It was in Jintong Courtyard in Grand Preceptor's Mansion.

Whilst listening to a manager's report, being distracted, Wei Changying was thinking about how many days had passed, "Two days ago, my brothers-in-law must have escorted Miracle Doctor Ji to Fengzhou. How long will it take for Father to recover from his illness? Grandmother and Mother must have been very pleased at that moment. And, so is Changfeng."

Only when the manager was almost finished did she pay attention to what the person was saying. Having combined what she had heard at the beginning and at the end, she gave a solution to the manager. The moment this manager had left, the next one came up and handed her the account book.

She was busy until noon. Wei Changying was used to such busy days nowadays.

After lunch, she took a nap as usual, but this day she couldn't sleep, so she told Zhu Lan to come to massage her shoulders. While Zhu Lan was massaging her shoulders, Wei Changying was slowly sipping her tea, thinking of whether there was anything she had forgotten to do amidst all the things she had done in the morning. Having thought about each of them and thought there was nothing wrong, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She was sad that there hadn't been anything difficult during the morning so she couldn't use anything as an excuse to go to the main room to report to her mother-in-law and so to see Shen Shuguang.

She remembered the last time she saw her son, thinking her son liked laughing more. She was so delighted by just listening to his laughter. The little one was now growing so fast and he looked a little different every day. His rosy chubby-cheeked face was very cute. Thinking about these things, Wei Changying didn't realize that she had finished the tea in her cup. When she put down the teacup and was about to stop Zhu Lan from refilling her cup, Mrs. Wan's voice was heard in the corridor. She was asking a maid who was waiting in the corridor, "Did our young madam wake up from her nap?"

Mrs. Wan was an honest person and honest people were usually not very good at hiding their emotions. Therefore, Wei Changying immediately knew she was panicked from her tone and became suspicious, quickly saying, "Is that Granny Wan? Come in, I am awake."

"Young madam, you are still awake? That's great." Having heard her words, Mrs. Wan walked through the doorway, pushed the curtain outside aside and entered the inner room. Before Wei Changying could ask, she quickly reported, "Young madam, something bad has happened!"

When she had heard her voice, Wei Changying knew something was wrong. Her heart stopped for one moment. She secretly hoped that it would not be any bad news from Fengzhou or Western Liang, but she asked with a calm look, "What has happened?"

Fortunately, although it was bad news that Mrs. Wan spoke of, it didn't have much to do with Wei Changying, "His Majesty reprimanded Duke Ji for being unfilial and disloyal, so he has been stripped of his duke's title and becomes a commoner!"

"How could this happen?" Wei Changying breathed a sigh of relief and then said with surprise, "When Dowager Duchess Ji had passed away, Duke Ji and Duchess Ji were extremely sad. Doesn't everyone in this country know that they show true filial piety? Why did His Majesty say they were unfilial and disloyal?"

Wei Changying knew that there must be something going on when Duke Ji had decided to stay in the capital because of the death of Dowager Duchess Ji. He was not stupid. His biological mother had sacrificed her life for him, so even if he had been someone who usually didn't show a lot of filial obedience to his elders, he should have done his best to fulfill his mother's dying wish. It was only the beginning of September. Wei Changying had just finished mourning for her aunt, but there would still be a long time before Duke Ji finished mourning. It wasn't close to the end of his mourning, so how could he be this careless?

Mrs. Wan said in a fluster, "I vaguely heard it. It seems that there was something wrong with the Sunglow Misty Moon Rings that Duke Ji offered to His Majesty when he had been in the capital last year!"

"This is such a coincidence." Something bad had happened to a son-in-law of the Shen Family. The daughters-in-law must put everything aside and go to the main room to comfort their mother-in-law, but Madam Su looked calm. Holding Shen Shuguang on her lap, letting her grandson curiously play with the ties on her clothes, she calmly told her daughters-in-law what had happened, "The rings are regarded as offerings in Siam and are made of nepheline which only Siam has. A ring looks like colorful jade and looks misty around it when under the moonlight. Even in Siam, they are extremely rare and are treasured by the royal family. Duke Ji had sent people searching for them for many years, but he only found four pairs and offered two pairs to His Majesty last year."

Mrs. Liu asked with concern, "So, what happened to the two pairs of rings?"

"His Majesty found that the two pairs of the rings that Duke Ji had offered were not as good as the two pairs that Duke Ji kept for himself." Madam Su smiled, saying, "That's not all. His Majesty found this out because he wanted to reward Miao Jieyu and Lady Zhong with these two pairs of rings. However, there was an obscure crack in one place on the pair of rings that Lady Zhong got! If the crack had been elsewhere, it wouldn't have been a problem, but it was between the head and neck of the dragon on the rings. Lady Zhong dared not ignore it, so she panicked and went to report to His Majesty. His Majesty sent someone over to Duke Ji's mansion to get the other two pairs of the rings to make a comparison. And so things have become this way."

The daughters-in-law looked at each other. For a while, they didn't know what to say. If the rings Duke Ji had left for himself were better than the ones offered to the Emperor, this might be true, but he had offered them last year, so why had they complained about it now? Or perhaps, Wei Zhenghong would recover completely soon, and to ensure the safe arrival of Ji Qubing, the Shen Family had sent three men of the clan to Fengzhou to take a man as their teacher. So at this moment, the ring thing had happened?

All the tributes must have been checked by several people before they were offered. The servant who was in charge of the treasury would also repeatedly check for defects before putting anything on the record and storing it in the treasury. Even if Duke Ji had been stupid, he would not have offered the rings with a crack that split the dragon's head and its neck. It would have been better to offer the faultless pair!

The manager of the Emperor's treasury must have been able to find the crack that Lady Zhong had found.

Obviously, the Emperor felt that the Shen Family was already very powerful, and now their in-laws' family seemed to have been revitalized. He was scared that the Shen Family and Wei Family would unite to jeopardize his throne, so he had made the first move. After all, the Emperor knew why Duke Ji had decided to stay in the capital. The Emperor had agreed to his staying but he also had some consideration. Wasn't the Crown Princess's surname Liu? Appreciating Duke Ji's filial piety was just a show to the public. This was all the Emperor's trick.

Nevertheless, the Shen Family was not weak, now their in-laws, the Wei Family, seemed to be recovering from their decline. The Emperor must have been worried that if he wasn't watchful enough, the Shen Family might get Duke Ji onto the throne.

This was why the Emperor couldn't wait to see whether Wei Zhenghong would fully recover but had immediately stripped Duke Ji's title, making him a commoner. This was both a warning to the Shen and the Wei families and a precaution.

Now if Madam Su was crying for her daughter, her daughters-in-law would of course try to comfort her. However, Madam Su was calm as if nothing had happened at all, or this was happening to others. The three daughters-in-law didn't know what to say. So after a few moments of silence, the first daughter-in-law, Mrs. Liu, asked, "Mother, is Cangxiu okay now?"

Madam Su carefully took away the tie that Shen Shuguang was holding and trying to put into his mouth. She took a pomegranate from the fruit plate next to her and gave it to him to play with. She then said, "Duke Ji's title has been stripped, so they can't live in the mansion of a duke, but Cangxiu's dowry hasn't been changed. We have another courtyard but there has been no one living there for a long time. There is not enough time to prepare the rooms. That's all. Anyway, His Majesty is merciful, although he was furious, he only stripped Duke Ji's title. We should be grateful."

She didn't sound cold but neither was she enthusiastic. The daughters-in-law weren't sure whether she was angry for her daughter so she had deliberately said the opposite, or she really thought that this was nothing serious.

The second daughter-in-law, Duanmu Yanyu, tried to sound her out, saying, "Since there aren't enough things at Cangxiu's, let's go see if there's anything we can do to help?"

But Madam Su said, "She has just moved to the courtyard, so it must be very messy. If you go there, she will have to entertain you. They are still in mourning so it isn't very convenient."

"How about we send something over?" Duanmu Yanyu added.

"There are all sorts of things in the markets in the capital. If they are short of something, they will send someone over to buy it, won't they?" Madam Su said indifferently, "Okay, you know everything now. I wanted to get you here to tell you about it. Now you can go to do your own things."

Having left the main room, the three sisters-in-law spoke about it for a little while and went back to their respective places at the intersection. However, before Wei Changying had gone far, a maid from Madam Su's courtyard came after her and asked her to go back to the main room.

Wei Changying didn't dare ignore her, so she followed the maid and went back. She saw that Madam Su was still there, but Shen Shuguang had been taken away to somewhere else. Even her little grandson who couldn't understand anything had not been left there and neither had Granny Tao, not to mention the servants, Wei Changying knew she was going to say something serious.

"If your father could fully recover, it would be wonderful. Duke Changshan's life has been difficult. Although your father is frail, he is gifted. Unfortunately, he has been unwell so he hasn't been able to get up and do things. Now if Ji Qubing can cure him, Ruiyu Hall will certainly be revived." Seeing her third sister-in-law come back, Madam Su didn't say anything else, speaking straightforwardly, "His Majesty has long been wary of our gentlefolks, because my old family is the Su Family in Qingzhou and there are many boys of Cangfeng's generation, who are quite well-known in the capital. Therefore, His Majesty deliberately gave a fief far away to Duke Ji. Your first sister-in-law and second sister-in-law are also the daughters of gentlefolks. However, their status in their families is not as high as that of you in the Wei Family. Cangli and Lianshi are not held to offer such high hopes in our family as that of Cangfeng, either. You know all of these things well."

Wei Changying nodded, " Shen Jia's title was stripped because of the rings. I..."

"It's fine that his title has been stripped." Madam Su didn't criticize her daughter-in-law for her daughter, speaking without much enthusiasm, "Your father had sent someone over to try to persuade him to go back to his fief to mourn his mother, but he didn't agree. Now that he is a commoner, it is also fine that they live in peace using Cangxiu's dowry."

Only then did Wei Changying understand that her parents-in-law really didn't support their son-in-law to take the throne because of their daughter and they disapproved of Dowager Duchess Ji's self-sacrifice and Duke Ji's ambitions. Having been silent for a moment, she said, "His Majesty has stripped Shen Jia's title, but in fact, he intended to warn the Shen and the Wei families. Mother, you didn't want us to visit Cangxiu, so I guess that if we did, it would make His Majesty more unhappy. It is difficult to know His Majesty's thoughts. I'm afraid that even if we don't visit Cangxiu, His Majesty will still be worried."

Madam Su said, “That's correct. That's why I privately called you back here." She beckoned her to come closer and spoke in a low voice, "Now your father is still unwell. Even if he recovers, I think he still needs time to adjust so he could go back to the imperial court as he has been ill for a long time. His Majesty has implicitly expressed his attitude. Although all the gentlefolks unanimously want to undermine His Majesty, not every family is looking forward to the revitalization of Ruiyu Hall!"

Wei Changying saw her mother-in-law had finished talking, but her eyes looked closely at her. She pursed her lips and said, "I see. Mother, your thoughts?"

"Cangfeng had set up a trap to capture Chanyu Muxiuer. It was successful but a failure at the same time. For some reason, they have waited until now to deliver the news of victory." Madam Su said slowly, "Of course, the official report of the success is still on the way, but a letter for the family arrived yesterday."

Wei Changying held her breath and listened to what Madam Su was going to say next. To her surprise, Madam Su suddenly said, "Cangfeng is also injured."