Who Cares

Chapter 47 Slap in The Face

After coming out of the main courtyard, Guan Suyi bent her knees and waved at Mu Mu, “Little Mu Mu, will you go back to the main house with mother?”

Mu Mu immediately hid behind Ruan shi, his two small hands tightly grasped the hem of her skirt, stuck out half of his head to look timidly, and then shook his head invisibly. Guan Suyi thought that he would not let go of his defenses so quickly. For a child like him, he must have a lot of barricades, and it often took more than ten years or even more than half of his life to recover from the trauma of war.

Mu Mu was still young, and his mind was still uncertain. He only needs to be gently soothed, and sooner or later he would recover. She was not in a hurry either, and smiled, “Then mother had to go back alone.” She then straightened up and said sternly, “Sister-in-law, did you send him to the clan school?”

Ruan shi helplessly sighed, “Send it, he can’t stay, either hiding by himself or being bullied by his little friends in the clan school. Sister-in-law, you don’t know, his adoptive brother really doesn’t like him. One time he actually took off Mu Mu’s robe, and poured ink all over him. Mu Mu didn’t know how to resist, and when he got home, he scared me to death. He was as black as little ghost, if he didn’t open his mouth, we could only see a pair of white eyes rolling around. It make me angry, funny and distressed.”

Speaking of Zhao Wangshu, Ruan shi was full of complaints. On the way back, she had already inquired clearly that this new sister-in-law came from a literary giants family and was very good at dealing with naughty children. As soon as she arrived, she let lord marquis beat Zhao Wangshu and restrained him to study and read, which was quite effective. Therefore, she dared to say a few words of truth, otherwise she would have taken Mu Mu and avoided her long ago.

“After all, Zhao Wangshu and Zhao Chunxi are not my children, and now the Ye family has stuffed in another Concubine Ye. I should have strictly disciplined them, but now I’m afraid it won’t work. If sister-in-law doesn’t  dislike it, how about sending Mu Mu to the main house every day, and I will personally teach him to study and send him back after dinner. Your pregnancy is getting more and more advanced, and your energy is not enough, it’s difficult to even take care of yourself, let alone Mu Mu. One of us can take care during the day while the other during the night, let him adapt slowly. After five to six months, your body will be heavy, and I will take him over completely, and you will be able to give birth in peace.”

Ruan shi was overjoyed and said yes again and again. It was really a blessing for Mu Mu to be able to worship at Guan shi as a disciple, and only a fool like the eldest young master would try his best to avoid it. Alas, there are those who, though they have a good destiny, are not blessed in the midst of blessings.

Guan Suyi got Ruan shi‘s approval, and did not forget to ask Mu Mu’s opinion, “Did Little Mu Mu heard what we said just now? In the future, you will study with your adoptive mother during the day and play with your second aunt at night, okay?”

Mu Mu seriously thought about it for a while and then nodded slightly.

—

Both sisters-in-law were satisfied and went separate ways. Guan Suyi walked to the door of the main house and saw a lot of melon seeds and shells mixed with falling flowers. Didn’t know which servant who was lazy and irresponsible that discarded it. After walking two steps, there was no one in the courtyard, except for an eight or nine years old maid standing by the east window, tiptoeing while cleaning the top window lattice with a rag.

“Why are you alone? Where are the others?” Minglan took the little maid’s rag from behind and helped her clean the window ledge.

The little maid was taken aback and saluted tremblingly, “This servant has seen Madam. This servant is responsible for cleaning, but because of her clumsy hands and feet, she has not finished the work at noon. Begging madam to please forgive. Everyone else went to the kitchen to get their meals and will be back soon.”

“You don’t need to cover for them. When I first arrived, I made a rule that there should always be people in the courtyard at all times, even if the meal has to be taken in turn, they must not be all gone carelessly, otherwise when the master has an order, won’t there be no one to support? I don’t think you are clumsy, but you are too diligent, taking other people’s work into your own hands.” Guan Suyi saw the little girl’s eyebrows and eyes were scrunch up, she seemed to be about to cry, and she couldn’t help laughing, “Quickly take the gold beans. I have no intention of punishing you. As the saying goes, don’t meddle in affairs that are not part of your position, I have only one principle in employing people, you should do what you should do well, and you shouldn’t interfere in what you should not do. I won’t praise you for being diligence, on the contrary I will remember you, just because you broke the rules I set. Only this time, and there will be no next time. Minglan, take her to tidy up, and in the future, I will make her a second-class maid to run errand in the house. You should teach her the rules when you have free time.”

Minglan obediently promised, and took the thankful little maid to the side room to wash up.

Guan Suyi went to the study, spread out the rice paper, and drew the layout of the Ye Mansion that Minglan had inquired, used cinnabar to circle the location of the coral tree, and traced all the servants that served as guard, the guests, and the owner on all sides, after that she racked her brain and pondered.

It had been inspected once when it was moved to the warehouse, and once when the box was closed and locked, and there was no damage. In the meantime, twenty-four servants in their prime surrounded and monitored them motionlessly, never leaving for a moment, but when they opened the box again, the treasure was shattered, and the crowd was screaming.

This thing couldn’t be pondered, the more pondering the more strange it became. Guan Suyi beat her forehead, her internal organs felt uncomfortable as if a cat had scratching it. She had a bad shortcoming, when encountering a problem, she must solve it, otherwise she would lose sleep all night and tried her best to study it. Because of this, she couldn’t specialize in her studies, and she always got side-tracked when she learned, often giving Old Master Guan a headache.

Now after two lifetimes, this old problem did not get better, but instead became more and more serious, to the point that she was obsessed with this coral tree, hated that she couldn’t take the catcher’s job and go to Ye Mansion to investigate. However, she was only interested in the modus operandi. As for the perpetrator, eight out of ten was the one in Weiyang Palace.

In addition to beating up foreign relatives and appeasing the Emperor Teacher, he also took advantage of this matter to clean up the capital city department, the joint defense department, the Three Armies of Imperial Guards, and removed the remnants of the previous dynasty and former subordinates of the Second Prince from the capital defense, to ensure the stability of his interest, and conveniently curbed the unfavorable trend of courtiers forming parties for personal gain. It could be said to kill several birds with one stone. Under this heavy pressure, he never disturbed any people, nor caused chaos in the capital, which showed that he was kind but also ruthless.

The front rafter rots first, even if there was no Ye family, no matter which family jumped up first, the result was the same.

Guan Suyi chuckled and shook her head, also full of curiosity about this kind and ruthless emperor, but this person was not someone she could reach. After a little thought, she threw away her hand and continued to ponder about the case. After a while, Minglan brought the little maid over and said with a smile, “Miss, look, she looks like a jade doll after washing up, she’s so cute.”

The little maid blushed slightly and said in a salute, “This servant Yinzi has seen Madam.”

“Your name is Yinzi? What a good name!” Guan Suyi smiled, “Don’t you have a sister named Jinzi (Gold)? I remember your ancestral home in Liaodong, are your family still at the border?”

“Yes, they all followed by the second master’s side to serve, but they refused to come over because of the long distance. This servant family is poor, and if can get one or two small pieces of silver is already heavenly, how dare to dream of coveting gold. This servant has five older sisters and one younger brother, they are called Da Ni’er, Er Ni’er, San Ni’er, Si Ni’er , Wu Ni’er and Fugui .”

The little maid counted with her fingers, which made Guan Suyi laugh again. Minglan was a little absent-minded, and when her miss closed the corner of her mouth and lowered her head to look at the drawings, she said angrily, “Miss, Concubine Ye hasn’t entered the door yet, and those slaves dare to snub you, this servant will call the people back and severely punish them! ”

“You don’t need to call. After a night of brewing and someone else pushed the waves, the news of the Ye family’s rotten luck must have spread by now. There are many mouths in the kitchen, this is where the information gathered and circulated, so the news passed on so quickly. It won’t be long before those people turn around. We don’t need to punish them severely, but help them accomplish what they want. I’d rather have no one to serve in my courtyard, than having two-faces slaves.”

Yinzi quietly hid behind Minglan, only felt that the gentle and elegant madam was extremely majestic at this moment, and those lazy and slippery people would regret their intestines.

Sure enough, within a few moments, the servants turned around one after another, with an expression of fear and guilt on their faces. Seeing Minglan standing under the porch with her hands on her hips, they immediately stepped forward to confess their guilt. But instead of being forgiven, a slave trader came in and took those young and strong servant who had signed the death contract to be sold, the children of the family were sent to other villages to serve as errands, and the old and weak servants who had signed the living deed each were allocated a few taels of silver and be returned to their hometowns to find another way out.

In less than an hour, the huge courtyard, where there used to be more than a dozen people, only had the three master and servant left, the breeze rolled up the defeated leaf and destroyed the red, looked somewhat gloomy and desolate. The old madam let the people who complained and pleaded guilty to kneel without opening a mouth. Instead, she sent many upright and honest maids and grannies to let the madam choose personally.

Guan Suyi only asked four questions: first, can they read or not; second, what are their specialties; third, what are their family background, where are their ancestral home; fourth, what are their plans for the future. One of them was a 12- or 13-year-old maidservant who was originally a small servant in the old madam’s courtyard. She was both literate and proficient in medicine, her family died and she was an orphan, hoped when she was eighteen or nineteen, madam would be able to eliminate her slave status, set up a female household and be self-reliance.

Guan Suyi said “good” three times in a row, she even promoted her as a first-class maid to filled Mingfang’s vacancy, and left a few capable people to look after the courtyard, and the rest were sent back to the old madam. In this way, the main house, which was originally very pompous, seemed to be quite depressed. But in fact, the disorderly were scrape out, from top to bottom completely worked as one, and the inside and outside courtyard were enclosed like iron barrels

After another hour, the common affairs were sorted out. Guan Suyi continued to ponder the case with the drawings, and then saw Zhao Luli hurried in. His lips were dry, his face was gloomy, and the fabric on his knees was worn  out in two places, revealing a white inner clothes. Without guessing she also knew that he must accompany Master Ye to kneel in Chengde Hall and suffered a lot.

“Lord Marquis is a rare guest.” After several days of humiliation, Guan Suyi couldn’t even pretend with him, so she put down her brush to sneer.

Zhao Luli looked ashamed, but remembering Ye Zhen, whose life and death was unknown, he quickly regained his composure, begging, “Madam must already know about the Ye family, right? Now Ye Jieyu is seriously ill, father, Master Ye is currently stay behind closed doors to reflect, Ye Mansion is full of turmoil and anxiety. This matter is all because of the Guan family. Please ask madam to go back to her maiden’s house and ask the Emperor Teacher and Chief Minister of Ceremonies. They have the emperor’s heart, and they are very favored. If they are willing to say a few words on behalf the Ye Mansion, this catastrophe will definitely be over as soon as possible. The Guan family has always been known for their benevolence, now we are all in-laws, all is a family, we should live in harmony and get along.

Guan Suyi stared at him for a long while, and suddenly slapped him in the face, causing a lot of dust to fall from the beams of the house.