The autumn mood in the prime minister's backyard begins with the century-old sycamore tree in the west wing. The dark green leaves begin to tinge with pale yellow, and with the wind, they scatter like golden fragments across the bluestone pavement. I squat on the porch, brushing the leaves with a bamboo broom, listening to the faint whispers of laughter emanating from the adjacent waterside pavilion. A sneer curls the corners of my mouth—I'm afraid the Liu family's "autumn mood" has arrived even earlier than the sycamore leaves.
"Miss, please sweep slowly, or you might prick your hands." Mo Zhu chased me out with a basin full of freshly wrung handkerchiefs. Seeing me using the broom like a sword, he quickly put down the copper basin and tried to grab it. "Madam just sent Madam Liu to tell you that Hangzhou silk has just arrived in the warehouse in the front yard, and she wants you to go over and pick out a few pieces to make winter clothes."
I leaned the broom against the wall and patted the dust off my hands: "Making winter clothes? She still remembers me, the legitimate daughter." At this time in my previous life, Liu was also so "kind-hearted". She turned around and gave the leftover scraps I had picked out to the head maid in her room, and also said to others that I was "considerate to the servants."
Mo Zhu twisted her handkerchief in anger. "Everyone knows what she's thinking! I'm afraid she's trying to take advantage of you again. Yesterday, when I went to the front yard to collect my monthly allowance, I heard Manager Zhou from the accounting office muttering to someone that the mistress has been sending things to the farms outside lately, and..."
She suddenly lowered her voice and said, "She also said she saw Aunt Liu sneaking over to the Qingfeng Casino and handing over a card!"
Qingfeng Casino? I raised an eyebrow. Isn't that where that idiot from the Wang family often hangs out? Liu's involvement with the gambling house, could it be that she's trying to escalate my "good marriage"?
As I was pondering this, I heard a sudden commotion in the front yard. I parted the bamboo curtain and looked out, only to see a few servants gathered at the second gate, gesticulating and discussing something.
"...Have you heard? Ever since that incident at her coming-of-age banquet, Miss Di has become even more unruly. Yesterday, she even overturned the white fungus soup sent by the kitchen, saying it was 'unworthy of her status'!"
"That's right! I even heard that she complained to the Prime Minister behind his back about the Madam not managing the household properly and wanted to get involved in the household chores! How can a girl show up in public and take care of these things?!"
"Hush! Keep your voice down! If this gets to the lady's ears..."
Mo Zhu was so angry that his face turned pale. "Nonsense! When did the young lady ever mention the Tremella Soup? It was clearly the small kitchen in Liu's room that deducted your share. You asked me to ask about it, and they're turning the tables on you!"
I held her trembling hand, my eyes cold. Here it comes. Liu is quite adept at this "preemptive" tactic. She'd done the same thing in her past life, spreading rumors about my "wrongdoings" before I could defend myself, then pretending to "uphold justice" and earning a reputation as a virtuous woman.
"Let's go back to the house." I turned and went into the warm room. Mo Zhu followed closely behind me, closing the door while muttering, "Miss, we can't just let this go! We have to tell the Prime Minister!"
"What?" I walked over to the dressing table, sat down, and picked up a diamond-shaped mirror. The girl in the mirror had clear features, but her eyes held a coldness brought back from a past life. "She said the Liu family sent people to spread rumors? All she needs to do is whine and say, 'It's my fault for not teaching the young lady well, and I've wronged you,' and there won't be any further action from my father."
I suffered the same fate in my previous life. I always thought that "the innocent will be cleared", but the rumors spread more and more fiercely, and finally even my father thought I had a "bad temper".
Mo Zhu was so anxious that he kept spinning around: "What should I do? I can't let those dirty words dirty your ears!"
I put the mirror down and tapped my fingertips on the dressing table. "Dirty ears? No, I want to make these words the funniest joke in the whole capital."
I looked up at Mo Zhu, a sly glint in my eyes. "Do you still remember that old man Zhang on the street in front? He's the one with the iron mouth whose spit could spray all over the tea table across from him when he talked about books?"
Mo Zhu was stunned for a moment. "I remember! His story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms sounded like a true story. The audience could fill up the teahouse! Miss, why are you asking him?"
"Go," I fished out a five-liang ingot of silver from the bottom of my dressing table and slapped it into her hand. "Take this and go to the Yuelai Teahouse to find Old Man Zhang. Tell him I have a new story, more exciting than Romance of the Three Kingdoms and more exciting than Water Margin. I guarantee everyone in the capital will prick up their ears once he tells it."
Mo Zhu looked at the silver, then at me, his eyes widening. "Miss, do you want... Old Man Zhang to tell everyone about Liu's dirty deeds?"
"Not entirely." I picked up an eyebrow pencil and slowly drew my eyebrows in front of the mirror. "I want to make up a story. The protagonist is the 'prime minister's legitimate daughter', and the villain is the 'stepmother who smiles but hides a knife'. I want to describe how the legitimate daughter is smart and astute and sees through the stepmother's schemes; I want to describe how the stepmother shoots herself in the foot and becomes the laughing stock of the capital."
I put down my eyebrow pencil, turned to look at Mo Zhu, and said with a hint of amusement: "Remember, your words must be 'artistic'. You can't just curse directly. Let the listeners think about it and applaud it themselves. It's like..."
I thought about it and smiled, "Let's say the legitimate daughter learned that her stepmother had spread rumors. Instead of making a fuss, she asked a 'master' to read her stepmother's fortune. The master said that her stepmother has been suffering from 'gossip curse' lately and needs to do good deeds and reflect on her mistakes in order to resolve the problem. What do you think of this method?"
Mo Zhu was stunned at first, then clapped her hands in admiration, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! This not only avoids a falling out, but also gets the message across, and it also shows that you, young lady, are magnanimous and won't argue with her!"
"Alright, get it done," I waved. "Come back if you don't have enough money. The key is to make Old Man Zhang tell this 'joke' so vividly that even Aunt Wang, the tofu vendor on the street, would slap her thigh!"
Mo Zhu, clutching the silver, ran off like a madman. I watched her back and took a sip of the herbal tea on the table. Liu, oh Liu, in your past life, you used "doing it for my own good" as a pretext to push me into this pit of fire. In this life, I'll show you what it means to "treat someone in their own way."
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