When taking over the hot burden from Fifth Young Madam’s hands, what Seventh Miss feared were just a few things: First, that the three-day birthday banquet would be poorly arranged in receiving and hosting guests, either slighting them or creating mishaps in internal affairs. Second, that conflicts would arise among the servants and be gossiped about afterward, inevitably leaving Seventh Miss with a reputation for unfair handling. Third, that the steward matrons would cause trouble everywhere under her banner, inviting resentment.

This was why, upon taking over household affairs, Seventh Miss first went through the birthday banquet procedures for all the major stewards. Invisibly, she’d sorted out what everyone needed to do—if they still couldn’t manage it well, holding them accountable would be easy. Each of these steward matrons was shrewd—when no one was watching, they’d let a soy sauce bottle fall without lifting it. But now that everyone knew what they should be doing and when, whether they did it and how well they did it was utterly transparent to those above—how would they dare not put their hearts into it?

As for this filing system, it seemed like an idle stroke, but the more one pondered it, the more unsettling it became.

The sixth branch would rise to power someday. Even if not today or tomorrow, unless Seventh Miss died tomorrow, there would eventually come a day when she had her say. Even if these matrons deliberately arranged incidents through their subordinates, if things turned out badly, she could endure it now—in a few years, perhaps the matter would be forgotten.

But a good memory was no match for bad ink—account books couldn’t rot. If she didn’t keep records, when mansion rumors arose and she investigated, those who didn’t register incidents were clearly guilty. If they did register, with causes, processes, and witnesses, matters on file couldn’t be easily manipulated—spoken words could be denied, but could written characters be denied? If steward matrons wanted to make mountains from molehills, using Seventh Miss’s name as an excuse to cause widespread resentment among servants, they’d have to guard against her settling accounts after autumn with evidence in hand.

With such a casual stroke, she’d immediately arranged the entire situation in perfect order. Everyone understood the consequences of opposing Seventh Miss: she might not do anything during these three days, but after three days, what was recorded in those files would eventually become one’s death warrant.

That Fifth Young Madam could rise to manage the household among several sisters-in-law did indeed demonstrate her strengths: this young woman was meticulous in temperament, her scheming concealed but never revealed. When managing the household, she knew how to endure, and when battling wits with steward matrons, she could be ruthless—she truly had the mettle of a household mistress.

But compared to Seventh Miss, her methods seemed so mediocre and crude…

The girl simply didn’t fight with them at all! Today’s entire performance was to warn these steward matrons: though they had countless methods and could temporarily look down on the mistress, giving her subtle rebuffs openly and covertly, master was master and servant was servant. When she remembered these things, there would be endless ways to deal with them!

Not to mention that Old Nanny was there supporting her, making it perfectly clear that with Madam Xu’s backing and her status as the legitimate heir’s wife, the day Seventh Miss rose to power wouldn’t be far off!

She swept a glance around the room. Seeing everyone silent as winter cicadas, she couldn’t help feeling some admiration.

Even the Duke’s wife at this age probably didn’t have such subtle methods, manipulating people’s hearts in the palm of her hand and immediately establishing her authority.

Of course, establishing authority was only the first step. Though Seventh Miss had taken this step beautifully, to be a qualified household mistress required far more than just establishing authority.

Lost in thought, Seventh Miss glanced at the clock and smiled. “It’s almost mealtime. Everyone go back to eat. I’ve already sent word that this afternoon, all household miscellany should be reported to Mingde Hall. Those of you with multiple duties will have to make a few extra trips—after the self-chiming clock strikes two, come to Mingde Hall.”

As she made to rise, she glanced at Old Nanny.

Old Nanny immediately came to herself, respectfully standing and bowing deeply. “Young Master’s Wife, take care.”

“Young Master’s Wife, take care.” Everyone immediately followed Old Nanny’s lead, curtsying, and unconsciously changed their form of address.

#

With the Duke’s mansion’s celebration approaching, the household was invisibly divided into two management systems: one was the personnel group specifically organized for the celebration, the other was the small personnel group that usually attended the various masters. Fifth Young Madam mostly organized birthday banquet matters in the morning, then handled household affairs in the afternoon. Fortunately, counting everything carefully, only young Miss Hexian was currently ill in the household. The matters weren’t too numerous or terribly important, but Seventh Miss still left Mingde Hall several times to settle visiting relatives who’d come to offer birthday congratulations, requiring formal calls, recognition of kinship, and requesting sisters-in-law to come meet them. Though the matters weren’t troublesome, they were extremely trivial, leaving her no leisure the entire afternoon.

That evening, Xu Fengjia was again kept in the palace by the Emperor to discuss affairs and couldn’t get away. She ate dinner alone, went to play with Fourth Young Master and Fifth Young Master for a while, then invited Old Nanny to talk.

“These eleven steward women are the mansion’s most prominent figures in recent years.” Old Nanny smiled before speaking, unconsciously becoming more ingratiating toward Seventh Miss. “All are veterans of many years, deeply rooted in the mansion. Even younger masters have to put on smiling faces when they see them. To manage them so smoothly on your first time handling affairs—not to boast, but in all these years, only Young Madam has such capability!”

Seventh Miss smiled, spread out the loose-leaf roster Shangyuan had written, and beckoned Old Nanny and Bailu. “Look together.”

“This Lin Shan’s wife, her husband Lin Shan is…” She chatted with Bailu and Old Nanny while casually supplementing more detailed small files. “She manages gold and silver vessels—this is the most lucrative position. Without backing, one can’t stand there long—”

As Seventh Miss spoke, she glanced at Old Nanny.

Old Nanny immediately understood. She smiled. “Lin Shan’s wife was trained by Madam. All these years, she’s been very respectful toward Qingping Garden.”

No wonder she was most submissive, lowering her head before Seventh Miss’s gaze even swept over.

Seventh Miss hummed in acknowledgment and continued organizing. “This Lei Xianqing’s wife also has lucrative opportunities, dealing with outside men for procurement, inevitably…”

After sorting through seven or eight people and understanding these people’s family distributions, then asking Old Nanny to write some evaluations, Seventh Miss picked up another paper.

“Zhang the Accountant’s wife.” She said slowly. “She manages all visiting relatives’ gifts, handling return gifts, social exchanges, and warehouse transactions. Also a lucrative position.”

For a household like the Xu family, annual social obligations alone were a huge expense. Wherever there was expenditure, there were opportunities for profit. Moreover, relatives and friends exchanged visits, annually sending valuable gifts. Zhang the Accountant already had a lucrative position keeping accounts outside—that his wife could reach this position in the inner courtyard showed this family was among the Xu family’s favored servants.

Old Nanny smiled. “This is a veteran left by the Grand Madam. Usually she also helps with small accounting work in the minor accounting office. The social exchange expenses position is a new assignment from earlier this year.”

Seventh Miss glanced at her and suddenly recalled that on the first day of observation, Fifth Young Madam had specifically sent her away to assign Zhang the Accountant’s wife a task.

For husband and wife to both work in accounting was actually a major household taboo—internal and external communication for manipulating accounts would be convenient and difficult to detect. And she was the Grand Madam’s person…

Seventh Miss suddenly recalled Fifth Young Madam’s abnormal behavior when she’d first entered the household.

Interesting. If she didn’t have such a deep impression of Fifth Young Madam’s temperament of never showing joy or anger, she’d almost think Fifth Young Madam had a guilty conscience—Seventh Miss’s brow gradually furrowed as she reviewed Fifth Young Madam’s behavior over these past months in her mind.

First intimidating her upon entry, showing off power, flaunting to Seventh Miss that she held all the Xu family’s personnel in her palm. Then becoming extremely soft, giving whatever Seventh Miss wanted. Though there were complaints, whenever Seventh Miss applied slight pressure, her capitulation speed was shockingly fast.

If she weren’t Yang Qi but a newly arrived eighteen-year-old young lady, any traditionally educated concubine-born daughter filling a deceased wife’s position who’d won her legitimate mother’s appreciation—facing Fifth Young Madam’s attitude, what would she think?

Though wanting to take over household affairs, Fifth Sister-in-law grips them very tightly. Having just arrived with unstable footing, shouldn’t I wait a bit longer? After all, though Fifth Sister-in-law is domineering, toward me as the heir’s wife, she never dares go too far.

Most wonderful was that Fifth Young Madam’s performance could persist, repeatedly reinforcing it until it left deep marks in someone’s heart. If Seventh Miss hadn’t spent years walking on knife edges, developing excellent skills in reading expressions, she might truly have been deceived.

If she were an ordinary concubine-born daughter, deceived by Fifth Young Madam’s attitude and not eager to take over household affairs, Fifth Young Madam would have won herself a full six months.

Six months—what did she want to do, what could she do?

Combined with Zhang the Accountant’s wife’s abnormal secretiveness and her performance of not daring to meet Seventh Miss’s eyes before looking away, the answer seemed ready to emerge.

Though Fifth Young Madam’s natal family was illustrious, it was merely an empty title. With many children in the family, her dowry reportedly wasn’t very substantial. Unlike the Yang family—between two daughters, they’d sent enormous wealth into the Xu family.

Wanting to embezzle from official accounts for private enrichment naturally wasn’t anything unusual… This way, Fifth Young Madam’s performance over these months seemed threaded together by an invisible line. Her sudden willingness to let Seventh Miss take over household management suggested she’d already balanced the accounts? Otherwise she wouldn’t have transferred Zhang the Accountant’s wife away before year’s end.

But no matter how balanced the accounts, traces couldn’t be completely erased…

Seventh Miss suddenly came to herself and smiled apologetically at Old Nanny.

“My mind wandered—please don’t blame me, Nanny.”

She began checking these eleven steward matrons one by one again. Old Nanny once more emphatically pointed out Cai Le’s wife: she was the inner courtyard’s general cashier, specifically managing monthly wages and monetary disbursements, also a veteran left by the Grand Madam.

Speaking of which, among these eleven steward matrons, only five had clear allegiances. Cai Le’s wife and Zhang the Accountant’s wife bore the Grand Madam’s colors, while Lin Shan’s wife, Lei Xianqing’s wife, and Peng Hu’s wife—managing inner and outer kitchen procurement matters—were Madam Xu’s direct subordinates. The remaining five or six had shallow roots in the mansion, listening to whoever was in charge. Even if some were unruly, it was merely due to temperament—they didn’t yet have the qualifications to take sides.

If the Xu family were compared to a family enterprise, then currently the cashier, public relations manager, and purchasing, warehousing, and logistics personnel were clearly divided into two camps, all with deep backgrounds making casual dismissal difficult… Seventh Miss sincerely felt that being the Xu family’s household mistress was truly difficult.

At the first night watch, Seventh Miss rose to see Old Nanny out. “These next few days, I’ll have to trouble you to watch over things, Nanny.”

Old Nanny’s face smiled even more warmly. “This old servant’s duty—Young Madam, please don’t be so polite. Whatever you need, just send someone to fetch me.”

She mysteriously leaned close to Seventh Miss’s ear. “Madam heard about Young Madam’s handling of affairs and was so pleased she ate a few more bites at dinner, saying nothing but: ‘After Teacher Quan instructed for so long, only from today can I truly stop worrying about anything and properly rest and recuperate.'”

Though Seventh Miss didn’t particularly care about this privately revealed praise, she couldn’t help smiling with Old Nanny. “If I can help Mother eat well and sleep soundly, then I’m being a good daughter-in-law.”

The two smiled at each other, countless words unspoken but understood.

After seeing Old Nanny off, she instead pulled Bailu back to sit beside the roster again.

“Did you remember everything Old Nanny said tonight?” Seventh Miss asked this sweet-faced, round-faced young woman with a smile.

Inviting Old Nanny over tonight wasn’t only to investigate these eleven people’s backgrounds, but also to give Bailu a focus for her efforts in the coming days. The Xu family was vast with countless servants—with only herself, Bailu needed to find the right targets for gossip.

Bailu flashed a toothy smile, tapping her forehead. “All remembered here—I couldn’t forget even if I wanted to.”

She paused, then continued, “Actually, these matrons are all prominent figures. When lower-class servants gossip, they inevitably mention these people. I’ve listened for some days—what Old Nanny just said isn’t much different. Shensi Hall is remote, and the courtyard is full of Fifth Young Madam’s dowry servants. Speaking of the entire courtyard, among servants who matter, only Luowen is household-born. Her mother and Zhang the Accountant’s wife are sisters, but her birth mother died early and the two families have little contact—this seems to be something not many people know. The rest came over just a few years ago and, like us, don’t have many friends or relatives in the mansion.”

Zhang the Accountant’s wife again.

Little Fuchun’s appearance surfaced before Seventh Miss’s eyes… Such a timid little girl, who looked entirely suited for handling internal affairs—if Fifth Young Madam was willing to leave a capable assistant by her side, why not be even more generous and leave Luowen? Moreover, seeing how she had to pause and think back before answering questions, Little Fuchun clearly wasn’t as familiar with internal affairs as Luowen.

Did she not want Seventh Miss to know about the relationship between Zhang the Accountant’s wife and Luowen?

“This Fifth Sister-in-law.” She couldn’t help murmuring. “Is truly a master.”

She closed her eyes, calling up memories of the first day of observation in her mind.

When she’d decided to observe, it was on impulse. Fifth Young Madam had seemed somewhat flustered, exchanging verbal barbs with her, both maintaining composure. That afternoon, she’d deliberately made Seventh Miss arrive a bit late—if Seventh Miss hadn’t arrived early, the entire accounting matter would have already been addressed.

To summon accounting people for a meeting right after hearing about the observation would be self-incriminating, wouldn’t it? With Fifth Young Madam’s intelligence, she naturally wouldn’t do that, so she could only wait until afternoon to send Seventh Miss away before having a chance to hint at the accountants to make small manipulations?

No, that wasn’t right. Though Zhang the Accountant’s wife hadn’t come to report that morning, Fifth Young Madam could have sent Luowen to relay messages. If they had any impropriety between them, that morning’s buffer was enough for several people to communicate privately. Moreover, Fifth Young Madam still had lunchtime to go back and eat—why would she necessarily call people in to talk during the afternoon when Seventh Miss might enter the small flower hall at any time?

She opened her eyes and quietly instructed Bailu.

“Spend more time with Little Fuchun during this period… Test this child’s character. If she’s easy to talk to, ask whether Fifth Sister-in-law was favored in her natal family before marriage… Whether her natal family’s circumstances were prosperous.”

Bailu’s pupils contracted. She agreed without hesitation. “Miss, rest assured. Even if she won’t say, unsuccessful people are everywhere.”

Seventh Miss sighed with relief—she knew Bailu understood her meaning.

Outside came hurried footsteps. Shortly after, Zhongyuan entered to report. “Young Madam, Third Aunt from Yangzhou sent word that she’ll be able to enter the capital from Tongzhou tomorrow. The message was sent to Shensi Hall. Fifth Young Madam had Little Fuchun bring word: Third Aunt has an impatient temperament and came directly to the capital without sending a letter first, so lodging may be difficult to prepare on short notice. Please handle it as you see fit.”

Though Duke Pingguo’s mansion was quite spacious, these past days it had been gradually filled by relatives and friends arriving to offer birthday congratulations. With such a large group arriving all at once, arranging their accommodation was truly difficult. Seventh Miss sighed. “Call Little Fuchun in to talk! How many people came? Did Fifth Sister-in-law say how to handle it?”

She had no choice but to exchange messages with Fifth Young Madam for discussion. They agreed to clean out several empty rooms in Lütianyin for Third Aunt and her party, and temporarily rent several nearby inn courtyards for contingencies. By the time they’d settled everything, it was already the second night watch—even Xu Fengjia had returned to wash up.

After such busy days, by the eleventh of the fourth month, close relatives and friends had already begun arriving to drink and celebrate.