"Are you trying to play the weak and pitiful game with me?" Shen Weiwan wiped the tears from her laughter and picked up the medicine jar on the table and shook it. "Don't you see how many years I was PUAed by her in my previous life?" She unscrewed the lid and found a half-filled jar of blackened mugwort paste. "You still want to fool me with this stuff? Next time, ask her to give you the golden wound medicine directly, otherwise I will cry until she hands over the key to the warehouse."
Chun Tao took the medicine jar and asked curiously, "Miss, now the whole mansion knows that you outmaneuvered the Second Madam in her fight for the hairpin. The servants are looking at her as if she were watching a monkey show."
"Just watch the monkey show." Shen Weiwan walked to the wardrobe and stroked the pink gauze skirt covered with wild rose thorns. "The more embarrassed the Liu family is, the easier it will be for me to do things." She recalled the embarrassment she had suffered at the Spring Banquet in her previous life, and a cold light flashed in her eyes. "The next scene will be our good cousin's turn."
As he was speaking, the old housekeeper knocked lightly at the door. "Miss, the Second Madam had the accountant deliver this month's allowance. It's twice as much as usual. She also said...that if you have any ideas about future expenses in the mansion, you can give them to us."
Shen Weiwan raised her eyebrows and took the heavy purse: “Oh? Liu has changed her nature?”
The old housekeeper lowered his voice, a smile on his lips, "Just now, after you left Roulan Courtyard, the Second Madam smashed her dressing table and dressing table, and scolded the servants for gossiping. Now the whole mansion is saying that the Second Madam was persuaded to give up the buyao because of your 'filial piety', and she even doubled her monthly allowance to please you."
"To please?" Shen Weiwan threw the purse to Chuntao, "Distribute this money to the servants in each courtyard and say that it's a special reward from Auntie to show her gratitude for everyone's 'concern' about her hand injury."
The old butler was stunned for a moment, then stroked his beard and smiled, "Young Miss is very smart."
After the old housekeeper left, Chun Tao counted the silver with shining eyes: "Miss, are you trying to win people's hearts?"
"It's not about bribing them, it's about showing them," Shen Weiwan walked to the window and looked towards Roulan Courtyard, "Who is the real master of the General's Mansion who can support them? Liu wants to establish her authority by withholding money? I want to let her know that I am the only one who uses the General's Mansion's money to pretend to be a good person. She is not worthy of it."
Chuntao nodded, seeming to understand, and left with the silver. Shen Weiwan took out her needle and thread and sewed a few more clusters of wild rose thorns into her pink gauze skirt. As the needle passed through the gauze, she thought of Shen Ruoruo's hypocritical smile in her previous life, and a cold smile curled up at the corner of her mouth.
Did Liu send someone to deliver medicine for her injuries? It was just to test her bottom line. Now, not only did she not gain any advantage, but she was publicly "praised to death" by Shen Weiwan, becoming the laughing stock of the entire mansion. But this was just an appetizer; the real drama would come at the Spring Banquet three days later.
Three days later, the peonies at the Taifu Mansion were in full bloom. Chen Weiwan, wearing a half-worn plain skirt and a bamboo-colored maid's coat, stood in the corner of the crowd admiring the flowers, looking like an inconspicuous leaf.
Shen Ruorou, wearing a brand new moon-white skirt embroidered with lotus flowers, was surrounded by a group of noble ladies, but she would occasionally glance at Shen Weiwan with undisguised contempt. She held a teacup and "carelessly" walked towards Shen Weiwan. With a flick of her wrist, the scalding tea splashed all over Shen Weiwan's plain skirt.
"Oh! I'm sorry, sister!" Shen Ruorou immediately showed a panic expression, but her voice rose a few notes, "It's all my fault for being clumsy and dirtying your clothes. I brought spare clothes, if you don't mind, can you change into them first?"
Shen Weiwan looked at the smug look that flashed across her eyes, and sneered in her heart - here it comes. She looked down at the wet hem of her skirt, revealing an embarrassment: "How can this be embarrassing...but my figure is a little fuller than my sister's, I'm afraid I can't wear it?"
"Hey, what are you talking about, sister!" Shen Ruoruo held her hand affectionately, but her nails secretly exerted force, "Put it on to cover up the ugliness first, it's better than getting wet." As she said that, she pulled Shen Weiwan to the changing room without saying anything. The bag of itchy grass clippings that had been prepared long ago in her sleeve rustled in her cuffs.
Shen Weiwan let her pull, but her fingertips clutched another, even smaller, bundle of wild rose thorns in her sleeve. Playing the fool? Liu had used this tactic for over a decade, and now that Shen Weiwan had mastered it, the first person she wanted to respond to was this good cousin in front of her.
As the carved wooden door of the dressing room creaked shut, Shen Weiwan looked at the moon-white skirt that Shen Ruoruo had impatiently taken out, a sly smile curling her lips. "Liu, Shen Ruoruo, your 'surprises' are never late. It's my turn to perform on the stage of this Spring Banquet."
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