Chapter 756 - 533: Who is Zhao Yang?

Chapter 756: Chapter 533: Who is Zhao Yang?

A concubine, even if her expenses in the palace were high, couldn’t possibly use one hundred thousand taels of silver.

Someone like the Imperial Consort spends about four to five thousand taels of silver a year. Even with the Emperor’s gifts, ten thousand taels a year would be an enormous expense.

One hundred thousand taels?

Their expressions grew grim.

"If this silver isn’t for Lady Zhao in the palace, what do you think the money is for?" Xie Jinshu asked, looking at Ling Yunhe.

"I can’t guess." Ling Yunhe was just a merchant and didn’t dare get too involved in court matters. "Should we inform the Marquis about this?"

Xie Jinshu nodded slightly. "We definitely have to tell them. Not just the Marquis, either. I’ll personally pay a visit to the Madam and ask her to pass a message to the Imperial Consort."

That’s the only way to put everyone’s minds at ease.

Ling Yunhe nodded. "This time in Linfeng, I saw for myself how formidable the Zhao Family is. Is there any scholar who doesn’t defer to them? Mr. Zhao’s reputation carries immense weight."

"They’re a family of scholars going back generations, a true literary household. The Zhao Family also educates and nurtures others, so naturally they have a great many students," Xie Jinshu said. "However, in my opinion, the Zhao Family doesn’t truly see wealth and status as dirt. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent their daughter to the palace. The moment Lady Zhao entered the palace, the family immediately sent people to the Capital City to establish a foothold. It’s clear their ambitions are grand."

"That’s right. But back in Linfeng, everyone said Lady Zhao possessed both beauty and talent, was exceptionally intelligent, and was also gentle, kind, and compassionate toward the weak. Why would a person like that immediately set herself against the Imperial Consort?"

"When you were in Linfeng, besides the fact they were raising silver, did you notice anything else unusual about the Zhao Family?"

"Not really. I’m just a merchant. How could I make a connection with the Zhao Family? People like them look down on us merchants who reek of money," Ling Yunhe said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"They can look down on us all they want, but aren’t they the ones secretly selling off their assets to raise silver?" Xie Jinshu wasn’t angry. "When it comes down to it, they still have to deal with people like us, who they consider unpresentable."

Ling Yunhe burst out laughing. "Exactly! The Imperial Consort’s status is so high, yet she’s never looked down on people like us. What does that make the Zhao Family?"

Xie Jinshu shot him a look. "Watch your mouth."

"I know what I’m doing," Ling Yunhe said with a smile.

Xie Jinshu first went to see Marquis Wenxin, then went to pay her respects to the Madam.

It was the next day by the time Yun Zhao received the news. The Madam hadn’t entered the palace; instead, she had passed the message in through the Baozhuang Building’s channels.

Song Yunzhao truly didn’t understand. ’What is the Zhao Family raising so much silver for?’

Zhao Ling’e couldn’t possibly spend that much in the palace. But since the Zhao Family was in such a hurry to raise the silver, it must be for a specific purpose.

But what was it for?

Song Yunzhao couldn’t figure it out, but she mentioned the matter to Feng Yi in passing.

New affairs arose in court every day, and the matter of the Zhao Family seemed to have passed without a whisper. After Zhao Ling’e was demoted to the rank of concubine, the Zhao Family made no further moves following their last plea for forgiveness.

They gave the appearance of sincerely admitting their mistake and repenting, which even caused the Zhao Family’s reputation to improve.

Song Yunzhao was speechless.

’So I’m just permanently saddled with this "villain" debuff, aren’t I?’

’Sacrificing myself to make my rivals shine.’

It was infuriating.

As the weather grew hotter, Yun Zhao finally received a letter from Lady Ding.

He Lan Yun, fanning herself without pause, looked at Yun Zhao and said, "I rushed to bring the letter over the moment it arrived. My older sister wrote me a separate letter, saying this is all she could find. I don’t know what she was investigating, but see if you can use it."

Song Yunzhao had someone bring tea and refreshments for He Lan Yun. "You rest for a bit. I’ll take a look at Lady Ding’s letter."

"Go ahead and read," He Lan Yun said, perfectly at ease.

Even though Yun Zhao was now an Imperial Concubine, she treated He Lan Yun the same as always, so He Lan Yun didn’t feel the least bit constrained. Their time together was still very comfortable.

Song Yunzhao opened the letter and read it carefully, her brow furrowing as she went on.

She had two suspicions regarding the Zhao Family: where did the information about the sea bandits come from, and was the Zhao Family connected to it? And second, what was their true purpose in sending their daughter into the palace?

In her letter, Lady Ding stated that the official who had been communicating with the sea bandits had been captured. He was a clerk from the Huizhou government office who often sold information to the sea bandits for silver.

The letter also mentioned that Ding Xian had thoroughly investigated this clerk, and he truly had no connection to the Zhao Family.

Next, Lady Ding wrote about her inquiries into the Zhao Family sending their daughter to the imperial selection. The letter mentioned one particular point: Zhao Ling’e had originally been in marriage negotiations, which were suddenly halted. Right after that, the Zhao Family sent her to participate in the selection.

This lined up with the book. In the book, Zhao Ling’e hadn’t participated in the selection and had indeed gotten married.

Now, she had been in the middle of marriage negotiations but had suddenly broken them off to enter the selection.

She calculated the timeline from the letter. The marriage negotiations had been broken off before Lady Ding came to the Capital City. In other words, by the time Lady Ding came to the Capital City to try and form a marriage alliance with the Song Family to save her husband, the Zhao Family had already decided to have Zhao Ling’e enter the selection.

At that time, the imperial selection was still a long way off.

And just before that, the Zhao Family had been arranging a marriage for Zhao Ling’e.

That meant something must have happened to the Zhao Family during that period.

However, it was clear that neither Ling Yunhe nor Lady Ding had managed to find out what it was.

To guard a secret so tightly could only mean that the secret was potentially fatal.

’What could it be?’

Song Yunzhao carefully tried to recall the plot of the book. So many years had passed; she truly couldn’t remember much.

She only remembered that Zhao Ling’e’s appearance came near the end of the book, when her daughter had become the Crown Princess Consort. The focus then shifted from the Crown Princess Consort to her mother, praising her as a great talent of her generation who had raised an equally outstanding daughter.

Other than that, it seemed nothing else was mentioned.

Song Yunzhao thought for a long time but couldn’t remember anything else. The description of the Zhao Family in the book was far too brief; nearly the entire text was filled with praise for them as a noble and upright family, a literary household whose children were all exceptionally brilliant...

’The family’s children...’

Song Yunzhao froze. ’That’s it. I’ve overlooked something. I’ve only been focused on Zhao Ling’e, the daughter, and haven’t paid attention to the male heirs of the Zhao Family’s current generation.’

’The Zhao male heirs...’ Suddenly, a name leaped into her mind.

Zhao Yang.

’Who was Zhao Yang?’

For a moment, Song Yunzhao’s mind went blank. She thought the book had mentioned this person, but she couldn’t remember. The name had just appeared in her mind out of nowhere.

Song Yunzhao immediately went to her study, wrote the name on a piece of paper, and then penned a letter to her senior aunt, asking her to have her father check if there was someone named Zhao Yang in the Zhao clan.

The name felt very familiar, yet she truly had no memory associated with it.

’Either he was mentioned only in passing in the book, or I read it and forgot. My brain must have its own memory, leaving just a faint trace to torment me.’

「Three days later.」 Yun Zhao received a reply from her senior aunt.

Zhao Yang, Zhao Ling’e’s eldest legitimate brother, had died of a sudden, severe illness in the middle of last year.