Madam Qi went to gather news and returned in a short while, just in time for dinner.

  Huang saw that she looked very bad and her heart was in her throat. "What did you find out?"

  "Grandma!" Qie's servant bowed and leaned in close, lowering her voice: "I asked the people from the Zhao family, and indeed Madam had gone to discuss marriage with them, and the engagement letter really did reach Madame Zhao's hands."

  "Huang's family was shocked: 'Is that really Wei Jie's letter?'"

  "This matter has been kept from Grandma, so it's not time to make it public yet. The woman doesn't know about it either. However, I went back to the street and asked a fortune teller, and indeed found out at Liu Baxian's place near Li Zihutong. I gave him two silver coins and asked him about the eight characters of the Zhao family's match, what are the eight characters of the bride? He wrote this for me."

  As she spoke, she handed the paper slip in her hand to Huang Shi.

  Huang's family came to see him, and his face suddenly turned pale!

  "Indeed it's Wei Jie's eight characters! This old scoundrel! This old scoundrel!"

  "Grandma, speak softly!" Qi Guifei hastily comforted her and returned to the door to close it, then hurried back to continuously pat her chest and back: "The more it is at this time, the more one cannot be flustered! Isn't this what Grandma usually reminds us? How can you forget when it comes to Grandma?"

  Huang was pulled down to sit, a belly full of anger but nowhere to vent, staring in the direction of the main courtyard gritting her teeth and saying: "In order to get the little family wealth of the second house into the hands of the eldest house, she calculated and schemed, now she has actually calculated it onto my sister's head, how can I not be angry?! You go prepare paper and pen, I'll write a letter to Third Master right away, let's see if he dares to marry his precious daughter to a fool as wife!"

  As she spoke, she suddenly stood up and hastily walked to the dresser, saw the embroidered forehead that her sister-in-law had personally embroidered for her, and a string of tears fell down like broken pearls.

  "Sister Hua has been raised by us like our own eyes since she was a child, and even the old master usually loves her very much. Now she's actually being treated like this! This matter will ultimately come to nothing, if it gets out that she once married a fool, her reputation as a woman will also be ruined! This Wang Shi, really has a ruthless and poisonous heart!"

  Qie's mother-in-law moved the pen and ink from the bookshelf, also wiping away tears. "Our old master knew early on that this Xie family inheritance was not good, and shouldn't have married you into such a household! Now it's not only harmed grandma being severely oppressed by a low-born mother-in-law, but also harmed Rui sister to this extent! If the old master were to know, who knows what kind of state he'd be in!"

  Huang's hand clenched into a fist as he wiped his forehead, thinking of his grandfather who had always doted on him, and became even more stunned.

  Grandfather was willing to form an alliance with the Xie family in the first place because he saw potential in Xie Rong. And wasn't she also willing to marry into the Wang family and be a obedient daughter-in-law under Madam Wang's rule because of Xie Rong?

  There aren't many men like him in this world.

  My grandfather once said that she would become strong when faced with strength and weak when faced with weakness, but when she met Xie Rong, she inevitably turned into a puddle of water.

  Without Xie Rong, there wouldn't be so many joyful days and nights of music, how could she have had Yu Mei and Yun Er?

  But was her hard-earned daughter, Wei Jie, just a tool for the Wang family?!

  She clenched her fist and wiped her forehead, suddenly standing up straight: "Let's go to the main courtyard!"

  Xie Qigong was teasing a parrot under the veranda when Pang Fu suddenly ran over: "Master, Third Madam has arrived."

  Xie Qigong grunted and hooked his finger under the parrot's chin, then turned back: "What is it?"

  Pang Fu found it hard to speak, and just then Huang Shi walked in through the doorway, so he said: "It's about Eldest Miss."

  Xie Qigong looked at Huang in confusion, seeing her with a solemn face and red, swollen eyes, as if she had just cried. He was startled and asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

  Huang's family disregarded the wet ground and knelt down: "Master, Wei Jie cannot marry Zhao's young master!"

  "What?!"

  Xie Qigong was clearly unable to keep up with her rhythm.

  Su Luo entered the tea room to give it to Wang Shi, seeing her calm and composed, alone playing with a set of bones in the house, then said: "Just now San Niangniang didn't know what was going on, she went to see Master with a pair of swollen eyes."

  "Swollen eyes?" Wang's gaze remained on the pitted surface of the dominoes, and she said casually: "It's Old Three writing to her again, what's gotten into her?"

  Su Luo thought for a moment, "It doesn't seem right. Third Master just left a few days ago? And besides, there hasn't been any news from him during these days."

  Wang ignored him and didn't respond.

  On Tuesday, the housekeeper came in again: "Madam, the master is calling for you in the study."

  Wang raised his head and was silent for a moment before getting up and putting on his shoes. "What's going on?" he asked.

  Tuesday's family shook their heads: "The visitor didn't say anything. He just asked the lady to go over."

  Wang entered the study and felt a sense of oppression as soon as he stepped inside.

  Xie Qigong stood with his back to the door, Huang's wife standing beside him, her head bowed in silence. When she saw Wang's wife come in, it was as if she hadn't noticed her at all.

  Wang said in a soft voice: "Third Granny, what's wrong?"

  "How dare you say that!"

  Xie Qigong suddenly turned around and pointed at her nose, roaring with anger.

  Wang was startled and Zhou's family, who followed, were also frightened with wide eyes.

  "Is there such a grandmother in the world? Is Rong'er not your own child? Is Wei'jie not your own granddaughter? You're going to marry her off to that idiot Zhao!"

  Xie Qigong slammed his hand on the table and bellowed, forcing Wang to retreat repeatedly, her mouth agape for half a day before she could utter a word. "I'm the eldest daughter of the esteemed Xie family, the eldest daughter of the newly appointed Hanlin Academy scholar, and you secretly took the dowry to curry favor with the Zhao family behind everyone's back! Are you intentionally trying to make our family a laughing stock?"

  The half-person-high red wood case in the hall was overturned onto the threshold, and all the servants in the study courtyard shrank their necks.

  Wang propped himself up with both hands on the armrests of his wheelchair and barely avoided falling over.

  The one who was supposed to be paired with Zhao's foolish young master, Mingming, was Wang Anmei. How did she become Wei Jie? She looked over at Huang Shi, whose expression was cold and indifferent, as if everything Xie Qigong had done to her was well-deserved.

  "Sir, aren't you mistaken? How could I marry Xiaojie to the young master of the Zhao family?"

  Who is behind the scenes stirring up trouble? Who instigated Huang's family to come out and file a complaint?

  "Wrong?!" Xie Qigong was furious and laughed sarcastically, picking up a piece of paper from the table and slapping it into her hand. "You take a look yourself! If I'm wrong, how would the fortune teller on the street have Xiaojie's birthdate and time in his hands? And what's more, it was Zhao's family who brought their idiot son's birthdate and time to match with Xiaojie's!"

  Wang didn't read books, but she had been the mistress of Xie's family for thirty years. She could still recognize time and numbers in eight characters. When she saw a line of words on paper, she was also stunned. Wouldn't she know the eight characters of others? How could she not know the eight characters of her own family members?

  "This... this..."

  She didn't know what to say.

  She said she didn't even know how it ended up in Mrs. Zhao's hands? But the Zhao family is not an ordinary commoner's household, if it wasn't her or Xie Qigong who personally handed it over, how could Mrs. Zhao possibly be holding onto it to matchmake?

  Admit it, she indeed had a marriage agreement with Mrs. Zhao, but the object of the agreement was the daughter of the Wang family, not Wei Jie?

  Then how can she explain why she married her own niece to a fool for no reason? Can she tell Xie Qigong that it was a partnership with the Zhao family to humiliate Xie Liang? Although Xie Qigong is heartless and unrighteous, he doesn't care about the second wife's door, but he likes fame very much. As long as Xie Liang is a child of the Xie family, he will not allow her to tarnish the reputation of the Xie family children at will!

  She found herself falling into a hole.

  "Old master," she took a deep breath and forced herself to slow down her tone, "I would never do such a thing, is someone behind my back framing me? Third granny, why don't you tell me, who told you about this?"

  She said that, and Huang's family couldn't help but sneer. She thought Wang's family was shameless enough, still thinking of pulling a scapegoat at this time! Not to mention that Xie Wan had just turned eight years old and couldn't do such a thing, even if she were eighteen years old now, could a woman in the boudoir come up with such a sinister idea? Could she understand Wang's vicious intentions?

  She wasn't helping Xie Wan, but she really felt that with her experience, it was absolutely impossible to manipulate all of this.

  "Never mind where I heard it from, madam. The fact that it has reached my ears means someone must know about it."

  The Wang family was furious but did not dare to make a move.

  Xie Qigong pointed at Pang Fu: "Isn't the Zhao family looking for someone to reason with us about a slave? You go invite them over, I want to see whether it's more serious that they hit a slave or that they secretly brought a fool to deceive my granddaughter!"

  "Old Master——"

  Wang wanted to stop him, but Xie Qigong gritted his teeth and said to Pang Fu: "Remember, you go yourself! Go now!"

  This is what it means for Wang to secretly conspire with Zhao Zhen and his wife again.

  Wang was so angry that his face turned pale, but he could do nothing about it.

  Zhao Zhen and his wife were discussing how to respond to Xie Qigong after receiving Su Luo's message, when they waited for Pang Fu to come and invite them.

  Li Ershun intercepted Zhao Zhen under the corridor and said, "Pang Fu must have come at the behest of Master Xie. Have you thought about how to meet with Su Luo before he came to pass on the message? Now Master Xie has sent Pang Fu to invite someone again?"

  Zhao Zhen didn't have a good impression of Li Ershun, but since they had already started talking about it, she couldn't just stop. "What do you think it means?"

  Li Ershun said: "I used to be a servant in the Xie family for a few years, so I also know Mr. Xie's temperament. Although Mrs. Xie is in charge of the inner house, she is still listening to Mr. Xie because she is remarried. I reckon that Mr. Xie might have known about the oral agreement between you and Mrs. Xie, so he came to invite you to go and confront each other."

  "Think about it, this Second Master is after all the legitimate heir of the Xie family. If Old Master Xie didn't care about him, would he agree to those three conditions from the Qi family and still keep him by his side? So, what Madam Xie did was actually a slap in the face for Old Master Xie. As a high-ranking official with a reputation for integrity, you will soon be returning to the capital to report on your duties and take up new responsibilities. Why bother damaging your reputation over this trivial matter?"