Even though she had never managed the household on her own, she could still see through this scheme. Madam Qiao was simply taking advantage of the fact that the Prince's Mansion was missing a mistress and that Chu Yao was busy year after year, to profit from it and line her own pocket.
“Mother Qiao, these add up to a total of 789 taels and 5 mace and 7 qian. I will round down the 9 taels and 5 mace and 7 qian. I will give you three days to either recalculate the errors in the accounts or you will have to hand over the real silver. Otherwise, don’t blame me for sending you to see the magistrate.”
Wushuang tossed the piece of paper in front of Qiao's mother, stood up, and went into the inner room without looking back.
Chapter List 127 | 24.125.126
Chapter 127:
The money had been spent gradually over the years, some for family emergencies, and some used by Qiao's mother to purchase property. [www.qiushu.cc, lots of great novels] Even if she were willing to return it all, it wouldn't be possible to find buyers for the estate and shops so quickly.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and Qiao's mother managed to scrape together only one hundred and twenty taels of silver to return.
"It's not that this old servant is unwilling to hand over the whole amount to the Princess, but seven hundred and eighty taels is really not a small amount. I hope the Princess will grant me some more time."
With the old princess nowhere to be found and no one to back her up, Qiao's mother had no choice but to submit to Wushuang.
Wushuang didn't deliberately make things difficult for her. She simply ordered her to write a written agreement that, starting next month, two-thirds of her monthly allowance would be deducted to cover the debt.
That evening, after washing up and going to bed, Wushuang triumphantly announced the Warring States period to Chu Yao.
"...You didn't see how arrogant she was before, but then she became obsequious. It was so satisfying." She shook her head, not at Chu Yao's arm, "I've won my first battle, how are you going to reward me?"
"A reward?" Chu Yao retorted. "Isn't it said that as a princess, one should take on the responsibility of managing the household? If it's something one is supposed to do, and doing it well is a given, why should there be a reward?"
Wushuang was speechless when he asked her question, completely losing the sharp tongue and aggressive demeanor she had in front of Qiao's mother.
She released Chu Yao's arm, snorted, and turned her back to him. Although she didn't say anything, the words "I'm not happy" were clearly written from head to toe.
Chu Yao stretched out his arm and pulled Wu Shuang back into his arms: "You're angry already? You want a reward, right? How about this reward?"
He whispered a few words into Wushuang's ear.
Wushuang shook her head angrily: "No, no, what kind of reward is this?"
Chu Yao disagreed: "There should be romance between husband and wife. How can this not be considered a reward?"
As soon as he finished speaking, his large hand slid towards Wushuang's collar.
Wushuang quickly gathered her clothes together.
"No! We agreed not to consummate the marriage, but you do it every day..." Hugging and cuddling, touching and making advances, it's bound to escalate sooner or later.
Wushuang grew angrier the more she thought about it, and shouted, "You don't keep your word!"
Chu Yao seemed to be sulking as well: "I gave you the reward, but you didn't want it." He turned around, still muttering, "You, don't be so smug. Using debt to control Qiao's mother is just using power to intimidate her. She won't truly submit, and she'll cause trouble sooner or later."
Wushuang turned around again, back to back with Chu Yao, her small hands still clutching her collar.
Chu Yao is so petty. All she did was not let him... and he actually threatened her as revenge.
At this moment, Wushuang never expected that Chu Yao's words would come true.
After reclaiming her power as steward from Madam Qiao, Wushuang gradually began to change the personnel arrangements within the inner courtyard of the Prince Ying's mansion. (80)
Initially, she did not intend to do so.
Under Madam Qiao, there were four other stewardesses in the inner courtyard, in charge of the kitchen, accounts, personnel, and clothing, respectively. Among them, only Madam Wei, who was in charge of the kitchen, was someone arranged by the old princess in her early years; the rest were all Madam Qiao's people.
Ever since the accounting incident, the three of them outwardly obeyed Wushuang's orders, but the work they did was completely unacceptable.
The accounts were recorded here and there, completely unrelated. To find the records for a particular day's purchases, one had to search through five or six different ledgers.
They asked the matchmaker to buy a few six- or seven-year-old maids, but instead they brought back beautiful young women of sixteen or seventeen, and stuffed them all into the study to serve Chu Yao…
When the new summer clothes were made, the hem of Wushuang's ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) was three inches above her feet. But that wasn't the worst part. The responsible mother even covered her mouth and laughed, saying, "Oh dear, the princess has grown so fast. The measurements taken half a month ago don't fit anymore."
Wu Shuang specifically grabbed Chu Yao to compare herself to him. When she returned from Fujian, she only reached his chest, and she still only reached his chest now.
It hasn't grown an inch all year, so how could the measured size not fit?
Wushuang has truly learned what it means to be outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant.
But if you think she'll admit defeat because of this, how could that be possible?
Since these people can't do anything right in front of her, it's only natural to replace them.
Wushuang promoted two of the second-class maids from her dowry to help with the work of serving her daily life. She also arranged for Qiqiao to manage the servants in the mansion, Chaohua to be in charge of the accounts, and selected one of the dowry maids to take charge of her clothing.
As for the kitchen, nothing has ever been done there, so there's no reason to touch it for now.
Unexpectedly, just a few days after the personnel transfer, Qiqiao fell ill.
A person who was lively and energetic during the day suddenly started vomiting and having diarrhea in the middle of the night. A doctor was called to see him, who said that he might have eaten something wrong and contracted dysentery, which could be contagious, and suggested that he be moved outside the palace.
Qiqiao had been by Wushuang's side since she was a baby. They had been together for many years, and although they were nominally mistress and servant, their relationship was no different from that of family. When a family member fell ill, not only was she not allowed to receive proper treatment, but she was also to be thrown out of the house. Wushuang refused to agree to this no matter what.
Chu Yao tried to persuade her from the perspective of avoiding infection due to the large number of people in the Prince's mansion, but Wu Shuang could not argue with him and burst into tears.
“Once she went out, no one cared about her. No doctor treated her, no one helped her prepare the medicine, and she could only wait to die…” Wushuang said, crying, as helpless as a young child.
Chu Yao felt sorry for her and had no choice but to agree to let Qiqiao stay in the palace.
The two compromised and agreed to clean up the small courtyard in the southwest corner of the Prince's Mansion, which had been vacant for a long time, so that Qiqiao could live there to recuperate.
As for the doctor, he stayed in the palace until Qiqiao recovered.
They then assigned the few beautiful maids they had mistakenly bought earlier to serve Qiqiao.