Chapter 249 Hopeless

Ye Jinrong was kneeling and crying in front of the Marquis's Mansion, and the news soon reached Liuli's ears.

"Ms. Ye is really hard-hearted. I told you she was a cold-hearted person." Liuli said sarcastically while teasing the canary in the cage.

"That's right. Miss Ye has such a big belly and it looks like she is about to give birth." Xiaoya said.

"Miss Ye Er has come to Ye Jinxuan for help. It seems that she is really desperate. The court is currently rectifying official discipline. Minister Mu and Wei Liujiang have walked into the muzzle of the gun." Liuli sneered.

"If the prince shows up, there should still be a way to save him, right?"

“Oh, that’s hard to say. Last time, the matter of Ye Tongzhi was settled by him. The witness changed his testimony and admitted to false accusation. The Censorate could do nothing about it as there was no solid evidence. But this time, the collapse of the river bank is obvious. Even if there is no corruption, it is at least a crime of dereliction of duty.” Liuli said slowly.

"The Second Young Madam's family is really terrible." Xiaoya said sarcastically.

"Trouble? The trouble is yet to come!" Liuli thought for a moment and motioned Xiaoya to come closer to his ear, and gave her instructions for a while. Xiaoya nodded repeatedly.

Ye Jiayao was indeed very upset and annoyed. She had originally planned to never have anything to do with this kind of person again, but she just couldn't get rid of him.

After half an hour, Jin Yao came back and answered.

"Big sister, the second sister has been sent back."

"Hmm..." Ye Jiayao hummed absentmindedly.

"When we got home, Madam Qi from the Mu family was there. When she saw my second sister, she started to scold her, saying that she was a jinx and that she had brought bad luck to her husband and her family. She said the words were as ugly as they could be..." Jin Yao sighed.

Ye Jiayao knew that the Mu family disliked Jin Rong, but the mistake was made by Liu Jiang. If Qi wanted to scold someone, she could scold her own nephew instead of blaming Jin Rong.

"Your mother is not here?" Ye Jiayao was surprised. Ning was so strong. If Qi dared to scold Jinrong in front of her, Ning would definitely fight with her.

Jin Yao stammered, "My mother went back to Yangzhou the night before yesterday. My second sister told me that she rushed back because she learned that my father was going to remarry."

No wonder, I knew the Ning family wouldn't let it go.

"My second sister said that mom was very angry and that dad was cheating on her. She wanted to make dad pay."

Uh... this is a big trouble. Ye Binghuai, Ye Binghuai, if you don't seek death, you won't die, but you just want to die!
Ye Jiayao was in a state of panic. She was already feeling a little dizzy after drinking some wine at noon, and now she felt even more dizzy. She waved her hands feebly, "They can make as much noise as they want. I can't do anything about it even if I don't want to. You go back first. I need to lie down for a while."

Seeing that her elder sister looked unhappy, Jin Yao said worriedly, "I'll go get Qiao Xi to come in and serve her."

Ye Jiayao lay down for a while but couldn't fall asleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, her mind was full of messy things. She simply got up and took out the embroidery frame to start embroidering.

The dark blue silk was embroidered with a few bamboo poles. The pattern was simple and elegant, and the colors were not that complicated. As a novice in needlework, she could only choose these simple ones to embroider. She originally planned to make a fan bag to give to Chunyu during the Dragon Boat Festival, but she was so slow that she hadn't finished it after more than half a month. However, Qiao Xi commented that it was a bit slow, but slow work produced fine work. The stitches of this pattern were fine and even, and it was no worse than those of the embroiderers in the needlework room.

Of course, someone with her high level of understanding can do anything well as long as she puts her heart into it. It’s just that she never paid attention to needlework before.

As I slowly threaded the needle, my mood gradually calmed down.

The afternoon passed in a flash.

"Is the Young Master back?" Xiangtao's voice came from outside.

Ye Jiayao hurriedly stopped the embroidery in her hands and told Qiao Xi to put it away and hide it.

Just as Qiao Xi stuffed the floral frame into the cabinet, Xia Chunyu lifted the curtain and came in.

Qiao Xi went to fetch water.

Xia Chunyu saw Ye Jiayao sitting cross-legged on the couch, resting her chin on her hand in a daze. He walked over, scratched her nose, and asked with a smile, "What are you thinking about?"

Ye Jiayao said lazily: "I'm thinking about unhappy things."

"What do you want to do with unhappy things?" Xia Chunyu lifted his clothes and sat down.

"I didn't want to think about it, but troubles came knocking on my door." Ye Jiayao told her about Ye Jinrong coming to see her in the afternoon.

Xia Chunyu frowned, very angry at Ye Jinrong's behavior of pulling Yaoyao to act like a spoiled child. This was in front of the Marquis' Mansion, wouldn't she be embarrassing Yaoyao by doing this?
"Tell me the truth, do you want to help?" Xia Chunyu thought about it and decided to respect Yaoyao's opinion.

If Yaoyao wanted to help, then it was still feasible to turn corruption into malfeasance. Although, he was very disgusted with such behavior.

Ye Jiayao sighed, "I hope that Wei Liujiang gets what he deserves. I just feel bad seeing Jinrong pregnant. Besides, Jinrong is blaming me now. If I don't agree, she will come and make trouble. It's really unlucky to have such a relative."

Xia Chunyu patted the back of her hand soothingly: "Let me understand the specific situation first. If you can help, then help. If you can't, she can't blame you. But Minister Mu is definitely hopeless this time. Today in the court, the Censorate listed a lot of crimes, even the Minister of Works and the Right Minister were not spared. The emperor was furious and ordered a thorough investigation."

"Well, isn't Wei Liujiang dead as well?"

Xia Chunyu raised his eyebrows and said, "It's quite troublesome." "Then you just handle it. If you can't do it, don't bother. Anyway, stick to the principle and don't get yourself involved." Ye Jiayao said.

Xia Chunyu went out after dinner and returned at about twilight hour. He brought bad news, saying that the government office had just finished the interrogation. The contractor insisted that Wei Liujiang had ordered him to do so. The court allocated 200,000 taels of silver to build this section of the dam. When Wei Liujiang got it, only 150,000 taels were left. When the contractor got it, only 80,000 taels were left. What could 80,000 taels do? It was good enough to be able to use sand.

It is unknown how much Minister Mu embezzled, but it is an ironclad fact that Wei Liujiang made a profit of 70,000 taels, which cannot be denied. The worst thing is that Wei Liujiang was a coward and confessed everything before he was even tortured.

Ye Jiayao was stunned. What else could she think of?

"This guy is so stupid. Since he confessed, he might as well admit to all the charges. At least he can save Minister Mu. But in order to redeem himself, he confessed all the crimes of Minister Mu that he knew. Yaoyao, this kind of person really does not deserve to die. I am afraid to even help him." Xia Chunyu sighed.

"But this time, the Jingzhao government moved really fast!"

Ye Jiayao was extremely speechless. After a long silence, she said, "Then forget it. I'll ask Jinyao to go to Jinrong's place tomorrow."

Xia Chunyu said: "It's better for you to go there yourself and explain the matter clearly. I'm afraid Jin Yao won't be able to explain it clearly."

The next morning, Ye Jiayao took Jin Yao to Wei's house.

They had been to this house once before when they had a party for the new house, but it was deserted and no longer as lively as before.

There were only a few servants left. As soon as they reached the gate of the courtyard, they heard Jinrong cursing inside.

"Get out, all of you, you ungrateful bastards, you all have bad intentions, get out..."

Two maids came out of the house covered in dust and dirt.

Jin Yao called one of them and said, "Alian, what happened to the eldest young lady?"

Ah Lian said aggrievedly, "Last night, Sister Xia He and the steward took the eldest young lady's money and property and ran away. The eldest young lady was so angry that no one could persuade her."

Jin Yao said angrily: "Xia He is too much. She has been serving the eldest young lady since she was a child. How could she do such a treacherous thing?"

Ye Jiayao sneered in her heart. Xia He was not a good girl to begin with, so how could she be expected to be a loyal servant?
"Have you reported it to the police? Have you counted the losses?" Ye Jiayao asked.

A Lian replied: "The eldest young lady did not allow us to report it, and we don't know exactly how many servants were lost."

Ye Jiayao thought, Jin Rong didn’t even dare to report it to the police, so the loss must be huge.

They went into the room and saw Jinrong crying on the bed with disheveled hair and bare feet.

"I told you to get out, did you hear me..." When Jin Rong heard someone coming in, she looked up and cursed, but she saw it was her eldest sister and third sister, so she quickly got off the bed barefoot.

"Sister, is there any news?" Jin Rong grabbed Ye Jiayao's hand and asked anxiously.

Seeing her like this, Ye Jiayao felt so miserable and downtrodden. She had wanted to marry Wei Liujiang wholeheartedly and put in so much effort, but had she ever thought that she would end up like this today?
"Third sister, go get a basin of water and let your second sister wash her face first."

Ye Jiayao helped her sit down in front of the dressing table.

"Has everything been stolen?"

Jin Rong's tears fell again: "All the jewelry in the dressing box was stolen, and the box in the closet also contained tens of thousands of taels of silver notes. Sister, I have lost everything, nothing."

Ye Jiayao really wanted to say that she deserved it, but seeing that she was already as miserable as she could be, she couldn't bear to say anything more to her.

"Where's your mother? Is her stuff still there?"

Jin Rong was stunned for a moment: "I was only taking care of my own side, and I haven't visited my mother's room yet."

Jinrong immediately called A Lian and asked her to go to the lady's room to check.

After a while, A Lian came back and said that the lady's room was locked, the doors and windows were closed, and there was no sign of anyone having entered.

Jin Rong said, "The key to my mother's room was carried by her herself, and none of the servants had it."

Carry the key with you? Ye Jiayao thought for a moment, it was obvious that Ning had something very important in the house.

"Jinrong, listen to me. As soon as your brother-in-law came back yesterday, I asked her to go to the government office to say hello. Unfortunately, it was too late. Liu Jiang has confessed everything. Not only did he confess his own crimes, but he also gave up Minister Mu. There is no room for reversal in this matter." Ye Jiayao told her the fact calmly. It is impossible to hide it. Sooner or later, it will be known. It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one.

Jin Rong was stunned, looking at her elder sister in disbelief, and tremblingly said, "Eldest...Eldest sister, are you telling the truth?"

Ye Jiayao nodded: "So, I came here early to inform you. If you have anything to prepare, prepare it quickly. After the government reports the case, they will probably come to search your house right away."

(End of this chapter)