The mistress who remarried has returned.

Su Yunxi was caught in a dilemma, realizing that her father must have gone to see Qin Huai. Her father had a keen sense for power and would stop at nothing to climb the ranks. A fourth-rank official was not enough to satisfy him.

The father's servile demeanor must have disgusted Qin Huai.

If Qin Huai wasn't waiting for him, he probably wouldn't be able to get the money from his father. He just nodded vaguely.

However, it was not clarified that Qin Huai and the others were seeking revenge for humiliating him.

Su's father gasped, "It really was someone I was waiting for."

He then squinted and stopped talking, his thoughts unreadable.

Su Yunxi knew very well that this was an attempt to take money from her father by using Qin Huai's power. Although it was unintentional, it was indeed a form of exploitation.

Qin Huai had just glanced at the cloak and probably had the same guess. He felt that she was incorrigible and was using him again.

But thinking of her mother drinking cold water to stave off hunger, she made up her mind that she had to get money from her father.

Su's father stood in the courtyard, pondering General Qin's words "doubtful." Since General Qin might still have doubts about what happened back then, he might still have some feelings for his daughter. He couldn't go too far, as it was all for Qin Huai's sake. Everyone knew that the Qin family helped the Zhou family conquer this country.

Even the emperor was wary of the Qin family.

Su Yunxi crushed the snowball in front of her with her toes, tracing patterns on the ground with her toes. She didn't utter a single word about asking for money, yet everyone knew why she had come.

She glanced every now and then at the tools she used to make incense in the front yard, which Wang had used to hold swill and garbage. Her eyes darkened, and she felt a shattering sound in her heart.

She doesn't usually like making friends; this is her only hobby, and now it's being trampled on like this by her father's new wife.

Annoyed by Su Yunxi's relentless pursuit of money, and out of consideration for the eldest son of the Qin family, and also for the possibility that his daughter could bring him future benefits, Su's father asked, "How much do you want?"

"Fifty taels."

"Fifty taels?" Father Su gasped, his face twitching twice.

Su Yunxi asked for a lot of money. If they saved every penny, fifty taels would be enough for the three of them to live on for two years. She didn't want to go through the days of frequently asking for money. She only planned to ask for it this time. If she had the chance to ask her father for more money in the future, she would ask for it with interest.

"How much?!" Upon hearing this, Wang Guirong jumped over in disbelief, saying, "Look at the things your father brought back from eastern Henan today, you think we're living comfortably. In reality, your father only earns a few taels of silver a month, the cloth shop is barely making ends meet, and there are so many expenses at home—your father's entertainment, your grandparents' health, my parents' expenses—money is needed everywhere. And you're asking for fifty taels! That's outrageous! You might as well rob us."

After the crown prince was deposed, Wang Guirong seized her mother's cloth shop and courtyard, and her father did nothing about it. This was tantamount to her father and his new wife taking advantage of her mother's family fortune.

What Su Yunxi wants now is the money that originally belonged to her mother.

After Qin Huai took her in from the dilapidated temple where she was waiting to die, her status rose accordingly. Her father knelt beside her mother, slapping her face and saying, "Qingniang, forgive me this time. I will treat you and Xixi well from now on." Her mother and she forgave her father. Her mother even gave birth to a son for her father after that. In those years, things were indeed more harmonious.

Mother's name is Yuqing, and Father often calls her Qingniang when he is coaxing her.

After the crown prince was deposed, the father revealed his true colors; it turned out that everything he had done was an act.

Looking back now, I shouldn't have forgiven him that time. Even when a man kneels and swears an oath, it's all fake.

Over the years, there has been an opportunity to bring down Dad.

Deep down, she still longed for her father and couldn't bear to part with him.

Now, even if they were willing to give him up, their circumstances are not good, and the conditions do not allow them to pull him down.

Su's father pondered deeply.

Seeing her husband considering giving money to the daughter born to the woman in the backyard, Wang Guirong became anxious and relentless. "You just brought back a cartload of local specialties, and I've already given half of it to the backyard. My sister isn't well, so I manage the cloth shop for her, and all the profits go to her. Now you're asking for fifty taels? Don't you want the three of us to live?! I do all the dirty and hard work, and all the benefits go to them! Did you marry me to be a servant?!"

"Father can search the backyard. If he finds a grain of rice and a coin, I will leave immediately," Su Yunxi said neither humbly nor arrogantly.

Su's father was impatient. "If Gui Rong can lie to me, you must have hidden the things very well."

Su Yunxi was so disappointed that she could only laugh helplessly.

Wang Guirong, hands on her hips, started throwing a tantrum, shouting, "I don't want to live anymore! I don't want to live anymore! Let all the neighbors be the judge! We gave them most of the things, and they immediately denied it! They still want more, and they even have the nerve to ask for more. They're so greedy, so incredibly greedy!"

Su Yunxi watched Wang Guirong make a scene with cold eyes. How ugly! She hated this kind of family environment. Therefore, someone like her was really only suited to be alone. No one would genuinely like or befriend her.

Because Wang Guirong had spread the rumor that she was a concubine's son. In reality, that wasn't the case.

Su Yunxi then slowly extended her hand to Su Yuanzhou, "I'm in a hurry."

Thinking of the carriage waiting at the alley entrance, Su's father didn't dare keep the people waiting too long. So he went inside and weighed out a bag of loose silver. After filling it to fifty taels, he felt that Xixi didn't deserve so much money. In the future, there would be several important events, such as Su Miao's wedding, Su Xinxin's marriage, and her parents' passing away, all of which would require money. So he shortchanged the amount, but it was still forty-six or forty-seven taels, which he then gave to Su Yunxi.

"Take it. Serve the eldest son of the Qin family well, and put in a good word for your father with him. Xixi, if you have the chance, bring the eldest son to the manor so that your father can gain some prestige. If you serve the eldest son well, your father will really have a chance to rise to prominence, and it will not be in vain that your father gave you such a beautiful face."

Su Yunxi took the silver, turned and left the front yard without saying another word. Her father had even forgotten that she was a married woman, and just like that, he let her go and help him solicit business. Her father didn't care about his daughter's reputation at all.

Wang Guirong grabbed Su's father by the ear and dragged him away, saying, "You just give me fifty taels without even discussing it with me? Am I a tree planted in your yard? Don't I have feelings or know how to speak? Since you look down on me, I'll take the child back to my father right now."

"Gui Rong, oh, Gui Rong." Father Su snatched his ear back. "The General's carriage is waiting for that little hussy at the alley entrance. Your father is a third-rank official, and I am a fourth-rank official. The combined wealth of both families cannot shake even a finger of the Protectorate General's Mansion. The Qin family shares the country equally with the Zhou family. The Qin family has soldiers and fiefdoms, and their foundation is very strong, which is incomparable to the Su and Wang families."