Mrs. Tong didn’t dare to slight Nuomi, although she was only a former maid of Qiao Jinniang.

Qiao Jinniang was already the Crown Princess, and Nuomi, as Qiao Jinniang’s former maid, was certainly not someone she could mess with.

“Miss Nuomi, isn’t 30,000 taels of silver too much? Even if we sell everything we have, we can’t afford so much money!

“And, and, it’s not our Tong family that threw those rotten eggs…”

Nuomi said, “Although the eggs were not thrown by your Tong family, the whole matter started because of Tong Yingying.

“You can refuse to compensate, but Tong Yingying falsely took the credit of the Crown Princess and the Flower Picking Childe and blatantly spread rumors in Chang’an. She has to pay a price!

“Either pay 30,000 taels, or let Tong Yingying go to jail.

“By the way, if Tong Yingying is thrown into jail, Tong Lei won’t be able to enter the officialdom again in this life because he failed to properly educate his own daughter.”

Mrs. Tong was really annoyed at Tong Yingying. “But we really can’t take out so much money all at once. Our Tong family’s not that rich!”

“Mother, I just heard from Tong Yingying that Cousin Siming has a crush on her. We can borrow money from Cousin Siming.”

Tong Xuan hurried over and said. She didn’t want to be implicated by Tong Yingying!

Nuomi widened her eyes curiously. “You mean Young Master Zhou?”

“Yes.” Tong Xuan said, “Miss Nuomi, please tell the Crown Princess that we will definitely pay her the money.”

After sending Nuomi away, Mrs. Tong poked Tong Xuan’s head with a finger and said, “Are you stupid? Why do we have to compensate for her? Her reputation has already been ruined. Even if she is thrown into jail, it will have nothing to do with us.

“She was not raised by me anyway. As for your father, if he doesn’t change his character, there won’t be any hope for him to return to office.”

Tong Xuan said, “But she is my sister after all, and I can’t guarantee that my reputation will not be tarnished by her. Besides, even if Tong Yingying’s reputation is ruined and she goes to jail, we still have to give this money to the Crown Princess!”

Tong Xuan was very afraid of Qiao Jinniang. What she regretted most in her life was to mock Qiao Jinniang at the gate of the racecourse.

If she could change the crown princess’ bad impression of her with money, why not?

Mrs. Tong said, “You don’t know the financial condition of our family. In order to build a good reputation, your father has never embezzled any money, so we don’t even have 2,000 taels of silver even if we sell all our shops and manors, not to mention 30,000 taels of silver!”

Tong Xuan said, “Mother, you probably haven’t read the letters written by Cousin Siming. He said in the letters that he would help Tong Yingying as long as she went to him with his jade pendant.”

When Mrs. Tong heard this, she poked Tong Xuan’s head with her finger again and said, “Alas, Tong Yingying can even seduce Siming. But look at you. Why are you so useless?!”

Tong Xuan snorted. “I’m going to the Zhou family to ask Cousin Siming for money.”

When Zhou Siming came back from the East Palace, he heard a commotion in the Duke Wu Mansion, and the concierge told him that Zhou Shihui insisted on leaving the Duke Wu Mansion with her luggage and even climbed the wall and crept into a dog hole, trying to leave…

The Duke Wu Mansion was almost overturned, and even Old Madam Zhou was exasperated.

His eldest aunt had been traveling outside all these years and had been refusing to come back home. Now that she had finally sent her daughter back, his grandmother would definitely not let Zhou Shihui leave.

“Cousin!” Tong Xuan ran to Zhou Siming and showed a jade pendant to him, saying, “Cousin, do you still remember this jade pendant?”

After seeing the jade pendant, Zhou Siming asked with a dark expression, “Why is this jade pendant in your hands?”

Tong Xuan hid the jade pendant behind her and said, “You told the girl you loved that you would do anything for her if she came to you with this jade pendant, right?”

Zhou Siming said, “What happened to her?”

She had already engaged and probably wished she had never known him. Every time he met her, she shied away. How could she give the jade pendant to Tong Xuan?

He had thought that this jade pendant had already been smashed by her!

She already had such a good fiance and was trying her best to please her future mother-in-law. Her wedding was only half a year away… How could she let Tong Xuan come to him?

Tong Xuan said, “She needs 30,000 taels of silver.”

As for the stupid things Tong Yingying did, Tong Xuan was too ashamed to tell them to Zhou Siming. Anyway, the first priority was to take the money first to quell the Crown Princess’ anger.

As the heir to Duke Wu, Zhou Siming had a lot of properties under his name, but he couldn’t take out so much money all at once, so he said, “I’ll give you fifteen thousand taels first, and as for the rest, I’ll give it to you in two days.”

“Okay, thank you, Cousin.”

“Why does she need so many silver taels?” He hadn’t heard of any difficulties in her family.

Tong Xuan said, “She offended the Crown Princess.”

Zhou Siming was confused. She offended the Crown Princess? Could it be that Princess Fulu spoke ill of her in front of the Crown Princess?

Zhou Siming didn’t think about it anymore. Since she asked Tong Xuan to come to him, asking for help, she must have been left with no choice.

…

In the East Palace, Qiao Jinniang received an invitation from Qiao Ruoyun early in the morning.

Qiao Ruoyun came with Qin Miaomiao today.

After saluting, Qiao Ruoyun said to Qiao Jinniang, “Your Highness, it is a happy event for the Qiao family that the Empress Dowager granted Princess Fulu to marry Lu’er.

“But Lu’er lives with Mother in the Qiao Mansion, so it will be very inconvenient to prepare for the wedding. Therefore, Father wants you to persuade Mother to go back to the Duke Mansion.”

Qiao Jinniang snorted. “Why should I? Sister, you shouldn’t be soft-hearted to Father! He is one of the main culprits who caused you to be separated from your parents.”

Qin Miaomiao said, “Don’t be angry, Your Highness. It’s my mother who forced my sister-in-law to come to see you.”

Qiao Jinniang said, “I don’t have anything to be angry about. My father and mother have been husband and wife for so many years. If he still doesn’t know how to coax my mother back and only hopes others to help him, he deserves to be alone for the rest of his life.”

Qiao Ruoyun didn’t say anything more. She was also a woman, and she also felt indignant for her mother.

Seeing that Qiao Ruoyun was still gaunt, Qiao Jinniang asked, “Sister, why are you so pale?”

Qiao Ruoyun helplessly glanced at her lower abdomen. It had been four years since she married into the Qin family, but she still hadn’t had a child yet.

Qiao Jinniang said, “Maybe you’ll have a child soon. Don’t worry”

“Your Highness, Tong Xuan, the daughter of the former Imperial Censor Tong, asks to see you.”

Qiao Jinniang remembered Tong Xuan. After she mocked her in the racecourse that day, she was so afraid that she would blame her and kept sending her gifts.

“Let her in.”

After Tong Xuan came in, she relaxed a little when she saw Qiao Ruoyun and Qin Miaomiao were there.

She handed the 30,000 taels of silver notes to Qiao Jinniang with both hands.

“Your Highness, this is our Tong family’s apology.”

Qiao Jinniang flipped over the notes and said with a smile, “It’s only been two days. The Tong family is really rich.”

Tong Xuan said, “It’s not that my family is rich but that my cousin is willing to pay for Tong Yingying. He raised 30,000 taels of silver overnight.”

“Your cousin?” Qiao Jinniang asked.

Tong Xuan said, “My cousin is the heir to Duke Wu and also His Royal Highness’s cousin.”

Qiao Jinniang couldn’t help thinking that she should have fed the small scones that she gave to Zhou Siming yesterday to dogs!