After Su Mei and the others knelt down, no one took the initiative to confess their wrongs. After the initial panic passed, they became somewhat dismissive.

“Young Madam, I…” Su Mei covered her cheek, tears in her eyes, about to speak.

“Save whatever you have to say for later,” Qi Yue interrupted her with some impatience. “Disturbing people’s peaceful dreams so early in the morning. A’Hao, come in and style my hair. A’Ru, prepare breakfast…”

Having said this, she turned back into the room, simply leaving these people to wait.

Su Mei bit her lower lip, her face showing both shame and anger, then looked toward A’Ru.

Since receiving that slap, A’Ru had been standing to the side without speaking. Seeing her look over now, she turned and walked away.

“What’s there to be proud of…” Su Mei bit her lip and muttered under her breath, wringing the handkerchief in her hands viciously. “Kneel then. If we don’t get to the bottom of this, I won’t get up.”

Qi Yue sat at the dressing table, which gave her a clear view of the courtyard. She saw that the group of maids knelt obediently at first, but soon began to slump and sway, clearly having rarely or not recently suffered such treatment.

“…Originally she was like us, serving the Old Madam. Her parents managed the carriages and horses, and they spent so much money bribing people to get her into the Old Madam’s courtyard. She fawned on sister like a dog…” A’Hao said while biting a hair ribbon in her mouth and arranging Qi Yue’s hair into three loops. “…After the Old Madam passed away, she was assigned to Second Miss’s room. Don’t know how she managed it, but she ended up in the newly arrived concubine’s room. Such a rootless character, yet she was promoted to fill the position of second-class maid in the concubine’s quarters. Her tail is wagging up to the sky now… Madam, you’ve forgotten and don’t know – concubine quarters don’t have the qualifications for first-class maids… She thinks she can stand on equal footing with Sister A’Ru… She doesn’t consider that she’s just in a concubine’s quarters, and an outside mistress who was brought in as a concubine at that…”

Qi Yue just laughed listening to this. She hadn’t expected even a maid squad to have so many intricacies – how complex must the personnel matters be in this noble household?

This Marquis Dingxi was a nouveau riche, or rather, since the current Great Qing Dynasty was recently established, basically everyone in the court was nouveau riche.

The first Marquis Dingxi was a founding hero who fought north and south with the founding emperor. Two generations earned this glorious family fortune. By now it had passed to the third generation who grew up in luxury. After the old marquis died, the legitimate eldest son Chang Rong inherited the title and married a daughter from the Xie family, a prominent clan in the capital, bearing the eldest son Chang Yuncheng. Eighteen years ago, Madam Xie died of illness, and he remarried Madam Xie’s younger sister, who is now the current Marchioness Dingxi in charge of the household. To distinguish her from the previous wife, people call her Little Madam Xie.

“Ah? The younger sister-in-law married her brother-in-law?” Qi Yue turned around in surprise.

“Young Madam, don’t move,” A’Hao was inserting a hairpin in her hair and quickly said.

“Don’t wear this anymore. I’m not going out, so let’s be comfortable at home,” Qi Yue pulled down her hand with a laugh, while excitedly asking, “Tell me quickly about this younger sister-in-law marrying her brother-in-law…”

Just as A’Hao was about to say something, A’Ru came in carrying food and happened to hear this sentence, so she coughed.

“Young Madam, time to eat,” she said, glaring at A’Hao.

A’Hao was very familiar with this look and knew she had spoken too much and said the wrong thing again. She stuck out her tongue and quickly came over to help set out the food, stopping her chatter.

The meal was still radish pickles, millet porridge, and unleavened flatbread…

“Next time let’s make leavened bread. This unleavened stuff gives me heartburn,” Qi Yue said.

A’Ru’s face showed some shame.

“This servant is too clumsy,” she said.

“I’ll go ask the kitchen how to make it,” A’Hao added from the side.

Qi Yue looked up at these two.

“Oh,” she realized. “Neither of you can cook?”

No wonder this meal really didn’t have the feel of an ancient wealthy family’s food.

Hearing this, A’Ru and A’Hao were somewhat amused. They were maids who attended the mistress and young ladies, not kitchen maids – how would they learn such things?

Qi Yue also laughed.

“No need to ask, I’ll make it,” she said, standing up and heading outside.

“Young Madam, you’ve eaten too little. Please eat more,” A’Hao looked at the millet porridge that had barely been touched and quickly urged.

“No rush, I’ll eat more later,” Qi Yue waved her hand and stepped out the door.

The two didn’t know what she wanted to do but had to follow.

Su Mei and the others, who had been kneeling until their legs ached, heard the commotion and looked up to see Qi Yue coming out. They immediately straightened their kneeling postures, putting on expressions of being both wronged and proud. However, they hadn’t expected this Young Madam, who only finished washing and dressing when the sun was high, to not even glance at them and walk straight into the kitchen.

“Sister Su Mei, if she doesn’t tell us to get up, do we just keep kneeling?” a maid asked quietly from behind.

Su Mei had bitten her lips raw, looking toward the kitchen where the master and two servants were doing something unknown, with faint laughter coming from inside.

“Kneel then, what’s to fear?” she laughed coldly in response to that maid. “When she had power to show off before, she was worse than a servant. Now that she lives worse than a servant, she wants to show off. Let’s see what she can manage.”

Although this Young Madam had been in the Marquis Dingxi household for five years – two years following the Old Madam – she wasn’t someone these maids and servants could meet whenever they wanted. For the past three years, she had been shut away in her courtyard as if she had disappeared. Everyone was unfamiliar with her temperament.

“Sister Su Mei, you were in the Old Madam’s quarters before and must be familiar with the Young Madam. What’s her temperament like?” a maid asked quietly. “We followed you here, so it’s good to understand and have some sense of proportion.”

Oh my goodness, this is just kneeling for a while and you’re already going soft? Su Mei glanced sideways at this maid – she’d probably be a fourth-class maid for life.

“Speaking of this Young Madam,” she said with a contemptuous smile, “when the Old Madam was alive, she truly doted on her in every way. I’m not lying – there wasn’t a bit of false sentiment. Our family’s three young ladies all had to step aside. If outsiders didn’t know better, no one could guess she was actually picked up from outside. She was clearly treated like a legitimate beloved daughter…”

“The Young Madam saved the Old Madam’s life…” a maid said softly.

“Saved her life?” Su Mei scoffed and curled her lip. “A fourteen or fifteen-year-old beggar girl – what life could she save? Who knows what tricks she used to bewitch the Old Madam like that. Bringing her in to raise was one thing – treat her like a pet cat or dog for amusement. But to actually betroth her to the Prince! What kind of person is our Prince?”

Speaking of this, she was so angry she could barely stay kneeling, and her face stopped hurting as she let go and waved her handkerchief.

“Sister Su Mei, everyone knows she’s not worthy. This isn’t the time to talk about that. Tell us quickly about her temperament – is she a troublemaker or a pushover?” the maid next to her quickly reminded.

Only then did Su Mei return to the main topic.

“Don’t even mention this – just bringing it up makes my liver hurt with anger, let alone thinking about how angry Madam must be. Our Madam fell seriously ill at that time, which was definitely related to this…” she said in a low voice, pressing her chest. “Speaking of her – an orphan who brings misfortune to parents, with no father or mother to discipline her. She ate food from a hundred families, wore clothes from a hundred families, spent her days fighting with chickens and dogs for scraps in front of temples. Even with the Old Madam teaching her hand by hand, she still couldn’t get on stage. She looked at people with the expression of a sneak thief. You couldn’t get a fart out of her with three sentences. Not only did she not dare lift her head when seeing Madam or the young ladies, but even in front of us maids, she was like a grasshopper, constantly trembling with fright. What temperament could she have? She had no temperament at all. Oh my goodness… I can’t mention this anymore. Why am I kneeling to her! What is she anyway!”

As she spoke, she was about to stand up, but fortunately a maid beside her held her down.

“Regardless of whether she was anything before, now she’s in that position in our household…” the maid said, suppressing laughter as she held up two fingers and waved them.

In the inner quarters of Marquis Dingxi’s household, the Old Madam was supreme. Now that the Old Madam was gone, the Marquis’s wife was the highest, followed by this legitimate daughter-in-law of the eldest son. This position of principal wife was higher than even the household’s young ladies, let alone the Marquis’s concubines.

“The position is that position, but it depends on what kind of person sits in it,” Su Mei snorted.

“You’re having quite a lively discussion.”

The Young Madam’s voice rang out, and the group of maids who had been kneeling while having their tea party suddenly realized the three people from the kitchen had already come out.

“Young Madam, this servant…” Su Mei’s face no longer showed grievance but undisguised anger as she began to speak.

“Since you were talking so happily, keep talking for a while longer,” Qi Yue said with a smile, waving her hand and walking straight into the room without stopping.

Su Mei was so angry she nearly fell backward.

“Xian’er,” she called to someone behind her.

The rough servant girl kneeling at the back immediately crawled over.

“What orders does sister have?” she asked.

“Get up and go,” Su Mei said.

The rough servant girl didn’t care about anything – she had been impatient with kneeling anyway. Since someone would take responsibility later, she immediately stood up and ran off.

“Go tell the nannies in the courtyard that if Concubine asks for me, cover for me. Say Su Mei is receiving instruction from the Young Madam and can’t leave,” Su Mei hadn’t expected this girl to run off without a word or courtesy, so she hurriedly called out instructions.

Fortunately, though this girl had no other abilities, she was skilled at finding backing and tattling. She acknowledged and disappeared in a flash.

Su Mei’s voice was neither loud nor soft, and the people in the room heard clearly.

“Young Madam, she’s gone to get reinforcements,” A’Hao called from the doorway. “What nerve, running off without permission.”

Qi Yue was washing flour off her hands in a basin A’Ru had brought and laughed upon hearing this.

“I thought she had gone long ago. Only going now? How honest,” she laughed, then continued speaking to A’Ru about what they had been discussing. “In a while, when the dough has risen, I’ll make you sugar pancakes.”

“How could we dare trouble the Young Madam,” A’Ru said uneasily. “It’s because we don’t serve you properly…”

“Oh, stop saying that,” Qi Yue took the towel to dry her hands. A’Ru went to pour out the water, and A’Hao was still standing in the doorway watching. She walked to the dressing table herself to look for the hand cream A’Ru had given her that day.

Just as she finished applying the cream, she heard A’Hao calling out.

“They’re here, so quickly,” she said, her face showing some anxiety as she looked outside. “Oh my, it’s Nanny Zhou…”

Hearing this, A’Ru couldn’t help but glance at Qi Yue, who was still at the dressing table.

Qi Yue was still looking around and touching things.

“What’s her background?” she asked casually.

“She manages the storerooms for the Great Madam…” A’Hao’s face went pale with fright.

Those who managed storerooms, logistics, and finances were all close confidants of the leadership, naturally holding special status. Qi Yue nodded and put down what she was holding to look outside. She saw a woman stop at the gate with two or three other women following behind.

This woman was in her forties, wearing a brown vest over a dark blue inner garment. Her hair was neatly combed, her face round and pleasant, with kind features.

“What are you little hussies doing here so early in the morning?” she looked directly at Su Mei and the others and asked. “Your Concubine is organizing her courtyard, and a bunch of little maids are running around with no one managing them. You’re really getting above yourself now…”

When Su Mei and the others saw her arrival, their faces showed surprised joy they could hardly believe.

“Nanny, Nanny,” Su Mei crawled over to her on her knees, crying and kowtowing, lifting her head high so the red marks and scratches on her face could be seen clearly. “I have offended the Young Madam…”