Rebirth: The Journey of an Heiress novel Chapter 373

Chapter 373: Chapter 370: Subtle Influence_1

The extravagant carriage drew much attention as it entered the city. It slowly traversed the busiest and most bustling streets of Shuoyang City, heading toward a secluded residential area in the east, finally stopping in front of a rather plain house.

"Miss, we have arrived." A guard who had previously accompanied Lu Ping to see the mute girl informed Bai Qingyan inside the carriage.

Chun Tao, hearing the guard, helped Bai Qingyan lift the carriage curtain and assisted her down.

Shuoyang could not compare to Dadu. The areas where commoners lived were slightly rundown. The small black lacquered front gates had lost their coating, and the threshold had worn down to reveal a dull gray wood beneath. A persimmon tree grew in the yard, its branches extending beyond the courtyard wall, yet the place was decently kept.

Bai Qingyan and Chun Tao stood at the doorway, watching the guard step forward to knock.

Soon, a woman in her thirties, with a child in her arms, came to open the door.

Seeing the grand scene outside, the woman grew uneasy and quickly asked, "Who are you looking for?"

The guard bowed to the woman, saying, "Good lady, I am a guard from the Princess of Zhen’s residence. This is my lady, and she has come to see the mute girl. Is the elderly woman taking care of the mute girl here?"

The woman, upon learning that it was a Commandery Princess who had come to see the mute girl, became visibly panicked. She put down the child and did not know whether to kneel or make a courtesy.

"There is no need for such formalities, good lady. Is the mute girl here?" Bai Qingyan asked.

The woman, head down and evidently frightened, took the hand of the two-year-old child beside her and, with unease, said, "Well... The mute girl was taken away by a relative."

Bai Qingyan frowned, her cold and deep eyes fixed on the woman who dared not look up. "Which relative took her? I remember... someone from the Bai Clan gave money to take care of the mute girl."

The woman had clearly lost her composure. Bai Qingyan added with a detached tone, "The mute girl’s mother drowned. This concerns the Bai Clan. Do I need to ask Magistrate Zhou to come to personally inquire about her?"

The woman shuddered and immediately kneeled but could not utter where the mute girl had gone.

"Speak. Where is the mute girl?" Bai Qingyan’s voice was calm and controlled, yet it exuded a menacing air.

"Princess, forgive me. After my mother-in-law took the mute girl in, my husband feared that someone from the Bai Clan might settle accounts with us. That very night, he sent her back to her own home. But we didn’t keep the money. The money given by that man from the Bai family, and the money given by the guard who came later, we didn’t keep a single coin. It was all sent back with the mute girl to her house!"

The frightened woman confessed everything under Bai Qingyan’s intimidation, saying, "Later, my mother-in-law got angry and beat my husband with a cane, demanding he bring the mute girl back from the neighbor’s. But my husband couldn’t find her next door. He waited at the door for a whole day and night without seeing the mute girl return. My husband is still out looking for her now, but he can’t find her. My mother-in-law has fallen ill from worry and is still bedridden!"

The woman spoke rapidly and with a sob, seemingly not lying.

Though angry, Bai Qingyan understood the tendency to avoid trouble was a natural human behavior.

She said nothing and walked to the mute girl’s house, finding the door locked and ordered someone to climb over the wall to check.

Bai Qingyan now understood why her grandfather had forbade concubines’ children from interacting with their birth mothers, allowing only stepmothers to raise them.

Concubines, embroiled in their lowly struggles for favor within the inner courtyard, imparted such schemes onto their children, warping their nature from a young age. This malicious temperament, learned and ingrained, would affect their entire lives and subsequent generations, producing increasingly degenerate descendants.

Even if officially acknowledged under a legitimate mother’s name, they couldn’t change their ways.

The clan leader of the Bai Clan needed to be replaced, and the Bai Clan needed a thorough cleansing.

"Miss..." Chun Tao, aware of Bai Qingyan’s concern for the mute girl, softly assured, "The mute girl will be fine. Do not worry too much."

"Return to the ancestral home!" Bai Qingyan commanded, her eyes heavy.

Chun Tao relayed to the coachman, "Return to the ancestral home."

The message that Bai Qingyan was to return to the ancestral home quickly reached its destination. Mr. Gu, along with many of the Bai family’s servants, waited early at the gate.

Mr. Gu had returned with the first batch of items when Lu Ping escorted them back to Shuoyang previously.

Back then, King Bai Weiting of Zhen would send Mr. Gu ahead every year to arrange matters in Shuoyang and manage the household funds. Because of this, his authority over the servants in Shuoyang was greater than most others.

Since arriving, Mr. Gu had not been idle, dealing fiercely and decisively with the stewards left to manage the properties. Those who had signed indentures were crippled, and their entire families were sold off.