The Second Madam had been organizing the eastern residence where she lived these days. Seeing Yu Tang come over, she quickly pulled her to look: “What do you think of how it’s been arranged? Should we add anything else?”

After discussing it, the Pei Xuan and Pei Yan brothers had decided that when Old Madam Pei arrived in the capital, she would stay here.

The walls had been freshly painted, the flowers and trees in the courtyard had been trimmed again, and some yellow pear wood furniture and rosewood and chicken-wing wood screens had been added. All that remained was to hang the bed curtains and lay out the cushions before someone could move in.

Yu Tang smiled and said, “Second Sister-in-law has worked hard. I see the furnishings here are almost the same as where Mother-in-law lives back home. Mother-in-law will surely be satisfied.”

Only then did the Second Madam feel relieved. She smiled and said, “I’m just afraid she won’t be used to living here. The northern climate is so different from the south.”

Indeed, by the time Old Madam arrived in the capital, it would already be winter.

“Then let’s order more charcoal this year,” Yu Tang helped suggest.

The two chatted about other matters before Yu Tang brought up her reason for coming.

The Second Madam was naturally pleased to hear it and smiled, saying, “I was just worried that with Second Master serving as an official in the capital, he might block the official paths of other brothers. Now that a cousin is coming to the capital to serve as an official, they can look out for each other—that’s wonderful.” Then she asked if lodging arrangements had been made and whether they needed help renting a residence. “After all, coming from so far away, some matters are inconvenient.”

Yu Tang smiled and said, “Xianguang says the steward from that side will arrive a few days early. He’s already arranged for Mr. Shu to help receive them, so presumably we won’t need to worry about these matters.”

The Second Madam’s expression shifted slightly upon hearing this, and she said, “Are you planning to go to Tongzhou to meet them?”

Yu Tang asked, “Do you have something you need to do?”

“No, no,” the Second Madam said with a smile. “I was just thinking—the weather is clear and crisp, the busy matters at home are mostly handled, and if you’re going to Tongzhou, I’d like to go along and stay at your new residence for a few days to get some fresh air.”

Yu Tang laughed heartily and said, “Is it because too many people are sending gifts and Second Uncle won’t allow you to accept them, so you’re afraid of offending people and would rather hide away?”

With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, and Pei Xuan in charge of reviewing salt certificates, even though Pei Yan had made it clear long ago that official business shouldn’t be discussed at home, the Pei family had been established in Jiangnan for hundreds of years and had too many old friends. Recently, visitors coming to the home had nearly worn down the threshold.

The Second Madam smiled sheepishly.

Yu Tang also became interested and said, “How about I discuss with Xianguang about going to Tongzhou a few days early?”

The Second Madam smiled and said, “I’ll also bring A’Dan and A’Hong along.”

Yu Tang readily agreed and even sent a steward ahead to Tongzhou to arrange related matters.

Madam Song the Fourth brought Madam Wu the First to visit Yu Tang.

When Yu Tang received the calling card, she couldn’t believe it and asked the young servant who reported: “Did you hear clearly—Madam Song the Fourth from the Song family has come to visit me?”

During this period, most visitors came to see the Second Madam.

The young servant quickly replied respectfully, “This servant asked clearly. They said they’ve come to deliver invitations to you and the Second Madam.”

Yu Tang understood.

She’d been so busy with household matters recently that she’d forgotten about Miss Wu’s wedding.

She invited Madam Song the Fourth to come in.

Miss Wu wasn’t the daughter of the main branch, but the one who came to the capital to handle her wedding arrangements was the matriarch of the Wu family—that is, Madam Wu the First, the birth mother of the Jiang family’s eldest young mistress.

Able to give birth to a beauty like the Jiang family’s eldest young mistress, Madam Wu the First was also a woman of extremely outstanding appearance. Madam Song the Fourth introduced Madam Wu the First to Yu Tang.

Madam Wu the First praised Yu Tang’s beauty directly and didn’t slight Yu Tang despite being about the same age as Yu Tang’s mother, showing she was a woman very skilled at social interactions.

After the two politely exchanged greetings and sat down as host and guest, Madam Wu the First personally handed the wedding invitation to Yu Tang.

Madam Song the Fourth said flattering words from the side: “I said I could deliver the invitation and take the opportunity to visit your home. But Madam Wu felt this would show disrespect and insisted on coming in person. I thought, since we’ll all be running into each other in the future, it would be good to get acquainted, so I came along with her.”

Yu Tang saw that Miss Wu’s wedding date was set for September 22nd. She first congratulated Madam Wu the First, then responded to Madam Song the Fourth’s words: “Thank you very much. I arrived in the capital just a few months earlier, so while I’m not very familiar with the capital myself, our household stewards should be quite familiar with it. If there’s anything you need our help with, just send someone to let us know, and I’ll have our household stewards go help.”

Going to help herself was impossible.

Madam Wu the First didn’t know whether she’d caught the unspoken meaning or not. She smiled broadly in gratitude and asked about Pei Tong: “I heard they’ve moved out. We’re unfamiliar with the place and didn’t know where they’d moved to for a while. I was afraid I couldn’t find the location myself, so I had to send a steward to deliver the invitation.”

How could they not know where they’d moved?

Madam Wu the First was merely asking Yu Tang tactfully whether Pei Tong and the Pei residence would still be one family in the future. If they were one family, the Wu family would only need to send one invitation to the Pei family. If they were two families, they would send someone to deliver a separate invitation to Pei Tong. However, having left the Pei family, Pei Tong was now just an ordinary scholarly household, so Madam Wu the First couldn’t possibly deliver an invitation to them in person.

Yu Tang thought of what Pei You had done, thought of Pei Yan’s intention in having Pei Tong divide from the ancestral lineage, and took advantage of this opportunity to clarify things for those gossiping about their family behind their backs.

“They moved to their original old site,” Yu Tang said with a smile. “I also haven’t seen them for some days and don’t know if they have any other arrangements at that time. If your residence’s steward doesn’t have time, I can have my steward make the trip for your steward.”

Before she finished speaking, both Madam Wu the First’s and Madam Song the Fourth’s expressions changed subtly. Madam Wu the First even said with a forced smile, “They’re hired to do exactly these things—why would we need to trouble your household steward to run errands for them? Since we know where they’ve moved, I’ll just have our household steward make the trip.”

Yu Tang nodded with a smile and chatted idly with the two for quite a while, finally even inviting them to stay for lunch.

The two, whether truly busy or pretending to be, excused themselves saying they still needed to deliver invitations to families like the Zhang and Li families, politely declining lunch and promising to visit Yu Tang again when they had time.

Yu Tang didn’t insist and personally saw them out.

But on the way, they encountered the Second Madam coming to find Yu Tang.

Madam Song the Fourth was delighted and introduced Madam Wu the First to the Second Madam.

The Second Madam had been viewing everyone she met recently as someone coming to ask her for favors, so she couldn’t help being somewhat guarded. She exchanged a few perfunctory words with Madam Wu the First, learned she’d come to deliver an invitation, promised she would definitely go with Yu Tang when the time came, then accompanied Yu Tang in seeing the two out.

Yu Tang found the Second Madam’s appearance of facing a great enemy rather amusing.

But the Second Madam complained to her: “You have no idea how tricky people are when sending things—yesterday I received a box of mooncakes, supposedly brought from Guangdong. I didn’t think much of it and was planning to bring you a few to try. Who knew when I opened it, it was filled with banknotes! It scared me half to death. I quickly turned it over to your Second Uncle to handle. Sigh, I don’t know when these days will end!”

Yu Tang teased her: “Others can’t even dream of this, yet you’re worried. This really is standing and talking without back pain.”

The Second Madam laughingly reached to pinch Yu Tang’s cheek.

The two joked and played as they headed toward the inner residence.

But Madam Song the Fourth, already seated in her carriage, asked Madam Wu the First in puzzlement: “Why did you stop me from telling Second Madam Pei? After the autumn harvest, they’ll start transporting grain to the Nine Border Regions, right? Neither of our families do this business, but the Peng family followed the Pei family in buying several manors in Jiangxi earlier. This year they’re all having a good harvest.”

After the grain was sent to the Nine Border Regions, it would be exchanged for salt certificates. To get salt with the salt certificates, one had to register at the Ministry of Finance.

Madam Song the Fourth couldn’t help complaining: “I don’t know who came up with this scheme—doesn’t it make the Salt Distribution Commission useless?”

Madam Wu the First smiled and said, “That’s only because the Lianghuai Salt Distribution Commissioner had some problems. Registering at the Ministry of Finance is only temporary. I see Second Madam Pei doesn’t seem like someone who likes to take on matters. If we mention it, we might instead cause displeasure. Why bother! The Peng family isn’t what we imagine—they surely have ways to resolve this matter. We’d better not add unnecessary complications.”

Though she said this, she was somewhat annoyed at Madam Song the Fourth’s unseemly greed.

However, if it were someone else, they would probably be even greedier.

Suzhou had recently seen the emergence of Jiang Chao, who’d seized quite a bit of the Song family’s business. They couldn’t figure out who was backing this Jiang Chao, while the authorities turned a blind eye and didn’t intervene. Meanwhile, the two Pei brothers were in the capital, and when they went to the Pei family, there was no one in charge. The Song family had no choice but to go through the Peng family’s connections.

The Pei family should already know by now.

She wondered what the Pei family would do?

The Wu family never put all their eggs in one basket and intended to cultivate connections with the Pei family.

Coming to the Pei residence to deliver the invitation was the minor matter; taking the opportunity to get acquainted with Third Madam Pei was the major one. Meeting Second Madam Pei was an unexpected bonus.

She just didn’t know if the people sent to make contact with the Pei family had connected with them yet.

Lost in thought, Madam Wu the First was somewhat absent-minded in her conversation with Madam Song the Fourth: “When the Peng family has the betrothal ceremony, I was thinking of inviting the two Madams Pei to add prestige to the occasion. It won’t be too late to visit them again then.”

Madam Song the Fourth was more concerned about a marriage match the Wu family had previously introduced for Miss Song the Seventh.

It certainly wasn’t as good as the Peng family, but that family’s uncle was serving as an official in Jiangsu—a local official held more immediate power. But whether it would work or not, she still needed to go back and discuss it with Fourth Master Song.

The two returned to the residence the Wu family had newly purchased in the capital, each with their own thoughts.

Steward Gao and his wife, sent by the Peng family to assist the Wu family, were already waiting at the second gate.

Steward Gao stood at some distance, while Madam Gao came over to help the accompanying nanny lift the carriage curtain and support Madam Wu the First as she descended.

Madam Wu the First had been flattered by this Madam Gao for the past two days, and since she was also someone sent by the Peng family, she gave her considerable face. She asked Madam Gao with a smile, “Is there something you need?”

Madam Gao quickly said, “Nothing in particular, just came to see if there’s anything you need us to run errands for.”

Madam Wu the First recalled vaguely hearing earlier that after Steward Gao came to the capital, he’d helped the Peng family obtain a batch of salt certificates.

The Wu family had built their fortune on shipping. If they could obtain salt certificates, they would profit more than other families.

Her steps paused slightly as she smiled and said to Madam Gao, “You come to our home to help every day like this—won’t it delay your proper business?”

Madam Gao was very good with words and smiled, saying, “This here is our proper business!”

Madam Wu the First chuckled and said, “You don’t need to say pretty words to me. I’ve heard that the Peng family was able to smoothly obtain salt certificates before, all thanks to your husband’s efforts. Don’t try to brush me off!”