In Fangyi Court, where the Ye household’s mistress resided, Madam Wang’s face was ashen as she furiously cursed Ye Li, Madam Xu, and the entire Xu clan. Shattered teacups and porcelain littered the floor. The delicate and graceful Ye Ying stood silently to the side, watching her mother vent her anger, a flash of disdain crossing her eyes.
“Mother, don’t make yourself ill with anger. Please sit down and rest.” Only after Madam Wang’s fury had mostly subsided did Ye Ying step forward with a concerned and worried expression.
Seeing her daughter’s gentle and obedient face, Madam Wang felt overwhelmed with grievance. She grabbed Ye Ying’s hand and began to weep. “I’ve worked so hard managing this household for all these years. When have I ever wronged her? Now she even wants to fight with you over that bit of dowry. My dear daughter, when you marry into Prince Li’s household, if your dowry is insufficient, not only will you be ridiculed, but it will also reflect poorly on the Zhaoyi Consort. Wasn’t I just thinking of the family’s interests? That wretched girl had the Xu family come to make trouble!”
Ye Ying’s bright eyes flickered, and she smiled gently while comforting Madam Wang. “Mother, Prince Li truly cares for me, so he naturally won’t mind if our dowry is modest. Besides… sister has indeed been wronged this time, so giving her more dowry is appropriate. When others see this, it will show your kindness and generosity, proving you haven’t mistreated the first wife’s daughter, won’t it? Second Sister… will surely understand your difficulties.”
Madam Wang paused, thinking of Ye Li’s appearance and demeanor so similar to the Xu family’s, then looking at her own daughter’s expression of forced forbearance, her anger began to subside. Patting Ye Ying’s hand, she said, “Don’t worry, Mother certainly won’t shortchange you. Even if I don’t manage your dowry, I absolutely won’t let that girl take such a large dowry when she marries!” Her final words carried a tone of gritted teeth.
Ye Ying worriedly furrowed her brow. “Then what does Mother plan to do?”
Madam Wang was confident, smiling smugly. “Mother has her ways. You just focus on preparing your dowry.”
The Ye family’s second daughter was currently the most favored Zhaoyi Consort, and now two more daughters were being granted marriage to the Emperor’s most beloved Prince Li and the hereditary Prince Ding of Da Chu. The Ye family was naturally at its peak of prosperity. Once news of the imperial marriages spread, distinguished visitors streamed endlessly to the Ye residence, delighting both Madam Wang and Old Madam Ye. The entire household busily began preparing both young ladies’ weddings and dowries – though primarily Fourth Miss Ye Ying’s. Madam Wang had declared that Fourth Miss’s wedding would be half a month before Third Miss’s, so they would prepare Fourth Miss’s first and still have time for Third Miss’s afterward.
In truth, the servants of the Ye household knew well that Madam Wang simply didn’t want to prepare Third Miss’s dowry, ensuring all the best items went to Fourth Miss first. Fortunately, Old Madam Ye still knew what was important – though Prince Li and Prince Ding had their differences in status, neither was someone their mere Ye family could afford to offend. After Madam Wang reluctantly surrendered eight estates, twelve shops, and three forest properties, Old Madam allocated ten thousand taels of silver from the family funds and asked a clan sister-in-law to help prepare the dowry. She also provided ten thousand taels from her private funds to supplement Ye Ying’s dowry, placating Madam Wang. Though Madam Wang was dissatisfied, she dared not openly oppose the Old Madam and could only resentfully hand over the property deeds and take the bank notes.
The lady helping prepare Ye Li’s dowry was Minister Ye’s sister-in-law. Though her husband was only a fifth-rank official, less prominent than the Ye family, she was a kind person. She had often heard about Third Miss’s situation from the other sisters-in-law and felt sympathetic toward Ye Li, the Ye family’s legitimate daughter. Ye Li rarely went out in public, and the sister-in-law found her to be a refined young lady, not at all as unsavory as outsiders claimed – though she suspected those rumors had been spread by Madam Wang. Upon meeting her, though Ye Li wasn’t as strikingly beautiful as the Ye family’s Second Miss nor as delicately lovely as the Fourth Miss, she possessed an elegant and graceful bearing, with appropriate speech and conduct. Especially notable were her serene eyes – though calm as still water, they seemed somehow different from other young ladies. While not the kind of gentle beauty many men preferred, she was certainly no less impressive than the other Ye daughters. The sister-in-law felt sorry for Ye Li – marrying a sickly, useless prince was bad enough, but ten thousand taels of dowry, though substantial for ordinary families, was less than even what the eldest daughter who had married years ago had received. Fortunately, the Old Madam was sensible and had returned the first wife’s estates and shops to Third Miss, or else this matter would have become quite unseemly for the Ye family.
Having recovered her mother’s properties, Ye Li was in good spirits and couldn’t be bothered to quibble over the Old Madam giving Ye Ying ten thousand taels or Madam Wang using much of the family funds for Ye Ying’s dowry. It was natural for children in a family to be favored differently – even fingers weren’t all the same length. She had no objection to the Ye family favoring Ye Ying more, as long as they didn’t make her lose face. As for the future, though she didn’t expect much support from this maternal family, she couldn’t afford to fall out with them before even marrying.
After spending two days reviewing the shops’ account books, Ye Li frowned deeply at the results. Of the twelve shops, five were operating at a loss, four were barely breaking even, and the three that were profitable showed only minimal gains. Of the eight estates, four were not the originals – Madam Wang explained that four estates had been given to the Zhaoyi Consort for her expenses when she entered the palace, so four others had been substituted from the family holdings. Ye Li didn’t need to look to know what condition these replacement estates were in. If she hadn’t approached the Old Madam first, likely all eight estates would have been switched by the time she claimed them.
Early one morning, after paying her respects to the Old Madam and informing her, Ye Li took Qingshuang to inspect the shops.
Ye Li rarely ventured out, and almost no one in the capital recognized her. By the end of their rounds, not only was Qingshuang fuming with anger, but even Ye Li, who considered herself level-headed, was quite incensed. Seven of the twelve shops had managers who had been newly appointed just days before the properties were returned to her, and they knew nothing of the shops’ previous affairs. One jewelry shop appeared busy with customers, yet the accounts showed nothing but losses. As for the two originally profitable shops, the merchandise was outdated, the clerks listless, and even the counters were covered in dust – it would have been strange if anyone patronized them.
“Miss, Madam has gone too far. We must tell the Old Madam and Master!” Qingshuang said furiously.
“What good would that do? One of her daughters is the Zhaoyi Consort and is about to be promoted to Consort, and the other is becoming Prince Li’s wife. Do you think Father and Grandmother will do anything to her?” Ye Li glanced at Qingshuang with a faint smile. Qingshuang fell silent, still indignant. “Are we just going to let this go? Madam wants to make you lose face. Taking these shops as dowry is no different from having nothing!”
“Lose face? That only happens if I feel I’ve lost face. If I don’t think I’ve lost face, then I haven’t.”
Qingshuang blinked, looking expectantly at her mistress. “Miss, do you have a good plan?”
Ye Li merely smiled without speaking, walking ahead and bypassing Qingshuang. Qingshuang wrinkled her nose and happily followed. “Miss, the last shop is just ahead. Shende Pavilion – it’s an antique shop.”