Chapter 500 - 491
Ever since Yu’er turned six months old, Chen Afu began to gradually take over the management of the Marquis’ Mansion from Madam San. She spent over an hour each morning in the Inner Courtyard Conference Hall handling mansion affairs. She never had been fond of domestic management, and ever since she’d started managing the household, she’d been training Mrs. Li and Hong Fei to be her capable assistants. Hong Fei had already been promised in marriage to a manager in the mansion, and Chen Afu decided to let her get married two years later.
Luckily, Yu’er had started eating supplemental food, and she only needed to be breastfed twice a day, in the morning and evening.
On the tenth lunar day Chen Afu invited all the masters except those from the second residence to have dinner in the Bamboo Pavilion. Mrs. Li was so angry that she cursed in the courtyard for most of the night. The news reached Chen Afu the next day.
This was the beauty of being the mistress in control. Any slight movement or change within the mansion could quickly reach her ears.
Chen Afu was blatantly slapping Mrs. Li’s face. Mrs. Li, aligning herself with Rong Zhao, had controlled the Inner Courtyard of the Marquis’ Mansion for more than a decade, embezzling several thousand silvers. Embezzled money aside, the real heart-breaker was how she had caused Chu Lingxuan and Hanyan so much trouble that they couldn’t even return home, naively hoping to have her own son inherit the title if Chu Lingxuan had no offspring.
Although the second master never participated, he just stood by and watched his wife create havoc without caring or questioning. Without any pressure, he spent the money his wife embezzled. He was also dishonest.
Without the Marquis Chu implying that the second master had suffered when he was young and letting the silvers slide to save him some face, Chen Afu would have made every effort to force Mrs. Li to cough up the few thousands of silver.
Fortunately, Chu Ling’an and his wife were decent people. Chen Afu respectfully treated them in private.