You muddle-headed, dim-witted fool! Didn't your mother ever teach you…
They had both been childhood sweethearts.
Both had harbored youthful affections.
Both had once been bound by a betrothal.
Pei Yu, being a man, could openly carry on a lingering attachment with his beloved even after marriage—while she…
At this moment, an indescribable feeling suddenly welled up in Shen Qingyin's heart…
Or rather, an emotion of envy.
She envied Pei Yu so much.
"If the First Madam has urgent business, you may as well tell me."
Luye, seeing her standing rooted in place in prolonged silence, grew ever more impatient. "Once the banquet is over, I will pass your message along to my mistress on your behalf."
Shen Qingyin had come precisely to make peace this time, and Luye's words amounted to asking her to lower herself further—to yield to a mere maidservant.
Sensing this implication, Zhuling's face darkened at once and was about to lash out, but Nanny Qing raised a hand to gently press down on Zhuling's arm, stepping half a pace forward as she said:
"Matters between mistresses—what sense does it make to have a servant act as go-between? If the Second Madam truly cannot spare the time, we may call again another day."
"You!"
Luye had never liked being called a servant, yet Nanny Qing's words left her speechless, her indignation with no outlet.
So she shot Shen Qingyin a vicious glare, turned, and strode into the courtyard, slamming the gate shut with a heavy "bang."
The sound startled Zhuling so much she shuddered, and she couldn't help grinding her teeth and muttering curses under her breath: "Vile thing, lording it over others on her master's authority!"
She then turned to look at Shen Qingyin, who was bending over in pain, and said with heartache in a low voice, "Before our mistress was married, she hardly ever so much as caught a chill. But since marrying into the Pei household she has toiled day and night—always aching in the waist or the legs—and now she must even suffer the insults of servant girls…"
As if she hadn't heard this lament at all, Shen Qingyin's fingertips drifted absently to the jade pendant at her waist.
Nanny Qing hastily gave Zhuling a small shake of her head, signaling her to be silent.
Their mistress's predicament in the Pei household was a long-standing one; it could not be reversed in a moment.
A few grumbles from servants like them would not change the mistress's difficult circumstances one bit—they would only deepen her gloom.
The only thing Nanny Qing hoped for now was that the Eldest Young Master would agree to take a concubine.
With an heir—even if not born of their mistress—their mistress's days would at least be somewhat better than now.
…
Trudging back through the twilight, Shen Qingyin returned to Yueba Court. The moment she stepped through the gate, a thick, bitter aroma of medicinal herbs washed over her.
Yet for some reason, her senses had grown duller these past days; the smell seemed ordinary to her and caused no discomfort.
It was Zhuling beside her who immediately frowned, clamping a hand firmly over her nose and mouth, asking in bewilderment, "Why is the smell of medicine so strong here? Who's brewing medicine in the courtyard?"
Only then did Shen Qingyin notice the faint scent of medicinal broth lingering at the tip of her nose.
Ah yes, this smell… where had it come from?
Nanny Qing, however, grasped the reason at once and said gently to Shen Qingyin, "Madam, the herbs sent over by the Old Madam must have begun to be decocted."
She had accompanied the madam to Xueqing Studio to pay her respects that morning, and naturally she had not forgotten the matter.
Sure enough, the moment Nanny Qing finished speaking, a servant hurried out from the direction of the small kitchen and bowed to Shen Qingyin to report:
"First Madam, the nanny from the Old Madam's side personally delivered several doses of medicinal herbs just now, with special instructions that this medicine must be taken three times a day—one bowl each in the morning, at noon, and in the evening—and that you must begin taking it on schedule today. She ordered me to brew it at once and serve it to you after supper."
Zhuling's heart tightened with alarm, and the words burst out before she could stop them: "It's this urgent? Madam has been running about outside all day—how can she possibly—"
"How can she not!"
Before Zhuling could finish, a stern voice suddenly rang out from beyond the courtyard gate.
Everyone turned to look, only to see a woman in a umber-colored narrow skirt, supported by a nanny, slowly stepping into Yuebai Courtyard.
Liang Wanyou's eyes were clouded with heavy malice, her face cold as if covered by ten-thousand-year-old ice. Her sharp gaze swept over everyone in the courtyard before locking firmly onto Shen Qingyin.
At the sight of her, all the servants in the courtyard lowered their heads and held their breath, not even daring to breathe. The courtyard fell utterly silent.
Ever since that incident two years ago, the people of Yuebai Courtyard had grown terribly afraid of this old woman.
Shen Qingyin had no idea why her mother-in-law had suddenly come to her quarters, but she gathered her robes and stepped forward, bending her knees in a proper curtsy, her courtesy flawless. "Your daughter-in-law greets Mother."
When she had first married into the Pei family, she had not yet known how many strict rules the noble families observed. It was Liang Wanyou who had hired a nanny from the palace to teach her etiquette for three months.
That nanny had endless methods of torment. Shen Qingyin had been whipped with bamboo strips until her whole body was covered in wounds, which was why her curtsies these days could not be faulted in the slightest.
Yet Liang Wanyou could not even be bothered to spare Shen Qingyin a glance. Fixing her with those fox eyes she so despised, she demanded furiously, "Shen-shi, let me ask you—how exactly did you go over these account books today?!"
With that, she snatched the topmost ledger from the arms of the servant beside her and hurled it at Shen Qingyin with all her strength.
With a loud "crack—"
The ledger slammed to the ground, landing squarely at Shen Qingyin's feet, the force of it fluttering her skirt open.
The surrounding servants were terrified out of their wits by the commotion and all dropped to their knees with a thud.
The courtyard grew so quiet that the only sound was the flutter and tremble of pages stirred by the wind.
Liang Wanyou's eyes grew colder still. "Shen-shi! Did you hand these ledgers over to me carelessly without checking them properly?"
Shen Qingyin froze for a moment, then slowly raised her eyes, only to see her mother-in-law glaring at her furiously, undisguised rage in her eyes—and also… loathing.
Seeing that the old madam was about to berate her mistress, Zhuling immediately raised a hand, signaling all the servants inside and outside the courtyard to withdraw.
"Old Madam, pray see the truth of it!"
Nanny Qing hurried forward, bent down to pick up the scattered ledgers, and said earnestly, "Before dawn today, the First Madam left the residence to collect the accounts. The moment the ledgers were gathered, she checked them on the spot at each shop. The ledgers from all four corners of the city were handled the same way."
Seeing that it was the Qingfeng Tower's ledger, Nanny Qing pointed to the dense circles and annotations on the pages and continued in Shen Qingyin's defense:
"The Qingfeng Tower's accounts the First Madam checked over three separate times. Look—every page bears traces of her going over each entry, tallying profits and losses. Not the slightest discrepancy was found. We do not know where the error Your Ladyship speaks of lies."
Nanny Qing's heart was engraved with the instructions General Shen had given her three years ago: she must do everything in her power to protect the mistress within these deep mansion walls.
Liang Wanyou did not so much as glance at Nanny Qing. She merely waved off the servant supporting her and walked slowly to a stone bench in the courtyard, where she sat down.
She cast a cold, disdainful eye on Shen Qingyin, who stood bowed before her, and laughed in extreme anger. "Checked three times? Checked three times and still failed to detect the irregularities in the Qingfeng Tower's accounts? Even if the Shen family comes from humble, minor stock, did your mother Mrs. Chen never teach you how to manage a household before you married?!"
Liang Wanyou grew ever more displeased with this daughter-in-law. If not for the disgraceful scandal back then, the daughter-in-law standing before her today would have been her own niece, flesh and blood!
Liang Luoying, born into a marquis's household, was so refined and gracious, so obedient and sensible—she would surely never be like this Shen woman, unable to comprehend even the most basic fluctuations in a shop's profits and losses.
How could such a muddle-headed, slow-witted daughter-in-law be fit to steward the Pei family's century-old estate?
An anomaly in Qingfeng Pavilion's accounts? Hearing this, Shen Qingyin's gaze slowly fell on the ledger in Nanny Qing's hands. Nanny Qing, taking the hint, hurriedly handed the ledger to her.
Liang Wanyou was seething with rage, yet Shen Qingyin seemed entirely oblivious to it, saying only in her unhurried manner, "Mother, allow your daughter-in-law to calculate it once more."
With that, she actually sat down on the stone bench across from Liang Wanyou, and with the abacus Zhuling promptly presented, buried herself in reviewing the ledger.
Liang Wanyou felt as though she had punched into cotton. Sitting off to the side, she watched Shen Qingyin leisurely moving the abacus beads, the clacking sound ringing ceaselessly in her ears, her anxiety and impatience mounting higher and higher. Several times she nearly opened her mouth to reprimand her.
This Shen woman had been married in for three years, yet grew ever more absent-minded and sluggish with each passing day—utterly blockheaded. She grew ever more suspicious that Shen Qingyin might be simple-minded!
After a while, Shen Qingyin finally stopped, rose, and said calmly to Liang Wanyou, "Mother, your daughter-in-law has checked the figures repeatedly. This month Qingfeng Pavilion's income and expenses balance out; there are no errors in the accounts."
" Fool!"
Liang Wanyou could no longer suppress the fury in her heart. She bit out the words in a low snarl, her eyes blazing with exasperated anger.
"Compare the accounts against last month again, carefully! This month's profits have been more than halved compared to the last. Such a drastic gap—and you don't notice anything amiss at all!"
"Day after day, you drift about in this dazed, sluggish manner, as if you could never wake from sleep. You cannot even manage the simplest task of reconciling accounts. With such a temperament and such ability, how could I ever trust you with the vast Pei family estate in the future?!"
The evening breeze swept through the courtyard, gently lifting the ledger's pages to brush against Shen Qingyin's chin, bringing a faint tickle. Liang Wanyou's sharp, scolding words were crumbled by the wind and drifted slowly into Shen Qingyin's ears, seeming somehow blurred and distant.
Shen Qingyin lifted her eyes slightly. By the time she hazily came back to herself, there was no one before her.
Liang Wanyou had already swept away with her retinue of servants, her departing figure resolute and indignant—identical in every way to how Pei Yu looked whenever he stormed off after quarreling with her.
At last, Shen Qingyin heard it clearly—heard what the old nanny attending behind Liang Wanyou said: "Pray calm your anger, Madam. The First Madam has only just taken charge of the household; she is not yet practiced. Everything takes time to learn, step by step. She will improve gradually."
But Liang Wanyou's anger would not subside, and her voice rose sharply. "When the accounts were in my hands, there was never a single error! Yet after handing them to her for a mere few months, she has produced blunders like this. Utterly useless! Good for nothing!"
The voices faded into the distance, and the courtyard sank into complete silence.
Shen Qingyin stood quietly in place, a thick ledger cradled in both hands, as if entirely untouched by the scolding that had been rained down on her, her expression still as calm as still water.
Zhuling, however, was both anxious and indignant, her heart full of grievance on her mistress's behalf, yet not knowing how to comfort her.
Nanny Qing also felt a twinge of tenderness in her heart. After a long while, she stepped forward softly, helped Shen Qingyin to a seat on the stone bench, and poured her a cup of warm tea. "Madam, you—"
"I'm fine."
Shen Qingyin gave a faint reply and lifted her teacup to take a sip.
Such harsh reprimands had long since become the norm for her. Three years of marriage into the Pei household, year after year, month after month—she had long grown used to it.
……
As dusk softened, the craftsmanship of Master Luo, whom they had hired earlier, proved truly excellent. In just a few days, the accumulated water in the lotus pond of Yuebai Courtyard had been completely drained, the pond bottom neatly lined with edging stones, and half a pond of clear water stored within.
Rain was likely coming, and the earth was steaming with waves of heat. Seizing this opportunity, Shen Qingyin ordered Zhuling and the wet nurse to teach Tang-jie'er how to swim in the pond.
Little Tang-jie'er, wearing only her undergarments, was held by the wet nurse floating on the shallow pond water. Under Zhuling's instruction, she clumsily imitated the paddling motions of a frog, her little hands and feet splashing about in a comically adorable way that made Zhuling laugh again and again.
This was the scene that greeted Pei Yu when he came to Yuebai Courtyard for the evening meal.
The man had never liked his wife letting their daughter learn such arts that had nothing to do with refinement—let alone the fact that he had already told her earlier that Tang-jie'er was forbidden from learning to swim.
Seeing her now still allowing their daughter to frolic about freely, learning skills he had explicitly forbidden, Pei Yu's expression turned several degrees colder at once. With heavy steps, he crossed the corridor, intending to confront Shen Qingyin.
But when he reached the covered walkway and caught sight of that familiar figure, his gaze abruptly froze.
On the stone table beside the woman, a thick stack of account books lay neatly piled, their pages fluttering noisily in the wind.
Next to the account books sat a bowl of medicine, brewed thick and pitch-black, its steam gently dissipating. Even standing as far away as he was, he could faintly smell its bitter medicinal scent.
And that Shen woman, who ought to be balancing the accounts, taking her medicine, and watching over their daughter—his wife.
At this moment, she was completely indifferent to everything around her.
The woman had casually hitched her skirt up to her knees, revealing a section of delicate, porcelain-white calf. In her hand she held a small wooden-hoed tool, squatting alone among the orchids in the courtyard, focused and serene as she hoed weeds and loosened the soil.
Pei Yu suddenly realized that in the three years Shen had been married to him, what she seemed to care about most, to treasure most—
was only this cluster of orchids.
How could this be?
Hadn't she schemed and manipulated her way into the Pei household three years ago?
Why, after marrying in, did she put on this appearance, as if the entire Pei household had wronged her?