"Mother, you should go and rest." After Ye Wanrou left, Zhou Yuqing ate some more, but his eyelids felt heavy, so he urged his mother to go back to the main courtyard. He had been unconscious for so many days, and his mother must be exhausted.
Song Xia smiled kindly: "I'll go back after you've fallen asleep."
Zhou Yuqing knew that if he didn't sleep, his mother wouldn't be at ease, so he closed his eyes. Even though he had been asleep for so long, he didn't feel as tired as usual. Was it just his imagination?
Song Xia sat for a while, then got up and returned to the main courtyard. It had been several days in a row, and it was time to take a good look at herself.
"Madam, Master has already sent Concubine Liu back to Qinya Pavilion. We can hear bursts of weeping coming from that courtyard."
Song Xia's expression remained unchanged: "I knew he wouldn't punish Liu Fangniang for long, no need to make a fuss."
The maid, Furong, was unwilling to accept this: "But she was disrespectful to the young master's wife, so this punishment is too lenient."
"Do you think we can sell her off? She's already been slapped, she's knelt in the ancestral hall, and she says she sincerely apologized. If we keep finding fault, it'll just be us being mean-spirited. Just wait and see, this is only the beginning!"
Song Xia's thin lips curled slightly. "Liu Fangniang, Liu Fangniang, you can't even handle this much? There's still a long way to go. I'll be the legal wife, and you'll be the concubine. What does it matter if you're favored? Does Zhou Yongli dare to divorce me?"
Initially, she intended to divorce, but now she has changed her mind. Divorce would mean giving everything in the Zhou family to Liu Fangniang and Zhou Shuqing, letting that family have their way. Why should they?
Since the Zhou family can't touch her anyway, she might as well play around with them every day and protect the Zhou family's business for her son.
Qin Yaxuan, feeling wronged, Liu Fangniang leaned on Zhou Yongli's shoulder and cried her heart out, making Zhou Yongli feel extremely distressed.
"Why did you have to provoke the Princess Consort of the Prince's Mansion? Stop crying, it's making me feel bad too."
"How could I have known that the Princess Consort would get so angry? All she did was call us in-laws. Isn't she our Zhou family's in-law?"
"That's not something you can call her; you're a concubine."
Upon hearing this, Liu Fangniang cried even harder: "Yonglang promised me the position of his principal wife back then, but now I am being treated as inferior for no reason. Not only can I not attend banquets in various mansions, but I can't even speak freely in my own home. What's the point of my life?"
A hint of unease flashed in Zhou Yongli's eyes, followed by increasing guilt: "Don't cry. There's no point in going to those banquets. Didn't you take a fancy to the jewelry at Linglong Pavilion? Go and get a thousand taels from the accounts. The jewelry you're wearing is much more valuable than what those respectable ladies wear."
Liu Fangniang wiped away her tears: "Actually, it's not that I really want any jewelry, it's just that I feel wronged. Today, Madam could have stopped the young master's wife from making such a big deal out of it."
Zhou Yongli's eyes indeed turned cold: "She only cares about her son, how could she care about the reputation of our Zhou family?"
“How can you say that, Yonglang? Yuge’er is your eldest son, Yonglang.”
"You know perfectly well that I value your daughter Shuqing more. Let's see what kind of person she raises Zhou Yuqing to be. From now on, let her be."
Liu Fangniang smiled smugly. Her son was better than Song Xia's son, which was her proudest achievement. Her only regret was that Zhou Yuqing had been rescued again.
But it doesn't matter. At such a young age, having teetered on the brink of death multiple times, if I don't die this time, surely I'll die next time?
The next morning, she sent someone to the accounting office to ask for money. Zhou Yongli said one thousand taels, so she asked for two thousand taels, which was how she always did it.
But no sooner had the person been sent away than he returned with a long face.
"What happened? Where's the silver I asked you to get?"
"The accountant didn't give it to us, saying that since it's not a holiday, even if the master said so himself, we still have to ask the madam for the seal."
"How dare you!" Liu Fangniang's eyebrows shot up, her voice sharp. "How dare he, a mere accountant, question the master's orders?"
"The accountant said that the lady of the house is in charge of the household affairs, and no one can just take money whenever they want."
Liu Fangniang was so angry that her chest heaved violently. As soon as Zhou Yongli returned, she immediately went to complain to him.
“Yonglang, you asked for this on your own initiative, not because I begged you. You can’t go back on your word.”
Zhou Yongli was furious, feeling that Song Xia's actions had damaged his masculine prestige: "How could I go back on my word? Wait, I'll go and find out for you."
Liu Fangniang smiled smugly. So what if Song Xia was the legal wife? She could have anything she wanted.
To put it nicely, she's the principal wife, but isn't she just the housekeeper of the Zhou family? In the future, the Zhou family will all belong to her son. Song Xia is putting in a lot of effort for no reward.
Back in the main courtyard, Song Xia had already received the news. She had anticipated this day since she gave the instructions to the accountant yesterday, but she didn't expect it to happen so soon.
But seeing Zhou Yongli storm in angrily, he couldn't help but frown.
Before anyone could get angry, she calmly said, "My lord is, after all, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Even at home, you shouldn't disregard etiquette like this. What terrible mistake has my principal wife made that warrants you taking your anger out on innocent servants?"
After being accused like this, Zhou Yongli's face darkened even more, but he was not about to admit his mistake.
"I asked Fangniang to withdraw a thousand taels of silver from the accounting office, why won't you allow it?"
"One thousand taels? I heard the accountant say two thousand taels."
Zhou Yongli frowned slightly, knowing that Fangniang had deliberately raised the amount, but it wasn't a big deal.
"I misremembered, it was two thousand taels."
Song Xia smiled and took out the account book for the past year and the Zhou family's clan rules: "My lord, there's no need to question me. Years ago, the Zhou family had an arrogant and extravagant concubine. For this, the old master was reprimanded by the late emperor. So, a clause was added to the clan rules that the concubine's monthly expenses could not exceed fifty taels. Now look at this account book. It's only been ten months this year, and Aunt Liu's Qinya Pavilion has already withdrawn more than five thousand taels of silver from the accounting office, more than double that of my main courtyard. May I ask, where did Aunt Liu spend all this silver? After all, the clothing, shoes, socks, and hairpins in the mansion are all paid for by the public funds."
Zhou Yongli's expression changed. He didn't expect Song Xia to bring up the clan rules. She used to ignore these things, and the Zhou family didn't lack a few thousand taels of silver.
Song Xia immediately knew what he was thinking, so she continued, "The Zhou family isn't short of money. My lord dotes on Consort Liu, and I shouldn't interfere, but Consort Liu is a regular customer of all the jewelry stores and silk shops in the capital. Outsiders can easily calculate her daily expenses if they pay attention. If my lord's political enemies or the censors find out, they might report it to His Majesty..."
She sighed, seemingly genuinely concerned for Zhou Yongli: "My lord, you were a third-place scholar in the imperial examinations. The top two scholars of the same year did not achieve your current official rank. You know how difficult it has been for you to get to where you are today. If you were to be reprimanded by His Majesty for such a trivial matter, wouldn't that be a great loss?"
After her analysis, Zhou Yongli realized that he had been too blatant in his affection for Fangniang, and that Song Xia was not deliberately making things difficult for him.
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