“You’ve already arranged everything so well, our journey back will be very comfortable,” Ye Chongxian said, then turned to Ye Hongsheng with deep emotion. “Hongsheng, you’ve truly raised an excellent daughter.”

These clan members had come for the wedding, stayed here free of food and lodging for so long, and seen the world. The Ye family giving them some travel money for the return journey was already very kind. There was no need for Ye Hongsheng and Ye Yaming to concern themselves further.

But during the meal earlier, Ye Yaming had insisted on preparing generous return gifts for everyone. She had also assigned guards to escort them back and arranged all their food and lodging along the way, so they wouldn’t have to worry about anything.

Ye Hongsheng nodded, once again feeling that he still had much to learn about managing social relationships.

After the return visit ceremony ended, the next day, Ye Yaming had Lu An gather all the household servants in the main courtyard.

“Xu Zan, call the roll,” Ye Yaming instructed Zan’er.

Zan’er, Song’er, and Yun’er, after following Ye Yaming to the Martial Marquis’s mansion, had been promoted and reverted to using their surnames, now called Xu Zan, Tang Song, and Ma Yun.

Xu Zan was Ye Yaming’s chief steward, helping her handle all external affairs.

Xu Zan took the list and read out the names.

Lu An, standing nearby, looked extremely displeased. Taking attendance was the steward’s job, but now the Young Mistress wasn’t letting him, the mansion’s head steward, do it. Instead, she had her attendant do it—was this “new reign, new courtiers” approach meant to remove him from his position?

He kept glancing at Lu Guanyi, hoping he would speak up for him.

Antai couldn’t help rolling his eyes at him twice.

Lu An had been promoted by Madam Shi. How brainless would his young master have to be to defend Lu An and humiliate his wife?

After Xu Zan finished, he turned to report to Ye Yaming and Lu Guanyi: “Madam Zhao and Dongmei from the kitchen are not present.”

Someone immediately explained from below: “Madam Zhao took Dongmei out to purchase supplies.”

Just as she finished speaking, two women were pushed in—they were indeed Madam Zhao and Dongmei.

The Lu family’s original gatekeepers recognized those pushing the two women as the attendants who had replaced them, brought by the Young Mistress.

Everyone’s already anxious hearts now hung even higher.

At this time, Ye Yaming and Lu Guanyi were seated in the corridor, while the servants all stood below the steps. Xu Zan stood to the left front of Ye Yaming.

Seeing Madam Zhao and Dongmei being escorted in, he read out several names, including Madam Zhao and Dongmei.

“The above-mentioned individuals put drugs in the ceremonial wedding wine on the Young Master’s wedding day, attempting to humiliate the Young Master and Young Mistress in public. They plotted against their masters, a crime punishable by death. Now they will receive fifty strokes of the heavy paddle, to be executed immediately.”

The sixty-some people standing below immediately erupted in an uproar.

“Injustice! This is an injustice!” someone cried out in panic.

“Young Master, could there be a mistake?” Lu An said to Lu Guanyi, then shouted at Ye Yaming, “Young Mistress, you’ve brought so many attendants with you; if you want us to make room for them, we will, without question. But to pin these crimes on us is going too far.”

“Indeed, it’s too much!”

“We’ve always been honest and dutiful, never done anything wrong. The mansion can’t just beat us to death because there’s a new mistress, can it?”

“Young Mistress, if you come in and start killing people, wouldn’t that be bad for your reputation?”

Those whose names had been called out were in an uproar. With fifty heavy strokes, who knew if they would survive? So they spoke without restraint, only regretting that they couldn’t be more eloquent and persuade Ye Yaming to retract her order immediately.

Those whose names hadn’t been called didn’t dare speak, but their faces were full of worry, not knowing what fate awaited them.

“Clap, clap, clap…” Lu Guanyi suddenly started applauding as he stood up.

Looking at the crowd below, his face bore a smile, but his eyes were ice-cold: “I didn’t realize that the Martial Marquis’s mansion under Madam Shi’s management had such discipline. Each one of you has more presence than the master and mistress.”

He had killed people and seen blood on the battlefield. Now, with his full aura unleashed, he was filled with a murderous air, his eyes like those of a fierce eagle.

The crowd below, who had just been in an uproar, fell silent like cicadas in winter under his gaze, no longer daring to make a sound.

Lu Guanyi coldly surveyed everyone: “Those crying injustice can stop now. You few were all caught by people I assigned to watch you—not one of you is wrongly accused. Daring to plot against the master and mistress on our wedding day, you should be prepared to die.”

He looked toward Madam Zhao and Dongmei: “You two were afraid, so you planned to flee the mansion and never return, right? I didn’t take action these past two days, not because I hadn’t found out, but because it would be inauspicious during the wedding period. I also wanted to see how you would communicate and plot in private.”

Saying this, he gave the order: “Take them out and beat them.”

Some people had entered from outside the gate at some point. These men had a murderous air about them—clearly, they had seen blood. They were the guards Lu Guanyi had brought back from the border.

Under Antai and An’ning’s identification, they took the people on the list one by one outside and arranged them in a row to administer the beatings.

The remaining servants in the courtyard turned pale as paper, trembling like sieves. Lu An quickly knelt, wishing he could disappear into a crack in the ground to lower his presence.

After those on the list had been taken out, Xu Zan picked up the list and continued reading names.

This time there were many more—the vast majority of those present heard their names called. Everyone felt as if a knife was at their neck, about to fall at any moment.

Lu An kept reassuring himself that since he hadn’t been taken out to be beaten, he was safe. After all, neither the Young Master nor the Young Mistress held his contract—they couldn’t sell him off.

Finally, Xu Zan finished reading the names and said: “All of the above individuals have shown disrespect to their masters and behaved improperly. They will all be sent to the estate to become field servants.”

The crowd erupted in another uproar.

This time, however, they dared not accuse or curse, but instead knocked their heads on the ground repeatedly, saying without stopping: “Young Master, Young Mistress, please show mercy. We will be loyal to both masters and won’t dare to disobey in the slightest. If we do, may heaven strike us with lightning.”

“Young Master, Young Master, this lowly one was bought by Madam Shi, but I believe I’ve never done anything to wrong the two masters. Please, masters, show mercy and don’t send me away,” Lu An also knocked his head with loud thuds.

“Take them away,” Lu Guanyi would not waste words with them.

This type of permanently contracted servant should have been aware when they were purchased that all masters in the household had the right to dispose of them, even to beat or kill them without requiring evidence.

Those named, though not chosen by Lu Guanyu to harm the couple, had often privately spoken ill of him as the eldest legitimate son. When he occasionally came to the Marquis’s mansion, they had even helped Madam Shi and Lu Guanyu make things difficult for him. None of them was wrongly accused.