My Dearest Sister-In-Law, I've Been Waiting For You To Get A Divorce For A Long Time - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

◎ “Some things, after all, need to be made clear.” ◎

“You may be overthinking this, my lady. Miss Yao’s reputation in the capital has always been like this; she’s not just being sarcastic and snide toward you alone,” Mama Liu said as she entered. Seeing Mo Shuqing bring up Gu Wenyao, she couldn’t help but speak her mind. “She’s so difficult to get along with. You should just avoid her.”

“Mama,” Mo Shuqing pursed her lips. Her jade-like fingers picked up her brush again as she lowered her eyes and said, “Don’t speak about her like that anymore.”

Mama Liu was stunned. She looked in surprise at Qinglu, the maid next to her. “What happened in this room? I only went out to check on dinner for a moment, and now my lady is taking Miss Yao’s side?”

Qinglu looked at Mo Shuqing. When she saw that Mo Shuqing wasn’t going to speak, she whispered to Mama Liu, “Perhaps my lady thinks that it’s not easy for Miss Yao to manage such a large family, which is why she’s so difficult.”

“She single-handedly handled a major banquet without any problems, and yet when she went to check the accounts, she found that her own family was making things difficult for her. Who wouldn’t be annoyed?” Qinglu told Mama Liu. “The accounts don’t match. A lot of things are missing.”

“How could such a thing happen?” Mama Liu was astounded. Could it be that the higher the family’s status, the more shameless they are?

“It’s not that they’re shameless; it’s that they think I’m too concerned with my reputation,” Mo Shuqing said. She had asked the accountant about it. “In the past, the items taken were just small things, nowhere near what was taken this time.”

A pair of jade scepters and brocade from Jiangnan… they had kept all the good stuff.

Mama Liu whispered, “Could it be that Miss Yao knew the accounts were wrong all along and gave this task to you, my lady, to get you to offend people?”

The Marquis manor really was a nest of demons and a den of wolves.

Mo Shuqing didn’t say anything because someone had arrived in the courtyard.

“Our lady has worked so hard. Madam Yu knows that organizing the accounts is taxing, so she had us bring some things over as a token of a senior’s goodwill.” The maid was from Gu-shi’s courtyard. She raised her hand, and the servants behind her came up holding trays with items on them.

The other items weren’t eye-catching, but on a red brocade tray were two green jade scepters. The quality was terrible; anyone with a discerning eye would know they were made of common jade.

The jade scepters from the Earl of Rong’an’s manor were made of rare and precious mutton-fat jade.

The maid explained, “Our young lady is young and playful, and she liked the scepters so much that she kept them. But Madam Yu knows that it’s difficult for a new bride to manage the household and doesn’t want to make things hard for you, so she found a similar pair of jade scepters from her private collection to send to you, my lady.”

Similar?

Mo Shuqing slightly raised her eyebrows. Through this tactic of “white jade goes in, green jade comes out,” she had now seen how difficult the elder Gu-shi was.

She had initially thought that the elder Gu-shi was supporting her to take power from Gu Wenyao. Now it seemed she just wanted a “soft persimmon” to take the position, so she could easily take things for herself.

Mo Shuqing accepted the green jade scepters and had Mama Liu see the maid off, giving the elder Gu-shi a proper amount of face.

“My lady, why did you tolerate that?” Qinglu asked as she followed Mo Shuqing.

“A barefoot person can’t just step straight into a river,” Mo Shuqing said, sitting back down at her desk to continue with the accounts. “First, I’ll toss a stone to test the depth of the waters in the Marquis manor.”

Sure enough, in a single morning, after the elder Gu-shi’s “white jade in, green jade out” scheme, the other households who had taken items followed suit.

Some even secretly regretted not taking more good things. If they had known earlier that the new bride was only impressive with her words and so incompetent and timid at managing the household, they would have taken more.

“My lady, let’s eat first,” Mama Liu said as she came in. “Don’t starve yourself.”

When she saw the maids bringing in the bowls and dishes one after another, Mo Shuqing closed the new ledger and stood up. As she washed her hands, she casually asked, “How is the Little Marquis?”

“I heard they called in a doctor and even an imperial physician for him. He’s being treated like a precious jewel,” Mama Liu said with a pout. “But his backside is a bloody mess, so he probably won’t be able to get out of bed for at least ten days to half a month.”

The Bamboo Courtyard was used as the bridal chambers. Gu Shufeng didn’t usually stay here. After his beating this morning, Gu Shufeng hated Mo Shuqing and wouldn’t have allowed anyone to bring him to this courtyard.

While Mama Liu felt that Gu Shufeng deserved it, she also lamented, “This way, who knows when the marriage will be consummated. If you ask me, they should have carried the Little Marquis to this courtyard. You two could have at least cultivated some feelings.”

Madam Yu was not a good head wife. She didn’t even know how to handle something as simple as this.

Mo Shuqing carefully wiped her fingers, in a good mood. “Let him be. At least I’ll have half a month of peace and quiet.”

“The way you say that, it’s as if the Little Marquis is some sort of filthy thing you want to throw away. You’ll regret it later,” Mama Liu grumbled. “If you can’t win the Little Marquis’s heart, how can you, a new bride, live a stable life in the Marquis manor?”

A woman who isn’t favored in the inner court has a difficult life. Even the little maids who serve them dare to disrespect them, not to mention the other masters.

Just as Mama Liu finished her lament, she turned to look at the dishes on the table and froze. “What is this?”

The entire table was filled with rich, savory dishes, heavy with oil and sauce.

“I specifically told the small kitchen to make some light dishes,” Mama Liu said. “Why are all of these like this?”

Looking at each dish, they were all meat, with almost no light vegetables.

Mo Shuqing stood by the table and sighed softly. “Mama, your crow’s mouth is a bit too effective.”

Mama Liu couldn’t tolerate this. She ordered the head chef of the small kitchen to be brought over. “What did I tell you? I said my lady has lived in Lingnan for many years and prefers light food. Look at this table—is there a single light dish?”

The chef bowed to Mo Shuqing. “I can’t be blamed for this. I was just following the Second Miss’s orders.”

“Miss Yao’s orders?” Mama Liu asked in surprise. “What did Miss Yao mean by this?”

The chef clasped his hands in front of his stomach and began to mimic Gu Wenyao’s voice. “Cough, ‘After so many years apart, I wonder if sister-in-law is still used to the food in the capital? Does she still remember the flavors and the people she once knew in the capital?'”

Mo Shuqing frowned and looked at the table again.

These were all famous dishes from the area around the capital, a specialty of the capital’s cuisine. If one had lived in the capital or nearby for a long time, they would find these dishes delicious. But Mo Shuqing had been demoted to Lingnan with her father for many years, and her stomach hadn’t had time to adapt.

The chef continued, “Since sister-in-law has returned to the capital, she should get used to it again and eat more of the capital’s cuisine.”

After relaying the message, the chef bowed and left.

Mama Liu looked at the full table with distress. “Isn’t Miss Yao deliberately trying to make things difficult for you?”

The more Mama Liu looked at the dishes, the angrier she became. “She was the one who cut off contact, so why is she acting like this now? You didn’t provoke her after you returned to the capital. And she gave you the household authority of her own free will. What is she doing, making things difficult for you with your food? She has no idea how her actions have affected your stomach—”

“Mama,” Mo Shuqing said, interrupting Mama Liu.

“Let’s eat first.” Mo Shuqing sat down, picked up her chopsticks, and began to eat the spicy dishes that would irritate her stomach.

Seeing her take one chopstick after another of the spicy food, Mama Liu’s eyes reddened with heartache. “If she keeps doing this, it won’t be good. If you can’t tolerate it, I will personally cook for you tonight. It’s better than you having a stomachache and being unable to sleep.”

Mo Shuqing thought to herself that Mama Liu was right about one thing: it couldn’t go on like this. They would be seeing a lot of each other in the Marquis manor from now on.

After dinner, Mo Shuqing spent the entire afternoon meticulously cross-referencing all the accounts, noting down the items that each household had embezzled and the replacements they had provided.

By the time she finished and put down her brush, the sky had already grown dark.

She wasn’t sure when the lamps had been lit in the room. Mo Shuqing turned her head and asked Qinglu, “Where is Mama Liu?”

Qinglu replied, “Mama Liu said she wanted to personally oversee the small kitchen to prepare your meal. She’s heading there now.”

“There’s no need,” Mo Shuqing said, organizing the ledgers. She gestured to Qinglu to have someone come in and carry them. “We’re going to the Crabapple Courtyard. Some things, after all, need to be made clear.”

Mo Shuqing felt that she had no reason to feel guilty. She hadn’t been making trouble for Gu Wenyao, yet Gu Wenyao had repeatedly harassed her.

…

That night, at the Crabapple Courtyard.

“My lady,” Yi Yun said softly from the outer room. “The elder young lady is here.”

In the inner room, Gu Wenyao was holding a silk handkerchief, carefully wiping a small porcelain bowl on a cabinet.

The bowl was nothing special and wasn’t made of gold, silver, or jade. It was just a bowl that Mo Shuqing had used when she stayed in the manor eight years ago.

Besides the bowl, there were Mo Shuqing’s old hair ties, a mirror, a comb, and even a pillowcase she had once used, folded neatly and placed on the cabinet.

No one was allowed into the inner room, so Yi Yun had to speak from outside.

Gu Wenyao placed the bowl back in its place. She lowered her hand, her fingers gently tracing the pillowcase on the bottom shelf. Her soft fingertips rubbed against the raised embroidery. Her voice was slow and rising. “Oh, is she here to ask about the food?”

Yi Yun shook her head. “She seems to be here to return the ledgers.”

Gu Wenyao came out of the inner room in a light green, loose robe. She wasn’t wearing a sash around her waist, making her look lazy and relaxed. Her hair was loosely piled on her head with a jade hairpin, and the rest of her dark hair fell behind her like silk.

She stood lazily at the door with her arms crossed at her waist, tilting her head to watch Mo Shuqing approach in the distance.

A lantern hung from the eaves, and Gu Wenyao stood beneath its light. The long shadow of her lashes hid the emotions in her eyes, making it impossible to see what she was looking at or thinking about.

Gu Wenyao’s gaze fell on Mo Shuqing’s slender waist. Her eyelashes fluttered, and her heart seemed to pound like a drum as Mo Shuqing’s hips swayed slightly. Unconsciously, her hands, which were still crossed at her waist, lightly rubbed the green fabric.

Mo Shuqing came closer.

Gu Wenyao lowered her eyes, hiding her peculiar expression. She slowly straightened up, looked at Mo Shuqing again, and a smile appeared on her face. It was her familiar facade. “Sister-in-law, have you had dinner at this hour?”