Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Zhao Hong had made it to the fifth rank before he was even thirty. Naturally, he had his methods.

Without making a sound, he removed me from my mother-in-law’s reach.

After that, she never summoned me to pay my respects again. She even stopped sending maids with messages.

Soon, his revenge arrived.

Right in front of me, he brought two beautiful concubines into the household.

At the time, I was sitting in the courtyard sunning myself, idly flipping through a book.

He led them past the moon gate with measured steps, his gaze fixed straight ahead, as if the chair I sat in were nothing but air.

The two concubines followed behind him. They glanced timidly in my direction, then quickly lowered their heads again.

Zhao Hong did not even bother to introduce them.

He simply walked past, sleeves stirring in the breeze, without sparing me so much as a sidelong glance.

Nanny Zhu stood behind me, clutching her handkerchief so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Once they had gone far enough, she finally could not hold back anymore. Lowering her voice, she said, “Miss! The master, he… he has humiliated you so openly. If you still refuse to give in, what place will you have left in this household?”

I turned a page and said unhurriedly, “If he wants concubines, he can take concubines. I won’t stop him. But if he’s using them to provoke me, then all I can say is that he’s aimed at the wrong target.”

It was like the boss favoring new coworkers. Unfortunately, the new coworkers’ status was too low and their ability too weak. They could not mount any effective attack against me at all.

I tossed the book onto the table, leaned back, and crossed my legs.

“Do you believe me when I say that what Zhao Hong fears most right now is that I truly won’t be anxious?”

Nanny Zhu did not understand. “Why would he be afraid of you not being anxious? He must be desperate for you to panic!”

“Exactly. He wants me to panic. Once I panic, I’ll go make a scene, cry, and beg him. He’s waiting for me to yield, waiting for me to kneel and admit my mistake, so he can trample me underfoot and say, ‘If you knew it would come to this, why did you act that way in the first place?'”

The corners of my mouth curved.

“But I refuse. I won’t argue, won’t make a fuss, won’t cry, and won’t beg. Every day, I eat and drink, read my books, and bask in the sun, living more comfortably than he does. Tell me, do you think he’s anxious?”

With no household affairs to manage and no mother-in-law to serve, I spent most of my time running that medicinal herb estate.

The silver I earned was deposited in the most reputable and strictest bank, exchanged for anonymous silver notes redeemable anywhere.

I had money, and I had an escape route.

That was why I had the confidence to resist the boss’s suppression.

Zhao Yan came to find me on the fifteenth day after the wedding.

He stood at the courtyard gate, with Nanny Kong and two young manservants behind him. His little face was drawn tight, as if someone owed him two hundred taels of silver.

I was eating grapes in the courtyard, popping them into my mouth one by one, too lazy to even lift my eyelids.

He held it in for a long while, but in the end, he could not resist. The moment he opened his mouth, he said, “Father has taken two concubines, and he’s doting on them to the skies. Are you really not anxious?”

I chewed my grape and gave a snort of laughter. “What do I have to be anxious about? It has nothing to do with me either way. You, on the other hand…”

“Your father is strong and vigorous. Barring any surprises, by this time next year, you’ll have younger brothers and sisters.”

Zhao Yan was eight years old.

A child raised in a great aristocratic clan already understood at eight what it meant to have more half-brothers and half-sisters born of concubines.

In the clan school, there would be one more person to divide the teacher’s attention. In the family estate, one more person to claim a share. Before his grandfather, one more person to compete for favor.

His little face went white with a swish.

“How… how can you say something like that!” He clenched his fists, his voice cracking out of pitch. “You’re my stepmother. You should… you should…”

“I should what?” I spat the grape seed into the dish. “Worry on your behalf? Fight for you? Zhao Yan, when you spat at me a few days ago, that wasn’t your attitude.”

His face flushed scarlet, and he could not force out a single word.

Behind him, Nanny Kong finally could not endure it any longer. She stepped forward, curtsied, and piled a smile onto her face, though her words were soft with a hard edge beneath them. “Madam is joking. The young master is still little and doesn’t know any better. You are a generous adult, so why lower yourself to argue with a child? Speaking of which, the young master is your support. If the master truly has sons by concubines, it will be bad for the young master, and it won’t benefit you either, will it?”

I slowly sat up straight, set the dish on the table, wiped my hands, and looked directly at her.

“Nanny Kong, you came from the Wang Family.”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Then you should know exactly who dragged Zhao Yan out of that lake and saved his life.”

Nanny Kong’s smile froze for a split second.

“I saved his life, and he turned around and spat in my face. Ungrateful, burning the bridge after crossing it… a stepson like that,” I said, wiping the grape juice from my fingers, “is better off not being mine. I’m happy to spare myself the trouble.”

“…”

“I’m not finished.” I cut her off. “Bringing Zhao Yan here to confront me today was an even worse move.”

Nanny Kong’s expression changed.

“Zhao Yan is only eight. Someone used him as a weapon, and he didn’t even realize it, so I won’t hold it against him. But you,” I said, fixing my eyes on her, “you incited him to oppose his stepmother and destroyed the last bit of room he had left with me. Nanny Kong, you’ve lived in the inner residence for so many years. Don’t tell me you don’t know that a child who offends his stepmother will find every step in this household harder from now on.”

Nanny Kong’s face had gone pale.

“And you,” I went on with a mocking laugh, almost enjoying her misfortune, “your children and your future are all tied to Zhao Yan. You pushed Zhao Yan onto the opposite side from me. Did you think you were helping him fight for his dignity? No. You carved a great big hole straight through the future of both you and your children.”

At last, she knew fear. She stumbled back two steps, her voice trembling. “Madam, this servant only… only felt sorry for the young master.”

“You feel sorry for him, so you teach him to make an enemy of me, his stepmother?” I laughed. “Nanny Kong, by bringing Zhao Yan here today to question why I refuse to look after him, you have made it perfectly clear to the entire household that without me, his stepmother, Zhao Yan cannot survive.”

Nanny Kong’s face turned completely white.

Zhao Yan’s days would not be easy for a while.

He might not lack food or clothing, but without the protection and deterrence of the mistress of the household, the servants in the residence would inevitably start neglecting him.

No matter how excellent an employee was, without supervision, negligence or arrogance would grow.

The servants of the Zhao Family might be well trained, but they still knew how to treat people according to status.

Zhao Hong was a man. The wider world outside was where he aimed to struggle and strive. How could he possibly keep his eyes fixed on the inner residence all day?

When men raised children, the child still being alive was already the greatest blessing.

As for whether the child’s clothes fit, whether his meals were carefully prepared, whether his mind was healthy, or whether the servants were slighting him, why would he ask about any of that? He might not even think of it in the first place.

It wasn’t as if Zhao Yan had never gone to his father about these things, but would Zhao Hong personally handle them? Of course not. He would only order the people below to take care of it.

But without effective oversight, the people below would one hundred percent neglect him.

Nanny Kong understood all the intricacies involved, but she was powerless to do anything.

On top of that, Zhao Hong had always favored his two concubines. She was also afraid that I, his second wife, would truly wash my hands of him and affect everything that followed.

Zhao Yan stood beside her. At first, he was still gritting his teeth and holding on through sheer stubbornness, but the more he listened, the more wrong it all felt. The defiance on his face collapsed bit by bit.

He was not stupid. At last, he understood.

By coming here today, he had not only failed to achieve his goal, he had allowed me to expose, in front of everyone, just how isolated and helpless he was.

He clenched his fists, loosened them, then clenched them again.

Nanny Kong gritted her teeth and finally brought out her trump card. “Madam, treating the young master this way… are you not afraid the Old Madam will find out? If the Old Madam learns how cold you have been, I’m afraid…”

“Then go tell her.”

I cut her off without so much as moving an eyebrow and picked up another grape.

“The Old Madam originally wanted to force me to drink the Contraceptive Decoction, but in the end, she didn’t. Do you know why?”

Nanny Kong’s mouth opened and closed, then closed and opened again.

I waved a hand, as if shooing away two flies. “Go back and think carefully about who you master and servants ought to be begging right now. Come again once you’ve figured it out.”

Nanny Kong dragged Zhao Yan with her, and he stumbled out through the courtyard gate.

At the entrance, he suddenly looked back at me. In those eyes, anger, grievance, and regret were all tangled together, muddled into the bewilderment an eight-year-old child could not hide.

I let out a soft laugh.

Trying to use the legitimate mother to pressure me?

In the workplace, the thing an HR person fears least is an employee threatening them with leadership.

If leadership were truly backing you, you wouldn’t need to drag them out to scare me.

The fact that you did means you have no way to deal with me yourself.