Hearing Madam Lu's words, Old Lady Zhou, unusually, did not argue or scold because it was indeed the case; once a family member was imprisoned, no amount of silver would be enough to smooth things over.
The Old Zhou family was never a wealthy household to begin with. First there was Zhou Xueli's wedding, and then Zhou Xuennian needed silver to buy the exam questions. The little family fortune of the Zhou family had already been scraped clean. This trip to the county, Old Lady Zhou had even taken her own funeral savings. If Zhou Xuennian could not be retrieved from trouble, the next step would be to sell the fields and land.
Old Lady Zhou's face was ashen and defeated. The consecutive blows from event after event had utterly exhausted the old woman, who seemed to have aged more than a decade; where was her usual vitality now?
