Sir, I just want to be a salted fish

Chapter 28 Negotiation
She obviously looked at such a vivid person, but she died of dystocia during childbirth, leaving Tang Wenbai to be raised by Mrs. Liu's side.

At that time, Mrs. Liu was overwhelmed when she learned that she had been betrayed by her loving husband and trusted girl. She took this breath for the sake of her family and her young children.

From then on, Mrs. Liu no longer treated Duke Rong Guo as her husband, but as a superior person who controlled the fate of her and her children. She couldn't help but be a little shy, for fear of offending Duke Rong Guo.

"Let the second and third younger siblings help you manage the house. Not only is it my mother's intention, but I also agree with it. In the future, you will manage the house together, and you will have a comparison, and you will be able to learn from each other's strengths and grow up as soon as possible."

For more than ten years, I have protected Mrs. Liu and raised her like a canary. Once the wind and rain hit her, something would easily happen.

After hearing what Duke Rong Guo said, Mrs. Liu understood that the matter was a foregone conclusion, so she stopped arguing and nodded in agreement.

……

The courtyards of the second and third bedrooms are in the southeast corner of the Duke's Mansion and are relatively close to each other, so we walked together.

The second master and the third master walked quickly in front and disappeared after a while; the second wife Zhang and the third wife Xiao Shao were walking together behind.

"Third brother and sister, let's go directly to the main courtyard to help tomorrow morning?" The second wife, Mrs. Zhang, has always been cautious and acted based on the looks of her eldest sister-in-law and her brothers and sisters.

"Since mother has given instructions, let's go there tomorrow." The third lady responded.

A hundred years after Mrs. Tai's death, the third house of the Duke's Mansion was divided into separate households. Young Mr. Shao had no intention of coveting the power of housekeeping, and wished he could just take care of nothing but his own yard.

Compared with Xiao Shao's indifference, Zhang was a little happy to have the opportunity to control part of the power in the Duke's palace.

The Zhang family was just an ordinary scholarly family. When Zhang married into the Rongguo Duke's palace, her dowry was the largest among all the daughters of the Zhang family, but it was nothing compared to the dowry of the eldest sister-in-law and younger siblings.

The second master's official position is not high, and his annual salary is only a few hundred taels. Fortunately, the second master is an upright man, frugal by nature, and does not spend much money.

Every month, the government would also allocate one thousand taels of silver to each room for expenses, but the government's friends were all from powerful families, so for Zhang, it was just a drop in the bucket.

As children grow up, they spend more and more money. Although most of the expenses are paid for by the family, when it comes to sending off children, they always have to have spare money on hand.

It would be great if they could be assigned to manage the kitchen. There is a lot of oil and water in the kitchen, and you can save dozens of taels a month. Mrs. Zhang called Xiao Jiujiu while returning to the yard.

……

Xiang, the wife of the Minister of Rites, rushed to the Chengguo Palace after coming out of the Rongguo Palace, complaining that Cai was not kind enough to hand the handkerchief to her and let herself go in vain.

"Sister Xiang, where did you come from? Our government received the letter from Duke Rongguo's wife, and we asked you to propose marriage for my Sheng'er." Mrs. Cai will not take the blame for Mrs. Liu.

"Then according to what you say, it's because the Rongguo government has not reached an agreement internally?" Xiang was a little gloating about the misfortune.

Mrs. Liu, Duke Rongguo's wife, has always been aloof and aloof. If something like this happens this time, she will probably suffer a lot.

"No. Our family does things according to the rules, and nothing is inappropriate."

Mrs. Cai was a little envious and jealous of Mrs. Liu. She was also the wife of a duke, but Mrs. Liu was protected by duke Rong, while her own duke Cheng was a rough man and had no sympathy for her.

"I guess Mrs. Liu will have to come to your door to apologize in the next two days. Then you have to invite me to watch. After all, I am the one who made a fool of myself today." Mr. Xiang did not think it was a big deal to watch the fun.

Mrs. Cai was afraid that her handkerchief would only be thinking about venting her anger and forgetting to care about the consequences.

"Aren't you afraid that Duke Rong will wear small shoes for your husband?"

"You can't, right? I will just watch when the time comes, and I will definitely not add insult to injury." Xiang said firmly. "Can you hold it back then? It's better not to cause trouble and go home quickly. I haven't prepared your meal here." Cai sent her friend.

After all, Mrs. Liu is the wife of Rong Guo, so she still has to save some face. The two families cannot become enemies without getting married.

After breakfast the next day, the three ladies each accompanied their mothers to the main courtyard where the affairs were taking place.

"The masters and servants of the four seasons in the mansion have to buy clothes, boots, socks, purses, saddles, mattresses, etc. The second brother and sister are usually the most rigorous, so they are in charge of the sewing room in the mansion." Mrs. Liu directly handed over the work in her daughter's hands. assigned.

Although Mrs. Zhang was not assigned to be in charge of the kitchen, which made her feel a little uncomfortable, she kindly agreed to take charge of the sewing room.

"Sister-in-law, don't worry. I will manage the sewing room with all my heart and live up to the trust of my mother and sister-in-law."

The Second Madam pointed out without any trace that the Tai Madam had spoken to reduce the Liu family's housekeeping rights, a small way of stirring up discord.

Although Ms. Liu didn't have much of a sense of the overall situation and couldn't take on big things, she could still hear Mr. Zhang's provocative words after spending half her life in the inner house.

He smiled gratefully at Mrs. Zhang and said, "Then I'll leave my brothers and sisters to worry about it."

"The kitchen in our house is very messy. The third brother and sister are of a good nature, so we should take care of the big kitchen in the house."

Mr. Liu also had selfish motives in allocating the big kitchen to Mr. Shao.

The third brother and sister are non-competitive and will not randomly add people to the big kitchen. It will be cheaper to take over the job themselves later.

The second sibling usually seems to be neither fighting nor grabbing, but she is just a lowly person, so letting her take charge of the big kitchen not only adds more people, but also makes it easier for her to line her own pockets.

Mrs. Liu also looked down upon the little money that Big Kitchen made, but she was not willing to be taken advantage of in her own land.

The third lady, Xiao Shao, responded directly: "Yes, sister-in-law."

Compared with Mrs. Zhang, Mrs. Liu is more willing to get close to Xiao Shao. "If there is a troublemaker who refuses to obey orders, you will punish him directly. Or send someone to find me, and my sister-in-law will make the decision for you."

"Brother and sister, thank you very much, sister-in-law." Xiao Shao said with a sweet smile.

Ms. Liu nodded to little Mr. Shao, and said warmly to her nieces who were standing behind their respective mothers: "Qing'er and Yu'er, just follow your mother's side and learn. When you have learned it, Auntie will give you a chance to practice. ."

Ms. Liu also likes her nieces, who are all good-natured girls. She wants to let them get familiar with housekeeping in their parents' home, so that it will be much easier for them to marry into her husband's family in the future.

After allocating their respective jurisdictions, Mrs. Liu took Tang Bingxuan back to Xishaojian to read the account books and become familiar with the human relations in the house.

……

In the afternoon, Ms. Liu paid her respects to Mrs. Tai after she took a nap. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were chatting and laughing in Songhe Courtyard, and there was no trace of the previous unhappiness at all.

"Mom, my eldest sister-in-law came to see me yesterday and wanted to marry Xuan'er for my eldest nephew Mingcheng."

After yesterday's reduction of power, Ms. Liu became alert, especially regarding her eldest daughter's marriage, and no longer dared to make arbitrary decisions.

"Oh? You didn't agree in private, right?" The wife looked at her eldest daughter-in-law with distrust.

(End of this chapter)