After the mind-reading and gossip-eating incident, officials in the imperial city were demoted one a

"Thank you, Grandpa Cen. Yaoyao will listen to you."

Ye Yaoyao nodded obediently.

'This old man is actually quite nice.'

"Then I'll head back to the palace first." Imperial Physician Cen packed his things and prepared to leave.

Liu Yunshu quickly said, "Li An, see Uncle off."

"Grandpa Cen, please!" Li An respectfully led the way.

"Jingyang, go outside and get the medicine."

"Yes, mother."

Liu Yunshu wasn't sure if the doctors in the manor could be trusted, so she felt more at ease going out to get medicine and returning home.

"Yaoyao, are you tired? Do you want to go and rest?"

"Mom, I'm not tired now, let's rest at noon!"

Ye Yaoyao had her own plans in mind, and her little fists clenched unconsciously.

[Mother is going to take charge of the household, and I need to help find some of the troublesome servants.]

"Dongzhu, take a few people and bring over the account books from the accounting office. Zhang Mama, go and tell all the servants to come here within two cups of tea's time."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Yaoyao, Xiyao, Mother is going back to take control of the household. You two need to keep a close eye on how Mother keeps these servants in check."

"Okay, mother."

Two quarters of an hour later, the servants of the mansion arrived one after another, and most of them had already gathered together.

Liu Yunshu sat at the table, holding a thick ledger in her hand, her eyes intently scrutinizing each account, ignoring the servants standing below.

Ye Xiyao helped with the accounting, but Ye Yaoyao, uninterested in the dense text, decided to examine the servants instead.

Dongzhu is a maid that my mother rescued from outside. She is always loyal and trustworthy.

Zhang Mama, on the other hand, came with her mother as part of her dowry and has always been dutiful and responsible, passing all the tests.

Liu Yunshu nodded as she looked at the ledger.

Ye Yaoyao looked at Huang Ying, Liu Yunshu's other personal maid. Huang Ying's makeup and clothing were even better than Dongzhu's, and her eyes had a hint of seductive charm.

[The concubine her mother gave to her scumbag father still wants to climb higher. Not bad, not bad, she has ambition. But on the surface, she still listens to her mother, but in private, she's already in cahoots with her father's mistress.]

Liu Yunshu glanced at Huang Ying out of the corner of her eye, knowing that Huang Ying was audacious. She had sent her to be a concubine, but she hadn't expected that Huang Ying had already started an affair with a mistress. A barely perceptible coldness flashed in her eyes.

[The other people in Mother's courtyard were all arranged by the old witch. There are too many holes in the place, and the whole courtyard is drafty. It's probably the same with the triplets' side.]

Fifteen minutes later, the three stewards finally arrived late. They first bowed and apologized, but their movements were perfunctory, their waists bent only slightly, and their eyes revealed disdain.

"Madam, I'm so sorry, I have a lot of trivial matters to attend to and can't leave for the time being."

Ye Yaoyao observed this and sighed:

When the old hag is in charge, it's truly a case of one person's rise to power bringing prosperity to their entire family, while a whole bunch of scoundrels and deformed children end up.

Liu Yunshu's gaze remained fixed on the ledger, causing the three managers to exchange glances and ponder their own thoughts.

They knew that a new broom sweeps clean, and they figured she wouldn't be in charge for long, so they didn't need to take her seriously.

Once the old lady recovers from her cold, she will take over the household again. After exchanging glances, she regained her confidence and straightened her back.

"Fourth Miss..."

Ye Yaoyao appeared in front of them at some point. The three of them tried to appear calm, but their eyes darted around and they dared not meet Ye Yaoyao's gaze.

The fact that Ye Yaoyao came out of the coffin alive was already somewhat astonishing. Now, as she looked at them without saying a word, her beautiful peach blossom eyes seemed to be able to see into their hearts, as if she were staring at them and yet also seemed to be piercing through their souls.

The thought that she had just come out of the coffin and might be able to see things they couldn't made him more and more frightened. His teeth started chattering and his legs went weak.

This accountant and the steward were in cahoots. He helped the steward make many false accounts, embezzled the manor's money, and reduced or deducted the servants' monthly wages under the pretext of paying them.

The family lives in a brick house with tiled roofs, and all the children are in school. Wow! If the bookkeeper can embezzle so much, how much did the steward take?

Moreover, he was a lecherous man, and several maids had been harassed by him.

This guard is a complete pervert. He likes to read erotic books and also has a thing for fair-skinned young servants.

Shocking! Working for the Ye family is so unsafe. It's one thing for young ladies to protect their chastity, but even the chastity of a servant is coveted.

Aaaaaah! That pervert even spied on my sister! I'll beat you to death later!

The mother and daughter's faces darkened upon hearing Ye Yaoyao's thoughts; the little steward was truly a worthless scoundrel.

Upon hearing this, Ye Xiyao's body stiffened abruptly. It turned out that whenever she passed through the courtyard, or even in every corner of the mansion, it seemed as if a pair of eyes were secretly watching her.

This subtle feeling sent a chill down her spine; it turned out that it wasn't just her imagination.

Ye Jingyang, who had just returned from getting the medicine, heard Ye Yaoyao's thoughts and suddenly regretted not buying more packets of poison.

The Ye family is a den of iniquity, and there are all sorts of people in it. Liu Yunshu's face turned ashen, and she said that she would clean out all these filthy people today.

These three people are all more despicable than the last. Granny Zhang, who is in charge of the kitchen, not only embezzled money from the mansion, but also beat and scolded everyone in the kitchen at will. Such behavior has become commonplace.

Moreover, she has absolutely no regard for hygiene; she doesn't wash her hands after using the toilet, which is simply intolerable.

What's even worse is that they steal food from their master, and then pour the leftovers from their own bowl back into the kitchen.

My God, that's disgusting! How many masters have she fed her saliva to? Luckily, Mom has her own little kitchen, so we avoided her saliva.

Liu Yunshu and her two children felt nauseous even though they hadn't used the food from the main kitchen.

Ye Jingyang handed the medicine to Tingqin to brew.

Liu Yunshu closed the ledger and looked down.

"Butler Wang was given fifty strokes of the cane. Everyone knows why he was punished!"

It's unbelievable that a mere servant, relying on someone's protection, has been so arrogant and domineering in the mansion that he's even disregarded the master's authority.

Liu Yunshu picked up the teacup on the table and took a small sip.

Ye Jingyang continued, "Mother, it seems that you have neglected family affairs for many years, and Grandmother has been too kind, to the point that the servants in the mansion have become audacious and reckless."

[Mother and second brother have started acting.]

Ye Yaoyao ran up and grabbed Liu Yunshu's sleeve, shaking it.

“Mother, there are still cases of wicked servants deceiving their masters in our Holy Capital City. It’s just that some people are always thinking they can get away with it and that they are doing it very secretly.”

The Emperor dislikes these things the most; quickly check if our family has them!

First they mentioned the stewards, then they brought up the Emperor. The fire was getting out of hand, and the three stewards began to feel afraid.

Ye Xiyao, holding the account book, said to Ye Yaoyao:

"Little sister, there are many inconsistencies in these account books. I wonder if someone has tampered with them and falsified the accounts?"

The accountant was somewhat surprised. Could a young lady like the Third Miss really tell the difference in the accounts he had made?

A third-rank official in the imperial court received a monthly salary of thirty strings of cash (equivalent to thirty taels), three hundred bushels of rice (one bushel was worth one hundred cash, or thirty taels), and nine hundred mu of official land. Calculated this way, a third-rank official would receive more than one hundred taels of salary per month.

After deducting the expenses related to officialdom and social obligations, the fruits and vegetables grown on the estate, and the fact that there were no illegitimate children in the Ye family, the monthly expenses would not exceed fifty taels, all of which were accounted for through Ye Mian's salary.

Liu Yunshu's dowry included a considerable amount of land and shops, and most of the gifts Ye Mian received in his official career came from her supplies.