Volume 1: The Imperial Capital's Marquis Manor Chapter 30: Stripping of Title

  The Yangning Marquis's mansion occupied half of the Yangning Street, and there were also two official residences next to it, but they were far inferior compared to the marquis's mansion. On both the east and west sides of the street, there were wooden archways built when the mansions were constructed over a hundred years ago. Although they had been weathered for many years, after being repaired and repainted, they still looked quite majestic. The archway on the east side was called Chonghe, while the one on the west side was called Jieyi. It is said that they were inscribed by a high-ranking official during the founding of the country. After many years, the magnificent calligraphy still attracted scholars and poets from afar to stop and admire them.

  At this moment, Chen Lan's carriage passed under the west gate, but did not enter the main gate. Instead, it stopped in front of the west corner gate. The two drivers skillfully used wooden bars to support the carriage shafts and immediately unloaded the mules that were pulling the carriage. Following closely behind, eight sturdy young men emerged from inside, divided into two groups, and surprisingly used manpower to pull the carriage through the west corner gate. After walking straight along the path for a while and turning a corner, the sedan chair stopped in front of a hanging flower gate.

  Before he even got off the carriage, Chen Lan heard a loud commotion and opened the curtain to see Liu Qing, the housekeeper, running over like the wind. Without stopping, he rushed past the carriage and told an old woman by the gate: "Quickly, go inform Old Madam and Second Madam that Second Master has returned, he's already passed the Xi Bian Jie Yi Fang!"

  When they heard the news, not only was Chen Lan greatly shocked, but also Chen Yan and several girls in the car were stunned. The women next to the Huafang Gate were all unresponsive for a while. It wasn't until after a good long while that one of the women finally came to her senses, hastily lifted up her skirt and turned around to run away. Liu Qing stood there wiping the oily sweat from his head, and only when he turned his head did he see the sedan chair, and hurriedly walked forward.

  "Third Miss, Fourth Young Master."

  The eight cart-pulling boys had all retreated with their heads bowed, and Su Mu Huo from the back of the cart hurried over to prop up the cart's support and help Chen Lan down. Chen Yan, however, jumped down directly and asked, "You're saying that Er Ye has returned?"

  "Yes, thank goodness, we've finally returned safely. The second master has been in prison for a long time and is now very weak, so we had to prepare a sedan chair for him to enter the house." Liu, a young man who was not very old but had been personally promoted by Madam Zhu as the manager, originally only showed superficial respect to the sister and brother of the Long House who were without support. However, in the past few days, he had learned that things were not going well for them, so his face had become more eager to please. "But we didn't receive any news beforehand, and there wasn't even time to prepare."

  "It's all right." Chen Lan smiled and nodded, then quietly took Chen Yan's hand. "We shouldn't stay here either. Qin Fang, take Su Mu Hu Jiao back to Jin Xiu Ge first. Hong Luo, follow me and Fourth Brother to see Old Lady in Lian Xiang Yuan."

  After the division was done, a group of people entered the垂花门, and Chen Yan's attendants naturally stayed outside. All the way in, Chen Lan only saw that the family was already in a mess, with some shouting excitedly, others whispering to each other, and some quickly hiding when they saw their sister and brother coming over, and hardly anyone came to pay respects. It wasn't until they entered the front hall of the蓼香院 that things were still a bit chaotic, and Green Lotus herself came out to scold them for a few sentences before the scene improved slightly.

  Although the good news had just been transmitted from outside, Zhu's face did not show any joy. When she saw Chen Lan and Chen Yan come in to pay their respects together, she only slightly waved her hand and didn't even ask about the situation in the temple. Chen Lan thought it wasn't the right time, so he handed over the things given by Monk Zhiyong and sat down on a chair beside Zhu without mentioning his encounter with the people from Jin Wang. Not long after, another maid rushed in, knelt down and said: "Old lady, the second lady brought the second and fourth young ladies directly to the second gate."

  "They were anxious."

  Zhu took the tea from Yu Xuan and took a sip, then frowned and said, "Why is this tea so weak?"

  Yu Ru saw the situation and hastily pleaded guilty, and again knocked over the small covered bowl to re-pour tea, while the rest of the people in the house didn't even dare to breathe. Seeing Zhu's expression and words, Chen Lan knew that Old Lady must have been unaware beforehand too, so she couldn't help but glance at Chen Yan.

  Chen Yan had previously mentioned that after seeing the Jin king and his men, he also brought up the matter of his second uncle Yang Ning Hou Chen Jue, but the Jin king only comforted him with a couple of words. Luo Xu glanced at Yang Jin Zhou with his eyes, while Yang Jin Zhou said lightly that everything would be decided by the emperor. From this, it seems that the Jin king probably didn't know about the matter either, but Yang Jin Zhou might have known! Luo Xu had just rushed back to clarify that the fan was imitated in the style of Saint Liu's handwriting and dropped one last sentence, perhaps he had already received news.

  If it were really so, then Zhu Shi and the King of Jin, who should have known about this matter most, were actually kept in the dark?

  After a long wait, a murmur of conversation finally came from outside the house, and after a while, Yang Ning Hou Chen Jiu slowly entered the house with the support of two maids. Only three days had passed since he was released from prison, but he looked as if he had changed into a different person, his face a color that couldn't be described as either green or white, and his speech somewhat incoherent.

  "Old lady... son, son is back."

  "From now on, you should be more vigilant! Our family has been loyal for generations, and this title has been passed down for many years. There have been those who were imprisoned for losing battles, and those who were imprisoned for being late, but never anyone involved in corruption! Everyone knows that the Taizu Emperor treated his meritorious officials with great favor, granting them estates, salaries, and hereditary titles without reduction. And yet you still covet those two small coins... what kind of reputation will this bring?"

  She spoke louder and louder, while the others in the house couldn't sit still, one by one stood up. Chen Lan seemed to be staring at his nose, but actually he was watching Er Fang's family. Er Shu Chen Jiu had already knelt on the ground, his head bowed so low that it was impossible to see any expression. Hou Tou's Ma Fu Ren's face was as white as snow, if not for Zhu Ma Ma supporting her, she seemed to be about to fall down at any moment. And Chen Bing was tightly grasping Chen Huang's arm, looking at Chen Huang's tightly pursed lips, the force was probably not small.

  Until he was satisfied, Mr. Zhu finally let out a long sigh and said calmly: "It's good that you're back. Your wife almost got sick from worrying about you. The second and fourth daughters-in-law have been uneasy all day... By the way, I haven't asked you yet, what exactly happened? Now that you're out, do you have any explanation?"

  Just then, Zhu Shi was only concerned with venting her anger and didn't ask about this until the end. The others in the room had been waiting anxiously for a long time. However, what made everyone even more uneasy was that Chen Jiu, who was kneeling there, stuttered out a few words, but couldn't say a coherent sentence for half a day.

  "What's going on, anyway? A big man like you shouldn't be so evasive and vague!" Zhu felt something was wrong and stood up suddenly, almost falling over, but was caught by Zheng Mama who was quick to react. She didn't notice this and continued to ask urgently, "You'd better speak quickly!"

  Look, Second Uncle Chen Jiu was still hanging his head low, and Chen Lan's heart also gradually sank. However, catching sight of the sheep-horn dagger at Chen Yan's waist, she unconsciously withdrew her hand into her sleeve and pinched her palm with her long fingernails, and her breathing finally stabilized again. Just then, she finally heard Chen Jiu utter a few words in a voice lighter than a mosquito's.

  "Today... Today the Emperor himself went to Beizhen Fu Si for interrogation, scolding his son severely. Afterwards, he said that his son had disgraced the family name of his ancestors. If not for his past merits... After the Emperor left, another imperial edict arrived, releasing his son, but... but stripping him of his title!"

  This speech was neither head nor tail, but everyone present heard it clearly. However, just because they heard it clearly, Mrs. Ma finally couldn't hold on anymore and fell directly onto Mrs. Zhu's body. Chen Bing, who was tightly holding onto Chen Hu's arm, let out a silent scream and retreated several steps in a daze, then shouted loudly: "No, this is impossible!"

  It was Zhu Shi, when she clearly heard the two words "deprived of her title", she still fell onto the taishi chair in an instant. Although she thought about supporting the eldest branch, if the deprivation of her title came too quickly, neither the upper nor lower levels were fully prepared, and it was likely that a situation would arise where the lineage would be cut off - for over a hundred years, due to this reason, there have been eight or nine families whose titles had been suspended, every time a new ruler ascended to the throne, there would be later generations who proposed to inherit the title, but ultimately, it was always shelved.

  Besides, the King of Jin's visit to the Huguo Temple today was arranged by her for the Queen of Jin, and she didn't even get any wind of Chen Jiu's matter. She lost her title so quickly, what about her plans? If this family loses the title of Yangning Hou, how can her daughter calm down the snakes in the Han State Duke's mansion? And the matter of the King of Jin choosing his next queen is even more out of her control! How could it be so fast, why is it so fast?!

  "Old lady! Old lady!"

  Look, Madam Zhu sat there stupidly, unable to move, and Zheng's mother called out several times without a response. Suddenly, her face turned pale with fright. At this moment, she couldn't care about anything else, and repeatedly ordered: "Someone, quickly help the second master and mistress back to their room!"

  As they watched, several maids exerted themselves to carry out Chen Jiu, who was kneeling on the ground and crying and laughing, and Mrs. Ma, who had fainted. Chen Bing wanted to say something, but Chen Huan hastily dragged her away. Although Chen Qing and Chen Han of the third house were grandsons, they were always invisible in the Lianxiang courtyard, so they all looked at Chen Yu with their eyes. Chen Yu stood up politely and took his leave. Zheng Mama didn't have time to pay attention to these things, allowing the people from the third house to slip away quietly, and then busily ordered someone to go invite a doctor, and the room suddenly became chaotic.

  Facing this sudden commotion, Chen Lan stood there silently, suddenly feeling someone pulling her sleeve. Seeing it was Chen Yan, she thought for a moment, then gently patted him on the shoulder.

  "You go back to Fangfei Hall first, I'll stay here and take care of Old Lady."

  Chen Yan was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and walked out of the house. As he stepped out of the doorway, he couldn't help but turn his head to look back at his sister, and finally understood what it meant by "when one prospers, all prosper; when one suffers, all suffer." If their family's title was really gone, and he had just turned twelve after the New Year, how could he possibly protect himself and his sister?

  PS: This week's recommendation votes are very powerful, and I finally managed to hang on at the end of the recommended list. Everyone please help out a bit more, I don't want to be squeezed out by others...