Chapter 127 -

Chapter 127: Chapter

Liu Feng pushed Zhengyu into the private room, with Yimei and Qinqin following right behind them. Yimei shut the door firmly, locking out the noise, cold, and chaotic mess of the Bai family below.

Down in the dimly lit hall, Madame Chen and Madame Liu immediately surrounded Master Bai, their faces twisted with spite.

"Look at how that wretched girl treats you!" Madame Chen spat, wiping the blood from her swollen lip. "She has no respect for her father-in-law! Master, are you really going to let a junior talk to you like that?"

Madame Liu chimed in right away. "She is a demonic daughter-in-law! Dragging your name in the dirt in front of everyone! If it were my household, I would have thrown her out into the snow long ago!"

Master Bai stood frozen, his face pale and burning with humiliation. He turned his eyes toward his wife, Madame Bai, expecting her to say something or comfort his damaged pride. But Madame Bai didn’t even look at him. Her face was completely numb. Without uttering a single word, she turned away, walking over to a dusty wooden bench in the far corner of the hall. Rulan and Meiling quickly followed, holding their mother’s arms to keep her steady.

Before Master Bai or his brothers could say another word, the fat innkeeper slammed his rag onto the counter with a loud bang.

"Hey! Pay up or get out!" the innkeeper barked, glaring at the large crowd. "If you can’t afford two silver pieces for a room, get your broke asses out the door! You’re blocking the entrance for paying customers!"

Hearing that, Second Uncle Bai Chengbang quickly stepped forward, putting on a fake, polite smile as he reached into his inner sleeve. He pulled out a tiny pouch holding a few copper coins and a small piece of silver he had managed to hide.

"Brother innkeeper, please," Second Uncle said, sliding the coins across the counter. "We have a little here. Just give us one room for the night."

Madame Chen’s eyes lit up the moment she saw the silver. She rushed over and grabbed Second Uncle’s arm. "Brother-in-law! You have money! Pay for our branch as well! We are family!"

Before Second Uncle could even answer, Madame Liu jumped in like an angry cat, shoving Madame Chen’s hands away. "Are you crazy, Sister-in-law?! That is the last bit of silver we have! The room is tiny and barely big enough for our branch! We can’t fit all of you in there—you’ll just have to figure it out yourself!"

Madame Chen frowned deeply, her face turning dark as she shook her head in utter disbelief. "How can you be so heartless?! We are all stuck in this cold!"

"Heartless?!" Madame Liu sneered back. "You were the ones flaunting your gold and getting robbed! Don’t drag us down with you!"

While the Second Branch quickly snatched their room key and hurried upstairs, leaving Madame Chen, Master Bai, and the rest of the family to freeze on the dirty, crowded floor of the main hall, Yimei was sitting calmly inside her warm room.

The small charcoal brazier cast a soft, orange glow over the wooden table. Qinqin set down the steaming pot of tea and warm buns, letting out a long, quiet breath

Qinqin looked over at Yimei, her voice dropping to a low whisper as she set the teacup down. "Young Madame... did you really mean what you said downstairs to everyone?"

Yimei sat near the window, watching the white snow swirl outside against the dark glass. She turned her face back toward the room and gave a simple nod.

"Every word," Yimei replied calmly. "They think they know my plan, but they don’t. Zhengyu thinks that if I raise the hundred thousand taels, I’ll just hand all that money over to him. But that isn’t what’s going to happen."

Qinqin blinked, her eyes widening slightly. "What do you mean, Madame?"

Yimei’s face turned icy cold as her fingers tightened around her warm teacup. "Someone in that family was behind the fire that burned my teahouse down back in the capital. I don’t know which one of them did it yet, Qinqin, but I am going to find out. And I am going to make that person pay for what they did."

Qinqin gasped softly, leaning forward. "Madame... do you really think the First Young Master could have done something like that? He may not be the kindest man, but I’m sure he isn’t that type of person..."

Yimei looked straight into Qinqin’s eyes, her voice smooth and flat. "No one in this world can be trusted or predicted, Qinqin. People wear smiles while holding knives behind their backs. You never truly know what anyone is capable of doing until it’s too late."

Qinqin kept her mouth shut, looking down at her hands in the quiet room. She took a slow, deep breath, looking at her mistress with a mixture of respect and sadness.

"Young Madame..." Qinqin spoke up softly, her voice filled with gentle truth. "You have really changed, you know?"

Yimei took a slow sip of her hot tea, letting the steam warm her face as she looked back out at the endless snowstorm.

"I didn’t change, Qinqin," Yimei said quietly. "I just woke up."

Later that night, long after the inn had grown dark and silent, the wind continued to howl outside.

In the main hall, the rest of the Bai family huddled together on the dirty wooden floorboards, shivering violently under their thin clothes. The carriages outside were completely filled with snow, making it impossible for anyone to sleep in them, so they had no choice but to drag themselves into a shaded corner of the hall to escape the icy drafts.

Yimei walked quietly down the creaking wooden stairs, wrapping her plain brown cloak tight around her shoulders. She stepped over the sleeping bodies of Second Uncle and Madame Chen until she reached the dim corner where Madame Bai sat propped up against the wall, holding Rulan and Meiling close in her arms.

Yimei reached down and gently tapped Madame Bai on the shoulder, waking her up.

Madame Bai opened her weary, swollen eyes. When she saw who was standing over her, she rubbed her face in disbelief. "Yimei? What are you doing here?"

Yimei stood there in silence for a long moment, watching her mother-in-law’s exhausted, pale face. She didn’t say a word, waiting to see if Madame Bai would try to defend her husband again, but Madame Bai simply looked back at her with tired, heavy eyes.

Reaching into her sleeve, Yimei pulled out an iron key and held it out to her.

"I booked an extra room," Yimei said, her voice low and even. "Use it for yourself and the girls... You can have Madame Zhao and her kids join you too."

Before Madame Bai could even process the words or utter a reply, Yimei turned on her heel and walked back toward the wooden stairs, her plain brown skirts disappearing quietly into the dark corridor above.