Xie Zi’an naturally had no idea that his future bride was calling him a toad. After dealing with Zhao Er, he pointed at Zhao Da and said, “From now on, you follow me.”
Zhao Da scratched his head foolishly. ”I’ll do whatever you say, Young Master.”
The words had barely left his mouth when his stomach let out a loud growl. Zhao Da looked utterly embarrassed.
Xie Zi’an pressed a hand to his forehead, exasperated.
The people serving under him couldn’t even fill their bellies!
“Wanqiu, go arrange dinner for Zhao Da.”
Zhao Da’s eyes lit up, and he rubbed his hands together like a fly. ”Y-Young Master, all I can eat?”
Xie Zi’an laughed in spite of his anger. ”Yes, all you can eat!”
Delighted, Zhao Da followed Wanqiu out to fill his stomach, leaving only Zhao San in the main hall, looking uneasy.
After letting him stew for a while, Xie Zi’an finally spoke. ”How long have you served me?”
Zhao San answered carefully, “This servant has been with you for two years, Young Master.”
He was different from Zhao Er, who had been placed at the Young Master’s side by the stepmother since childhood.
Zhao Da had been brought in by the original owner’s wet nurse, but unfortunately, the stepmother had found an excuse to send her out of the residence.
As for Zhao San, he had gotten in later through connections. He wasn’t as brazenly lazy and deceitful as Zhao Er—instead, he was quite good at putting on a respectable front.
Xie Zi’an understood that water that is too pure holds no fish. It was fine if the servants under him were a bit greedy—what he feared was someone who was both greedy and stupid, rotten to the core.
He spoke up. “Go buy me a copy of the Great Jin legal code.”
With that, he took out a banknote for ten taels of silver.
Zhao San felt as if he’d been granted a pardon, and hurriedly accepted the banknote.
As he walked out the door, he glanced back, wiping cold sweat from his brow with lingering fear. Thankfully, the Young Master still had a use for him—he had no wish to end up like Zhao Er.
So what if his backer was the First Madam?
Anyone who dared to lord it over their master would meet such an end sooner or later.
With that thought, he dared not delay any longer and hurried out of Cold Pine Courtyard.
Having cowed the demons and monsters of the courtyard, Cold Pine Courtyard finally fell quiet. No longer could one see servants lounging about and gossiping.
Xie Zi’an returned to his room and checked the original owner’s little treasury. A pitiful ten taels of silver lay inside. Counting the ten taels given to Zhao San, the original owner’s entire fortune amounted to a mere twenty taels of silver.
Taking out the hundred taels he had just confiscated from Zhao Er, Xie Zi’an smiled bitterly. “I’m poorer than a servant. What kind of young master is this?”
After hiding the silver away, he comfortably drank the meat porridge Wanxia brought him, and his mood finally improved considerably.
“Oh, my dear young master! You’ve finally returned!”
The voice arrived before the person did.
An old woman dressed in fine clothing, silver hairpins in her hair, came bustling into the room.
Xie Zi’an lifted his eyelids slightly and said nothing.
“Where is everyone? Where did you all die? Hurry up and serve the tea!” Nanny Cao ordered imperiously, carrying herself with more authority than Xie Zi’an, the actual master of the house.
Chunmei answered sweetly, and with Chunliu, Wanxia, and two other young maids in tow, she glided in, lighting candles and serving tea.
She looked rather smug, believing that with Nanny Cao’s arrival, she now had a backer of her own.
But remembering the bloody scene that afternoon, she didn’t dare go too far.
Nanny Cao plopped herself down, took a sip of tea, and only then said, waving her handkerchief, “Oh, my young master, what could have made you so angry! All this hitting and shouting—if word gets out, people who don’t know any better will think you’re a cruel and violent master!”
Seeing that Xie Zi’an remained silent, she grew even more smug.
The original owner had lost his mother at a young age. When he was old enough to understand things, he had believed his stepmother was his birth mother, and for a time grieved bitterly over why his mother doted on his younger brother while neglecting him. As he grew older and learned the truth, he grew more and more withdrawn, devoting himself single-mindedly to the imperial examinations in hopes of escaping this household.
The stepmother feared that if he made something of himself, he would overshadow her own son, and also feared that this stepson harbored a grudge and would seek revenge once he rose in the world.
So she sent Zhao Er, Nanny Cao, and others to keep watch over Cold Pine Courtyard, inside and out.
Fortunately, the scumbag father cared deeply about his reputation and would not allow any family scandal to spread beyond these walls.
Moreover, the original owner’s maternal relatives would send someone now and then to check in on him.
Only then did the stepmother not dare to cripple or kill him outright—she only dared to quietly ruin him.
“The young master is no longer young. How easy do you think the imperial examinations are? Don’t bury yourself in books—do give some thought to your marriage. Not long ago, the prefect’s wife herself came to propose a match, and young master, with your temper, you refused her on the spot. Madam lost a great deal of face over it.”
Xie Zi’an sneered. “Then why didn’t you tell your own son to marry into a wife’s family instead? You’d be eating and drinking well by now. Why wallow in this little temple of mine, taking orders from others?”
Nanny Cao’s face flushed green and white, her voice turning shrill. “I only mean well for you, young master! How can you be so ungrateful!”
“Back then, Madam thought you didn’t care for ladies of great families, so she looked lower and put in so much effort—only to find you’d quietly hooked yourself up with the Minister’s beloved younger daughter behind everyone’s backs… Oh, my young master! No matter how fond you are of that young lady, you can’t use such filthy methods! If the marriage comes through, fine—but if it doesn’t, when the master returns tonight, he’ll surely break your legs.”
The scumbag father treasured his official post dearly. A while ago, when Xie Zi’an had offended the prefect’s wife, Madam Wang, he had given him a fierce beating. If he learned about what happened at the Xu residence—offending the Vice Minister of Personnel—he would likely fly into a rage.
He knew that what happened at the Xu residence today had already been reported to the stepmother by Zhao Er, and with the maid’s tip-off just now, Nanny Cao had hurried back from the stepmother’s quarters.
Nanny Cao ordinarily acted as if she were the true master of Cold Pine Courtyard. She rarely stayed in the courtyard, instead running off from time to time to curry favor with the stepmother.
Xie Zi’an narrowed his eyes. “What, everyone thinks I deliberately harmed that young lady? Others, perhaps—but do even Father and Mother doubt my character?”
The stepmother was an expert at putting on appearances. To everyone, inside and out, she was the picture of a loving mother—didn’t everyone say she was a fine stepmother? Some even said the original owner didn’t know how lucky he was.
In truth, her words and deeds were all needles wrapped in cotton, leaving the original owner to swallow bitter herbs in silence, unable to voice his suffering.
Nanny Cao rattled on hurriedly, “You child, it doesn’t matter whether Madam believes you—you can’t stop other people’s mouths!”
Xie Zi’an snorted coldly. “I don’t care whether others believe me or not.”
Seeing his dark expression, Nanny Cao smiled.
She had said all this on Madam’s orders—she must provoke Xie Zi’an’s rebellious spirit.
Madam, too, was afraid of this boy latching onto the Minister’s family. She’d heard the Minister’s wife doted on that youngest daughter as the apple of her eye. If she married into the household, would Madam not have to bow her head before this daughter-in-law?
And who’s to say the stepson wouldn’t ride the Xu family’s coattails straight to the top!
Nanny Cao continued, “Why, the Xu family has produced a fourth-rank official in the capital. I hear the Xu family’s third young lady is the Vice Minister’s treasured daughter—certainly more pampered at home than the prefect’s daughter. I daresay they’d have you marry into their household as a live-in son-in-law…”
The Eldest Young Master despises being a live-in son-in-law more than anything. Once he heard that, the task Madam wanted done would be as good as settled.
Xie Zi’an truly would rather die than become a live-in son-in-law. A rich playboy like him—how could he possibly let a wife support him?
Absolutely not!
For all her cunning calculations, Nanny Cao had never anticipated that the Xu family had no intention of taking in a son-in-law at all.
The only reason Madam Wang had considered taking a son-in-law was that she had just one daughter.
In this day and age, whether it was a woman’s family taking in a son-in-law or a man marrying into his wife’s family, neither carried a good reputation. Unless there was no other choice, people generally wouldn’t make that decision.
After saying all this, Nanny Cao, seeing Xie Zi’an’s cold expression, cheerfully picked up her teacup again and took a delicate sip.
Setting down the teacup, she flicked her handkerchief and rose leisurely to her feet.
“Well then, I still need to report back to Madam, so I’ll take my leave.”
With that, she swayed her plump waist out the door.
Xie Zi’an could only stare in disbelief. “Damn it—who’s the master here, exactly?”