“It’s not what that aunt-in-law said, it should be what Qiu Sanniang said.” Mo Zi muttered softly, then opened her mouth in a yawn.

Lu Ju didn’t hear Mo Zi’s muttering but saw her wide-open mouth. She quickly patted Mo Zi’s back. “Mo Zi, be careful someone sees you! We’re not at home anymore. Every word and action will be attributed to the young lady by the in-law’s wife.”

Mo Zi nearly choked, coughed twice, and looked at Lu Ju in surprise. “Wow, you’ve really become a proper head maid now. When we get to the prince’s mansion, if the young lady doesn’t promote you, I won’t accept it. I’ll kneel on stone slabs to petition for you if I have to.”

Lu Ju could still detect the teasing tone in Mo Zi’s words and glared at her. “I think you’ve learned to be slick from those people outside and are making fun of this inexperienced maid.”

Mo Zi looked around, saw no one paying attention to them, raised her index finger to her lips, and hushed. “Lu Ju, it doesn’t matter if I look ugly when I yawn. After all, the young lady is as beautiful as a celestial being—there’s no way it’ll be attributed to her. But you must be extremely careful with what you said and never say such things again.”

That man surnamed Xiao, ranked second in his family, was an expert at catching wind and rain.

Lu Ju stuck out her tongue and grimaced, showing she understood the seriousness. Then, no longer bantering, she walked toward the pavilion with Mo Zi. When they were almost there, she suddenly exclaimed—

“There’s another girl about our young lady’s age. Who is she?”

Mo Zi had been calculating the time by the sun’s position. Hearing Lu Ju’s question, she looked over.

The pavilion was an ordinary one for travelers to rest their feet—nothing worth viewing, but fortunately spacious enough to accommodate a dozen people sheltering from the sun. Besides Wei Shi, Li Shi, and Qiu Sanniang still wearing her red bridal veil, plus three men—Xiao Erlang, Qiu Xin, and Shi Lei whose name fit his personality—there was also a young woman. After getting a clear look, it turned out to be someone Mo Zi had met before.

That day at Wangqiu Tower, the Sixth Miss who was said to be Luo Zhou’s greatest beauty sat on Aunt Wei’s left, chatting intimately. Beyond the kindness Aunt Wei showed to everyone, her expression held an additional genuine indulgence.

Looking at this, Mo Zi figured this Sixth Miss was most likely also surnamed Wei. Not only did she bear the Wei surname, but those two brothers and younger sister from that day all surnamed Wei too. No wonder their words were so arrogant and their attitudes so haughty. Though like the Qiu family they’d risen through commerce, the Wei family had three brothers with flourishing descendants, and Third Master Wei had entered officialdom while his sister had married Prince Jing as a concubine. Therefore, their influence in Luo Zhou had surpassed the century-old Qiu family—they were in a prosperous and proud period.

About half the people in that pavilion had seen her in male disguise. Mo Zi silently cursed her bad luck and hesitated to move forward.

Lu Ju, unaware of these complications, simply thought Mo Zi hadn’t woken up properly and pulled her along, chattering endlessly about how a maid’s duty was to be diligent.

At the stone steps outside the pavilion, Xiao Yi was waiting for them.

“Lu Ju, the young lady is calling you into the pavilion.” When it came to serving people with meticulous care, Xiao Yi definitely wasn’t the one.

Neither was Mo Zi. Not that she couldn’t do it, but she wasn’t willing to do it wholeheartedly. When it was her turn on duty, she performed no worse than anyone else.

Lu Ju was quite proud, winked at Mo Zi, and went up the steps. She didn’t know that Qiu Sanniang had deliberately left Xiao Yi and Mo Zi outside. Of the four maids, who handled internal affairs and who handled external ones—Qiu Sanniang was very clever and would make full use of each person’s abilities.

“Xiao Yi, it’s about time, isn’t it?” Mo Zi had already calculated the hour.

After a long silence, just when Mo Zi thought Xiao Yi didn’t plan to answer, she suddenly heard two words.

“They’re here.”

So it wasn’t silence—just not wasting breath.

From the direction of the north city gate, yellow turbid dust rose. A team of rapidly approaching carriages, from far to near, slowed down when less than a hundred zhang from the pavilion.

“They’re coming for us.” After Shi Lei’s booming shout, he’d already jumped out of the pavilion.

Mo Zi picked at her ears, lamenting her bad luck of having to travel with this earth-shattering fellow for a month. Speaking of which, she’d never had any decent luck up to now.

“Shi Lei, don’t be impulsive. Find out what’s going on first.” Xiao Erlang was more composed, descending the stone steps.

But as Xiao Erlang passed by Mo Zi, she could feel his coiled readiness—clearly his vigilance was no less than the clamorous Shi Lei’s.

“Young… Master, please wait.” Struggling once again with how to address him, Mo Zi’s tone was respectful, but she noticed Xiao Erlang’s turning motion was completed in the blink of an eye.

When Xiao Erlang heard the words “please wait,” for an instant he mistakenly thought that smuggler was right behind him giving orders. Please wait, please wait—that small, dark-skinned man was always contradicting him like this. However, what he saw was only a slender maid, that maid whose name also contained the character for Mo. Different voice, different tone, different expression, different appearance, even different gender—for having such a mistaken impression, his face turned cold.

“What is it?”

Mo Zi had no idea what Xiao Erlang was thinking. Seeing him put on a sour face again, she found it baffling. She’d thought her words were quite polite? In her heart she greeted his grandparents, while her face smiled sweet as honey. Having just returned from running a ship with a bunch of big men, don’t expect her to be refined and gentle.

“Reporting to Young Master, those seem to be people from our Qiu Mansion.” Mo Zi no longer looked up at Xiao Erlang, maintaining her most standard posture of subordinate to superior, head lowered fifteen degrees.

That humble appearance made Xiao Erlang even more furious. The difference was so great—was he bewitched?

“Is it ‘seem to be’ or ‘are’? Look carefully before you speak.” With fire in his heart, Great General Xiao’s tone naturally wasn’t any better.

Mo Zi now mentally greeted his parents, but her tone showed no change whatsoever. “Mo Zi only saw that the cart driver was wearing Qiu Mansion servant’s cloth clothes and the mansion’s waist token. The face is unfamiliar though. However, there are over a hundred servants in the mansion. Mo Zi is just a maid doing odd jobs in the young lady’s courtyard—it’s not unusual that I haven’t seen him.”

Xiao Erlang remembered now—this maid had spoken with Aunt Yu on the mountainside at Cinian Nunnery, quite sharp-tongued. A maid doing odd jobs could accompany her mistress to her wedding? Remembering her clever mouth, he simultaneously realized his attitude had been too harsh. Though he couldn’t possibly admit fault, his expression softened. After all, he wasn’t a cruel person.

“Then come with me to take a look.” His voice was no longer overbearing.

Mo Zi followed not far behind Xiao Erlang.

At this point, all those carriages had stopped by the roadside.

The man sitting on the lead carriage jumped down and immediately bowed to Xiao Erlang and Shi Lei. “Thank heaven and earth we caught up with you. This humble one’s surname is Chen, a steward sent by Master Qiu.”

Xiao Erlang looked him over. As Mo Zi had said, the clothing was the standard uniform for Qiu Mansion servants, and the waist token he saw the Qiu Mansion butler also wearing had identical engravings on it. He immediately believed him completely.

“What business does Master Qiu have in sending you?” Though he believed him, his questioning remained sharp.

“Speaking of it, this is truly embarrassing.” The middle-aged man looked at Mo Zi. “You’re Third Miss’s dowry maid Mo Zi? I’ve seen you from a distance twice.”

“Steward Chen.” Mo Zi curtsied. “Does the master still have words to convey to the young lady? The young lady is having tea in the pavilion. I’ll take you there.”

“No need. This humble one is afraid Third Miss will scold me. Let’s finish this business quickly. When I return, I’ll still have to take punishment.” Steward Chen waved his hands hastily and pointed to the carriages behind him. “The servants carrying the dowry made a mistake and actually loaded the dowry chests meant for Sixth Miss and Seventh Miss as the Eldest Miss’s chests onto the carriages. Fortunately it was discovered in time. The master had this humble one load up a cart to catch up and exchange them for the Eldest Miss’s dowry.”

Shi Lei spoke bluntly, “Making such a mistake with the dowry is truly rare.”

“That’s why this humble one said it’s embarrassing.” Steward Chen looked somewhat mortified. “Because of Eldest Miss’s wedding, the master and madam also prepared the dowries for Sixth Miss and Seventh Miss together and stored them in the warehouse. The chests are identical, and with so many matters these past few days, we didn’t open them to check and just loaded them onto the carts.”

Mo Zi put her hands on her hips and widened her eyes indignantly. “Is this how things are done? Third Miss is the legitimate eldest daughter—her dowry should be worth many times more than the other two young ladies’. If you hadn’t discovered this and been able to catch up, the wrong dowry would have been delivered all the way to Prince Jing’s mansion in the capital. When people opened them to look, they’d think our mansion was so shabby!”

“Oh, Miss Mo Zi, lower your voice a bit. Don’t let Third Miss call me over for questioning.” Steward Chen was flustered and anxious.

“Hmph! Such a major matter—you think it can be hidden from the young lady?” Mo Zi was relentless.

“It can’t be hidden, but at least I can escape one scolding. Dodging one is one less.” Steward Chen wiped his sweat with his sleeve. “It’s past noon already, and moving things up and down to exchange them between carriages takes quite a bit of time. Miss Mo Zi, please agree quickly so we can start working.”

“Then hurry up!” Mo Zi was in no good mood.

Steward Chen breathed a sigh of relief and quickly called the workers from each carriage to move the chests.

Xiao Erlang said nothing, as if coldly observing this farce. Only when a chest was moved down from the wedding carriage and a chest from the pursuing carriage was moved over, passing in front of him in the exchange, did he finally speak—

“Wait.”

Mo Zi and Steward Chen froze, exchanged glances, not understanding what he meant.

“Young Master?” Mo Zi nearly bit her own tongue. Her heart wasn’t guilty—it was just that this man always caused trouble. Annoying!

“You said you’d never seen him before. Is that correct or not?” Xiao Erlang, bearing a secret mission, was more guarded against unexpected incidents than usual.

“…Yes. Mo Zi mostly stays in the young lady’s courtyard and rarely moves about the outer gardens.” If he was going to be suspicious, he should at least have some basis. If he got nervous over every unfamiliar face, when would they ever reach the capital?

“Since that’s the case, let me inspect the chests. To avoid really swapping fake for real, or good for inferior. Then it would be my fault.” Having said this, without waiting for Mo Zi and Steward Chen to agree, he reached out, drew Shi Lei’s sword, and pried at the seams of the two chests respectively.

Shi Lei leaned forward and exclaimed.

The chest brought down from the wedding carriage contained silk and satin in various shades of color that looked like old material, and it was only half full.

But the chest Steward Chen had people bring over was packed full of brocade boxes large and small.

“Right, right, we must inspect them. If we get it wrong this time, I might as well not work anymore.” Steward Chen was quite sharp and went over to open the brocade boxes one by one.

Jade ruyi scepters, jade Buddha statues, jade prayer beads, jade screens—all were jade pieces with soft luster and excellent quality.