Due to her new marriage, Xie Yun got a three-day holiday. Today is the last day.

  Early next morning, the newlyweds went to Nurturing Peace Mansion to pay their respects to Old Madame. After chatting with Old Madame for a while, everyone else was dismissed, leaving only Xie Ke and Qin Mei couple behind.

  The old lady kindly took Qin Miao's small hand and led her out of the main hall, over a stone bridge, through a cluster of flower beds, to a place of elegant simplicity.

  This is a courtyard, without a shadow wall, according to the route it should still be in the Yu Yi Temple. In front of the gate, two auspicious beasts are placed, baring their teeth and grinning, which can be quite frightening at night. On the eaves above, three bold characters were written - Xie Family Ancestral Hall. It turned out that this place was a temple for the Hou Mansion to worship their ancestors.

  Qin Miao followed the old lady inside, with Xie Yan following behind. The small courtyard was not large, with four snow pines holding up thick branches, stably rooted in the southeast and northwest corners of the yard, also covering half of the sunlight in the small courtyard. Further inside, walking up three stone steps, crossing over the high vermilion threshold, what came into view was a row of people standing at attention, which shocked Qin Miao.

  The Qin family's foundation was shallow, and tracing back three generations, they were just a farming household outside Hangzhou city. The Qin family's current prosperity is only because Old Master Qin was weak and unsuitable for farming, so he was sent by his family to work as an apprentice in a shop in the city. Old Master Qin was clever and kind, and with the support of his master, he gradually established the Qin family's unique status. Later, after Old Master Qin passed away from overwork, Old Mistress Qin took charge, and surprisingly, she turned the business around, and with the help of her son, the Qin family achieved its current success.

  Qin Miao thought, she had long heard that the Xie family was a noble family with a history of following Emperor Taizong to conquer the world on horseback, and it was quite glorious. Hearing is not as good as seeing, the purple sandalwood carvings in front of her, like a list of merits, pressed Qin Miao's chest slightly. It seems that everyone says she is overreaching herself, usually she doesn't feel it, but today even she can't help feeling that she is inferior to the beautiful young master by a few points. She raised her eyes and glanced at Xie Yan standing beside her, and inexplicably felt a little stifled in her heart.

  Mrs. Xie, of course, was not here to put pressure on Qin Miao, she had her own thoughts. Now, leading Xie Yun and Qin Miao to light three incense sticks, piously kowtowing and offering incense, still muttering to herself. Xie Yun and Qin Miao knelt on the cushion in front of the ancestral tablet, one on the left and one on the right, with a very serious expression, kowtowing.

  After a long time, the old lady finally spoke in a low voice: "Anu, this is our Xie family's ancestral hall. Today, we came to pay respects to our ancestors and kowtow to them. As for the specific arrangements for entering the ancestral hall, I have already made arrangements." Although she was speaking to Qin Miao, Qin Miao clearly saw that the old lady glanced at Xie Yan beside her for an instant.

  "Secondly, it's mainly to see Da Lang and his wife. Ah Chun's parents left early and didn't get to see Ah Chun settle down. But now that they've seen, I'm sure Da Lang is also happy in the afterlife." The old lady walked around the cushion in front of her and continued towards a few rows ahead but somewhat off to the side, pointing at two not-so-conspicuous memorial tablets: "Da Lang, Ah Chun finally has a wife. Your wish has been half fulfilled."

  The old lady picked up one of the signboards and carefully wiped off the not-too-many dust on it with her handkerchief. Perhaps it was the fragrance in the house that had moved her eyes, or perhaps it was the unhappiness in her heart that could no longer be suppressed, the old lady's voice was a little choked: "Dàláng, take a good look at your daughter-in-law, what a lovely person she is. From now on, āzhēn has ānuǎn to take care of, you can rest assured."

  Watching this scene, Anu couldn't help but think of her own deceased mother. The melancholy emotions in her heart were infected by the old lady, and she also shed tears. She walked forward, took Grandpa's memorial tablet from Old Lady Xie's hands, placed it properly, and carefully supported the old lady back to Xie Zhu's side.

  She unexpectedly saw Xie Yan, who was always cold and expressionless, also turned red-eyed. Xie Yan tightly pursed his lips, as if holding back a great force, and the fist at his sleeve mouth was clenched tightly. And in an instant he relaxed his fist, and the scrunched eyebrows also relaxed, but for some reason Qin Miao always felt that the relaxed Xie Yan gave her a sense of absurd unnaturalness.

  Then the two accompanied the old lady back to the main hall of Yang Yi Yuan, Xie Yan excused himself and left because he had something to do in the front yard. Qin Miao stayed behind and chatted with the old lady for a while longer, only taking her leave after seeing the old lady's worried expression fade away.

  On the way back, Qin Miao felt a bit depressed and kept thinking about Xie Yan's fleeting expression change just now, feeling that something was not quite right. Just as she was pondering, a commotion was unfolding not far from her Chao Lu Courtyard.

  All I saw was a young woman in a green dress, with a slender waist, standing opposite an old woman of over forty years old and shouting: "Aunt Qin, no matter what you say, you can't eat the wife's share. If I go back to the Chao Lu courtyard, how can I explain it..."

  Qin's mother, on the other hand, was calmly picking her teeth and said nonchalantly, "I'm telling you, Xiaosan, what are you shouting about? You're making a big deal out of nothing. It's just a bowl of ice sugar pear soup, not some precious thing. Can't you just make another pot?"

  It seems like she's getting anxious, the young girl spoke with a sobbing tone: "Mother, that soup took me more than an hour to stew, where can I get another bowl from? You have Master Hou backing you up, but what do we have? Usually, it's fine when you freeload off us, but that was before Mistress arrived. Now that the new mistress is here, if she's not happy with something, I won't be able to eat and will have to leave with my bowl. You...you...aren't making things difficult for me, are you?"

  "Hey, you little hoof.You're talking nonsense! What do you mean I'm freeloading? Those are my rightful shares! Even Master Hou was raised on my milk, and now I get scolded by a little servant girl like you just for drinking some soup. The new mistress hasn't even dealt with you yet, but I'll be the first to teach you a lesson!"

  The little girl's face turned bright red, and she immediately squatted down on the ground, wiping away tears. The old mother glanced at her with a slanted eye, spat on the ground, patted her buttocks without saying another word, and walked away. Poor girl, facing the food box on the ground, burst into tears again.

  Zi Xuan stepped forward and softly asked Qin Miao: "Madam?"

  "For the time being, let's put it aside." Qin Miao looked at the little girl who was still crouching there and then turned back to Zi Xuan with a whispered instruction: "Go tell the kitchen that I suddenly don't want to drink the ice sugar pear water anymore."

  Zi Xuan thought to herself, considering Qin Miao's usual temperament, she wouldn't be able to tolerate such a spoiled servant. So she didn't say anything else and directly took a shortcut to personally go to the kitchen.

  When she returned to Chao Lü Yuan at dawn, she saw Qin Miao and Li Mama, as well as Yu Lü, all waiting for her.

  "How come you've been gone for so long?" Qin Miao asked before Zi Xuan was even in front of her.

  "Madam, I've spoken with the kitchen as you instructed. I also stayed there for a bit and chatted with the people in the kitchen."

  Qin Miao smiled: "I knew you were clever. What did you find out?"

  The Qin mama seen by several people in the courtyard this morning is Xie Yu's wet nurse, who has been in the Hou Mansion for almost twenty years. After Xie Yu was born, there were originally two wet nurses, one of whom followed her husband back to the countryside ten years ago. After Qin mama lost her husband and became a widow, she simply brought her son to stay in Pingyang. Her son works on the Zhuangzi farm and is now a small manager. As for Qin mama, she is old and should have gone to the farm with her son to enjoy her later years. But for some reason, she has always stayed in the Hou Mansion.

  Xie Xuan was not easy to raise when he was young, and the first wife Bai Shi was also not very good at taking care of children. So before the age of three, Xie Xuan basically grew up with Qin Mama, so even though Qin Mama was idle in the house all day, Xie Xuan didn't say much about it, and still gave her a monthly allowance like his mother, Old Lady Xie, and also gave her gifts during festivals. It was also because of her credit for raising Xie Xuan that Qin Mama could be said to be walking sideways in the servants' quarters, and even Sun Shi from the second house, who was in charge of food, didn't dare to move against her due to her special status.

  "I heard the kitchen staff talking, that Qin's mother is always causing trouble in the mansion. The Hou Mansion isn't short of money, but she often causes a ruckus and it's hard for the servants to do their job. Just like today, with the iced sugar pear soup in our courtyard, if it weren't for your kindness, that little maid would have been punished, not to mention the kitchen staff might have gotten in trouble too. If there's another important banquet at the mansion, wouldn't it be chaotic?..." Zi Xuan told Qin Miao all the news she had gathered, but Qin Miao didn't react for a long time.

  Zi Xuan tapped on the table and asked inexplicably: "Madam, what are you thinking? Are you just going to let her be arrogant like this?"

  "Earlier I still wanted to be lazy and didn't want to get involved in the Hou Mansion's affairs too early. It seems that your master wants to hide but can't..."