Ding Dong was quickly brought to Nanny Guo’s courtyard.

“Paying respects to Nanny Guo.”

Ding Dong curtsied slightly, her movements proper with nothing to criticize.

Nanny Guo said with a smile: “I haven’t seen you in many years. Without realizing it, you’ve become a graceful young woman. I heard you’re a third-rank maid in the Prince’s residence main courtyard?”

Ding Dong kept her head lowered as she replied: “Regardless of what rank maid I am, as long as I can serve the Princess Consort, it’s an enormous blessing for me.”

Nanny Er breathed a sigh of relief.

This girl usually seemed unreliable, but unexpectedly she was quite good at speaking.

Nanny Guo nodded: “I remember you used to serve in the Prince’s study as a first-rank senior maid. Now that you’re older, your status has actually lowered—that’s not quite appropriate.”

Hearing this, Ding Dong suddenly looked up, joy appearing on her face.

With Nanny Guo stepping forward to elevate her status, what did she have to worry about…

“However, it was the Prince who ordered you to be a third-rank maid. As a mere servant, what qualifications do I have to question the Prince’s decision?” Nanny Guo lowered her eyes.

With just a slight test, she had probed Ding Dong’s hidden thoughts.

Though come to think of it, although Ding Dong had been betrothed, she ultimately hadn’t married. Wanting to become a concubine in the Prince’s residence was quite normal.

Thinking of this, Nanny Guo smiled.

Even a woman of Ding Dong’s status dared to aspire to be the Prince’s woman—where did such confidence come from?

She recalled the morning of the second day after the Prince’s wedding, when he brought the Princess Consort to the palace to pay respects to Consort Yin. Princess Qinghua had only slightly mentioned the matter of taking a secondary consort, and the Prince had humiliated her.

Sooner or later, the matter of taking a secondary consort would be put on the agenda. It couldn’t possibly involve as many complications as marrying a principal consort, could it?

This Ding Dong could be used to test the waters.

It would count as resolving worries for Consort Yin in advance.

Nanny Guo slowly took a sip of tea.

If Ding Dong truly caught the Prince’s eye, then Nanny Er couldn’t be allowed to hold such great power, otherwise she would pose an enormous threat to the Princess Consort.

“Now that the Prince’s residence has a Princess Consort, it’s no longer appropriate for Nanny Er to control household management.” Nanny Guo spoke. “I’ll ask the Princess Consort for several people to train properly. Once they’re capable, you can hand over the matters in your charge.”

Nanny Er felt as though struck by lightning.

She had thought Nanny Guo was only here to assist the Princess Consort in managing the Prince’s residence, and that she just needed to perform well.

She never imagined that on Nanny Guo’s very first day, she would strip away her authority over household management. What difference would there be between her and any other nanny?

Her lips parted as if to say something, but seeing Nanny Guo wave her hand dismissively, she could only withdraw reluctantly.

Later, Nanny Guo went to the main courtyard to see Yun Chu and asked her to arrange for four people.

Besides her four senior maids, Yun Chu also had four dowry nannies, each capable of handling matters independently. She had these four nannies study diligently under Nanny Guo.

The four nannies knew that whether the Princess Consort could secure control of household authority depended entirely on them, so each studied with exceptional diligence.

Nanny Er was thoroughly idle now.

Not only her, but also the chief steward nannies she had personally promoted—the power in their hands was also gradually being transferred to Yun Chu’s four dowry nannies.

“Nanny Er, this can’t continue…” A steward nanny said with a mournful expression. “Never mind the rest of us, but you’re the Prince’s wet nurse. How many people will laugh at this?”

Nanny Er’s expression was very dark.

If the Princess Consort had directly seized household management authority, she had a hundred methods to make the Princess Consort suffer in silence, because she was the Prince’s wet nurse—she was an elder.

But instead, the Princess Consort had invited Nanny Guo. No matter how many schemes she had, there was no way to employ them, because Nanny Guo was even older than her.

But she knew she couldn’t just wait idly.

Once those few nannies completely mastered things, it would be too late to act.

While Nanny Guo was handling inner residence affairs, Steward Cheng presented all the outer courtyard accounts of the Prince’s residence to Yun Chu’s desk.

The Prince’s residence accounts were so numerous that Yun Chu didn’t sleep well for several consecutive days, dreaming of tallying accounts. After five or six days, she finally finished reviewing an entire year’s worth of accounts. They matched perfectly with the accounts Steward Cheng had submitted, without any discrepancies.

“Princess Consort.” Qiutong hurried into the flower hall and said in a low voice: “The intelligence bureau just sent word—Princess An’jing… that is, Xie Ping, is dead.”

Yun Chu’s fingers jerked to a halt.

She set down the account book and looked up: “How did she die?”

“After the Empress Dowager’s interment, Xie Ping disappeared. Prince An’jing died for treason, and the stain on his name hasn’t been cleared. Who would care about a Princess An’jing? No one arranged for anyone to search for her.” Qiutong explained carefully. “Until last night, when a eunuch went to the mausoleum’s protective river on business and discovered a corpse floating on the water surface. It had been mostly eaten by fish… but from the clothing and hair ornaments, they could tell it was Princess An’jing…”

Yun Chu felt somewhat dazed.

Just like that, Xie Ping was dead? Was that possible?

Although Xie Ping wasn’t someone with deep scheming, she was someone who would do anything to survive.

To die so simply—something felt off about it.

Yun Chu rested her chin on her hand, her brow slightly furrowed.

Suddenly, a thread of thought flashed through her mind. She spoke slowly: “On the day we returned to the capital from the imperial mausoleum, wasn’t there an extra carriage behind the Eastern Palace procession?”

Qiutong nodded: “In that carriage was an imperial beast-keeper palace maid from the mausoleum who was responsible for feeding the tiger. Because she saved the Crown Prince and had an arm bitten off, the intelligence bureau discovered that on the third day after the Crown Prince brought her back to the Eastern Palace, she became a secondary consort of the Eastern Palace.”

Yun Chu pressed her lips together.

In her previous life, Xie Ping had also entered the palace to visit Consort Yun, and within a few days was summoned into the palace to become a talented lady.

She found it hard not to suspect that Xie Ping was the beast-keeper palace maid the Crown Prince had brought into the Eastern Palace.

Whether this was true or not, she would only know by personally visiting the Eastern Palace.

If things were truly as she suspected, this would be quite interesting.

After Yun Chu finished handling the Prince Pingxi residence’s account books, Chen Defu came to report that the large ship was completely ready and about to set sail on its long voyage. He requested that Yun Chu come have a look.

From early autumn last year until now, after most of a year and an expenditure of nearly one hundred thousand taels of silver, the large ship had finally been completed. When she saw that enormous ship docked at the river mouth, an indescribable pride rose in her heart.

She wanted to use this ship to make herself enormously wealthy.

She had also thought about taking her two children aboard this ship to travel throughout the land, to see countless mountains and waters.

Before, she had only thought of the two children. Now her heart held one more person—the children’s father, Chu Yi.

If someday their family of four could tour the great rivers and mountains of Great Jin, what a beautiful thing that would be.

Yun Chu lifted her skirts and walked onto the deck, smiling as she spoke with everyone.

After becoming Princess Pingxi, the enterprises under her name no longer needed to be concealed—they couldn’t be hidden anyway. Better to be open and aboveboard about it.

Furthermore, the most profitable industries in the Great Jin dynasty were salt and iron. The Crown Prince controlled private salt, the Second Prince was involved in iron casting—compared to these two, making some hard-earned money from sea trade really didn’t amount to much.

Just as she stepped onto the deck and stood at the highest point, Yun Chu immediately spotted a familiar figure at the dock.

It was Xie Shi’an.

Xie Shi’an was speaking with four or five burly, rough-looking men. Those men showed great respect toward Xie Shi’an.

Yun Chu’s lips curved slightly.

It seemed Xie Shi’an was recruiting people from all walks of life for Prince Gongxi, attempting to form another power faction…