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Ch28 - Family Assets
“Gu ye, my Xu family is not one of those ultra-rich families with assets that rival the empire’s treasury, but we doted on Lou Jing’s mother very much, and gave her a little more for her dowry. Even so, it’s not like we gave her so much that it would be worth your while to snatch it from her child!” the maternal First Aunt said coldly.
“Sigh, poor Zhuoyu lost his mother at a young age, and now even his mother’s dowry has been taken from him,” the paternal Second Aunt said, dabbing theatrically at her eyes. “If Jiu Taitai didn’t come to the Capital to visit, wouldn’t that mean that his mother’s assets would have been snatched from him?”
“Exactly!” the paternal Third Aunt said sycophantically.
“The two of you, hold your tongues!” the paternal Second Uncle said, stamping his foot in fury. How dare they spout nonsense at this critical juncture!
“It’s not possible!” Madam Wei shrieked, running out from behind the screen. She flipped through one of the account books. “Cheng Xiuru clearly said that these are Zhuque Hall’s accounts!”
“Call Cheng Xiuru here!” Lou Jianyu said, shutting the account book in his hands with a snap. He glanced once at Madam Wei, and on seeing that her face was as white as sheet, bit back the scolding he originally wanted to give her. “Go back behind the screen and sit down! What do you think you’re doing by running out here?”
Madam Wei looked at her husband. Given that he didn’t reprimand her, she knew that he was holding back on account of the baby in her belly, worried that her anxiety might jeopardise her pregnancy. She calmed down, then turned to return behind the screen. She shot the paternal Second Aunt a venomous look, but didn’t dare to look in the direction of the Pingjiang Hou furen. She flopped down angrily on her seat and allowed the maids to fan her.
The Pingjiang Hou furen glanced at Madam Wei, who was so angry that she was breathing heavily. She lowered her eyes and took a languid sip of her tea. Cheng Xiuru soon entered the room with an abacus in hand. He greeted everyone politely, then stood next to Lou Jing.
“This is Zhuque Hall’s accountant, Mr Cheng,” Lou Jing said, gesturing toward Cheng Xiuru. Lou Jing himself was sitting next to his maternal Second Uncle, Xu Che. “Father, please feel free to ask him whatever you want.”
In the Imperial Court, the morning Court session was dismissed with a disgruntled flourish of the Emperor’s sleeves. Everyone parted on an uneasy note.
“Umm…” the Piaomiao Zhenren stood in his original position, looking like he didn’t know what to do with himself. The Imperial Oracle hurriedly went forward to pull him away.
The Minister of the Left, Zhao Duan, looked at the Crown Prince’s ramrod straight back, sighed, then turned to go to the Shangshu’s office. The Emperor would very likely summon him soon.
“You really dare to do just about anything, don’t you?” Shen Lian said to Chen Shichang. He had deliberately sought out the Minister of the Right, but had made it look like it was pure coincidence that they were walking next to each other. Shen Lian’s face was expressionless; he didn’t look at Chen Shichang, but continued to look straight ahead. There was an ominous undertone to his words. “Lord Chen, your boldness is truly out of the ordinary.”
“Gong gong, surely you jest. However bold I am, it is but one-thousandth of Gong gong’s boldness,” Chen Shichang said in an unassuming tone.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Chen Shichang’s steps faltered a little, and he frowned very slightly. He didn’t realise that he had somehow managed to offend Shen Lian. That Shen Lian now bore a grudge against him did not bode well.
“The items recorded here are all part of the first furen’s dowry. There’s still a white jade hairpin and a set of glazed cups that’re missing,” Cheng Xiuru said, working the beads on the abacus expertly as he spoke. The beads made a bright ‘tak tak’ sound as his fingers worked, and the accounts were quickly matched up. The things in the storeroom were brought to the main residence just yesterday, and as such, only a few things had been recorded in the account books.
The paternal Second Aunt pursed her lips. “That white jade hairpin – I’ve seen Madam Xu wear it before. It’s a simple, elegant piece, and only a beauty of Madam Xu’s caliber would look good wearing it. I tried wearing it once before – aiyo, I looked so terrible, like an old lady who put on too much makeup!” the paternal Second Aunt said, deliberately raising her voice toward the end of this spiel.
Madam Wei’s face paled. She looked like she had been dealt a grave insult. “Go and bring the hairpin and the cups here,” she instructed her personal maid.
“Forget it,” Lou Jing said with a small laugh. “Since Furen likes them so much, I’ll give them to her, otherwise tomorrow, people will say that I have been harsh toward my stepmother.” He didn’t want to take things that Madam Wei had used anyway.
Lou Jianyu was trembling in anger. He looked at Cheng Xiuru’s calm, composed demeanour, and realised that all this must have been discussed in advance with that bastard son of his. He had deliberately given Madam Wei items from his mother’s dowry on the pretext that they were Zhuque Hall’s private assets, and his purpose in doing so was to make him lose face in front of the entire Lou clan.
“You f*cking bastard!” Lou Jianyu shouted. He grabbed a teacup and threw it at Lou Jing’s face.
“Crash!” A silver shadow flashed in front of Lou Jing. The maternal Second Uncle had thrown his spear and deflected the teacup unerringly in mid-air. The spear continued on its downward trajectory and pierced the stone floor with a sharp cracking sound, standing upright with its point embedded in the floor. “For you to steal my younger sister’s dowry and bully my nephew right in my face, you must think that my Xu family is a real soft target!” Xu Che growled.
His powerful voice resonated in the hall, making the paternal Third Uncle shrink back to hide behind the paternal Second Uncle. The paternal Second Aunt behind the screen also didn’t dare to say a word more.
“Brother-in-law, what you’ve said is wrong. Lou Jing is my son, and as mere in-laws, you have no right to criticise how I discipline my son,” Lou Jianyu shouted. He was furious now.
Lou Jing smiled as he held on to Xu Che’s arm. “Father, don’t be angry. Second Uncle is just thinking for you. The Crown Prince is waiting for me to go back to eat lunch with him, and if he saw that I was bleeding all over when I went back, it wouldn’t be good for you,” he said.
In the excitement, everyone had forgotten that Lou Jing was the Crown Prince Consort until he said this. It was true, Lou Jing was now a member of the Imperial family, and absolutely could not come to harm.
“Let’s stop beating around the bush here. What you really want is the family assets, isn’t it?” the Third Old Master finally spoke up. “Stop quarrelling over petty matters. Since Zhuoyu has already been married off, just give him his share of the family assets and be done with it! It’s a good opportunity to do it today too, since his maternal Second Uncle and First Aunt are here.”
“Third Old Master is right. The maternal Second Uncle and I have to return to Lingnan soon, and if we leave with things in this unsatisfactory state, we will both be very worried. Why don’t we follow what the Third Old Master has said, and settle the accounts today?” the First Aunt said in measured tones. She set down the teacup she had been nursing all this while.
“Fine, if you want to settle the accounts, then let’s settle it once and for all today,” Lou Jianyu said. He wasn’t angry any more after hearing this. He sat back down in his seat, instructing people to summon his own accountant.
Back in the palace, the Chunde Emperor sat in the Imperial study, and the more he thought, the more disgruntled he became. “Huai Zhong, go and call the Minister of the Right… no no, call the Minister of the Left here,” he said.
“Certainly,” Huai Zhong said with a smile. He went out the door to instruct people to go to the Shangshu’s office and summon Zhao Duan to the Imperial study.
The submissions on the Emperor’s desk were all asking for the Crown Prince to be impeached. All conceivable wrongdoings had been heaped on the Crown Prince in these submissions, such as abusing power for personal gain, forming an opposing faction to throw the Court into chaos, building an Imperial ancestral temple without authorisation, plotting treason… The list just went on and on.
The Chunde Emperor knit his brows together tightly. “Where’s that Taoist Priest?” he asked.
“He’s been waiting outside all this while,” Huai Zhong answered in genial tones.
The Chunde Emperor gestured to have people call Tao Miao in. “Have you divined the meaning of the omens?” he asked.
Tao Miao flicked his horsetail whisk and half-closed his eyes. “Actually, the meaning was clear even without a formal divination. The Imperial Oracle didn’t dare to say it, and this peasant certainly is not braver than the Imperial Oracle,” he said.
“Just say it. I guarantee that you will not be harmed,” the Chunde Emperor said, staring piercingly at the Taoist priest.
“Movements in the Taishan mountain in spring is a good omen, but movements in autumn are a sign of Heaven’s displeasure,” Tao Miao said, stroking his sparse beard. “As it’s now autumn, it is an ill omen.”
“So what is Heaven trying to tell us?” the Chunde Emperor asked, gripping the submission on the Taishan earthquake in his hand. He had become Emperor because all of his brothers had died, and these circumstances had led him to believe that he was the divinely approved and appointed Emperor. He didn’t believe that any bad omen from Heaven could be directed at him.
“Taishan symbolises the Eastern Palace, and the earthquake is a punishment for the Crown Prince’s lack of morals,” Tao Miao said. His head was lowered, but his eyes darted up to look at the Emperor’s face. His palms were sweaty after saying this. It was a blessing that he didn’t have to say this in the throne room in the end. If the Imperial officials present had disagreed with what he said and managed to convince the Emperor he was wrong, his head was likely to roll.
After a long silence, the Chunde Emperor waved his hands to dismiss him. “From this day forth, you shall be the Imperial Oracle,” he said.
Tao Miao was stunned for a few moments before he fell heavily onto his knees and kowtowed to the Emperor. “Th… thank you, your Majesty!” he said.
[Anguo Gong mansion]
“Lou Jing has already married out of the family, and was given forty thousand taels as his dowry. He’s not entitled to any more,” Lou Jianyu said, pointing at the account books in his accountant’s hands. “The generational assets in Jinzhou are in fact still in this bastard’s hands.”
Lou Jing’s lips curved into a smile. He didn’t refute what Lou Jianyu said, and instead lifted his chin slightly in Le Xian’s direction, saying, “Read it out.”
Le Xian, who was standing behind Lou Jing, produced a thick book bound in blue leather. The words printed on the cover read “The Laws of the Yu Dynasty”. Le Xian flipped to a page that had its corner folded, then read out its contents in a loud voice. “The laws of the Yu Dynasty stipulate that when a daughter is married off, she is entitled to one share of the silver that the family owns; when a son is married off, he is entitled to the same and also his share of the family’s assets in addition to the silver.”
Lou Jing smiled faintly. “In the whole empire, only the Imperial family is allowed to take a male wife. It’s not surprising that Father forgot about this rule. However, since we are settling accounts once and for all today, you should be giving me my share of the family’s assets, right, Father?” he said.
“You…” Lou Jianyu glared at Lou Jing so fiercely that the whites of his eyes showed. He had never thought that Lou Jing would come up with something like this; he had focused solely on getting back the Jinzhou assets held in Lou Jing’s name, but had forgotten that this little bastard had been eyeing his family assets!
“Continue reading,” Lou Jing instructed. He picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for his maternal Second Uncle. Since the teapot was in hand, he refilled his father’s cup as well. His father was seething with rage by this point, and seemed to be having difficulty breathing.
Le Xian immediately continued reading in a loud voice. “If the parents and/or grandparents of the bridegroom are still alive, the bridegroom does not get a share of the assets. However, if the son is married off as a male wife, then regardless of whether he is born of the principal wife or not, he is entitled to one share of the family assets as divided between all the persons who are entitled to the family assets. If the son married off as a male wife is the eldest son born of the principal wife, he gets two shares of the family assets. … The principal wife’s dowry belongs to her eldest son upon her death,” he read.
“Third Old Master, since you’re here, may I invite you to preside over this matter so that I can get my fair share of the family assets? This will also avoid incurring my father’s wrath,” Lou Jing said, respectfully offering the documents in support of his position to the Third Old Master.
“Very well! Very good!” Lou Jianyu said through clenched teeth. He slammed his teacup down on the table. “If you want to split the family assets, let’s split it! My condition for doing so is that you must return the generational assets in Jinzhou back to the Lou family.”
Splitting the family assets really was about splitting the assets held by the main residence. Fields that were set aside for harvesting tribute crops and generational assets were never part of the division, and they belonged to the person to whom they were bequeathed, not to the Lou family as a whole. There was no need for the Jinzhou assets to be put back before the division happened.
“Father, surely you can’t be serious,” Lou Jing said. He took a brocade box from Le Xian’s hands, and pulled out a book from within it. “The businesses in Jinzhou are all my personal assets. Grandfather gave them to me when I was thirteen. As you can see, the Jinzhou government’s official seal is stamped on it, and I am the one who signed off on the Deed. I am also the one listed as the owner of these assets.”
Lou Jianyu looked at the book and felt his world go black. If it wasn’t for a servant who supported him, he would have collapsed onto the floor. He got back his breath with great difficulty, then pointed a trembling finger at Lou Jing. “Bastard… you BASTARD!” he yelled.