“You blame me for my lowly origins, but Shaohua was also born to me, and he has never once complained about my background! On the contrary, everything I have now, he gave to me!” Plum Concubine looked coldly at Ye Jin. “When he fell ill after tumbling into the pond back then, I begged you to ask the Madam to find him a doctor, but you flatly refused. When his life hung in the balance on the battlefield, you shut your door and avoided me. Enough. Let’s each go our own way from now on. Don’t come looking for me again. Shaohua has finally returned safely, and I don’t want to cause him any more trouble.”
After saying this, Plum Concubine paid her no further mind.
She directly had her driven out.
“Mother, are you really this heartless?!” Ye Jin stood outside the gates of Pear Courtyard, refusing to leave.
Chun’er stood to the side, watching Ye Jin accuse Plum Concubine of being heartless, feeling a chill in her heart.
Young Lady, have you forgotten? When Plum Concubine begged you to go to your uncle, you shut your door on her just like this. You call Plum Concubine heartless, but have you ever considered how you acted back then?
Ye Jin returned to the main hall in a daze.
There, she heard something else that nearly made her faint on the spot.
“Brother, why should we return these things to Plum Concubine now that they’re in our hands? Is she really going to fuss over these trinkets?” Hearing her brother say they needed to send back all the items taken from Pear Courtyard, Madam Ye was extremely reluctant.
The uncle looked at Madam Ye and the Old Matriarch and sighed. “If I’m not mistaken, the Fourth Young Master of your manor is precisely the famed Prodigy.”
“Prodigy?” Madam Ye narrowed her eyes, unfamiliar with the name.
“You women of the inner chambers naturally wouldn’t know of the Prodigy’s origins,” the uncle said, his own eyes filled with regret. “But you should at least know of Xuan Pavilion and Ever Spring Inn? Those are all under his name. Moreover, it’s rumored the Prodigy is the wealthiest man in the land. He acts according to his whims, but everyone knows one characteristic of his: he is fiercely protective of his own. Those merchants who seek his favor always present gifts directly to his mother. This shows how much he values her. Now you took advantage of the situation to plunder her things. Given the Prodigy’s temperament, destroying a small Ye Manor would be a matter of a single word for him, not to mention he is now the Minister of War.”
His words struck the Old Matriarch and Ye Qingweng like a blow, leaving them stunned for a long moment.
Who could have imagined that the former Fourth Young Master of the Ye Manor would achieve such heights?
Standing outside the room, Ye Jin swayed, almost collapsing to the ground.
A few days later, Chun’er found out that Liu’er, who had always served Plum Concubine, had married the son of the Xuan Pavilion owner as his principal wife.
She was so envious her eyes turned red.
Liu’er, a mere servant girl, had a dowry even larger than that of the Ye Manor’s legitimate eldest young lady!
And she had married as the principal wife of the Xuan Pavilion owner’s son.
It was impossible not to feel regret. Chun’er was already regret why she had been so foolish back then to leave Plum Concubine’s service.
If she had still been serving Plum Concubine, would she, like Liu’er, have married into a wealthy household as a principal wife, with a dowry surpassing that of the eldest young lady?
Ye Jin was also filled with regret. Plum Concubine had been so generous even to a servant girl.
The Prodigy… Xuan Pavilion… Ever Spring Inn… If just a tiny fraction of such wealth had dripped down to her, she would never have to worry again. Even married into a prince’s household, she would have had a voice…
The moment Ye Jin thought of this, she couldn’t help but lay her head on the table and weep bitterly.
Because Plum Concubine ignored her, and everyone in the capital knew of Ye Jin’s affairs, even ordinary, respectable families didn’t dare take her as a concubine.
Later, a merchant took Ye Jin as his concubine.
However, Ye Jin secretly corresponded with the Third Prince, and was caught red-handed. For a time, the two were regarded as an adulterous pair.
This angered the legitimate Ye eldest young lady, now married to the Third Prince, immensely.
Ye Jin was nearly drowned in a pond by the merchant’s elderly mother. She almost died, but was saved in time by the Ye eldest young lady.
However, the eldest young lady didn’t save her out of kindness, but to torment her further.
Ye Jin lived on only to be scorned. Anyone who knew her treated her with disdain.
As for the Third Prince, the Emperor personally denounced him for improper conduct, and he was stripped of his royal title, reduced to a commoner.
Ye Shaohua learned of all this while attending a palace banquet.
She was the only official not wearing court robes.
She still wore a pristine white long robe. With her exquisitely handsome, cool features, none of the ladies present dared look directly at her.
“Oh dear!” The eunuch favored by the Empress Dowager accidentally spilled wine on Ye Shaohua’s robe. He immediately apologized, “Minister, please forgive this humble servant. Please come with me to change your clothes.”
Ye Shaohua looked at her sleeve, now heavily stained, then turned a faint, knowing smile toward the eunuch.
Her slightly narrowed eyes seemed to hold a glint of amusement. The eunuch’s heart skipped a beat, and he didn’t dare meet her gaze again.
“Fine, I’ll go with you,” Ye Shaohua said lazily, rising to her feet.
Since Ye Shaohua and Yang Ziji sometimes stayed overnight in the palace when discussing official business late, there were spare clothes for both of them there.
The eunuch carefully led Ye Shaohua toward the temporary palace quarters.
He brought a brocade robe for her to change into.
Duan Yunxiu had also drunk a bit much. After bathing nearby, he heard the Minister was also changing clothes and walked over.
Without much thought, he pushed the door open and entered.
It was summer. Ye Shaohua had just changed her inner garments, her back turned to him, revealing a slender portion of her spine. The lines of the inner robe traced a smooth, graceful curve.
