All Hail Cousin Brother

115 Digging a Hole for You

Yu Youyao thought for a moment and said, “Mother Yang and Steward Zhou are both old servants in the residence. In the beginning, they worked for Grandmother, then followed my mother. Now that they’re working for my mother, they naturally have a special relationship. It’s not good for me to be in charge of the household on my first day. Although I’m in charge, I’m still young and my mother is the mistress of the household. However, some important matters still have to be decided by my mother.”

Yao Yao was in charge of the family and could still care about Madam Yang, but she truly respected her stepmother, Yang Shuwan. Yu Zongzheng nodded. “Since you’ve thought it through, let’s do this.”

However, the guilt he felt towards Yang Shuwan had completely dissipated.

Just as Yao Yao had said, Mother Yang and Steward Zhou were both old servants in the residence. In the past, they had always worked with their mother and Madam Xie, and had never made a mistake.

However, as soon as they started following Yang Shuwan, they became greedy. It was obvious that Yang Shuwan was indeed not good enough as a household manager. In fact, she was not even as good as a half-grown child like Yao Yao.

It was simply a disgrace.

In addition, Yang Shuwan used to be in charge of the household. It was Yao Yao’s first day managing the household, so it was Yang Shuwan’s responsibility if anything happened.

At the thought of this, Yu Zongzheng felt a rare warmth for his eldest daughter. He reached out and stroked the top of her head, sighing sincerely. “Yao Yao, you’ve really grown up. Now, you know how to share your mother’s and grandmother’s burdens.”

Yu Youyao pursed her lips, feeling a little shy. “Mother is sick and Grandmother doesn’t have much energy, so I have to take responsibility. This is what I should do.”

At this moment, Old Madam Yu also found out about this matter. “This girl is really meticulous when it comes to handling matters. She might not be able to control Steward Zhou, but she can still easily control a few of them.”

Nanny Liu also said, “Isn’t that so? Even if Zhou Yongchang can cover the sky with one hand in Zhouzhuang, can he still rent his own fields for the farmers to farm? There are old and young people in the village, so how can they support their families without fields? If Eldest Miss were to scare them, wouldn’t they panic? Even if Eldest Miss doesn’t kill anyone, she can still show them her gratitude and authority.”

Old Madam Yu smiled meaningfully. “Has Master returned to the residence?”

Nanny Liu did not understand what she meant for a moment, so she replied obediently, “What a coincidence. When Master returned to the residence from the government office, there was a commotion in the front courtyard, so he found out about this and wanted to go to the main courtyard with Eldest Miss.”

Old Madam Yu gave a faint smile. “That’s unfortunate.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “Yao Yao specially chose the Ting Lan Courtyard.”

Nanny Liu was stunned for a moment before she realized what was going on. She immediately slapped her thigh. “Isn’t it a must to go through the main study next to the Ting Lan Residence? But how would Eldest Miss know when Master will return? If he returns later today, wouldn’t that be…”

Old Madam Yu rolled her eyes at her again. “Stop pretending. I don’t believe you haven’t guessed it.”

Nanny Liu smiled awkwardly and did not say anything.

She could not say everything that Eldest Miss said. Even if she knew, she had to pretend not to know.

Old Madam Yu did not hide anything. “Eldest Brother’s leg was injured a few days ago. Although he can already go to the government office, Imperial Physician Li asked him to recuperate carefully for a while. The people in the government office also know that Eldest Master is injured, so they won’t trouble him to go there. If he doesn’t leave the government office early, he will leave at the right time. No matter what, this matter can’t be avoided.”

Nanny Liu nodded. Eldest Miss had calculated the time and place, and had arranged a good show.

Old Madam Yu stopped counting the Buddha beads. “Yao Yao is the stepdaughter and it’s her first day managing the household, yet she’s already finding fault with Mother Yang and Steward Zhou. No one thought that she’s deliberately making things difficult for her stepmother. If I step in, there will be people who say that I dote on Yao Yao.”

“Now that Eldest Son has appeared, Madam Yang doesn’t dare to pursue this matter anymore. She’s causing a ruckus in the residence looking for trouble with Yao Yao. Even the servants don’t dare to say anything else.”

From this, it could be seen that Yao Yao not only knew how to do things, but also how to conduct herself.

In this world, there were many people who knew how to do things.

There were very few people who knew how to conduct themselves.

Usually, if one wasn’t too smart, they wouldn’t have a good ending. In history, such people were everywhere. However, if one was too stupid and didn’t understand the situation, they would end up harming themselves. There was one in the residence.

There were even fewer people who knew how to conduct themselves.

Old Madam Yu sighed slightly. “In the past, Yao Yao was ignorant. I was always worried about what she would do in the future. But now, in just a month or two, she seems to have changed into a different person. I feel terrible.”

Nanny Liu did not know what to say.

Old Madam Yu was silent for a while. “That’s good too. As an old woman, I’ll have to go one day. I can’t take care of her forever. She has to be able to stand on her own so that she won’t be bullied.”

Yu Youyao ordered a few old maids and escorted Steward Zhou and Mother Yang to the main courtyard.

Even if Yu Zongzheng didn’t care about his work, such a terrible thing had happened at home, and he happened to run into it. Naturally, there was no reason for him to ignore it so he followed along to take a look.

The group met Yang Shuwan halfway.

She had a thick layer of powder on her face, which made her look even more pale. She was wearing a plain water-colored dress with a wide belt tied around her waist, making her waist look thin and tight. She looked weak and vulnerable, but also slender and charming.

As soon as she saw Master, Yang Shuwan’s eyes turned red and she looked like she was about to cry. “Master, although my management isn’t as good as Sister Xie, all these years, I’ve been busy taking care of all the household matters. I often have to bite my tongue. Furthermore, this is such a huge family. Although there have been some mistakes in the family, it has been stable until today.”

She had not forgotten that a few days ago, Master had immediately compared her to Madam Xie.

She had been sick for a few days and had even handed over the butler’s key. Wouldn’t Master feel guilty towards her? She had taken the initiative to mention Madam Xie to deepen his guilt towards her.

When Yu Zongzheng heard this, he also felt that what she said made sense, and the anger in his heart dissipated a little.

Yang Shuwan observed his expression and felt relieved. She wiped her tears with a handkerchief and continued to cry miserably. “I haven’t been feeling well these past few days. The doctor asked me to recuperate carefully for a few days. Even though I couldn’t continue to manage the residence, I handed over the key. Old Madam asked Eldest Miss to manage the residence, but I had no objections. Eldest Miss is the eldest daughter of the first wife and isn’t young anymore. It’s time for her to learn and set an example for the other young misses in the residence.”

At this point, she stopped talking, but her tears fell even more fiercely. She was truly a weeping beauty, so weak—

“Mother Yang and Butler Zhou are both old people. After I became the person in charge, I followed the previous rules. I didn’t know that they had done something wrong, but they just had to blame it on me…”