Jiang Shiyao rubbed her sore eyes as she carefully made the final stitches on the embroidered beast head.
Shuangjiang exclaimed in admiration, "It's so beautiful!"
Sunlight streamed through the window, falling upon the embroidery and surprisingly revealing a faint golden glow.
"There's even a golden shine!"
Jiang Shiyao picked up a golden thread to show her, "I hid golden threads while embroidering. I was worried it might look abrupt, but now it appears the effect is surprisingly good!"
Shuangjiang praised sincerely, "Niangzi Jiang's skill is probably unmatched even by the palace embroiderers.Jiang Shiyao chuckled, "My embroidery was taught by a grandmother who came from the palace.""If you like it, after this birthday gift is done, I'll embroider a belly wrap for you!""
Shuangjiang blushed with embarrassment, "Niangzi, how shameless…"
Jiang Shiyao stopped teasing her, "We're running low on golden threads. Go to that embroidery shop from two days ago and buy some more."
"Yes."
As Shuangjiang reached the door, she thought for a moment and turned to inform Gao Mama.
Gao Mama said, "Let's go to a different place. I'll go with you."
Shuangjiang muttered, "I don't think Niangzi Jiang is that kind of person."
Gao Mama turned and glared at her, "After just a few days there, you trust her so much?"
Shuangjiang fell silent. During these past few days in the small courtyard, she had observed clearly.
Niangzi Jiang rose before dawn every morning, spent the whole day embroidering in the side room, and after the evening meal, she would accompany the young miss in practicing writing.
She was an extremely approachable mistress, and the young miss was taught to be very polite.
The youngest seventh miss, only two years older than their young miss, was quite unruly. How many maids had been replaced in Concubine Zheng's courtyard already?
Gao Mama led Shuangjiang to inquire at two embroidery shops, only to find that the price of golden threads was more expensive than at the shop where Jiang Shiyao had bought them.
Shuangjiang couldn't help but feel indignant on Jiang Shiyao's behalf, "If Niangzi Jiang really wanted to line her own pockets, she would have taken the money bag long ago."
"Although I wasn't familiar with Niangzi Jiang before, I encountered her a few times. She always seemed extremely gentle."
"Yesterday, Mingyu had the nerve to ask Niangzi Jiang to plead for her. Isn't that just because she sees Niangzi as easy to bully?"
Gao Mama poked Shuangjiang's forehead, "If everyone were as naive as you, there would be no villains left in the residence."
Shuangjiang paid no heed to Gao Mama's words and went to the previous embroidery shop to buy the golden threads.
When she returned, the white fur on the auspicious beast's neck on the embroidery frame was half finished.
Jiang Shiyao was cutting something.
"Niangzi Jiang, why are you cutting it?"
"Adding golden threads here doesn't look good. It needs silver threads instead." Jiang Shiyao didn't look up as she used a needle to pick out each extremely fine golden thread.
Shuangjiang suddenly felt it was unfair to Jiang Shiyao. She was putting in so much effort and care, yet Gao Mama suspected her of colluding with the shopkeeper for profit.
"Please cut it tomorrow. It's almost dark, be careful with your eyes."
Jiang Shiyao finally put down the scissors, rubbing her sore eyes, "You're right, we can't rush. If I accidentally cut other threads, this entire section would be ruined."
"Where's Fu'er? That little girl hasn't pestered me today."
Shuangjiang shook her head, "I haven't seen her since I returned. He Mama isn't here either."
"Probably playing outside. She'll be back soon."
Looking at the dusky sky, Jiang Shiyao suddenly felt an inexplicable panic.
"No, I need to go look for her."
The Duke of Ying's Residence covered a vast area. Last time, Fu'er had taken her to dig for silver near the western wall, not far from where there was an abandoned courtyard.
In her previous life, she hadn't heard of any incidents happening in that grove, and when He Mama resigned, there was nothing unusual about it either.
That's why when she and Fu'er returned last time, she dismissed He Mama's strange behavior as merely being caught with a secret.
How careless she had been! She had been wary of Mingyu but never suspected He Mama!
Jiang Shiyao chased into the bamboo grove and indeed found signs of disturbed soil where she had previously discovered the silver.
Her expression grew even graver.
Though Shuangjiang didn't understand the meaning, she recalled what He Mama and Fu'er had said as they were leaving that day.
"When I went out earlier, I heard He Mama say she'd take the young miss to dig for bamboo shoots to make sautéed bamboo shoot tips."
"Would they be in the kitchen now?"
These thoughts flashed repeatedly through Jiang Shiyao's mind.
The image of Fu'er emaciated and vomiting blood, the memory of Song Jiyun coldly and disgustedly ordering them drowned in a pig cage.
She bit her tongue hard, telling herself over and over that she had been reborn.
"Shuangjiang, you go to the kitchen. I'll check the flower room. He Mama should be there…"
Only then did Shuangjiang notice how violently Jiang Shiyao was trembling.
"Niangzi Jiang! Are you alright?"
Jiang Shiyao pulled her hand back, "I'm f-fine, go quickly!"
Recalling every detail about He Mama from her previous life, Jiang Shiyao hurried toward the flower room.
Suddenly she stopped in her tracks.
He Mama's husband was the Duke's gardener, also a hopeless gambler. Were it not for his skill in cultivating peonies, he would have been driven out long ago.
In her previous life, He Mama had borrowed money from her several times.
It seemed around this time that she stopped coming to borrow money.
When He Mama resigned, it was shortly after Song Jiyun's marriage, during the summer heat, completely without warning.
Around that time, she also started wearing new clothes and silver jewelry.
With countless thoughts swirling in her mind, Jiang Shiyao abruptly turned and rushed back to the courtyard.
The small courtyard wasn't large – one main room with an annex on each side, plus two additional rooms on the left.
He Mama lived in the right annex. Fu'er had lived with her since childhood, only sneaking into her bed when older, mother and daughter sleeping together.
The left annex had been converted into an embroidery room.
Jiang Shiyao shoved open He Mama's door, startling He Mama who was bending over to put something away.
With two dull thuds, something rolled into a chest.
"Madam, wh-what brings you here?"
He Mama's eyes darted away, then fell upon Fu'er sleeping on the bed. "The young miss is already asleep. Sh-she tired herself out playing today!"
Jiang Shiyao advanced step by step. "Asleep, or drugged?"
He Mama's heart sank. "What are you saying, madam? Why would I drug the young miss…"
"Undiscovered, your family secretly enriches itself. Discovered, everything can be pinned on Fu'er – just a child unintentionally digging something up while playing?"
He Mama collapsed onto the floor.
It was over… The madam had found out…
"But you shouldn't have used Fu'er as your shield!" Jiang Shiyao said sharply.
He Mama scrambled up to kowtow. "Have mercy, madam! My husband only took fifty taels!"
"The loan sharks were going to chop off his hand! We had no other choice!"
Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded, "My husband said the chest was nearly rotten, no one would notice. Please have mercy, don't tell the Young Lord!"
Jiang Shiyao slowly sat by Fu'er's bedside, fingers wrapping around her wrist, feeling the clear, strong pulse.
She turned to look at the tearful He Mama. "Bring it out."
He Mama trembled as she took out a ten-tael silver ingot.
Jiang Shiyao turned the silver ingot over. It bore the reign title of the previous emperor. According to the official stamp, this silver was over thirty years old!
Her lips pressed tightly together.
While others might not know about the existence of this silver, the Old Madam certainly did!
Last year's renovation of the Old Madam's courtyard might very well have been specifically for retrieving this silver.
This silver was likely obtained through improper means.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have remained hidden from the world for over thirty years!
Jiang Shiyao let out a cold laugh. "The silver bears the government stamp, the reign title, and the treasury mark. This is a brand-new official treasury silver from thirty years ago."
"Do you think you could remain undetected, that no one would find you?"
He Mama's face had turned deathly pale.
"What should I do, what should I do…"
She quickly crawled forward on her knees, prostrating herself at Niangzi Jiang's feet. "Please, please save my husband!"
Jiang Shiyao's gaze shifted from He Mama to the silver in her hand.
She remembered in her previous life, Jinzhou had endured two months of continuous heavy rain, farmlands were completely destroyed, and there was no harvest in autumn!
Grain prices skyrocketed in the capital. On the wedding day of Zhou Congxian and Song Jiyun, the guests nearly went without food!
If she had money now to stockpile grain, and sell it to the Duke's mansion three months later, wouldn't she make a huge profit!
In the future, even if she left the Duke's mansion, she wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing.
Jiang Shiyao clenched the silver tightly and said slowly, "Want to survive?"
He Mama nodded vigorously like pounding garlic.
"Come closer."
…
When Shuangjiang returned, she saw Niangzi Jiang leaning against a pillar in the corridor, gazing at the moon.
"Niangzi…"
Jiang Shiyao said, "Fu'er is fine. Sorry to have made you make a trip for nothing, Miss Shuangjiang."
Shuangjiang didn't think much of it. "All mothers are the same. When I was little and fell asleep in the woodshed, my mother searched for me for a long time too."
"In the end, when everyone else had stopped looking, only my mother found me in the woodshed, and she gave me a good beating."
Jiang Shiyao looked at her. "I remember you've always been in the Old Madam's courtyard. Your mother…"
Shuangjiang lowered her eyes. "Like Gao Mama, my mother was also a personal attendant."
"According to Gao Mama, my mother died while sacrificing herself to save her mistress. The Old Madam took pity on me for having lost both my father and mother, so she kept me in her courtyard."
Jiang Shiyao said, "In the Old Madam's courtyard you were a first-rank maid, but now you've come to my small courtyard…"
"Actually…"
Shuangjiang looked into Jiang Shiyao's eyes. She had just opened her mouth to speak when a scream piercing through the night sky interrupted her.
"Ah!—"
Both of them simultaneously looked in one direction.
Even He Mama inside the room opened the door to look.
Shuangjiang spoke first, "It seems to be from the Young Lord's courtyard."
A glint quickly flashed in Jiang Shiyao's eyes. "Let's go take a look."
Night had already fallen, and the scream had drawn out quite a few people.
The nearby courtyards housed the younger generation of the mansion who had already been assigned separate residences.
By the time Jiang Shiyao arrived, Third Miss Zhou Wanqing and Fourth Miss Zhou Wanhui had arrived one after another.
Zhou Congxian's face was ashen.
Mingyu knelt in the courtyard with her clothes in disarray, a trace of blood even seeping from her forehead.
Zhou Wanhui, sensing something amiss, tried to pull her third sister away. "Third Sister, this is Eldest Brother's private matter. We shouldn't get involved."
Zhou Wanqing was already furious on behalf of her good friend Song Jiyun. "I'm not leaving! These little sluts are all getting restless. If I don't keep an eye out for Sister Jiyun, who will?"
Sister Jiyun is about to enter the household, and now they're putting on this farce.
If this little wretch actually succeeds, how will Elder Brother ever face Sister Jiyun again!
"Young Lord, please spare this servant! I only resorted to such desperate measures because I had no other choice!"
Mingyu kowtowed repeatedly while sobbing and weeping.
Jiang Shiyao stood at the back of the crowd, watching Mingyu's back, unable to suppress a cold laugh.
In her previous life, she had trusted Mingyu completely, yet ultimately died at the hands of the person she trusted most.
The crimes of this life are all your own doing! Insatiable greed!!
Zhou Wanqing, "You're not even Jiang Shiyao's maid, who gave you the audacity to barge into your master's bedchamber!"
Mingyu curled up on the ground, and when she turned her head, she saw Jiang Shiyao standing behind the crowd.
She glared fiercely at that graceful figure.
"It was Niangzi Jiang!"