Demoted from wife to concubine? Reborn, the mistress of a noble family plots another high-status mar

Chapter 45

"My lord, what's going on?" Yun Xiyue rushed over from the backyard. "Please calm down, everyone. The price of the Marquis's mansion has never increased in previous years. I have been married into the Marquis's mansion for five years, and the price has remained the same for all five years. How can you say that the price has increased every year?"

"The rent increases every year. We have the ledgers here! Don't try to deny it!" The crowd became even angrier.

Yun Xiyue took one of the account books and looked through it, then said in shock, "This is not right! The accounts collected by the Marquis's mansion each month do not match those in your account books! I also have account books here."

"This... is impossible. We have paid the full rent, and your steward Cao personally collects the rent every month."

"Summon Steward Cao to come out and confront him."

After Shen Yue looked at the account book, he quickly realized that something was wrong. At this moment, the Grand Madam sent someone to whisper a few words to him, "Lord Marquis, the Grand Madam wants you to go to Songhe Garden first."

"Gentlemen, I will give you an explanation for this matter. I will send someone to inform you in a couple of days."

The crowd left, grumbling and cursing. "Then you'd better give us an explanation. Your Marquis's account books are wrong. Could they have been stolen by a brazen servant?"

“That’s right, this is your Marquis’s own problem, we can’t bear it! I hope the Marquis will not raise the rent again, otherwise we can’t afford to rent this shop. In that case, we will have no choice but to terminate the lease.”

Shen Yue quickly comforted him and then saw him off.

"Let's go to Songhe Garden first." After seeing the people off, he said to Yun Xiyue in a low voice.

Yun Xiyue said in a shocked tone, "I think this matter needs to be thoroughly investigated. I've already had Steward Cao arrested, and I've also asked Mr. Qiu to come back. We need to get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, the Marquis's mansion will lose a large sum of money."

"The rent has been reduced by more than half! Over the past five years, it's been at least fifty or sixty thousand taels."

Shen Yue's eyes were gloomy as he quickened his pace and arrived at Songhe Garden.

"Yue'er..."

Unexpectedly, Yun Xiyue came along.

Li stopped herself from saying what she was about to say, "Aren't you feeling unwell?"

Yun Xiyue said, "I heard that someone came to cause trouble. I'm worried that something might happen. After all, I am still the wife of the Marquis. This matter needs to be investigated thoroughly. Otherwise, I will feel uneasy about losing so much money."

The old lady was furious, but her face remained calm as she said in a stern voice, "Who told you to raise the rent? Shouldn't you have discussed such a big matter with us first?"

“Grandmother, she discussed this with me, and I gave her permission to raise the price. Now we still need to find out where the money went. We must recover this money, otherwise the Marquis’s mansion will continue to be in debt,” Shen Yue said.

Li and the Dowager exchanged surprised glances, not expecting Yun Xiyue to go directly to Shen Yue.

Yun Xiyue touched her nose with a handkerchief and sat down without saying a word. "There's no other way. The Marquis's mansion has been spending a lot of money lately. Yue'er is getting married soon, and we need to prepare her dowry. Also, the Marquis has married a princess as his concubine. So we can't afford to be cheap in terms of food, clothing, and daily necessities."

"In addition, there are three children who need tutors to teach them to read and write, and they need money for everything. The Marquis's mansion has been in debt for years, and my mother and grandmother know this."

“The second and third wives didn’t contribute much money; they also have their own families to support. The public funds weren’t enough, so I had no choice but to use my own dowry to make up the difference, and this subsidy lasted for five years.”

“I settled this score with the Marquis a few days ago. I have no more dowry to make up for it, so I can only talk to the Marquis about raising the rent. I never expected that such a big conspiracy was hidden behind it.”

Madam Li said, "How could you not have a dowry? Your dowry is so generous, and you even have shops for rent in the capital. You must be making a lot of money every month!"

"Yes, we are a family. You wouldn't be so reluctant to use this little bit of dowry to help the Marquis's family through this difficult time, would you?" the Grand Madam said.

They didn't believe Yun Xiyue would be short of money. As the only daughter of the Yun family, she could ask the Yun family for money if she didn't have any; it was absolutely impossible for her to be short of money.

Yun Xiyue sneered inwardly and looked at Shen Yue, "My lord, what do you think?"

After Shen Yue learned that she had spent 180,000 taels on the Shen family, he had no choice but to believe that no matter how rich the Yun family was, or how generous her dowry was, 200,000 taels would be the maximum.

Looking across the entire capital, no other young lady from a prominent family had a dowry as generous as hers.