Cai Wei pouted, and said disdainfully, "What’s so great about the palace? Even if they invited me with a grand palanquin, I would not be excited, hmph!"
There was another creak from the roof.
Mu Zhongqing looked up, eyeing the roof, and said, "This house has been around for a while, hasn’t it? The tiles are getting loose. I should have a couple of tile workers re-stack them later..."
After breakfast, Cai Wei and her mother planned to go visit the Nursing Homes. Now that the New Year had arrived, they thought it would be nice to bring some New Year’s goods for the old, young, sick and disabled residents there to help them experience the joy of the New Year.
Before setting off, Lady Du ordered Auntie Liu and Auntie Zhang to fill a large bag with all kinds of cabbages from the side rooms. They also took a roast goose, a big fish, half a basket of crabs, and half a roasted lamb to celebrate the New Year with them.
Passing by a cake shop, Cai Wei asked Zhang Bo to stop the cart. She personally went inside and bought three ’jin’ of soft grass seed cake, three ’jin’ osmanthus cake, three ’jin’ date cake, and three ’jin’ chuibing. After packing them in oil paper, she brought them back to the cart.
"Do we need anything else? We might as well buy it now."
Lady Du fully supported her daughter’s charitable act. She agreed completely with spending money on the Nursing Homes to support those old, young and sickly.
Cai Wei thought for a moment and said, "Let’s buy each of them a piece of clothing. The New Year is here, and wearing new clothes will cheer them up."
So, Zhang Bo drove the horse carriage straight to the ready-made garment shop they usually patronized.
Upon arriving at the garment shop, Cai Wei thought about what Fei’er had told her. She asked the shopkeeper if the clothes they had custom-made were ready.
The shopkeeper hurriedly went into the inner room and took out the sets of clothes. Cai Wei and her mother glanced at the clothes and felt quite satisfied. They packed up the clothes and started to select garments for those at the Nursing Homes.
Cai Wei was familiar with the body sizes of those at the Nursing Homes, so it didn’t take long for her to make her selection. Just as she was preparing to go to the counter to settle the bill, she heard a customer who had just entered say, "Something big happened. I just heard that the Lü Family was burglarized last night."
Another customer said in surprise, "Who’s so daring to steal from the Lü Family?"
The first customer said, "It’s not just stealing, it’s like they moved out the entire Lü estate! I heard that every room in the mansion was completely emptied. Let alone gold and silver treasures, even the tables and chairs were not spared. They even turned Madam Lü, who was as beautiful as a flower, into a ghost. They painted her face blacker than ink, which couldn’t be washed off, and her head was shaved bald, it’s frightening! Now, Madam Lü is making a fuss about wanting to die!"
Upon hearing this explosive news, the shopkeeper and the attendants in the shop gathered around, unable to resist the temptation to gossip.
"The Lü estate is so big, surely it must have caused a commotion to empty everything, right? Didn’t anyone notice it?"
The gossiping customer said, "That’s the strange part, there was no noise at all. Even the servants on night duty didn’t see anything suspicious. Their house was just emptied out quietly. Speaking of it, it’s really bizarre. Oh, by the way, the Lü Family’s rice shop was also emptied. Last night, the two shopkeepers on duty went to the brothel and didn’t guard the rice shop. When they came back, the rice shop was completely empty. Thankfully, a thief somehow fainted in the rice shop and has been caught, they’re just waiting for him to wake up for interrogation."
"The Lü Family must be in chaos now, right?"
"Isn’t that obvious? The Lü Family’s wealth accumulated over the years was lost. Even the personal savings of Madam Lü, hoarded over many years, were gone. Even the savings of the concubines were stolen. Clearly, the thieves searched room by room without leaving anything behind."
Upon hearing that someone mentioned searching the concubines’ rooms, someone immediately started to fantasize, "So outsiders have been in all the women’s rooms at the Lü Family. Were their bodies violated? If so, isn’t Young Master Lü even more pitiful, hehe..."
Cai Wei twitched the corner of her mouth, imagining how the rumors of this world often started this way. People, out of their wishful thinking, misinterpret and exaggerate the truth, turning it into what they want to believe. And now, probably before nightfall, various versions of Lü family women being insulted by the thieves would have circulated throughout the town...