“Miss, Concubine Lin only went to the Ceremony Office today to deliver the cards. The funeral ceremony arrangements were all done according to Miss’s instructions. What’s strange is that she sent two eulogies.”

Only today?

Then it was likely as she’d expected.

Song Wan smiled faintly. She knew that what she’d said yesterday would certainly provoke Lin Jiayue into taking the initiative.

“I’m somewhat afraid now. With Lin Jiayue’s temperament—easily provoked and brainless—if she truly takes charge of the Marquis Estate’s household management in the future, I wonder if it won’t implicate me as well.”

Heng Zhi pressed her lips together, also feeling somewhat worried.

“Miss, should you prepare more contingency plans?”

“Naturally I’ve prepared them.”

Song Wan lazily propped her chin, appearing unusually hesitant.

“Forget it, forget it. In any case, having come this far, retreating now would be pointless.”

Picking up the colored thread on her writing desk, Song Wan began making decorative knots.

Earlier, after Nanny Zhao had seen Matron Lang, she’d told her that Elder Brother had gone to Shanglin Garden several days ago after finishing his duties to find Jiang Xingjian, and the two had fought fiercely with fists and feet. Moreover, Jiang Xingjian had been impeached by the censorate, which was also Father pushing things along from behind. Thinking of these matters, Song Wan couldn’t help but feel pleased.

Madam Bai’s words were indeed correct—when one’s husband’s family is incompetent, having capable natal family members and brothers is what truly matters.

“Heng Zhi, do you think these knots should be made in deep blue-green and spiral cyan, or indigo blue and navy blue?”

Heng Zhi lowered her head slightly: “This servant feels indigo blue would suit the Young Master more.”

Song Wan nodded, drew out a roll of indigo blue thread from the basket, and began working.

Two days later, just as Song Wan finished making the decorative knots for Song Fu, she hadn’t even risen yet when people from the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate came cursing at their door. If the steward matron from the outer courtyard hadn’t come to Lanting Courtyard, she would probably still be sleeping.

“First Madam, please save this old servant!”

Lv Zhu stepped forward to help Song Wan arrange her hair and dress. The matron’s tone was anxious: “The Earl of Jinxiang’s estate sent people early this morning who pulled over two carts of excrement and dumped them right on our estate’s main gate. Those two matrons cursed so foully that even… even First Madam and the Song household were implicated.”

A trace of confusion flashed through Song Wan’s eyes: “Excrement carts?”

“Yes!” The matron slapped her thigh hard: “Right now many people have gathered outside the estate gate. With this hot weather, if the sun rises and the heat starts steaming it…”

“Enough, enough. Stop talking. It’s truly disgusting.”

Heng Wu pinched her nose as if she could already smell the odor: “If they came cursing, couldn’t you curse back? The Earl of Jinxiang’s estate has no manners at all, daring to even drag in our mistress and the Song household? You can’t even find ten or twenty matrons to drive them off?”

“Wait.”

Song Wan’s voice carried doubt: “For no reason at all, why would the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate do such things during their mourning period?”

“First invite them in. After I’ve inquired carefully, I’ll make a decision. As for the filth outside the estate gate, first have servants clean it thoroughly. Reward everyone who participates in the cleaning with five hundred coins each.”

The steward matron hurriedly nodded in agreement and rushed out.

Shortly after, she returned leading two sturdy matrons wearing mourning clothes.

As soon as these two entered Lanting Courtyard, they launched into a stream of obscene abuse so foul Song Wan felt she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

“Serve tea to the two matrons.”

With difficulty finding an opening, she finally interjected: “The two matrons have worked hard. I just don’t know what caused this matter today? Perhaps there’s some misunderstanding. Why not lay it all out? If the Marquis Estate is at fault, I can find an opportunity to apologize to the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate.”

“Hmph! How dare we trouble the Marquis’s wife to lower herself and apologize to our Earl of Jinxiang’s estate?”

Though the matron said this, she casually flung two sheets of paper before Song Wan. Heng Wu was about to explode but was restrained by Heng Zhi.

She had some idea about today’s matter—it must be related to Concubine Lin. She just didn’t know what disaster Concubine Lin had caused to provoke them into coming to curse and throw excrement.

Passing those two sheets to Song Wan, Song Wan took them and quickly scanned them. Her pretty face instantly flushed bright red.

These were the eulogies written by Lin Jiayue and herself. Lin Jiayue had mixed them in with the three cards for the Ceremony Office and sent them all together to the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate.

Setting aside her ugly handwriting and completely wrong deceased’s title and name, there was also a preposterous error.

No wonder they’d come to the door. If her household had received such humiliation, she too would demand an explanation.

Song Wan was thoroughly ashamed, her cheeks burning as if about to ignite.

“This eulogy was not something I had included with the funeral offerings, and the Marquis Estate absolutely had no intention to humiliate.”

Folding up the thin sheets in her hand and putting them away, Song Wan’s eyes were full of guilt: “I will certainly give the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate an explanation for this matter. Please report back to the Earl of Jinxiang and wait two days.”

Those two matrons, seeing that the guilt and remorse on Song Wan’s face didn’t seem false, exchanged glances and left cursing.

After they departed, Song Wan sat down on the bed platform, slightly flustered.

“Miss, what exactly did Concubine Lin write to make the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate so angry?”

Song Wan touched her cheeks, letting the heat subside somewhat before opening Lin Jiayue’s eulogy and pointing it out to Heng Zhi: “This… none of it conforms to eulogy writing conventions. Never mind that it doesn’t follow the format—the Earl of Jinxiang’s eldest daughter-in-law’s given name was Lu Wan, and her husband was a Fifth Rank Vice Commissioner of the Provincial Surveillance Commission.”

“The wife of a Fifth Rank official is entitled to be addressed as Yiren, but out of respect for the deceased and to increase her honor, funeral ceremonies customarily elevate the rank by one level—meaning the Fifth Rank Yiren would be elevated to Fourth Rank Gongren.”

“Whether on the spirit tablet or funeral offerings, the correct form should be ‘Imperially Conferred Lady Lu née of the Cheng Family, Fourth Rank Gongren.’ But throughout Lin Jiayue’s text, she wrote the deceased’s name as ‘Gongren Lu’…”

Song Wan glanced at the paper full of “alas and woe,” “tears covering the cheeks,” and “dear friend Gongren Lu,” and felt her eyelids twitching violently.

That day she’d deliberately provoked Lin Jiayue, truly wanting her to take the initiative and interfere with the condolence matters. She’d set several traps of varying severity in the eulogy and funeral ceremony cards—anyone who understood the rules would know their deeper meaning, but if one didn’t understand, it would cause some embarrassment.

But Song Wan’s original intention was only to let Lin Jiayue think she’d caught some small mistakes of hers, which she would then report to Jiang Xingjian. Song Wan could then use being unable to endure the humiliation as a reason to completely push off household management responsibilities.

What Song Wan never expected was that Lin Jiayue understood nothing. Just because she’d been provoked with one statement about her lowly status making her unqualified to participate in other estates’ affairs, she dared to write a eulogy and had the audacity to send it directly to the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate.

“What’s even more excessive is…”

Heng Wu cried out in shock: “There’s something even more excessive?”

Song Wan’s face was bitter: “Here… it seems she copied and modified my eulogy, changing the phrase ‘descendant of an official family and noble lineage’ to ‘descendant of eunuchs’…”

“Ah…”

Heng Zhi slapped her head and wailed: “Miss, if this servant remembers correctly, the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate declined long ago. To seek advancement, some years ago a legitimate grandson of their household took Eunuch Duan of the Dong Chang as his godfather… right?”

“Yes.”

Song Wan covered her eyes, murmuring: “So in the Earl of Jinxiang’s estate’s view, we deliberately came to humiliate and provoke them during their funeral.”

“The dead are paramount. Even if two households had a blood feud, they wouldn’t go this far…”

Heng Wu stammered: “Even this servant knows not to hit the face when striking or expose shortcomings when cursing. The Earl of Jinxiang’s estate must hate us to death. In the future, it will probably become a fight to the death situation.”