Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Jujube Trees Are Hardy and Easy to Raise

Yun Chu no longer looked at Tingyu.

Her gaze fell upon the rest of the children.

The eldest miss, Xie Ping, was thirteen years old and blossoming into a graceful young lady.

The eldest young master, Xie Shi'an, was still kneeling in the ancestral hall.

The second young master, Xie Shiwei, was eight years old. He had not come to pay his morning respects and was presumably still asleep.

The three eldest children were all born to Madam He.

The third young master was none other than Xie Shiyun.

The second miss, Xie Xian, was born to Concubine Jiang and was currently only three years old.

Concubine Tao was pregnant, carrying the future fourth young master within her womb...

Yun Chu swept her gaze across everyone present and said in a calm tone, "I still have matters to attend to, so all of you may go about your business."

Ever since marrying into the Xie family, she had taken charge of the household affairs; therefore, the Old Madam and the primary mistress had purposely exempted her from daily morning greetings.

No sooner had the people who came to pay respects departed than the managerial matrons of the Xie residence arrived.

The matrons began reporting on various matters one by one.

Yun Chu gently blew the foam off her tea.

The Xie family was considered a scholarly household of modest means. After Xie Jingyu's father passed the provincial examinations as a licentiate, neighboring villagers all registered their landholdings under the Xie family's name to evade taxes, thereby earning quite a bit of silver.

Once Xie Jingyu entered official service at court, her father-in-law used that silver to purchase some farmland and a few shops in the suburbs of the capital.

The annual revenue from those shops amounted to roughly five thousand and some taels of silver. More than half of it was taken by Xie Jingyu to grease the wheels of his official career, while the remaining silver fell far short of supporting the luxurious lifestyle of so many people up and down the Xie household.

In her past life, she had always felt a sense of guilt toward the Xie family and wished to do whatever lay within her power.

Consequently, her dowry was hollowed out bit by bit.

So much so that later, when disaster struck the Yun family, she wanted to gather silver to bribe officials in the dungeon, only to find that her remaining dowry was less than a thousand taels...

"Mistress?"

Seeing her only drink tea without speaking, the reporting matron felt somewhat apprehensive.

Yun Chu pulled her thoughts back and spoke in an indifferent voice, "Where were we just now?"

The matron hastily replied, "Spring has arrived, and the flowers in the courtyards are due to be replaced. Shall we switch to orchids or azaleas this year?"

Yun Chu gave a light laugh.

The Xie family came from humble origins; the mud from their fields had not even been fully washed from their legs, yet they wanted to imitate the grand aristocratic families of the capital by planting seasonal flowers and hosting flower-viewing banquets every season.

Replacing orchids every spring and chrysanthemums every autumn seemed like a simple enough task, yet carrying it out required a considerable amount of silver.

For the past four or five years, she had relied on her personal dowry to sustain the Xie family's facade.

But now...

She set down her teacup. "Flowers are much of a muchness no matter how you change them, and it is far too troublesome. This year, replace all of them with fruit trees."

The matron thought she had misheard. "Plant—plant fruit trees?"

Pondering for a moment, Yun Chu said, "Jujube trees have tough bark and are easy to raise. Let's go with jujube trees."

The matron was utterly dumbfounded.

Mistresses of capital households all loved flowers, and every spring various estates vied with one another to host flower-viewing banquets. The Xie family was determined not to lag behind, as it was prime opportunity to forge connections.

When the Mistress first mentioned fruit trees, the matron had assumed she meant peach or pear trees, since peach and pear blossoms could at least pass for a scenic view.

Jujube blossoms, however, were tiny, unappealing, and hidden beneath the leaves. She had never heard of a single estate in the capital planting jujube trees.

It was simply unheard of!

"Are there any other matters?" Yun Chu's voice remained very calm. "If there is nothing else, you may all withdraw."

Having long since heard that the Mistress had flown into a towering rage yesterday and punished the eldest young master, the matrons dared not utter another word; keeping their heads bowed, they retreated outside.

"Tingfeng, go invite Uncle Chen to come over," Yun Chu instructed. "Tingshuang, Tingxue, the two of you go organize my dowry. Note down what is missing, what has been reduced, and what items were spent on members of the Xie family—write every single item down clearly."

Tingfeng hurried outside to summon him.

Tingshuang hesitated before speaking, "Mistress, has something happened?"

Ever since yesterday, the Mistress had been acting somewhat abnormal. Punishing the eldest young master could be considered justifiable, but having Concubine Yu and the third young master move out immediately afterward felt rather strange, and now she even wanted to take inventory of her dowry... Something extraordinary must have happened.
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Yun Chu looked toward Tingshuang.

Among the four accompanying maidservants, Tingshuang was the cleverest and most steady, yet Tingshuang had perished prematurely in that raging fire.

If Tingshuang hadn't died, with her acuity, she might have uncovered the wolfish heart hidden beneath Xie Shi'an's polished exterior...

Looking at her, Yun Chu spoke gently, "Nothing has happened. Don't overthink it; go busy yourselves."

Tingshuang tucked away the worry in her eyes and walked together with Tingxue toward the storehouse where the dowry was kept.

A quarter of an hour later, Tingfeng arrived with Uncle Chen in tow.

Uncle Chen was also someone Yun Chu had brought with her into the Xie household. Named Chen Defu and approaching fifty years of age, he specialized in managing her dowry.

After she took over the household affairs of the Xie family, she had also handed several of the Xie family's shops over to Uncle Chen to manage alongside her own.

Her father-in-law had been a scholar unskilled in business, yielding a meager annual income of only a little over a thousand taels from the Xie shops.

Once they fell into Uncle Chen's hands, the annual revenue transformed into four to five thousand taels.

"Greetings to the Mistress," Chen Defu walked in and said. "Is there an urgent matter that caused the Mistress to summon old servant over in such a rush?"

Yun Chu stated, "Does Uncle Chen have a junior manager with the surname He under his supervision?"

"Indeed there is one, named He Xu," Chen Defu raised his head. "Is there a problem with this person?"

Yun Chu lowered her eyelids.

It was only after the Yun family met its doom in her past life that she discovered the Xie estate's Steward He was actually Madam He's own elder brother.

When she knelt outside Xie Jingyu's study begging for a sliver of survival for the Yun family, He Xu, emboldened by his status as Xie Shi'an's biological uncle, repeatedly harassed and insulted her...

Yet because she was, after all, the primary mistress of the Xie household, He Xu only dared to engage in verbal harassment.

Tingxue and Tingfeng were merely maidservants devoid of any power to resist, and they had been defiled by He Xu... Later on, when she perished from a cup of poisoned wine, those two loyal girls undoubtedly followed her to the grave as well...

Seeing Yun Chu's unsightly complexion, Chen Defu knew the matter was somewhat grave.

He clenched his fists tightly. "Mistress, just give your orders!"

"There is no need to do anything special just yet," Yun Chu suppressed the chill in her voice. "Give him opportunities and let him climb upward. The higher he climbs, the harder and more miserable his fall will be when the time comes."

As a man of the business world, Chen Defu naturally understood the implication of those words and promptly acknowledged the order.

Yun Chu put down her teacup and stood up. "Uncle Chen, take me to inspect the dowry shops."

In her previous life, her dowry shops had been sold off one by one, and the silver gained from them was mostly poured into Xie Jingyu's official career.

As for the seven or eight dowry manors in the suburbs of the capital, half of them were given to Xie Shi'an's wife, while the other half were handed to Xie Ping as part of her dowry...

All of these had been meticulously prepared for her by her mother, consuming the greater part of the Yun family's wealth, only to end up entirely in the hands of the Xie family.

It was only after experiencing the despair of the Yun family's annihilation that she realized how wonderful a thing silver truly was.

Living this life anew, she would not only guard her dowry, but also make those assets multiply three-fold, ten-fold, or even a hundred-fold!