Chapter 101 Self-Punishment
The Marquis's family is an official family with farms, fields, and shops. With officials in the family, they are quite respectable. There is no need for a merchant's daughter to come out, which would lower the social standing of the entire Marquis's family and make them a laughing stock.
These are the words the eldest son said to the old lady.
He did not approve of Yao Qingling going out to do business.
"...My second brother is General Mingwei, and he is loved by the people. His daughter is a businesswoman, but she spends all day calculating a few copper coins. What kind of behavior is that? Even I am being scolded by the people. Is it because I have mistreated her and forced her to go out and make a living?"
"Furthermore, my third brother and I are both officials, so we can receive bribes. It's prestigious and comfortable, isn't that better than her going out and showing her face in public?"
Marquis Zhongyong is still serving in the Shanglin Garden.
Ma Peizhen's father was the registrar of Ningjiang Prefecture and was very familiar with the private dealings of local officials.
She once told him that those officials didn't shy away from accepting offerings from local officials and merchants, and that he could even use those tributes to bribe higher-ranking officials and secure a better future. Yao Qingling's business dealings and competing with merchants for profits truly lowered the Marquis's status and made her uncle look down upon.
After listening to her eldest son, the old lady also felt that money was not as important as the prestige of the Marquis's mansion.
Not only do the daughters of the Marquis's family have to get married, but the sons also have to pursue official careers and find a good marriage partner. Family background and reputation are very important. Yao Qingling is doing business, but right now all she has is the money she made. She hasn't seen a single penny, yet she has sold all her shops. The more she thinks about it, the more something seems wrong.
Yao Qingling anticipated that the old lady would change her mind.
With these people blocking her way, if she had a smooth life, they wouldn't be able to survive.
Although Qingling was angry, compared to the days before, what did this scolding amount to now?
She said, "I did sell the shops. But those shops made little profit, or even no profit at all, and I even had to lose money in them..."
It's ridiculous.
When Qingling married into the Duke's mansion, Madam Ma made it clear that she had prepared a considerable dowry for her.
To be honest, of those eighty-eight chests, apart from the first few chests which contained good stuff, the rest were just average, probably just there to make up the numbers.
The estate given to her was poor land with few resources, so she just supported a few farmers and did some simple chores there.
These ten shops were the lowest tier among all the shops owned by the Marquis.
The Duke's mansion was wealthy and powerful, and the Grand Princess of Deyang only accepted a portion of the shop deeds, merely as a formality. She must have already seen through the flimsy nature of the dowry.
Yao Qingling insisted on a divorce, making a big scene, but the Grand Princess of Deyang only wanted to keep her. It had nothing to do with her dowry. When she left, all the dowry was returned in full, and the money that Zhan Xingzhuo owed her was also returned.
Because the Grand Princess of Deyang returned the money so readily, Qingling didn't hold a grudge against her.
Who would turn down money?
Take, for example, the Lady Hou before us. She clearly loves money to death, yet she pretends to be aloof and tries to take back all the dowry in a roundabout way.
But has the Marquis's mansion fallen to such a state? It's just a few shops that aren't worth much, and she's so anxious about them just because she heard they were sold?
Yao Qingling didn't give the Lady Hou any face and directly exposed what kind of dowry she had given her.
She wondered if Madam Ma had given her those worthless shops because she wanted subsidies from the Duke's mansion.
When Qingling was in the Duke's mansion, she had to maintain the reputation of the Marquis's family and had to suppress her anger.
Times have changed, and now that Lady Hou is blocking her way again, Qingling will no longer tolerate it.
Mrs. Ma's face flushed red: "What nonsense are you talking about? I—"
Qing Ling's icy gaze swept over her, interrupting her explanation, her voice loud and clear: "The shop's account books are all here, Auntie, would you like to do the math?"
She stopped Madam Ma, then lowered her voice, "Sell the worthless shops to make cash, so that the profitable shops can earn even more."
She then looked at the old lady: "The Marquis's mansion cannot continue to squander its wealth. I must continue this business. Moreover, I have already gone this far; asking me to stop is impossible!"
“Madam, I respect you and hope you will continue to support me. It’s not that I’m unfilial; I firmly believe that what I’m doing is beneficial to the Marquis’s mansion. What I’m doing is precisely fulfilling my filial duty to you, Madam.”
“But if anyone tries to stop or obstruct me in the name of ‘filial piety,’ I will not hesitate to make a scene again.” Her cool eyes swept calmly across the faces of Madam Ma and the others. “You can try.”
The voice was very soft, but loud enough for each of them to hear, and loud enough to frighten them.
She dared to negotiate with bandits who wielded knives, and dared to oppose the Grand Princess of Deyang; Zhan Xingzhuo and Zhou Zhining are now one sent to Luozhou and the other a government slave, so anyone who wants to be like them can try.
Mrs. Ma was startled by her gaze.
Ruthless, cold-blooded, and extremely intimidating.
This is not the look a teenage woman should have.
Yao Qingling wasn't like this before. When she suffered a loss, she would stubbornly stand aside, unwilling to accept it but forced to accept reality.
But now... now it seems that if we don't give her food, she'll smash the pot.
Qingling despised Madam Ma for using the old lady as a tool to manipulate her.
She knew that the old lady was a fence-sitter, swaying back and forth, and that she favored her uncle's family. As long as these people took turns talking to her, she could easily change her mind.
Qingling wasn't as free as them and couldn't keep going back and forth with them, so she simply showed her fierce side and made her point firmly.
She was willing to bear the stigma of being "disobedient and unfilial"!
Qingling left after speaking; the old lady clutched her chest, so angry she almost fainted.
“Outrageous…outrageous…” she cursed, panting, pointing at Qingling’s back, “She doesn’t even listen to me anymore.”
Tears welled up again. "Yao Rui and her husband died young. If her parents were still alive, would they have allowed her to disobey me like this?"
Behind them, a group of people tried to comfort and appease them.
Yao Qingling felt a sharp pain in her heart when she heard what the old lady said.
If her parents were still alive, would they bear to see her being bullied like this?
...
Although Yao Qingling disregarded the old lady's wishes and rejected her order, she still voluntarily accepted the punishment.
That way, the old lady will feel better. Will her parents in heaven forgive her for disobeying her elders?
She knelt in the ancestral hall, before the ancestral tablets.
I didn't eat lunch, and I didn't eat dinner either.
Madam Ma and the others watched coldly: "It's too late for her to regret it now. Even I don't dare to make the old lady angry."
Yao Qingqi said, "She didn't regret it; she was afraid that if her father found out how she treated her grandmother, he would punish her with family discipline. So she accepted the punishment herself. Yao Qingling is very cunning."
When the old lady heard that Qingling had punished herself by kneeling in the ancestral hall and hadn't eaten anything all day, she coldly snorted, "Young people have a good constitution and can withstand hardship, so let her kneel."
I didn't feel a single bit sorry for them.
The people at Mulan Courtyard were anxious.
Taoye and several other maids ran back and forth several times, but they couldn't persuade them.
That evening, Taoye secretly brought her a bowl of medicine to help prevent miscarriage and a bowl of chicken porridge.
“Miss, you haven’t eaten all day. You can handle it, but the baby in your belly can’t.” She glanced at Qingling’s belly.
Qingling had been working all day and was feeling unsteady on her feet, barely able to keep going.
She sat listlessly on the cushion, took the chicken porridge, and drank a few mouthfuls.
It tastes good.
Who did it?
"Lou Yue." Tao Ye blurted out, then felt that her young lady was being too irresponsible, still having the mood to coax her at a time like this.
"Miss!" She stared at Qingling with wide eyes.
Qingling smiled and said, "How can you survive in this Marquis's mansion without the ability to find joy in hardship?"
She looked up at the rows of memorial tablets in front of her, heavy, solemn, and dignified, each one a shackle weighing on her.
However, these shackles are also a form of protection.
Only when the Marquis's mansion becomes better and stronger can everyone here have someone to rely on and seize a chance to survive in an increasingly chaotic world.
After finishing her porridge and taking the medicine to prevent miscarriage, Qingling wiped her lips.
Tao Ye looked at her with a mixture of grievance and heartache: "How much longer do we have to kneel? From what I can tell, the old lady and the others hate you—"
As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of the door being locked came from outside.
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