Upon saying this, without waiting for Madam Chen to assemble a defense, Ji Xinhe rose to her feet and approached Madam Chen.
"The current situation is already the worst it could be, so I have no interest in hearing your excuses. Qiao Qiao and Yi Ling are girls under your care, and the servant whom I just sold is your favored servant. Since problems have arisen with them, it’s natural that I would make trouble for you. To put it bluntly, Madam Chen, the situation you present makes me question if you’re good for anything at all."
Xin He’s even-tempered words struck Madam Chen’s heart and made her shudder.
Madam Chen took a while to collect herself, before managing to speak out: "The events of today...indeed, my control was lacking."
"Madam Chen, you are so peaceful, you don’t even try to defend yourself. Fine, in honor of your straightforward apology, I’ll give you another chance. I need you to sort out this mess. As it is now clear that we have a spy in our Flower House, you need to find them for me. As for your previous incompetence, I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself," Xin He said, staring at her.
Hearing this, Madam Chen’s heart that had been wildly beating just now relaxed a bit. She licked her lips, then nodded: "Young Master, rest assured, I will certainly find out the truth."
"If you handle this matter well, I will trust you. If you do not handle it well, Madam Chen, I don’t employ idlers," Xin He said this emotionlessly - but some things really are without emotion - her Flower House is not a charity house where idle hands are put in charge.
Madam Chen finally relaxed completely; she now fully understood the nature of her new master. This master simply wasn’t interested in any messy explanations or defense; what she wanted was results.
A result to prove herself.
If she fails to do so, no matter how eloquent she is, the young master probably wouldn’t listen to a word. Just like the argument between Yi Ling and Qiao Qiao just now. After such a long quarrel, the young master did not favor either of them. He only looks at the facts and outcomes, and expressing yourself verbally doesn’t have much effect.
Upon understanding this, Madam Chen solemnly nodded: "Yes."
With that, Xin He gestured: "You may leave."
Just as Madam Chen was about to leave, she remembered something, hesitated and stopped walking. She said, sounding uncertain: "But Young Master, about Yihong Courtyard..."
"Don’t bother with that yet. It’s more important to find the spy within our Flower House. I’ll handle what’s going on at Yihong Courtyard," Xin He said.
Finally at ease, Madam Chen agreed with a nod and departed.
Finally, the room fell silent again, Xin He returned to her seat and gave her temple a rub. She felt a little worn out.
Xiaoyu was visibly worried, clearly finding all this trouble quite a headache.
"Madam, considering the current situation..."
Xin He, slightly closing her eyes and rubbing her temple, replied: "What can we do? We must deal with it one by one."
She had already been quite irritated just now dealing with them.
"It’s true, ever since the takeover of Flower House, the existing mess just keeps adding up. It has reached a point where Yihong Courtyard is putting us on the back foot by exploiting the situation. Today, Yihong Courtyard even has a new star named Jinghua, who is now overshadowing one of our five mainstays, Yi Ling. I’m afraid Yihong Courtyard will gradually become more arrogant in the future," Xiaoyu said, sighing.
They had barely managed to achieve their current status only for someone to exploit a loophole and reap the benefits.
Xin He, though, had no particular worries, and replied casually: "It’s no matter. Yihong Courtyard is of little importance and not to be feared. It’s just that they’ve brought forth a duplicate of Yi Ling. Even if they are temporarily successful, it won’t be easy for them to overtake us, especially since I’m still not out of tricks to play."
Xin He paused for a moment before continuing: "For now, the most important thing is to catch the spy in our Flower House. Otherwise, even if we have new tricks, I can’t easily trust them with it."
Xin He continued, her expression becoming somber: "Do the words ’betrayal’ seem too frivolously used in our Flower House?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Even if there’s no intention of betrayal now, should any of them suddenly have the idea one day, they could easily sell out everything we have at Flower House and perhaps without much cost.
This single notion was indeed a significant problem, Xin He had been busy expanding Flower House and somehow had overlooked this. While she would like to trust all the girls wholeheartedly, there wasn’t much of that on the business field.
Indeed, everything was bound to interests, right?
Xin He pondered for a moment then instructed, "Shulan, bring me the ink and brush."
"Yes, madam."
With the ink and brush, Xin He quickly drafted a contract. After reading it thoroughly and finding no changes necessary, she handed it to Xiaoyu: "Take this and make several copies. Have all the girls in the Flower House sign it. Those who refuse to sign it will be sold off immediately."
Xiaoyu looked surprised upon reading the contract and asked, "Confidentiality agreement? What is this?"
Xin He smiled slightly, "It’s a form of contractual restraint. We can’t make the girls think that the price of betrayal is too low. Whoever dares leak any secrets of Flower House will have to pay a fine of 100,000 Taels. We’ll see how many times they need to sell themselves to raise that money."
Xiaoyu nodded with understanding, "Young Master’s idea is excellent, I will take care of it now."
Once Xiaoyu left, Xin He finally got a chance to rest on the soft couch.
Seeing that she was tired, Shulan began to massage her temples, "Madam, who do you think is the spy who leaked information to Yihong Courtyard?"
Xin He responded with a question of her own, "Who do you think it is?"
Shulan thought for a moment, "I think it’s Qiao Qiao."
She was a straightforward person and always spoke her mind.
Xin He remained silent and let her go on.
"No matter what, Yihong Courtyard now has Jinghua, whose skills and temperament completely overpower Miss Yi Ling. It’s clear that this is a clear cut-off for Yi Ling. It can’t possibly be Yi Ling herself pulling such a malicious trick against herself. If so, her fate probably wouldn’t be much better than Qiao Qiao’s. Madam, didn’t you see? Miss Yi Ling was practically falling apart."
Listening to Shulan’s words, Xin He responded with a light smirk, "Not only do you think so, I’m sure everyone thinks so."
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