Wei Ziqin creased her brows. “Donghe, why aren’t you greeting the Eldest Miss? How can you disregard the rules?”
It was only then that the maidservant called Donghe released Xiao Sen’s hand in terror and bowed unhurriedly towards Qiao Mu. “Donghe greets Eldest Miss.”
Qiao Mu swept her a glance before turning to look at her mother.
Wei Ziqin smiled and said, “You haven’t come back in so many years, so it’s natural that you don’t know the people that we’ve taken in. Let’s go in before chatting.”
“Youngest Young Master, does you hand still hurt?” Donghe followed behind them, remarking in a soft and supple voice, “Youngest Young Master is tired, right. Let this servant carry you inside.”
Our dear Qiao Sen was just about to hang onto the servant girl Donghe’s body, just like usual.
However, he saw his Eldest Sister turn her head around abruptly, her clear and ice-cold eyes suddenly glaring at the maidservant. “Let go!”
This bellow immediately made the servant girl Donghe, as well as the two boy servants guarding the door, jolt in shock.
Donghe hastily retracted her hands, as if she had been bitten by a venomous snake.
“He can’t walk by himself?” Qiao Mu couldn’t tolerate those young masters and young misses’ high and mighty behavior, and she gazed coldly at the servant girl called Donghe. “How old is he? Look at what he’s become, mingling with people of questionable character all the time.”
Donghe, the servant girl of questionable character, immediately reddened her eyes in grievance. She gritted her teeth and hung her head to mask the unwillingness in her eyes.
“Walk properly! Mom has told you how many times already, that you have to stand and sit properly. You deserve to be scolded by your Eldest Sis.” Wei Ziqin brusquely whacked her son’s back before dragging him through the door.
Our dear Qiao Sen obediently walked through the door by himself.
Steward Chang Zai, who came upon receiving the news, bowed with a wide smile towards the Eldest Miss and followed them inside.
After seeing a lot of new faces along the way, Qiao Mu involuntarily creased her brows.
“Mom, why are there so many idle people at home?”
Idle people…
Chang Zai twitched his mouth. Sure enough, Little Master doesn’t like the unnecessary servants.
Wei Ziqin gazed at her daughter in mirth, and the mother and daughter walked arm in arm affectionately towards the main hall.
“It’s actually not many people. Your grandmother likes it to be more lively at home, so we bought around a dozen servant girls and boy servants. We set aside two servant girls to accompany and chat with your grandmother. Tallying everyone up, our Qiao Family today only has 21 people in total. Compared to the operational structure of usual estates, we really have much fewer servant girls and boy servants,” Wei Ziqin explained to her daughter goodnaturedly.
Qiao Mu turned her head around and glared at the crown prince in displeasure.
It’s definitely because this fellow gave this and that practically every day that made the family extremely well-off. Otherwise, if they were to only depend on her father and second uncle going out to complete a mission occasionally, how could they support such a large batch of people?
In other words, the crown prince was supporting more than half of these idle people.
Giving a perfectly guileless look, the crown prince stepped forward and hooked Qiao Mu’s small fingers with his own. “Qiaoqiao. Auntie isn’t wrong in that the family hasn’t taken in that many servants. Besides, they’re living in such a large courtyard now, which is quite troublesome to maintain. You don’t want Auntie to be too exhausted, right.”
Qiao Mu gave a humph and turned her head aside, not wanting to bother with him.
On the other hand, Wei Ziqin was a bit panic-stricken and hastily stepped forward to separate the two’s hands. She gazed at her own daughter, hesitating to speak. “Qiao, Qiaoqiao, there’s something Mom n-needs to tell you.”
The crown prince was baffled and couldn’t comprehend why his mother-in-law stepped forward to break up mandarin ducks[1].
“Mom, tell me, what is it.”
“Daughter, this morning, our family received a royal edict. For some reason, the king betrothed you to the current crown prince! I-I don’t know what to say… sigh,” Wei Ziqin sighed.
[1] mandarin ducks = affectionate couple