Chapter 421 — Needle and Thread

Songluo smiled and said, "The Second Young Master may not know, but these mutton-fat jade curtain weights were originally display pieces, set on a sandalwood tray on the kang table for amusement—twelve of them in all. I wonder if the Second Young Master remembers: that day you went to pay your respects to the Duchess, a draft blew the curtain to and fro and nearly struck the back of your foot, so the Duchess had Zhujun weight the curtain corners with these lions playing with an embroidered ball. After that, the Upper Court always used the lions playing with an embroidered ball as curtain weights, and the storeroom keepers reclassified them accordingly. If you don't believe me, I'll go fetch the account books right now—it took us a long while to trace where these pieces came from. And this glass lotus teacup—there was a pair. That year the eldest maternal uncle of the Jiang family had them sent over; one was bestowed on the Heir and one on you. Yours was broken, so the Heir gave you his. The Jiang family later submitted a supplementary dowry list, and the glass lotus teacup is on it... But this is all recorded in the accounts. It's not as if it can't be accounted for. If you truly treasure that glass lotus teacup, by all means keep it—only we'll need you to note it in the ledger, so that when the Heir asks, we'll know how to answer!"

Song Han laughed in sheer fury. "What account books? Fetch them and let me have a careful look!"

What curtain nearly struck the back of his foot! Those twelve lion-and-embroidered-ball weights were plainly the birthday gifts the Grand Commandant of Miyun Guard had sent him on his eighth birthday!

And that glass teacup—that year, for Old Madam Lu's birthday, Mother had had someone buy them from Guangdong, ten in all. He had thought them pretty and pestered until one was kept for him. The silver for those glass teacups came from the household accounts—how had they turned into Mother's dowry?

Was he a tiger fallen to the flatlands, that even Songluo, a menial no better than mud on a shoe, dared to put on such a knowing air and spout nonsense to his face?

But Songluo merely smiled and said "Yes," then turned and walked out.

His bearing betrayed not the slightest hesitation.

Song Han ground his teeth in rage.

Song Cen, however, grew suspicious.

Whether the servant's words were true or false, without complete confidence, how would he have dared answer so readily?

He thought of how Song Yan had looked when he seized Song Han at the hour of Zi—eyes red with fury.

Song Yan was in a rage now; even with nothing to find, he would manufacture something. Since he dared come after Song Han, he had likely dug a pit long ago and was waiting for Song Han to jump in!

It wasn't as if he had never done such a thing before.

And then it struck him suddenly that letting Song Han move into the Xiangxiang Courtyard had been an absolutely wrong decision.

If Song Yan was even demanding back these little trinkets of the Jiang family, then how could he possibly have freely handed over to Song Han all those fields and shops that had once been allocated to him?

Without the Jiang family dowry, Song Han would have nothing at all, and would have to be supported by him from now on... And here he himself was short of silver, with another mouth come to eat and drink for free...

Song Cen's head began to ache.

Song Han had thought of the same problem.

He had already hinted tactfully to his father that he had no money, but his father had acted as though he had not heard a word, made no move at all, and simply let him wrangle with Song Zhi's servant... How stingy could a man be!

If Song Yan demanded back even the Jiang family dowry registered under his name, what would he eat, what would he drink!

No! The property the Jiang family had left him could not be surrendered!

As he panicked, Songluo came in.

"Lord Zinguo, Second Master, if you would please look!" He laid a thick ledger before Song Cen. "Look here—was this not a lion-and-embroidered-ball ornament of mutton-fat jade? And now look—in the ninth month of the Dingsi year, it becomes a foot ornament... That was precisely the season when summer goods were taken into storage. And here, in the fifth month of the Wuwu year, twelve jade monkeys sporting with embroidered balls, foot ornaments, for the upper chambers, handled by Zhujun—and here is the handprint..."

Songluo flipped through the ledger with a rustle and clatter. Song Cen saw only rows upon rows of black characters—how could anyone tell true from false in them?

The light in the room was gradually brightening, and the sky outside had turned pale. From the moment he had learned that Song Han had been disciplined by Song Yan to this moment, when Song Han was being pressed by Song Yan to give things back—panic, misgiving, fury, wrath, agitation—this one night had dragged him as if from the foot of the mountain to its summit, and then rolled him from the summit back down to the foot, until his whole body ached unbearably. He turned on Song Han and roared, "However you carried those things out of the upper courtyard, that is how you will carry them back! You are the Second Master of the Ying Zinguo Estate, not a beggar by the roadside who drags whatever he claps eyes on into his own rooms. Can you not muster a shred of self-respect, instead of forever behaving like a dog's meat that can never be set on a proper table?"

He flung his sleeves and strode off.

Songluo's bright eyes glittered as he gazed at Song Han, while inwardly he was thinking: Mr. Liao is truly formidable. The moment he found the things missing, he called the clerks of the accounts office in and had a ledger copied out overnight—who would have thought it would actually prove useful.

Should he hurry the Second Master along?

The Heir Apparent was waiting for their reply!

As he was quietly congratulating himself, Song Han had already snatched up the medicine bowl from beside the bed and hurled it at Songluo.

Songluo gave a cry of "Aiyo!" and clapped a hand to his forehead.

Qixia turned white with fright.

Songluo, however, was thinking that it would be just as well if it bled—when he went back later and the Heir Apparent saw it, he would surely praise him for his diligence in carrying out his duties...

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Brothers and sisters, I let a neighbor use my computer and it's acting up now, so I can't get online easily; the typos will have to wait until tomorrow to fix.

PS: Begging for pink votes... O∩_∩)O~

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