Chapter 4: 4. Chapter 4: Ready to watch the show!

Chapter 4: Time for a Show!

Zhang Qiuniang stumbled back a few steps, only steadying herself when Xie Yi braced her body.

Her eyes blazed with fury. A string of words rushed to her lips, but at the last moment, she bit them back behind her teeth.

"Whatever her background is, it’s none of your business! Whether she was born to me or not, none of you have any right to scheme against her!"

After saying this, Qiuniang flicked her sleeves and walked out.

"How is it not my business? She grew up spending the Zhang family’s money!"

He-shi chased after her, blocking her path. "A girl of unknown origin, eating our Zhang family’s food, wearing our Zhang family’s clothes—how many years have we been played for fools by you lot?

"We raised her from the age of five until she was twelve or thirteen! We treated her like a young lady of noble birth, provided her with fine silks and delicacies, and gave her the same monthly allowance we gave our own Ru-jie!

"Not to mention anything else, that’s several hundred taels of silver a year. Over eight years, that’s several thousand taels!

"What right does an outsider have to spend our Zhang family’s money? Isn't it enough that the Zhang family has been supporting you Xie family members? Do we have to help you support outsiders too?!"

"Pah!" Zhang Qiuniang turned back. "Whoever we raised, it was my father who invited us back. No matter how much was spent, it was the old master who ran the house. What does it have to do with you?!"

"Then what about these three hundred taels?!" He-shi slapped the promissory note repeatedly. "This was the cost to register Jia-jie in the county records. This isn't just daily living expenses; you can't count this as that!

"If you don't pay, I’ll take this to the county magistrate! The county office must still have the documents from back then. Whether she is a Xie family member or a bastard, the magistrate will surely have an answer!

"As long as she isn't our Zhang family’s niece, then this money was paid by the Zhang family on her behalf, and she must pay us back!"

Qiuniang trembled with rage. "Keep dreaming! Whether she was born to me or not, she is Zhang Qiuniang’s daughter! If you dare touch her, I’ll fight you to the death!"

"Do you think you get to decide?" He-shi sneered, stepping forward aggressively. "If she doesn't pay back these three hundred taels within three days, then you hand over the deed to this house!

"If you don't hand over the house, then she will marry into the Li family, and that’s that!"

He-shi didn't stutter once while saying this; one could only wonder how many times she had plotted this in secret.

Just as Zhang Qiuniang was about to step forward to argue further, Xie Yi saw the servant women surrounding He-shi and quickly half-carried, half-dragged Qiuniang out the front gate.

But Zhang Qiuniang was too angry to let it go, pointing back at the Zhang residence and cursing loudly every few steps.

Only after they entered their own home did Xie Yi let go. Panting and wiping his sweat, he asked, "Mother! Is what she said true? My sister, she, is she really—"

"Shut your mouth!" Qiuniang glared at him. "You believe whatever filth comes out of that dog's mouth? If you dare say a word of this in front of your sister, see if I don't beat you to death!"

……

Lu Jia had finished the water and the cake, and after lying down for a while, her strength gradually returned.

She never expected that after choosing to perish together with Jiang-shi, her soul would return to this fifteen-year-old body!

Two months before she decided to flee, Lu Jia had received the tragic news that her mother and Xie Yi had died in poverty in Tanzhou. Before that, she had clearly sent letters saying that by the Qingming Festival at the latest, she would definitely escape the Yan family and return to Tanzhou to reunite with them. She never expected she would be too late.

Lu Jia had been abandoned at five. If not for these foster parents, she would have died in the wilderness long ago. The ten years she spent in the Xie family were a time of immense happiness, regardless of wealth or poverty.

As a foster daughter who had received such grace from the Xie family, how could she stay in the capital after hearing the news of their deaths?

As the legitimately wedded granddaughter-in-law, Lu Jia shouldn't have been absent from the Yan family’s mourning hall, but this funeral was the best opportunity she had to escape.

So, she deliberately provoked that beast Yan Qu, and he ordered her to be confined to the backyard.

Although she suffered a brutal beating, as long as she could achieve her goal, she didn't care about one more.

Escaping the Yan family wasn't just because of the deaths of her mother and brother.

Of all the injustices Lu Jia suffered in her past life, Yan Qu and the Yan family were the executioners, but Jiang-shi was the mastermind.

From the day she was married into the Yan family, she had thought of nothing but leaving. She needed to build her strength, and only after settling everything would she return to the capital to settle the score with Jiang-shi, debt by debt!

The pain of the blade piercing her chest and abdomen still felt fresh. To return from a desperate dead end to a present where her mother and brother were safe and alive—it had only taken the blink of an eye. If she had known, she wouldn't have been so obsessed with that bundle before she died.

—Right, she wondered if that masked assassin had managed to escape.

Lu Jia had spent six years in the capital but rarely went out.

That person’s mask was made of gleaming pure silver, and his slightly messy hair was as black as ink. His attire was extraordinary; inside a refined sable fur cloak was a black cloud-brocade robe, and his shoes were nearly new, embroidered with fine silver thread. Furthermore, Lu Jia had observed his hands—slender and ruddy, and he wore a jade thumb ring.

Lu Jia truly didn't know that in this day and age, even assassins had to dress so elegantly?

Did wearing a sable cloak worth several hundred taels of silver make the beheading go faster?

"Mother!"

As she was steaming taro in the kitchen, Xie Yi’s call from outside interrupted her thoughts.

She looked out the window and saw Xie Yi running quickly toward the backyard.

Lu Jia walked to the door. "Is Mother back?"

Xie Yi glanced at her, then at the inner courtyard, and stomped his feet as he ran over. "Of course she’s back! I was right—Mother and He-shi got into a fight!

"It’s a good thing you told me to go when you did. Any later, and that stick would have hit Mother’s leg!"

Hearing that Qiuniang was unharmed, Lu Jia finally relaxed. In her past life, it was because Qiuniang had her leg injured by the Zhang family that the household fell into even more dire straits.

She wiped her hands, intending to go to the backyard to see Qiuniang.

Xie Yi held her back. "You’d better not go; Mother is furious! He-shi dug up some promissory note from somewhere, saying, saying, saying we owe them three hundred taels of silver and that we have to pay it back! If we can't pay, we have to hand over this house, and if we don't hand over the house, she’s going to make you marry Li Er! She didn't seem to be just talking; Mother’s spirit was broken by the end."

Afraid of being beaten, he could only summarize the situation.

Lu Jia said, "A promissory note?"

Xie Yi pressed his lips together and nodded heavily.

Lu Jia narrowed her eyes. "What exactly is going on?!"

Xie Yi couldn't hold it in anymore and stomped his foot. "He-shi said it was a note written by Grandfather himself for your registration at the Shawan County office!"

Then, he spilled everything he had heard like beans from a bamboo tube.

"Don't you think the Zhang family is going too far? Grandfather received kindness from our Xie family back then, so when he heard the Xie family had fallen on hard times, he immediately told us to come back to the Zhang family. He announced it in front of the whole family that Mother would always be a Zhang! Later, considering that outsiders would gossip about Father, Grandfather bought this house for us to live in.

"They even drew up a document back then, stating clearly that this was Xie family property. Even though he provided the funds, it was to repay the help our grandfather gave him!

"Now she’s twisting things to demand money and the house, and using you to force a marriage. If she gets her way, what was the help the Xie family gave the Zhang family worth? Without our Xie family, would she, He-shi, and the Zhang brothers have the life they have today? These ungrateful wolves! How can they be so heartless?"

Amidst Xie Yi’s indignant cursing, Lu Jia finally understood. So, the reason the Zhang family was pulling this stunt was that they had guessed she wasn't a daughter of the Xie family?

Once they had this leverage, they began to unscrupulously blackmail the Xie family and use selling her to Li Er as a threat?

Lu Jia sneered, thinking He-shi’s brain must have been crushed by a door.

But then again—even if He-shi had this leverage regarding her background, it wasn't a big deal. Was it really worth making such a fuss just to force her to pay money or get married?

The Zhang family’s business wasn't particularly large, and they were usually busy enough; they weren't so idle that they would go through such a huge circle just to disgust her, right?

Standing there thinking for a moment, Lu Jia dismissed Xie Yi. "I remember Li Chang’s mother, Sister-in-law Liu, works at the Zhang house? Go ask her to get a set of servant clothes from the Zhang house for me to wear."

Xie Yi straightened up. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to watch a show," Lu Jia glanced at him. "Once you get the clothes, go and leak a message to Li Er that I’ve woken up." She then gave him a few more quiet instructions.

After listening, Xie Yi looked at her with a complex expression, as if he were truly looking at a demon.

Only after she glared at him and urged him on did he turn and run out.

Lu Jia dusted the patches on her apron, turned to look at the Zhang residence to the east, and then walked with steady steps back to the kitchen. She took a bamboo tray, filled a large bowl with the steamed taro, sprinkled a thin layer of white sugar on top, and took a small dish of crispy radish cubes pickled in chili oil. Carrying the tray, she headed toward the backyard.