Summoned the courage to speak up yet yielded no response, Cheng Si-lang grew even more uneasy.
Watching him sit down, Master Zhou blew on his tea.
‘When did you arrive in the capital?’ he asked casually.
Cheng Si-lang froze for a moment.
‘Three months ago…’ he answered instinctively.
‘Then do you know when these shops were opened?’ Master Zhou pressed.
When were they opened? The maid had mentioned it before, but… when exactly was it?
Cheng Si-lang stared blankly, instinctively turning to look at the maid.
Her head remained bowed, as if unaware of his predicament.
This was hardly a situation where a servant could speak up anyway.
If she dared say another word, the accusation of ‘a wicked servant seizing her master’s property’ would be inevitable.
Master Zhou was in no hurry, sipping his tea leisurely.
Cheng Si-lang racked his brain until it finally came to him.
“Tai Ping Residence opened before the New Year, Immortal’s Abode after, and Yichun Hall not long after that,” he said cheerfully.
“Indeed. By now, even the newest has been operating for at least five months,” Master Zhou replied with a faint smile.
Yes, yes… Cheng Si-lang felt a pang of melancholy. His younger sister had opened three shops in such a short time, and he hadn’t known a thing. He had always thought of her as a simpleton who needed looking after…
A sharp clink of porcelain startled him.
Master Zhou slammed his teacup onto the table, all traces of his earlier composure gone.
“These shops have been running for at least five months, yet you’ve only been in the capital for three. What could you possibly know? Do you think a single person could have set all this up alone?” he barked. “Ignorant fool! Scheming servants! What are you plotting together? Hand over the account books now! If you dare waste my time again, I’ll drag you to the magistrate myself!”
Cheng Si-lang’s heart pounded wildly, his ears ringing.
Yes, yes—could his sister really have opened these shops alone? This was the capital! The Zhou family had always been here…
They had been in the past, and they would remain in the future…
He swallowed hard.
Should he hand them over?
What if he ended up ruining his sister’s shops, angering the Zhou family, and bringing disaster upon her?
“You Chengs truly have no conscience,” Master Zhou sneered. “You took my family’s dowry, abandoned Jiao Jiao without a second thought, and now that she’s fallen ill, instead of caring for her, you rush here to scheme for her property—”
Before he could finish, Cheng Si-lang raised his head.
“I have no intention of stealing her property,” he said firmly, his gaze resolute. “I will look after these shops properly and ensure her hard work isn’t wasted. I’ll guard them for her—not a single coin will be touched. When she wakes, everything will be returned to her. And until then—no one, no one else shall lay a hand on it.”
What a stubborn little bastard! Absolutely unreasoning!
Master Zhou’s eyes blazed with fury.
“And what if she never wakes up?” he roared.
What if she never wakes up?
This dreadful possibility had flickered through everyone’s darkest thoughts, though none had dared voice it – scarcely even allowed themselves to consider it. Now, with Master Zhou’s brutal pronouncement hanging in the air, Cheng Si-lang, the maid, and Manager Wu all turned deathly pale.
So then… might she truly never wake again?
“Madam, it’s been over half a month now…” the maid whispered softly.
As evening approached, the light in Cheng Jiao-niang’s bedchamber gradually dimmed, casting the girl on the bed into shadow.
Were it not for the faint rise and fall of her breathing, she truly would seem like…
But perhaps that moment wouldn’t be long now.
Madam Qin sighed, watching as the girl’s lips twitched slightly. Glancing at the maid arranging incense nearby, she abruptly stood and moved closer to the bed. Picking up the water bowl, she lifted the unconscious girl’s head and began carefully feeding her sips of water.
The maid gasped in horror.
“Madam!”
The exclamation escaped before she could stop it.
Bedridden invalids like this – no matter how well cared for – always carried that unseemly air of sickness…
How could her noble mistress stoop to such intimate care!
Ban Qin also started in alarm, the lid of the incense burner clattering down with a sharp sound.
“Madam, please let me do it,” she cried out, hurrying over to kneel beside the bed.
“I’ll support her while you give her some water,” Madam Qin instructed, setting down the water bowl but not releasing her hold.
“I couldn’t possibly trouble you, Madam,” Ban Qin choked out between sobs, kowtowing repeatedly.
Seeing this, Madam Qin didn’t insist further. She gently transferred Cheng Jiao-niang into Ban Qin’s arms and rose to her feet.
As the maid entered, Madam Qin was just stepping out.
Recognizing her, the maid immediately dropped into a deep bow of respect.
“If you encounter any difficulties, remember you may speak up,” Madam Qin said, her gaze lingering on the exhaustion etched across the maid’s face.
But true hardships could never be voiced—only trifling matters were speakable…
“Thank you for your boundless kindness, Madam,” the maid murmured, touching her forehead to the ground.
The rumble of Madam Qin’s carriage faded into the distance as the maid remained motionless at the gate, lost in thought.
“Old Master Chen came by this morning,” Ban Qin began hurriedly as they entered the chamber, recounting the day’s events.
“Dan-niang and Shi’ba-niang also visited. They brought new clothes for Miss—see, I’ve already changed her into them.”
“They even brought Doctor Li along. After taking her pulse, he said her body was weakened and we should feed her more…”
The maid listened to the detailed report, nodding absently while forcing a faint smile, her gaze drifting distractedly toward Cheng Jiao-niang on the bed.
“Is there some difficulty outside?” Ban Qin ventured hesitantly after a pause.
The maid snapped back to attention.
“Ah, no,” she shook her head with practiced ease. “With Fourth Young Master here, everything’s perfectly legitimate. No problems at all.”
Ban Qin nodded and mirrored her smile.
“Then I’ll leave the outside matters to you and Fourth Young Master,” she said.
The maid’s answering smile lacked conviction compared to previous days, though she said nothing.
How exhausting it was—just dealing with Master Zhou alone drained her completely.
She remembered how her mistress had faced wave after wave of difficulties, yet always appeared utterly unperturbed.
Is it possible only by being heartless?
But how does one become heartless?
As the two were speaking, a sudden commotion erupted outside the door, accompanied by loud pounding.
“What are you all doing here?”
The maid stepped forward, eyeing the four or five maids gathered at the entrance. She recognized them—every one from the Zhou household.
“We’ve come to attend to the young mistress,” the lead maid declared. Without waiting for permission, she waved the others forward. “Hurry inside now—tidy up the rooms and get everything in order. There’s much work to be done.”
“This is our household! Who gave you permission to enter?” the maid snapped, planting her hands on her hips.
Seeing her resistance, Jin Ge’er—who had already been gripping the door bar—immediately stepped up to block the doorway threateningly.
“Your household?” The lead matron let out a derisive laugh, eyeing her with undisguised contempt. “True, you’re from the Cheng family. But now that the young mistress belongs to our Zhou household, we Zhou servants are in charge here. As for you—scram back where you came from!”
This resistance had been fully anticipated by Madam Zhou back at the main house—hardly worth fretting over.
Turning to the other servants, she barked, “We’ve no authority over Cheng family maids, nor dare we discipline them! Someone—drag this wench back to the Chengs and let them deal with their own!”
Several burly maids immediately responded, rolling up their sleeves as they advanced.
Jin Ge’er raised the door bar defensively, but against these strapping maids, the slender youth might as well have been a feeble mantis blocking their path.
“I am no servant of the Chengs,” the maid declared coldly from the doorway, her lips curling in a mocking smile.
The advancing maids froze mid-step.
Not a Cheng family maid?
“I am a servant of the Zhang household,” she repeated, tilting her chin up with deliberate arrogance. “Go back and tell your master—I was personally gifted to Lady Cheng by Master Zhang Chun himself. If you wish to send me away, by all means—but first have your Zhou family seek permission from the Zhangs. Should I have committed any fault, I shall willingly return to accept punishment.”
Zhang Chun? Who the devil is Zhang Chun?
The maids gaped at her, utterly bewildered.
“Zhang Chun?”
Master Zhou nearly leapt from his seat, his composure shattered.
“Yes, she claimed to be from the Zhang Chun household—said she was personally gifted to the young mistress by Master Zhang himself…” The maid reported, still visibly puzzled. Though none of them could recall who this Zhang Chun might be, the maid’s unshakable confidence—combined with the strange occurrences surrounding Lady Cheng—had made them hesitate. They’d returned fearing their master’s wrath for being intimidated by a mere maid.
“The Zhang family?” Madam Zhou’s face paled slightly, disbelief written across her features. “Zhang Chun? Which Zhang Chun?”
“Are you daft?” Master Zhou shouted. “There’s only one! Zhang Chun—Zhang Jiangzhou!”
The servants finally connected the dots—Zhang Jiangzhou!
In the capital, Zhang Chun was so revered by his ancestral title “Master Jiangzhou” that few even remembered his given name.
Thank heavens they’d had the sense to retreat!
Madam Zhou sat thunderstruck, her mouth agape.
How could this be?
That perpetually insolent maid—she was from the Zhang household?
“And personally gifted by Master Zhang…” Master Zhou muttered, dawning realization in his voice. “No wonder… no wonder Master Jiangzhou intervened in that desertion case… So it was her… It’s always been her…”
Just how many more shocking secrets did this girl conceal?
And how many more terrifying surprises did she have in store for them?
