The Comeback of the Charming Farmer's Wife

"Later, the young master ordered me to keep an eye on Cao Lingling, but he never said to treat her as a proper visiting lady, so I treated her as a maid, having her help clean the yard on a regular basis. When the young master found out about this, he didn’t make a sound and even said that treating her as a maid was fine, since the Cao Family originally wanted her to be a maid anyway. Today’s incident was because I was being lazy for a moment, seeing that two people couldn’t finish carrying the food, I called her to help. But Madame can rest assured, the food was personally prepared by me, I didn’t let her assist, and it was also me who packed the food boxes. I only had her carry them along the way and I kept an eye on her while setting up the meal, so she had no chance to tamper with anything. I will never again give her the chance to do such a thing, so please forgive me this once, Madame."

After speaking, Sister-in-law Li knelt and kowtowed to Yang Chuxia.

"You may rise," Yang Chuxia said as she set down her teacup, "The Principal Clerk’s wife you mentioned just now, does she often come here?"

Sister-in-law Li nodded, "Yes, she considers Cao Lingling as our mansion’s visiting lady, calling her Miss Cao every time she comes."

"How is the relationship between the Principal Clerk and our young master usually?"

"I’m not sure about that."

Yang Chuxia nodded on hearing this, but thought to herself that the relationship between the Principal Clerk and Brother An must be quite ordinary.

"By the way, how old is the Principal Clerk?"

"I’m not exactly sure, but he appears to be over thirty years old." She had seen the Principal Clerk only once, which was when she had just arrived, and there was no maid to serve tea. She had caught a glimpse of him when she brought the tea.

Over thirty years old? Having heard this, Yang Chuxia had some understanding, guessing that he was not content to be under the authority of Brother An, the young County Magistrate. Was his wife helping Cao Lingling stay to cause trouble for Brother An?

"You may go now. There will not be another occasion like today. As for Cao Lingling, I will deal with her later."

"Yes!"

Sister-in-law Li left tremulously. After Yang Chuxia entered the inner room, Ming Liu followed her out.

"Girl, why did you come out? Why aren’t you attending to Madame?"

"I came out to speak a few words with mother." Ming Liu thought it over and decided to tell Sister-in-law Li about what had happened in Yangshu Village, "Mother, you mustn’t be confused again. Cao Lingling was sending letters to Madame right under your nose and you knew nothing about it. Today there was another incident. If I were Madame, I’d suspect that Cao Lingling had given you some sort of bribe, letting you intentionally bring her in front of the young master."

Sister-in-law Li had only just learned about the incident with Cao Lingling’s letter.

She couldn’t help but grind her teeth in anger.

"That little wretch really thinks she’s something," she thought, but then added, "She certainly must have had help from the Principal Clerk’s wife again."

"Regardless of whose help she’s received, mother, you better keep a close eye on her these next few days. Make sure she doesn’t have the chance to leave the house to meet the Principal Clerk’s wife. I reckon she won’t be able to stay here much longer."

"Ah, I understand."

Having received instructions, Sister-in-law Li nodded repeatedly.

Seeing she understood, Ming Liu went back.

When Sister-in-law Li returned to her place, she called over a young maid and told her to watch Cao Lingling closely and not let her easily slip out of the mansion.

~~~~

"Didn’t the Cao Family send two siblings to Mianyang? Cao Lingling is serving as a maid in the mansion, so what about her brother?"

After Yang Chuxia entered the inner room, she saw that Ye Zi’an had finished washing up and was telling the children a little story.

"Her brother?" Ye Zi’an had almost forgotten about him and took a moment to reply, "He was thrown into prison to oversee it."