Ma Li Shi argued sophistically: “Even if that’s the case, you still can’t sell Chun’er to a brothel! No matter what, Chun’er served in your manor for several years. Even without merit, she has endured hardship. Your manor’s Third Miss is truly too heartless!”

Ma Li Shi repeatedly emphasized that Chun’er had been sold to a brothel, and she deliberately implicated Ren Yaohua, clearly harboring ill intentions.

Hearing her publicly mention that filthy place, Xiangqin’s face reddened, and her heart grew even more furious.

“Where did you hear that Chun’er was sold to… sold to that place? You’re talking complete nonsense! Chun’er was handed over to a slave trader by our manor’s steward’s nanny.”

Ma Li Shi pressed relentlessly: “I naturally went to inquire about it. Chun’er was indeed sold to a brothel! You little maid is spouting lies to deceive us!”

Chun’er had long been sold to who knows where, and now it was certainly impossible to trace her back. Ma Li Shi naturally knew this, which is why she insisted that Chun’er had been sold to a brothel. After all, her task was to smear Third Miss Ren’s reputation, so she played the thief, crying “stop thief,” and accused Xiangqin of spouting lies.

Xiangqin had never encountered such a shameless scoundrel and was so angry she nearly ground her teeth to powder. She wanted to have the gatekeepers drive the Li family away, but feared they would have even more reason to accuse her of bullying others with her position.

At this moment, Ren Yaoqi also hurried over. Seeing Ren Yaohua standing coldly behind the spirit wall without going out, she felt somewhat relieved. Walking to Ren Yaohua’s side, she happened to hear Ma Li Shi’s shrill shouting from outside.

Ren Yaohua turned to glance at Ren Yaoqi and sneered: “Is this Concubine Fang’s method? Finding a shrew to smear my reputation? I don’t think it’s very impressive!”

Ren Yaoqi thought for a moment and shook her head: “I don’t think this is Concubine Fang’s handiwork.” Concubine Fang wouldn’t confront Ren Yaohua so openly and brazenly; she would only set traps in secret, making one unable to guard against them.

Ren Yaohua frowned, then understood: “Then it must be that fool Ren Yaoying!”

Ren Yaoqi thought that having people make such a commotion at the main gate for others to laugh at wasn’t proper. Just as she was about to call over the inner steward who had already arrived, she saw Nanny Yu from Concubine Fang’s side hurrying over from the corridor.

Nanny Yu ran breathlessly. She came forward to pay respects to Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua: “Third Miss, Fifth Miss. Our mistress heard that the Li family had come to cause trouble and was extremely anxious. She specially sent this servant to send them away. Our mistress says this matter was due to her poor judgment, causing trouble for the manor. When Old Madam returns, she will go before Old Madam to plead guilty. Two young misses are precious golden bodies and shouldn’t have contact with these common market people. This servant will drive them away immediately. This servant guarantees that such ignorant people will never come to cause trouble again.”

Ren Yaohua sneered: “Oh? Are you driving people away? I haven’t done anything yet, but someone comes to accuse me of being cruel and heartless, driving my sister’s maid to a dead end. After you go out and ‘explain’ like this, I wonder if someone will immediately stand up and say I’m mean and domineering, able to even order around the nanny beside a concubine?”

Nanny Yu wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled apologetically: “Third Miss is joking.”

Ren Yaohua snorted lightly.

Ren Yaoqi smoothed things over: “Having them continue making such a scene doesn’t look proper. Since Nanny Yu has come, I’ll leave the people outside to you to handle.”

Nanny Yu hurriedly said, “Yes, this servant will go immediately.” After speaking, she quickly curtsied and went around the spirit wall.

Once Nanny Yu went out, she looked over the Li family members, then walked directly to Li Siliang and said: “Excuse me, are you Master Li?”

Li Siliang was a small merchant who had dealt with many social situations. Seeing Nanny Yu dressed respectably, and noticing that after she arrived, the originally sharp-tongued maid had also fallen silent, he assumed she was a steward from the Ren family. Thinking that he had come today to demand money and couldn’t offend people too severely, he said: “My family just does some small business to make a living, I don’t deserve to be called master. The neighbors all call me Li Si, please call me that too, nanny.”

Nanny Yu nodded and said in a voice neither too loud nor too soft: “The matter between your son and Chun’er was originally arranged by Sister-in-Law Liu from our courtyard as a matchmaker. Our mistress saw that Sister-in-Law Liu was a reliable person, and your son also seemed good, so thinking of giving Chun’er a way out, she said she could consider it, but would need to inform our manor’s First Madam first. Unexpectedly, before our mistress could report the matter, that impetuous Sister-in-Law Liu went to your house to announce the good news. I just heard that Chun’er girl even privately accepted your betrothal gifts? This is really…”

Li Siliang thought that the woman who served as a matchmaker had a relative who was his neighbor. It was through that neighbor taking her to buy rouge and powder at his shop several times that they made the connection. The woman indeed had them call her Sister-in-Law Liu, and later, the engagement and gift-giving were also arranged through this Sister-in-Law Liu.

“I wonder about this Sister-in-Law Liu…”

Nanny Yu said, “Sister-in-Law Liu didn’t privately take your silver. She just did a bad thing with good intentions.”

Hearing this, Li Siliang became somewhat anxious, and Li Pozi also hurriedly came over wanting to interject. But Nanny Yu interrupted: “However, no matter what, this matter was due to our mistress’s poor consideration, so we will compensate you for those thirty taels of betrothal silver on Chun’er’s behalf.” Speaking thus, Nanny Yu took out a dark blue money pouch from her sleeve and handed it to Li Siliang.

Li Siliang opened it and saw there were indeed thirty taels of silver inside.

Li Siliang and Li Pozi were satisfied and were about to say some polite words when Ma Li Shi interjected first: “Although you’ve returned the silver to us, what about Chun’er? That Third Miss…”

Nanny Yu sternly interrupted: “This sister-in-law, you must not falsely accuse our family’s young miss! Chun’er was originally a maid beside our Ninth Miss. She was indeed sold by our Ren family’s steward nanny to a slave trader because she committed a grave error! If you don’t believe me, I can find that slave trader to confront you!”

Ma Li Shi shook off her mother’s hand that was secretly tugging at her, rolled her eyes, and said: “Since Chun’er was Ninth Miss’s maid, how could Third Miss have the authority to decide her punishment?”

Nanny Yu replied calmly: “Our Ninth Miss and Third Miss are both from the third branch. Third Miss is Ninth Miss’s legitimate elder sister. When away from home, naturally, everything is decided by the elder sister. There’s nothing wrong with this. Our Third Miss has always been extremely fair in handling matters, and Ninth Miss is also convinced by her decisions.”

Ren Yaohua was the legitimate elder sister and Ren Yaoying’s half-sister. Having the younger sister’s legitimate elder sister help handle a maid’s punishment was reasonable. Since even the woman beside Concubine Fang said so, it shouldn’t be Third Miss Ren bullying her half-sister.

Ma Li Shi was also somewhat at a loss for words.

But Nanny Yu’s eyes sharpened as she looked at Ma Li Shi: “So in the future, please don’t make such statements, sister-in-law. If others hear it, they might think our Third Miss and Ninth Miss don’t get along. If our manor hears such words again, we’ll have to report it to the authorities!”

Hearing that Nanny Yu threatened to report to the authorities, the Li family members were all frightened. Li Pozi immediately came forward to drag Ma Li Shi away, apologizing with a smile: “She just heard some rumors. Since the nanny has explained clearly that it was a misunderstanding, we certainly won’t speak carelessly again in the future. We’ll take our leave now! We’ll take our leave now!”

Li Siliang also immediately came forward to join Li Pozi in dragging Ma Li Shi away. Seeing that Ma Li Shi still seemed to want to say something, Li Pozi quickly covered her mouth.

The Li family was thus sent away by Nanny Yu, and quiet returned to the Ren family’s gate.

Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua listened to the commotion outside without saying a word.

After Nanny Yu came in, she apologetically smiled and apologized to Ren Yaohua several times before returning to report to Concubine Fang.

Ren Yaohua squinted her eyes, watching Nanny Yu’s departing figure: “With her appearance and explanation, others really can’t blame today’s farce on her. Even when grandmother returns and hears about this matter, she won’t have reason to blame her too harshly. At most, she’ll be criticized for randomly playing matchmaker. And she even admitted to her poor management of subordinates. Now, I have to owe her this favor. If I still insist on using this matter as an excuse to trouble her, others will say I don’t know what’s good for me. This woman is truly a formidable character!”

Ren Yaoqi thought that Ren Yaoying’s move hadn’t been discussed with Concubine Fang beforehand. Concubine Fang’s intervention not only resolved the situation for Ren Yaohua and cleared her, but also cleaned up Ren Yaoying’s mess.

She just didn’t know if Concubine Fang would employ any other underhanded tactics next. After all, she was someone who couldn’t bear to see her children suffer even the slightest grievance.

In the afternoon, when Old Madam Ren returned, Concubine Fang indeed took the initiative to go to Ronghua Garden to plead guilty.

After Old Madam learned about today’s disturbance at the gate, she was very angry and gave Concubine Fang a thorough scolding. Concubine Fang didn’t argue a single word and instead took full responsibility for everything. Finally, seeing Concubine Fang’s sincere and submissive attitude, and that she had promptly sent Nanny Yu out to stop the farce while protecting Ren Yaohua’s reputation, Old Madam Ren couldn’t find much more to criticize her for. She only punished her by docking two months of her allowance.

However, when Ren Yaohua went to Ronghua Garden to pay her evening respects, she received a lecture from Old Madam. The matter of Ren Yaohua bypassing First Madam and Old Madam Ren in Yunyang City to send Chun’er back to Bailu Town for punishment was brought up again. After all, Ren Yaohua had to bear some responsibility for the Li family coming to cause trouble today.

This again showed Concubine Fang’s cleverness.

If she had sat back today and waited for the Li family to make the matter big and ruin Ren Yaohua’s reputation, Ren Yaohua might have suffered, but when Old Madam returned and learned of it in great anger, she would certainly investigate the matter thoroughly. At that time, Ren Yaoying might have been the most unlucky one, and Concubine Fang would also have suffered the consequences.

Now, Concubine Fang proactively stepped forward to spend money to resolve the disaster, turning a big matter into a small one. She also vigorously defended Ren Yaohua and the Ren family’s reputation in front of outsiders. Everyone would say that this concubine was an honest person.

Fortunately, Old Madam Ren had always favored Ren Yaohua. She only scolded her a few times and punished her by copying several volumes of scriptures before letting the matter rest.

Even so, Ren Yaohua felt stifled and grew even more disgusted with Concubine Fang and her daughter.