Chapter 154: Sudden Change
Eldest Madam Song had moved to the Clear Wind Courtyard.
Not as a temporary stay, but a permanent relocation.
She made no secret of it, moving in broad daylight.
The weather was sweltering. The head steward, leading over twenty male servants and more than twenty rough-duty maids, helped the eldest madam move in a grand procession. Every single person was drenched in sweat.
Aside from the Western Flower Hall used for meetings, everything else was moved—including a few withered potted plants in the corner.
The people arriving for discussions were temporarily barred from entering the Hall of Inherited Brightness. They were all told to wait in the pavilion within the bamboo grove diagonally across.
The various stewards asked Cheng Zhao and Huan Qingtang to sit, while they themselves remained standing, either murmuring among themselves or wearing grave, silent expressions. Their eyes followed the male servants and maids coming and going from the Hall of Inherited Brightness.
“Why is she moving?” one steward couldn’t help but ask.
No one answered him.
Cheng Zhao and Huan Qingtang sat quietly. A quick-witted stewardess fetched a pot of cold tea and poured some for them.
Cheng Zhao did not drink the tea. She held a round silk fan in her hand, occasionally waving it to stir the breeze.
Huan Qingtang had no fan. She sipped the tea and dabbed the thin sweat from her temples with a handkerchief.
“...Where is the eldest madam?” another steward asked. “I haven’t seen her figure.”
Eldest Madam Song was not present to oversee the move; her whereabouts were unknown.
“What need would the eldest madam have to personally move things? She went early this morning to accompany the Dowager Madame in chanting Buddha’s name,” interjected Nanny Qin, who oversaw the main kitchen.
Cheng Zhao glanced at her.
Nanny Qin returned the look calmly, unafraid.
Cheng Zhao smiled faintly and did not spar with her.
The stewards’ hearts were pounding with their own speculations.
Eldest Madam Song had had several opportunities to move out of the Hall of Inherited Brightness.
For instance, when Zhou Yuanshen inherited the title, moving would have been reasonable—ceding the hall to the second madam. Everyone would have praised her generosity and magnanimity then.
Or when Zhou Yuanshen married, even if she merely broached the subject, it would have shown she was sensible and measured in her conduct.
Again, when Cheng Zhao was granted the title of Peerless Duchess of the State. Yielding the Hall of Inherited Brightness then would have been an act of elder’s kindness.
But she had done none of those things.
Perhaps the Dowager Madame had disapproved, and she dared not act. Still, she had never even brought it up.
The stewards had grown accustomed to this situation.
Within the ducal mansion, order was strict and no wicked servant dared bully their master, so there was no idle gossip behind anyone’s back.
It was widely assumed that Eldest Madam Song would live in the Hall of Inherited Brightness forever, or perhaps cede it to the eldest young madam, Lady Huan, after her dual heir marriage.
No one ever expected that, on the third day after the Third Young Madam’s birthday night banquet—just as the Third Young Madam was basking in glory—the eldest madam would move out.
In the hottest days of the year, during the dog days of summer. Even the resilient bamboo was wilting under the scorching sun.
This was not a voluntary move; it was a forced eviction.
She must have committed a grave mistake!
Occasionally, young maids would come to peek, their curiosity piqued by the whole affair.
“Eldest Young Madame, Third Young Madam.”
A small oil-covered cart pulled up, and Nanny Sun of the Longevity Peace Courtyard stepped down.
Her temples were slick with oil from the heat. She carefully wiped them with a handkerchief before greeting Cheng Zhao and Huan Qingtang.
As an elder by the Dowager Madame’s side, she held more prestige than many ordinary household masters, so Cheng Zhao and Huan Qingtang could not merely accept her greeting without standing to acknowledge her.
They quickly rose.
“The Dowager Madame requests your presence at the Longevity Peace Courtyard. Household affairs can wait for the next two days; the stewards may manage at their own discretion. In two days, all duties will resume in the Hall of Inherited Brightness,” Nanny Sun said.
Everyone acknowledged her words.
Cheng Zhao and Huan Qingtang went to the Longevity Peace Courtyard.
In the Crimson Cloud Courtyard, the Second Madam was deeply agitated.
The weather was unbearably hot. She had risen early to practice with her spear, breaking into a cascade of sweat, which pleased her greatly. After training, she bathed and soaked in tepid water for a good while.
Once she was ready, she draped her half-dried hair over her shoulders and sat down to casually drink some porridge—only then did she learn of the events at the Hall of Inherited Brightness.
She was stunned.
Whatever questions the stewards had, she had them all, too.
She had also sent clever young maids to the Hall of Inherited Brightness to investigate.
She very much wanted to go herself, but Nanny Fan dissuaded her: “What if the Dowager Madame loses her temper? You’d become the target again.”
In the past, the Second Madam would have said, “What’s there to fear? At worst, I’ll get a scolding; my mother-in-law has never held back from scolding me, but I still want to know what happened.”
Now, however, she had to consider her daughter-in-law’s dignity.
If she were reprimanded, her daughter-in-law would suffer along with her.
The Second Madam was so anxious she felt like scratching her ears and cheeks.
Nanny Fan kept urging her: “It’s almost time for the midday meal. The Third Young Madam will return soon. I’ve posted someone to keep watch; as soon as she reaches the Dawn Glory Courtyard, we’ll send a small cart to bring her here at once.”
Unexpectedly, the Longevity Peace Courtyard had already fetched her first.
The Second Madam paced back and forth in her room.
After much deliberation, she had Nanny Fan go to the outer courtyard to summon the Second Master’s attendant and Zhou Yuanshen’s adjutant, and send them to tell the father and son at their respective government offices:
“If there is no urgent matter, return to the mansion immediately—a major incident has occurred at home!” the Second Madam said.
The attendant and adjutant departed.
The father and son did not return, but Zhou Yuanqi came running back from the clan school instead.
The boy wore a linen shirt, his head and face drenched in sweat. His clothes were soaked through and plastered to his back; his little cheeks were flushed crimson, and streams of hot sweat dripped down his face, soaking his collar.
“So thirsty—I need cold tea!” he shouted.
The Second Madam hastily ordered a maid to bring him cooled tea water.
“You look as if you’ve been pulled from the water,” she said. “There was no need to run so frantically.”
“At the clan school, I heard something had happened, so I ran to the Hall of Inherited Brightness to look,” Zhou Yuanqi said. “Third sister-in-law wasn’t there—only the laborers doing rough work.”
The Second Madam was stunned. “You actually went to the Hall of Inherited Brightness... Weren’t you about to collapse from the heat?”
In this weather, running such a huge loop outside, his skin must be nearly burned raw. No wonder he looked like a boiled shrimp.
“Don’t just guzzle water,” she said. She ordered the maid, “Quick, fetch two heatstroke relief pills for the Fifth Young Master.”
The Second Madam instructed the maid to prepare warm water and dumped Zhou Yuanqi into a tub.
The water wasn’t cool—it was just right for washing off the sweat and dissipating some of the heat trapped in his body. She also draped a wet towel over his head.
“You can’t run like this in the sweltering morning heat. People have been known to die of heatstroke,” she scolded him.
Mother and son talked inside the washroom.
“Why was the eldest aunt driven away?” Zhou Yuanqi asked.
The Second Madam: “I only just heard about it. I’m waiting for your sister-in-law to come back—she should know.”
Zhou Yuanqi: “Mother, at the banquet two nights ago, there was one thing I knew that you didn’t.”
“What?”
“Third sister-in-law’s maid, Qiubai, seemed to have beaten the eldest aunt’s nephew from her natal family,” Zhou Yuanqi said. “Third brother handled it later.”
“Qiubai?”
Zhou Yuanqi: “I told you last time, didn’t I? Qiubai is quite skilled in martial arts. Most ordinary people can’t beat her.”
“How did she end up hitting a relative?”
“The eldest aunt didn’t say a word afterward—didn’t even dare complain about Third sister-in-law. And now she’s being driven out of the Hall of Inherited Brightness, so it must be that her nephew did something wrong,” Zhou Yuanqi said.
He grew curious: “What kind of wrong, though? Could he have stolen something?”
The Second Madam: “...”
A boy nearly nine years old, and the first thing he thought of for a grown man’s misdeed was theft.
Anything could be more serious than theft.
Zhou Yuanqi was arrogant, naive, and innocent—yet sharp-tongued and unforgiving.
The Second Madam’s heart softened, and she looked at him with deep tenderness. Yet she felt he would likely face hardship in the future.
Midway through, the Second Master returned.
He showed not the slightest curiosity. Upon hearing the news, his brow didn’t even twitch.
As always, he maintained a calm and detached demeanor, as if it had nothing to do with him, and said, "What's the hurry? If it's something we're meant to know, they'll tell us sooner or later."
Second Madam: "..."