The Daily Life of a Concubine's Daughter After Transmigrating

Li Anqi had already made his plans in mind.

When she arrived at Shuyunzhai, a shop selling calligraphy, paintings, and ink, the first thing she did after getting out of her sedan chair was to punish the sedan bearers.

"You've all gone too far! You won't even listen to me, what's the rush you're all doing?!"

The lead sedan bearer, Sun Er, grinned like a thug and said arrogantly.

"If anyone should be in charge, it should be the master and mistress, not Miss!"

"How dare you talk back!"

Li Anqi said angrily.

"You lot are all from the same family, with parents and brothers serving in the household. Now that you've lost your manners in public, where will you put your faces in the future? Where will you put the face of the Duke of Jingguo's mansion?!"

Li Anqi then continued.

"If rumors spread like wildfire, your arrogant reputation will spread, and your parents will be criticized and accused of failing to discipline their children properly! Can you bear the consequences?!"

Upon hearing this explanation, the sedan chair bearers immediately became much more hesitant.

I originally thought the second young lady was a wild and unruly girl, but I never expected her to be so capable...

"This servant...this servant was wrong..."

The four of them knelt down in a few scattered places and hurriedly begged for forgiveness.

"After you return to the manor, go to the steward's office and each of you will receive twenty strokes of the cane!"

"Yes……"

Upon entering Shuyunzhai, Zhilan smiled faintly and secretly gave Li Anqi a thumbs-up from under her sleeve.

"The Second Miss's words were reasonable and composed. The Old Madam will surely be pleased to hear this."

Li Anqi smiled and said, "It's all thanks to Aunt's good teaching."

Afterwards, Li Anqi found a desk, immediately wrote a letter, and ordered Zhilan to send it to Prince Xiao's residence.

The next day, Prince Xiao sent someone to the Duke of Jingguo's mansion to borrow a sedan chair, specifying that the four sedan chair bearers who had carried it the day before should deliver it.

Even after being beaten, the sedan chair bearers had no choice but to go. After the four of them carried the sedan chair to the Prince Xiao's mansion, the Prince Xiao ordered his servants to put several stones inside the sedan chair and assigned someone to supervise them, making them carry the sedan chair around the capital.

The four sedan bearers were exhausted and drenched in sweat. When they returned to Prince Xiao's residence to report, the steward asked them if they would dare to do it again.

The sedan chair bearers finally admitted defeat and replied in unison, "We'll never dare to do it again!"

Within two days, the matter had become the talk of the town in the capital.

Overnight, even the sedan chair bearers of the wealthy families in the capital all started wearing mandarin jackets and became very proper.

When Li Anqi came to pay his respects to the old lady, he saw that the old lady was all smiles and happy, and that Zhilan was beside the old lady. He knew that the old lady was already aware of the matter.

"You little brat! Come forward right now!"

The old lady smiled and pointed at Li Anqi.

After Li Anqi finished his greetings, he slowly walked to the wide chair where the old lady was sitting.

"The old lady already knows?"

"Indeed, these sedan chair carriers in the capital are rude and uncouth, always bullying the weak and fearing the strong! Now that this has happened, they've become much more well-behaved, hahahaha."

The old lady smiled and took Li Anqi's hand, saying, "Please sit down quickly."

Li Anqi turned to the side, half of his buttocks touching the wide chair, not daring to sit fully.

"I underestimated you before. I never expected that you, Second Miss, would have such abilities. No wonder Zhilan always says a few good things about you whenever she comes to pay her respects!"

"It's all thanks to Aunt Zhilan's excellent teaching. We also have to thank the old lady for being willing to assign such a wonderful person as Aunt to Anqi."

"Eh~"

The old lady indicated otherwise, and continued.

"Third Miss, you learn from Jiang He, how come you're not as quick-witted?"

“My third sister is young and innocent, and she’s not the type to overthink things. As her older sister, Anqi naturally can’t let herself go as she used to. It’s always good to consider things more carefully. You flatter me, Grandma,” Li Anqi said.

The old lady laughed a few times, then asked.

"Tell me quickly, what did you say in that letter you wrote to Prince Xiao?"

Li Anqi smiled slightly: "Just as the old lady thought."

If the old lady hadn't guessed the contents of the letter, she wouldn't have been so happy and kept praising herself.

The old lady slapped her thigh and laughed.

"I knew it was you who wrote the letter, telling Prince Xiao to have those hooligans carry stones."

Zhilan echoed, "In this way, not only will the Prince's anger be appeased, but our Jingguo Mansion's etiquette will also be demonstrated, and we can make an example of him to deter other sedan chair carriers in the capital from acting recklessly. This is killing three birds with one stone, and Second Miss has done several times better than I had imagined!"

"Auntie, you flatter me." Li Anqi stood up and bowed.

"Good good."

The old lady patted Li Anqi's hand, looked at her with satisfaction, and said softly.

“You are not young anymore, it’s time for you to learn some things about managing the inner courtyard. I have returned the power of managing the household to Madam Zhao. Starting tomorrow, you should learn from her.”

"Yes, Anqi will definitely learn from Madam and will not dare to slack off in the slightest."

The next day at dawn, Li Anqi arrived at Madam Zhao's residence.

The head of the kitchen, Tang, was presenting yesterday's income and expenditure accounts to Madam Zhao for review.

"I won't look at the daily accounts. Is there anything else important?"

Madam Zhao leaned against the daybed, placed the small folded book in her hand on the small tea table in the middle of the daybed, gently rubbed her temples, and slowly closed her eyes.

Manager Tang said, "There is something I need Madam to decide. Aunt Xia's brother died a few days ago, and I don't know... how much should be given for the funeral expenses?"

"Although she came from the magistrate's household, she was just a concubine. You're an old man in the household, don't you even know how much money is spent on funeral expenses when someone in your concubine's family dies?"

"I'm being very careful," said Manager Tang.

“According to past practice, it should be twenty taels, but… but when someone died in Concubine Gao’s family the year before last, Madam, out of consideration for Concubine Gao’s family’s circumstances, gave ten taels more… This servant is afraid that Concubine Xia will hold it against us later…”

Madam Zhao paused abruptly, her eyelids snapped open, and a sharp glint flashed in her eyes.

"No matter how much she pursues the matter, she's just a concubine. Just give her twenty taels as is customary."

"Yes."

Tang, the steward, bowed respectfully.

“Give her the card.”

Madam Zhao said to Granny Song, who was standing beside her.

Master Tang accepted the token handed to him by Granny Song and respectfully withdrew.

"Greetings, Second Miss."

Manager Tang bowed to Li Anqi at the door. Li Anqi said, "Manager Tang, please take care," then handed the hand warmer to Liuyun and went into the room to greet Madam Zhao.

"Anqi greets Madam."

Madam Zhao remained kind and gentle, and quickly helped Li Anqi to his feet.

"when did you come?"

"I just arrived. Yesterday, the old lady asked Anqi to come and learn about the inner courtyard from the madam."

Madam Zhao stroked Li Anqi's cheek and smiled kindly.

“I’m happy that you’ve won the old lady’s favor. Managing the inner courtyard isn’t difficult. Aunt Zhilan should have told you some things before. Just go around the mansion and talk to them, and you’ll naturally get the hang of it. If you encounter any difficulties, come and find me.”

Li Anqi hesitated for a moment before replying, "...Yes."

Madam Zhao rubbed her temples, as if she had a headache.

Li Anqi glanced at the charcoal in the stove in the room, then at the tightly closed window, and said.

"If Madam has a headache, opening the window to let in some fresh air might help."

Madam Zhao smiled and said, "I just saw Physician Guo. It's an old ailment that flares up every winter. It's nothing serious. But you, you said the same thing as Qin'er. That's quite a coincidence."

Burning charcoal in a closed room can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, and Li Baoqin, having traveled from the modern world, naturally knew this.

Madam Zhao looked at the glowing embers in the brazier and then continued.

“Just like people, charcoal is also divided into different grades. The charcoal used in our mansion is of the highest quality, which is far superior to the black charcoal used by ordinary people. If people see me burning charcoal with the windows open, they will inevitably think I am extravagant.”

Li Anqi nodded: "Charcoal is indeed better than black charcoal, but if the quantity is limited, when it runs out, we will have no choice but to burn black charcoal despite the smoke."

Madam Zhao was somewhat surprised, seemingly not expecting Li Anqi to say that.

Then, Madam Zhao smiled and said, "Don't worry, we have plenty of charcoal in our household. There won't be a day when we need to use black charcoal."

Li Anqi exchanged a few more pleasantries with Madam Zhao before taking his leave.

"Miss, why are you starting to talk like the madam and the concubines?"

On the way back, Liu Yun couldn't help but feel curious.

"What's the same?"

"What charcoal and black charcoal? I think I understand, but I don't think I understand... I don't know if I understand or not."

Seeing Liu Yun gazing at the sky, deep in thought, Li Anqi couldn't help but chuckle.

The legitimate heir is like charcoal, while the illegitimate heir is like black charcoal. Isn't that exactly what Madam Zhao meant?