Chapter 62 [VIP]
"What does the military governor mean? Does he really intend to let that brat surnamed Xiao take his place? He actually handed over the Shangsi Festival to the Yu family to preside over!"
Several heads of collateral branches of the Zhao family sat around the table in the hall. The first person to speak slammed his fist on the table indignantly, "It's all the fault of the fourth branch. If it weren't for the fifth son's matter angering the military governor and making him disappointed in the Zhao family's descendants, how could it have been Xiao Chuan, that outsider, who was involved?"
The role of presiding over the Shangsi Festival is neither too important nor too minor. Usually, these festivals are handled by the Fang family and several ladies of the Zhao family, with Wen Sima, who is by Zhao Tianhe's side, assisting them.
This time, Zhao Tianhe directly handed the matter over to the Yu family, not to involve her, but to exclude members of the Zhao family and let her take charge. How could this move not have a deeper meaning?
Zhao Tianyang got angry when he was scolded for failing to raise his son properly.
"What you're saying is ridiculous, as if the military governors of the past valued the Zhao family's sons so much."
Zhao Tianyang said with a contemptuous tone, "The military governor's high regard for Xiao Chuan is not a recent development. Over the past few years, he has always kept Xiao Chuan by his side and taught him. He has entrusted Xiao Chuan with countless important tasks and helped him achieve many military exploits. When Xiao Chuan said he wanted to marry a beauty, even Yu Shi, whom the military governor of Huainan regarded as his own, was supported by him and allowed to marry her. I think the military governor has long planned to cultivate Xiao Chuan and hand Jiannan over to him."
After he said that, the surroundings fell silent again.
The presiding over the Shangsi Festival is nothing special; the main thing is the attitude Zhao Tianhe revealed: today is the Shangsi Festival, so what is tomorrow?
If Mi Yao's political stance is that of leading the women of Yizhou, does that mean that Xiao Chuan is the next military governor?
"Don't all stay silent, tell me what we should do now?"
With regional warlords now in power and the imperial court in name only, if Zhao Tianhe decides to appoint Xiao Chuan as his successor, even the Emperor of Daxing will be unable to intervene.
If Zhao Tianhe had his own children and passed the position to his offspring, the Zhao family members wouldn't say anything. But what is Xiao Chuan?
He had absolutely no connection with the Zhao family, and wasn't even from a poor family; he was just a mud-covered man whose body was still covered in mud.
It would be an insult to them for someone like that to rise to power.
"What else can we do? We can only take it one step at a time. If the military governor is really so muddle-headed, we can only use our own methods to set things right and make a decisive decision!"
After he finished speaking, the room fell silent again. Some people even looked outside in fear, worried that someone might be listening.
"Fifth Brother is right."
Zhao Tianyang echoed, "A new emperor brings a new court. If Xiao Chuan ascends to the throne, Zhao Tianhe will be all alone and die. What will happen to our whole family? Xiao Chuan is ruthless and capricious. In order to escape his shackles, he might wipe out our clan. We are not resisting for ourselves, but for the legacy left by our ancestors and for the descendants of the Zhao family."
The atmosphere inside the room became heated again due to Zhao Tianyang's instigation. Everyone was dissatisfied with Zhao Tianhe's arrangements, but they had no legitimate reason to act and were all waiting for an excuse to justify their disloyalty.
From a moral high ground, Zhao Tianhe appears as an unfilial descendant, deserving to be punished by the Zhao family.
*
The Zhao family was enthusiastically boosting morale, and the atmosphere at the Xiao residence was similar, only the things being done to encourage morale were different.
Sun Da, the stable boy, was recruited into Mi Yao's household. After Pu Qing investigated him, she no longer put effort into personnel management.
So aside from blaming Xiao Chu for attracting attention, she didn't blame anyone else for her accident.
It was only when she sensed the tension in the Xiao residence and saw Yu Xiu and Shuang Hua's swollen eyes that she realized that even though she didn't blame them, they had obediently reflected on their own actions and started blaming themselves.
Seeing how conscientious they were, Mi Yao thought for a moment and decided not to go easy on them. She called them over and, along with Pu Qing, fined them a month's wages and five strokes of the cane.
“Don’t feel wronged. There’s nothing wrong with Sun Dajin’s family background, but he’s always been working in the outer courtyard. The family has always assumed that you are in charge of the outer courtyard. If you feel that he shouldn’t be under your management, you should clarify your responsibilities with Shuanghua.”
As Mi Yao continued speaking, she looked not only at Pu Qing but also at Shuang Hua, saying, "Shuang Hua, you should also speak up if you feel that Sun Da is in the outer courtyard every day and it's not your responsibility, instead of remaining silent."
Pu Qing was Xiao Chuan's personal attendant, doing all sorts of chores on a daily basis. Occasionally, he would accompany Xiao Chuan on errands, taking care of Xiao Chuan's daily needs, or running errands and delivering messages. In essence, he was Xiao Chuan's general manager of miscellaneous affairs.
Besides servants, the Xiao family also had a group of Xiao Chuan's private guards. These people lived in the outer courtyard and were responsible for protecting the safety of the mansion. They were not part of the mansion's general servants and were not under Mi Yao's jurisdiction but were directly under Xiao Chuan's orders.
In this situation, Shuanghua tacitly accepted that the outer courtyard was Pu Qing's territory, and neither paid attention to nor interfered with the actions of the outer courtyard's retainers.
Sun Da took advantage of this. His monthly salary was paid by Shuanghua, but he stayed in the outer courtyard stables every day to raise horses, as if he belonged to the outer courtyard like the guards.
And Pu Qing, this servant...
Hearing Mi Yao's accusation, Pu Qing did not feel wronged. Instead, he understood the specific mistakes he had made in this matter. He knelt down neatly and said, "I always felt that I was wrong, but I only thought that the supervision was not strict enough, which gave the thief an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and attack Madam under my nose. Now that Madam has spoken, I understand even more clearly where I went wrong. In the future, I will definitely communicate more with Steward Shuang and will no longer remain silent."
Because he considered the safety of the mansion his duty, he hadn't informed Shuanghua and the others about this matter beforehand.
Shuanghua is the head steward of the inner courtyard; they exchange information and manage affairs.
“This servant was wrong. This servant thought that the inner courtyard was the inner courtyard and the outer courtyard was the outer courtyard. If I had remained silent, this incident would not have happened.”
Shuanghua also knelt down to admit her mistake. She had always felt that Pu Qing was Xiao Chuan's confidant and was critical of them, the servants from the Yu family.
Thinking that she couldn't be looked down upon by Pu Qing, she always tried to solve problems on her own, or indirectly by finding other ways to resolve them. She never directly approached Pu Qing to solve problems, let alone communicated with him privately.
"Alright, get up, all of you. I will give you a chance to correct your mistakes, but you must remember where you went wrong. If you make the same stupid mistakes in the past, it won't just be a simple beating or a fine."
"Your subordinate obeys."
"This servant understands."
After seeing the two off, Mi Yao looked at Yu Xiu, who was sullen because she hadn't been punished.
"If you're itchy and want to get beaten up, go learn martial arts from Xiao Yi and the others."
Because of her attack, a martial arts craze has recently swept through the Xiao family. First, Shi Ya knew that Qi Niang was skilled and begged her to teach her a move or two. Then, Xiao Shan and Xiao Liang said they wanted to learn martial arts to protect her.
She initially thought they were just joking around, but to her surprise, after a few days, they actually practiced regularly and their horse stance became quite impressive.
Among them, Xiao Yi was the most outrageous.
Because Xiao Yi was bullied by the Ma family last time, Mi Yao found him a martial arts master so that he could fight back directly when he encountered trouble in the future, and not develop the bad habit of hiding and applying medicine when he was beaten.
He was already learning martial arts, so he didn't join Qi Niang's martial arts training group. He just asked his martial arts master to give him extra lessons. I heard that he recently got up at the beginning of the morning to practice martial arts.
Despite this, he didn't fall behind in his studies and even received praise from Yu Shaoyang for becoming increasingly intelligent and insightful.
She genuinely admired these high-energy people, while she felt completely wasted if she slept even half an hour less in a six-hour day, and needed two days to recover.
“I’m already learning from Qi Niang. Sister, although Shuanghua is in charge and I’m just the deputy, I’m also responsible for the mistakes in the management of the mansion’s personnel. If I don’t get punished, what if I don’t learn my lesson? Sister, please punish me.”
Yu Xiu brought her own ruler and looked earnestly at Mi Yao after speaking.
Mi Yao had never seen anyone willingly ask to be beaten. Seeing Yu Xiu's uneasy expression as if she wouldn't be at ease unless she was beaten, she went along with her and taught her a lesson.
After I finished hitting her, I saw tears in her eyes, but a satisfied smile on her face.
Mi Yao didn't know whether she had raised Yu Xiu well or led her astray.
However, Yu Xiu is someone who makes life very easy for people.
If she knew how Yu Xiu went from thinking she was unreliable to taking being beaten by her as a kind of honor, could she apply that same method to Xiao Chuan, making Xiao Chuan feel like something was missing if he didn't get beaten by her in the future?
It felt good when the thought came to mind, but Mi Yao gave it up after thinking about it. Xiao Chuan and Yu Xiu were different. Yu Xiu lacked security and depended on others, treating her as her only family member to rely on.
If it were Xiao Chuan, who gets excited and can lick a person's head, if she continued to scold him, he might just build a secret dungeon, prepare whips and candles, and do whatever he wants to provoke her.
Ultimately, her behavior will become altruistic, rather than selfish.
With a sigh, she stopped thinking about these messy things and started looking at the records of the Shangsi Festival from previous years sent by the Jiedushi's office.
Yesterday, Fang came in person to deliver the booklet. She looked unhappy and implied that Mi Yao had two faces: one for others and the other for Zhao Tianhe, thus gaining his favor and trust.
Although Fang was dissatisfied, she dared not be careless in the handover because she was afraid of not being able to explain to Zhao Tianhe. She answered whatever Mi Yao asked and took the initiative to ask questions that Mi Yao did not ask, for fear that any oversights would eventually be blamed on her.
Based on past dishes, Mi Yao devised the menu for the banquet for officials that day, the only difference being that the rice given to the poor was replaced with porridge and flatbread.
In response to Fang's sarcastic remarks, she added two cooked dishes from a braised meat shop to the menu, and also entrusted her own shop to make the pastries for the poor.
Mi Yao replied directly, "I've worked so hard to do this, if I don't even get this little bit of benefit, what's the point of doing this?"
Because she was so self-righteous, Fang Shi had all her words stuck in her throat, and when she returned to the Jiedushi's mansion, she forgot to complain to Zhao Tianhe.
However, when Mi Yao wrote the record and handed it to Wen Sima, she wrote that her family's food was clean and safe to eat, and she wanted her father to try it. She also said that giving cooked food to the poor could, to some extent, prevent people from not eating the rice and flour they received and choosing to sell it.
By the time Fang found an opportunity to complain, Zhao Tianhe had already read the prepared statement. Upon hearing this, he simply smiled and said, "My daughter-in-law is right. How can there be no benefit to doing something?"
This deterred those who wanted to test his attitude towards Mi Yao, and let people know how much he now valued Xiao Chuan and his wife.
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