Hua Zhi regarded Liu Cui, who was still struggling desperately. “You want me to let you go?”
Liu Cui nodded frantically, her eyes full of desperate hope, letting out muffled sounds.
“When my mother was being tormented, did you ever think to spare her? When she was crying under her quilt, did you feel any guilt? Spare you? Are you joking?” Hua Zhi stepped over her and walked toward the door. “Clean her up properly — I don’t want Third Aunt thinking we’ve done anything to her.”
Liu Xiang pressed her lips into a smile. “Miss, rest assured. I’ll have her looking perfectly presentable.”
The old madam had just been settling in for her afternoon rest when she heard it was Hua Zhi who had come. Her eyelids gave an involuntary twitch. That child never gave anyone a reason to find fault with her conduct — coming at this hour could only mean this was no trivial matter.
Hua Zhi came in and immediately apologized. “Forgive me for disturbing your rest, Grandmother. It is just that this is truly a matter that sits like a fish bone lodged in the throat — quite impossible to endure. If I don’t resolve it at once, I cannot find a moment’s peace.”
The old madam and Nanny Su exchanged a glance. Ever since Hua Zhi had taken over managing the household, what they saw was always her calm and easy composure. To hear her speak such words of vulnerability was something they had never witnessed before.
The old madam could lie still no longer. She sat up and moved to get out of bed.
Hua Zhi quickly stopped her. “Please don’t get up, Grandmother — it would only make me look all the more thoughtless.”
The old madam patted her hand, stepped into her shoes, leaned on her arm, and rose. “Lying there too long is uncomfortable anyway. Tell me — what has you so agitated?”
Hua Zhi turned and glanced back. Ying Chun understood immediately and pushed Liu Cui inside, having her kneel to one side.
“Is that not the head maidservant from your mother’s chambers? What has she done?”
“She is indeed my mother’s maidservant — but regrettably, her heart belongs elsewhere, every last bit of it given over to another master.”
The old madam frowned. No one had any fondness for a servant who betrayed their mistress, and turning it over in her mind, she could well guess who that other master was. “Third daughter-in-law?”
“Why not have Grandmother invite Third Aunt here, so we can meet force with force and speak plainly? That way I won’t misread the situation and wrongly blame her.”
The old madam’s first instinct was to press the matter down. In households such as theirs, even things known to everyone were draped with a veil of propriety and decorum — no matter what grievances lay beneath, the surface remained congenial and harmonious. That was the nature of aristocratic family life. To have someone like Hua Zhi come knocking in this brazen, forthright manner was something she had never seen before.
But the words of dissuasion reached her lips and she swallowed them back down. Hua Zhi was the one managing the household now — leaving her with a grievance lodged in her chest was no good. And truth be told, she was genuinely displeased with the Third daughter-in-law’s conduct. The Hua Family had already fallen to this state; instead of thinking about how to rally together and hold the household up, she was still playing her petty, underhanded games. What was there even left to fight over?
“Cui Xiang, go make the trip.”
Nanny Su curtsied in acknowledgment, her gaze lingering on the eldest young miss for just a moment longer than usual.
Xia Shi arrived quickly. Her voice, warm with laughter, reached them before she did. “Mother, what’s so urgent that you’d interrupt my afternoon rest as well — oh, the eldest young miss is here too?”
As she stepped through the door and caught sight of Hua Zhi, her heart — which had already been pounding uneasily on the way here — began to beat faster still. Then she noticed Liu Cui, pale-faced and kneeling to one side, and everything became clear.
She had known something was going wrong the moment Liu Cui was taken away — she just hadn’t expected it to happen this fast. She had assumed her mother-in-law would suppress the matter, that even if there were to be a reprimand, it would come quietly and in private.
“It was not Grandmother who wished to see Third Aunt — it was I.” Hua Zhi gave her a proper greeting. “If Third Aunt wishes to know what goes on in my mother’s chambers, she has only to come and ask me directly. Whatever I know, I will speak of freely.”
“What is the eldest young miss saying?” Xia Shi forced a smile. “Why would I go poking about in my sister-in-law’s chambers for no reason?”
“But what if there were a reason? For instance… the right to manage the Hua household. If Third Aunt were to persuade my mother — telling her that to spare me from going about in public and ruining my prospects of marriage, she ought to firmly take the management rights back from me — then as a dutiful daughter, should I hand them over or not? And if I do, to whom would this household then fall?”
Hua Zhi laid it all out with a pleasant, unhurried smile, each word landing like a strike. “Grandmother needs her rest and cannot be troubled. My mother is not capable. Second Aunt has no legitimate standing. Fourth Aunt is heavily expecting. So tell me — into whose hands would the management of this household ultimately fall?”
Xia Shi nearly flinched, averting her eyes in something close to embarrassment. “I simply had a heart-to-heart with your mother and expressed some concern about your marriage — I had absolutely no other intention. You have misread the situation.”
“Whether I’ve misread it, we both know the truth of it in our own hearts. Since Liu Cui is Third Aunt’s person, I’ll ask Third Aunt to take her back. I trust Third Aunt is more merciful than my mother — you would not, at a moment like this, want another incident on your hands that would give others even more to gossip about over tea. Allow me to add a few more words, though I overstep my place as a junior.”
Hua Zhi held Xia Shi’s gaze steadily. “They say a sinking ship still has three thousand nails — but three thousand nails alone cannot feed the hundreds of mouths in the Hua household. In the past, the Hua Family’s annual expenses ran to over ten thousand taels, and that was not even counting Grandfather’s and Father’s more expensive acquisitions. Yet right now, all we have altogether is two or three thousand taels. Have you given any thought to how that amount of money must be stretched to keep the Hua Family from going without food? Can you make money multiply from money?”
Xia Shi was so thoroughly cornered that the blood rushed up to her face, and the words burst out before she could stop them. “If you can, then can I not?”
“I can.” The answer was absolute and unhesitating, and it stunned everyone in the room into a brief silence. “Not only can I — I can give the Hua Family a stable footing, where those who should be studying can study, those who should be embroidering can embroider, where we can laugh when we want to laugh and cry when we want to cry, and no longer live each day in fear and dread. Third Aunt, you don’t have to believe me. You may stand aside and watch how far I can go. I only ask one thing — do not make any more moves behind the scenes. We are family. We all share the same goal: to bring our family members home. Even if there are conflicts of interest between us, they must come after that goal. Don’t you agree?”
Xia Shi stood rigid, her face ashen, not uttering a word.
The old madam turned away. In the silence that followed Hua Zhi’s forthright words, the room was so still that a fallen pin might have been heard.
After a long moment, the old madam broke the silence. “This matter is hereby closed. No one is to bring it up again. Third daughter-in-law, take Liu Cui and go. For the next few days, there is no need to come and pay your morning respects — stay in your room and think carefully about what is truly good for the Hua Family. Do not forget this: you are a daughter-in-law of the Hua Family. The Hua Family’s well-being is your well-being — and only then can your children flourish.”
What appeared on the surface to be letting the matter go lightly in fact made clear to everyone present that the old madam’s allegiance now stood firmly and unmistakably with Hua Zhi. Xia Shi could only wish the floor would split open and swallow her whole. She gave a hasty bow and made a hurried exit, every inch of her retreat one of utter humiliation.
Liu Cui, still prostrate on the ground, shook uncontrollably. She did not want to go to the Third Madam’s quarters — she knew she would come to no good there.
Without waiting for the old madam to give the order, Nanny Su waved her hand. Two stout matrons took hold of Liu Cui, practically lifting her, and carried her out.
Only then did the old madam turn back around. Her eyes were red, yet they unmistakably held a smile. “You — quiet as still water ordinarily, and the moment your fire rises, you’re just like your father, throwing those straight, direct punches — aimed right at the face, hitting wherever it’s most exposed. I truly did not approve when your father pulled that move back then, but right now I feel nothing but satisfaction.”