Chapter 23: Losing Both Wealth and Beauty

To be honest, Wu Tiande had truly pushed Jia Zhen of the Ning Mansion into a wretched corner this time.

Originally, Jia Zhen’s intention to have his son, Jia Rong, marry Qin Keqing was driven not only by her beauty, but also by the wealth Qin Ye had accumulated through years of graft. For the daughter of a mere seventh-rank official to secure her position as the mistress of a Duke’s mansion, could she possibly arrive without thousands of taels of silver in her dowry? Even Lady Xing, the second wife of Master She from the Rong Mansion, had nearly emptied her own family’s coffers just to earn her title as a lady of rank.

Though the rank of an official in the Ministry of Works is not high, the duties involving the construction and repair of imperial palaces and mausoleums are rife with opportunities for profit. Qin Ye appeared honest and unassuming, but to have sat firmly in his position for decades without issue, he surely must have been complicit in corrupt schemes. After all, if the likes of Qin Ye did not take a cut, how could the ministry’s secretaries? If they did not, how could the senior officials? And if the senior officials did not, how would everyone else climb the ladder and get rich? It was not as if everyone could be like the pedantic Jia Zheng, a clerk in the Ministry of Works who, blessed with ancestral wealth, looked down upon such petty gains. This was precisely why Jia Zhen had not dared to frame Qin Ye; he feared the repercussions of angering the unscrupulous civil officials in the Ministry of Works.

But now, because Jia Zhen had hesitated and been slow to scrape together the bride price, a man named Wu Tiande had appeared out of nowhere to snatch away the beauty Qin Keqing—and had even taken off with her dowry, which included thousands of taels of silver from Qin Ye’s years of embezzlement. Upon hearing the news, Jia Zhen was so furious he could have vomited blood.

Wu Tiande was a centurion in the Divine Engine Battalion, with dozens of elite soldiers under his command. Out of respect for Wang Ziteng, the Ning Mansion could not move against him until they found a way to have him dismissed from the capital’s garrison. However, couldn't they demand an explanation from Qin Ye for dangling the carrot of a ten-thousand-tael bride price before the Jia father and son while secretly marrying off his daughter? At the very least, Jia Zhen intended to extort thousands of taels from Qin Ye to soothe his resentment.

Under Jia Zhen’s orders, stewards Lai Er and Yu Lu, along with most of the mansion’s servants and pages, were mobilized to swarm toward Qin Ye’s private residence in a menacing display of force. Jia Zhen did not anticipate that Wu Tiande had already set a trap around the house. His banquet for the officers of the Divine Engine Battalion had been a mere smoke screen; in reality, the officers’ personal guards had long been lying in wait, ready for Lai Er and Yu Lu to walk right into the snare.

By the early hours of the day after the wedding, Deng Gang and his men, having sobered up, had slipped into the house to wait for the prey. Lai Er and Yu Lu, oblivious to this, surrounded the residence with great clamor, hoping to intimidate the occupants. The heavy knocking on the gates, accompanied by coarse shouting, startled the birds from the locust trees in the courtyard.

As Qin Ye opened the door, it was kicked wide open. Lai Er, followed by Yu Lu and nearly twenty fierce-looking servants, barged in. "Qin Ye! You have some nerve!" Lai Er shouted, jabbing a finger toward Qin Ye’s nose. "Back in the spring, it was clearly agreed that for a bride price of ten thousand taels, your daughter would be wed to Master Jia Rong! And now you marry her off to Wu Tiande? Are you treating the Jia clan like monkeys? Do you think the Jia mansion’s blades are blunt?"

Yu Lu crossed his arms, his face dark. "Don't play dumb, Qin Ye. Our master says you either send Qin Keqing to the Ning Mansion today or provide an explanation, or this house of yours won't be standing much longer."

Trembling, Qin Ye bowed repeatedly, his face twisted in a pathetic smile. "Masters, please, calm your anger! It is not that I went back on my word, but the girl was headstrong and insisted on marrying Wu Tiande. She cried and threatened to end her life; I tried to stop her, but I simply couldn't! This was not my doing!"

"Nonsense!" Lai Er kicked over a flower stand. "A girl deciding her own fate? You must have been bewitched by Wu Tiande! Stop with the excuses; if you don't pay compensation, we’ll take it ourselves!"

Before he finished speaking, Lai Er signaled his men, who rushed toward the inner quarters like wolves. Qin Ye tried to block them but was struck by a servant, his mouth immediately bleeding. Another kick sent him to the ground, where he was beaten until he was bruised and battered, curling up in a whimpering heap.

Yu Lu, ignoring the man on the ground, sneered, "This is the price for crossing the Rong and Ning Mansions." He strode toward the main room, where the valuables were kept. He pushed the door open, but his pupils suddenly contracted as a blade flashed before his face!

"Who?!" Yu Lu leaped back, only to see Deng Gang, a centurion of the Divine Engine Battalion, standing there with a dozen elite soldiers armed with blades and muskets. The reflection of the blades on Yu Lu’s face made his blood run cold. "We’ve been set up by that scoundrel Wu Tiande!"

The sudden appearance of the soldiers turned the tide; the Jia servants, a disorganized rabble, were no match for the professionals. Lai Er and Yu Lu were high on the wanted list signed by Wang Ziteng, the commander of the capital garrison, and catching them meant a promotion. Most of the servants, however, were only there for a dirty, illegal job; with no real loyalty to the cause, they quickly collapsed.

Lai Er, despite his martial skills, was captured in the melee. To his chagrin, Yu Lu, who had tried to flee, was apprehended by officers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had been lying in wait outside. "Why are they here?" Yu Lu lamented, realizing he would have been better off surrendering with dignity.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had been tipped off. With the Ning Mansion already infamous for its previous clash with the Divine Engine Battalion, the Guard was under pressure to prove it could maintain order. Feng Tang, the newly promoted Assistant Commander of the Guard, was eager to consolidate his position. Upon his arrival, he forced the servants to surrender, cutting down any who hesitated.

When the news reached the Ning Mansion, Jia Zhen was on the verge of a breakdown. He had only meant to spite a minor official, yet now his men were dead or captured, and his top stewards were in custody. Having lived a life of indulgence without interference, he was entirely unprepared for this blow. Terrified, he fled to the Rong Mansion to seek the advice of the Matriarch.

The Matriarch scolded him bitterly. "A seventh-rank official? How could that possibly be a match for our house? Now that word has spread, even minor officials won't marry into our family. This will affect Baoyu and the girls!"

"You are right, I was wrong," Jia Zhen conceded, hiding his true motives of greed.

"And Wu Tiande," the Matriarch continued, "he was a former servant of the Wang family. We should have been looking out for him, not trying to seize his shops. Are you so short-sighted that you would risk everything for a few measly taels?"

She eventually calmed down, promising that she had already smoothed things over with Feng Tang and that Wang’s wife had spoken to Wang Ziteng. "Once you pay the ransom for Lai Er and Yu Lu, have them apologize to Wang Ziteng and the Divine Engine Battalion, and the matter will be settled."

Jia Zhen felt a sliver of relief, though the loss of Qin Keqing and the wealth still gnawed at him. "Is this scoundrel Wu Tiande just going to get away with it?"

"What else can you do?" the Matriarch said coldly. "But his wife says he is too restless, and they plan to send him to a post far from the capital."

Jia Zhen’s heart leapt. If Wu Tiande was sent away, perhaps he would finally have a chance to get his hands on Qin Keqing.