This Granny Pang is quite good at bullying people by taking advantage of her power. The two maids immediately dared not say anything more and said "Yes" to Jiang Jiuniang.
Jiang Jiuniang, out of consideration for Peng Yuan's feelings and to avoid embarrassing Granny Pang too much, simply pulled her out of the room.
After making sure the two maids were far away, Jiang Jiuniang said with exasperation, "It's only been a few days, how could you have been bullied like this? If Brother Qin comes back and sees you like this, I don't know how upset he'll be."
Peng Yuan gave a wry smile: "Granny Pang has been an old servant of my mother's. No matter what I say, she uses my mother to pressure me, so I can't say much. Anyway, she's doing it for my own good. And since you're not here, Sister Jiu, I can only bear with it for now."
Although she was smiling, she looked worse than crying. Jiang Jiuniang noticed that she was suffering in silence and even had tears welling up in her eyes. So she took her directly into a teahouse, called over the two maids, and sent them out to buy things.
"But this servant..."
The two hesitated. Their mission was to protect the Third Sister; how could they leave so easily?
Jiang Jiuniang smiled and said, "I don't have any maids with me, so you two can go and buy it. Your young lady will wait here with me; there won't be any danger."
The two exchanged a glance and nodded, still somewhat wary of Jiang Jiuniang.
This is not someone they can afford to mess with.
"Tell me, what exactly happened that made you so upset?"
Jiang Jiuniang pulled her hand; even though Peng Yuan was wearing many layers, her hand was still ice-cold.
"Sister Jiu Niang, sob sob sob..."
Now that it's just the two of them, they naturally want to have a good talk about what's on their minds.
"Go ahead, I'm listening."
Jiang Jiuniang felt sorry for her seeing her like this and gently patted her back.
"This time, Mother not only sent people to take care of me, but also sent two carefully trained maids, ostensibly to share my burdens, but in reality, to give to my husband as concubines..."
At this point, Peng Yuan cried even harder.
Jiang Jiuniang's eyes widened. She had heard Peng Yuan mention this before; her mother had done the same thing when her sister-in-law was pregnant.
At that time, Jiang Jiuniang thought that this was Peng Yuan's biological mother after all, and she shouldn't do such a thing, but she didn't expect her to do it anyway.
"What... what is Auntie thinking?"
She was both angry and speechless, and for a moment she didn't know what to say.
Peng Yuan said, "My mother's idea is that since men are going to take concubines anyway, instead of letting him go looking for outsiders, it would be better for me to take the initiative to send him two. They can help me in the future."
In this era, wealthy families had a custom of having their legitimate daughters marry and their illegitimate daughters accompany them as concubines, thus strengthening their relationship. Regardless of whether it was a legitimate or illegitimate daughter, as long as one of them was favored, the natal family could rest easy.
But this is only possible through a necessary "business marriage." Qin Jian and Peng Yuan are together because of love, so why all the complicated details?
"Back when my brother-in-law, the Emperor, was just a prince, my mother instructed her to send him off a few times, hoping that her family would help her and prevent her from being bullied. After all, the Peng family was not of high status at that time, and it might not be appropriate for only my sister to marry into the prince's mansion. However, my brother-in-law, the Emperor, did not agree to let my two half-sisters enter the family. He bluntly stated that if they went, they would only be able to serve my sister as maids for the rest of their lives. My two half-sisters were unwilling, so the matter was dropped."
“I am the youngest girl in the family. All my older sisters are already married. Since I have no half-sister to accompany me, my mother trained a beautiful maid to come to me.”
At this point, Peng Yuan was already in tears.
She knew in her heart that her mother meant well, but she didn't want that kindness; it was suffocating.
She truly loves Qin Jian, how could she tolerate other women by his side?
She is petty and narrow-minded; she could never be as magnanimous as her mother.
As Jiang Jiuniang listened, she felt sorry for women in this era. Her elders kept saying they were doing it for her own good, but in reality, they were only doing it for their own benefit.
It's easy to see why Madam Peng was in such a hurry to send dowries to her two daughters. It was because the Peng family was not prominent in the past and was often looked down upon by the world. Fortunately, her two legitimate daughters were both successful. One became the empress and the other married a general trusted by the emperor. The Peng family's prestige has become visibly prominent.
It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.
Having achieved such prominence, she naturally didn't want to fall back to her former glory, so she set her sights on her two capable sons-in-law.
Adhering to the idea of keeping the benefits within the family, since the women were all sent by the Peng family, anything that happened would only benefit the Peng family.
Jiang Jiuniang thought to herself, no wonder the Empress had always told the Emperor not to give important positions to her family. It turns out that the Empress knew very well that her family members were not good people.
Apart from her younger sister Peng Yuan, the Empress rarely contacted her maternal family and always instructed them not to do anything out of line, or else she would be ruthless.
The Empress may appear weak, but she is actually quite shrewd; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to have given birth to three children without having her family send someone to the Emperor's side.
Then, the arrival of Granny Pang becomes clear.
If they can't control the Empress, they'll start with Peng Yuan, especially since Qin Jian isn't around. They'll use this time to force Peng Yuan to agree to the arrangement. When Qin Jian returns, they'll say that Peng Yuan arranged it herself. They won't care about the couple's relationship; as long as they can get the person in, they'll consider their mission complete.
"Yuanyuan, what are your thoughts?"
Jiang Jiuniang remained silent for a while before finally speaking.
Peng Yuan sniffed and said, "Anyway, I won't agree. Qin Jian will be back in a while. Then we can just send him back like the Emperor's brother-in-law."
She thought it would be much more convenient for Qin Jian to handle things than for her to do it herself, since Qin Jian was her mother and she couldn't be too disobedient.
"Sister Jiu Niang, do you have a better idea? Qin Jian has just gained a foothold, and if it weren't for a last resort, I wouldn't want him to offend my parents, but I really can't think of a good idea."
At that moment, Jiang Jiuniang couldn't think of any good ideas, so she propped her head up and thought for a long time.
"You can keep the two maids from that time around. As for the other two, I'm short-handed. Just tell me you want to lend them to me, and I'll take care of that for you."
Peng Yuan's eyes widened: "Then Brother Lu..."
Those two maids were carefully trained and exuded a seductive charm. She found them annoying and couldn't bear to give them to Jiang Jiuniang.
"It's alright, it's alright, leave everything to me!"
Jiang Jiuniang smiled mysteriously; she had already figured out how to arrange things for the two beautiful maids.
Seeing her confident demeanor, and knowing that she always had many ideas, Peng Yuan finally felt relieved.
Jiang Jiuniang took her pulse and found it to be somewhat weak. She thought it was because she had been preoccupied with worries lately and had been unable to eat or sleep well. So she prescribed her another medicine.
The two sisters, Chunhua and Chuncao, finally managed to buy the items, only to be sent off again to get medicine.
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