Finally, Qingmei forced the old man to pay for ten doses of medicine.

Not only did Zhimo's mother obediently take the money to buy the medicine, but she also kept nodding her head repeatedly, promising that she would definitely finish the medicine this time.

"Thank you, young lady; thank you, nanny. Take care!" Bowing her head and watching them leave, Zhimo's mother straightened up, turned back, and snorted.

"You little rascal, you're lucky. If you're so capable, then take good care of yourself and get better. You can go back to work."

He pulled away the new quilt and replaced it with an old one, but he did light a charcoal fire for her.

Zhi Mo regained her spirits and didn't care about being scolded. She mustered all her strength to get up and drink her medicine. She had to get better!

When the two returned, they found everyone in the courtyard having a meal together.

Today is the Winter Solstice, and the madam ordered extra dishes to be served, including two meat dishes and one vegetable dish for the third-class maids.

Braised tofu with pork, braised pork belly, and stir-fried spinach. Ten dumplings and two steamed buns for each person.

The lady also gave a reward of 20 coins to each of the third-class maids. It wasn't much money, but it was meant to bring good luck and celebration.

Zhiruo handed over the reward money to the two of them, hesitated for a moment, then closed her mouth again before finally asking, "How is she?"

I hated her to death a couple of days ago, but when I heard yesterday that she had passed away, my heart ached.

The two have been working together since they were nine years old, almost ten years, and they have supported each other all the way to where they are today.

It was around this time of year that she developed a fever. Zhi Mo was scolded mercilessly by the old woman in the kitchen, all for the sake of getting her a bowl of ginger soup.

Needless to say, even on ordinary days, when she jokingly snatched the rice crackers last time, seeing that she liked them, Zhi Mo only ate one piece and left most of them for her.

This time, even though he was using her name to scheme against someone, he applied medicine to her wounds before leaving.

Furthermore, after the young master woke up, Changqing took him back to the courtyard.

This was merely to appease his wife's anger. He was to recover at home and then go to inspect the country estate for half a month before returning.

Since it didn't jeopardize Changqing's future, his anger subsided by half.

Although I won't, and probably won't, open up to her again in the future, I genuinely don't want her to die.

"I heard you say that she doesn't have enough medicine. Does she have any more? How much does it cost?"

Qingping and the other woman exchanged a glance. "She was already healthy enough to recover, but her mother was greedy and sold the medicine. This time, she got ten more doses, so she'll be fully recovered in just half a month!"

Zhi Ruo nodded silently, then turned and left.

After finishing her meal, Wang Yan excitedly went to deliver spicy strips to Wang Ying and Wang Xing.

When she arrived at Moyuan Courtyard, she learned that her older brother and sister would also receive a reward of 200 coins each, ten times that of her.

This reward was given by each courtyard, but today the Third Young Master is in a good mood, so regardless of rank, everyone will receive 200 coins.

Everyone else was overjoyed, but Xiang'er felt a pang of sadness. She bit her lip and went back to her room to wipe away her tears. The Third Young Master was going to be engaged.

The second master promised to ask the third young lady of the Anbo family for help, as she was said to be the second daughter of the main wife.

She hasn't even had two good days yet, and now a young mistress is coming to suppress her. How is she going to get through this?

She was in a bad mood, so her words naturally became sharp. But as luck would have it, she went to find Granny Shi again.

Wang Ying distributed the spicy strips to everyone in the courtyard, except for herself and Chun'er.

Grandma Shi had a sweet tooth, so instead of putting them away immediately, she ate two of them first.

As luck would have it, Liu Xiang'er stumbled upon it and assumed that Granny Shi had received some favors from the head servants!

That's exactly what they took advantage of!

“My mother-in-law is from the young master’s courtyard. She hastily accepted things from other courtyards. I think she didn’t take the last reprimand to heart at all.”

Acting like this, aren't you afraid of being beaten to death by the young master one day?

When they finally got to fighting, his voice rose several octaves, and his throat became hoarse.

Granny Shi stared at her silently for a long while, then chuckled softly.

"The old woman has been in this courtyard since the young master was born. At first, she washed the young master's clothes. As the young master grew up, I moved to work as the gatekeeper."

Through all these years of wind and rain, I, an old woman, have never uttered a single complaint.

No matter how young the maid was, whether she came in or out, whether she came back early or late, as long as she was from our courtyard, the old woman never took a single copper coin from her.

"Today you've gone and slandered me so blatantly. I'm going to ask you whether this was your own decision or the Third Young Master's."

After saying that, he threw the spicy strips in his hand onto the table and ran quickly towards Aunt Yang's courtyard.

Liu Xiang'er was surprised by her temper; after only a few words, she was about to report to her aunt as if she were going to die. It was too late to stop her!

He stomped his feet and got angry, but he couldn't stop the person from coming back.

Instead, she was slapped 20 times by the nanny next to her aunt, leaving her cheeks swollen. She couldn't even eat.

They could only swallow this bitter pill, and even the Third Young Master had to coax Granny Shi in a low voice.

During the Winter Solstice, a major holiday, Lin Mu bought two packs of pastries from Champagne and sent them over. His aunt also gave him a delicate gold bracelet.

Even someone who has served an elderly person for years wouldn't be scolded by Aunt Yang for no reason, let alone subjected to such humiliation and cursing.

Liu Xiang'er is incredibly bold! It's only because it's almost the New Year that she's trying to bring good luck and is difficult to punish.

Fangtang held a grudge against her for making her stand up for someone and offending others last time. Seeing her get beaten, she smugly uttered a few sarcastic remarks!

Liu Xiang'er covered her injured face and retorted sarcastically, then went back and told Chun'er to find medicine to apply to her face.

Chun'er timidly took the medicine to apply to her wound, saying, "You're such a lazy bum, you've been waiting for so long and you can't even get the medicine!"

After Xiang'er took the medicine, she pinched her hard and cursed while applying it.

"Ouch, that hurts so much! Can you be gentler? Can you?!"

Just as Liu Xiang'er was about to strike her again, her eyes darted around, and considering her current predicament, she angrily lowered her hand.

He waved her away, telling her to go back.

None of the maids in the courtyard were on her side, and even that fool Fangtang was not easily fooled.

If she doesn't coax a young girl to come and do some work, she'll really have a hard time establishing herself.

That evening, Chun'er cried as she applied the medicine. Xingzi saw that Chun'er was being pinched again, but she just glanced at her coldly and went to sleep with her head covered.

Seeing this, Chun'er couldn't help but feel sad. It was just a mistake, was it really necessary to be like this?

Besides, it wasn't her who wanted to complain; the girl forced herself to. Why treat her like this?