Volume One, Chapter 15: Master of the Household

“Where are you going, Miss?”

Just as Shen Rong quietly reached the gate of the Rongyin Pavilion courtyard, she was blocked by Meixiang, who stood guard nearby.

The clever little maid blinked her round, bright eyes at her, filled with deep suspicion.

Shen Rong straightened up, feeling a bit guilty. “I’m just going out for some fresh air.”

Meixiang pouted. “Miss promised me that Sister Manhe and Lianxiang, who was beaten, wouldn’t go out these days and would stay in the courtyard to learn how to manage the household!”

Shen Rong gave up pretending. “Studying all the time needs a break. You lock me in the room every day—I’m suffocating! I’m telling you now: even if you don’t let me out, I’m going out anyway! No one can stop me!”

Once she took over as housekeeper, a heap of messy matters awaited her. How could she relax then? With three months to go and just having returned, everything was still fresh and new. Naturally, she wanted to go to town to eat well... and to scout out the situation, preparing for the next step.

Having said that, Shen Rong marched towards the outer courtyard with her head held high. After a few steps, she heard soft, tearful sobbing behind her.

Her steps froze. The little maid’s frightened, trembling voice came through: “That tigress from the main household was like a beast ready to devour people the other day. Lianxiang is timid and got so scared from being beaten she fell ill. If Miss keeps slacking off, how can Rongyin Pavilion survive? It’d be better if you sold me and Lianxiang off early, so we don’t suffer that tigress’s torment, caught between life and death... sob sob...”

Shen Rong sighed in disbelief, rolled her eyes after a moment, and turned back into the Rongyin Pavilion.

Meixiang, who had just been crying, suddenly beamed a big smile and scampered after her, her pale, innocent face not showing a single tear.

“...The eldest young lady and Miss are legitimate daughters, each with a housekeeper aunt, two chief maids, and four ordinary maids; the second young lady is an illegitimate daughter of the main household, with only one chief maid and two ordinary maids; the eldest young master’s courtyard has four male servants and four ordinary maids. The eldest young lady’s housekeeper aunt is called Aunt Fengqing, and her two chief maids are named Zhuqing and Lanqing...” Manhe’s gentle narration was the best lullaby. “...Monthly allowance is disbursed on the first day of each month: housekeeper aunt gets ten taels, chief maids five taels...”

“Bang!” A loud thud.

Shen Rong, half-asleep, banged her head heavily against the desk, her cheek pressing onto the sheet full of servant names, leaving streaks of ink.

That woke her up instantly.

Manhe jumped in surprise, then got up and fetched some ointment from the cabinet, carefully applying it to Shen Rong’s slightly swollen forehead. She well understood how torturous it was for a girl who had never managed a household to listen to such dull details, and she could only teach what she knew herself. Without immersion, one could never truly learn how to be a housekeeper.

“Miss, why not write a letter to the Master? If he intervenes, the Madam would not dare trouble you out of respect. If you want to take over household management, have the Master hire a tutor from outside to guide you. Your quick mind will surely master it within a year, just like the eldest young lady.”

Outside, Meixiang came in carrying warm bird’s nest soup. Seeing the ink on Shen Rong’s face, she fetched a hot towel to help wipe it off.

“Aunt Manhe is right. With the Master’s support, there’s no problem that can’t be solved,” Meixiang said eagerly, looking at Shen Rong. “This is the power of household management. It must not be given up again. I don’t want to lose it. Can’t you think of a way?”

Shen Rong rolled her eyes at the little maid’s strong sense of entitlement, took a spoonful of the warm bird’s nest, and after swallowing, she tapped Meixiang’s shoulder irritably and asked with a raised brow, “Shen Yu studied household management for a whole year? Does it really take that long?”

Manhe and Meixiang’s expressions subtly shifted, as if they thought Shen Rong was just making excuses.

---

Shen Rong didn’t say much more, only, “You have some confidence in me. I can figure this out in seven days.”

She didn’t say she’d master it, only that she’d understand it.

Having traveled far and wide with Shen Zheng from a young age to conduct business, Shen Rong hadn’t just been sightseeing. She could spot errors in Shen Zheng’s ledgers at a glance. Managing the small Shen family household would be far simpler.

By now, she understood well enough that household management was essentially about handling the accounts, overseeing the family’s meals and supplies, and managing all the concubines, maids, and servants.

Once you grasped the ledgers, the other trivial matters were easy. Seven days was a conservative estimate; she could get it done in three without breaking a sweat.

What mattered was understanding the whole system of household management.

Her nearly ten years abroad hadn’t been mere leisure but a kind of study tour.

Throughout the Great Zhao, women mostly stayed in the inner quarters, tending their small domains, while ambitious men traveled for study. Her mother died early, so she grew up alongside her father, who didn’t distinguish between boys and girls in teaching. If she was interested in something her father didn’t know, he would hire someone to teach her.

Her father always joked that she knew a bit about everything, though not deeply.

“Has the Madam delivered the ledgers yet?”

“They have arrived…” Meixiang hesitated. “But now isn’t the time to look at the ledgers. I secretly found out that the eldest young lady only started looking at them two months after learning the household management…”

“Bring them here.”

Manhe’s eyes warned Meixiang not to say more and gestured for her to fetch the ledgers.

“Miss, don’t blame Meixiang for thinking this way,” Manhe said, referring to Meixiang’s eagerness for Shen Rong to take over management. “She just feels that if you manage the household, life will be better for them—all the food, clothes, and the allowances from the household won’t be shortchanged like in Rongyin Pavilion. You have never cared much about these trivial matters. Compared with the eldest young lady and eldest young master, Rongyin Pavilion often gets less in many things, and the maids’ monthly wages are always docked. If your household is like this, others must be worse. Take the other day when Madam came to reprimand Yaoniang—that was just a show. Yaoniang’s courtyard often doesn’t have enough to eat. Usually, the maids don’t dare complain because they respect Madam somewhat through you.”

What Manhe left unsaid was that a housekeeper like her would be allocated a small courtyard. Since Shen Rong had driven her out of Rongyin Pavilion years ago, the servants in the household had always been treated poorly and given meager allowances. The food brought back from the kitchen was only scraps without any richness.

At that moment, Shen Rong’s heart stirred. As the saying goes, he who wins hearts wins the world—especially in the small Shen family household...

This was the most important and urgent matter for a housekeeper to address.

Now the back quarters, controlled by Meng and the noble families of Huaiyang, were dead and lifeless under their oppressive rule. No wonder when she threw Yaoniang into the lake and promised her a hundred taels, she saw a flicker of surprise on Yaoniang’s face.

Shen Rong considered for a moment. “I injured Yaoniang at Jing’an Temple and promised her a hundred taels. When you have time, take the keys to the storeroom and personally give her the money.”

Manhe didn’t ask further but nodded. She understood that Miss had already grasped what she had left unsaid...

---

Shortly after, Meixiang returned with two little maids following behind. The three carried a thick stack of ledgers and laid them neatly on Shen Rong’s desk.

Without further ado, Shen Rong picked up one to read. Whether by coincidence or not, it was the ledger documenting bribes paid to the chief military camp by the main household to buy Shen Xu’s official position.

Apparently, Meng had thought Shen Rong wouldn’t learn household management or accounting within three months and relaxed her vigilance, dumping all recent ledgers for her to give up.

The more Shen Rong read, the deeper her frown grew.

In just the past year, the money funneled into the chief military camp amounted to hundreds of thousands of taels!

That meant over ten thousand taels every month! It was literally throwing money around.

People outside called Shen Rong a nouveau riche, but compared to the main household, she was just a small fry.

The world would fall into chaos in another year, and when funds were needed, the amount would be huge. In the previous life, Prince Huai’an only rose to prominence four years later. To use him against Xie Xun, she needed to accelerate his progress. Besides Ajiu, this required a massive expenditure.

And knowing Meng’s nature, who knows how much property she had already siphoned off...

It was clear regaining household management was urgent.

Seeing Shen Rong’s serious expression deepen, Manhe quietly pulled Meixiang out of the study and closed the door.

Meixiang whispered, “Sister Manhe, does Miss really know how to read ledgers?”

Manhe nodded. “When has Miss ever lied to us? If she didn’t say she couldn’t, then she can, and she’s proficient.” She looked up at the sky with a long-lost smile. “The Shen family is about to change. I can finally rest easy knowing our mistress’s spirit is at peace...”

It was the first time Meixiang had heard Manhe mention the late Madam. She knew Manhe had come out of the Xie family with Madam, and after Madam’s death, Manhe had nearly become the new Madam.

Since being driven out of Rongyin Pavilion, Manhe never spoke of Madam again.

Those years were hard for Manhe. Meixiang often urged her to ask the Master to let her leave the household to avoid the daily humiliation, but Manhe always just smiled silently, as if she had her own reasons for staying.

Once, when Meixiang visited the ill Manhe, she vaguely heard her crying with her eyes closed, seemingly terrified of something...