Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 65
by Little PandaVolume 3: Courtly Winds and Clouds, Each Finds Their Place
Confrontation
Through Geng Rong’s tearful account, Su Yi understood the whole story.
It turned out that the people she had sent to buy cloth had been noticed by the staff at that cloth shop. After all, it was always the same few faces buying large quantities of cloth. Over time, others discovered the pattern. Without explanation, they snatched the goods, gave them a sound punching and kicking, and dumped them on the street.
One of the soldiers’ family members couldn’t endure the brutal beating and couldn’t help but reveal that people from Su Yi’s shop had instigated them. Hearing this, that group—emboldened by who knows who—grabbed weapons and went straight to Su Yi’s ready-made clothes shop, where they wreaked havoc, stopping at nothing evil.1
Geng Rong tried to resist them, but how could she, a frail merchant woman, be a match for those professional thugs? Instead, she too was beaten up. Even the customers choosing clothes in the shop were not spared. By the time those people left, the shop was in utter chaos, and Geng Rong still had to pay money to appease the customers.
After carefully tallying the losses, they amounted to a full seventeen thousand taels.
Geng Rong, having started her business from scratch, couldn’t bear to see her hard work ruined like this.
Seeing Su Yi, she cried uncontrollably, “Miss, they robbed many valuable things from the shop! The cloth in the warehouse is gone too! They even ordered us not to buy any more silkworm cocoons! What are we going to do? How will we survive this winter?”
“How could such a thing happen in broad daylight!” Ji Qingchi, as an Imperial Daughter, detested such matters. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but rage, “Are the Capital City Guard2 all blind?! How could they allow these people to cause trouble!”
“We reported it to the officials too, but they arrived very late. By the time they came, that group had already swaggered off. I gave the leading official twenty taels of silver, and only then did she tell me that a group of bandits has been causing trouble in the capital’s outskirts recently, and they would do their best to investigate.”
Ignoring how anxious Geng Rong was, almost to the point of vomiting blood, those Capital City Guards fobbed her off with a few words, took the silver, dawdled until their shift ended, and then went off to Tianyi Tower for drinks.
This kind of thing happened in every dynasty, even during times of peace and prosperity.
Su Yi, however, wasn’t angry. She calmly asked, “Are you certain that the ones who rushed into our shop were the people from that cloth shop?”
“They didn’t identify themselves. That group came and went quickly, wearing coarse cloth clothes, dressed like farmers. We were just guessing. Afterwards, we asked around, and people said that after smashing things up, that group went straight to the cloth shop. If it wasn’t the cloth shop people who did it, who else could it be?”
Hiring people to cause such blatant trouble, and then letting them openly return to their employer afterwards? Were they afraid people wouldn’t know who hired them?
Clearly, the mastermind behind the attack was not the cloth shop.
Su Yi shook her head. “Manager Geng has suffered. Someone, take Manager Geng to Miss Feng’s courtyard. Tell Miss Feng to treat her injuries.”
Geng Rong was helped away by the maidservants. Although the fire in Ji Qingchi’s heart was still burning, her reason hadn’t deserted her. She too guessed that the mastermind wasn’t the cloth shop. “There must be something suspicious about this matter. I don’t have court duties today, so I shall go take a look. Does Miss Su wish to come along?”
“Naturally.”
So, the two took sedan chairs over.
Arriving at the shop, it was indeed a scene of devastation. Not only were the clothes inside ruined, but even the chairs and tables were smashed to pieces. The shop assistants and the accountant huddled in the corners like sick quails, utterly dejected.
When Su Yi stepped out of the sedan chair, the assistants swarmed around her. Zhuo Chengfeng, the quick-witted assistant who had spoken up before, had now become a leading figure in the shop. Seeing Su Yi, she knelt and cried, “Miss, those people went too far! We couldn’t fight them off, and the shop ended up like this.”
The injuries on her face were more severe than Geng Rong’s; it was clear she had put up the biggest fight when confronting them.
Su Yi comforted her, saying, “It’s alright. Take the injured people to get treatment first.”
Zhuo Chengfeng was very obedient. Sniffling and tearful, she led the other injured women from the shop to see a doctor. Su Yi walked around the shop and sighed, “Manager Geng was right.”
Putting aside the monetary losses, just replenishing the fabrics and raw materials would cost a considerable amount of silver.
Ji Qingchi walked up beside her. “Miss Su, don’t worry. This incident happened due to the Capital City Guard’s dereliction of duty. The government will compensate Miss Su for the losses in this shop.”
Hearing this, Su Yi’s eyes immediately lit up as she turned to look at her.
Ji Qingchi felt a little embarrassed under her gaze and coughed. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Thank you in advance, Your Highness.” Su Yi smiled brightly. Ah, she never knew having an Imperial Daughter as a pursuer could be this advantageous!
Seeing her smile, Ji Qingchi felt as sweet as if she had eaten honey. “This is only right. It was fundamentally the Capital City Guard’s incompetence.”
Speak of the devil—just as her words fell, a large group of people suddenly knelt down at the entrance. “We deserve death! We deserve death! Your Highness, please forgive us!”
Before they had come to the shop, Ji Qingchi had already sent someone to notify the Capital City Guard.
Now they had arrived just in time to hear Ji Qingchi’s words, and they were so frightened they knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.
Ji Qingchi’s smile vanished. She stepped forward and coldly questioned the leader of the Capital City Guard, “Madam Chen, you still know you’re an official of Yanxue Kingdom? Such a major incident occurred in broad daylight, yet you arrived even later than I did!”
“I deserve death.” Madam Chen was in her forties, already at an age where she could be enjoying her grandchildren. Usually, the capital was peaceful, with no major incidents, so she had become complacent and didn’t pay much attention to such matters.
Unexpectedly stumbling into a major crisis upon arrival, she was terrified and kowtowed repeatedly, admitting her fault.
Ji Qingchi couldn’t be bothered to listen to her excuses. She stated directly, “I give Madam Chen two days. If you cannot find the mastermind, then yield the position of Capital City Guard Commander to someone else.”
Madam Chen hastily led her people away to investigate.
Su Yi shook her head. “Those people were prepared. I’m afraid the government officials won’t find anything.”
Ji Qingchi smiled. “But some matters must first be handled by the government. If the rats hiding in the shadows can’t be found, the ones in the open can always be caught.”
Indeed, concerned about her official post3, Madam Chen worked exceptionally hard. She went out to arrest people in the morning and caught someone by the afternoon.
That person was the manager of the cloth shop. Kneeling before Ji Qingchi, she didn’t wait to be questioned and confessed directly, “To be honest with Your Highness, it was Minister Cui’s son who told this commoner to do it.”
“Oh?” Ji Qingchi raised an eyebrow. “But I heard that Young Master Cui takes very good care of your business. Why would he have you do such things?”
“To be honest with Your Highness, Young Master Cui is the owner of our shop. The capital for this shop all came from Young Master Cui. It’s just that our Young Master is wholeheartedly set on marrying the Second Imperial Daughter, so he tried every possible means to get into her good graces. Some time ago, Miss Su gained the Second Imperial Daughter’s favor, making him extremely envious of Miss Su, and thus he grew resentful towards her.”
For a man to be jealous of a woman in this way, leading to resentment, was truly unheard of.
However, her reason was only one-third correct. The other two-thirds were because Xiao Zhengyun constantly spoke ill of Su Yi to Cui Jinliu—saying Marquis Su was arguing with Minister Cui in court again, that Her Majesty had gifted the lands originally intended for Minister Cui to Marquis Su instead. He also told Cui Jinliu that Su Yi had opened such a large shop but had never once paid a visit to the Ministry of Revenue Minister’s Mansion, perhaps showing disrespect to the Minister of Revenue.
The day after he said this, the shops that usually paid tribute to Cui Jinliu suddenly yielded no profit. Upon careful inquiry, it was said they had switched allegiance to the Pingyang Marquis Mansion, and the silver previously sent to him was now being sent to Su Yi.
This was intolerable! Cui Jinliu had always relied on his mother’s official position to scrape together wealth; he was still saving up money for his dowry. Who knew Su Yi would suddenly rise? Of course, he was angry, so he had people smash Su Yi’s shop.
The cloth shop manager spoke vividly, as if she herself had witnessed the look on Cui Jinliu’s face when he was jealous.
Ji Qingchi listened with great interest and smiled. “I don’t know if what you’re saying is true or false. How about this: you lead the way, and we’ll go to the Minister Cui’s Mansion for a confrontation with Young Master Cui.”
Without waiting for the cloth shop manager’s reaction, she called out, “Tie her up! We’re going to the Ministry of Revenue Minister’s Mansion.”
Su Yi lowered her head and instructed Yan Can to return to the Marquis Mansion and bring Cui Jinli as well, disguised among the maidservants. The group then proceeded to the Minister’s Mansion.
It was a rest day for the past two days, so the Minister of Revenue, Cui Luo4, was reading at home. She reflected that she hadn’t seen her daughter and son for a long time; she hadn’t even known that her daughter born of a concubine knew martial arts until she displayed her skills before the Emperor. She felt she had truly failed in her duties as a mother.
Thus, she had the steward gather all the young ladies and the young master of the mansion in the main hall5, intending to offer them some guidance.
Just as the steward reported that the young ladies and young master had all arrived, a guard from outside came to report that a group of people had arrived at the mansion gate requesting to see the Young Master.
The “Young Master” the guard referred to could only be Cui Jinliu, because Cui Luo only had this one son, born late in her life, and thus doted on him excessively.
Cui Luo was quite puzzled. “If they seek the Young Master, then take them to see the Young Master. Why report specifically to me?”
The guard said, “Madam Minister, among those people are the young lady from the Pingyang Marquis Mansion and Her Highness the Ninth Imperial Daughter!”
These words startled Cui Luo awake. She quickly straightened her clothes, intending to go to the gate to welcome them. “Quickly, quickly, invite them in!”
“No need to trouble Minister Cui.” As her words fell, Ji Qingchi and Su Yi had already led their people inside. Ji Qingchi smiled, “Having received no reply from Minister Cui for so long, we took the liberty of coming in uninvited. We hope Minister Cui won’t mind.”
“Your Highness jests.” Cui Luo was apprehensive and quickly ordered, “Serve tea to Her Highness and Miss Su.”
“No need.” Su Yi scanned the surroundings. The Cui Mansion was proper and orderly, smaller in scale than the Marquis Mansion, and the decorations were very simple. However, the layout was quite elegant, showing the good upbringing of the master of the house.
Ji Qingchi smiled. “Why don’t I see your esteemed daughters?”
“I shall have the younger generation come over to pay respects to Your Highness immediately.” Cui Luo urged the steward to bring all the daughters and the son gathered in the main hall.
Ji Qingchi was an outsider, and an unmarried woman at that; logically, she shouldn’t meet Cui Jinliu. However, Cui Luo felt the Ninth Princess had good character and was interested in having her son marry her, so she summoned Cui Jinliu over as well.
Once the daughters and son arrived, Cui Luo hurried them, “Quickly, pay respects to the Ninth Highness.”
“No need.” Ji Qingchi smiled. “Is Miss Cui Jinli, the seventh young lady, present?”
Cui Luo quickly pushed forward the woman who had been standing at the very edge with her head bowed. “Quickly, greet Her Highness.”
The woman bowed her head to greet Ji Qingchi. Su Yi smiled slightly and pushed the real, masked Cui Jinli in front of that woman. “This is my friend. She heard that Miss Cui performed exceptionally well at the palace banquet and wishes to get acquainted with Miss Cui to gain some courage.”
That woman looked up, directly meeting the face of Cui Jinli—now unmasked and covered in knife scars. Startled, she subconsciously struck out with her palm.
Ji Qingchi had been watching closely. Seeing this, her eyes darkened. She raised both palms, meeting the woman’s strike head-on with full force, pushing her back several steps.
“What, was her face too ugly and scared you?” Su Yi saw this and smiled faintly, meeting the eyes of the staggering woman. “Or is your face even uglier, so you don’t dare show your true appearance?”
The author has something to say:
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival
Footnotes
- The original text uses censored characters (□□) followed by “无恶不作” (wú è bù zuò – stopping at nothing evil). Based on the context of attacking a shop, this likely refers to acts of vandalism and destruction.
- 京城卫 | Jīngchéng Wèi | The official force responsible for maintaining order in the capital.
- 乌纱帽 | wūshāmào | Lit. “black gauze cap,” a metonym for an official’s position or career.
- 崔络 | Cuī Luò
- 正堂 | zhèngtáng | The central, main hall of a traditional Chinese residence, used for formal occasions.
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