Chapter 6 Earning Some Travel Expenses
Jiang Shiyao rubbed her sore eyes and carefully finished stitching the embroidered animal head.
Frostfall exclaimed in amazement, "So beautiful!"
The sunlight streaming in through the window shone on the embroidery, giving it a faint golden glow.
"And there's golden light!"
Jiang Shiyao picked up a gold thread to show her, "I hid the gold thread while embroidering. I was worried it might look out of place, but the effect is surprisingly good!"
Shuangjiang sincerely praised, "Jiang Niangzi's skills are probably even better than those of the embroiderers in the palace."
Jiang Shiyao chuckled, "My embroidery was taught by a nanny from the palace."
"If you like, I'll embroider a bellyband for you after this birthday gift!"
Shuangjiang blushed, "My lady, how shameless you are..."
Jiang Shiyao stopped teasing her. "We don't have enough gold thread. Go back to that embroidery shop from the other day and buy some more."
"yes."
When Shuangjiang reached the door, she thought for a moment and then turned to say something to Gao's mother.
Mrs. Gao said, "Let's go somewhere else, I'll go with you."
Shuangjiang muttered to herself, "I don't think Jiang Niangzi is that kind of person."
Mrs. Gao turned around and glared at her, "You've only been gone a few days, and you already trust her so much?"
Shuangjiang stopped talking. She had been watching closely in the courtyard these past few days.
Jiang Niangzi gets up before dawn and spends all day embroidering in the side room. After dinner, she also accompanies her daughter to practice calligraphy.
She was also a very easy-going master, and the young lady was taught to be very polite.
The youngest, the seventh young lady, is only two years older than the young lady, but she is already quite domineering. How many maids have been replaced in Aunt Zheng's courtyard?
Madam Gao led Shuangjiang to inquire at two embroidery shops, and the price of gold thread was actually higher at both than at the shop where Jiang Shiyao bought it.
Shuangjiang couldn't help but feel indignant on behalf of Jiang Niangzi, "If Jiang Niangzi really wanted to line her own pockets, she would have kept this money bag for herself long ago."
"Although I was not familiar with Madam Jiang before, I had met her a few times, and she seemed to be a very gentle person."
"Yesterday, Mingyu even had the audacity to ask Lady Jiang to plead for her, wasn't it because she thought Lady Jiang was easy to bully?"
Madam Gao poked Shuangjiang's forehead, "If everyone were as honest as you, there wouldn't be any bad people in the manor."
Shuangjiang ignored what Gao Mama said and went to the embroidery shop she had visited before to buy the gold thread.
When she returned, the white fur on the neck of the auspicious beast on the embroidery frame was only half-finished.
Jiang Shiyao is cutting something.
"Madam Jiang, why did you cut it?"
"Adding gold thread here doesn't look good; we need to add silver thread." Jiang Shiyao didn't even look up as she used a needle to pick out the extremely fine gold threads one by one.
Shuangjiang suddenly felt sorry for Jiang Niangzi. She had gone to so much trouble, but Gao Mama suspected that she was colluding with the shopkeeper to profit from it.
"Let's cut it tomorrow, it's getting dark soon, be careful with your eyes."
Jiang Shiyao rubbed her sore eyes and put down the scissors. "You're right. We can't rush. If we accidentally cut the other thread, this whole area will be ruined."
"Where's Fu'er? That little girl didn't bother me today."
Shuangjiang shook her head, "I haven't seen her since I came back, and Mother He isn't here either."
"They're probably out having fun right now, they'll be back in a bit."
Looking at the dim sky, Jiang Shiyao suddenly felt inexplicably flustered.
"No, I have to go out and look for it."
The Duke of England's mansion occupies a vast area. The place where Fu'er took her to dig for silver last time was near the western wall, and there was an abandoned courtyard not far away.
In her previous life, nothing had happened in that forest, and there was nothing unusual when Mother He resigned.
So when she and Fu'er came back last time, she assumed that He's mother's strange behavior was because someone had discovered their secret.
She was so careless! She was wary of Mingyu, but not of Mother He!
Jiang Shiyao chased after them to the bamboo forest and, sure enough, found traces of loosened soil where she had found the silver last time.
Her face grew more serious.
She didn't know the meaning of Frost's Descent, but she remembered what Mother He and Fu'er had said before she left home that day.
"When I went out today, I heard Mama He say that she was taking my daughter to dig bamboo shoots and making her stir-fried bamboo shoot tips."
"Are you in the kitchen right now?"
The images kept flashing through Jiang Shiyao's mind.
The sight of Fu'er's emaciated and bleeding appearance, and Song Jiyun's cold and disgusted order to have them drowned in the pond.
She bit her tongue hard, telling herself over and over that she had been reborn.
"Frost's Descent, you go to the kitchen, I'll go to the greenhouse to find Aunt He, who's in charge of the household..."
It was only then that Shuangjiang noticed that Jiang Shiyao was trembling violently.
"Madam Jiang! Are you alright?"
Jiang Shiyao pulled her hand away. "I'm... I'm fine, go quickly!"
Jiang Shiyao recalled the bits and pieces about Mother He from her previous life as she hurried toward the flower room.
Suddenly she stopped.
Madam He's husband was a gardener in the Duke's mansion, but also a gambling addict. If it weren't for his skill in cultivating peonies, he would have been kicked out long ago.
In her previous life, Mother He had borrowed money from her several times.
It seems that from that point on, he never borrowed money from her again.
When Song Jiyun resigned, it was shortly after he married into the family, during the sweltering summer heat, without any warning.
Around that time, I also started wearing new clothes and two pieces of silver jewelry.
Jiang Shiyao was lost in thought. She turned around and went back to the courtyard.
The courtyard is small, with a main house, two side rooms on each side, and two outbuildings on the left.
Mother He lived in the right side room. Fu'er lived with her when she was little, and only when she grew up did she sneak into her bed and the two of them slept together.
The left side room has now been converted into an embroidery room.
Jiang Shiyao suddenly pushed open He's mother's door, startling He's mother who was bending over to put something down.
With two dull thuds, something rolled into the box.
"My lady, why are you here?"
Mother He's eyes darted away before finally settling on Fu'er on the bed. "The girl is already asleep. She's tired from playing today!"
Jiang Shiyao approached step by step, "Did you fall asleep, or were you drugged?"
Madam He's heart sank. "What are you saying, madam? How could I possibly drug the young lady..."
"No one noticed, and your family secretly made a fortune. If someone found out, you could blame it all on Fu'er, saying it was accidentally discovered while playing?"
Mrs. He fell to the ground with a thud.
Oh no, my wife found out after all...
"But you shouldn't have used Fu'er as a shield for you!" Jiang Shiyao said sternly.
Madam He quickly got up and kowtowed, "My lady, spare my life! My husband only stole fifty taels!"
"The people at the gambling den wanted to cut off his hand; there was really no other way!"
She cried and begged, "My husband said the box was almost rotten and no one would find it, so he had this wicked idea. Please, my lady, spare my life and don't tell the young master!"
Jiang Shiyao slowly sat down beside Fu'er's bed, her fingers resting on Fu'er's wrist, where a clear and strong pulse was throbbing.
She turned to look at He's mother, whose face was streaked with tears, and said, "Take it out."
With trembling legs, Mother He took out a ten-tael silver ingot.
Jiang Shiyao turned the silver ingot over. It bore the reign title of the late emperor. According to the date on the official seal, this silver was from more than thirty years ago!
Her lips were pressed tightly together.
Others may not know about the existence of this silver, but the old lady certainly does!
The old lady's courtyard was renovated last year, which may well have been for the purpose of obtaining silver.
This money is probably ill-gotten.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been in darkness for over thirty years!
Jiang Shiyao sneered, "The silver has the official seal, the year, and the treasury stamp. It's a brand new ingot of silver from the official kiln treasury thirty years ago."
"Do you think that by remaining undetected, no one can find you?"
Mrs. He was so frightened that her face turned pale.
"What to do, what to do..."
She quickly crawled a few steps on her knees and knelt at Madam Jiang's feet, pleading, "Please, please, Madam, save the master!"
Jiang Shiyao's gaze shifted from Mother He to the silver in her hand.
She remembered that in her previous life, Jinzhou was hit by two months of continuous torrential rain, which destroyed farmland and resulted in no harvest in the fall!
Due to soaring food prices in the capital, the guests almost didn't get to eat on the wedding day of Zhou Congxian and Song Jiyun!
If she had money, she could stockpile grain now and sell it to the Duke's mansion three months later, making a huge profit!
Even after leaving the Duke's mansion, he will not have to worry about food and clothing.
Jiang Shiyao gripped the silver tightly and said slowly, "Want to live?"
Mrs. He nodded vigorously.
"Come closer."
...
When I returned from the Frost's Descent, I saw Madam Jiang leaning against a pillar under the eaves, looking at the moon.
"My wife..."
Jiang Shiyao said, "Fu'er is fine. It's a pity that Miss Shuangjiang made a wasted trip."
Shuangjiang didn't think of anything else. "All mothers are the same. When I was little, I fell asleep in the woodshed, and my mother looked for me for a long time."
"In the end, everyone stopped looking for me. Only my mother found me in the woodshed and gave me a good beating."
Jiang Shiyao looked at her, "I remember you've always been in the old lady's courtyard, your mother..."
Shuangjiang lowered her eyes. "My mother, like Gao Mama, was a close attendant."
"According to Mama Gao, my mother died because she sacrificed herself to save her master. The old lady took pity on me because I had lost both my father and mother, so I have been staying in the old lady's courtyard ever since."
Jiang Shiyao, "In the old lady's courtyard you were a first-class maid, but now you've come to my little courtyard..."
"actually……"
Shuangjiang looked into Jiang Shiyao's eyes, and just as she opened her mouth, she was interrupted by a piercing scream.
"ah!--"
The two of them looked in the same direction at the same time.
Even Mrs. He, who was inside the house, opened the door to take a look.
Shuangjiang spoke first, "It seems to be the Crown Prince's courtyard."
A glint flashed in Jiang Shiyao's eyes. "Let's go take a look."
Night had fallen, and the scream alerted quite a few people.
The neighboring courtyards belong to the younger generation of the family who have already been separated into their own courtyards.
When Jiang Shiyao arrived, the third young lady Zhou Wanqing and the fourth young lady Zhou Wanhui arrived one after the other.
Zhou Congxian's face turned ashen.
Mingyu knelt in the courtyard, her clothes disheveled, with traces of blood even seeping from her forehead.
Seeing that things were not going well, Zhou Wanhui tried to pull her third sister away, saying, "Third sister, this is a matter between eldest brother and us, it's not appropriate for us to get involved."
Zhou Wanqing was so angry on behalf of her best friend Song Jiyun that her nose was crooked. "I'm not leaving! These little hussies are all restless. If I don't keep an eye on things for Sister Jiyun, who will?"
Sister Jiyun was almost ready to come in, and now she's putting on this whole show.
If this little brat really succeeds, how will Big Brother face Sister Jiyun again!
"Your Highness, please spare this servant! I had no other choice but to be bewitched and resort to desperate measures!"
Mingyu kowtowed and sobbed as she did so.
Jiang Shiyao stood at the back of the crowd, looking at Mingyu's back, and couldn't help but sneer.
In her past life, she trusted Mingyu completely, but in the end, she died at the hands of the person she trusted most.
All the sins of this life are your own fault! Your greed is insatiable!
Zhou Wanqing, "You're not Jiang Shiyao's maid, who gave you the audacity to trespass into your master's bedroom!"
Mingyu curled up on the ground, and when she turned around, she saw Jiang Shiyao behind the crowd.
She stared fiercely at that beautiful figure.
"It's Lady Jiang!"
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