Chapter 41
Chapter 41: Another of the Marchioness’s Henchmen Falls
Because of the matter of the summer clothes, the Marchioness was furious.
She wanted to scold Luo Ning, but she had no grounds to stand on.
The whole manor knew about it.
Even the Marquis of Zhen Nan heard about it. He sent someone to call Luo Ning to the outer courtyard.
The young maidservant reported back: “Miss is in Old Madam’s West Main Courtyard.”
“She really knows how to hide,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan sneered.
He stood up and went to the West Main Courtyard.
Luo Ning was keeping Old Madam company, picking Buddha counting beans. When she saw the Marquis of Zhen Nan coming in with a strong, angry air, not even her expression changed.
Old Madam frowned. “Who is he coming to take his anger out on this time?”
“Mother, I just heard that A’Ning made Madam lose face in front of all the women and stewards,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan said, casting a sharp look at Luo Ning. “Such an unfilial daughter, and you still want to protect her?”
Old Madam put down the Buddha counting beans and hardened her face. “Do you know the cause and result of what happened?”
“No matter the reason, making the household matriarch lose face means A’Ning’s sin is very heavy!” the Marquis of Zhen Nan said.
Luo Ning sat there, reciting the Buddha’s name as she picked the beans.
On the first day of every month, Grandmother would boil the beans they picked and hand them out to beggars. Luo Ning often helped her with this, focused and sincere.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan’s great anger did not stop her hands from picking the Buddha counting beans at all.
“You have already judged her guilty. Then I have nothing to say. You can go back,” Old Madam said coldly. “You say A’Ning is unfilial for talking back to her mother, yet you speak to your own mother like this. Is that what you call great filial piety?”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan took a deep breath. “Mother, if you are like this, your son will find it very hard to act. If there are no rules in this house, then…”
“Are the rules of this house to beat a child in the name of filial piety without asking right or wrong first?” Old Madam cut him off.
“Fine. I will let her explain herself,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan said.
Only then did Luo Ning stop what she was doing.
She first rose, bowed neatly to the Marquis of Zhen Nan, and then told him, in full detail, what had happened that morning.
She spoke very plainly about the Marchioness’s plan to “buy people’s hearts” for Bai Ci Rong.
“…Our Luo family can afford food and clothes. If the fabric for our allowance clothes has to come from the Bai family, if word gets out, Father will lose face, and the Marquis Manor will also be shamed.
I only said that since Uncle and Cousin are doing us a favor, it would be better to send the cloth directly to each courtyard and let them handle it themselves. Mother got angry at that.
Making a big show of making summer clothes is just to blow up this little favor so that everyone will talk about it and remember to be grateful.
Father, if our Luo family truly could not afford clothes, the Bai family would not send us fabric. They never help when someone is in real trouble. They only add to those who are already doing well.
No one knows better than you how the Bai family follows the strong and steps on the weak, and how snobbish they are. For the sake of a few sets of clothes, we would get this kind of reputation. That would ruin the Marquis Manor’s hundred-year foundation,” Luo Ning said.
Every word she spoke hit the Marquis of Zhen Nan right in the heart.
His anger grew even stronger, but it was no longer aimed at Luo Ning. It turned toward the Marchioness Madam Bai.
“I did not know any of these details,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan said.
Old Madam snorted coldly. “Now you know, do you not? Some people always keep half their words hidden, just to fool others.”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan stood up. “Mother, I will go talk to Madam Bai.”
“Talk to her properly,” Old Madam said. “When she manages the household, she is running the Marquis Manor’s home, not the Bai family’s. Mixing up the summer clothes allowance and a favor, trying to use these tricks to cheapen all the women of our manor, is really too much.
Tell her to pull her heart back. She is no longer the daughter of Madam Bai, but the wife of Madam Luo. She should not lean too much toward her maiden family and that niece of hers.”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan left in a rage.
Old Madam’s anger still had not faded.
She said to Luo Ning, “Keep picking the beans.”
Picking Buddha counting beans was a rather dull task. Only with Luo Ning keeping her company did it feel a little lighter.
After a while, Nanny Kong made a few kinds of pastries and sent them to the West Main Courtyard.
Luo Ning said to Grandmother: “Try this cold cake. It clears internal heat. Any quarrel in the house is a small thing. Grandmother, please do not be angry.”
Old Madam smiled a little.
She and Luo Ning ate snacks together.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan went to the East Main Courtyard and confronted the Marchioness.
He pressed her, asking if what Luo Ning said was true.
The Marchioness argued over every word, but the Marquis of Zhen Nan only held on to the key points in Luo Ning’s account.
“Lord Marquis does not believe his own wife?” the Marchioness knelt and cried. “Over such a small matter, Lord Marquis has to fly into such a temper?”
“Even a child can see there is something wrong, and you say it is a small matter? Will it only become a big matter when the Marquis Manor changes its family name?” he roared.
The Marchioness’s whole body trembled. “Lord Marquis, my loyalty to the Marquis Manor can be seen by Heaven and earth. If I have even half a—”
“Lord Marquis, Lord Marquis, please calm your anger! All of this was this old servant’s idea,” Nanny Zhen suddenly knelt down, her voice full of tears. “Madam has been too busy these days and asked this old servant to help handle this matter.
This old servant came from the Bai family and wanted to win some honor for the Bai family. For the Bai family to be able to send gifts to the Marquis Manor is the Bai family’s glory. It was all this old servant’s selfishness that harmed Madam.”
She cut off the Marchioness right before she could finish swearing an oath.
People should not say ominous words.
“This has nothing to do with you!” the Marchioness said quickly.
Nanny Zhen knocked her head on the floor in a kowtow.
She stubbornly took all the blame on herself.
Seeing things had come this far, the Marchioness could not sacrifice herself and her children. She also had to kowtow and say: “It was because I relaxed and listened to Nanny Zhen’s words. If Lord Marquis wants to punish someone, then punish me…”
“This old thing has too much selfishness. Drag her out and give her twenty strokes. Change the chief steward of the inner courtyard,” the Marquis of Zhen Nan finally said.
Nanny Zhen kowtowed and thanked him. “Thank you, Lord Marquis, for sparing this old servant’s cheap life.”
With tears in her eyes, the Marchioness went to deal with Nanny Zhen. After that, she promoted Old Madam’s trusted Nanny Ge and made her the chief steward of the inner courtyard.
From the moment Nanny Zhen was beaten and dismissed, a tear opened in the Marchioness’s days of ruling the whole inner residence with one hand.
Luo Ning returned to Wenqi Courtyard and planned to practice her calligraphy after dinner.
She practiced for three days in a row.
The summer clothes of the Marquis Manor were started over again. This time, the various households were not called to the Marchioness’s place to choose fabric. Instead, Nanny Ge, the chief steward of the inner courtyard, took maidservants with her, carrying boxes of small cut fabric pieces, and let each master choose from them.
Luo Ning had six sets of summer clothes.
She chose only light, elegant colors.
Nanny Ge took the chance to chat with her a little, clearly trying to show goodwill.
Luo Ning did not really remember Nanny Ge’s ending in her past life. In that life, Nanny Zhen had always helped the Marchioness do evil, and Nanny Ge never got the chance.
As servants of the Marquis Manor, they surely could not escape when the great house collapsed.
They were all pitiful people.
“Nanny Ge, this small gift is for you to buy some tea. In the future, if anything happens, please let our Miss know first,” Nanny Kong said, taking out two small gold leaf ingots as a reward for Nanny Ge.
Nanny Ge had never seen such a large reward before. She could not hide the joy at the corners of her lips. “Tell Miss to rest assured.”
She turned to Nanny Kong and said, “If you have any trouble, come find me. Do not be polite with me. We all came from the West Main Courtyard.”
Nanny Kong thanked her.
Luo Ning went on practicing her writing.
After the beating, Nanny Zhen was half dead and lay on the bed, weak and listless.
All this for a small matter. She had only wanted to win face for Bai Ci Rong, but instead the Marchioness lost a trusted aide and fierce helper. Even Luo Ning felt the Marchioness had suffered a heavy loss.
[When Qiu Hua was beaten to death with staffs and Qiu Lan ran into a wall and died to protect me, Madam Bai could not feel my pain.]
Now she would let Madam Bai taste what it felt like to have her own right-hand helpers cut off.
Luo Ning silently kept track of everyone on the Marchioness’s side.
A bit of emotion rose in her heart, and the strokes of her brush went too deep, the strength of her hand almost piercing the paper.
She put down the brush.
“Will you keep writing, Miss?” asked the young maidservant Chu Shuang, who was grinding the ink.
Luo Ning shook her head. “My mood is uneasy today. Forget it.”
If she could not calm her heart, she could not write well. It was the same as being a person. If you could not stay calm, you would be led by the nose by others, like she herself in her past life and like the Marchioness Madam Bai in this life.
In the back row of rooms behind the East Main Courtyard lived the Marchioness’s trusted maidservants and old servants.
Nanny Zhen’s wounds were still swollen.
The Marchioness and Bai Ci Rong went to see her. When they came back to the side room, the Marchioness smashed a teacup again.
Bai Ci Rong sat beside her. “Aunt, be careful not to harm your body with anger.”
“Luo Ning is so vicious!” Madam Bai felt a bloody taste rise in her throat and almost spat blood. “I never wronged her, yet she pays me back in such a cruel way!”