The maid's road to success

The sun was setting, and Chen Luoxi and his friends could not wait for Wen Niang's purse to be ready, so they went to the restaurant to drink and listen to music.

They agreed that Jun Zirong would come to the house to pick it up himself. After seeing Chen Luoxi and the others off, Wen Niang was no longer in a hurry to make the purse. She sat aside and played with her daughter for a long time. Madam Su made tender fish fillets and stir-fried mushrooms, and served them with rice. Wen Niang ate a bowl of it.

"Do you want to wash up, Wen Niang? I have boiled some hot water in the pot."

Wen Niang nodded. It was getting late and she wanted to have a good sleep when she came back. She could go to bed early if she took a shower early.

"I'll fetch some water myself. You go and feed Nannan."

Wen Niang was a maid herself, serving others. She always felt it was a bit weird to let others serve her when she returned home, so she did everything she could do by herself.

After getting the water ready, Wen Niang soaked in the bathtub, which had some peach petals symbolically placed in it. She felt really comfortable. No wonder the ladies in the marquis's mansion liked to take a petal bath every day, it was really relaxing.

After resting for two days, Wen Niang had to pack up and return to Huaiyuan Marquis' Mansion. Madam Su made some of Bihe's favorite shredded chicken and vegetable porridge and pickled radish and asked Wen Niang to take them with her.

"You're finally back. I was exhausted the past few days when you were away."

Bihe pulled Wen Niang to sit down and wolfed down the porridge.

"What's wrong? Are you so tired?"

Wen Niang quickly poured her a glass of water and brought her some side dishes to eat.

"It's almost the Dragon Boat Festival, and many families have come to pay their respects to the old ancestor. People from the Yin Palace and the Li Palace have also come to sit and talk with the old ancestor and wipe the cards. I, the waiter, can't stop the fire. I have to serve tea when I'm called. Thanks to Chunxiu and Chunlu for helping out from time to time."

Wen Niang was a little puzzled. There hadn't been so many people in previous years. Why did so many people come to pay their respects this year?

"I heard the Marquis talking to the old ancestor and said that the emperor intends to let the fourth young master marry the princess. It is said that the Marquis' official position may be promoted."

This news shocked Wen Niang. Marry a princess? No good family wants their son to marry a princess. Once he becomes the royal consort, he will not be able to hold real power, which means that his ambitions and aspirations in this life will have nothing to do with him.

"My Lord?"

Wen Niang asked Bihe in a low voice, and Bihe shook her head and suddenly smiled.

"I don't know about that. I just know that Chunyue in the Fourth Young Master's courtyard, Qiu Ke, has been in a bad mood recently and will cry when she sees too many flowers."

Wen Niang found Bihe's tsundere and secretly happy attitude somewhat amusing. Bihe remembered that last time, Chunyue and the others had ridiculed her many times, both openly and covertly, because the Fourth Young Master had taken a purse from her, and she was holding a grudge against her.

"They are so rampant, relying on the Fourth Young Master's love for them, they show off all day long and don't care about anyone. I think when the Fourth Young Master really becomes a royal consort, the first person he will chase away will be Chunyue, and then Qiuke."

"Okay, don't be angry. There are many people in charge of the Fourth Young Master's courtyard. Let's just do our job well and don't cause any trouble."

Wen Niang replaced Bi He to take a break, and she stayed in the tea room to copy scriptures.

"Abi? I'm here to see you."

A very obscene and familiar male voice was heard. Wen Niang put down her pen, stood up and looked at the door.

"I've seen the second young master."

Chen Luoan has been going to Fushoutang frequently recently. Bihe also said that the second young master sometimes flirts with her verbally, which makes her very uncomfortable.

"why you?"

Chen Luoan's originally exaggerated smile immediately subsided and he looked at Wen Niang seriously.

"The old man has something to ask Bihe, I'll stay here."

Fu Shou Tang was originally a first-class maid. Among the second-class maids, Wen Niang was the least noticeable. Later, Chuncao left and Chunlu came, but she was still not very noticeable.

Therefore, in Fu Shou Tang, with all those pearls and jades in front of them, no one paid much attention to the two of them.

"Oh, I'll come back later."

Wen Niang looked at Chen Luoan's back, and a rare feeling of disgust rose in her heart.

Chuncao and his group were about to leave just now. They had not restrained themselves at all and acted ridiculously every day. Many people had heard their inappropriate laughter in the Second Young Master's Wutong Garden.

If the maid was allowed to get pregnant, she could either be given medicine early and recuperate so that she could wait for the future Second Young Lady to come into the mansion and be born, or she could be allowed to give birth. However, the Second Young Master simply let go and turned to show his deep affection for the Third Young Lady of the Zhou family.

It hasn't been long since then, but he has become restless again. He even has his eyes on the maids in Fu Shou Tang. I don't know how many beautiful maids outside have been harassed by him.

Chuncao cries every day now and wants to return to Fushoutang, but a maid employed by the master will either be a concubine in the backyard for the rest of her life, or be sold directly or married to someone else.

Returning to Fushoutang is wishful thinking. Chunxiu sometimes can't stand Chuncao being bullied and would secretly help her twice. However, Chuncao is not ambitious enough and dares not stand up straight, so she lets others bully her.

When Sister Yumei came in, she was full of anger and slammed the table hard.

"It's really annoying that there are such hateful people in Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion."

Wen Niang poured a glass of water and handed it to Yumei. Yumei waved her hand and asked her to sit down.

"Why is my sister so angry?"

Yumei's chest heaved and her eyes were filled with anger as she looked at the person outside the door.

"How shameless! I don't know how many maids in the mansion have been contaminated by him, and he is still so rude in Fushou Hall. If I wasn't afraid of the ancestor's anger, I would really report him."

Wen Niang understood immediately that it must be that Sister Yumei ran into the second young master when she came. Although Sister Yumei did not have a very beautiful appearance, her skin was fair and tender. Moreover, she was engaged, and the old ancestor would not easily let her do rough work. Most of the time, she followed the old ancestor and several maids, and maintained a good temperament.

She is also a top-notch one in the mansion. The Second Young Master even likes Qiu Huan, who is only ten years old, let alone a beauty like Sister Yumei.

"Ah, I just hope that the Second Young Madam will come to the mansion, so that the Second Young Master can control his temper and stop being so absurd."

There was obviously mockery in Yumei's eyes. When has a cat never stolen fish?

She has already been engaged and rarely even goes out of the courtyard of Fu Shou Tang on weekdays, but she still runs into the second young master.

"Let's not talk about him. I came here to give you something. The Zhou family sent a lot of velvet and silk flowers. The old ancestor thought they were a bit fancy and asked us to keep them for ourselves. I left a few for you."

Wen Niang picked up the velvet flower and looked at it, a little surprised. What surprised her was not how beautiful the velvet flower was, but on the contrary, the velvet flower was much worse than the ones purchased by the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion.

No wonder it was the maids' turn to take care of them. They also gave these things to their daughter's husband's family. It seems that the Zhou family is indeed not rich.

"This Zhou family?"

"It's a bit shabby. The material Miss Zhou is wearing is just slightly better than ours."

Before Wen Niang could finish her words, Yu Mei interrupted her.

"Then the Second Madam wants so much betrothal gift?"

Wen Niang thought about the previous stalemate between the second wife and the first wife over the betrothal gift. The daughter-in-law's family was poor, and asking for such a large betrothal gift would embarrass the Zhou family, wouldn't it?

Yumei sneered, turned her head to look at the door, moved closer to Wen Niang, and spoke in a low voice.

"How can you really ask for a betrothal gift? I heard that the second wife took a lot of cash from the dowry and sent it to the Wang family."

"The Royal Family!"

Wen Niang was horrified and her voice was a little shrill. Hasn't the Wang family always believed in integrity?

"That day, the second master came to chat with the old ancestor and mentioned that the young master of the Wang family was also going to get married, but the family couldn't afford a decent betrothal gift, so Madam Wang came to the second madam for help."

"The next day, someone from the second house discovered that there was a shortage of silver from the betrothal gift. It was about seven or eight hundred taels."

Wen Niang's expression could no longer be restrained, and she didn't even notice that the velvet flower in her hand had fallen to the ground.

Seven or eight hundred taels is worth the Second Madam's effort. Any steward with some power in the mansion can afford seven or eight hundred taels.

"The ancestor directly gave two thousand taels to the second house, asking them to make up the betrothal gift for the second young master. The second old master was also angry and had a quarrel with the second mistress. Everyone in the second house knew about it. The second young master also told the second mistress openly and secretly that his betrothal gift could not be less. The second mistress is now so angry that she has fallen ill and can't even get out of bed."

Wen Niang covered her mouth, not daring to let herself scream out. The Huaiyuan Marquis' Mansion had a foundation of many years. Although it was not as wealthy as a country, it was still considered wealthy in the capital, or even in the world. Yet a lady embezzled the money from her son's betrothal gift to subsidize her own family.

"Isn't the Second Madam's family a noble family? How could such a thing happen?"

Wen Niang asked carefully, afraid that others would hear.

"Noble, what a bullshit noble. Mr. Wang is only seeking fame and reputation. He would never let his family do business. He relies on his wife's dowry to support the family. How can it be possible? It's a pity that he could keep some in the betrothal gifts when marrying off his daughters, otherwise they would have been sleeping on the street. He should have told his son that he is the daughter of an official in Beijing. The betrothal gifts are too small. It's embarrassing."

"Mrs. Wang came to see the Second Madam herself. When this incident came out, rumors were rife. Lord Wang sent a message to the Second Madam, saying that she was not worthy of being a child of the Wang family. He almost sent Mrs. Wang back to her parents' home."

This time Wen Niang was completely speechless. She could now understand why the Second Lady cared more and more about the money and was willing to deduct the concubines' shares.

It was hard to be unmarried in the past, but after all, she had been like that since childhood, so it didn't matter. When she came to the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion, she was dressed in fine clothes and fed with delicious food, and there were countless jades and emeralds.

In the past, rare books were treated with extreme care for fear of damaging them. There was an entire library of books in the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion.

In the past I used inferior paper for practicing calligraphy, but now I have this high-quality ink and wash paper for fun.

As the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. After getting used to a good life, the most feared thing is to go back to the past. Therefore, the second wife worked very hard to make sure she had money in her hands so as not to go back to the hard life she had in the past.

Seeing that she had wasted quite some time here, Yumei hurried back to the main house. During this time, Wenniang served tea to the old ancestor and she also took a nap on the small couch in the tea room.

When she was in a daze, she heard a noisy noise coming from Fu Shou Tang. Wen Niang ran over to see what was going on, and saw Chun Cao kneeling in the yard of Fu Shou Tang, crying and telling something in a sad voice.

The two old women couldn't pull her away for a while, and Yulan stood on the steps with an angry face.

"Why don't you take her away?"

Wen Niang looked at the sun and thought to herself that something was wrong. It should be the time for the ancestor to take a nap, so why did Chuncao come in at this time?

Sister Yulan hated the fact that she was secretly having an affair with the Second Young Master, which had tarnished the reputation of Fu Shou Tang. She would not let her in no matter what. She didn't know how she got in here today.

"Grandfather, Grandfather, I am almost dying. Please have mercy on me and save me, Grandfather."

"What are you standing there for? Get her away now."

Chuncao cried so sadly, but her sorrowful appearance did not move Yulan at all. Yulan walked down quickly and wanted to drag her away herself.

"The old man let her in."

Yumei lifted the dark red door curtain embroidered with magpies on branches, walked out expressionlessly, and spoke lightly, but people who knew her could see anger in her eyes.

Yumei nodded to Wen Niang, and Wen Niang understood that Chuncao had woken up the old ancestor after all, so she made a cup of light Longjing tea and brought it to the main hall.

"Ancestor."

Wen Niang thought hard that the old ancestor had been woken up and might not be in a good mood, so she ate two more bites of braised lamb at noon and brought some refreshing stuffed plums to relieve her discomfort.

"Chuncao, you should know that you belong to Wutong Garden now, and you shouldn't come to me."