Chapter 26: A Clean Break

Inside the small warehouse of the Qin family workshop, where the fragrant cloud brocade was stored, over a dozen workshop stewards had been waiting for quite some time.

They glanced at one another, some casting strange, lingering gazes at the brocade before them.

"Young Master!"
"Madam!"

Soon after, Qin Song arrived accompanied by Madam Wu. The group bowed in unison and called out.

"Hmm."

Qin Song, his expression unreadable, walked before them. His gaze swept over each person, revealing nothing of his inner thoughts.

"You are all veterans of the Qin family workshop, aren't you?"

After the stewards—each harboring their own secret agendas—had waited for a long time, Qin Song finally spoke. "The Qin family’s achievements today are inseparable from your hard work. Now that our family has suffered such a great calamity, you have remained by our side. Qin Song thanks you all."

"Young Master, you are too kind!"
"When the old master was here, he treated us well. How could we stand by and watch during the Qin family’s crisis?"
"Exactly, exactly!"

Seeing Qin Song suddenly play the emotional card, the stewards were confused but chimed in with quick responses.

"Indeed, my father treated you well." Qin Song’s tone shifted abruptly as he turned toward one of the stewards. "Isn't that right, Li Zhao?"

"Ah?" Startled, Li Zhao subconsciously averted his eyes. Recovering quickly, he stammered, "Yes, Young Master!"

A sense of dread gripped Li Zhao, his heart pounding against his ribs.

"I recall that your monthly wages were fifty taels, and with holiday bonuses and the workshop's dividends, you earned nearly a thousand taels a year. Am I right?"

"Yes, Young Master." Li Zhao, not daring to meet Qin Song’s eyes, kept his head low, cold sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.

"Then tell me, why did you betray the Qin family!"

Qin Song’s thunderous voice rang out. The stewards shuddered, most looking shocked, while a few displayed visible panic.

"Young Master, what do you mean?" Li Zhao’s body trembled violently, still clinging to a glimmer of hope.

"Yesterday, shortly after you left the workshop, you went to the tavern to meet Tang Ze. You leaked news about the Qin family and the fragrant cloud brocade to that bastard, and in return, he gave you a reward, didn't he? If I were to go to your home right now to search, I imagine that reward hasn't been well hidden yet, has it?"

"Young Master, you..."

Hearing this, Li Zhao widened his eyes and stared at Qin Song. Seeing the increasingly icy gaze of his master, his defenses crumbled. He collapsed onto the floor, wailing and kowtowing repeatedly.

"Spare me, Young Master! Please, spare me!"
"I was blinded by greed! Tang Ze approached me and offered five hundred taels every time I leaked workshop secrets or formulas."

The broken man poured out the entire truth like beans spilling from a container. "Madam, please show mercy!" he pleaded, noticing Madam Wu standing behind.

"Huff, huff, huff..." Madam Wu, standing behind her son, was gasping for air, her legs failing her. Qin Song quickly steadied her, fearing she might collapse.

***

After Li Zhao confessed, the expressions of the other stewards varied, with many looking visibly guilty.

"I am fine, Mother." Madam Wu patted her son's hand and turned to face the remaining stewards, her expression icy. "Zhang Feng, Sun Peicheng, how much longer do you intend to hide?"

Unable to contain her fury, she called out two more names.

*Thump! Thump!*

The two men named collapsed onto the ground, their faces pale and despairing.

"Old Hu!"
"Madam!" replied Hu Shangdong, who was standing behind them.
"Take these three away and keep them under strict guard."
"Understood!"

Hu Shangdong waved his hand, and men quickly dragged the trio away.

"Madam, have mercy!"
"Young Master, have mercy!"

Facing their pleas, Madam Wu and Qin Song remained cold and relentless.

"Little Hu, you stay. Everyone else, leave," Madam Wu commanded.

"Yes, Madam!" The other stewards dared not utter a word and quickly retreated.

Among the group, only one man remained: he was in his mid-twenties, slim, and carried the refined air of a scholar.

"Old Hu, Song’er, you two leave as well."
"Mother!" Qin Song had intended to handle this himself, but his mother had intervened.
"Leave!" Madam Wu said without looking back, her tone brooking no argument.

Qin Song looked at Qin Hu, then finally exited the room with Hu Shangdong.

"Foster Mother, you asked me to stay. What are your orders?" Qin Hu asked, trying to remain calm. When they were alone, he was accustomed to calling her "Foster Mother."

"Shut up! You are not worthy of calling me that!" Madam Wu roared. To her, those words were not only grating but felt like a blade twisting in her heart.

"Foster Mother, I..." Qin Hu realized he had exposed himself and stood there, stunned.

"Little Hu, that was your Foster Father! He raised you for over a decade! How could you bring yourself to harm him?" Tears streamed down Madam Wu’s face as she struggled to contain her emotions.

Hearing this, Qin Hu’s body shook, his psychological defenses shattering.

"Little Hu, when did you begin colluding with Lin You?" Madam Wu asked, staring directly at the child she had raised for over ten years.

"Three years ago, shortly after Lin You took office," Qin Hu replied, his eyes flickering with regret and hatred. "Three years ago, I became addicted to gambling. In just half a year, I not only lost all my assets but owed thousands of taels."

"You..." Madam Wu’s eyes were filled with nothing but disappointment.

With a self-deprecating smile, Qin Hu continued, "The people from the gambling den came to my door every night, threatening to take my wife and daughter if I didn't pay. I was desperate." Tears flowed down his face, filled with remorse.

"Then why didn't you tell my husband!" Madam Wu scolded. Qin Hu only shook his head.

After composing herself, Madam Wu asked, "Was this all Lin You’s doing?"

"I don't know," Qin Hu wiped his tears. "Just when I thought I couldn't hide it anymore, Lin You raided the gambling den. He found the IOUs I had signed and used them to threaten me, and even my wife and child."

"So, all these years, the information about the Qin family's merchant ships being raided by river pirates—that was all you? And the fire at the workshop and the warehouse... that was you too?"

"Foster Mother, I was wrong. I was really wrong!" Qin Hu knelt, weeping. "That day, I tried to convince Foster Father not to board the ship, but he wouldn't listen!"

"Tried?" The word grated on Madam Wu's ears. She roared, "If you had spoken up sooner, could your Foster Father have boarded that ship? Could he have died at the hands of those pirates? Because of you, the Qin family has suffered such a calamity, nearly destroying everything we have!"

Facing his foster mother’s tear-stained face, filled with loathing, Qin Hu continued to shake his head.

"Tell me, why did you do it? My husband and I treated you like our own son all these years!"

"Because Lin You promised me that he could help me become the head of the Qin family!" Qin Hu, who had been looking down, suddenly raised his head, a strange, eerie smile on his face.

"You..." Madam Wu’s expression froze; she stared at him in disbelief.

"We are both surnamed Qin. Why is it that he can spend money like water, and no matter what mistake he makes, he is forgiven? Yet I am just a minor steward in this workshop, and if I make the slightest error, I am scolded by you! Is it just because I wasn't born to you? But you told me back then that I was your own child! Why is it that ever since he was born, everything best has been his?"

The darkness in Qin Hu’s heart, suppressed for over a decade, had finally erupted.

Madam Wu was stunned. The Qin Hu before her suddenly felt like a stranger. Or perhaps, this was his true face all along. She could not answer his questions. Regardless, she and her husband had their own selfishness in how they handled these matters, but she never imagined that this selfishness would lead to such a twisted psyche in Qin Hu.

"Qin Hu, I can only tell you this: as long as the Qin family exists, you and your descendants will never lack for wealth."

Although Qin Hu’s parents had died protecting the Qin family from pirates, Madam Wu believed the family had treated him well enough over the years. Even Qin Hu’s current wife had been chosen by her and her husband—not from a wealthy family, but from a respectable, scholarly one.