At that time, she had just recovered from her illness and come out when she heard Nanny Zhu talking with Jinju, the maid serving Concubine Fang, about how the parents and sister-in-law of those two maids who had been sold away from Ren Yaoyu’s service had come looking for them. They were going around asking people to help deliver the private savings that the two maids had accumulated over the years, even promising to give a share of the proceeds to anyone who would help.

Little did they know that the two maids’ private savings had long been seized by the old women from Old Madam’s courtyard when they went to search their quarters, not leaving behind even a single copper coin.

At that time, people in the household were saying that those two maids serving Ren Yaoyu were sold because they had stolen valuable items from Old Madam’s room. Nanny Zhu had even sighed, wondering how many good things had been concealed by those people in Ronghua Garden.

But Jinju had scoffed and said that those two maids weren’t driven out of the household for stealing at all, but because they had done something unclean in Old Madam’s room, violating the master’s taboos.

Just as Nanny Zhu was about to ask more, someone came from outside to report that Ren Yaohua had angered Old Madam and been driven out.

At that time, she was pretending to be ill and staying indoors because she felt she had lost face after being slapped twice by Ren Yaohua. When she heard this news, she secretly felt pleased.

Later, Nanny Zhu helped her find out that the reason Ren Yaohua had angered Old Madam Ren was because her scheme to frame Ren Yaoyu had been exposed by Fifth Madam.

However, Ren Yaoyu was not vindicated because of this. Until she left the Ren family, Old Madam had always remained indifferent toward her granddaughter.

Thinking about it now, what she had overheard back then might not have been false. Concubine Fang’s maid Jinju had a sister named Jin Lian, who was a first-class senior maid in Old Madam Ren’s quarters.

However, this matter might not have been Ren Yaohua’s doing. Ren Yaohua had very likely been used as someone else’s weapon.

Considering who was the only person to benefit from this incident afterward…

Just as Ren Yaoqi was thinking this, Old Madam Ren had already spoken from above: “Go have those two maids outside come in, and also call that old woman from before.”

Nanny Gui, by Old Madam Ren’s side, quickly responded and went.

Before long, the two maids who had been kneeling outside were helped in by four rough servant women.

Perhaps because they had been kneeling outside for too long, both maids were frozen with bluish-black faces and couldn’t even stand up. As soon as the women let go of them, they collapsed to the floor.

“When Nanny Gui questioned you earlier, you refused to speak. Now that you’ve knelt for so long, you must be somewhat clearer-headed,” Old Madam Ren said, looking at the two.

Fifth Madam also scolded with a stern face: “Someone said they saw you quietly taking things from Ronghua Garden this morning. Now, in front of Old Madam, tell the truth. Don’t let your Eighth Miss suffer blame in the end because of you. You know my temperament – I absolutely cannot tolerate servants who deceive and betray their masters! If you think Old Madam is merciful and remain stubborn, once you leave this Ronghua Garden, I won’t let you off lightly either!”

Lin Shi’s words were spoken with great righteousness, but upon hearing them, the two maids buried their heads even lower, their knees trembling uncontrollably.

However, Ren Yaoqi glanced at Fifth Madam. Could it be that Ren Yaoyu had done something to anger Old Madam? Lin Shi’s words were a covert warning to the two maids to think carefully about what they said, and that if they dared to implicate Ren Yaoyu, she would never forgive them.

Old Madam Ren lifted her eyelids and glanced at Lin Shi, then looked at the two maids: “I’ll give you one more chance.”

“Re-replying to Old Madam, this servant did not, did not take anything from Ronghua Garden,” one of the maids stammered.

Old Madam Ren no longer looked at them.

The atmosphere in the room was somewhat strange. The two people kneeling on the floor kept trembling, and from their rigid postures, one could see they were very frightened. Ren Yaoyu was also extremely uneasy, tightly clutching her sleeves.

The others all sensed Old Madam Ren’s current displeasure and dared not speak.

“Mother,” Fifth Madam glanced at her daughter and had no choice but to take the lead.

Just then, Nanny Gui lifted the curtain and entered, followed by an old woman wearing a somewhat worn crow-blue cotton jacket.

“Reporting to Old Madam, Liu An’s wife has arrived,” Nanny Gui said, standing with hands folded beside the arhat bed.

Everyone’s gaze turned to the old woman who was somewhat nervously kowtowing and paying respects.

When she got up, Ren Yaoqi also carefully examined her, but indeed had no impression of her at all.

Fifth Madam looked at Liu An’s wife with very critical eyes and was the first to challenge: “What kind of servant are you? Why do you look so unfamiliar?”

Liu An’s wife shrank her head and rubbed her hands upon hearing this, glancing at Nanny Gui.

Nanny Gui quickly explained: “She was originally responsible for tea service at the outer courtyard’s affairs office. Because the two old women who swept the courtyard at Ronghua Garden injured their backs yesterday while clearing the frozen snow from the yard, Old Madam had the steward from outside transfer someone new to temporarily take over their work.”

“So she’s from the outer courtyard,” Fifth Madam Lin Shi said to Old Madam with a smile. “Mother, this old woman from the outer courtyard is entering the inner quarters for the first time and can’t tell east from west. Plus, all these little maids wear the same indigo blue cotton jackets, so it would be perfectly normal for her to mistake them.”

Old Madam waved her hand to stop Lin Shi’s words and asked Liu An’s wife: “Are the two people you saw this morning here?”

Liu An’s wife looked around and fixed her gaze on the two maids kneeling not far to her right, pointing at them with her short, thick fingers: “Replying to Old Madam, yes. It’s these two young ladies.”

“Are you sure? These are maids serving Eighth Miss,” Lin Shi frowned.

Liu An’s wife looked at Lin Shi fearfully, then moved closer to examine the two maids carefully before nodding to Old Madam: “This servant is certain. It’s these two young ladies. At that time, this servant was using a stick to knock down icicles from the eaves, and some ice fell down my neck. This servant went to hide in the nearby tea room to clean up. That’s when they walked past the tea room door. One of the young ladies has a mole the size of a soybean on her right cheek.”

Indeed, one of the two maids kneeling on the ground had a mole on her face.

“Did you see clearly what they were carrying?” Old Madam Ren asked coldly.

Liu An’s wife rubbed her hands and shook her head in difficulty: “It was a bundle wrapped in autumn-fragrance colored satin that they were carefully holding in their arms. This servant didn’t see what was inside, but heard the young lady with the mole tell the other one to go ahead and distract the gatekeeper. This servant felt something was wrong and quietly followed them. Later, this servant saw them take the bundle to the garden, and heard them discussing that the masters would be getting up soon, so they should hide the things first and deal with them when they had time in the morning.”