Have You Written Your Will Today?
Chapter 100 I figure there’s no need for someone like you to live too long.

Chapter 100: Chapter 100 I figure there’s no need for someone like you to live too long.

Shen Hua’s coming-of-age ceremony that day was very subdued.

Without parents, without honored guests, there weren’t even any onlookers.

——On the day Yangyang comes of age, Daddy will surely invite the most fortunate old lady in Fengzhou City to comb your hair.

——Yangyang is so well-born, I imagine those matchmakers will be breaking down the Shen Residence’s threshold.

These were Shen Wei’s words.

Shen Hua looked at the girl in the copper mirror. Radiant yet tender.

She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her face somber in profile. Stibnite was ground to powder on the inkstone, then mixed with water to outline her eyebrows.

Yicui behind her couldn’t hold back and ran out of the room, with Ningzhu quickly following her, only to hear the usually steady Yicui sobbing with her face covered.

"Our Miss Shen is so precious, yet she has encountered such injustice. Whose coming-of-age ceremony isn’t packed with guests?"

"Just look, who else is here besides us few servants?"

Yicui forcefully wiped away the tears from the corner of her eye, her voice choking: "I feel terrible, but Miss Shen must be feeling even worse. Go back in and serve her, I will join later."

A carriage entered Shengjing, making its way unhurriedly toward a small alley and stopping at the entrance to the pear garden.

A young master supported an elderly person as they alighted from the carriage.

But the doors to the pear garden were tightly shut.

"Are you sure it’s here?"

"There can be no mistake."

The elderly one smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes exceedingly kind. His voice was even more gentle: "Shen Qu, family members don’t hold overnight grudges. Yangyang is stubborn, you just need to coax her a bit. There’s no reason to let her roam outside. Those uninformed would think the Shen Family cannot accommodate her."

"It’s my excess of firmness that’s made Yangyang loathe me." Shen Qu said with a look of shame.

"Eh." The clan elder disagreed.

"You are a good man, how could I not know? Originally, it’s because you valued loyalty and righteousness that I had you adopted into the main family."

The clan elder sighed deeply: "How could I know Yangyang could not tolerate you?"

"Indeed, for years she never showed a good face to Shen Wei’s newly married wife, Shen Xue-shi."

Seeing the business getting worse, the clan elder was anxious! He even worried that in a few years, the Shen Family’s Embroidery Workshop would be finished!

When Shen Hua left, he had never stepped forward.

This girl who brought trouble upon herself was able to hook up with a distinguished person from the Marquis Yangling Mansion, he never had the thought of drawing upon it. After all, if she caused trouble, the entire Shen Family might have to pay the price.

It’s good that she left, and even better that ties were severed.

Best if she never comes back in this lifetime.

After all, the Silver promised to him by the second branch was really too much.

What’s a conscience worth?

Only the benefits that are in hand are real.

But who would have expected, Shen Hua was so ruthless and calculating! A girl raised in luxury dared to reach into the embroidery workshop and dismissed a whole batch of old embroiderers.

Such injustice!

Therefore, Shen Qu personally asked him to intervene.

——Yangyang is biased against me, it’s also because I’m too eager, wanting to restrain her with the responsibility of an elder brother. Shen Qu was helpless, so he could only rely on Clan Elder Shen with his high virtue and respect, to accompany me and persuade her to come back.

He agreed without hesitation.

Shen Qu looked at the courtyard in front of him.

The gate was very small, and not conspicuous. You could not tell that there was another world inside.

He hypocritically yet reluctantly said: "When Yangyang left, she went with the Marquis. The Marquis Yangling Mansion is powerful, even if I was reluctant, I could only watch her leave everything behind and follow."

"She’s truly muddled. What has she gained from it?"

"Just a concubine that can’t see the light?"

If the Marquis tires of her, she won’t even count as a concubine.

Look, this shabby little house. Let alone the Marquis, even if he kept a concubine, he wouldn’t use such a small house to humiliate someone.

"This courtyard is secluded, it’s clear the Marquis has long disapproved of her. Yangyang has always been demanding, even to treat each flower and plant meticulously, yet she resents me so, preferring to live here for a long time rather than return to the Shen Family and reconcile with me."

Clan Elder Shen glanced at Shen Qu.

"Go knock on the door."

"I’ll try to persuade her, then you admit your fault. If her anger dissipates and if the Marquis is willing to let her go, we will be overjoyed to take her back. If the Marquis doesn’t let her go, we must also let Yangyang know, the Shen Family is her backbone."

Shen Qu: ...

The other party is the Marquis, what is the Shen Family? Merchants?

Clan Elder Shen must be senile with age, to utter such nonsense about relying on familial connections.

Before coming, Shen Qu was full of hesitation, even feeling that no matter if he kowtowed to Shen Hua, she wouldn’t spare him another glance.

But after some inquiries, Cui Yun didn’t seem to pay much attention to Shen Hua. He hesitated again.

...he must at least give it a try.

Maybe Shen Hua, having suffered enough, would start to appreciate his kindness.

He stepped forward and rapped on the door knocker.

’Clang Clang Clang’

Soon there was movement inside.

With a ’creak’, two attendants opened the door.

Shen Qu assumed they were Miss Shen’s servants: "I’m here to see Miss Shen."

He smiled, dressed elegantly, exhibiting a scholarly demeanor.

"I am her brother."

The attendants frowned upon hearing this.

"You have the wrong person; our lady does not have any relatives."

When the Marquis sent them, he had given strict orders.

—Anyone claiming to be a relative of Miss Shen should be turned away! Block strangers, punish troublemakers.

Shen Qu’s smile stiffened: "A girl pledges to marry at coming of age, receives her hairpin at fifteen, and weds at twenty. I’m here for her coming-of-age ceremony."

Clan Elder Shen: "I’m her uncle, I’ve cherished her since she was a child, how can she have no relatives?"

Just as the two attendants were about to drive the visitors away, Yicui heard the noise and came over.

Upon seeing her, Clan Elder Shen suddenly gained confidence: "Yicui, quickly call your mistress out."

His journey to Shengjing was fraught with hardships.

Yicui’s eyes were still red, yet her beautiful eyes sparkled with fire, thinking of how Shen Hua was harmed by the people before her, she wished she could skin them alive, break their tendons!

"Throw them out."

A distant and emotionless voice came from behind.

It was Shen Hua.

"Yangyang." Clan Elder Shen called out with a helpless, wry smile.

"The Clan Elder is here to see you, and yet you won’t even let me in for a cup of tea?"

Shen Hua’s eyes were clear and bright.

"You’re still not dead?"

Clan Elder Shen doubted his own hearing.

"...What... What?"

Shen Hua: "I figured people like you don’t need to live too long."

Clan Elder Shen: ???

You figured?

Shen Hua was blunt: "First thing upon arrival, you start claiming kinship, quite interesting."

"Yangyang!" Shen Qu disapproved.

"How can you speak so rudely?"

"The Clan Elder has traveled thousands of miles for your coming-of-age ceremony."

Shen Hua raised her chin: "Well, he seems to like making mountains out of molehills."

As she spoke, she looked disdainfully at Shen Qu: "As for you, you’re quite hasty, no wonder others say you’re filial. If you’re truly that filial, why don’t you die before him, go down and pave the way?"

"Such filial piety might move heaven and earth, perhaps the Three Pure Ones would grant a miracle, and the embroidery workshop could be great once again."

Shen Hua was fully aware of their intentions.

Nothing more than a little favor in exchange for her to relent on the embroidery lady issue.

Absolutely impossible.

An attendant immediately shoved Shen Qu.

"Get out!"

The other attendant lifted Clan Elder Shen effortlessly and, stepping forward threateningly, said, "If you bring more misfortune to Miss Shen, I’ll make sure you came walking but leave lying down!"