Old Madam Qin looked straightly ahead with a stern look.

In this scene, she was no wonder a righteous decent character who was selfless, kind, loving, generous and always did good deeds anonymously. On the contrary, the group of people led by Fourth Old Master played indecent supporting roles and they were greedy, mean and shameless. Not only had they taken advantage of their brother and sister-in-law, but they were very ungrateful.

Minglan almost applauded.

Old Madam Qin must have put up with these people for a long time since she had kept everything in mind. However, she was very good at tolerating. In order to build a good image in front of her overly kind husband, she hid all her resentment and dissatisfaction. Minglan really respected someone like Old Madam Qin who never played hardball when she couldn"t overturn the inferior position and only waited for the best opportunity to attack while seizing the chance to gain more benefits for herself.

Since Old Madam Qin couldn"t get rid of the two brothers-in-law of her, she then turned trash to treasure by using them to deal with her real enemy with a long-term view. As long as her blood son could inherit the n.o.ble t.i.tle, she would get even with them and kick them away. She knew well about their wrongdoing anyhow, so even if what she did to them was spread out, she would have plenty of reasons to explain for herself.

Then, the outcome of the war was pretty clear. Only Fourth Old Master was still resisting. He stood up all of a sudden with redness in his eyes and roared, “Only today do I find out that Eldest Sister-In-Law is an outstanding woman. Your speech really is impressive! I truly was wrong about you before! Don"t forget what mother has said when mother held the hands of our three brothers. Eldest Brother promised to take care of me and Fifth Brother! Now that Eldest Brother is gone, you just turn the tables and show your true colors!”

This time, even Minglan wanted to laugh. There were t.i.tters coming through from behind the screen. It seemed that Shao shi and Zhu shi couldn"t bear it anymore.

Old Madam Qin stopped covering the ironic tone in her voice and snorted with deep hatred and resentment in her eyes, “When Mother wanted to give more silvers to the first family, Fourth Brother-In-Law said that she was muddleheaded. But you seemed to remember very clearly that she told Old Master Gu to take care of his two brothers. Those were all the words mother said before she pa.s.sed away. How come she was muddleheaded when she uttered the former words and not when she uttered the latter? Fourth Brother-In-Law, you truly have a great memory. Good for you!"

Minglan sighed secretly, "Gu Tingye"s grandmother was a sensible woman. Unfortunately, her consideration as a loving mother was all destroyed by her unfilial sons."

Fourth Old Master finally couldn"t keep it up, no matter how shameless he was. With his body trembling in anger, he sat down and thumped on the table beside him violently and almost shook a teacup off the table.

Seeing that the situation had got worse, Fourth Old Madam spoke right away in an apologizing tone, “Sister-in-law, I know that you have suffered over these years. We are so useless that we have brought lots of trouble to you. Your Fourth Brother-In-Law has worried about Tingbing"s affairs these days, so please don"t blame him for talking rudely. However, we are all the Gu"s people, now that our family and the fifth family are going to move away, our lives truly will be difficult in the future. Eldest Sister-In-Law, please at least help us a little.”

"Nice!" Minglan glanced at Fourth Old Madam secretly with an admiring look and admitted that this woman was also an expert.

However, those words only made Old Madam Qin look sadder. She said with red eyes, “Fourth Sister-In-Law, that"s just ridiculous. My two brothers-in-law are both strong men and your sons are in the prime of life now. In the past, the fourth and fifth family only take from the first family and never give us anything. Now you still want to bully me, a widowed woman, and my son. Why do you think that my life would be easy in the future?”

Her words were so significant. As everyone knew, Gu Tingye and Old Madam Qin were always lukewarm toward each other. Minglan felt her face a bit hot, but she insisted on keeping silent in case she would bring trouble to herself.

The situation was about to be settled and Old Madam Qin could withdraw herself from the fight. However, there was a new contender to the fight. Concubine Liu, seeing that no one was talking right now, got anxious right away and stepped out to shout, “I shouldn"t speak here, but I have lived in this mansion for decades, I feel that my words should count more or less.”

Today Concubine Liu was wearing a red robe embroidered with two-finger-wide black wool. She said with a grinning face, “Old Madam Qin, you are right. Our family and Fifth Family truly are in debt to you, but Old Master Gu was well aware of this. He is the kindest person I know, so he was clear that his brothers only wanted to take some advantages from him. It is obvious that Old Master Gu wanted his two brothers to live a comfortable life! Since this is what he wanted, how can you disagree with that?”

Her words were shameless and outrageous, but weirdly made sense. Fourth Old Master was enlightened at once and jumped up, shouting, “That"s right! That"s what Eldest Brother wanted! We are all brothers! Eldest Brother never minded those things, but you have kept everything in mind! You said that you have to follow your husband"s lead, so you have to act as before if you truly treasure your relationship with Eldest Brother!”

Minglan was totally speechless. She finally understood why Gu Tingye never argued with them. "Maybe only fists and power will work when dealing with those rascals." Minglan sighed secretly and then glimpsed at Old Madam Qin. A concubine from another family had just offended the madam of the first family. On most occasions, the madam would definitely reproach that concubine fiercely.

However, …

The look on Old Madam Qin"s face changed right away. With her red eyes filled with tears, that tough woman became a fragile old lady again.

She pounced on the bed table sadly and sobbed to Fifth Old Master with heartrending words, “Fifth Brother-In-Law, you are the most sensible man in the Gu family. Why don"t you say something? For all these years, have I ever treated your family shabbily?

All my efforts should at least count! Now, not only are you guys not grateful to me, but you even let that shabby woman bully me! Is there any concubine who dares to act so rudely! I am your Eldest Sister-In-Law for so many years. Now I only feel that I should die with your Eldest Brother!”

Fifth Old Master felt ill at ease long ago. Now he felt even guiltier with his face burning hot. He shook his sleeves and stood up all of a sudden. He glared at Fourth Old Master and Concubine Liu, “This is outrageous! You have no rules in your family!”

After all, Fourth Old Master was his brother, so he couldn"t scold the latter fiercely. After that, Fifth Old Master went off in a huff and Fifth Old Madam followed him right away.

Minglan watched them leave and then turned around to look at Old Madam Qin. She finally understand the latter"s action.

The enemies should be treated differently. Fifth Old Master was keen on keeping up his appearance. As for Fifth Old Madam, Old Madam Qin knew some of her wrongdoing so the latter couldn"t argue with confidence. Therefore, the Fifth Family could be won over by Old Madam Qin. The strategy toward them was winning them over with conciliation. However, the people of the Fourth Family were shameless and rascal, so Old Madam Qin had given them a straight attack.

Minglan felt ashamed at using stereotypical strategies toward Old Madam Qin who was so changeable and good at tolerating.

One third of the people in the room had left. Fourth Old Master stood there awkwardly with Concubine Liu who had been called a "shabby woman" beside him.

Old Madam Qin wiped her tears and stood up slowly. Then she said to him in a flat tone, “Fourth Brother-In-Law, if you are still unwilling to accept this, you can call all the elders in the family over to open the ancestral temple of our family. Let"s get everyone"s opinion on this and go public with the accounts. If the Fourth Family truly has been bullied, I would pay double of your loss! If not…”

She took a glance at Minglan and said softly, “It"s time to talk about the property that you owe Tingye.”

Minglan lowered her head and realized that she had been used by Old Madam Qin right now.

Fourth Old Master was stuck for words. After he had glared at Old Madma Qin with his teeth gritted for a long while, he finally admitted defeat and left dejectedly.

After the guests had left, the room fell into silence again. Shao shi helped Zhu shi to come out slowly. They looked at Old Madam Qin and then at Minglan with different looks on their faces.

Minglan looked at Shao shi who was also looking at her.

“Well, I want to see how Rong"s doing right now. … Eldest Sister-In-Law, why don"t you come with me?”

Shao shi smiled gently, “Fine.”