Chapter 14

Chapter 14: If You Can’t Sweep One Room, How Can You Sweep the World?

Jing Niang’s fury poured toward Gu Nan Xi like boiling water.

“If it weren’t for you,” she choked out, “how would I have ended up like this?”

“You’re venomous as a snake, yet you wear a bodhisattva’s face and fool everyone!”

Su Yun Yan’s eyes flashed. “Li Ning Jing, watch your mouth. Disrespect my mother again and I’ll slap you!”

Jing Niang looked like someone with nothing left to lose. If she was going to fall, she would drag someone down with her.

She turned on Su Xuan Ming, voice shaking with grievance. “Su Lang… Su Lang… the Marchioness ruined me. She knew the steward matter was a fire pit, and she pushed me in anyway!”

Su Yun Yan exploded. “Did my mother hold a knife to your throat? At the funeral, you could have stayed away. Instead, you set up a canopy, brought a mourning troupe, and insisted on showing off like some grand assistant!”

“We never told you to pay out of pocket. The manor already had its own precedents, but you insisted on changing everything—as if you had to prove how capable you were.”

“And once you changed it, you were afraid the servants wouldn’t listen, so you tried to buy their mouths with money!”

Su Yun Ting arrived mid-sentence, breathing hard from rushing over. He didn’t even pause before piling on.

“Exactly. That night, Brother tried to persuade you to hand the steward’s authority back. Who was the one who swore she could handle it and refused no matter what?”

He turned his sharp gaze on Jing Niang. “From start to finish, my mother agreed Brother could marry you. The one who sent you in as a concubine was your own father. If you have the courage, go make trouble with him. Don’t bully my mother just because she’s kind.”

Jing Niang shook her head violently, as if refusing reality could make it untrue. “No. This is the Marchioness’s plot. She predicted everything—she even predicted my father would abandon me!”

Her breath came fast, eyes wide with panic. “Su Lang, I don’t want to be a concubine! Concubines can be bought and sold. The Marchioness will sell me off—save me!”

Su Xuan Ming looked like his skull was splitting. He held her tighter, voice frantic. “All right. All right. No concubine. I’ll marry you.”

Jing Niang’s face crumpled, despair swallowing her whole. “I have no dowry. No family to back me. Even if I marry in, what good days can I have? You’ll hate me. I’ll hate you. It’s a dead end… a dead end!”

She laughed through tears, the sound cracked and broken. “So from the day I got involved with you, it was already destined. I chose a road with no return. Su Lang… I regret it. I regret it so much it hurts. Why did I ever touch you?”

“No,” Su Xuan Ming said, voice trembling. “I was the one who pursued you. Tell me what you want. I’ll do it.”

Jing Niang’s lashes fluttered, wet and heavy. “I don’t dare want anything anymore. I only want you with me all the time. I’m afraid if you leave, you’ll never see me again.”

“Fine,” Su Xuan Ming said instantly. He looked toward the hall as if making a vow. “Mother, I’ll take leave from school. I won’t go.”

Jing Niang’s gaze slid to Gu Nan Xi—sharp, malicious, triumphant.

If her life was ruined, she would ruin what Gu Nan Xi valued most.

Her eldest son.

In her heart, a cold thought formed, hard as iron: this manor would never truly accept her. Wife or concubine—either way, it was impossible. If she was going to die in this pit, she would drag Su Xuan Ming down with her.

Gu Nan Xi met that look and felt only bafflement. What did any of this have to do with her?

Even the Kind Mother System went oddly silent.

Su Xuan Ming carried Jing Niang away, his arms tight around her as if he feared she would dissolve into smoke.

The hall fell into a strained quiet.

Su Yun Yan wiped at her tears, furious. “She’s a disaster. We haven’t even blamed her for turning Marquis Manor upside down, and she still dares to accuse Mother.”

Su Yun Ting’s eyes were bright as he looked at Gu Nan Xi. “Mother, she can’t manage the house anymore. Doesn’t that mean you should take over again?”

Gu Nan Xi froze.

How had she forgotten that part?

She coughed twice, already reaching for an escape. “My son has wounded my heart. I may need to lie in bed for a few days to recover. For now, the steward matter will be handed to Yun Yan.”

Su Yun Yan’s mouth fell open. “Me? Mother, I don’t know how!”

Gu Nan Xi smiled as Lu Mei brought a key. “I split my dowry into five portions long ago. You three siblings and I each have one portion. The remaining portion is for the household funds.”

Her mind flicked to the husband who had lived in the borderlands for years and never sent a single coin home. She decided he deserved no face at all.

“Your father’s allowance is all being sent to the borderlands. We’re living off what we have. Yun Yan, your burden is heavy.”

Su Yun Yan twisted her sash until her knuckles turned pale, her face caught between excitement and terror. “I… can I do it?”

Gu Nan Xi pressed the key into her hand and looked her straight in the eyes.

“Yun Yan, one brother is done for, one brother is sickly. You’re ambitious. You’re the most promising one in this family.” Her voice softened, but it didn’t lose its weight. “If you can’t sweep one room, how can you sweep the world? Consider this practice for the future.”

Something steadied in Su Yun Yan’s gaze. “Mother, you’re right. I won’t disappoint you.”

She took two steps, then spun back, panic returning. “But Mother… what do I do?”

“Marquis Manor has precedents,” Gu Nan Xi said, waving a hand. “And it has the rules Jing Niang drafted. Decide for yourself. If you make mistakes, it’s fine—there’s still your brother.”

“Okay,” Su Yun Yan said, swallowing hard.

Su Yun Ting gaped. “Me? But I’m a man.”

Gu Nan Xi shot him a look. “Can you go to war and earn merit? Can you take the imperial exams?”

Su Yun Ting’s eyes flickered. “My body can’t handle that either.”

“Then you’ll assist your sister,” Gu Nan Xi said, leaving no room for argument. “If she makes a mistake, you fix it. If she truly can’t handle the job, then you take over.”

Su Yun Ting was the one the Kind Mother System had stamped as the smartest in the entire manor. If he was that clever, he could stop running around and start working.

One Jing Niang in the manor was trouble enough. If Su Yun Ting brought home some crooked “master” on top of that, the whole place would become a circus.

With the steward’s authority shoved away yet again—and two children put to work—Gu Nan Xi finally regained her peaceful lie-flat life.

As for Su Xuan Ming, now tied to Jing Niang and refusing to leave her side, Gu Nan Xi didn’t worry.

If he didn’t want to go to school, then so be it. Forcing him now would only inflame his rebellious streak. Teenagers were like that. Gu Nan Xi had seen it too many times.

And so, while Gu Nan Xi cheerfully ordered the servants to buy snacks from every stall at the night market, east to west—one portion each, ten portions a day, tasting them one by one—Jing Niang’s outburst in the hall quietly slipped beyond the manor walls.

In the dark, like an undercurrent, long-buried matters began to surface.