Lock Them Up First

"Yes. Don't worry, Mother."

Zhao Jingli considered himself an adult. With his father away, he naturally had to take on the responsibility of maintaining peace and tranquility in the Marquis's residence.

Several burly women dragged Li Mu's wife and Qingliu out of the courtyard and headed straight for the inner courtyard. A few strong guards then helped Li Mu up and took him to the woodshed in the outer courtyard.

The punishment of servants in the manor was not only to discipline those who had made mistakes, but also to serve as a warning to others. However, since men and women were different, the First Madam naturally would not allow anything that was offensive to public morals.

Therefore, when a woman was executed in the inner courtyard, all the maids and servants in the inner courtyard had to come and watch; when a man was executed in the outer courtyard, all the male servants and pageboys in the mansion had to come and watch.

Lady Wei followed them into the inner courtyard, waiting for the First Madam to finish beating the girl so she could immediately have her taken out of the manor. But when she saw that the First Madam didn't immediately administer the beating, but instead ordered the servants to lock Qingliu and her daughter in the woodshed, she panicked.

She grabbed the First Madam's arm and said excitedly, "Why aren't you beating her with a rod right away? Why are you locking her in the woodshed? Hurry up and beat her so I can have someone take her out of the mansion."

The First Madam turned to look at her, but said nothing.

Seeing the old woman who was leading Li Mu's wife and Qingliu, along with the other maids and servants who had come with them, all looking at her strangely, Lady Wei was puzzled. "What's wrong?"

The First Madam glanced around the crowd, pointed at one of the old women, and said, "Lin Song's wife, tell the Second Madam."

This old woman from Lin Song's household was a maidservant to the third wife, Lady Su.

Lady Wei had a bad temper and dared not vent it on the old lady or the first lady, but she couldn't control her temper with Lady Su, who came from a merchant family. She would vent her anger on Lady Su whenever she was unhappy; and whenever they met, she would find a way to provoke Lady Su.

Lady Su was actually quite shrewd, but she preferred to feign weakness. When she was bullied by Lady Wei, she never hid it; she would always cry all the way back, making the whole mansion know that the Second Madam had bullied the Third Madam again. Not only was Zhao Yuankun dissatisfied with this Second Sister-in-law, but Lady Su's servants also loathed Lady Wei.

Seeing Lady Wei suffer a setback was a rare treat for Old Woman Lin, and she was Gao Xing.

She immediately said, "Second Madam, you've been in this household for over ten years, haven't you? How come you don't know the rules of the Marquis's mansion? Because the servants are required to watch during executions, if it's too late and everyone is going to sleep, the execution is carried out in the woodshed until Wushi the next day. Now it's past dusk, and some servants have to get up early to work tomorrow, so they've already gone to bed. Who will watch the execution now? And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to see it clearly, would they?"

Lady Wei's expression froze as she recalled this incident.

The First Madam was very strict in managing the household, always prioritizing prevention.

Both she and the old lady were kind-hearted and didn't want to see the scene of someone being beaten bloody; moreover, they believed that those who made mistakes couldn't be reformed by a beating. Therefore, servants with even slightly questionable conduct were simply sold off, and the method of caning was rarely used.

Furthermore, caning always involved removing the woman's trousers and striking her naked, which was an extreme insult to women. Even if the onlookers were all women, it was still a shameful thing. Some maids who cared about this were so ashamed and indignant that they committed suicide.

Therefore, the First Madam usually punished maids and old women in other ways. Only maids who committed adultery were punished with caning.

In the more than ten years since Lady Wei married into the family, there have only been three or four cases of people being beaten with canes, and most of them were male servants from the outer courtyard. Since they were not servants of her second wife, and it was none of her business, Lady Wei really didn't pay much attention to this matter.

"Lady Li Zhang and Qingliu are my personal maids, not servants of the Marquis's mansion. Since you say they must be punished according to the rules of the Marquis's mansion, I have no further comment. But this caning should not be delayed until tomorrow; finish it now so I can have someone take them out and sell them," said Lady Wei.

She dared not leave this family in the care of the First Madam overnight. If they were bribed and revealed something, it would be disastrous.

Lady Wei wasn't afraid of the child-swapping being exposed. Those who knew about it back then were either dead or had fled. Not only did Li Mu's family not know about the child-swapping, but even Matron Li was unaware of it.

Although Matron Li was Lady Wei's personal maid, she was not given important responsibilities at that time and was instead assigned to some odd jobs. Later, Lady Wei's wet nurse and other maids left the Marquis's residence because of this incident, and Matron Li was then promoted by Lady Wei to be her head maid.

Lady Wei would never keep someone who knew the inside story by her side; that would be like a time bomb, ready to blow her to pieces at any moment.

But over the years, she had Matron Li's family do many shady things in secret; recently, because of Xu Xi, she sometimes couldn't control her emotions and said some ambiguous things in front of Matron Li, and it is unknown whether she revealed her true intentions.

In short, no matter what aspect it is, Lady Wei cannot allow Li Mu's family to fall into the hands of the First Madam.

The First Madam's behavior tonight was extremely unusual. Lady Wei had something to hide and couldn't help but think in that direction.

"It's true they were your personal attendants, but now they're not in the Wei Residence, they're in the Marquis of Suiping's Residence."

The First Madam spoke, looking at Lady Wei with a half-smile, "Second Sister-in-law probably doesn't know, does she? This girl..." She pointed to Qingliu, "... is not in love with the Second Young Master, but with the Eldest Young Master."

"What?"

Not only Lady Wei and the other servants, but even Qingliu, whose face was ashen, was startled.

"That girl Qingliu, she dresses up all day long and flaunts herself in front of Young Master Li, even embroidering him a handkerchief and bringing him soup every now and then. The young master's servant has reported this to me more than once. Out of respect for you, second sister-in-law, and because I've heard you say before that you wanted to keep Qingliu for the second young master as a concubine, I've kept quiet. The other day I discovered that the young master was reading those kinds of novels, and I was worried that he wouldn't be able to resist Qingliu's temptation and that it would cause a rift between him and the second young master, so I thought of choosing a concubine for the young master. I never expected that something like this would happen today."

As the First Madam spoke, she looked at Qingliu and coldly asked, "Qingliu, tell me honestly, did you want to climb into the young master's bed today, or the second young master's bed?"

How could Qingliu dare to say that the one who wanted to climb up was the eldest young master? Her whole family was now counting on the second madam for their lives.

She cried, "Madam, I haven't slept with anyone, nor have I seduced anyone. A while ago, the eldest young master praised my handkerchief embroidery and asked me to embroider one for him. I'm just a maid; I do what my master tells me to do, so naturally I couldn't refuse the eldest young master. That's why I embroidered the handkerchief for him. If you don't believe me, ask the eldest young master. Today, I was drunk and somehow ended up outside the second gate, in the second young master's bedroom, and committed a grave mistake. I truly didn't mean to."

The maid who helped Qingliu get dressed in Zhao Jing'an's courtyard wasn't from the second wife's household, but was sent by the first wife. She came along as a witness.

Upon hearing Qingliu's words, she immediately spat at her. "Ha, you got drunk, went to the wrong room, and even stripped naked and lay on the bed. When you saw the Second Young Master enter the room, you pounced on him. Who are you trying to fool?"