Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 216
Ms. Jiao Passes
Ms. Jiao went over and saw Lu Hong’s wife, Mrs. Liu, kneeling outside the door. At this moment, she seemed to have no intention of fighting with her, looking pitiful.
?There were people coming and going along this corridor, and some people had already stopped to watch. Ms. Jiao said, “Madam, what are you doing? Please, stand up if you have something to say.”
Instead of getting up, the woman touched her head to the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, “If you don’t agree, I will keep kneeling here and not get up.”
Ms. Jiao said, “How can I have the final say on such a big matter as rescuing your father? What’s the use of asking me for help?”
Lu Junming’s uncle Jiao Song asked who this was, and Ms. Jiao replied that she was Lu Hong’s wife. Jiao Song said, “Mrs. Lu is probably kneeling at the wrong door and begging the wrong person. My sister isn’t even a member of the Lu family, but you’ve come to beg her for help. Isn’t this a joke?”
Mrs. Liu stopped crying and looked up at Jiao Song, “Are you Sister Lan’s brother?”
Jiao Song nodded, “Exactly, I came from Shuzhong because I heard that my sister has been living a hard life in recent years, and I want to take her back to Shuzhong to take care of her. As for your family’s affairs, she can’t take care of them!”
After saying that, he pulled Ms. Jiao and Lu Junming inside and lowered the bamboo curtain. Mrs. Liu stood up and barged in. After entering, she stopped kneeling and said aggressively, “This matter must have single-handedly been done by Lu Hong. That ungrateful thing was supported by my father when he was down on his luck. After just a few days of victory, he already wants to kill my father, then divorce me, and then marry you!”
?She raised her finger and pointed at Ms. Jiao, her eyes full of anger. If there wasn’t anyone else around, she might have gone over to beat her up.
?This woman exposing her family’s issues in front of some outsiders meant that she must have had no way to seek help, and had become anxious. Even if it was useless to beg Ms. Jiao, she would still vent her anger here.
?Lu Junming nodded to Mrs. Liu and said, “Madam, don’t be anxious. Do you know what crime your father committed, where he was imprisoned, and who will preside over the trial?”
This question asked all of the vital information. Mrs. Liu sighed and said, “My father committed the crime of disrespect and is now being held in the imperial prison. It is said that he will be executed after fall.”
?The crime has been decided, so there is no room for manoeuvring. The crime of disrespect was severe, and it was already not bad that their entire family hadn’t been massacred!
“Madam, even my father can’t do anything about the regional governor’s affairs, but you can rest assured that he will not divorce you.”
After hearing this, the woman’s expression immediately softened, “Why are you so sure?”
It seems that this was the true purpose of her arrival.
“My father is a man who prioritises relationships heavily.”
Jiao Song slapped the table and said angrily, “Prioritises relationships heavily?! Your mother has been with him for so many years without any title or status. Where was that sentimentality then?”
Ms. Jiao said, “It wasn’t Lu Hongqiang who forcefully married me in the first place. It was our father who sold me to someone else. If he had sold me to a brothel or made me do hard labour as a slave, I would still have to obey.”
Looking at the people sitting around the table, and who-knows-how many people are listening in the corridor. It wouldn’t take until tomorrow for these stories to be spread throughout Qianshui Town.
Ms. Jiao said, “Brother, I will go back to Shuzhong with you today and never come back. If Ming’er is willing to go with us, let him take my surname and join our family tree. Do you agree?”
“Of course, a child as good as Ming’er will not disgrace my family name. However, our Jiao family is a merchant family and we are afraid of wronging him.”
“Still better than a military household!”
By this point, who still had the heart to eat, drink, and have a good feast? A perfectly good banquet had been ruined by this woman.
Lu Junming sighed, “Let’s all leave!” After that, he went to help his mother up.
Mrs. Liu blocked the door and still refused to leave, “Junming is my legitimate son on the family genealogy. He is the young master of the Lu family and the son of a general. He cannot follow you back to Shuzhong.”
Lu Junming said, “I will go find grandfather tomorrow and ask him to remove me from the family genealogy!”
At this moment, Mrs. Liu smiled, “How is that possible? You are his only grandson.”
She had them, damn it! It seemed like she knew in advance that Jiao Song was coming, which was why today’s incident happened. She deliberately wanted to force Ms. Jiao to leave.
Everyone left Dengyun Tower, and Ms. Jiao went to the door of Jiaolan Courtyard and took down the sign.
With what had happened today, Jiaolan Courtyard would be unable to reopen, and they wouldn’t even be able to live here in peace.
She couldn’t go back to the Upper Valley, nor Chenzhong Village, nor even stay here, so it seemed like the only road she could take was returning to Shuzhong.
Since Ms. Jiao was going back to Shuzhong, Lu Junming naturally wanted to see her off. The mother and son packed their bags overnight and prepared to leave for Shuzhong tomorrow.
?After leaving, he didn’t know how long it would take him to come back. After Ms. Jiao fell asleep, he quietly returned to the workshop.
Mo Yan and Chi Jie were still awake, so they sent Ze Wu to get some wine, and the three of them sat down to drink.
??If Ms. Jiao never returned, Lu Junming would definitely live in Shuzhong in the future. After this farewell, who knows when they would see each other again.
No one knew where to start with the farewells. Mo Yan suddenly said, “I should ask Cao Zhang to calculate the accounts and return your capital to you.”
Lu Junming smiled and said, “What, you want to kick me out now? No way, I will come to collect the dividends in person next year. Keep a good eye on the storefronts for me, and I will give you an extra 10% of the shares. Despite using godmother’s courtyard, she isn’t willing to charge us more rent, so give her a bigger red envelope at the end of the year.”
“Okay, don’t worry about these things. After you arrive, write back often.”
“Naturally.”
?It was a pale moonlit night, and Lu Junming didn’t want to go to sleep, so Chi Jie and Mu Yan could only stay up with him. Who knows what time it was when the three of them fell asleep.
After sleeping for some time, they were awakened by the cry of Chuzi outside, “Brother, it’s bad, something happened to godmother!”
The godmother he was mentioning must have been Ms. Jiao. The three of them woke up and ran out together. Lu Junming asked anxiously, “What’s wrong with my mother? Is she sick?”
Chuzi had a complicated expression on his face. He opened his mouth for a long time, but not a word came out. Lu Junming was so anxious that he went over and kicked him in the butt, “You are talking! Did you suddenly become mute?”
“Godmother’s gone!”
“She left? She didn’t wait for me and left with uncle first? It doesn’t matter. I ride fast and I can catch up with them in less than half a day.”
“Brother, godmother, she…she swallowed arsenic!”
??The three people present were stunned, and the atmosphere was stagnant for a moment before Lu Junming realised what had happened and ran out, followed by Mo Yan and Chi Jie.
Lu Junming ran into Jiaolan Courtyard and heard his uncle crying in the house, “Lan’er, my miserable sister! Why did you do this, what troubles plagued you? Even if you returned to Shuzhong, your eldest brother could still have supported you!”
?He stepped inside and saw Ms. Jiao lying on the bed with her makeup and hair neatly done, wearing her favourite primrose-coloured clothes.
??If it weren’t for the darkening of her lips, anyone would have thought she had just been taking a nap.
Jiao Song handed a letter to Lu Junming, “This is your mother’s suicide note.”
?Lu Junming opened the letter, and there were only a few words on it. She wanted to be buried in the Lu family’s ancestral grave as a common wife, and didn’t want Lu Junming to seek trouble with Mrs. Liu. In the future, he had to treat his half-sisters well. [1]
She had wanted to fight for the identity of a wife with her own life. Her holding back the urge and not pursuing this title wasn’t equivalent to her not wanting to.
She loved Lu Hong. Since they were destined not to be husband and wife in life, she would die in exchange for this status.
P.S. This came out of left field. What’s the point? Why would you do this for no reason? This makes even less sense when Mo Zenian’s kid got randomly ‘kidnapped’ by Mr. and Mrs. Zhen (that old couple which may or may not have been Mo Yan’s parents in a different life).
[1] A common wife technically had the same status legally as an actual wife, but…wasn’t? It’s kind of hard to explain, and I’m not well-versed in the minutiae.