Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The harmonious atmosphere ended abruptly. Every pair of eyes turned toward me.
“What are you trying to do now?”
Lu Heng’s gaze was mocking, his voice heavy with impatience.
Grandmother pursed her lips, displeasure on her face.
I looked at Qinghe and asked casually, “When you said you would kill the moths, did you mean this year’s moths or next year’s?”
Qinghe lifted her chin slightly, as though patiently enduring me.
“Eldest Young Lady, naturally I meant this year’s moths.”
I nodded. “Then why did they appear this year? Did they appear last year? Will they return next year? Was there unusually heavy rain, or did the storehouse staff neglect their duties? Is your remedy only an emergency measure, or will it become standard procedure? If it is standard procedure, when will the garments be aired? How many times? Who will be responsible? And what happens if it is not done?”
The questions came one after another without even a pause for breath.
Qinghe froze.
For an instant, her bright black eyes went blank.
So did everyone else’s.
I lifted my teacup, took an unhurried sip, and said, “If you have no answers, then even after you kill this year’s moths, next year’s are already on their way.”
“Moths in the manor’s clothing were never a difficult problem to solve. The servants have simply been lazy for years. They do not air seasonal garments or ventilate the wardrobes. Instead of assigning responsibility, you proposed raising their wages. That earned you their gratitude and everyone’s praise, but did it solve the problem?”
“If not, aren’t you using the Lu Manor’s money to purchase personal favors?”
Qinghe’s face stiffened.
But she quickly recovered and declared with conviction, “I did no such thing. I, Qinghe, swear to Heaven that everything I have done, no matter how hard, was for the Lu Manor and to ease the Old Madam’s burdens!”
Her final words trembled, as if she had suffered a terrible injustice.
I knew this tactic all too well.
Ignore the problem and emphasize one’s hard work. Ignore procedure and proclaim one’s loyalty. Once the issue was elevated to the moral high ground, the person asking questions immediately appeared cruel and ungrateful.
Sure enough, Lu Heng shot to his feet.
“Qinghe found the solution. Qinghe killed the moths. What use are you when all you can do is criticize?”
Idiot, I sneered inwardly.
“Then tell us what should be done,” Grandmother said.
Her voice was quiet, but it carried the authority of someone who had ruled the household for years.
I set down my teacup. Porcelain clicked crisply against the table.
My gaze swept across the stewards before I began.
“Effective immediately, we establish new rules. Clothing for each season will be stored separately. Designated staff will air, ventilate, and dehumidify it on a fixed schedule. A ledger will be maintained every month, naming both the person who performed the work and the person responsible for it.”
“In addition, the storehouse steward will bear primary accountability. Within three days, you will draft a complete storehouse management policy and a disciplinary policy for negligence. Anyone who fails in their duties will be punished severely.”
When the last word fell, the hall went silent.
Qinghe’s eyes were deep and unreadable.
After a long moment, Steward Zhou spoke with difficulty.
“The eldest young lady is noble and does not understand a servant’s hardships. Such things are easy to say, but exceedingly difficult to carry out.”
“Then you need not remain the storehouse steward.”
I glanced at him. “You may become a gatekeeper in the outer courtyard, or pack your things and leave. Choose.”
Steward Zhou stiffened and instinctively looked toward Qinghe.
“Miss Qinghe—”
I laughed.
I genuinely found it absurd.
A steward openly defied the legitimate young lady, then appealed to a maid for help, yet no one in this room found anything wrong with it.
“Why are you begging her? Do you believe the legitimate daughter of this marquis household carries less authority than a maid?”
Steward Zhou’s face went white.
“O-of course not. Please forgive me, Eldest Young Lady.”
I ignored him and turned to the youngest steward at the edge of the group.
“Do you believe it can be done?”
Of all the stewards, he alone had looked ashamed from the beginning. Nor had he joined the others in celebrating Qinghe’s proposed wage increase.
The young steward paused, considered the question, and answered, “Yes. Airing, ventilating, and dehumidifying the garments are already part of the storehouse’s duties. In the past, we relied on experience and memory, with no records to consult, so omissions were common. The eldest young lady’s method may be troublesome at first, but once every duty has a clear owner, it will save us work.”
“But then you will not receive a wage increase.” I smiled at him.
He answered honestly, “A wage increase would certainly make us happy. But if a larger mistake happens next time, the responsibility would be more than we could bear. That would be far more troublesome.”
The room remained still.
Qinghe continued to stand there with a calm, generous smile, but the quickening of her blinks betrayed a subtle change.
Uncertainty appeared on more than one face.
Grandmother narrowed her eyes. Her expression was like a deep pool disturbed by the first breeze in years.
Lu Heng’s face shifted several times. He seemed ready to argue, yet could find nothing to attack.
I looked around the room with perfect clarity.
It was not that they failed to understand these principles.
But beneath the heroine halo, whenever Qinghe spoke, everyone instinctively believed that her words were the wisest, her proposal the best, and her motives the purest.
The former eldest young lady had tried every approach.
She had cried, begged, raged, and even sworn publicly upon her mother’s relics.
It had proven useless. Simple arguments and confrontations did not work.
The angrier she became, the more innocent Qinghe appeared.
The more she lost control, the more composed Qinghe seemed.
Those were the fixed rules of the novel and the path of its main plot.
They could not be changed or shaken.
The eldest young lady had not understood. Unable to make sense of it, she came to a miserable end and died a pitiful death.
To win, I had to step outside the story’s framework.
The heroine relied on dazzling moments of triumph.
I had spent ten years as a Head of Administration. Administrators did not fight for dazzling moments.
We did one thing.
We placed every dazzling moment under the control of a system.
If the heroine’s ascent was destined to be built upon the vicious supporting character’s bones, then I would pierce that heroine halo one layer at a time.