Chapter 489: The Pay-to-Win Palace Intrigue System (24)

【Host, you guessed right!】

【The Eldest Madam didn't receive much of a punishment; she was only told to go to the family shrine to kneel and copy Buddhist scriptures for three days. But the Old Matriarch agreed to divide the family.】

Xie Yang raised an eyebrow: she had guessed it would be like this.

The Eldest Master held a noble title, after all. Once it got out that his wife had committed such a sordid act, even if he divorced her and sent her back to her maiden home, he would be unable to salvage the reputation of the First Branch.

It was better to suppress it and resolve it internally within the family.

But how could it be resolved internally to appease the Second and Third Branches? Naturally, by dividing the family.

Once the family was divided, the Eldest Madam could subsidize her daughter however she liked, and the other two branches would have no say in it.

But before the division, the First Branch had to return all the money they had hidden from the Second and Third Branches to subsidize Xie Ping back to the public treasury.

The Eldest Madam pinched her nose and accepted this punishment.

But the silver had already been sent into the palace; where would the First Branch's private treasury still have enough silver?

In the end, she had no choice but to use her dowry, selling two dowry Farms to barely scrape together thirteen thousand taels of Silver.

But the discrepancy in the money on the list was as much as eighteen thousand taels!

The Eldest Madam refused to admit it, claiming the rest was what the Old Matriarch had subsidized the eldest granddaughter with.

Facing the resentful gazes of the Second and Third Branches, the Old Matriarch had no choice but to also subsidize the Second and Third Branches with five thousand taels each, almost emptying her own private cash.

The Second and Third Branches returned home satisfied.

However, because the First Branch had given all five thousand taels the Old Matriarch had provided to Xie Ping, it caused dissatisfaction for Xie Zhang's wife. Although it hadn't reached the point of dividing the family again, she and the couple from the First Branch had become estranged.

This piece of gossip could be considered to have reached a stopping point.

Xie Yang clapped her little hands, intending to return to her room for a nap.

She had woken up early in the morning; although she was in the manor eating gossip, she could not let the Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden Technique slide. It was just that her little body was only five years old, so she needed to go back to her room in the afternoon to make up for sleep, otherwise, she would be drowsy by evening and have no energy to practice before bed.

……

After the family was divided, the First Branch had almost no spare money left, yet their daughter in the palace kept urging them for silver.

In desperation, they had no choice but to liquidate the Farms and shops they had received from the division, converting them into Silver to send into the palace.

When Xie Zhang and his wife found out, they were unwilling to accept it and questioned the couple from the First Branch if they intended to rely on their sister in the palace for their old age in the future.

The Eldest Madam only had one legitimate son, Xie Zhang. Sending silver to Xie Ping was, in the final analysis, hoping she would assist her maiden family and her maiden brother. After all, it was Xie Zhang, the son, who would inherit the First Branch and carry on the family line, not Xie Ping, the daughter.

If her son didn't acknowledge her as his mother and didn't provide for her in her old age, then what was the point of her doing all this?

Thus, in order to appease her son, the Eldest Madam had no choice but to give the remaining Farms and shops to him.

With this, Xie Yan, who was quietly waiting to be married off, was unhappy.

She was fourteen this year, her husband's family had already been decided, and her dowry was currently being prepared. The valuable things in the family had either been gathered up by the eldest sister in the palace or divided among the eldest brother and sister-in-law. So when she got married, would there still be the ten miles of red dowry she had hoped for?

Thus, Xie Yan dragged her concubine-born younger sister, Xie Wan, who was two years her junior, and ran to the Old Matriarch to complain.

The Eldest Madam was called over by the Old Matriarch and scolded once again.

Just at this time, good news came from the palace—Xie Ping was pregnant with a Dragon Fetus again and had been promoted to Li Concubine.

Now the Eldest Madam's tail was raised to the sky. She called her son, daughter-in-law, and two unmarried daughters to the Main Courtyard to lecture them:

"Look at how promising your eldest sister is in the palace! And you lot, you make such a fuss over losing a little money, this one unhappy, that one displeased. Your eldest sister has it hard in the palace; you must be considerate of her. Help her now, and when she becomes a Noble Consort in the future, there will be glory and wealth for you all! Keep your sights on the long term!"

Lecturing internally, and externally... especially toward the Second and Third Branches, she mocked them overtly and covertly:

"I said my Ping'er's blessings were yet to come. But some people are so shallow-sighted they only see that one acre of land in front of them. In the future, don't you dare try to bask in my Ping'er's glory, and if you fall on hard times, don't come crying at our First Branch's door..."

"..."

The Second Madam was indeed somewhat regretful.

After all, the Second Branch had produced two scholars. Once they passed the imperial examinations in the future, they would still need to rely on their eldest cousin to help them secure an official post or two that was lucrative and leisurely!

But after the trouble of dividing the family, the little bit of sister-in-law affection she had for the Eldest Madam had been worn away to almost nothing. She was not willing to go and kiss up to the Eldest Madam now.

Thus, she withdrew most of her energy from the biological daughter she had just found and refocused it on her two legitimate sons, stewing tonics for them every few days and urging them to study hard:

"Qi, Huan, you must be promising! The future of our Second Branch depends entirely on you!"

Once she became this attentive, she over-nourished the two sons.

This pair of brothers was not cut out for studying in the first place.

Xie Qi was slightly better; if his talent wasn't enough, he made up for it with effort. Xie Huan lacked talent, and his effort was even more lacking.

Don't look at how he holed up in the study all day; the time he actually spent studying probably didn't amount to an hour. The rest of the time, he was either sitting with his legs crossed reading lewd books and whistling tunes, or fooling around on the couch with the maidservants who served in the study.

Being over-nourished made him even less in the mood to study, and he spent his days pestering his concubine-consort for that sort of thing.

But the Second Madam was completely unaware of all this.

She was still dreaming the dream that one of her two sons would pass the imperial examinations!

As for the Third Branch, hearing the mockery in the Eldest Madam's words, they truly didn't care.

After the family was divided, Third Master Xie expanded the northwest side gate into the Third Branch's manor gate.

The original doorway of the Xi Kuayuan was converted into a back door.

Except for going to pay respects to the Old Matriarch, they basically didn't enter or exit through that gate at other times.

With this renovation, the Third Branch's family had much more peace and quiet.

Xie Jing continued to go out early and return late to supervise the construction of seagoing ships and learn ship-repairing technology.

Xie Jing's wife followed her mother-in-law to learn how to manage the household.

Ever since the family was divided, Third Madam Xie had swept away her past laziness. Although she couldn't compare to the Eldest Madam or Second Madam who worried about every detail of the entire manor's affairs, she was much more diligent than before.

It was evident that being the master of one's own house could indeed improve an owner's initiative.

Xie Yu and Xie Jue had to go to school during the day.

Xie Yang didn't need to go to school, and she wasn't yet at the age to follow her mother and sister-in-law to learn household management.

What could she do?

——She was taken to the teahouse by Third Master Xie to listen to storytelling.

Ever since discovering that eight out of ten antiques and curios he had scavenged were fakes, Third Master Xie no longer went to crowd into poetry gatherings or art exhibitions where scholars congregated; those places had broken his heart.

It was better to take his daughter to the teahouse to watch plays and listen to storytelling.

Whenever the tea patrons asked, and he introduced her as his youngest daughter, many people would come forward to try and get on his good side.

Some sent over a pot of premium Biluochun tea, some sent over a few plates of dried fruits and snacks that his daughter liked, and some sent over treats and toys that a five-year-old girl might enjoy...

Although they weren't worth much money, it was a joy he had never experienced before—it was far, far more pleasant than currying favor with those arrogant scholars and students from the past.

Xie Yang, who had been diligently taken to the teahouse by Third Master Xie every day under various pretexts to watch plays and listen to storytelling: "..."

Forget it, considering she quite likes this kind of leisure and entertainment of the ancients, she might as well satisfy this cheap father's vanity.