Chapter 35
Chapter 35: First Madam’s Methods
Chun Xing was the cruelest. She grabbed Xiao Man by the hair and slammed her head against the icy stone slab.
“Rip her face up!” Little Peach screeched, eyes wild enough to bite. “Make sure she never has a face to go seduce the Eldest Grandson Young Master again!”
Beside them, Qiu Ju’s eyes spun, and she offered an even more poisonous idea.
“What’s the point of ripping her face? Strip her clothes off! Let her have no face to live!”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Xiao Man clutched her collar tight, but it only earned her a harder beating.
“Has the sky fallen? You little bitches!”
The sweeping maid dropped her broom and rushed forward, trying to pull them off.
“Get out of the way!” Dong Mei shoved hard. The older maidservant stumbled and fell.
“All this shouting—what do you think you’re doing?!”
The door of the west side room creaked open. Old Chen Tou stepped out, his face dark. The moment he saw what was happening, his expression turned iron-blue.
“You bastards! This is the Eldest Grandson Young Master’s Auspicious Cloud Residence! You dare make trouble here?!”
Old Chen Tou’s thunderous roar finally made the maids freeze.
They no longer dared tear at Xiao Man’s clothes, but their mouths still spewed filthy curses.
The sweeping maid seized the opening. She scrambled up, glanced at Xiao Man curled on the ground with her clothes in tatters, and her heart went hard.
The Eldest Grandson Young Master wasn’t here. This could kill someone.
She didn’t even have time to dust herself off. She turned and ran full speed toward Old Madam’s courtyard.
“Something happened! Something happened in the Eldest Grandson Young Master’s courtyard!”
She reached Old Madam’s gate and began wailing at the top of her lungs.
“They’re fighting in the Auspicious Cloud Residence! Someone’s going to die!”
The gatekeeping maid blanched and scrambled inside to report to Da Ya’s head maid, Xiu He.
Xiu He didn’t dare waste time. She hurried into the inner room.
Old Madam had just woken from her nap and was holding a teacup. Hearing it, she frowned.
“A fight? Who’s fighting in the Eldest Grandson Young Master’s courtyard?”
“Bring that old maidservant in.”
The sweeping maid was led inside. With a thump, she dropped to her knees, words tumbling out.
“Replying to Old Madam! It’s—it’s Xiao Man, the new maid in the Eldest Grandson Young Master’s courtyard. She—she was pinned down and beaten by Little Peach, the daughter of the west courtyard’s second steward, and her people! She’s covered in injuries!”
Old Madam slammed her teacup down. Tea splashed across the table.
Rage swept over her face, her gaze cold as a blade.
“Good. Very good. I’d like to see if the Heir Apparent’s manor is about to turn upside down!”
“Xiu He!”
“This servant is here!”
“Take a few capable old maids. Go to the Auspicious Cloud Residence, tie up every one of those brazen girls, and escort them to the First Madam’s courtyard. I want to see who gave them the guts!”
Xiu He accepted the order, but her heart tightened.
She had worked with Xiao Man before. That maid was blunt, but she wasn’t the type to start trouble.
Xiu He arrived with her people. At a glance, she saw Xiao Man curled on the ground—hair in chaos, bruises blooming across her face, clothes torn to rags.
Xiu He’s anger flared. She strode over, took off her own outer robe, and draped it over Xiao Man to cover her.
Then she straightened and turned her icy gaze on the leader.
“You are Little Peach?”
Her voice was quiet, but the chill in it made the skin crawl.
“The daughter of Wang You Cai, the west courtyard’s second steward. A servant born in the manor. Right?”
Little Peach went pale at the sight of Xiu He, but she still jutted out her neck.
Xiu He let out a cold laugh.
“What? Still thinking that even if the sky falls, your steward parents will beg you clean?”
“Let me tell you—you miscalculated.”
She spoke each word slowly, like ice cracking.
“Your parents are going to be ruined by your stupidity. And you three too.”
Her gaze swept over the other maids, trembling like sieves.
“A bunch of brainless fools. Just wait to be sold off.”
In the First Madam’s courtyard, the air was so heavy it was hard to breathe.
Little Peach was pressed to the ground by several old maids and still tried to argue.
“First Madam, please judge fairly! It was her! It was that bitch Xiao Man who struck first!”
Seated high above, First Madam held a teacup and gently blew the foam. She didn’t even lift her eyelids. A mocking smile tugged at her mouth.
“You little bitch. Do you think everyone in this manor is blind and deaf to that filthy scheme of yours?”
“You spread gossip about Xiao Man everywhere, framing her as seducing Young Master. I was going to wait a few more days, then clean up all you tongue-wagging trash in one sweep.”
First Madam set down her teacup. Her voice sharpened.
“Now look at this—you came knocking on my door yourself. Fine. We’ll settle new debts and old together.”
“Guards!”
“Go to the west courtyard. Bring her steward father and her mother here. Now.”
First Madam pointed at Little Peach, her voice light—and thunderous.
“Parents like that raise daughters like that. You can’t even keep your own child in line, and you still want to manage a whole west courtyard? I think this second steward doesn’t want his job anymore.”
At that, the servants in the courtyard went pale.
Before long, Wang You Cai and his wife were dragged in, half-crawling, half-rolling. The moment they stepped into the courtyard, they dropped to their knees and bowed until their foreheads thudded.
“First Madam, spare us! First Madam, spare us! It’s this lowly one who failed to teach his daughter. It’s my fault!”
First Madam looked down at them, expression flat.
“I remember you two have been honest enough, and you handle your duties well.”
Then her tone turned cold.
“Too bad the daughter you raised is outrageous.”
She looked at Wang You Cai.
“You don’t need to manage the west courtyard anymore. You and your wife will go work at the estate.”
Wang You Cai and his wife went ashen.
First Madam’s gaze returned to Little Peach, and she almost seemed to smile.
“As for you, daughter… didn’t you spend all your time dreaming of climbing high—of men?”
“Matron Zhou.”
“This old servant is here.”
A stern old matron stepped forward.
“Find a slave broker and sell her someplace with the most men.”
“Yes.”
“And those who stirred up trouble with her…”
First Madam’s gaze swept over the other maids, shaking like leaves.
“Strip them. Call a slave broker. Sell them to the lowest place there is.”
In the end, First Madam picked up the prayer beads beside her and rolled them between her fingers, even murmuring a Buddha line.
“Amitabha. Buddha is merciful.”
Her eyes stayed cold.
“Drag them out. All of them.”
She turned slightly toward Matron Zhou, voice calm as frost.
“Before the slave broker arrives, drag Little Peach and the maids who beat that girl to the busiest place in the manor and make them kneel. Let every maid with improper thoughts see it.”
“Let them all kill that dream.”