Jiang Yao left the Guogong Fu with her maid, You Qin.
After departing the Guogong Fu and boarding the carriage, You Qin began weeping by Jiang Yao’s ear.
“Young Madam, it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been greedy and gone to chat with the other maids while eating fruits, if I had stayed by your side all along, today’s incident wouldn’t have happened. I nearly caused your virtue to be slandered.”
Jiang Yao had a headache from her sobbing and said coldly,
“Shut up. Stop crying.”
You Qin was suddenly scolded, tears still hanging on her lashes. She stared blankly at her mistress, confused about why she was being reprimanded.
In the past, the young madam had always been so kind to them, never scolding any of the maids.
What was wrong today? Had her intentions been discovered by the young madam? You Qin felt somewhat panicked.
Jiang Yao paid no further attention to You Qin, leaning against the gold-threaded embroidered bolster with her eyes closed, feigning sleep.
When she married from the Jiang family into the Pei family, her mother had sent along six maids who had cared for her since childhood and grew up with her, as well as one matron, as part of her dowry.
You Qin was her chief maid.
In her previous life, not long after Jiang Yao was slandered and demoted from wife to Qie, You Qin used tricks to climb into Pei Muzheng’s bed and became his Tongfang Yatou.
When she first climbed into his bed, Jiang Yao confronted her. You Qin cried pitifully, telling her,
“Young Madam, I just couldn’t bear to see you become a concubine. I wanted to help you. Now the master never comes to you. If I bear his child and raise the child under your name, perhaps the master will come to you then.”
But that wasn’t the truth. In reality, You Qin had long harbored feelings for Pei Muzheng.
After becoming pregnant, she even coveted Jiang Yao’s dowry, constantly using the child in her womb to swindle her out of her possessions.
In this life, if she wanted to climb into his bed, let her. Let her and Shen Yuanwu fight like dogs biting each other. Did they really think there was anything good about Pei Muzheng?
But as for a disloyal maid like her, Jiang Yao naturally couldn’t continue to treat her as a confidante.
After more than half an hour, the carriage stopped in front of Pei Manor.
The Pei family now lived in a five-courtyard residence on South Street Qinggu Alley, with two majestic and fierce stone lions guarding the entrance.
Back in the day, the Pei family was penniless, with no family fortune left.
It was only after Jiang Yao married in that she gave her dowry mansion to the Pei family to serve as Pei Manor.
Moreover, she used her dowry to cover all the household expenses.
However, no one outside knew about this.
Everyone still thought that a starved camel is bigger than a horse, assuming the Pei family must have some remaining wealth.
More than twenty years ago, the Pei family did hold a noble title, Dongping Hou.
But the old Dongping Hou made a mistake. While it wasn’t serious enough to warrant stripping the title, it happened during the strictest period, and the Late Emperor made an example of him, revoking his title and reducing him to a commoner.
It wasn’t until Pei Muzheng became the Zhuangyuan Lang that the Pei family gradually regained people’s attention.
The greatest hope of the entire Pei family was for Pei Muzheng to restore the family’s glory and reclaim the noble title.
And indeed, Pei Muzheng’s career advanced steadily thereafter, eventually reclaiming the title that had been stripped away.
Everyone thought it was due to Pei Muzheng’s genuine ability. While his literary talent was decent, it wasn’t solely because of any exceptional talent that he won the top scholar title. It was actually because of Jiang Yao’s second brother.
Although the Jiang family were merchants, Second Brother Jiang possessed extraordinary talent. Since childhood, he excelled in his studies and was praised by his teachers.
Unfortunately, several years ago, Second Brother Jiang met with an accident that left him disabled in both legs.
After that, although Second Brother Jiang did not give up and continued to study diligently, he could no longer pursue an official career due to his disabled legs.
The essay Pei Muzheng presented at the Imperial Examination that year was guided by Second Brother.
It was all because of her Second Brother, and her assistance, with the Jiang family’s wealth supporting Pei Muzheng, that he was able to rise step by step…
In this lifetime, Jiang Yao would never allow Pei Muzheng to climb up by stepping on her, on Second Brother, and on the Jiang family again!
Jiang Yao walked quickly back to her Muyun Yuan.
When she reached the entrance of the courtyard, she stared at the plaque above the Chuihua Gate, looking at the three large characters “Muyun Yuan.”
Jiang Yao felt like slapping herself.
Muyun, Muyun—”Yun” was Pei Muzheng’s courtesy name, as his courtesy name was Yunzhi.
Back then, she had even changed the plaque of her own residence to such a name.
Jiang Yao instructed the third-rank maid at the courtyard entrance.
“Chun Yu, take down this courtyard’s plaque and throw it away. Then find a craftsman to make a new plaque, with the name Hanmei Yuan.”
She liked the winter plum blossoms.
After speaking, Jiang Yao strode into the courtyard.
She had just been reborn and had experienced this morning’s events; her body could hardly bear it and was likely to fall ill.
She already felt her forehead burning, probably from a high fever.
When Chun Yu heard her mistress’s words, she was utterly astonished.
Wasn’t the young madam deeply in love with the master? Why would she want to remove the plaque?
But since the young madam had given the order, she intended to take down the plaque and find someone to make a new one.
Just as Chun Yu was about to act, You Qin beside her pulled her aside and said, “Chun Yu, there’s no need to remove this plaque. The young madam is just angry right now; she’ll calm down in a while. Don’t you know how the young madam feels about the master?”
Chun Yu hesitated slightly.
After all, this was an order from her mistress.
You Qin continued, “Something happened when the young madam attended the banquet at Dingguo Duke Manor. The master broke her heart, so she’s throwing a bit of a tantrum. But you know, the young madam adores the master the most—it’s just a momentary outburst. By tomorrow, the young madam will surely regret throwing the plaque away, so there’s no need to take it down.”
Chun Yu was curious about what exactly the master had done at the banquet to break the young madam’s heart.
But she didn’t dare ask Sister You Qin at that moment.
“Alright,” Chun Yu hesitated for a moment. “Then I won’t remove the plaque for now.”
After all, You Qin was the senior maid who had served the young madam the longest.
You Qin nodded and entered the courtyard, intending to go inside and attend to the young madam, but she was stopped by another senior maid, Zhenzhu, standing at the door.
Zhenzhu said, “Sister You Qin, the young madam said no one is to disturb her. She’s not feeling well and wants to rest for a while.”
You Qin didn’t think much of it, assuming it was truly because the master had broken the young madam’s heart.
Inside the room, Jiang Yao removed all her hairpins and took down her bun.
She gazed at the lotus-like face in the bronze mirror.
At this moment, her skin was radiant, her eyes dark and bright, her brows and eyes charming, still carrying a hint of innocent sweetness.
Jiang Yao touched her flushed cheeks, heated by her rising temperature, and though her face was exquisitely beautiful, her words were sinister.
“Pei Muzheng, Shen Yuanwu, I will make you pay with your blood.”
Jiang Yao did not last long before returning to her bed to rest.
Her head throbbed intensely, and she knew Pei Muzheng would grow suspicious.
When he returned from Dingguo Duke Manor, he would surely come to her courtyard to test her.
At the hour of Shen, Pei Muzheng returned to the manor, his expression grim. He had suffered great humiliation at the Duke Manor.
Not only had Jiang Yao slapped him in front of everyone, but afterward, the noble sons, colleagues, and superiors in the official circles spoke to him with a hint of sarcasm and insinuation.
They even questioned how he, as a court official, could claim the person inside the room was his wife without even seeing who was there.
They asked if he would be so reckless when serving in court in the future.
When it was time to return, he discovered the carriage had already taken Jiang Yao back to the residence, leaving him to walk away. He ended up hiring a carriage from a coach house to bring him back.
Pei Muzheng went straight to Muyun Yuan. Seeing the maids gathered in the courtyard, he asked coldly, “Where is your young mistress?”