The next day, Xu's mother clearly felt that the young couple had grown closer. This was a good thing, and she didn't think too much about it. As long as her son and daughter-in-law were happy, she was happy too.
Xu Zifan escorted Lin Ruonan to open her shop. As soon as they arrived, Lord Liang's personal servant approached them. "Master Xu, our master invites you to his residence for a chat. Are you available at this time?"
Xu Zifan nodded, "Of course, please wait a moment."
Xu Zifan gave Lin Ruonan a few instructions and then went to the Liang residence with the servant, going directly to the study to see Lord Liang. Although he had been to the study before, it was usually to discuss poetry and paintings with Lord Liang. This time, Lord Liang's expression was slightly tense, as if he was troubled by something.
Xu Zifan cupped his hands and said, "Lord Liang, may I ask what troubles you?"
Lord Liang stroked his beard and sighed, "You must already know about the recent farce involving the Lin family. I previously reported to the Emperor about the Lin family's daughter brewing the extraordinary wine, and now the Emperor has ordered her to be sent to the capital. Alas, lately, I've noticed that this Lin family daughter is quite restless. I wonder what will happen after she enters the capital and meets the Emperor."
This matter was reported by Lord Liang. If Lin Ruoshan caused trouble and angered the Emperor, Lord Liang would naturally be held responsible. He looked at Xu Zifan and asked, "I heard you have some disagreements with Lady Lin. Could you elaborate?"
Xu Zifan held his tea and pondered, "At that time, in order not to wrong my family, I deliberately let the truth come out. What Lord Liang heard was the whole truth. Lin Ruoshan is a person of low character and vicious heart. She has no feelings for her relatives and is eager to curry favor with the powerful. She only has a strange talent for brewing wine."
"Strange?"
"That's right, it's strange." Xu Zifan said with a smile. "Lord Liang must have investigated carefully. Lin Ruoshan's winemaking is nothing special, but she always hides and conceals herself when she makes wine, which is very strange. If she has a special talent, she has never shown this talent in the past ten years. How could she suddenly have a breakthrough after opening the tavern for a few years? If she is diligent and studious… ha, that's impossible with her personality."
Lord Liang frowned. "In your opinion, is she capable of hurting anyone?"
Xu Zifan understood his concerns and advised, "Sir, you might as well have someone escort her to the capital and report her every action to the Emperor in detail. By then, the Emperor will be prepared and will take good care of her. No matter what happens, it won't be your fault."
Lord Liang shared a similar thought, but he also wanted to hear Xu Zifan's opinion, believing that Xu Zifan understood Lin Ruoshan better and was always able to restrain her.
He had initially thought that Lin Ruoshan possessed extraordinary brewing skills, and if she were to seize any opportunity, he might inadvertently make an enemy of her. However, after hearing Xu Zifan's words, he leaned towards Xu Zifan's perspective and immediately summoned his trusted confidant to deliver the message to the Lin family.
The Emperor only requested Lin Ruoshan to come to the capital; Lin Fu and the others knew nothing about the spirit wine and were completely ignored.
When Lin Ruoshan heard that she was to go to the capital to meet the emperor, she was instantly stunned, her mind going completely blank. Lin Fu and Madam Wang were even more dumbfounded; the capital and the emperor were too far away from them, and they never dreamed that they would have such a stroke of luck.
Lin Ruoshan was overjoyed the moment she came to her senses. She was finally about to rise above her fear! The excitement completely overwhelmed her anxiety. She knew she was the chosen one; heaven would never let her lead her to such a desperate situation. Now, on the verge of being forced into becoming a concubine, who would dare to force her? Who would dare to disrespect her?
Lin Ruoshan looked at Lin Fu and Wang Shi, her eyes filled with malice. "Father, Mother, your daughter is unfilial. I don't know when we will meet again after this parting. Please take good care of yourselves."
She walked step by step between the two men and said in a voice that only the three of them could hear, "Give me all the money I've earned this year, otherwise, I don't know what I'll say when I see the Emperor."
"you--"
Lin Ruoshan turned and went inside. Lin Fu wanted to scold her, but he had to consider the presence of the prefect, and his face turned red with suppressed anger. But he was really scared. In the past few days, Lin Ruoshan seemed to want to drag them down with her, and she often said that she would teach them a lesson once she entered the Qi family. They had all decided to beg the Qi family to let the matter drop, but who knew that the matter of meeting the emperor would suddenly appear.
They now only see Lin Ruoshan as a cold-hearted and ruthless person, capable of anything, even a fight to the death. Money can be earned back, but life is meaningless. Back when Lin Ruoshan wasn't brewing wine, didn't they make a considerable amount running their tavern?
Lin Fu and Wang could only console themselves with this thought, taking out most of the silver notes they had saved at home and giving Lin Ruoshan the portion she knew about.
Lin Ruoshan stuffed the silver notes into her bundle with satisfaction, and without even glancing at them, followed the prefect's confidant away. If time hadn't been so tight, she really wanted to walk up to those young masters and show them what it meant to suppress the Lin family—they still couldn't do anything to her!
Lin Ruoshan's smugness didn't last long. As soon as she entered the prefect's residence, two maids forcibly took her to a side room and placed her under guard. Lin Ruoshan panicked, banging on the door and shouting, "What are you doing? Why are you locking me up? I'm on my way to the capital to meet the emperor! What right do you have to treat me like this?"
The Emperor has already taken notice of her spirit wine, so she is full of confidence. Even the Prefect couldn't figure out how she brewed it. She is special in front of the Emperor, and her sense of superiority has reached its peak.
The servants ignored her completely, only keeping watch over her and not allowing her to leave the house. A day later, a caravan took her to the capital, still with two servants watching over her, and twenty guards escorting her, along with a doctor to prevent any accidents from happening.
Despite the grand spectacle, Lin Ruoshan felt no joy whatsoever; she felt no sense of being honored.
Seeing this made her feel like a prisoner. A sense of dread crept in belatedly. Alone, she was going to the distant capital to meet the most honored person in the land. How should she kneel? How should she speak? What would the Emperor ask her? Would he like her wine and bestow it upon her?
Lin Ruoshan didn't think the prefect was going to reward her at all, but after thinking it over, she couldn't figure out why the Emperor wouldn't like her wine. Her wine had no harmful effects whatsoever, only benefits; she should be rewarded, right?
With this feeling of trepidation, Lin Ruoshan entered the capital. The people of Anyang Prefecture talked about this the most, wondering if Lin Ruoshan was about to become rich. They couldn't help but envy her for having such a skill, and some even joked that Lin Fu and his wife were going to enjoy a life of luxury.
The three members of the Lin family had no way to express their suffering. The prefect had taken back the small courtyard he had lent them, and they had to rent a house temporarily. Only then did they realize how expensive houses were in the prefectural city. They could only live in a remote place on the outskirts, and the surrounding environment and the other residents were much worse than before, which made them extremely unhappy.
Most importantly, with Lin Ruoshan gone, the Qi family's favored concubine is gone!
Feeling utterly humiliated, Young Master Qi locked himself in his study and refused to show his face, naturally drawing the ire of the Qi family from the Lin family. The Lin family's plan to rent a shop and open a tavern was completely thwarted; they could forget about doing any small business in the prefectural city. Lin Yaozu even got a beating for relieving himself at night, and the whole family was in dire straits.
The little money they had hidden away was quickly used up, and now they didn't even have enough for the journey back to the village. The three of them blamed and complained to each other at home, and in the end, they all started cursing Lin Ruoshan.
Lin Ruoshan took those silver notes, all of which were genuinely earned by her. However, she didn't factor in the costs the Lin family had incurred over the past year: opening the restaurant, purchasing brewing materials, business losses, and so on. Lin Ruoshan paid no heed. Essentially, all the profits of the year went to Lin Ruoshan, while they had squandered all their savings from previous years.
But cursing them wouldn't help. They didn't know if Lin Ruoshan would come back, and even if she did, she wouldn't care about them now that she was powerful. They certainly wouldn't go to the capital to find her; they didn't have the guts to travel that far. As for whether Lin Ruoshan would return in her destitute state to rely on them and have them sell spirit wine again, that was a very slim hope and wouldn't solve their current predicament.
After arguing back and forth, Wang decided to go find the Xu family.
Lin Ruonan is Lin Fu's biological daughter, and even if she is adopted, she is still his niece. Xu Zifan is their nephew-in-law. Any scholar who has any sense of face cannot ignore them.
Lin Fu and Lin Yaozu were concerned about saving face, so Wang Shi went to the cloth shop alone. Standing at the door, she saw Lin Ruonan and began to cry, "Nannan, please go see your father and your brother! They're both almost sick! I had no other choice but to come to you!"
The customers in the cloth shop all looked over, recognized her, and started talking about it.
"What's she doing here? What did she say to the landlady?"
"It seems they're saying she's the boss's mother? How could that be? What's their relationship?"
"That Lin woman who went to the capital to meet the emperor seems to be named Lin Ruoshan. Lin Ruonan and Lin Ruoshan, could they really be sisters?"
"But...I've never heard of this before..."
Lin Ruonan calmly walked to the door, gestured for the worker to stop Wang Shi, and said coldly, "Second Aunt, are you confused? If you have any complaints about Grandpa opening the ancestral hall and adopting children, we can go to the ancestral hall together and talk about it."
Wang felt a chill run down her spine. She knew how dissatisfied Old Master Lin was with her. If she dared to agree to this, wouldn't that be dissatisfying even her ancestors? She quickly said, "I misspoke, Mother... Second Aunt was just in a hurry and didn't correct herself. You've already been adopted, so you can't call me Mother anymore."
Lin Ruonan remained noncommittal to her deliberately misleading words, and turned to a worker, saying, "Go and invite my grandfather out. Tell him that my second aunt has come for help, saying that my second uncle and my cousin are about to fall ill."
"No need to invite me, I'm already out." Old Master Lin's voice was filled with anger as he lifted the curtain and walked out from behind, his eyes as sharp as knives as he looked at Wang Shi. "Wang Shi, what are you doing here? I remember saying that you've wronged Nan Nan, and that she has nothing to do with you in this life. Does what I said not carry any weight?"
Wang stared in shock, her eyes widening, and instinctively took two steps back.
"Father...Father, how...how could you be here?"
"Hmph, if I hadn't come, you two shameless bastards would have bullied Nannan!" Old Master Lin showed no mercy, walked towards Madam Wang with his hands behind his back and said in a deep voice, "Take me to see that unfilial son. I want to see what kind of illness he's pretending to have."
Old Master Lin's heavy steps pounded on Wang's heart, extinguishing all her hope. She led the way for Old Master Lin, looking dejected and disheveled.
Lin Ruonan smiled at the guests, "It's just a family scandal, please excuse me. I'm going to check on my grandfather, afraid he'll be upset. Please continue choosing, everyone who chooses today will receive half a foot of cloth as a gift."