In the afternoon, a earth-shattering scream erupted from Zhou Wanqiu's courtyard, "Where are my silver notes? Who stole my silver notes?"
The servants knew that the eldest young lady was not to be trifled with, and they all trembled.
She had taken out the silver notes before going to bed last night, but now they had vanished. The time of the theft was most likely after she had left her room.
However, after interrogating everyone, all the second-class and third-class maids were performing their duties, with witnesses present. Only the two first-class maids, who had entered and exited her room, had the best opportunity to access the silver notes, and there was no one to vouch for them.
Seeing the eldest young lady's suspicious gaze, the two maids knew things were bad and quickly defended themselves.
In Zhou Wanqiu's eyes, they were making a last-ditch struggle, guilty consciences showing.
"Speak, who exactly stole it?" she looked at the two of them with venomous eyes. If she found out who the thief was and dared to betray her, she would make them wish they were dead and could not live.
"I really didn't steal it, please investigate thoroughly, madam." Hua Mei was the first to defend herself. She knew she hadn't stolen it. Although she didn't think Hua Lan was that kind of person, just as the young lady thought, besides herself, it could only be her.
"I didn't steal it either. It must be someone else. Please investigate thoroughly and clear our names." Hua Lan quickly cried out in injustice. With the young lady's temper, if the matter wasn't resolved today, neither she nor Hua Mei would have a good outcome.
"You two are not telling the truth, are you? I'd rather kill the innocent than let the guilty go. Even if I beat you to death, I want an answer." Zhou Wanqiu said as she sat down.
She slowly picked up her tea, took a sip, "Come, bring me the boards, beat them hard, beat them until they confess."
Immediately, several wet nurses stepped forward, held the two down on stools, pulled down their pants, and began to beat them.
At first, the two begged for mercy, but as the beating continued, they lost the strength to even speak. Slowly, despair appeared in their eyes, and they felt they would die here today.
Just then, Zhou Wanyue walked in angrily. Seeing the scene in the courtyard, she was stunned, "What happened? I remember these two were your capable assistants."
"Don't mention it. I treated them well, but they betrayed me and stole my private money, and still deny it." Zhou Wanqiu's teeth itched with hatred when she spoke of this.
Zhou Wanyue was shocked and immediately asked in disbelief, "You lost your silver notes too?"
"So you lost them too?" Zhou Wanqiu was slightly taken aback when she saw her sister nod, and then stopped the wet nurses from beating them further.
If only she had lost money, it might have been done by these two. With her sister also losing money, the matter was definitely not simple.
For a moment, the two had no idea what to do and decided to consult their mother.
When Old Madam Zhou heard her daughters' words, her heart pounded and chilled. She had a premonition that her silver notes might also be gone.
The main reason was that she, being observant, had noticed her jewelry had been moved when she sat at her dressing table in the morning. She could tell at a glance because she particularly liked a hairpin with magnolia flowers. Every night when she was bored, she would straighten the magnolia flower, but this morning the magnolia flower was crooked.
At that moment, she felt uncomfortable, because everyone around her knew her habit, and they wouldn't easily touch her jewelry box. Yet today someone had the audacity to touch what they shouldn't have.
Originally, she wanted to find that person and punish her severely, but she was afraid of being seen as unkind. She planned to investigate privately and then find an excuse to deal with her properly. Unexpectedly, she heard such explosive news.
Ignoring the surprised looks of her two daughters, she quickly returned to her bedroom, closed the door, and with trembling hands, revealed the hidden compartment. She took out the black box. Seeing that the lock was intact, she had a glimmer of hope that perhaps the silver notes were still there. Su Dan Novel Network
Just in case, she used her trembling hands to take out the key and open it. The result was that the inside was empty. She didn't believe it and turned the box over and over to check, but she still couldn't find a single silver note.
This was all her savings accumulated over so many years of managing the household. To suddenly lose it all, sorrow overwhelmed her, and she couldn't help but burst into tears.
Hearing the crying from their mother's room, the sisters had a bad premonition.
As expected, what they feared most happened. When they rushed into the room, they saw their mother sitting on the ground, holding an empty box, weeping profusely. What else could they not understand?
At this moment, they also wanted to cry. Although losing their own money was sad, these sums were small for them. The bulk of their wealth was with their husbands' families.
For so many years, they had been able to return home frequently and held an unusually high status in their husbands' families precisely because they could get a lot of money from their mother each time they returned home to subsidize their households. Now that their mother's money was gone, how could she possibly subsidize them?
Before long, they received another piece of sad news: Zhou Tianpeng's private money was also gone. Zhou Tianpeng only went to count his assets after hearing that the mansion had been robbed. He was fortunate that the land deeds were still there.
What they didn't know was that Wu Caiwei had originally set her sights on these land deeds, but thinking the target was too large and easily exposed, she gave up.
Together, the four of them lost a total of about fifty thousand taels. This was not a small sum. Of course, one person couldn't have done it; there must have been accomplices.
But after investigating, everyone was suspicious, yet no one seemed to be the culprit. This made them very distressed.
In fact, as soon as this incident occurred, Wu Caiwei's figure first came to Zhou Tianpeng's mind. But then he shook his head, thinking it probably wasn't her. Although this woman had become unusually fierce recently, he attributed it all to being stimulated by him.
He still trusted her character quite a bit. At the very least, she wouldn't do something like this. If she wanted the family's wealth, she had controlled the financial power in the early years when the Zhou family was not yet prosperous. How much hadn't she had? Why would she resort to such petty thievery?
The most important reason was that everything in the mansion was under his control. Such a feat couldn't be done by one person; it required the cooperation of several. If she had made any moves, someone would definitely have reported it to him. Now that there was nothing, it meant she wasn't the one who did it.
Old Madam Zhou fell seriously ill because of this. Years of hard work, destroyed in an instant, made her heart ache just thinking about it.
She lay in bed all day, sighing, and no amount of persuasion helped.
Hua Mei and Hua Lan, having narrowly escaped death, hugged each other tightly, their sobs soft.
After this incident, Zhou Wanqiu no longer dared to use them, fearing they held grudges.
She and her sister also returned to their respective homes. After all, the culprit had not been caught, and they felt strange and unsafe.
Although they had left, their plans were slowly taking root and blossoming in the dark.