Chapter 107 Flogged 10 Times per Person
Madam Di panicked because there were such accounting books remaining from previous years.
“Actually, apart from the Satin Store, there are also a few stores whose shopkeepers keep the old accounting books from years ago. So when there is a situation that is hard to explain, they can check the accounts directly. Nanny Duan, open the box to let Madam have a look.”
Old Grandma lifted her eyes and spoke indifferently.
“Yes, Old Grandma.” Nanny Duan came over and reached out to open a box. She picked up an accounting book randomly and handed it to Madam Di, saying, “Madam, please check if there is a seal of you. Are there any mistakes?”
Madam Di took it involuntarily. She flipped through the pages and immediately found her seal. She staggered to her feet and almost fell down when she realized that the accounting books were not false.
“Why haven’t I ever known about these accounting books kept by the owners? What’s worse, I have never expected that the old woman should have known that I would take such a step and waited for me to step in here!” Madam Di thought.
“If you want to do some more checking, I can ask the other shopkeepers to give all their accounting books to you. When they get the journals packed in boxes, they will send them all of them to you. We can tell exactly from the records whether we have put in money again or not along with the expenses of our General’s Mansion during these years!”
Old Grandma spoke coldly, almost word by word, with her scorching eyes fixed on Madam Di’s face.
“Madam!” Nanny Zhou reached out and pulled Madam Di’s sleeves gently with an air of panic on her face.
“Mo-mother, since you don’t believe me at all, what should I check these for…” Madam Di covered her face with her handkerchief, appearing heartbroken and anguished. But she dared not wail and cry crazily like she had the first time, and her spirit faded away.
“The truth turns out to be like this. Madam Di, do you still want to say something?” Old Grandma continued to ask.
“Mother… But I have managed the backyard of General’s Mansion for so many years. Even though I have not been rewarded, I should get credit for my hard work at least! Mother, if you take all my money away, how could I live my life with my child?” Madam Di wept and wined with her head drooped down, unwilling to leave, looking so pathetic!
She was so shrewish today and created such a fracas, only to find that she had gained nothing! How could she be satisfied!
“We will use the money to purchase some stores when arriving at the capital. At that time, there will be two stores given to you.” Old Grandma said slowly, “You have your dowry stores in the capital yourself from before. Taking these into consideration, you have a lot already. Moreover, you share a portion of everything in the mansion. Should you haggle over every ounce?”
When Madam Di got married, there were several stores listed on the manuscript of her dowry. After Madam Di left the capital with Qin Huaiyong, the stores were left in the capital and kept by the mansion of Duke Yong. Old Grandma once leafed through the list of her dowry and there were quite a few stores included.
“Mother, will my stores still managed by me?” Madam Di said, wiping her tears. Although she was unwilling, at least she had some hope.
“Of course, it is you who will run the stores. The two stores that will be given to you along with your dowry stores will not be governed by the mansion. Since you have left the capital so many years ago, if you take over your stores, I’m afraid you will have a busy time,” Old Grandma said calmly.
“Yes, ma’am. Your daughter-in-law will manage her business of the stores well and then help Mother with the affairs of our mansion,” Madam Di grumbled.
Qin Wanru’s gaze swept across her face and she knitted her arched eyebrows a little as she suddenly recalled a past event about Madam Di’s dowry.
However, since she lived like a good-for-nothing in her previous life, she only heard a rumor but did not know whether it was true or not.
“Mother, then please excuse your daughter-in-law.” Madam Di knew that Old Grandma had made the greatest concessions for her, so she stood up and stopped crying, asking for permission to be excused.
“Grandmother, those servant girls and the old women following suit are so disgusting! Madam was angry and made mistakes, fine. But those people? They added even more troubles here! Fortunately, Grandma came quickly. If not, they would have hurt Mother!”
Qin Wanru went up close to Old Grandma and reminded her of it in a low voice.
“Mother…” Madam Di was panic-stricken and cried out nervously, glaring at Qin Wanru fiercely. “Qin Wanru is going to convict the servants I brought with me of a crime!
“If they are declared guilty, who will dare to follow me and obey my order afterward? In this whole mansion, everyone will regard Shui Ruolan as the higher one!”
Old Grandma’s eyes glinted a little, but Nanny Duan said, “Old Grandma, what our Second Miss said does make sense! To deal with these affairs, rules come first. When the master misunderstands something or does something unreasonable, the servants should persuade the master and prevent the master from doing so rather than doing silly things. Otherwise, if even a servant can stir up trouble, there will be no peaceful day in our mansion!”
Nanny Duan gave her words as the helpful supervisor of Old Grandma. She was originally the manager of the servants in the courtyard, and her words, which came out from the perspective of an outsider, accorded with the rules very much, unimpeachable in everyone’s position.
If Shui Ruolan wanted to punish the servant that Madam Di brought, she would not sound so fair as Qin Wanru and Nanny Duan. Since they had said in this way, it was good!
“Madam Di, no rules, no justice. Those who came with you that smashed the items in this yard or hurt anyone here should be flogged 10 times. You have been a ruler and manager yourself. I guess you do not need me to teach you how to do it.” Old Grandma nodded.
“Yes… Your daughter-in-low will do as you say.” Madam Di gritted her teeth but had to accept it.
After saluting Old Grandma, Madam Di turned around and left with the agitated Nanny Zhou.
Nanny Zhou walked away in haste and she even walked very closely to Madam Di, being afraid that Old Grandma and Shui Ruolan would put their focus on her. Although she didn’t do anything herself, as the closest henchman of Madam Di, she would be the most vulnerable to suffer if they wanted to warn Madam Di. Therefore, she dared not say anything more and closely followed Madam Di to leave there.
“Grandmother, does mother have a lot of dowry stores in the capital city?” Qin Wanru asked curiously with her eyes wide open after Madam Di had left.
“She is the laureled firstborn daughter of Duke Yong. Her dowry included a lot. Apart from the stores in the capital, everything else should be in her hands,” Old Grandma nodded and said.
“A lot? Then how many are there exactly?” Qin Wanru appeared more curious. She laid her fair and soft chin on her hands and looked at Old Grandma interestedly.
Old Grandma felt a little better as she looked at her pink and lovely little granddaughter and said at without thinking, “Maybe 10? Your grandma has forgotten the exact number!”
“That’s quite a lot!” Qin Wanru sighed in surprise.
“She was the only laureled daughter of Duke Yong at that time, so it’s no wonder that she had an excessive dowry. The income you gain in the capital city will be much higher than that in Jiangzhou,” Old Grandma said carelessly then turned to Shui Ruolan, saying, “Ruolan, are you OK? It wronged you!”
Although it concerned the taels of silver that Qin Huaiyong had taken from Madam Di, Madam Di actually vented all of her resentment upon Shui Ruolan.
“Mother, I’m fine!” Shui Ruolan gently shook her head. Since she had insights about it, she had known that Madam Di would cause a disturbance here already.
Madam Di dared not annoy the general and Old Grandma, so she would definitely come to Shui Ruolan herself. Qin Wanru had also warned her beforehand to be more careful.
At the thought of it, she looked at Qin Wanru tenderly and found the little girl in a daze. She couldn’t help but smile. “Wanru is still a child. Are you scared about this?”
“Mother, I’m all right!” Qin Wanru said with a slight smile.
She was not scared at all for sure. She thought that even in her previous life, the Dis didn’t have so much money. With the respectable income gathered from the stores in the capital through the years and the newly purchased stores from the General’s Mansion, even if the General’s Mansion was not loaded, there should be enough money from the mansion since there were not that many people there.
But why did she hear about the Dis borrowing money from a loan shark secretly when Qin Yuru got married? At that time, were the Dis so poor?
All the stores of the General’s Mansion had been sold out. The news that the Ningyuan Army General would be transferred to another position and leave Jiangzhou went around as the stores sold out.
Many government officials, as colleagues for so many years, had started to ask Qin Huaiyong to engage in social activities and gave him a farewell dinner. Therefore, Qin Huaiyong had not been in the mansion recently.
Madam Di made trouble before, so she behaved herself quite well recently and did nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Shui Ruolan supervised sorting out the servants. Time flew so quickly and half a month passed.
It was also the time that the Ningyuan Army General would leave Jiangzhou officially.
Early in the morning, a series of horse-drawn carriages had already prepared to bring all the packages. After these, there were the carriages to carry people. Old Grandma and Qin Wanru got in one carriage while Madam Di and Shui Ruolan took another. As for the other servants who would leave together, they also took a few carriages to go along with them.
As for the servants who had not signed an irrevocable hard contract, they were provided some taels of silver to let them go home.
None of the closest servant girls of Qin Wanru left. Qing Yue, Yujie, and Qing Xue, who was not thought highly of but still looked well-behaved, all came along. The second-class servant girl, Qu Le, as well as Tang Qianyan who Chu Liuchen had asked her to keep, went together with them as well!
Before they left, Qu Le asked Qin Wanru for leave to go back to her home. She came back with a little parcel, which was said to be some gadgets of her childhood given to her by her parents, and a piece of sad news that her two little sisters had also been sold.
Qin Wanru could not help her with the situation of her home, she could only let Qing Yue pack a little more silver for Qu Le. She did respect Qu Le’s father, a meritorious servant who had always been faithful over 10 years. But it was quite a misfortune for his family!
Since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety were hard to combine. Qin Wanru only wished that he could find his master soon and redeem his daughters and reunite his family, rather than sell his daughters out and ask about his master’s whereabouts from every mansion. One who had been out of touch for such a long time might have suffered from some unexpected misfortune!
Even though he was once standing on the ground of Jiangzhou, his bones might have been decaying now!
Qi Baiyu and Qi Rongzhi followed them to go to the capital city as expected. There were also a few carriages of Magistrate Qi which had joined the team of the Qin Mansion’s carriages, heading to the capital city in a long fleet.
In a yard in the capital, an extremely beautiful young boy, who was dressed in a thin fur coat and lying weakly on a warm couch with his head slightly leaning against the cushion on the other side, looked at the scrolls in his hands with a look of tenderness and harmlessness.
“Have they come to the capital?”