Chapter 252 - The Hole Card of the Song Family

Madam Lu recognized what she implied and had a glint of sympathy in her eyes, saying with a soft voice, “It’s given by your father indeed. I’ve never seen the box before, so I don’t know what’s inside either. Your father handed it over to me and only said you should keep it well. Maybe it is a keepsake?”

“Is it?” Song Yixiao stared at the box and didn’t take it until she hesitated for a while, but immediately, she passed it to Jinxun by the bedside, gesturing for her to put it away. “Thank you for visiting me. I wonder how the brother and sisters are doing.”

“They are doing fine.” Madam Lu was quite disappointed to see that Song Yixiao didn’t open the box to her face. Then she tried not to show her feelings by stroking her hair and then pretended that nothing had happened, saying, “By the way, back then, Yijiao and Yiyao couldn’t be safely born without your help!”

Song Yixiao replied, “You and they have been blessed, and Aunt Yun is an excellent doctor. Yet, I actually did nothing helpful. How can I take the credit?”

They made a few polite remarks. Then Madam Lu talked about some experience gained from her own pregnancy and then left the presents before leaving.

As soon as she left, Song Yixiao summoned Jinxun hurriedly, “Find an empty room and see if you can poke the box open from far away with a pole.”

In surprise, Jinxun asked, “Madam Lu said it was given by Master Song?”

She knew that Song Yuan treated Song Yixiao poorly but he was her father anyway!

Or was it that something was wrong with Madam Lu?

“Why do you ask so many questions?” Song Yixiao reproached her unhappily with a long face. “Just do as told!”

She didn’t open the box in front of Madam Lu not because she was wary of the stepmother but because she was afraid that she might be framed by her father.

After all, she was killed by her father in the previous life, and in this life, she was almost poisoned to death by her mother. With such parents, if she were not careful enough, she would be killed by them again.

Now unexpectedly, Song Yuan asked Madam Lu to bring her the box. How could she open it recklessly right after she took it?

However, her prudence this time was not necessary. After a while, Jinxun brought the opened box over and showed it to Song Yixiao. It turned out that in the palm-sized box, the topmost was a pile of banknotes!

“100 thousand taels?” Song Yixiao counted the banknotes and figured out the sum. Greatly surprised, she subconsciously sat up straight on the bed. “What does he mean?”

Jinxun hurriedly said, “There is something else! Your Highness, look beneath the banknotes!”

Beneath the banknotes was a stack of land ownership certificates. Song Yixiao took a careful look at them and found that the lands mainly consisted of three places–Jiangnan, the capital city and its environs, and Shu.

The lands were all good paddy fields and those in Jiangnan, which accounted for the smallest proportion, were as wide as a few thousand hectares!

If the lands were converted into taels, the taels were quite many, though they couldn’t be compared to the banknotes!

Most importantly, the banknotes would be used up in the end but the lands could be passed down for sustainable use.

Especially, the lands were all situated in fertile places, which might not be able to be bought with money.

“As to the last thing, I still can’t figure out what it is!” Jinxun put the land ownership certificates aside for her and pointed at a piece of black iron at the bottom of the box. “It feels quite heavy.”

Song Yixiao puckered her lips and got the thing out of the box. It was in the shape of a half-moon, whose surface was smoothly polished with a primitive pattern. It felt cold and heavy. Unlike ordinary metalware, it seemed to contain siderite but its function still remained unknown.

However, since it could be placed with the 100-thousand-tael banknotes and the ownership certificates of the lands as wide as tens of thousands of hectares, it couldn’t be ordinary!

“But why does my father give them to me?” Song Yixiao didn’t know much about the assets of the Song Family. After all, when she was cared for by him, she was too young to care about this kind of thing. When she grew up, she was at odds with the Song Family. Of course, she wouldn’t have the chance to know about it.

Nevertheless, with Duke of Yan’s mansion as the reference, when Prince of Hengshan gave them the hush money, he had mentioned that the assets of Duke of Yan’s mansion were merely 200 thousand or 300 thousand taels at most!

The things in the box given by Song Yuan were enough to equal most of the assets that Duke of Yan had!

Even if Song Yuan was a descendent of Jiangnan Hall and had the legacy of the Song Family in Jiangnan, one of the six influential families back then, just like Elder Lady Duanmu, Song Yixiao didn’t believe that such a sum was such a hair off a bull’s back to the current Song Family that he could just send it to his disfavored eldest daughter.

What on earth did he want to do with such a big cost?

“When Lord Gu just arrived in the imperial capital and tried to patch things up between me and my father, my father did negotiate with me with the family assets, but I rejected him back then!” Song Yixiao felt even more suspicious. “Now he gives these things to force me to say yes? But on what ground does he think I’ll agree? Or what’s his other scheme?”

She still couldn’t figure out why after pondering for a while so she just asked Jinxun to put the things back into the box. When Jian Xubai finished receiving the visitors and came to see her, she told him about the whole thing in detail and then said in the end, “It is not convenient for me to go outdoors and my father seldom pays any attention to me. Hence, if you are free, ask him for me. Did he give the wrong box, or what does he want? Tell him to make it clear. Otherwise, I cannot accept it.”

Jian Xubai was a bit surprised to see the immense amount of assets, especially the iron thing. He examined it repeatedly. The longer he looked at it, the more heavily he frowned.

Song Yixiao realized his reaction and then asked, “What? You know what it is?”

“You don’t?” Unexpectedly, Jian Xubai answered her with a question. “This should be a token to dispatch the secret guards of Jiangnan Hall!”

He recalled that his wife left home when she was young, thus having little knowledge about her own clan, so he explained, “Back then, the six influential families have kept their own armies, servants, securities, and secret guards too. The secret guards of the Su Family were code-named ‘Daifeng’, those of the Duanmu Family ‘Cujin’, those of the Wei Family ‘Biwu’, those of the Shen Family ‘Jili’, those of the Liu Family ‘Moren’, and those of the Song Family ‘Suifeng’. They are the hole cards of the six families!”

He showed the iron to his wife, gesturing for her to take a closer look at it. “Look at the pattern on it. Is the pattern a part of the word Feng in the font of Small Seal Script?”

Song Yixiao darted a few glances at it and then asked with a grimace, “The question is since this is the hole card of the Song Family, why does he give it to me?”

“Let me visit your father tomorrow!” Jian Xubai also found Song Yuan’s act quite surprising. To put it in a less polite way, handing over such an immense number of assets and a token that could be used to dispatch the secret guards to a married daughter whom he didn’t love was literally like entrusting his children to her in haste.

However, the relationship between Song Yixiao and the Song Family couldn’t be simply described as the daughter unloved by her father.

Even if Song Yuan were to entrust his children to anyone, how could he count on this daughter?

The young couple was confused for the whole night. The next morning Jian Xubai went to the Summer Villa of the Song Family.

He didn’t come back with a weird facial expression until nearly noon. After he sent away the maids, he told his wife, “Your father said the box was the right one.”

In a hurry, Song Yixiao asked, “Then what on earth does he mean?”

“According to him, your half-brother is not feeling well these days so he is worried that anything untoward may happen to the only boy descendent of the Song Family. Hence, he wants to make it up to you so as to accumulate some merits for him.” Jian Xubai appeared a bit displeased. After all, the blunt explanation reflected the Song Family’s disrespect for Song Yixiao. Song Yixiao had suffered wrong in the Song Family, about which they never felt sorry. Now Song Yiyao was only feeling a bit not well, which let his eldest sister gain so many benefits!

Song Yixiao pulled a long face too, but very soon she asked suspiciously, “Since Yiyao has a minor illness only, is it necessary to accumulate such great merits?”

They were not talking about hundreds of or thousands of taels!

“I asked your father the same question and he felt bothered by me. As a result, he ordered a servant to bring some contract documents and show them to me,” Jian Xubai hedged and slightly twitched the corner of his mouth. “Do you know how many assets the Song Family has?”

Before his wife answered, he replied on his own, “The farmlands that he showed me tonight cover two-thirds of the land across the Great Rui. By a rough estimate, I suppose they are worth more than a million taels!”

And that was only what he had seen!

Not the whole assets of the Song Family!

Song Yixiao opened her mouth for a minute and then said, “It’s said that the Jiangnan Hall has been on the decline seriously?”

Now she finally understood why Elder Lady Duanmu was still coveted by the parties of the fight for the throne even after she was exiled for more than 20 years as the wife of a sinned official at the old age!

Putting aside other factors, only her assets were worth the effort!

However, after learning about the Song Family’s wealthiness, Song Yixiao became even more disgruntled. How much did she get for her dowry when she got married?

She only got 10 thousand taels!

And Song Yiyao just had a minor illness, for which the Song Family sent her the fortune worth half of the assets of Duke of Yan’s mansion!

“The Song Family is the descendent of the six influential families anyway. When the six families were on the crest of a wave, even the imperial family had to compromise with them. Particularly, the Jiangnan Hall had one single descendent over several generations, leaving no one else sharing the assets with the heir. It is not strange that the Song Family is so rich now,” Jian Xubai understood how his wife felt so he tried to persuade her gently. “But now we are doing fine too. Since your father has given the assets to you, just take them. After all, as the eldest legitimate daughter of his first wife, you deserve the compensation. As to the others, there is nothing to be mad about. You are backed by me but not him in the future!”

Then he squeezed his wife’s hand, saying with a smile, “My assets have been handed over to you early! Will you dislike me for my poverty? But it is too late anyway. You’ve married me and now you are carrying my baby. Even if you regret it, you cannot run away!”

Song Yixiao chuckled and finally became happier, sighing, “I’ve known what position I hold in the Song Family. As long as they don’t mess with me, it is fine with me. However, giving these things to me as compensation all of a sudden is nothing but a nuisance somehow!”

Jian Xubai intended to continue pleasing her when Yuedeng reported from outside, “Your Highness, here comes someone of Prince of Yi’s mansion inviting His Highness to the mansion for a talk!”

“Prince of Yi’s mansion?” Jian Xubai and Song Yixiao looked each other in the eye and said with confusion, “Why do the people of Prince of Yi’s mansion want to meet me?”

The coward Prince of Yi had passed away but his family members were more or less like him in terms of temperament. These days, they never associated with Duke of Yan.

Now that their servant came to ask Jian Xubai to go to their mansion, Jian Xubai and his wife were naturally puzzled.

Yuedeng seemed hesitant and then said euphemistically, “According to that man, the one in the lake helped by His Highness seemed to be Princess Consort of Yi!”

The couple was dumbstruck and then finally came to their senses. Yuedeng meant the floating corpse. When Prince of Yi passed away at the beginning of this year, his wife was granted the title of dowager consort by ritual and his son inherited the title of prince. His clan was not favored by Emperor Xianjia, so they naturally didn’t obtain the grace of permanent inheritance.

However, everybody knew that Prince of Yi passed away shortly after Prince of Liang visited him, so the imperial family granted the prince’s heir to inherit the title without being downgraded. And Princess Consort of Yi who was drowned was the cousin-in-law of Jian Xubai and his wife.

Song Yixiao sort of remembered that this cousin-in-law’s maiden family was not of prestigious origins, whose family name was Shao. Her father was a retired feudal provincial governor and some of her brothers were also officials, but their titles were not high. By now, none of them could make it to the central department. After all, although Prince of Yi was a member of the imperial family, he had never had his days in the previous dynasty or the current dynasty.

But for his birth mother, his support for Noble Consort Shentu back then would have been enough to send him to hell along with his siblings.

The real influential families wouldn’t connect with him by marriage.

However, no matter how humble Madam Shao’s parentage was, she was an official lady recorded on the pedigree of the imperial clan. A princess consort drowned in the lake alone was already very suspicious. No one looked for her after a few days and even the news about her missing was never leaked. This was getting fishier and fishier!