"Miss, it's not good, miss!"
Lu Ling just got up from the bed and was combing his hair.
Haitang rushed in with a piece of paper filled with red letters and a look of horror on her face.
Lu Ling put down the comb, turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Miss, Housekeeper Du committed suicide in his cell last night out of fear of crime! This is from the county government!"
Lu Ling's brain exploded with a bang.
She stood up from her stool suddenly, took the piece of paper and read it.
Read it over and over again.
Seeing Lu Ling's face getting more and more ugly, Haitang asked anxiously: "Miss, what is written on it?"
After Lu Ling finished reading the piece of paper, he fell down on the stool again, his heart seeming to have fallen into an abyss.
She said with a sad face: "Uncle Du's confession, he said in it that he was ashamed of the Lu family and had no shame in living in this world..."
Rubbing his temples with his hands, Lu Ling felt distressed and murmured: "I should have met Uncle Du last night..."
Then maybe he wouldn't have committed suicide.
A wave of regret spread from my heart.
"Miss, Xin Yi knows this, what should she do?" Haitang choked.
Lu Ling glanced at the self-incrimination letter for the last time and said solemnly: "Return the self-incrimination letter to the people in the county government. As for Xin Yi... If she is still willing to stay in the Lu family in the future, let Manager Liu take care of her more. Her."
"...Miss, I understand..." Haitang said hoarsely and left with a dejected look on her face.
The Lu family's case was quickly settled.
Steward Du used his master's trust and his identity to obtain tens of thousands of taels of silver from Lu's teahouse, ink-making workshop and shops.
After the case was concluded, Lu Ling and Lu Cheng went to the county government together to bring back Butler Du's body.
There was a strangulation mark on his neck, which was left when he hanged himself from the beam by his waistband in the cell.
After Lu Ling and Lu Cheng discussed it, they gave Butler Du a grand burial.
Xin Yi cried until she died.
Master Song wrote another letter to urge Song Wenzhou.
After Song Wenzhou buried Butler Du, he rode back to the Song family.
Only then did Lu Ling take the time to look at the Lu family's store's account books.
"Miss, Xin Yi has been sad these days and won't talk to me."
Lu Ling flipped through the account books and whispered, "She is blaming me."
Haitang was unconvinced.
"Miss, I remember something. I remember that before we returned to the Lu family, my uncle once went out. I don't know why. At that time, you said that my uncle must have gone out to deal with some shady matter. When we come back, everything will be over. Understood.
"But," she scratched the back of her head, "I still can't figure out the reason."
Lu Ling stopped writing and stared at the inkstone on the table.
"Miss?"
Lu Ling sneered: "One of the reasons is that he wanted to use the tiger to kill me on the way back to the Lu family. It's a pity that he failed."
Haitang stamped her feet angrily: "Aren't you afraid that the tiger will kill him as well?"
Lu Ling tapped the table with his finger and murmured: "He must have some back-up plan to protect himself. But we don't know."
Hearing this, Haitang held her chin with her fingers, her face full of confusion.
"As for the second reason..." Lu Ling narrowed his eyes and said with some uncertainty: "I suspect that he has interfered in my Lu family's property. In fact, Uncle Du's death may have something to do with him."
"This...how is this possible?" Haitang looked in disbelief.
Lu Ling said: "You said, I was going to the ink-making workshop, why did he go with me? Later, when I confronted Qian Zhi, I asked Manager Liu to compare the tung oil mixed with lacquer and the tung oil without lacquer. The evidence was clear. Everything was already in front of him, but he still spoke for Qian Zhi.
"Who is he? He would be so kind to help Qian Zhi? It proves that he doesn't want Qian Zhi to be found out. And Qian Zhi was instructed by Uncle Du. It's just a pity, I really should have met Uncle Du that night."
Hearing this, Haitang pursed her lips and said nothing.
Lu Ling seemed to have noticed what she was thinking, and said, "I'm just guessing, there's no evidence. Maybe I'm a little too suspicious."
Haitang comforted her: "Forget it, miss, everything is over now. As long as nothing happens to our Lu family, we are lucky."
Lu Ling nodded: "You are right. Although I can't prove my guess, at least we know that my husband is not a good person. Just be careful in the future."
At this time, Lu Cheng walked in from outside the door.
"Sister, something happened in the shop!"
Lu Ling's heart trembled and he asked quickly: "What's the matter?"
Lu Cheng said: "Someone came from Mozhai just now and said that someone was making trouble in the shop."
Lu Ling frowned, stood up immediately, and said, "Let's go to the Ink Studio with me."
Lu Cheng was naturally willing to follow and learn how Sister A dealt with these accidents.
Haitang grabbed her cloak and followed.
Wenxin Ink Shop is the name of the shop where the Lu family sells ink sticks, and the shop where the accident occurred is not far from the Lu family.
The siblings got on the carriage and arrived at the Ink Studio within a quarter of an hour.
As soon as Lu Cheng got his head out of the carriage, he saw a large number of passers-by gathered at the entrance of Ink Studio.
There was a woman at the door with her hands on her hips, yelling and cursing into the shop. A young scholar beside her, with a red face, kept pulling her arm, trying to drag her away.
The woman turned around and shouted at the top of her lungs: "Son, what are you afraid of? Their Wenxin Mo studio sells low-quality goods to us. If you don't give me an explanation today, I will never leave!"
Lu Cheng turned around and helped Lu Ling out of the carriage, and asked anxiously, "Sister, what should I do?"
Lu Ling looked straight at the woman and said calmly, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
The boy quickly shouted: "Give way, my boss is here!"
The people blocking the door turned around one after another, and then made way for them. They looked at Lu Ling and Lu Cheng in surprise and thought to themselves: What can such a small boss do?
The crowd dispersed, and Lu Ling saw that a piece of cloth was thrown at the woman's feet, and three ink sticks were lying on it. They were wet, as if a few ice cubes taken out of the ice cellar had melted more than half. .
The piece of cloth was probably used to wrap the ink strips. It was stained darkly by the ink strips, and there was a pool of black water even on the ground.
When the shopkeeper and the waiter saw Lu Ling and Lu Cheng coming, they hurriedly walked to her side and saluted.
Lu Cheng pointed to the ink strip on the ground and asked, "What's going on?"
Just as the shopkeeper was about to speak, the woman stepped forward, cocked her neck, and asked with disdain, "Are you the boss?"
Lu Cheng was very unhappy when he saw her looking down on others, and was about to retort, but Lu Ling stopped her with one glance, and then smiled politely at the woman and said, "Unfortunately, my father passed away. This shop is temporarily owned by my sister and brother. Take care of it.”
Hearing this, the woman looked squinting at Lu Ling up and down, and said with a smile on her face, "Can you two make the decision?"
The shopkeeper hurriedly said: "Ma'am, you are joking. My young master is the boss, so he can naturally make the decision."
The woman then said dubiously: "In that case, I want to ask you for an explanation.
"Everyone says that the ink produced by Wenxin Mozhai is the best. I lived frugally and spent two years saving enough money to buy three strips of ink for my son.
"Before I left, your shopkeeper swore that this ink stick would not melt when exposed to water, and the ink produced by grinding it would be rich and delicate. But when I took it back for my son to use, I found that the handwriting produced by this ink was very light. And it’s still lumpy.
"Then I put them in the water and passed them through, but unexpectedly they turned into a ball of mud!"
