Chapter 10 — The Husband and Little Uncle Fake the Disaster, My Sister and I Clean Up the Marquis' Palace

He spoke very slowly, each sentence seemed like he had considered it for a long time on the way here. Perhaps in his imagination, these words were enough to make Tieu Ngoc Xu's expression change, and also enough to make Tham Tri Vi come out and ask him a few more questions. Whether it was a scolding, a cold laugh, or even a question about whether his father was alive or dead, it proved that they were still involved with the Tieu family. But Tieu Ngoc Xu just turned around and called inside: "Tham Tri Vi, Tieu family's people came to announce the funeral three months late." In the yard, there was a very light sound of things being put down. A moment later, Tham Tri Vi came out from the yard. She wore a light blue cloth shirt, her hair was only tied up with a wooden hairpin, her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and there were some tobacco leaves on her fingertips. She was not like the young lady of the Marquis Palace in Tieu Thua Duc's memory, nor was she like the woman who once stood in front of the yamen's door holding up the civil registration form with her name crossed out in front of him. Right now she just looks like a person living her own life, busy, peaceful, not waiting for anyone to return. Tieu Thua Duc looked at her, the words he had prepared on the way suddenly choked in his throat. He thought she would become thin, emaciated, and blush when she heard the news of the fall of the Marquis Palace. He even thought that if she asked the question "what do you plan to do in the future", he would take the opportunity to tell her that as long as she was willing to return, he could not pursue the past, and could also take her away from the scandals in the capital. But Tham Tri Vi only looked at him once, then asked: "Do you have anything else?" Her voice was very calm, so calm that it was like the people who were sent to prison, exiled, and condemned to prison were all just names in an old book, and after flipping through them, they were no longer relevant. Tieu Thua Duc clenched his hands in his sleeves: "Don't you want to ask more?"

“Ask what?”

“That is your Marquis Palace.”

“My mother.”

“That is your mother.”

“Thua Ze was exiled.”

“That was his retribution.”

Tieu Thua Duc's face turned white little by little. He suddenly discovered that the things he carried with him all the way, the things that weighed him down so much that he couldn't breathe, were as light as a few tobacco leaves on a bamboo stick. She didn't pretend not to care, nor did she intentionally anger him. She really no longer puts the Tieu family in her heart anymore. In the next room, there was the sound of an abacus clicking. Tieu Ngoc Xu turned back to the abacus to calculate the books, plucked the abacus and said out loud: "If you're done talking, close the door for me, the wind will blow the books away." Hearing that, Tham Tri Vi immediately turned around and went into the yard, collecting a few medicinal herbs under the eaves. She walked very slowly, but did not turn once. Tieu Thua Duc stood outside the door looking at her back, suddenly remembering many old things. Three years into their marriage, she stood outside the study room waiting for him until midnight, reheated the cold soup over and over again, and remembered his preferences for a long time because of one of his pleasant words. At that time, he never turned his head to look at her closely once. Now she doesn't turn around anymore. He felt like the low door in front of him was like a high, insurmountable wall. It was getting dark, the yard was lit with lights. The pale yellow light fell on the door jamb, inside there was the sound of Tieu Ngoc Xu criticizing the medicinal herbs for not being dry yet, there was the sound of Tham Tri Vi telling her not to do it. chaos, then the two of them, not knowing what to say, burst out laughing softly. That laugh wasn't loud, but in Tieu Thua Duc's ears, it was more shrill than any scolding. He suddenly realized that the people who were still besieged on the day the Marquis Palace collapsed were not them. Tieu Thua Duc stood outside the door for a long time, so long that the lights in the yard turned off one by one, so long that the only sound left in the small alley was the wind blowing through the leaves of the Pipa tree. From beginning to end, he did not dare to knock on the door again. Tieu Thua Duc did not leave Giang Nam. At least for a short time, he had no intention of leaving. After a day of standing outside the courtyard door until it was completely dark, he rented a room at the inn in town. The hotel is not big and the price is not expensive. If it were before, he wouldn't even step into that kind of place. But now he is no longer the eldest son of the Marquis Palace. The Marquis no longer exists. News spread from the capital faster than he thought. After the evidence in the notebook came to light, his father's case was investigated very quickly. Those who had had close interactions with the Tieu family in the past all dismissed their relationship. Some were sent to prison, some were dismissed, some were investigated. In less than two months, the once glorious Marquis Palace completely collapsed.