Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Total Chaos

Gu Nan Xi turned her head.

A tall, slender youth with delicate features stumbled in, one hand braced on the doorframe, his face drawn into a mournful mask.

His lips were already pale, yet he’d still powdered his face thickly—making him look even more fragile.

“Brother,” Su Yun Yan exclaimed, hurrying forward, “your health is poor. Why did you come out?”

She helped the second young master, Su Yun Ting, sit.

A hemp rope circled his waist, cinched so tight it made his narrow frame look like it could fit in a single hand.

Su Yun Ting fanned himself with a handkerchief, voice trembling with outrage. “Mother, I can’t live like this. Jing Niang has been running wild—she’s barely human and already wants to become immortal. She sits on the ground and still thinks she can fly. Waving a feather duster around like a commander, she’s turned Marquis Yong Chang Manor into bedlam.”

Gu Nan Xi blinked.

A perfectly good sickly beauty… and then he opened his mouth.

Su Yun Yan, clearly practiced at this, set a plate of candied fruit in front of him. “Brother, don’t panic. Mother knows what she’s doing. Speak slowly.”

Even honey-soaked candied fruit couldn’t sweeten Su Yun Ting’s tongue.

He launched into a performance like he was onstage. “She canceled my little kitchen and made me, a sick man, eat from the common pot! I’ve been weak since childhood—only supplements keep me alive. I know I’m a burden to Marquis Yong Chang Manor…”

He choked, then collapsed over the table, sobbing. “Heavens! Why not take me early? Why leave me to suffer being despised!”

He clutched his chest, eyes brimming with tragedy. “Mother, I only ask for simple meals, three times a day, so I can keep this life and serve my parents. I never even leave my courtyard, and yet I still offend Jing Niang!”

His cries were sharp and heartbreaking—miserable enough to make anyone’s chest ache.

Su Yun Yan had always been softhearted. She started crying too.

The relaxed warmth of the room curdled into gloom so quickly it felt more like a mourning hall than a living courtyard.

Gu Nan Xi’s gaze flicked to the soles of Su Yun Ting’s shoes—streaked with red mud.

She tilted her head. “You never leave your courtyard?”

Su Yun Ting nodded repeatedly, eyes swimming. “This son has been in my courtyard, praying for Mother’s health.”

Gu Nan Xi gave a flat hum. “Oh.”

A miracle, then. Red mud found only on Mount Qi south of Capital City had somehow crossed half the city and ended up on his shoes.

“Yun Ting,” Gu Nan Xi said mildly, “I think there’s a Martial World title that suits you.”

At the words Martial World, Su Yun Ting’s tears stopped as if someone had cut the string. “What title?”

“Jade-Faced Widow,” Gu Nan Xi said. “You wail at everyone you see. I promise the moment people spot you, they’ll flee.”

Su Yun Ting’s lips trembled. He lifted a pale finger and pointed at her dramatically. “How can warm lips say such cold words? Mother… in the end, you still despise me.”

“Su Yun Ting,” a voice snapped, “don’t push your luck just because Mother indulges you!”

Su Xuan Ming arrived in a rush, fresh from school.

The moment Su Yun Ting saw him, he puffed up like a fighting rooster and leaned forward, ready to peck. “Ha. If Mother doesn’t dote on me, you think she’d dote on you?”

He turned his glare sharp as a blade. “You chased after a woman and made Mother get scolded and confined by His Majesty. You’re like trying to paste pork onto a sheep—nothing sticks, and you still insist.”

Su Xuan Ming was tongue-tied. He couldn’t argue back. He just stood there, eyes red, chest heaving.

Su Yun Yan panicked and wedged herself between the two brothers. “Brother—Brother—stop arguing!”

Right then, a stream of curses erupted outside the courtyard gate.

Old Madam Hou’s voice rang out, shrill with rage. “Tell your master to come out! The daughter-in-law she fancies may be low-born, but now she wants to drive this old woman to death! What a vicious heart!”

Gu Nan Xi rubbed her forehead. Confined or not, these people still found a way to crawl into her courtyard.

“Lu Mei,” she said, “invite Old Madam and Concubine Duan in.”

Lu Mei hurried off at once.

Old Madam Hou stormed in, still spewing venom. “Look at the mess you’ve made. I knew it—Xuan Ming wasn’t raised by you, so you don’t care about him. You even chose a merchant girl to be his wife—”

Her words died when she saw Su Xuan Ming staring at her, grief and anger twisting his face.

Gu Nan Xi added calmly, “Old Madam, that’s not what you said in the mourning hall. Oh—so when the knife finally cuts your own flesh, now it hurts?”

Old Madam Hou’s lips moved. No sound came out.

Su Xuan Ming’s heart went cold. In this enormous manor, it felt as if only Mother truly cared for him.

Gu Nan Xi had no interest in judging their family quarrels. She had someone summon Jing Niang and left them to argue it out themselves.

Her job was to provide a place to sit—and tea and fruit.

When it came to their own interests, the servants moved fast.

Soon, the masters of Marquis Yong Chang Manor had all gathered in the main courtyard.

The large round table held Old Madam Hou, Concubine Duan, Su Xuan Ming, Su Yun Ting, Su Yun Yan, and Li Ning Jing.

Gu Nan Xi, meanwhile, had her bamboo lounge chair moved to the window.

To the right: golden autumn scenery.

To the left: a grand household’s vicious little drama.

A maid hovered close, pouring tea, offering pastries bought from the night market. Gu Nan Xi rocked gently in her chair, comfortable to the point of sin.

At the table, the air was stiff.

It was easy to complain behind backs. Put everyone face-to-face, and suddenly no one knew how to begin.

Jing Niang, already drowning in stewarding work, had been dragged here to face accusations on top of it. The frustration sat like a stone in her chest, and her voice came out sharp.

“If you have complaints, aim them at me. Don’t disturb Madam.”

Su Yun Ting lifted his chin, spoiled and stubborn. “I don’t care how you ‘reform’ things. My courtyard expenses can’t be cut. That’s what keeps me alive.”

Jing Niang was prepared. She slapped an account book onto the table. “Ten-year ginseng costs a hundred taels per root. You use one every month. But the storeroom has three-year ginseng worth twenty taels at most.”

She pulled out an abacus and snapped the beads with crisp, merciless precision. “Your courtyard spends over a thousand taels a year. The amount that actually goes to your medicine? Barely a hundred. So tell me—where did the rest of the money go?”

Su Yun Ting’s face stiffened.

He looked ready to launch into tears and theatrics, but Gu Nan Xi cut in without lifting her head. “Whoever makes my head hurt can leave.”

Su Yun Ting swallowed his performance.

Old Madam Hou couldn’t sit still. “I’ve always used the nanny at my side. You can’t replace her!”

Jing Niang laughed, cold and sharp. “Matron Xing gets fifty taels a month, six sets of clothes for the seasons, and double rewards on holidays. That?? is on par with an assistant ninth-rank official. Old Madam, if you insist on keeping her, then pay the difference from your private funds.”

Then she turned to Su Xuan Ming as if to prove her fairness. “This isn’t me being petty. I treat Su Lang the same. His monthly spending on social affairs was a hundred taels. I’m cutting it to thirty.”

Su Xuan Ming opened his mouth as if to object.

One look from Jing Niang—flat, warning—and he shut it again.

Old Madam Hou’s face burned. She rose with a furious sweep of her sleeve and stormed out.

Su Yun Ting leaned back, lips curling into a poisonous smile. “Stop pretending you’re righteous. Your family is too poor to support a manor this big—just say it. Don’t shove your mistakes onto everyone else.”

Jing Niang’s pretty face shifted from red to white, as if someone had spilled an entire palette across it.