sigh. “Everyone has their own destiny.”
Shen Qingtan murmured, "Is everyone destined by fate?"
"Everyone has their own destiny?" Zhao Yi came in from outside and, seeing Shen Qingtan looking preoccupied, asked, "Are you thinking about the matter in Guanzhou?"
"No." Shen Qingtan took the neatly packed bundle from his hand and replied softly, "The Lady has passed away, and the Lord... will he be soon too?"
“Their fate was sealed the moment they started working for the Marquis’s household.” Zhao Yi washed his hands, took a handkerchief to dry them, and seeing that she still had a furrowed brow, he pointed his index finger at the bundle in her hand: “When I came out of the palace, someone rode past my carriage and threw a bundle through the window. I opened the bundle and found a letter with your name on the envelope. The other party acted so discreetly, probably because they didn’t want anyone other than you and me to know.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Qingtan carried the bundle to the inner room, sat on the short couch, and opened it. Inside, she found a booklet and a letter.
She opened the letter first, glanced at the bottom left corner, and saw that it was written by the Lady of Yongyi. She then quickly finished reading the letter.
Lady Yongyi was prepared to fight to the death, and first used this piece of evidence to threaten Marquis Chengen into letting Yongyi go.
If the Marquis of Chengen wanted to harm them, once news of their deaths spread, someone would hand over this incriminating evidence to her.
Shen Qingtan always knew that the Earl of Yongyi was working for the Marquis of Chengen, and that what he was doing was definitely something shady.
She had previously guessed that the evidence the Lady of Yongyi had brought to the Marquis of Chengen's residence, which she had gone to in a menacing manner, must be even more serious than the disaster in Guanzhou. Only in this way could she force the Marquis of Chengen to hesitate in taking action.
Unfortunately, Lady Yongyi miscalculated Marquis Chengen's determination to gamble everything.
If the situation is more serious than that of Guanzhou, then between two evils, we must choose the lesser one; Marquis Chengen will certainly not let Lady Yongyi off the hook.
The news of the death of the Countess of Yongyi confirmed this.
Shen Qingtan sighed softly. The Lady of Yongyi had explained in her letter that she was not the biological daughter of the Marquis of Chengen.
He only uttered this one sentence verbally, without leaving any other compelling evidence.
Without solid evidence, she cannot rashly reveal her true identity, otherwise the Marquis of Chengen will turn the tables on her.
Shen Qingtan picked up a booklet. The booklet was blank, but a transaction list was tucked between each page.
The list is very clear, specifying the year, month, day, time, and place of what was done.
The further she looked, the more her brow furrowed. When she finally saw the last thing clearly, she was shocked and instantly understood why Marquis Chengen, despite being threatened by Lady Yongyi, was still determined to kill her.
Each of these offenses is a capital offense, especially the last one, which is a capital offense involving the extermination of nine generations of one's family!
This is far more serious than the disaster in Guanzhou.
Many thoughts flashed through Shen Qingtan's mind. Prince Yu was in charge of the Ministry of War, one of the six ministries, and Marquis Chengen was Prince Yu's man. It was obvious that the privately manufactured weapons were for Prince Yu's benefit.
Although the Countess of Yongyi mentioned the private manufacture of weapons on the list, she did not specify the location of the privately built weapons workshop.
Without concrete evidence, this list alone is not enough to completely suppress the Marquis's mansion; it would only alert them.
Shen Qingtan handed the letter and booklet to Zhao Yi: "I need to sever ties with the Marquis of Chengen's mansion as soon as possible."
Throughout history, when a married woman's family commits a crime, even if the woman herself is not implicated, her husband's family will still divorce her after hearing rumors.
Moreover, the Marquis of Chengen committed a crime punishable by the extermination of his entire clan.
After reading it, Zhao Yi frowned and said, "If you want to sever ties with the Marquis's mansion, you must not let the people of the Marquis's mansion know that Lady Yongyi gave you the things, otherwise they will hold you hostage."
Shen Qingtan nodded: "And we need to let them know that getting involved with me will only implicate them, so that they will take the initiative to sever ties with me."
Upon hearing Shen Qingtan's words, Zhao Yi knew that she had a plan in mind.
He put the booklet and letter into his bundle and said gently, "I will arrange for someone to investigate the matter of privately manufacturing weapons. Once we have concrete evidence, you should be free from the Marquis's ties, and then we can take action against the Marquis's family."
-
Inside a small teahouse in Yongning Town, Guanzhou, Shen Shaoheng sat in a corner of the lobby listening to the conversation of the people.
"I heard today that the Earl of Yongyi hanged himself in prison, committing suicide out of fear of punishment."
"This heartless corrupt official has caused the deaths of countless ordinary people; he deserved to die!"
"Wait a minute, did he hang himself, or was he silenced?"
"Shh!" Someone gestured for silence: "I heard that the Imperial Envoy was furious and went to Lord Cao's residence, only to find that Lord Cao had also hanged himself in his study."
Upon hearing this, Shen Shaoheng frowned deeply, guessing in his heart that Lord Cao had killed the Earl of Yongyi and then hanged himself.
Lord Cao is a local strongman, and no matter how strict the imperial envoy's precautions are, there will still be oversights.
However, there was one thing he couldn't understand: what exactly did the person behind this have that made Lord Cao willingly hang himself?
Shen Shaoheng pulled a tael of silver from his sleeve and threw it on the table. He swaggered out of the teahouse, pondering how to bring that batch of silver back to the capital.
Suddenly, five or six carriages arrived, bearing the sign of the Gu Family Trading Company.
Shen Shaoheng remembered that Shen Qingtan had instructed him in his letter to specifically buy grain from the Qin and Gu rice shops.
The owner of Qin's Trading Company had a relationship with her, and Gu's Trading Company cooperated with Qin's Trading Company.
He recognized the man sitting on the cart shaft as the one he had dealt with when buying grain.
Shen Shaoheng's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward to stop the carriage: "Manager Gu, what a coincidence to meet you here. Could you give me a ride to Guanzhou City?"
When Manager Gu saw that it was Shen Shaoheng, he smiled and said, "Young Master Shen, our boss is here. Let me ask for permission first."
After saying that, he lifted the carriage curtain and entered the carriage, saying to Gu Zongci, "Master, that is the heir of the Marquis of Chengen's mansion."
Gu Zongci thought of Shen Qingtan and said in a low voice, "Give him a ride." After a pause, he added, "Please invite him to my carriage."