How could Lady Tang care about so much?
She knelt on the ground, ceaselessly pleading for mercy.
"Madam, earlier I was blind and offended you. I won’t dare again!"
"I know I’m wrong, I know all of it!"
She kowtowed repeatedly, soon her forehead was bruised and bleeding, staining the green bricks on the ground with blood.
Ni Manxue saw the situation was turning bad and hurriedly told her to get up.
"Enough, enough, come inside and we’ll talk!"
Otherwise, if others saw, they might think she was bullying people in the street.
Although she was not happy about letting such a woman into the residence.
But there was no better way at the moment, it had to be done.
After entering the residence.
By rights, she should have been led into the inner courtyard, served tea and talked.
But due to previous unpleasant experiences, Ni Manxue did not want to treat her so politely.
Instead, she just found a corridor for her to enter and talk.
Ni Manxue sat on the chair that Dong’er brought, calmly took a sip of tea, and then raised an eyebrow.
"Speak, what trick are you trying to pull now?"
Lady Tang knelt at her feet, looking haggard and desolate.
"Madam, I beseech you to show mercy and spare the Tang family!"
This was tantamount to farting.
The Tang family’s affairs were always handled by Jingfeng; neither she nor her husband knew about it.
Now the Tang family was in such a mess, coming to the door desperately, not first clarifying what had happened.
Instead, they just cried and said useless nonsense.
Manxue, who always handled matters straightforwardly and didn’t like dithering, instantly felt three parts impatient.
Although... even if she made it clear, she wouldn’t help her.
After all, she just couldn’t stand such wishy-washy conduct.
Realizing Ni Manxue’s impatience.
Lady Tang trembled in her heart and hurriedly explained the whole situation.
The gist was:
The old master secretly engaged in business dealings, even falsified accounts, evading taxes, these matters were all uncovered by the Prefectural Governor.
Now the old master was detained in the government office’s jail.
Not only were these things found out.
But also those ’harassing good women, forcing them into prostitution, and abducting maidens’ deeds that Old Master Tang did over the years were completely exposed by Xia Jingfeng.
He showed no mercy, collected all witness and material evidence, just waiting to interrogate, extract a confession, and get a seal of confession, then execution could proceed.
If it’s a homicide case, it must be reported to the Ministry of Justice.
Since Old Master Tang didn’t cause death, the judgment was in Xia Jingfeng’s hands.
In a word, whether Old Master Tang lived or died, it was up to Xia Jingfeng’s decision.
Lady Tang cried hysterically, losing all composure.
"Madam, I know last time my attitude wasn’t right!"
"I was blind as a bat, aiming for the Prefectural Governor like a toad lusting after a swan!"
"But now we’ve admitted our faults, I have also smoothed things over with the fourth young lady, it just requires your word, and we can proceed with marriage discussions!"
"This time we are utterly sincere, begging Madam to spare us considering we will become in-laws!"
Ni Manxue twitched the corner of her mouth.
Never mind other things, just this ’in-laws’, she had to be really thick-skinned to utter such words.
Frankly, it was just a polite formula.
Like when visiting someone’s home, she first says, ’Don’t be polite, make yourself at home!’.
Awkward, thick-skinned, shameless!
Ni Manxue thought secretly.
Furthermore.
The Tang family had been merchants for generations, yet Old Master Tang was a Graduate. He donated for an idle official title, secretly doing some business wasn’t a big deal.
But his mistake was registering the business under his own name.
To avoid collusion between officials and merchants, disrupting market order.
The Great Chu Dynasty specifically established laws to prevent officials from engaging in business.
However, in all matters there’s usually a ’but’.
Nowadays, officials all cared about their reputation, thus their lifestyle must be good, not too shabby.
They couldn’t live in a hovel, lest they be looked down upon by their peers.
Besides lodging and food, there was the household, the wife was a must, of course.
In addition, one needed three wives and concubines; otherwise, what kind of official was that?
With wives and concubines, they needed servants for daily needs.
Traveling outside, a carriage and horse were necessary, and one can’t bring only one lowly servant.
All these added up.
A monthly salary was certainly insufficient.
So, having estates and shops in wealthy families was normal.
To avoid suspicion, they were typically registered under the family matriarch’s name.
The official himself had to be clean, with nothing detectable.
As for the family matriarch, who would investigate women’s belongings, or even need to?