Chapter 69 Chapter 69 The Young Couple Acts
When Ji Yanlang returned home in the afternoon, the first thing he asked was, "What happened to the cook?"
He really took this matter to heart. "Fine one month's salary and compensate for the bucket of tofu pudding," Fang Ying replied.
"No more?" Ji Yanlang looked dissatisfied.
"That's it. A small punishment for a big warning." Fang Ying explained to him in detail, "Mrs. Tong has been in charge of the kitchen for seven or eight years. Even if she has no merits, she has worked hard..."
"I hate to hear that. What do you mean by hard work? It's not like she's the only one cooking for the whole family. How many servants are there in the kitchen for her to command? How hard is it for her? If you think it's too hard, find someone else!"
Fang Ying sighed: "You still remember Aunt Man, right?"
Ji Yanlang frowned and thought for a moment: "Madame Man, who used to be in charge of the kitchen?"
"Yes, Madam Tong is Madam Man's daughter-in-law. She took over the kitchen from Madam Man."
"So what? My father is a splendid warrior, victorious in every battle. If I were to delay military operations, would the emperor just let me off for my father's sake?"
They even brought up the subject of fighting for comparison, which shows that they are really angry.
But Fang Ying didn't quite understand why he was so angry. He'd already slept and gone to the cavalry camp for a day of training, yet he still remembered this matter. "Disrupting military operations? That's too much, isn't it? At most, she lost a horse and had to use a donkey to replace it."
She said it in a joking tone, but Ji Yanlang remained unmoved. He said coldly, "You didn't have this attitude yesterday."
After all this fuss, he still held a grudge against her. Fang Ying stopped smiling: "It seems you still don't know why I was angry yesterday."
Once this topic was brought up, it would take a while to finish, so she turned around and went in, sitting down beside the couch.
Why was she angry? Didn't she make it clear yesterday? Ji Yanlang was puzzled and followed in to ask, "Isn't it because the cook knowingly committed a crime and lied to her superiors?"
"No, what angers me most is that you knew about this but didn't report it." Some things were difficult to say directly, but since he had used the war analogy, Fang Ying had an idea and used it to express what she wanted to say. "Yesterday, I was the commander-in-chief, and you, as reinforcements, received my intelligence but didn't report it to me, and even made your own decisions. What is your crime?"
Ji Yanlang: “…”
She also acted along.
"Why don't you say anything? Do you feel wronged?" Fang Ying asked again.
Seeing her serious and playful expression as a commander, Ji Yanlang's anger immediately subsided, and he also felt playful. He walked over to sit down opposite Fang Ying, clasped his hands together, and said, "Marshal, please understand. I am truly wronged."
"Where is the injustice?"
"If the cook hadn't deliberately deceived and lied about military intelligence, even if I had the audacity to do so, I would never have dared to act on my own and conceal the truth."
"Ridiculous! Are you also making rash decisions based on only one side of the story in your own army?"
Ji Yanlang sighed, "I underestimated that cunning slave. I never thought she had such courage. She had the Marshal's order, yet she dared to fool me in front of me. This cunning slave is truly hateful. In my opinion, she should be severely punished to serve as a warning to others."
In the final analysis, he was just angry that Tong Niang used words to fool him while avoiding her own mistakes.
Fang Ying had already put on such a show, so of course she wouldn't let him get away with it. She snorted coldly, "She's already admitted to Diao Nu's guilt, but what about you? Are you innocent at all?"
Ji Yanlang really felt that he had done nothing wrong, especially since Fang Ying apologized to him when he returned home yesterday.
But at this moment, she used the metaphor of "delaying military action" to frame the matter, and Ji Yanlang had to admit: "I did make some mistakes. I shouldn't be so self-righteous and disrupt the Marshal's deployment. I hope the Marshal will forgive me."
The words he chose seemed very serious, but he spoke in a pretentious tone, and he even clasped his hands together and shook them at Fang Ying, looking very joking.
Fang Ying raised her hand to hold it down, and said with a smile, "You say that, but you must be thinking that trivial household chores can't compare to major military matters, right?"
"I dare not." Seeing that she had stopped acting, Ji Yanlang smiled and held her hand. "Although the matters may be big or small, the principles are the same."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah." Ji Yanlang felt that he had already admitted his mistake and there was no need to dwell on it. He nodded and said, "I really think so."
"Then when you started by saying 'delayed military action', whose military action were you delaying?"
Is this another drama? Ji Yanlang thought back: "Of course it's the Marshal's military plan."
"Since she is my military advisor, why are you so angry? Will you punish her severely?"
Ji Yanlang didn't answer for a moment, but Fang Ying had already sensed from the previous questions and answers that he was furious at being deceived by a cook. She then asked, "Didn't you realize that she was 'delaying military action' because of you? If you hadn't gone, would she have dared to decide for herself without reporting it to me?"
Ji Yanlang immediately widened his eyes: "I..."
Fang Ying raised her other hand, placed his broad palm in hers, and said softly, "Don't be impatient, listen to me, Madam Tong's actions this time are not, as you think, a lie to deceive the master, or to deliberately deceive and fool you. On the contrary, she wants to use you to pressure me.
"In her opinion, you're the one who makes the decision on this matter. Now that I know the whole story, I certainly won't dare to say anything. It's not wise to offend your husband for a bastard's daughter. When the cheese was served, Fourth Sister was a very easygoing person. She simply refused to eat it and wouldn't use it to cause trouble. This small mistake can be easily glossed over."
Ji Yanlang thought about this for a while and found that it was just as Fang Ying said. As long as she didn't ask too many questions and let it go, the matter would pass quietly. No one would know the grievance in Si Niang's heart, and no one would know Fang Ying's intentions.
He became furious again. "How dare this wicked slave treat Fourth Lady so disrespectfully? Lady has never treated her illegitimate children harshly. Back then, she raised all of my sisters as if they were her own children. How can a mere servant be relied upon? How dare she disrespect her legitimate master?"
Fang Ying sighed, "After your accident, Mother no longer had the energy to care about anything else. With the troubles with the Third and Fourth Houses, it was inevitable that she neglected Fourth Sister. The loyal servants in the mansion, especially those who came with Mother's dowry, also became doubly disgusted with the concubines and their children, thinking they were all ungrateful and unteachable."
"But what does this have to do with Si Niang? She's not He Yi Niang's daughter, and she's also young..."
"Isn't there still the example of Second Aunt..."
Ji Yanlang felt a lump in his throat, a breath stuck in his chest, unable to go up or down.
Fang Ying released her hand and poured him a cup of warm tea. "I'm not trying to defend or plead for Madam Tong, but since we've come to this point today, I want to explain the underlying entanglement to you."
Ji Yanlang drank his tea, exhaled, and said, "Go on."
"I remember telling you before that when my second sister-in-law was pregnant, Mother asked my third and fourth sisters-in-law to help with the housework and even replaced the housekeeper. Although they were soon stopped from managing the household, it still left hidden dangers."
The Ji family was a family of military commanders, and they already had servants who had served them for generations. Ji Guangting had accumulated military merits along the way, and had established his own government. The various slaves he had robbed or received as gifts were countless. Add to that the servants that Li had brought as a dowry, and they were like several undercurrents in a big river. When there was no wind or rain, they merged into one stream, and the waves were as smooth as a mirror. But once the wind and rain started, they were bound to split and collide, creating waves.
"I know that the rumors in and outside the mansion are largely due to their 'contributions'." Ji Yanlang knew a little about this matter. "Didn't they later send away and sell off those unruly slaves who had turned against them?"
Fang Ying smiled. "Now it seems like a simple matter, but when I first married in, I helped my second sister-in-law with household chores, and battled wits and courage with my third and fourth sisters-in-law and those cunning servants. I relied heavily on people like Nanny Man and Lady Tong."
"Depend on?" Is it appropriate for the master to rely on the servant?
"What do you think?" Fang Ying glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. "My second sister-in-law has no children, and I'm a newlywed from a humble family. If I want to accomplish something in this mansion, how can I not rely on those housekeepers?"
"That's also because I rely on my mother."
"That's true, but if they pretend to obey but are unwilling to contribute, can my second sister-in-law and I still go to mother for everything?"
Ji Yanlang frowned. He had thought about how difficult it was when Fang Ying first got married, but he didn't expect... No, there was no such thing as unexpected. He had mentioned it himself in the restaurant the day before yesterday. It was just that some things - just like what she had just said, now it was just a sentence. He couldn't empathize with her who had experienced that time firsthand.
"Because of this incident, if Second Sister-in-law punishes Madam Tong, the most she can do is fine her a month's salary, like today. If she wants to be beaten with a stick or replaced as you said, we have to report it to Mother and ask her to decide." Fang Ying lowered her voice, "After all, the real heads of our family are still the two adults."
Ji Yanlang thought for a moment, then slammed the table and said, "Then please let me make the decision, Madam! This matter may seem trivial, but if you think about it carefully, it's not that simple. This servant in my house has arbitrarily divided the master into different classes, and she even dared to use my power to suppress you and trample on Si Niang. What family with a long tradition of righteousness would tolerate such a wicked servant?"
In fact, Fang Ying had long realized that if some servants - especially those from Li's dowry - were not strictly disciplined and were allowed to continue, they would become a dangerous and difficult-to-eliminate problem.
But it was not her turn to say this. Yue Qing'e was the eldest daughter-in-law, the one in charge of household chores, and the family business would be passed on to their side in the future. She did not say anything, and Fang Ying, a younger daughter-in-law, could only keep her mouth shut.
What's more, the mother-in-law's reputation is involved.
Ji Yanlang was different. He was his mother-in-law's biological son, and he had just been lost and found again. No matter what he said, no matter how deep or shallow, his mother-in-law would not be angry, and would listen to him to some extent.
"You're right." Fang Ying pretended to be convinced. "I originally thought I'd just make a small deal out of a big deal, but things are different now. Fourth sister is grown up and about to get engaged. People always say she's dull and not good at talking. Even the servants at home treat her like that. How can she stand up for herself?"
"That's exactly what you said. You were so timid at home, and now you're married, you can't stand up straight. I'll change my clothes and go to my mother's house right away."
Fang Ying followed him into the inner room and helped him change into his casual robes. She then instructed him, "Don't be anxious when you see Mother. Talk slowly. Mother is always wise and sensible. Perhaps if you just start, she'll understand what you're trying to say."
"I don't need to." Ji Yanlang lowered his head and kissed his wife on the cheek. "You can go after dinner. I'm leaving first."
Fang Ying escorted him to the hall, then held him back and warned him, "What I said earlier was actually wrong. Tong Niang has made contributions. Remember this, and don't say anything..."
Ji Yanlang turned around and stood up straight, feet together, and said in a pretentious tone: "Marshal, rest assured, I will obey your orders and leave now."
"..." Fang Ying changed her right hand from pulling to pushing, and with a strong force, she pushed the person out of the door.
-----------------------
The author has something to say: The two adults refer to parents, and adults was originally a respectful title for parents.
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided nutrient solution between 2021-10-10 00:15:54 and 2021-10-12 01:08:53~
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: avahgao 27 bottles;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
