Chapter 8 — 30 Whips Change Retirement, I Take You and Leave Brilliantly

Until one night, Tham Khanh Son hurriedly ran to report:

“Dong family, Chu ma ma... is missing.”

"After being brought back to the capital by Giang Anh Nguyet, she stayed there for more than three months and then suddenly disappeared. Giang family searched everywhere, but still couldn't find her whereabouts."

“Did she leave voluntarily?”

"It's not the same. Mama Chu has been in the Giang family for more than twenty years, there's no reason to leave so suddenly. This old slave is afraid that... someone secretly took her away."

Tham Khanh Son shook his head.

"Can't find out. But there is a very strange point. The day she disappeared, Qi Hang Vien also disappeared from the capital."

My finger lightly tapped three times on the table. Qi Hengyuan and Chu ma ma disappeared at the same time. One was a nanny who knew the truth twenty years ago, and the other was a co-conspirator that year. Are they leaving together? Or was it taken away by the same person?

"Tra. No regrets at any cost."

Five days later, the news arrived. Chu ma ma has been found. Not in the capital, nor in Jiangnan. But at Dai Ly Tu. She came on her own. She went to Dai Ly Tu and confessed, revealing the entire process of the military salary case twenty years ago. Including how Giang Thu Nhan bribed the mandarin to exchange salary, how he colluded with Qi Hang Vien at the Ministry of Infantry to falsify documents, how he killed people to destroy their mouths, and how he harmed the Tham family. She still had something in her hand— That copy of the secret letter that had been torn up and lost its trace. She always hid it close to her body, sewn it tightly in the lining of her clothes, and kept it silently for twenty years. After Dai Ly Tu received Mother Chu's testimony, it immediately played during the night. The news quickly spread throughout the capital. Giang Thu Nhan was suspended pending investigation. On his way to escape to the border, Qi Hang Vien was stopped and escorted back to the capital. The court was shocked. The military salary case twenty years ago was finally overturned. When the news reached Lam An, I was sitting in the backyard of the weaving ward, drinking tea with Luc Hanh Chu. He looked at the gazette brought by the station horse from the capital and read it to me.

"The Royal Palace coordinated with Dai Ly Tu to thoroughly investigate the military food case, the Ho Giang Ministry maid Thu Nhan was suspected of harming, embezzling, and murdering people, and was arrested. The Infantry maid Qi Heng Vien was arrested for fleeing and confessed the entire crime process."

He put down the gazette.

“How did you convince Mama Chu?”

“I didn't convince her.”

“So why did she go to Dai Ly Tu to confess?”

“Because Giang Anh Nguyet beat her.”

Luc Hanh Chu was stunned.

"Mother Chu followed the Giang family for more than twenty years, always devoted to her best efforts. But after Giang Anh Nguyet married into the Co family, seeing that she was in trouble, she was beaten and scolded every three days. After returning to the capital, she was even more outrageous - in front of the servants, she slapped her twice, saying that she was 'old and useless, so she should be sent away'."

I took a sip of tea.

"A secret kept for twenty years, not out of loyalty, but out of fear. When she feels she is no longer needed, fear turns to anger."

“You knew that Giang Anh Nguyet would beat her?”

"I don't know. But I know Giang Anh Nguyet as a person. To those who no longer have value, she has never shown mercy."

Luc Hanh Chu looked at me.

“You are betting.”

“I bet right.”

Him silent for a moment.

“Master Shen, you are much more powerful than I thought.”

"It's not me who is powerful. It's Giang Thu Nhan's self-sows. He harmed the Tham family, raised a harsh daughter, and raised a cold-hearted nanny. Cause and effect are reincarnated, the retribution is not wrong."

That night, Co Hanh arrived. This time he did not kneel. He leaned on a stick and limped step by step to the main gate number sixteen, Tu alley. Trieu An supported him. When Tham Khanh Son came in to report, I was telling Y Nhi a bedtime story.

“Let him in.”

Thuy Van was startled.

“Dong family?”

“He has something he should know.”

When Co Hanh entered the lobby, he was even more haggard than before. But his eyes were alert. He sat in a chair, his hands on his knees, like a man awaiting judgment.

“You already know?”

He nodded.

"The news that Giang Thu Nhan was arrested, Trieu An told me."

“Do you know why he was arrested?”

"I know. The military salary case."

“Do you know who the victim was in the military food case?”

He raised his head to look at me.

"I looked it up. It's your grandfather, Tham Van Xuyen."

“Yes. Do you know what that means?”

His hands tightened on his knees.

“That means—the woman I married, her father, killed your entire maternal family.”

“So what do you want?”

"I don't need anything anymore. My grandfather carried an unjust sentence for twenty years, and today it was finally cleared. Your father-in-law is about to be impeached. Your wife—"