TFDC Chapter 41.1

Chapter 41.1 - A string of rosary beads

Another bonus chapter for Giacomo A to match the sponsored chapters ♡♡♡

“Eldest miss, what should this subordinate do next? Do we just leave it like this?”

This time, the second madam would definitely put all of the blame on Lou Qingwu for her visit to the Ruan family.

He was only afraid that the Ruan family would set out traps for his eldest miss so they would definitely have to start preparing early.

“You don’t have to worry about what the second madam does next. Here’s three hundred thousand silver notes. In the next few days, Ruan family’s stores will be sold en masse and at that time, buy as many as you can.”

“Buy their stores? How could that be?” Tang Er froze. Ruan family was the number one family of the capital, so all of their stores were steady cash cows. Why would they suddenly sell them?

Lou Qingwu’s smile grew deeper, “Tang Er, there’s nothing that’s impossible in this world. Even if the Ruan family is the number one family, it’s still hard for them to pull out a hundred thousand in gold ingots. If they don’t want to face the crime of deceiving the emperor, they’ll have to sell their stores.”

And at that time, she only had to buy them all up.

To collapse a family’s empire, she didn’t have to first beat them down, she had to first shake their foundations.

Once their foundations were gone, even if they struggled to maintain themselves, they’d eventually collapse.

She believed, that she didn’t need a year to do so.

As long as this step was done well, then the steps afterwards would make Ruan Zhen and the whole of the Ruan family regret to the point of no return.

When the Ruan family’s title of ‘number one family’ moved, then she wanted to see, what type of expression Ruan Zhen would have?

She wanted to see how her father would treat this step-mother of hers, the step-mother that he plotted and schemed to marry, to the point where he even forced her mother to die!

Seeing what she wanted to see, Lou Qingwu ordered Tang Er to take her back.

But when she arrived at her Leaning Wind Pavilion, the palace sent news that the empress summoned Lou Qingwu to enter the palace.

When this phoenix decree was sent out, Lou Lianxin was so angry that she fainted again.

After all, every time the phoenix decree was sent to the Lou residence, it would be addressed to her.

But from that night onwards, the empress probably won’t look at her again, so how could she not hate, how could she not be resentful?

When Lou Qingwu received the imperial decree, she didn’t find it unexpected.

After last night’s events, the empress didn’t let her stay back for two reasons.

The first reason being that the timing wasn’t right.

The second was most likely that the empress hadn’t recovered from that night’s events.

When she did recover, she would naturally bestow Lou Qingwu some objects, because after all, Lou Qingwu did help her out.

This could be a good thing but it also wasn’t.

She helped the empress because of a pure coincidence and before entering the palace last night, she hadn’t thought of standing on any imperial consort’s side or even make an enemy out of any side.

After this, however, she would have to change her plans.

When Lou Qingwu entered the palace, she unexpectedly saw Xiahou Rui inside of Kunning palace.

Towards the empress’ praises, Lou Qingwu was humble and shrunk from it, saying that it was just a coincidence that she was of help.

Otherwise, with the empress’ mind, the moment that she knew that Qingwu was shrewd and cunning, it wouldn’t be to her advantage.

When the empress spoke to her, she didn’t seem suspicious of her, but instead, was increasingly impressed by her carefulness and elegance.

It was only a pity that this Lou family’s eldest miss didn’t have a good reputation.

She had let her people investigate and found out about the affair from three years ago, which increased her disgust for Lou Lianxin a degree.

So even though her reputation wasn’t suitable, it wasn’t like she couldn’t be a concubine.

*

TL note:

Xiahou Rui’s concubine - quick refresher on ranks:

Xiahou Rui’s legitimate wife is his consort, then he has two side-consorts and then he has concubines and madams.

Below them, he has bed-warmers/servants/dancer girls who are basically servants he would’ve bedded and are still considered servant-level.

So the empress thinking that Lou Qingwu barely deserves a concubine rank, is quite insulting. But the empress is thinking of the long con, so if Xiahou Rui does become the emperor, then even a lowly concubine could become a consort in the imperial harem. In that case, Lou Qingwu would have a title befitting of her station. That is, of course, if Xiahou Rui became the emperor.

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