Not all the servants were fine with being questioned about their family history for three generations. The first one who rejected that was Steward Mo"s mother, who was called Matron Mo in Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion. She had served Gu Tingye"s grandmother when she had been young, which made her respected by the others in the family. When she reached to the marriageable age, she was betrothed to the male servant in the mansion. Because of her great eloquence and sensible character, she had managed to help her son get a job in the mansion. Steward Mo had the determination to study and was an a.s.siduous man. After several promotions, he had become a steward of the low level. After Old Master Gu had come back from the border, the old steward had had happened to retire. Old Master Gu admired Steward Mo for his considerate and steady personality and then let the latter become the grand steward.

“I am already at this age and have served the Gu family for my whole life. When I served Grand Old Madam, I have never been humiliated like this! How dare you b.i.t.c.hes dare to interrogate me! Is it because you think you have strong support?!” Matron Mo"s face turned red as if she was drunk. Gradually, she went wild and shouted loudly in the garden of the House of Auspiciousness. Xiahe and the other maids were not able to stop her. “Even Old Madam, First Madam, Fourth Old Madam and Fifth Old Madam are all polite to me because I was favored by Grand Old Madam, not to mention Second Madam! I can"t believe I was taunted like this…”

Danju was shivering out of anger in the room. Then she said with a soft voice, “Madam, please let me shut her up!” Lvzhi, teeth gritted, wanted to rush out at once. However, Minglan sat by the desk upright and wrote a whole paper of regular script without any expression on her face, “Lvzhi, tell someone to gag her and tie her up. Then throw her to the side room.”

Lvzhi accepted that order happily and went out. There were already a few strong servants of the low level waiting at the outside. Matron Mo was having a great time cursing. Little did she know that she would suddenly be surrounded by some servants and tied up with the rope which was made of cotton. The thing which was put in her mouth was quite smelly and she didn"t know what that was. After that, she was dragged into a room. With the under-floor heating in the room, she didn"t feel cold. However, there was nothing else except for the walls.

There were lots of servants from Marquis Ningyuan"s mansion standing in the corridor right now. Matron Mo was a bullying person. The other servants didn"t dare to offend her because of Steward Mo. Even the Madams or Ladies were very polite to her. Today, she even dared to retort the New Madam. Actually, it was a ridiculous thing to talk to an unreasonable person like her. Then, everyone gathered around and whispered, waiting to see how Minglan would deal with this.

Never did they realize that Minglan didn"t even show up and only ordered someone to tie Matron Mo up directly. In no time, the House of Auspiciousness returned to a peaceful place again. The maids in the garden didn"t seem to be startled at all. Besides the messy footprints were left on the snowfield, it seemed that nothing had happened. Before everyone had time to show their surprise, a maid with a round face in a pink brocade and cotton jacket walked out and stood under the roof, saying loudly with a kind smile, “Mamas, sisters, if you feel cold, you can drink warm tea in the water room to get warm. After we finish asking the questions, you can go back to your own places.”

Hearing that, those servants looked at each other at a loss, not knowing what to do with this.

The fire was blazing up nicely in the room, making people feel very warm. Minglan was writing steadily with a peaceful look while murmuring, “They did have spent time on thinking of a way of finding such an old servant whom we can"t beat, abuse or punish to create a disturbance…” Minglan was fine, but Danju was already furious.

In the Sheng family, no matter what the madams had done, not a single servant dared to bully their madams. Old Madam Sheng governed the family strictly and no servant had the gut to pull rank on others. After w.a.n.g shi had married into the Sheng family, Old Madam Sheng handed over the power to her. Then, w.a.n.g shi changed all the servants in the family. After that, Concubine Lin arrived and the battle between Wnag shi and her continued for a long time. Sheng Hong was annoyed by that and could only vent his anger on the servants. Lots of the stewards and servants had been implicated. The rest of the servants were all smart ones who stayed low-key the whole time. After Hai shi married into this family, she had managed the family in great order too.

“Such a savage! If Mama Fang sees her, she will…” Danju, the gentle girl, thought for a long time but still couldn"t think of some fierce words which could sound threatening. Minglan put down the brush with a smile, not feeling angry at all. Minglan could do nothing about the people who didn"t follow her orders. The only thing she could do was… well, educating them slowly.

After half an hour, Steward Mo got the message. Then he kneeled in front of the House of Auspiciousness and kept kowtowing to apologize. Actually, Steward Mo knew that every new madam would bring their own servant. Even if he couldn"t stay in the current position, he could still beg Minglan to give him another post for the old time"s sake. So the only thing he scared was that she might tell this to Gu Tingye. Steward Mo was well aware of Gu Tingye"s temper. Second Master Ye would do anything to the person who offended him no matter who that was. Minglan"s voice came through from the behind of the curtain, sounding soft and gentle, “Steward Mo, don"t blame yourself. Only mothers can discipline their sons, no sons would discipline their mothers. I"ll deal with this cautiously. Please get up.”

Hearing her flat words, Steward Mo was confused for the moment and the servants already started to urge him to leave. Then he a.s.sumed that Minglan would only starve his mother for a while and locked her for one night. As long as his family wasn"t implicated, the punishment could be considered as a mild one.

Next day in the morning, he went to the House of Auspiciousness to wait for the message of his mother. A maid who dressed in pretty clothes spoke in a genteel way with an indifferent look on her face in front of everyone, “Matron Mo truly was overbearing yesterday. She never stopped talking about how much she was favored by the other Madams and completely forgot about her own ident.i.ty. Wasn"t she afraid that she would frighten Madam by shouting so loudly?”
Steward Mo got anxious hearing that. As he stepped forward and wanted to argue something, the maid said with a gentler look, “We know that Matron Mo has drunken a few gla.s.ses of wine yesterday so that she said all kinds of things. However, how could she drink wines when she knew that she had to reply to her madam! We have strict family rules here and anyone who makes mistakes should be punished…” Steward Mo got nervous at once. Then the maid continued, “But, Madam is a lenient person. She considered that Matron Mo has served Grand Old Madam and is already very old. So Madam doesn"t want to punish Matron Mo in case your mother"s feelings would be hurt…”

The other servants in the garden started to gossip in louder voice. They a.s.sumed that their new madam was also afraid of getting into trouble and would give up the fierce punishment this time. Then, Ruomei announced the punishment for Matron Mo with no expression on her face, “However, Matron Mo"s temper truly is a problem. How could she retort her madam like that? Since Steward Mo you cannot discipline you mother, Madam will help you to do so. Yesterday, Matron Mo has already been sent to Luo Song Nunnery. She will become a vegetarian there and pray for the deceased Grand Old Madam to Buddha every day.”

After she had said that, Steward Mo was totally dumbfounded, so were all the other servants. They didn"t know what kind of punishment that was. Minglan hadn"t beaten or cursed Matron Mo, so Steward Mo didn"t even know how to plead for her mother. Also, as a servant, he couldn"t use his filial duty as an excuse. Since Matron Mo liked to mention about Grand Old Madam all the time, now she also couldn"t say no to the job of giving blessing to Grand Old Madam every day.

Luo Song Nunnery took in the women who had made mistakes in big families just like the Tong Chu Nunnery, but only in a smaller scale with stricter rules. Living in a place like that was no different from becoming a nun. The women there had to eat simple food, do the cleaning and chop woods every day. Sometimes they also had to help distribute food to the poor. Matron Mo had got used to eating fish and meat and being served by young maids. She always beat and cursed others as she wished. It was hard to imagine how she could get through the bitter days.

The nuns in the nunnery didn"t treat this old woman harshly. However, they didn"t allow anyone to speak with her. If she made a scene, she would be locked up right away for self-examination. Matron Mo felt as if her heart was being scratched by hundreds of claws. She missed the delicious food and felt lonely all the time, but didn"t know where to vent all her anger. After three or four days, she already regretted deeply and wanted to kneel in front of Minglan to beg for mercy.

After around seven days, Steward Mo took his mother home. The families which lived on the same street with the Mo family were all surprised to find that Matron Mo had changed to a completely different person. Not only had she got thinner, her face was no longer glossy either. She was in a normal mental state now, but she seemed quite nervous when she spoke and acted. After she went on her knees on the corridor in front of the door of Minglan"s room, she stammered and held her breath.

Minglan said behind the curtain with a nonchalant tone, “Matron Mo, enough of the courtesy. You have worked in this family for a long time, this kind of apology is too much for me. Lately I"ve thinking of presenting an altar lamp for grandfather, grandmother, father and mother in a quiet temple or nunnery and offering some incense there. It"s better that someone could stay in the temple to guard this. I think the old servants would be a great choice…”

Matron Mo was scared out of her wits. She never wanted to go back to that deserted place again, so she kowtowed even harder, “I have been blindfolded by others before. They egged me on to retort you. I am such a fool. I won"t do it again. Please forgive me this time, Madam…!” The madam in the room seemed to chuckle and said with a kind voice, “Matron Mo, you are a clever person, so are the people in and out of this family. Even if you don"t consider for yourself, you should at least think for your children.”

After Steward Mo brought his mother back home gratefully, he kept admonishing her. Matron Mo said with frustration, “My son, will Madam hold grudge against us and give us lots of troubles in the future?” Steward Mo answered, “Madam only punished you this time. Erya and Gou"er who work in the inner yard as well as eldest brother and I are totally fine. Madam has already shown mercy to our family. Mother, you shouldn"t be incited by others anymore. This time you"ve seen what that would bring you, right?” Matron Mo said bitterly, “I"ll go look for these old b.i.t.c.hes when I go back!”

Before long, it was said that Matron Mo had rushed to her neighbors and got into a huge fight with the women whom she always drink alcohol with. Strong as Matron Mo was, she was great at fighting. At that time, she smashed lots of pots and pans and left blood stains on many people"s faces.