Qin Yunuan felt uneasy, so she decided to go there with Sun Miaoyang. The cold midnight wind was like sharp knives stabbing people’s faces. Sun Miaoyang entered the room under the guidance of Yuanyang. He had stayed there to treat the Old Madam for nearly an hour. Qin Yunuan lay on the Zen chair sleepily and suddenly heard a dismal female voice, “Third Young Madam, the Old Madam called you in.”
Qin Yunuan opened her eyes and saw exactly that Sun Miaoyang shook his head while ordered the nanny to compound the medicine.
“Predecessor Sun,” Qin Yunuan stepped forward and asked, “How is the Old Madam?”
Sun Miaoyang shook his head, “Since the Old Madam called you in, you would know it when you meet her.”
Qin Yunuan was speechless and had guessed the worst situation. Sun Miaoyang suddenly added, “Do you know what the oak looks like when it is eaten away completely by termites?”
“Uh?”
Sun Miaoyang sighed, “Now the Old Madam is like a hollow oak, who looks normal from outside, but is totally feeble inside.”
Yuanyang had almost the condition. She just lowered her head and said, “Third Young Madam, the Old Madam is waiting for you.”
Crescent-white gauze curtain drooping down on the ground was raised by golden hooks. Qin Yunuan could see vaguely that the Old Madam was lying sidling feebly. There was no any personal maidservant in the room, even including Yuanyang, the close maidservant around the Old Madam. The Old Madam was rebuking the Second Madam in the hall spiritedly just now, but just in a flash, she got so feeble, who was so helpless and poor.
“The Old Madam.”
“Yunuan? You come. Come here.” The Old Madam raised the curtain by her sere and old hands, waving her hands towards Qin Yunuan faintly.
Suddenly, Qin Yunuan felt so sorry and couldn’t bear to step closer.
The Old Madam did not force her to approach and just said to Qin Yunuan several steps away, “You have seen that I have been unhealthy for many years. In the early years, I attended the battles with the Old Master and had miscarried twice. The doctor said that I had a cold womb so I could hardly get pregnant. And then later, I tried my best to give birth to two children, Zhongxiao and Zhongyi, so I cherished my two children very much. I cared much about the marriage of them, the offspring of Prince Ning’s Mansion. I wanted to select the girls with the best family background for my children of Prince Ning’s Mansion. I disliked you when you married into the mansion at first. Please do not blame me.”
“The Old Madam, don’t say that,” Qin Yunuan still remembered that the Old Madam went to the Royal Palace together with her enterprisingly, and sought for help from the Queen Mother, “You always master the overall situation, so it is natural for you to think much more.”
“Holiday words are over, and then I want to say something impolite.” The Old Madam moved her body with difficulty, “You have a menial family background and offended many people. Now Qin Family suffers a strict investigation from the emperor due to the Third Prince. And those people in the Royal Palace have been making efforts to kill you. I just want to ask you if you make sure that you can protect yourself.”
Qin Yunuan pondered for a while and then nodded, “I can protect myself.”
The Old Madam sighed and then suddenly asked, “Can you protect Prince Ning’s Mansion?”
Qin Yunuan felt a little bit sunned. She could almost understand her words, so….
“Can you? I just want your answer.”
Qin Yunuan said seriously, “Prince Ning’s Mansion is my root. The root is alive, so I am alive. The root is dead, so I am dead.”
“Nice.” The Old Madam nodded, and then suddenly called Yuanyang in. She ordered her to open a concealed cabinet in the bedside. Yuanyang seemed to be hesitant and even looked at Qin Yunuan with vigilant eyes.
“Bastard, don’t you obey my order?” The Old Madam cursed. Yuanyang opened the concealed cabinet with tears. She sobbed, “The Old Madam, you have said that the concealed cabinet can only be opened after you are dead.”
The Old Madam closed her eyes without a word. After Yuanyang passed the palm-sized agilawood box to Qin Yunuan and then quitted, the Old Madam said in an aged voice slowly, “Now the wildly recognized Four Families in Qi are Shangguan Family in the regions south of the River, Dou Family in Yangzhou, Shen Family and Cui Family in Baling. Do you know that the Four Families were totally different fifty years ago?”
“I heard about it roughly,” Qin Yunuan thought seriously and then said, “Yunuan just knew that fifty years ago Sun Family was in its full bloom, compared to its position today.”
“Fifty years ago, the Fourth Family are Sun Family in Jinling, Meng Family in Luguan, Leng Family in the Southwest region and our Ge Family, Duke Jingguo.”
“So Leng Family is?”
“Yes, Prince Ning’s Mansion you see today is just a branch of Leng Family. You must feel confused why the Four Families, which were powerful fifty years ago, now decline. At that age, the Four Families were in their prime and very united. Their members got married and helped each other. You know that the most terrible thing the emperor fears is that civil power is higher than the imperial power. So the previous emperor got a good idea. Without the loss of his military power, he made the Four Families fight against each other, which caused the severe damages of their power.”
“What idea?”
The Old Madam took a deep breath and seemed to recall the whole thing when she was still a young girl, “At that time, the emperor just conquered the capital of South Yue. South Yue abounded in gold. After the emperor of South Yue surrendered, he submitted thousands of gold. The problem was how to store thousands of gold safely. The previous wise emperor ordered people to dig a big cave in a mountain near North Di, and even the craftsmen did not know the specific location of the cave. Those craftsmen were taken into the cave with their eyes muffled. Finally, all of them were killed and buried into a big prit in front of the cave. The only man who knew the location was the supervisor, but he was poisoned to death after he finished the only map. The previous emperor divided the map into four parts and gave each part to the master of the Four Family.”
“So people could find the gold buried in the remote mountain only when the four parts got united?” Qin Yunuan almost guessed, “But the Four Families had their disputes of interest, so each party wanted to gain the whole gold. Even if they did not want to gain the gold, people in the rivers and lakes would hunt people from the Four families to unite the four parts of the map after they knew the news about the gold.”
“You are smart,” The Old Madam paused for a while and seemed to nod, “That’s almost the fact. The Four Families got collapsed. The most well-known branch of Leng Family in Southwest regions is Prince Ning’s Mansion, but its power decreased a lot. And as for Meng Family, only Meng Hua and Imperial Concubine Yun left. You have seen that they have no more power. Ge Family surrendered to the emperor and finally got an empty title of Duke Jingguo. Only Sun Family, it was the most dreadful.”
Qin Yunuan suddenly thought the weird little boy from Sun Family Baochuan had told her. She remembered that the little boy was called Sun Chengzhen. Baochuan was not a boldfaced man. According to Baochuan, the moment he saw Sun Chengzhen, he felt that his soul was controlled. There was only one sound in his mind that drove him to walk forward. He kept walking forward and finally fell into a pond.
“So Sun Family relied on the witchcraft?” She felt doubtful when she thought that Madam Sun explained the magic so clearly in the feast.
“No,” The Old Madam shook her head, “I should not have told you that, but I may die soon, so you would get ready if you knew it early. It is not an ability but a kind of curse. Just like the other three families, Sun Family experienced collapse too. But thirty years ago, a male member of Sun Family suddenly stood out and reunited the family. He was Sun Chengzhen.”
“No way.” Qin Yunuan cried, “The little boy was about the same age as Baochuan. He was five to six years old. How could he…thirty years ago.”
“No,” The Old Madam said slowly, “Don’t you remember that all the male members of Sun Family would die after thirty years old? Sun Chengzhen guided the family into its prime again and died at his birthday of thirty. Since then, Sun Family would select the most talented boy and named it Sun Chengzhen, in memory of him. They expected the boy to bring miracles to the family. You must feel funny about their superstition. No, there are more miraculous things in Sun Family. Although all of Sun Chengzhen would die after seventeen to eighteen years old, their mother became leaders to guide the family more prosperous. However, anyhow, there was a doom in Sun Family that was hard to escape. The male members of Sun Family became more and more short-lived, and someone even died after five years old.”
“You win some, and you lose some.” Qin Yunuan sighed helplessly, though she knew that the thing must be more complicated.
“Yes, Sun Family has gained too much. Except for the part of the map from its own family, they have collected the maps from Meng Family and Ge Family. They could find the treasure if they found the part from Leng Family. If they could achieve that, Sun Family would be as rich as the country. They could collect more followers and would not fear the problem of male’s short lives in Sun Family.”
“Sun Family, they are too frightening.” Qin Yunuan felt cold behind. Just for collecting all of the maps, they paid their whole family. Now it was clear that Sun Family sent their daughters constantly into Leng Family, probably for the map from the family.
“Frightening?” The Old Madam sneered, “Finally, they were mastered by my elder sister.”
The elder sister of the Old Madam was the Queen Mother?
“Do you know why I had a cold relationship with my elder sister from the beginning?” The Old Madam tilted her head and said with her tired and weak eyes, “Because the idea of dividing the Four Families by the map was from my elder sister. The Queen Mother gave the idea to the previous emperor. At that time, her heart was full of her ambitious husband. She even put the gun back to her family just to help the man to consolidate his power. I did want to give up, and I did not understand. How could love make a woman chaotic.”
“But now? The Queen Mother must have done more.” Or Sun Family must have gained the four maps already.
“Right,” The Old Madam gave a weird smile, “My elder sister also played tricks to let the male members short-lived in Sun Family. Thirty years ago, When Sun Chengzhen held the wedding, my elder sister had played tricks on the bride secretly. The girl they gave birth to would be fine, but the boy would be dead early. My elder sister was such a high master-hand, and generally she tortured Sun Family into a small family.”
