The matriarch didn't need to ask her son any further. She could think of the things that the Qin family had done in the main hall today.
"Mother," Grand Preceptor An said, "It looks like the An clan will be destroyed by my hands."
"Destroyed?" The matriarch replied, "If our An clan is destroyed, what will happen to Yuanwen and the others? "The An clan has hundreds of lives, yet they want to die just because of one of your words?"
"I," Grand Preceptor An was rendered speechless by his words.
"Bring me a bogus corpse," Matriarch said. "It looks like His Majesty's going to keep that girl by his side."
"This must not happen!"
"So?" The matriarch looked at her only son and suddenly felt disappointed. "You've also been an official for many years. I thought you'd know a lot being in the Grand Preceptor's position."
"She's his subject's wife, this isn't something an emperor should do!" Grand Preceptor An said angrily.
"Why didn't you say it was your girl's fault? "Will the people of the world say that His Majesty stole the wives of ministers, or will they say that An Jinxiu did not follow the ways of a woman and recommended her own Dragon Couch?"
Grand Preceptor An's face turned red. "You know this is not Ah Jin's fault"
"If the Son of Heaven gets angry, he'll take the corpse for ten thousand miles," Matriarch said. "If it's not her fault, then whose fault is it? Didn't you hear what Madam Qin said? "The crown prince's consort also participated in this matter. From my point of view, Madam Qin doesn't have the ability to do so. I'm afraid our crown princess is the real mastermind."
"She …" Grand Preceptor An didn't know what to say about An Jinyan.
"It's our family's misfortune that the eldest daughter of the An clan would do such a thing," Matriarch said, but there was no anger on her face. "However, she is our family's future hope. No matter how much you're angry, you can only help her at this time."
"What about Ah Jin?"
"Ah Jin? Do you think she can still come out and meet people? How much do you think a married woman can gain from favors? "
"That's not what your son meant," Grand Preceptor An said anxiously. "I meant …"
"An Jin's corpse is lying in that coffin," Matriarch interrupted. "There won't be another person like her left alive in this world. Your daughter is dead!"
Since things had already happened and they were powerless to change even the slightest bit, they might as well accept it all. They didn't want to do anything else, nor did they want to think about it any longer.
"We'll bury those three corpses in glory," Matriarch added, "This is our An clan's explanation to General Shangguan." Natural disasters are not something that us mortals can avoid, so he can't blame us. "
"Ah Jinyan's heart is too cruel!" Grand Preceptor An sighed. "Ah Jinis her younger sister."
"They don't come from the same stomach, what love can they possibly have?" The matriarch shook her head. "In the future, you have to be nicer to Aunt Xiu. An Jinxiu is at the side of the emperor after all. I think she still have some feelings for her own biological mother." "Even if she were to be blessed in the future, as long as Aunt Xiu lives in our house, this girl will not be able to do anything to us."
At this time, in the back yard of the Residence of An, Grand Preceptor second concubine wife, Lady Feng and Grandma Qian were holding umbrellas. They had searched the entire courtyard but had not found Aunt Xiu.
"Where can she run to under such heavy rain?" Lady Feng anxiously asked Grandma Qian. After hearing the news of An Jin's' death ', she was almost scared to death. When she came back to her senses and ran to find Aunt Xiu in the room, she didn't know that this person would be nowhere to be found.
"When she came back, she even took a bath. I was just going to pour a bath. Where can this person run to?"
"I can't get out of this courtyard," Lady Feng said as she pulled Grandma Qian to the courtyard door. "Go out and find her."
"If you don't go out, won't it be the same for the Aunt Xiu?"
"You should just go and secretly search for her. If Matriarch and the Madam Qin find out, she'll be in big trouble!" As Lady Feng spoke, she took off a silver ring from her finger and stuffed it into the hands of Grandma Qian.
After receiving Lady Feng's gift, she didn't say anything else and left the courtyard with an umbrella.
Lady Zhou sat in her own room, listening to Lady Feng close to her. "It looks like Aunt Xiu really did run away."
Lady Zhou was busy sewing in her hands, not even raising her head. "Her daughter is dead, so how could madwoman beat her to death after a while? How could she be the same as us? At least we still have a son and a daughter. "
Seeing how unmoved Lady Zhou was, lady Feng could only shut her mouth.
At this time, Aunt Xiu had already been sitting by the well in the washroom for a long time. This well had been dug out when the House of An was first built here, and several hundred years had passed since then. Aunt Xiu reached out her hand to touch the abrasive marks on the edge of the well, then turned around to look at the tall wall behind her.
When Madam Qin was still young miss, Aunt Xiu had already served by Madam Qin's side for decades. Seeing Madam Qin's wealth with her own eyes, it would be a lie to say that there wasn't the slightest bit of jealousy in her heart. Seeing the Qin family grow up to be the most beloved daughter of the Qin family, and then grow up gracefully in the midst of wealth and prosperity year after year after marrying into a woman, Aunt Xiu sometimes thought, if only she could live her life with the Qin family.
The cold rain poured on her body, but Aunt Xiu did not feel cold either. Thinking about her life and sleeping with Grand Preceptor An, if she hadn't had the intention to cling on to him, how could the Grand Preceptor have noticed her when serving the tea back then?
The Qin family was not wrong in scolding her. She was a bitch who knew how to seduce people. She was destined to die a horrible death. Her children were born into the An family and will always be part of this family for all of their lives.
"Jinxiu, Yuanzhi." Aunt Xiu read the names of her children. She had done her best for them, so there was nothing she could do for them anymore. In the end, the Aunt Xiu also thought of Grand Preceptor An. She couldn't afford to love this man, nor was she qualified to love him, but she was grateful to him for giving her two children so her life could continue. Besides that, Aunt Xiu raised her head and let the rain wash her face for a while.
She couldn't bear to part with her son and daughter, but she had no choice but to rearrange her hair. She couldn't let herself be a burden to them. An Jinxiu wanted revenge, but this foolish child never thought that as a mother, she was still living in the Residence of An. How was she going to take revenge? She didn't want to be the one blocking her revenge. An Yuanzhi wanted to have his own world and fly, but as long as she was alive, how much did his son have to pay to move out and get rid of the An clan that he hated so much?
When she jumped into the well, Aunt Xiu was very happy. After thinking about it for a while, this was the last thing she could do for her children. When she thought of how her children would be free and unrestricted after her death, she felt at peace.
Since the Residence of An was so large, Grandma Qian took half a day to walk around. She was only able to look around for a small part of the Residence of An. The old woman had no choice but to run back to the courtyard. When she asked if the woman was still missing, the servants in the courtyard all panicked. Even Lady Feng didn't dare to stop her or keep the news any longer.
Grand Preceptor An was in Matriarch Zhou's room. When he was listening to Matriarch instruct the steward to arrange the funeral, he heard the news of Lady Xiu's disappearance.
"Then why aren't you looking for it!" When Matriarch heard about the disappearance of Ah Jin's concubine mother, she grew even more anxious. "Could she have run off to the southern end of the city by herself after hearing about the Ah Jin's death?"
The mansion's steward found it impossible, because closing and locking the doors are always done when the sun set. Without the master and matriarch, even the eldest young master, An Yuanwen, would not be allowed to leave the mansion.
As a concubine of the Grand Preceptor, how could she run out in the middle of the night? However, no one dared to say these words to Matriarch. No one was a person without a clear eye. Matriarch was currently in a foul mood. If they spoke out boldly, she would definitely vent her anger on this old man.
Grand Preceptor An also knew that it wasn't likely that the concubine would leave the estate, but he still followed her orders and ordered people to search the old alleyway south of the city. He also ordered the head steward to bring people to the estate to search as well.
When everyone had left to search, Matriarch muttered to Grand Preceptor An, "We can't let anything happen to this woman, or we'll get into big trouble!"
"Mother, your son has already sent someone to look for her," Grand Preceptor An comforted her. "This woman has always been timid. She must have found out about Ah Jin incident and hid somewhere to grieve."
"If she's timid, then she wouldn't dare to leave her courtyard!" When Matriarch saw that Grand Preceptor An still didn't seem to understand, she stamped her cane on the ground. "Why can't you understand?" If something happened to Ah Jin's mother, what would anything matter with your daughter? "She wants to bite the Crown Princess back, do you have a way to treat or stop her?"
Grand Preceptor An's mind was in a mess. Why couldn't he understand the words of the matriarch? If An Jinxiu had insisted that An Jinyan was the one who schemed against her, would the Emperor have let the crown prince and An Jinyan off?
To plot against An Jinxiu was equivalent to plotting against a Emperor. How could any emperor accept being plotted against? The crown prince's position was not stable to begin with. This would only make things worse. The Crown Prince was his son, and the Emperor would not kill him. However, as someone as Ah Jinyan who had never given birth to a son for the royal family, how could the Emperor let her off?
"Sin!" Matriarch scolded, "What crime did we, the An clan, commit?!"
At this moment, a maidservant came to report that An Yuwen had brought his siblings to pay their respects to Matriarch.
Grand Preceptor An said, "Let them in."
When the juniors had all entered the room, Matriarch glanced at her grand daughter-in-law, Ning and said angrily, "Your second sister-in-law just died yesterday. Who are you wearing these flowery robes for? "Do you think this old woman isn't sad enough? Are you still going to let me down?!"
Ning was so frightened by Matriarch scolding that she fell to her knees.
"She is just a woman, so she doesn't know anything. How can you, who is already a court official, not know anything?" The matriarch's face fell as she scolded An Yuanwen, "Your second sister is dead, and all the people in the family except for Shangguan Yong are dead! You even made your wife dress like this?! Are you blind?! "
An Yuanwen had never known that An Jinxiu had such a place in the heart of the matriarch. He was completely stunned by the scolding.
"This is the son you raised!" When Matriarch saw this, she grew even angrier. She pointed at Grand Preceptor An and scolded, "You deserve to be laughed at in our family!"
Grand Preceptor An had also knelt down before the matriarch. As soon as he did, all of the masters of the Residence of An followed suit.