Inside Cui Residence, home of the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice in Luoyi's inner city, the once buoyant Left Vice Minister now wore a face dark with gloom. A maid had served tea that was only slightly too hot, and he had ordered her dragged away for a beating.
The entire residence had become incomparably oppressive. Even his children and more than a dozen concubines did not dare speak loudly.
"Has Master encountered some troubling matter lately? Could you tell this concubine about it?" Cui Hong, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, had been frowning all day long, greatly worrying his principal wife, Lady Huang.
"Alas, even if I told you, you would not understand. You needn't concern yourself with it." Cui Hong waved his hand.
Yet Lady Huang had no intention of letting the matter rest. Instead, she advised him, "Master, you are the pillar that holds up this household. If you are unhappy, dark clouds hang over the entire residence. Even Mother in the rear courtyard has been worrying day and night, unable to eat or sleep peacefully.
The rest of us are one thing, but please go and visit Mother. Put on a smiling face and comfort her. She is advanced in years; if this causes her to fall ill..."
Hearing this, Left Vice Minister Cui Hong abruptly raised his head and angrily said, "Mother has been affected as well? Who has been wagging their tongue? I'll tear their mouth apart!"
"Alas!" Lady Huang sighed once more. "Master, does the state of the residence require servants to gossip about it? Mother need only look at the changes in her children's and grandchildren's expressions every day. How could she possibly not know after more than half a month of this?"
"This..."
"Alas,