Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Early the next morning, I appeared in the Young Madam’s room.
When she saw me, she looked a little dazed.
“Didn’t you say we were going to purge the malignant elements from the inner courtyard today?”
I sneered. “Aren’t the biggest malignant elements you and your husband?”
“Today, I’m going to teach you both a proper lesson.”
“This lesson is called: [Self-Reliance and Self-Respect].”
Whenever trouble arose, the Young Madam only knew how to yield. She never dared to confront anyone head-on.
She was always thinking that if she endured for a moment, the seas would calm, and if she took one step back, the world would open wide.
I shattered her fantasy without mercy.
“If you endure for a moment, you’ll be enduring for the rest of your life. If you take one step back, you’ll be stepping back forever.”
“People will only think you’re easy to bully.”
She sighed. “But I’m only the daughter of a merchant family. In the end, I’m beneath them.”
I laughed in exasperation. “And what kind of noble household is the Qin Family, exactly? Are they royalty? A titled aristocratic clan?”
“If they think so highly of their status, then why did they lower themselves to propose marriage to your family? Wasn’t it because they wanted something?”
“If I’m not mistaken, your father has paid plenty of respects to the prefect over the years, hasn’t he?”
The Young Madam fell silent.
I sneered. “They want your family’s money, yet still put on airs and belittle you at every turn. They want the benefits and the moral high ground too. How ridiculous!”
“They’ve long since grown used to spending money like water. Asking them to return to their old frugal ways is impossible. If things truly turn ugly, they can’t do much to you.”
After hearing that, the Young Madam was stunned. “Really? If that’s the case, then I have nothing to fear.”
The Young Madam marched off with me in high spirits to see her mother-in-law, but the moment we reached the door, she turned back into a quail.
Madam Qin had a shrewd, mean face.
At that moment, she sat upright in the seat of honor, glancing sideways as she assessed me.
She disliked her eldest son and looked down on her eldest daughter-in-law.
Naturally, she had no pleasant expression for me either.
“Kneel!”
Madam Qin smiled without warmth. “Concubine Zhou, how formidable you are. You had only just arrived, yet you were already trying to send away my maids.”
I smiled along with her. “Speaking of which, it was my husband’s intention as well. He said that since he has yet to earn any scholarly rank, he still wants to focus on preparing for the examinations. He doesn’t want two maids to ruin his future.”
This was called borrowing another’s strength to strike back.
No matter how much she disliked her eldest son, on the surface, his future still mattered.
Sure enough, when she heard that, she gave me a meaningful look.
“You are clever, I’ll give you that.”
Seeing that she couldn’t get anywhere with me, she turned her gaze toward the Young Madam.
Adopting a lofty tone, she made barbed remarks about how the Young Madam was barren and could only hold her nose and take a concubine for her husband.
She had thought to recover a little of the Mistress of the House’s authority from someone so timid.
Who would have thought that this soft persimmon would refuse to be squeezed?
“In that case, Mother-in-law might as well have my husband divorce me!”
Madam Qin, who had always prided herself on being sharp, was completely thrown by that one sentence.
“How impudent. As a daughter-in-law, you have already committed one of the seven grounds for divorce. As your mother-in-law, am I not even allowed to speak of it?”
Yuan Huining looked at Madam Qin in confusion. “What are you angry about now, Mother-in-law? After you put it that way, how could I fail to take the hint?”
“Since my crime is so heinous, why not have me divorced, so my husband can marry a well-matched young lady from an official family instead? Only then would she see eye to eye with Mother-in-law and make pleasant conversation!”
“In any case, I’m nothing more than a merchant’s daughter, unworthy of my husband. I suppose I’ll just have to take my hundred or so trunks of dowry and marry again.”
What she had once feared most was being divorced. She feared dragging down her sisters, and feared even more that her parents would lose face because of her.
But after I told her the truth, she understood.
This marriage had been a transaction from the very beginning. Each side took what they needed, so neither should pretend to be wronged.
If Madam Qin truly brought in a well-matched daughter-in-law, how would she control the First Branch? How could she favor the Second Branch with such righteous confidence?
More importantly, when that time came, where would she get the money to plan and pave the way for the Second Branch?