Madam Bai had no choice but to craft an innocent image for Madam Wang. The first reason was to preserve the Marquis’s dignity, and the second was to prevent outsiders from learning that the Marquis’s household was so lax in its rules, which would only invite ridicule.
Moreover, people might even begin to doubt whether the young ladies raised in the Marquis’s household were capable of managing affairs. Madam Wang had no daughters, but Madam Bai had Swallow Holding Branch, so she had to consider this carefully.
Therefore, the things Madam Wang had done in secret could not be brought into the open. Madam Bai accomplished what she wanted with a pretty veil of decency.
After finishing the task of reducing the number of servants, Madam Bai reorganized the remaining staff. Those who had previously reported Madam Wang’s deception were naturally retained for their merit.
Those who remained couldn’t help but feel smug, but they failed to notice that Madam Bai was playing word games with them. She had only said they wouldn’t be dismissed this time, not that they wouldn’t be dismissed next time!
Swallow Holding Branch had pointed out many of the servants’ flaws and shortcomings, and Madam Bai had already taken these into consideration when drafting the list, adjusting her decisions based on the circumstances.
Those not on the list didn’t necessarily mean they hadn’t done anything wrong, but those on the list were definitely people Madam Bai could no longer tolerate.
For now, Madam Bai had her reasons for keeping these people, though she wouldn’t elaborate on them at the moment.
She reassigned the servants’ duties, ensuring that the amount of work matched their monthly wages. No one was exempt.
If someone received high pay but couldn’t perform their duties well, then, unfortunately, no one’s face would be of any use to Madam Bai. They could either be reassigned to another task or pay their redemption fee and leave.
For those who could neither work nor afford the redemption fee, well, the Marquis’s household was no charity. They would simply be sold off.
With these three measures, the lax atmosphere among the Marquis’s servants was immediately tightened, and everyone began to follow the rules.
Madam Bai had essentially turned the servants into a unified voice under the eldest branch’s control. Only at this level did she feel at ease.
However, this deepened the rift between the eldest branch and Madam Wang. Madam Bai recalled how her eldest daughter had vividly described how the Marquis had scolded Madam Wang upon her return.
In truth, a little more or less conflict didn’t matter much. Madam Wang had long harbored deep hatred for the eldest branch, and a little more or less wouldn’t change anything.
Thinking this, Madam Bai felt she had let her guard down too soon. After much deliberation, she decided to write to her maternal family.
She asked them to find two well-connected, retired palace nannies to teach her how to avoid her mother-in-law’s open and hidden attacks in the future.
“It’s all my fault. Even after marrying, I still have to trouble my mother to worry about me.” Watching Nanny Li leave with the letter, Madam Bai hugged her daughter and said with self-reproach.
Swallow Holding Branch patted her mother’s back. “Mother is amazing. Don’t blame yourself!”
She didn’t want to speak ill of her father, but the truth was just that. If her father could take charge of things, her mother wouldn’t have to strategize against her mother-in-law and the servants while pregnant, worrying about so many matters.
But a person’s nature was already set. Her father was just like this, and her grandfather must have been troubled by it back then. If even he couldn’t change it, it was even harder for others to alter someone’s inherent nature.
Swallow Holding Branch repeated, “Mother is very, very, very good. It’s just that Father is a bit lacking.”
The three “very goods” simply and directly expressed Swallow Holding Branch’s affirmation of Madam Bai. Madam Bai smiled, pressing her forehead against her daughter’s affectionately. “Don’t let your father hear that. He’d be hurt.”
“Hurt?
“How could I be upset?” Yan Tingbai said as he walked from the corridor into the flower hall, looking at his wife and daughter with a puzzled expression. “Confess, were you two talking about me behind my back?”
Madam Bai and Swallow Holding Branch laughed, speaking in unison, “We won’t tell you.”
“Fine, don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear it anyway.” Yan Tingbai bared his teeth, propped his hands on his cheeks, and made a fierce, monstrous face, playing around with his wife and daughter for a while.
After much laughter and merriment, the family of three sat down. Madam Bai drank a cup of milk and turned to her husband beside her. “Brother Bai, I haven’t seen much of you lately. Is there something keeping you busy in the front courtyard?”
Yan Tingbai’s eyes lit up at the question. He reached into his wide sleeve and pulled out a mother-of-pearl inlaid box, handing it to Madam Bai. “Open it and see.”
Madam Bai took the box and opened it, letting out an involuntary “ah.” Swallow Holding Branch, sitting beside her mother, leaned over to look.
Inside the box, lined with green silk, lay a necklace with pendant ornaments. At the center of the necklace was a piece of Guilin Chicken Blood Jade, meticulously carved into the shape of a jade lock.
The jade lock was creamy white with streaks of blood-red jade patterns resembling phoenix tails trailing like sunset clouds. From the edges of the lock, the patterns meandered downward, with layers of crimson clouds faintly revealing nine layers of cinnabar halo, captivating anyone who laid eyes on it.
On the front of the jade lock, the characters “Swallow Holding Branch” were inscribed in seal script. The strokes were hidden within delicate silver hooks, each one cleverly carved along the creamy red jade patterns, making it seem as though the characters had naturally formed from the jade’s own veins.
Madam Bai picked up the jade lock and turned it over. On the back, the natural jade patterns had been skillfully carved into an image of “swallow carrying a branch.””
A swallow spread its wings, soaring across the sky, with a flowering branch held in its beak. The branch was exquisitely carved, with tiny flowers layered like blooming peonies. The veins of the branch were intricately pierced, capturing both form and spirit, clearly the work of a master craftsman.
The red jade lock was paired with a pure gold necklace adorned with pendant ornaments. On either side of the jade lock hung small golden carps of various colors, adding a playful, childlike charm.
Madam Bai held the jade lock, unable to put it down. “This is truly beautiful. Did your master carve it?”
“Underestimating me, aren’t you?” Yan Tingbai raised an eyebrow. “My master and I worked on it together. I carved the front, and my master handled the back.”
“That’s still impressive. You only started learning carving last year, and now you’ve reached this level. You must have a natural talent for it.”
Madam Bai didn’t hold back her praise, making Yan Tingbai even prouder. “Actually, by the end of last year, I had already made some progress. Coincidentally, I acquired this piece of Guilin Chicken Blood Jade around that time, and its patterns perfectly matched Sister Yuan’s name.”
“I spent several months working with my master, carving and polishing it bit by bit, and finally finished it just in time for Sister Yuan’s birthday.”
Swallow Holding Branch was taken aback. Her birthday?
Oh, right. She wasn’t born from a stone—she had a birthday. It was just that in her past life, no one had ever told her, and she never knew when her birthday was.
So, she was born in mid-March?
Madam Bai slapped her forehead. “That’s right, Sister Yuan’s birthday. I’ve been so busy lately, I completely forgot about it.”
“I knew you were busy, so I prepared something for you too.” Yan Tingbai said, pulling another box from his sleeve. Inside was a pair of high-quality jadeite twist bracelets. “These are truly precious. They cost me several thousand taels of silver. Keep them for Sister Yuan to wear when she grows up.”
“Sister Yuan, do you like them?” Madam Bai placed both boxes in front of Swallow Holding Branch and asked.
Swallow Holding Branch nodded. “I like them.”
I really like these jadeite twist bracelets. In my past life, they were Wang Chenbi’s favorite. So these were originally things that belonged to me.
And this red jade lock—I wore it until the day I died in my past life.
However, back then, when I wore it, it was just a simple piece of jade without any precious pure gold decorations. This was the only item the elderly nun at the family temple fought hard to keep for me.
It shows just how much I lost after my parents passed away in my past life.
Through the elderly nun, Swallow Holding Branch learned that this jade lock was something her parents left for her, but she never expected that the jade had been personally carved by her father.
Swallow Holding Branch realized that her father wasn’t entirely useless. Although he wasn’t accomplished in literature or martial arts, and managing the household was just average, it was only because he lacked the knack for navigating officialdom and didn’t have a mind for practical affairs.
But so what?
No one is perfect, and Yan Tingbai had more than just this one talent to show for himself.
After discussing Swallow Holding Branch’s birthday celebration, Yan Tingbai, as if performing a magic trick, took out an embroidered pouch with green bamboo patterns from his robe and handed it to Madam Bai.
When Madam Bai opened it, she discovered several banknotes inside: “This time, it’s actually five hundred taels!
I never knew raising fighting cocks could be so profitable!”
Yan Tingbai beamed with pride: “Well, you have to consider who’s raising them!”
Sitting between her parents, listening to their lively conversation, Swallow Holding Branch finally learned that her father enjoyed raising fighting cocks.
He had even dedicated a Hall of the Dawn Rooster in one of his properties specifically for breeding fighting cocks, meticulously caring for them three times a day.
Once the fighting cocks were fully trained, they were sent to gambling dens to compete. When they gained fame, they were sold at high prices, earning over two thousand taels of silver in a year.
Swallow Holding Branch’s view of her father finally began to change. Although he lacked grand ambitions, the jade lock and the banknotes revealed his exceptional talents in other areas.