Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Over the following days, the mood inside the manor quietly changed.
The servants were still somewhat cautious when they saw me, but when they lowered their heads and called me “Eldest Young Lady,” there was more genuine respect in their voices.
In the past, when I went to greet Grandmother, she would not even raise her eyelids before beginning a lecture. Now she took my hand and told me that the peonies had bloomed, or that she had specially sent someone across the city yesterday to buy my favorite sugar figurines.
When I did not see Qinghe beside her, I asked about her with a smile.
Grandmother sighed. “I transferred her to the outer courtyard. These last two years, she created a rift between us. I should have moved her long ago. No matter the reason, Grandmother ought to have protected you. We are blood.”
Lu Heng assumed I had incited the transfer and stormed over to question me. Grandmother rebuked him harshly.
“Your sister is the legitimate young lady. Have you lost your mind, treating her disrespectfully over a maid?”
I met Grandmother’s renewed affection with perfect respect and courtesy, behaving exactly as a junior should. But I sat stiffly beside her, and when she held my hand, I did not hold hers in return.
After all, I was not Lu Wan.
I had inherited her memories, not her feelings.
Those memories contained far more of Grandmother’s favoritism and affection toward Qinghe over the past few years, and of the cold face she wore while scolding Lu Wan in disappointment.
Grandmother sensed my distance. Sometimes she stopped in the middle of speaking, looked at me, and sighed softly.
“Grandmother has seen how much you have changed lately. I know you must have worked hard in private. I am old and easily confused. I was too harsh with you before. Do not take it to heart.”
I obediently answered, “Yes.”
When I left her courtyard, my heart was perfectly still.
As expected, the original heroine and the vicious supporting character existed at each other’s expense.
Once the heroine halo dimmed, the vicious supporting character no longer seemed so vicious.
Of course, this was only a tiny crack in the halo. To bring it down completely, I still had to proceed one step at a time.
Several days later, I reviewed policy booklets in the pavilion.
Li Wang truly was capable. His work was thorough, and once he understood one principle, he grasped the rest. Earlier, I had taught him to divide text into sections and use numbered lists, making everything far easier to read. Administration and personnel management were inseparable, so I now taught him to draw an organizational chart: who managed whom, who reported to whom, each role enclosed in a box and connected by lines.
“This way, everything is clear at a glance.”
Li Wang’s eyes shone as he studied with intense concentration.
When I set down my brush, I saw a group approaching through the second gate.
Qinghe wore practical, narrow-sleeved clothes and walked beside Father. The chief steward and a large band of attendants followed behind them, making an impressive procession.
She tilted her head slightly as she listened to Father, occasionally offering a response. Her bearing remained steady and composed.
It was the monthly shop inspection.
Father, Lu Chengshan, had inherited the marquis title and held a ceremonial court office, but devoted himself to the family’s businesses. He owned seventy-two shops dealing in silk and cloth, rice and sundries, medicinal herbs, and spices.
Two years earlier, a shipment of expensive silk had failed to sell and sat in storage for months. While everyone else was at a loss, Qinghe happened to deliver ginseng medicine to Father’s study at Grandmother’s order. After silently listening to the discussion, she boldly proposed, “Why not cut the bolts apart and sell by the length? Wealthy households may not buy a full bolt, but smaller households can surely afford a few feet.”
Her single remark offered a path forward, and most of the stagnant silk was soon sold.
From then on, whenever the shopkeepers gathered at the manor for their monthly meeting, Father summoned Qinghe to his study. Whenever he inspected the shops, he brought her along.
She always identified the heart of a problem with a single incisive remark. Even shopkeepers with more than twenty years of experience admired her sincerely.
In the novel, Father died from illness three years later. Before everyone gathered at his deathbed, he placed the keys to the shops in Qinghe’s hands and gave his final instruction.
“I leave the Lu Trading House to you.”
Qinghe knelt beside his bed with tears streaming down her face.
“Lord Lu, you recognized my worth and gave me my chance. For the rest of my life, Qinghe will repay your kindness with everything I have.”
What a touching tale of a wise patron discovering a rare talent, I sneered inwardly.
Except the seventy-two shops were my mother’s dowry.
A heroine had countless roads before her. If one route through the inner residence narrowed, she simply stepped outside, and the entire capital became her stage.
But no matter how far she traveled or how high she soared, she had no right to tread upon another person’s bones.
What belonged to me, I would take back.