Chapter 5

Yuan Shaoxuan’s smile froze. His eyes flickered uncontrollably.

I pretended I had heard nothing. Keeping my gentle smile, I said with concern:

“Sister Zhirou offered me hot tea yesterday, and I didn’t even notice the blisters on her fingertips.

“Only after I went back did my maid tell me. I felt terribly guilty. It was my oversight.

“The servants must have brought the wrong tea and made her suffer. We can’t keep servants who are so careless.

“That’s why I came especially early today to give her more considerate attendants, so that nothing like it happens again.”

As I spoke, I indicated the servants behind me, all standing silently with lowered heads and eyes.

At the sight, he slowly relaxed. He raised a hand to wipe away sweat that did not exist on his brow.

“There’s really no need. She—”

I interrupted. “Husband, have you come to show your concern for her too?”

Yuan Shaoxuan denied it at once.

“No, no. I was simply taking a morning walk and happened to pass.”

Then he made to leave as though nothing had happened.

“Oh, husband, I have burn ointment bestowed by the palace. It would heal her quickly and leave no scars.”

I tried to call him back, but he did not turn.

“No need. Such a little injury will heal by itself.

“She’s of low birth. How could she deserve something so fine?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the light in Su Zhirou’s eyes dim.

My dimples deepened. I answered loudly:

“Then I’ll do as you say, husband.”

Without Yuan Shaoxuan to stop me, my servants were still placed in Su Zhirou’s courtyard.

After we returned, Dongrui asked in confusion, “Madam chose those loyal servants especially to accompany you when you married. Why give them to her?”

I turned the pages of an account book without looking up.

“It’s precisely because they’re loyal that I can safely send them to Su Zhirou to work for me.

“As for us, we have money, means, and you to train people. Why worry that we’ll lack loyal servants?”

Besides, however stupid Su Zhirou was, she would never make the people I sent her personal maids. They would not have to suffer alongside her.

They would receive their wages and have little work. Their indentures were in my hands, so Su Zhirou could not punish them.

It was an excellent place to be.

That morning, I had visited a concubine in person, sent her servants, and offered medicine.

When the story spread, I gained a reputation for kindness and generosity.

Perhaps Yuan Shaoxuan feared arousing my suspicion. For some time afterward, he did not visit Su Zhirou.

Instead, he came to my rooms every day and clung to me.

I did not refuse him. If I was to take control of this household, I urgently needed a child.

Poor Su Zhirou. Without his favor, the servants did not take her seriously.

Ready-made clothes with threads left untrimmed, sachets everyone else had picked over, even meals that arrived stone cold.

Except for the masters’ personal maids, the other servants in the courtyard ate from the communal kitchens. They were unaffected.

Only Su Zhirou’s personal maid, Ziying, suffered with her. When she questioned the servants delivering their things, they mocked her as though they were entirely in the right.

“You can hardly blame us. Lady Su’s courtyard is the farthest away. Isn’t it natural for the food to cool?”

“Exactly! Instead of thanking us for walking all that way, you complain. If you have so much time, why not think about how to please His Lordship?”

Both mistress and maid were furious.

After Su Zhirou vented her anger, the servants I had placed beside her warned me that she was coming to see me.

She had come to ask me for justice in my previous life, too.

Then, hearing her story, I had been outraged. I called the responsible servants to account and docked their wages, earning complaints from them all.

Su Zhirou, meanwhile, not only recovered her proper allowance but received extra help from me. Her meals became almost as fine as mine, the lawful wife’s.

In this life, I would not be so kind.

As soon as I learned she was on her way, I sent someone to invite Yuan Shaoxuan.

When she arrived, we were having dinner.

She sniffed, glanced at the table, secretly swallowed her saliva, and began to complain through her tears.

“Brother Shaoxuan, you don’t know how those servants torment me. The meals they bring are cold every day.

“Even the vegetables are covered with a thick layer of congealed lard. The cold duck soup smells so rank I can’t swallow it. Oh… how am I supposed to live like this?”

Yuan Shaoxuan glanced at me. Seeing that I was unmoved, he had no choice but to ask:

“Yunniang, what do you think of this?”

I ladled out a steaming bowl of water-shield and tofu soup and handed it to him, the very picture of a modest, virtuous wife.

“She belongs to you, husband. Naturally, I’ll follow your wishes in everything.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. He could only keep playing his part and rebuke Su Zhirou.

“You have vegetables and meat. That’s a hundred times better than an ordinary family’s meals, yet you come here finding fault. You don’t know what’s good for you!

“Look at Madam and me. Isn’t our food plain and simple too?”

My appetite had been poor in recent days, so the kitchen had prepared lighter, more refreshing food. It happened to give Yuan Shaoxuan a convenient comparison.

Su Zhirou sniffled and tried to explain.

But when she met the warning in his eyes, she could only suppress her tears and bow her way out in distress.

After dismissing her, Yuan Shaoxuan reluctantly withdrew his gaze from her retreating figure.

Turning to find me looking at him meaningfully, he immediately put on an ingratiating smile and picked up a piece of fish from the tail end for me.

“Here, Yunniang. Don’t let an irrelevant person spoil our dinner.”