Chapter 32: The Decline of the Lu Estate
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Lin Wanqing sat down in her chair again. After sweeping her gaze over the stewards, she finally fixed her eyes on the steward kneeling at the front.
“What? Do the several of you think that I, Lin Wanqing, carry too little weight for my words to matter? Or do you believe you have no weakness for me to seize upon?”
Steward Lu knelt ramrod straight, his expression neither servile nor defiant. “Since Madam has already decided that we are at fault, what more can servants like us say?”
Lin Wanqing gave a soft scoff. “So Steward Lu believes he has done nothing wrong?”
“The Lu family has served in the General’s Residence for three generations. I grew up at the old general’s side and even followed his army onto the battlefield. I would never dare claim that I rendered some great service to the residence, but the old general himself praised my loyalty.”
Lin Wanqing smiled. “There is no need to invoke the old general to intimidate me. While he was alive, you might have counted as a loyal servant. But now, you are nothing more than a despicable wretch whose conscience has been devoured by dogs!”
As she spoke, Lin Wanqing threw the account books before him. “I imagine Steward Lu knows better than I do what is recorded in these books, doesn’t he?”
Steward Lu still wore an air of complete confidence. “Naturally, I know. But I can say with a clear conscience that I have done nothing wrong. The accounts of this residence were all approved by the Eldest Young Miss. I knew there were problems with them and did warn her, but she refused to listen. There was nothing I could do. I am only the steward. I could assist the Eldest Young Miss, but I could not control her decisions. Whether Madam wishes to beat or punish me today, I accept it all.”
Lin Wanqing smiled. Steward Lu certainly had a silver tongue. With a few sentences, he had washed his hands completely clean and shifted all the blame onto Lu Jinrong.
But Lin Wanqing was not Lu Jinrong. She was not so easily deceived.
“It seems Steward Lu has great confidence in himself.”
Steward Lu thrust out his chest. “I have a clear conscience. I have never taken a single coin that did not belong to me.”
Lin Wanqing began to applaud. “Good! Well said, Steward Lu! Since you are so steadfastly loyal, I ought to give you a chance to prove it.”
“Someone come here.”
Lin Wanqing’s voice rang out sharply.
Perilla immediately stepped forward. “Madam, what are your orders?”
Lin Wanqing took out Lu Jinxiao’s private seal. “Go to the magistrate’s office and borrow twenty constables. Then go to the residence at the entrance of Clear Wind Alley—the one beside the large willow tree—and bring everyone inside here.”
Perilla acknowledged the order, accepted the seal, and left.
Steward Lu, who had been so full of bravado only moments before, instantly turned deathly pale. He stared at Lin Wanqing in utter shock.
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He could not understand how Lin Wanqing had learned of that place.
He had hidden it so carefully. Other than himself, no one knew who lived in that courtyard, much less that the people there were connected to him.
Who exactly was this young new mistress?
Lin Wanqing watched with a smile as Steward Lu’s complexion shifted from green to white, then from white to green, until sweat poured down his face.
Several times Steward Lu tried to speak, but Lin Wanqing gave him no opportunity.
She had given him a chance. He was the one who had failed to cherish it.
Half an hour later, Perilla returned with a group of constables. The constables were escorting more than ten people, eight of them servants. The remaining two were a mother and child.
The mother was a young and beautiful woman barely in her twenties. The child, just over a year old, clung to her in terror.
When Steward Lu saw them, his face turned ashen. He wished he could drop dead on the spot.
The woman, however, seemed to have caught sight of her savior. She began to sob delicately toward Steward Lu. “Husband, I’m frightened.”
The child in her arms also reached both hands toward him, crying, “Papa, hold me. Baby’s scared.”
Steward Lu collapsed onto the floor and did not even dare look at them.
Lin Wanqing said with a faint smile, “Steward Lu, why have you fallen silent? Don’t you want to offer an explanation?”
Steward Lu lowered his head and said nothing.
The woman still did not understand the situation. Weeping, she cried, “Husband, say something! What on earth is going on?”
Steward Lu remained silent.
Lin Wanqing’s patience was wearing thin. “Pretending to be dead won’t help you. Lu Jiafu, since I was able to uncover this mother and child, I can naturally uncover your other affairs as well. There is no chance that you will survive, but do you also intend to abandon the lives of your parents, wife, and children?”
Steward Lu trembled violently. He abruptly raised his head and stared at Lin Wanqing in disbelief. “Madam is willing to spare them?”
Lin Wanqing replied, “If they have committed no wrongdoing, what reason would I have to punish them?”
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The implication was perfectly clear: as long as he was clever enough, his family could remain safe.
Steward Lu was naturally an intelligent man. He understood at once, and a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes. Struggling to straighten his kneeling posture, he slowly said, “I admit my mistakes. I will confess.”
Before long, Steward Lu had revealed every act of betrayal he had committed against his master over the past several years.
In truth, three years earlier, the General’s Residence had still been perfectly orderly.
At that time, the household had been managed by the Second Madam, Lady He—the birth mother of Lu Qi’an.
Lady He came from an eminent family. She possessed talent, beauty, virtue, and grace, and she and the Second General of the Lu family had fallen deeply in love. In marrying into the Lu family, she had effectively married beneath her station.
Lu Huixin and Lu Qinian were the children of the Lu family’s eldest son. Their birth mother had been personally chosen by the old madam: a niece from the old madam’s maternal family. She was quite lovely, but like the old madam herself, she came from too humble a background and was incapable of managing important affairs.
At first, the old madam had been determined to hand control of the household to her eldest daughter-in-law. She and the younger woman had made numerous plans, both openly and secretly, but the family matriarch of that time—the old dowager of the Lu family, who was also the old madam’s mother-in-law—had ignored them all.
It was only after the Second Daughter-in-law, Lady He, married into the family and completed the tea ceremony that the household seal was handed to her.
It had to be said that the old dowager had an exceptionally keen eye for people. Lady He was outstanding in every way—talented, capable, and even-tempered—and she managed the General’s Residence with flawless efficiency. Though the old madam and her eldest daughter-in-law were resentful and unconvinced, they could not find the slightest fault with her. Only then could the old dowager, who had labored her entire life, finally retire in peace.
But that life lasted only until three years ago.
Three years ago, the Second General Lu died in battle. On the day his body was brought home, Lady He dismissed the servants around her, drank poison, and crawled into his coffin, departing this world alongside him.
Lady He had died for love. The eldest daughter-in-law had remarried. The old madam was illiterate. Thus, control of the household fell into the hands of Lu Jinrong, who was not yet fourteen at the time.
And the Lu family began to descend into chaos.
Lu Jinrong had inherited the old madam’s foolishness to perfection. Moreover, the servants around her had flattered her until she no longer knew the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth. She acted without the slightest order or principle, doing everything according to her own whims.
When the household seal was first placed in her hands, the storerooms had been packed to overflowing. Apart from all manner of valuable goods, the residence possessed more than one hundred thousand taels of silver and gold in ready cash.
In a mere three years, Lu Jinrong had reduced the General’s Residence to an empty shell.
Besides Lu Jinrong’s foolishness and incompetence, the schemes of these wicked servants had also played a major part—and Steward Lu was the worst of them all!
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