At three quarters past noon, Liu was feasting on a table of delicacies. A crystal pork elbow lay precariously on a white porcelain plate, and a bowl of bird's nest porridge, stewed to a milky white, sat beside it, along with a dish of freshly harvested lychees. She scooped up a spoonful of bird's nest with a silver spoon and was about to put it in her mouth when Shen Weiwan, carrying a food box, slammed the kitchen door open.

"Aunt!" Shen Weiwan's voice was as loud as a bell, startling Liu's hands so much that they trembled and the bird's nests spilled onto the woven gold tablecloth. "Look at the lunch the kitchen sent me!"

The moment the food box was opened, a sour, rancid smell hit her face. Three pieces of moldy tofu sat askew in the bowl, their bluish-gray mold stains like ink splattered on them. Next to them were a few pieces of black, old bacon, so hard it could be used as a hidden weapon. Liu pinched her handkerchief to her nose, her brow furrowed in knots. "What's so smelly?!"

"It's my lunch!" Shen Weiwan put the lunch box on the table, and the moldy tofu dangled out of the bowl. "The kitchen said this is the 'remembering the bitterness and thinking of the sweetness' meal that my aunt specially ordered, but why does it smell like the trough in the pigpen?"

Liu was so angry that the silver spoon dropped into the bowl with a clang, and the bird's nest porridge splashed all over the table: "Chen Weiwan! Stop talking nonsense here!"

"I'm not talking nonsense, auntie," Chen Weiwan blinked her innocent eyes, picked up a piece of moldy tofu and held it in front of Liu. "Look at the mold spots on this tofu, it's exactly the same as the pig food I saw in the countryside! Uncle Zhang said that pigs grow very fast after eating rotten food. They can gain three pounds of fat in three days!"

The maids and servants around were so exhausted from trying to hold back their laughter that their faces flushed red. One new maid couldn't help but burst out laughing, and was immediately pinched by the housekeeper until she bared her teeth. Liu looked at the moldy tofu in Shen Weiwan's hand, then at the crystal pork elbow in front of her, and felt a surge of blood rushing to her head.

"Aunt, are you treating me like a pig?" Shen Weiwan tilted her head, her tone innocent, "But I heard that pigs will get diarrhea if they eat rotten food. Last time, Uncle Wang's pig ate rotten tofu and had diarrhea for three days and three nights! Aunt, you want me to..."

"That's enough!" Liu slammed the table, making the dishes clink. "I'm telling you to be frugal! Don't give me that nonsense!"

"Frugal?" Chen Weiwan put down the moldy tofu and pointed at the lychees on Liu's table. "Aunt, one meal from you is enough for me to eat for half a year, so why is it considered frugal when it comes to me? Look at this bacon," she picked up a piece and shook it. "It's so hard that you can crack walnuts with it. I'm afraid it's been on the Laba Festival last year and it's been here until now. Aunt Zhang in the kitchen said that dogs wouldn't even eat this meat!"

"You!" Liu was so angry that she couldn't speak, and the powder on her face was cracked by anger. She looked at the servants around her who were trying to suppress their laughter, and felt like a jumping clown, being played around by Shen Weiwan.

"Aunt, please don't be angry," Shen Weiwan suddenly put on a wronged expression, her eyes reddened just right, "I know you're doing this for my own good, afraid that I'll learn bad things if I eat too well. But this rotten rice is so disgusting. I ate a bite yesterday and had a stomachache at night. I thought I was going to see my mother..."

As she spoke, she began to sob, her shoulders shaking like leaves in the autumn wind: "Auntie, please be kind and don't let me eat the same thing as the pigs... I don't want to become a piglet..."

The crying attracted the old housekeeper who was passing by. He came in on crutches and saw the rotten rice on the table and Liu's sullen face. He understood what was going on. Seeing this, Shen Weiwan cried even harder: "Old housekeeper! You came at the right time! Look at what my aunt gave me to eat. Isn't it exactly the same as pig food?"

The old housekeeper looked at the moldy tofu, his white beard shaking with anger: "Second Madam, the food in the maiden's courtyard..."

"Old housekeeper, don't listen to her nonsense!" Liu interrupted hurriedly, "I'm asking her to recall the good old days..."

"Remembering the bitterness and thinking of the sweetness?" Shen Weiwan stood up, wiping her tears. "Then Auntie, please try it too! Look at this moldy tofu, how layered it is; this old bacon, how chewy it is!" She picked up the food box and passed it to Liu. "Auntie, you eat first, and I'll eat after you finish!"

Liu was so frightened that she stepped back repeatedly, knocking over the chair behind her: "Get out of here! Don't bring that dirty thing near me!"

"Aunt, you don't want to eat it?" Shen Weiwan stopped and looked "disappointed". "But you said that good things should be shared! Last time you ate lychees, you said you would leave two for me..."

These words hit Liu's face like a slap. She did receive the tribute lychees last week, but she didn't give a single one to Shen Weiwan. She gave them all to her daughter Shen Ruoruo. The servants around heard it clearly, and their eyes were full of contempt when they looked at Liu.

"Enough! Get out of here!" Liu was so angry that she was shaking all over. She grabbed the lychees on the table and threw them at Shen Weiwan. "From now on, you can eat the food in the daughter's courtyard if you want! I'll starve you to death, you little bitch!"

The lychees fell to the ground with a "clack" and rolled to Shen Weiwan's feet. She bent down to pick one up, put it to the tip of her nose and smelled it, and suddenly smiled: "Aunt, this lychee is so sweet. It's a pity that I can't eat it, so I can only leave it for you and cousin."

After saying this, she took Chuntao by the arm and walked away with her head held high amidst suppressed laughter. Liu looked at their backs, then at the rotten rice on the table and the servants' contemptuous looks. She was so angry that she grabbed a silver spoon and threw it, but it hit the maid who came in to clean up, causing her to scream in pain.

Back at Tinglan Courtyard, Chuntao laughed so hard she slapped her thigh. "Miss! What you just said made the Second Madam blush purple! The servants all say that the Second Madam is so stingy that she's starving!"

Chen Weiwan sat in front of the mirror, picking away the mildew on the hem of her skirt with a silver hairpin, her eyes as cold as ice: "This is just the beginning." She remembered how in her previous life, Liu used her dowry to buy a house for her concubine and used the treasury money of the general's mansion to pay off her brother's gambling debts. Her knuckles were white with pain, "Chun Tao, go call the old housekeeper and tell him I want to check the kitchen's purchase account."

Chun Tao was stunned: "Do you still need to check the accounts?"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!