A’Ru was stunned, not understanding why she suddenly asked this.

“Yes…” she answered, her face showing some surprise. “Young Madam, you…”

“It seems I need to go meet this Madam of yours.” Qi Yue clapped her hands and stood up from the chair.

A’Ru looked at her, her expression changing from amazement to delight to worry, then fell to her knees with a thud.

“Young Madam, you… you don’t need to do this for us servants…” she prostrated herself and choked out.

“Good people get bullied, gentle horses get ridden. Originally, I didn’t care about the affairs and people here and didn’t want to get involved. But I can’t just watch those close to me suffer misfortune with my eyes wide open. Even if I just closed my eyes and left, my heart would feel uneasy. Besides, I’m not doing this solely for you all. Who doesn’t want to live more comfortably? Always being like this, I can’t go on…” Qi Yue smiled. “Come, help me change clothes.”

The storehouse area was relatively leisurely. Therefore, when other places were busiest in the morning, the matrons here could gather to chat and gossip, and some even sneaked into rooms to play cards. Amid all this liveliness, the woman seriously sweeping the corners and windows of the storehouse with a broom stood out particularly.

“I say, Pozi Feng, sweeping the storehouse three times a day won’t work. Without human presence, even the best things won’t keep well…”

“…Your storehouse has no living creatures visiting except rats. Don’t waste your effort…”

“Pozi Feng… crazy woman…”

“Let’s see how many more days she can hold out. Sooner or later she’ll be driven away.”

The other matrons either mocked or made sarcastic remarks for amusement, but the woman surnamed Feng kept her head down doing her work as if she heard nothing.

Just as everyone was talking heatedly, they saw someone approaching hurriedly in the distance. The alley was backlit, and the matrons squinted, unable to see clearly at first.

“Is Nanny Feng here?” that person asked.

Coming closer, everyone could see clearly—it was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl wearing a crimson gold-threaded vest and bright red skirt. Without seeing her face clearly first, just looking at this attire showed she was dressed like a senior maid from the inner chambers. The matrons all hurried to stand up.

“Miss, are you looking for… eh? It’s… it’s A’Ru!” Several matrons rushed to greet her, bowing and scraping, then suddenly recognizing her appearance and being startled.

“Yes. Is Nanny Feng here?” A’Ru said with a smile, not minding their startled reactions, looking inside instead.

That woman was still cleaning alone. Hearing A’Ru call out, her hands paused slightly.

“Nanny Feng, I’ve come to retrieve some jewelry.” A’Ru said happily upon seeing her, walking over while avoiding those women.

The woman seemed unable to believe it, turning around to stare blankly at A’Ru approaching.

“Here, this is Young Madam’s matching token. Young Madam needs that nine-tailed phoenix hairpin. I remember it’s stored here.” A’Ru said, extending her hand to pass over a token.

The woman’s body trembled slightly, seeing the purple token handed before her eyes.

“Young Madam.” She suddenly grabbed the token, excitedly kneeling and kowtowing. “This old servant will open the storehouse for you immediately!”

Meanwhile, Nanny Liu hurriedly left Qiu Tong courtyard and went straight to Rong’an courtyard.

“She didn’t die?” Nanny Su was very surprised upon hearing her words. “How is that possible? Did you see clearly? Didn’t that physician say she was beyond treatment that night?”

“Indeed, those previous ones all lasted at most two or three days before…” Nanny Liu hurried to say. Halfway through, she was glared at by Nanny Su and realized what she was saying, frightened into a cold sweat and biting her tongue.

“This girl has a good constitution and great fortune. It’s good that she recovered.” Nanny Su resumed her indifferent expression. “You may go.”

Nanny Liu acknowledged and withdrew. Just as she walked out the door, she saw someone approaching in the distance. Looking around, she noticed the passing maids and matrons had all stopped to watch that person.

“Who is it?” Nanny Liu muttered, squinting at the approaching figure. Anyone who could wear such fine clothing must be one of the young ladies from the mansion…

She watched and watched until she finally saw clearly, then slapped her thigh hard and turned to run back into the courtyard.

“Nanny Su, Nanny Su, this is terrible, she’s coming…” she shouted.

Nanny Su had just lifted the door curtain of the main room when this shout suddenly made her angry.

“What are you making such a racket for? What does this look like? Madam is inside.” she scolded in a low voice.

“Young Madam has come.” Nanny Liu couldn’t care about her scolding and hurried to say.

Nanny Su was stunned upon hearing this.

“She came?” she said somewhat unexpectedly.

“Yes, it must be about that girl’s matter…” Nanny Liu said in a low voice.

Nanny Su snorted with laughter.

“Her? Never mind whether she has the heart for it—first ask if she has the courage. Besides, what of it? When a girl makes mistakes, can’t she be disciplined?” she said with complete disdain, glaring at Nanny Liu. She glanced outside again and was about to lift the curtain to enter, but stopped mid-step, turning around with some disbelief to look toward the door.

Seeing her expression change, Nanny Liu also looked over. Qi Yue had already reached the courtyard entrance, stepping over the threshold with maid A’Ru following behind.

“I’ve come to pay my respects to Madam. Is Madam in?” Qi Yue said with a smile.

The maids standing on both sides stared wide-eyed, somewhat losing their composure watching her.

“Young Madam… Madam she…” Nanny Su was the first to react and was about to speak when footsteps sounded from inside.

Two maids walked out with lowered heads, raising the pearl curtains on both sides.

“Young Madam, please enter.” they said in unison.

Qi Yue paused slightly, looking toward the woman who appeared in the main hall within her line of sight. Having been here for nearly two months now, this was the first time seeing the mother-in-law of this body’s original owner. Ancient people married early, so mothers-in-law were truly young. The woman before her was only thirty-five or thirty-six years old—at her workplace, this would be a peer she played with. She wore a dark-colored vest with trimmed lapels and a matching trimmed horse-face skirt, her hair in a yuanbao ruyi style with a dragon claw chrysanthemum curled-tendril gold hairpin inserted. Her expression was dignified, her demeanor peaceful, sitting upright in her chair looking over without joy or anger.

This was also the first time in three years that Madam Xie had seen her daughter-in-law. Since throwing her into Qiu Tong courtyard and exempting her from all greetings, holiday visits, and sacrificial activities, it had been so long she had nearly forgotten there was such a person in the household.

Of course, she would never refer to this woman as daughter-in-law in her heart.

This little wretch wore a bright red gold-threaded plum blossom vest, and with her movement, one could see the complex patterns turning up on the deep purple horse-face skirt. On her head was a nine-winged golden phoenix hairpin, with pearl tassels reflecting her face even more beautifully in the sunlight. Her exquisitely made-up face bore a brilliant, somewhat dazzling smile as she approached step by step. The maids and matrons on both sides were all stunned, standing frozen in place, their gazes following her as she mounted the steps and stood at the room’s entrance.

“You came.” Madam Xie slowly spoke, her face showing no trace of a smile.

“Yes, Madam, I came.” Qi Yue smiled in response, lifting her skirt with one hand to step over the high threshold and enter the main room.