Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Exposing the Marchioness’s Plot
Luo Ning was preparing gifts.
She wrote a list and asked Nanny Kong to go out and buy the items for her.
They were all local specialties of Shengjing: silk, jewelry, and medicinal herbs.
She racked her brains and still only listed seven or eight things.
Luo Ning talked about it with Qiu Hua and Qiu Lan: “When the Princess mentioned Madam Feng, she sounded a little strange.”
She then asked them: “What is wrong with Madam Feng?”
“She refuses to see anyone,” Qiu Hua said.
“She will not even speak,” Qiu Lan added.
“The Princess said she likes boats. What did she mean by boats?” Luo Ning asked. “I know many people from Shaoyang go to the South Sea to make a fortune and keep fleets at home. Could it be that Madam Feng also has a fleet?”
“She is a widow and wants to find some ways to make money. That is only normal,” Qiu Lan said.
“Then why did the Princess go out of her way to mention it?”
Qiu Hua and Qiu Lan threw out all kinds of guesses.
In the end, Luo Ning said: “Could that Madam Feng be a man in disguise? Did the real Madam Feng go to sea with the ships?”
Qiu Hua and Qiu Lan were scared by her guess.
“How would anyone dare? The Feng Clan is very strict,” Qiu Lan said. “The other women can walk around the market as they please, but widows of the Feng family must wear veiled hats when they go out.”
Qiu Hua said: “Miss, do you suspect Madam Feng is keeping a lover?”
“No,” Luo Ning shook her head.
She did not say more.
Because when Pei Ying played that tune, she memorized it and silently recited it in her heart. It was made by putting together parts of three old melodies.
By chance, those three old melodies were the very ones Luo Ning had once taken to change the scores.
They were using the same sheet music to change the tune.
So the music sounded very familiar to Luo Ning.
[There are thousands of scores in the world. For three melodies to be the same, could it really be a coincidence?]
Luo Ning had seen Madam Feng’s back a few times. Even from far away, she always felt the woman was tall and slender.
“Forget it. I will not guess anymore. Guessing makes my head hurt. Other people have their secrets. We should respect that,” Luo Ning said.
She prepared the gifts and asked the Grand Princess to send them to Madam Feng.
As for the Princess’s half-clear, half-hidden words, as long as they were not laid right in front of her, Luo Ning would just pretend not to understand. It had nothing to do with her anyway.
She was about to be betrothed to Prince Yong.
In her past life, it had also been two years later when Pei Ying insisted on marrying her.
Now that things had changed, by that time, Prince Yong might very well ascend the throne early. Luo Ning would be granted the title of “Shaoyang Commandery Princess,” with her own fief and stipend, and go off to live a good life.
[Who would still care about what happens two years from now?]
She ate and slept well. In her heart she was always on guard and planning, but she rarely carried heavy sadness. So even if she thought a lot, her mood stayed light.
At the end of the second month, it rained twice in Shengjing.
Spring rain was as precious as oil. The peach trees in the courtyard came into full bloom overnight. The soft pink flowers were like velvet, their scent rich and thick. In the morning mist, the peach buds were soaked with dew and looked tender and fragile.
Shadows swayed on the branches. It was the swallows returning, landing on the thin, trembling tips of the branches, shaking the peach blossoms down like a rain of petals.
Luo Ning rose early, opened her mirror box, and dressed in front of the mirror. The maidservant Qiu Lan combed her hair and helped her choose her clothes.
“Miss, what are you going to do this morning?” Qiu Lan asked.
“The copybook Father gave me last time is by Calligraphy Sage Dong. I should start practicing with it,” Luo Ning said.
“I will ask Chu Shuang to grind the ink,” Qiu Lan said.
Luo Ning nodded.
Her breakfast was quite light.
After the meal, Luo Ning washed her hands and rolled up her sleeves. Just as she was about to practice her writing, a first-class maidservant from the Marchioness Madam Bai’s side arrived.
“We are going to make summer clothes, Miss. Madam asked you to come choose fabric,” the maidservant said.
They had only just made spring clothes last month, and now it was time for summer clothes. The days passed very fast.
Spring was neither cold nor hot, neither damp nor dry. It was Luo Ning’s favorite season, but sadly it was always especially short.
So Luo Ning went.
In the west side room of the East Main Courtyard, there was laughter and chatter. All the women of the household had come. They surrounded the low table on the heated brick bed, picking through the piles of cloth.
There was so much fabric that it dazzled the eyes.
“Sister A’Ning, come choose. These are the newest materials my father had people send from Yuhang,” Bai Ci Rong said with a warm smile.
Luo Ning went forward and gently touched two bolts of fabric. They were indeed top-grade silk. The material was good, the colors were light, and the patterns were the newest style.
“Uncle is really generous,” Luo Ning said with a smile. “It seems he has made a lot of money in these years. Did he send these last year too?”
Bai Ci Rong choked.
Last year, he had not sent anything.
This year, Luo Ning had come back and pressed Bai Ci Rong so much that she could not lift her head. Naturally, they had to work harder to lift Bai Ci Rong up.
The Marquis Manor could afford clothes for all four seasons. They were part of the regular allowance, so there was no need at all to accept this favor. The cloth sent by the Bai family was not free anyway.
Besides, even with this cloth, the Marchioness would still pinch money from other parts of the household to cover the cost of making summer clothes and add it to her private savings.
As long as they were not too bold, the people under the house steward all had this kind of small skill in substitution ruse.
So what cheap bargain did the Luo family actually get?
It was only the Bai family moving things from their left hand to their right, with everything going in and out of their own pockets, all while earning Bai Ci Rong a good name.
“A’Ning, do you like this fabric? This is Moonlight brocade. It is the most comfortable summer cloth, light and cool,” the Marchioness said, changing the subject.
Luo Ning nodded. “I like it very much.”
She added: “Since the fabric is this good, we should invite embroideresses from outside to make it, right?”
“Of course,” the Marchioness said with a smile. “I have already invited three embroideresses from Splendid Embroidery Workshop. They will rush to make new clothes for you all.”
“If we do not use our own embroideresses, we still have to pay them their monthly wages. And the embroideresses from Splendid Embroidery Workshop charge high fees, yet what they make is not the very best,” Luo Ning said.
She turned to the Second Madam, the Third Madam, and her sister-in-law and smiled: “Splendid Embroidery Workshop sells ready-made clothes. If their embroideresses make the same things for us, when we wear them out, other people will just think our Marquis Manor bought ready-made clothes directly from Splendid Embroidery Workshop.”
The faces of the several madams looked a bit awkward.
The Marchioness’s face twisted with anger. “A’Ning, how dare you be so rude!”
Luo Ning was all smiles. “Mother, your daughter is only telling the truth. Please do not be angry.”
“How can I not be angry?” she demanded. “Your uncle kindly spent a lot of money to send these precious fabrics. You are not grateful and instead use your words to mock us. What do you mean by that? Do you still have your mother and filial piety in your eyes?”
Her voice was stern and loud.
All the maidservants and old servants in the room held their breath and kept silent. The two aunts and the cousin also did not dare speak.
Soft and charming as her eyes usually were, even Bai Ci Rong now had anger in them.
“Sister A’Ning, do you just dislike me?” Bai Ci Rong said. “I never get in your way. You do not need to make things this hard for Aunt.”
Luo Ning’s expression did not change at all. Her calm smile stayed on her face. “Mother, Cousin, what is wrong with you? I only asked a question.”
“Do you think that kind of question is proper?” the Marchioness said.
“I want to ask why the summer cloth that should be in our allowance is not being prepared,” Luo Ning said. “If we pay embroideresses from a ready-made clothing shop to make our clothes, how will the styles and patterns be different from their ready-made clothes so that people will not laugh at us?
I also want to ask why cloth was never sent in the past years but is sent only this year. Since it is a gift, why not send it directly to everyone’s own courtyards and let them handle it themselves, instead of using it to replace the fabric that should be in our summer clothes allowance?”
She spoke each word clearly, without hiding anything.
She did not cover up at all and directly tore open the Marchioness’s plan to “buy people’s hearts” for Bai Ci Rong.
The Third Madam could not help but laugh. “Now I am confused. Is this cloth a gift, or is it the allowance for summer clothes? Sister-in-law, can we mix them together like this? Do we end up both owing a favor and not getting any extra things we should have?
Our Luo family does have income, does it not? If we use gift fabric to make our allowance clothes for summer and word gets out, outsiders will only think our Luo family can afford clothes only by relying on the Bai family. Does that not sound ugly?”