Xiyan was clearly still huffy over the whole matter. Her usual calm and generosity was completely non-existent as she snorted, “So what if it belongs to our Third Young Madam? Our Third Young Madam is the most junior in this family, so she can’t beat the senior family members. See, with one word from Matriarch He, a whole month of profits from our Third Young Madam’s Guilin Restaurant have been confiscated for the public funds! They didn’t even leave a single silver behind!”
Senior Servants Gui and Zhong were astounded. They hadn’t expected Matriarch He to have done so.
To be honest, even though it was the matriarch who had ordered this, it was still a little too much.
Guilin Restaurant now belonged to Chu Lian alone!
A shared sense of foreboding appeared in their hearts.
Senior Servant Zhong mulled over it before saying, “Tell me, what do you think the matriarch means by this? Is she thinking of taking Guilin Restaurant back?”
Senior Servant Gui and Xiyan both sunk into silence.
Moments later, Xiyan bit her lower lip and said, “Forget it, Third Young Madam was already prepared for this even before she left. I thought she was overthinking things back then, but it seems like it’s a real possibility. We can’t just sit back and do nothing now.”
Senior Servants Gui and Zhong looked at Xiyan with amazement. Could it be that Third Young Madam had left some instructions for Xiyan before leaving?
Since things had progressed to this stage, there was no need for Xiyan to continue hiding it anymore. Chu Lian trusted Senior Servants Gui and Zhong as well.
Chu Lian had already considered that a situation like this would happen even before she had left for the north. She had written down some solutions and left them to Xiyan. She instructed Xiyan not to use them until she really had to. Xiyan had never even considered opening that letter before, but now she had no other choice.
“Alright, momo, did you really think that our Third Young Madam is someone who’s easy to bully?”
Since Xiyan had said so, the two senior servants’ worries turned into smiles.
While they were speaking in the warm room, a servant from outside reported that Princess Duanjia’s handmaid Jinxiu had come.
Joy brightened up Xiyan’s face and she quickly replied, “Invite her in!”
The three personally went to the entrance to receive her.
A short while later, Jinxiu was welcomed into the warm room.
A servant brought tea over for their guest. When Jinxiu looked at the three servants, her expression changed subtly and she asked, “The three of you seem rather downcast, is there something in the estate that’s troubling you?”
Back when Chu Lian had still been in the capital, she had gotten along the most with Royal Princess Duanjia. She had even saved the princess once. When Chu Lian had left for the north, Princess Wei had even specially sent some guards from her estate to follow along.
Xiyan and the others were Chu Lian’s most trusted subordinates, so they knew that they didn’t have to hide things from Princess Duanjia’s servant. They explained the situation with Guilin Restaurant.
Jinxiu frowned. Although she was from Prince Wei’s estate, even from the perspective of a bystander, Matriarch He had gone overboard with her actions.
“Do you require any assistance from our princess?”
Xiyan hurriedly shook her head, “How could we trouble the royal princess? Our madam isn’t someone who would let others bully her just like that. Third Young Madam left some solutions for us, so we should be able to work things out by ourselves.”
Jinxiu nodded, “Alright, then be careful. We’re all servants here, remember that we don’t have the same immunity as our masters.”
Xiyan put some dried snacks in front of Jinxiu to let her have a taste.
“What have you come over for, Sister Jinxiu?”
Jinxiu quickly set down the snacks in her hand and dusted them off. She turned to a lower-ranking maidservant behind her and took a small bag from her.
“I was so occupied with chatting that I almost forgot about the task that Princess Wei and Royal Princess have entrusted to me.”
After saying so, Jinxiu opened up the small bag right in front of the others.
There were a few exquisite long boxes and a set of luxurious clothing within.
Jinxiu carefully took out the dress first and explained, “This is a dress made from some silk Sichuan brocade that our princess acquired from Mianzhou. There were only two outfits made in total; one light yellow and this pink one. Honoured Lady has the same measurements as our Royal Princess, so Princess sent me over with one set for Honoured Lady.”
Xiyan and the other servants hurriedly accepted the dress and thanked Princess Wei in place of Chu Lian. Even though Chu Lian wasn’t in the capital, Princess Wei had been able to think of her even while having dresses made for Royal Princess Duanjia. That showed how much Princess Wei favoured Chu Lian.
Xiyan, Senior Servant Gui and the rest were genuinely happy for Chu Lian over this.
They couldn’t count on House Ying for any support. Now that Princess Wei had become Chu Lian’s backer, even if Chu Lian distanced herself from her maiden house, the noble madams and ladies of the capital wouldn’t be able to bully her.
Jinxiu then opened several of the pear blossom wood boxes.
“Here is the share of the profits for the jewellery store for this month. Since Honoured Lady isn’t around, you can keep these for Honoured Lady first. The rest of the boxes are all accessories that the master craftsmen of the store have made. These were personally picked out by our Royal Princess for Honoured Lady.”
Before leaving the capital, Chu Lian had opened up a jewellery store together with Royal Princess Duanjia. They had agreed on leaving the management of the storefront and personnel to Princess Duanjia, while Chu Lian was in charge of drawing up new and interesting designs for the jewellery.
Although Chu Lian had handed over a stack of designs to Royal Princess Duanjia before leaving, the store hadn’t opened that month.
It wasn’t until the start of November that the jewellery store Treasure Pavilion had officially opened.
The banknotes that Jinxiu had just sent over were the first time that Chu Lian had received any of the profits from the jewellery store.
Xiyan, Senior Servant Zhong and Senior Servant Gui stared at the thick piles of banknotes in the wooden boxes. They were all slightly dazed from shock. All of this was from just a single month’s earnings?
Jinxiu seemed to have guessed at their train of thought. She smiled and explained, “You might be surprised now, but if you go over to Treasure Pavilion and take a look for ourselves, you’ll realise that this much profit is actually on the lower side. It’s almost the New Year, so all the noble families in the capital are going to come to the store to make new accessories or headdresses. The earnings for the last month of the year should be at least twice as much as the previous month!”
