Ye Zhuo took a deep breath, stood up, and bowed to Jiang Shi: "The granddaughter takes her leave."

  As soon as she went out, she was about to look for Qiuyue and Qiujun, and saw the two of them walking quickly from the direction of the flower hall.

  As she approached, Ye Zhuo saw a red palm print on Qiu Yue's face and asked with concern: "Did Wang Niang hit you?"

  Qiu Yue nodded and smiled at Ye Zhuo, holding her arm: "It doesn't hurt."

  Ye Chou grasped her hand: "Let's go, let's head back."

  The three of them returned to the Biyu Residence, where Ye Zhuo took out a box of ointment and personally applied it to Qiu Yue. Only then did she instruct Qiu Ju to serve dinner.

  "Didn't the old lady tell the kitchen to have the girl cook dinner? Why didn't the girl eat?" Qiuju looked at the dishes brought up by Qiujian, staring wide-eyed at Ye Zhuo.

  "If I eat this meal, won't you two go hungry when you get back? Now the three of us can eat together, how great." Ye Zhuo smiled and personally picked up two chopsticks of dishes for them, "Hurry up and eat."

  "Miss..." Qiu Ju's eyes turned red and she almost shed tears.

  After dinner, Qiu Ju collected the bowls and chopsticks to return them to the kitchen. Qiu Yue handed a cup of tea to Ye Zhuo and said with some worry: "Miss, this time we have really offended Wang's wife badly. In the future, I'm afraid our days will be even harder."

  Yue Zhuo picked up the teacup, took a light sip, put down the cup, and shook his head: "In the past, we didn't offend her, but she still hated us to the bone. Openly and secretly making trouble for us, causing my mother to be scolded frequently, and almost taking my life! This time, my mother's affair, she didn't have time to plot; if she had time, would she let go of this opportunity? What we're doing now can't be considered framing her. Besides, even if we offend her again, what can she do? The old lady has already begun to suspect her, and I still have value in the eyes of the old master, both sides are evenly matched, who's afraid of whom?"

  She took a sip of tea and continued, "Moreover, we have no desires or demands, neither competing for favor nor vying for benefits; we don't have any conflicting interests with her. But the new mistress is different, not only does she want to compete with her for her husband's attention, but also for the affection of the old master and mistress. She can barely cope with that side, where would she have the energy to fight with us?"

  Miss, you must be tired today. Why don't you go to bed and take a rest?

  "It's nothing." Ye Zhuo shook her head, put down the teacup, picked up the embroidery she had half-finished, and started sewing.

  Mr. Ye was a stingy man all his life, and he was also very frugal in managing the household. He thought that with a group of women in the backyard who only ate and didn't work, they still had to buy maidservants to serve them - without maidservants, they would be laughed at, business partners would look down on him, and might not do business with him, and the Ye family's daughters would also lose face. This was a loss for the family business, so this item couldn't be skimped on - therefore, he only married one woman, Madam Jiang, in his life, and didn't even have any concubines. Unfortunately, Madam Jiang was unable to work, and only gave birth to a son and a daughter. Helpless, in order to continue the Ye family line, he allowed Ye Ming to take a concubine and set up a separate household.

  However, this group of women happened to be lazy and didn't give birth to a grandson for him, but instead gave birth to three useless daughters. In his anger, he demanded that from Zheng Shi to Ye Jue, each month they had to do a certain amount of needlework, otherwise they wouldn't receive their monthly allowance, and the food would also be downgraded by one level. As for the female servants, they were originally equipped with fewer things than other families - like Ye Zhuo's courtyard, there were only three maidservants: Qiu Yue, Qiu Ju, and Qiu Jue. They did a lot of work, but their monthly allowance was less than others, so they were afraid that if they went out and talked about it, it would affect the reputation of the Ye family. This is why they didn't have to submit embroidered goods every month. However, Old Master Ye was extremely clever, he thought of a way to increase the amount of embroidery work each female master had to submit. In this way, the female masters couldn't finish their needlework on time, and would naturally ask the maidservants to help them complete it. As a result, the maidservants were overworked and couldn't complain about the rules of the Ye family.

  Also for this reason, Ye Zhuo's life in the Ye Manor was not idle. Every day, she had to do needlework whenever she had time. Fortunately, her embroidery skills from her previous life were extremely good. For a handkerchief that others would take a whole day to embroider, she could finish it in just half a day. Therefore, it wasn't too tiring for her.

  Qiu Yue also picked up an embroidery product and started embroidering.

  Ye Chou embroidered for a while, suddenly stopped, took out the stone carved by Zheng Fangjing from her sleeve, and carefully examined it. After looking at it for a while, she asked: "Autumn Moon, I remember that your family is engaged in jade carving, right?" In this Nanshan Town, eighty percent of the families are engaged in industries related to jade carving. Autumn Moon's home was in the town, but due to poverty and many children, she was sold to Ye Fu as a maid.

  "Yes. My father works in a jade carving workshop. However, he has no craftsmanship and can only do the work of grinding sand." Qiu Yue said. Seeing Ye Zhuo didn't understand, she explained: "When grinding and polishing jade, different grits of jade sand are used according to different needs, so those mineral sands need to be crushed with a pestle first, and then washed with water to remove impurities like mud. My dad does this." She also explained how to carve jade. First, use a tool to cut the jade material into blocks or bars with hard jade sand and a sharp blade; then, after designing and drawing samples, use this method to cut off excess jade material in large pieces, making the jade rough shape; finally, hand it over to the jade carving master for fine carving.

  Ye Zhuo nodded and asked: "Is there a woman in Yuqiao's residence?"

  "There shouldn't be." Autumn Moon shook her head, "I've never heard my dad mention it." As she said this, she seemed to suddenly think of something and slapped her forehead, "No, there is. I remember my dad saying that in our great Zhou kingdom, there's a very famous jade carver named Gu, who's actually a woman. She's extremely skilled, and the jade pieces she carves are on par with Master Nie's. Because her style of carving is different from ours here, and because she stays in the capital city, everyone calls her school the Northern School, while ours here is called the Southern School."

  "Is that so?" Ye Zhuo looked at the stone in his hand, furrowed his brow and said, "Jade is much harder than stone, even if it's a man, relying solely on wrist strength, I'm afraid it can't be carved? That woman, isn't she incredibly strong, with a tiger's back and bear's waist?"

  "You don't know, but the jade materials produced in our Nanshan Town are of bright colors, high transparency, and few impurities. The hardness is not too great, making them more suitable for carving than those from other places. Moreover, the jade carving skills of our school were passed down by an old ancestor of the Nie family. For the first two years, apprentices only practice wrist strength. Once their wrist strength is sufficient, they use a special knife with diamonds made by that old ancestor of the Nie family to carve. The jade ornaments carved in this way are all based on the artisan's skill, so they are better than those made using machines. That's why our Nanshan Town's jade products are so famous."

  "It was originally like this." Ye Zhuo nodded and stretched out his own palm to take a look, then asked, "So, how did they practice their wrist strength?"

  Qiu Yue shook her head and smiled, "This slave doesn't know. My father only does odd jobs in the jade carving workshop, my eldest brother just started working there last year and hasn't even been taken as an apprentice yet, so I don't know." She raised her head and looked at Ye Zhuo with a curious expression, "Miss, why are you asking these questions?"

  Ye Chou smiled and said: "Just asking casually." Then she stopped talking and focused on her embroidery.

  The next two days were peaceful at home. Jiang Shi was busy preparing the betrothal gifts, and the only one who could help her was Wang Yiniang, so Wang Yiniang reluctantly joined in the bustle as well. Ye Lin and Ye Jue had never gotten along with Ye Zhuo, and Ye Zhuo was more than happy to be left alone, pretending to be ill and not even going upstairs for meals, locking herself in her room every day, only doing embroidery.

  On this day, Ye Zhuo was busy in the house when Qiuju rushed in from outside and shouted: "Miss, something's wrong! The young master of the main house has passed away."

  Ye Zhuo's fingers slipped slightly, and the embroidery needle stabbed into her finger.

  She didn't care about her fingers, raised her head and asked: "What did you just say?"

  "The young master of the big house has passed away." Qiuju took a deep breath.