Yesterday at the banquet, she demonstrated tea artistry for Old Master Jiang and several distinguished guests, and today their internal small group chat is all about her! This Qiuyun has truly made herself known to everyone in the manor overnight!
Regarding the matters of Master Jiang and Madam Jiang, Qiuyun didn’t want to explain too much to anyone outside the main branch. “Why don’t you call Sun Assistant Manager and ask?”
The staff member, half-believing, made the call and indeed received a brief silence on the other end, followed by a gritted-teeth reply: “Approve it for her!”
With the assistant manager’s approval, there was nothing more to discuss.
The staff member swiftly upgraded Qiuyun’s permissions in the back office and smiled as they watched her leave.
“She’s something else.”
An old employee who had worked at the Jiang estate for over thirty years remarked, “I checked her file—she’s only been here two months? Yet she went from a little maid in the young lady’s building to appearing before Madam Jiang! In such a short time, she handles herself speaking and acting among us seasoned veterans without a trace of nervousness. Tsk tsk, she’s truly born for this role!”
“You said it.” The young woman who had just processed Qiuyun’s paperwork sighed, “Her words are flawless. Put her in a harem, and she’d be the head eunuch in charge.”
“Haha, you’ve been watching too many palace dramas!” The office banter began.
“Tsk! Our estate’s decor and size—is it really any different from a royal palace?”
“So, we’re just little maids in the Imperial Household Department then? Tsk, working there really leads nowhere.”
“Exactly! If we could serve by the side of the masters and madams, even the scraps that slip through their fingers would be enough for us to celebrate the New Year!”
“Hey, so who’s the best person to latch onto in this estate?”
“Definitely the First Madam! Second Madam is generous, but her temper—tsk, not just anyone can put up with that.”
“True, First Madam is genuinely a good person.”
“I heard that a while ago, First Madam paid the medical bills for a maid from the main branch’s mother—a full two hundred thousand!”
“Yeah.” Everyone sighed enviously. “No wonder the main branch has such a low turnover rate. If I were there, I wouldn’t want to leave either. Who doesn’t have some family hardship?”
……
After handling the matter of Miss Jiang’s tutoring, Qiuyun returned to Bright Moon Tower. Before she could go upstairs, she saw Miss Jiang waving at her from the balcony, calling her to come to the room.
“Sister Xiaoqiu!” Jiang Chuling greeted her at the stairway, pulling her into the room to sit down. “What are Mom and Sun Assistant Manager discussing? How is Dad going to make up with Mom? Can I know?”
The child was brimming with curiosity.
Qiuyun summed it up briefly: “Of course. Sun Assistant Manager brought the news that Master Jiang is delegating the authority to manage the household to Madam Jiang, with me assisting on the side. Also, regarding your private tutor, Madam Jiang will dismiss Teacher Lanxin and find you a new study companion of the same age.”
There was too much information to process. Jiang Chuling first asked, “Managing the household—does that mean from now on, Mom will be in charge of everything in our main branch?”
“Yes.” Qiuyun added, “Like the lady of the house in ancient times, she will oversee personnel changes, financial flows, children’s education, social connections, and so on in the main branch…”
“So, asking you to help my mom—does that mean you can’t be my assistant anymore?” Jiang Chuling pouted.
Qiuyun said, “Of course not. You and Madam Jiang can both call on me for anything. According to our staff app records, I’m still your assistant, Miss Jiang.”
After learning the full story, Jiang Chuling felt a bit relieved and turned to ask about someone unimportant. "And Teacher Lan? Why was she fired?"
"Madam Jiang caught Teacher Lan deliberately destroying the fan face I embroidered, which delayed Madam Jiang's gift to her master's wife, so she was dismissed." Qiuyun did not hide the truth just because the young miss was a child.
"What!" Jiang Chuling exclaimed.
Qiuyun showed the photos of the fan face she had just taken to the young miss. "She did it secretly, and since she's the daughter of Assistant Manager Chen, Madam Jiang didn't want to go too far and cause the other branches to laugh. She plans to cool things off for a while and then find another excuse to let her go."
New brain cells really come in handy; Jiang Chuling quickly caught the blind spot. "Since Teacher Lan did it secretly, how did Mother and Sister Xiaoqiu find out?"
The young miss's question left Qiuyun in an unusual silence.
The master's regard and the madam's trust had allowed her to participate in the handover ceremony of the household authority, and she was highly likely to become the third-in-command of the main branch in the future.
Things like hidden cameras, secrets only known to the main family and their confidants—if ever leaked or loosened, they would never be trusted again, and could even invite retaliation.
But now she was the young miss's assistant. Logically, she shouldn't hide anything the young miss asked, but the importance of this matter made it impossible for her to bluntly tell the young miss straight.
Even if she told the young miss that she couldn't speak because the master and madam had instructed her not to, the young miss would certainly understand. But subconsciously, it would slowly leave a knot, making the young miss think that in the future, when important matters arose, the assistant would also keep things from her.
People only get closer to those who are nearer to themselves.
Even if Qiuyun was leaning toward the young miss's parents.
That was human nature.
...
"Sister Xiaoqiu?" Jiang Chuling sensed Sister Xiaoqiu's hesitation. "Can you not tell me?"
"Young miss." Qiuyun stepped forward twice, half-kneeling in front of the sofa where Jiang Chuling sat, meeting her gaze. "I wanted to ask you, what plans do you have for the future?"
Jiang Chuling tilted her head. "How far into the future? One year? Five years? Ten years?"
Qiuyun said calmly, "Thirty years."
"...What?"
Jiang Chuling was dumbfounded—she was only ten years old!
Qiuyun looked away. "If the young miss can figure out why I'm asking you this question at this moment," Qiuyun promised, "then I will tell you why I asked."
She's being completely cryptic!
Jiang Chuling stared blankly as Sister Xiaoqiu said she needed to repair the fan face and then closed the door.
Why ask why?
Sister Xiaoqiu's expression was very serious when she said this, her gaze earnest, as if she felt an urge to get closer to her.
The ten-year-old girl frowned slightly, slowly walked to her wooden carving cabinet, took out a carving knife and a piece of wood, sat down on the floor behind the French window, and began to carve.
She had asked because she wanted to know why her mother and Sister Xiaoqiu had uncovered Teacher Lan's wrongdoing.
And Sister Xiaoqiu said she would only answer if she figured out what she wanted to do in the next thirty years and understood why the question was being asked.
So convoluted.
Jiang Chuling calmed herself, carving one stroke at a time into the wood.
Since she couldn't figure it out now, she would wait until she understood, then ask Sister Xiaoqiu for the answer.
A week passed.
Qiuyun finished embroidering the fan face the day before, fixing it onto a frame of golden nanmu. She then blended dozens of spices she had purchased earlier to create the unique Muxi Spring Fragrance favored by the Great Qi Dynasty—a refined, cool, and subtle scent that matched the aloof and noble character of orchids, and also suited perfectly for use in autumn and summer.
After letting the fan steep in the fragrance overnight, Qiuyun placed it in a wooden box.
The box had cost her fifty-eight thousand yuan from an antique market, and the soft interior lining was made from materials she had specially bought and crafted herself.
Of course.
She hadn’t planned to go to such lengths until Lan Xin’s misdeeds were exposed and Madam Jiang had made up the difference by giving her another two hundred thousand yuan.
“Madam Jiang, please have a look. What do you think?” Qiuyun set the items she had prepared on the tea table in front of Madam Jiang.
