Shen Qing followed her gaze and indeed saw Xu Yanchi's back in the Jinyu Pavilion.
Xu Yanchi was extremely fond of having cloud patterns embroidered on his cuffs. He would specially embroider cloud patterns with silver thread on the cuffs of every single one of his clothes.
Beside him was a petite woman with a bulging belly. It was Lu Mian.
When Shen Qing looked over, Xu Yanchi was just inserting a hairpin into Lu Mian's hair. The tenderness and love on his face were something Shen Qing and Yingxiu had never seen before.
"My lord... How could he do this!" Yingxiu was almost speechless with anger.
The madam was the lord's legitimate wife who had been married to him through proper formalities. He had been delaying consummating the marriage with the madam, but instead, he had taken in a mistress. That mistress's belly was so big. It was obvious that they had been having an affair for quite some time!
Yingxiu was itching to go over and confront them right then, but when she saw that Shen Qing just looked a bit cold and showed no sign of surprise or anger.
"Madam, did you already know?"
There was no trace of emotion on Shen Qing's face. "Not really that early."
It had only been a few days in this life.
"Remember, never get angry for someone unworthy at any time. It's just not worth it."
But Yingxiu was still very angry. "But are we just going to let them be so arrogant forever?"
Shen Qing shook her head and shifted her gaze to the other side. "Don't worry. They won't be able to be arrogant for long. Look who that is?"
Yingxiu followed Shen Qing's gaze and saw a figure in a remote alley corner. From where they were, they could clearly see who it was, but the figure couldn't see them.
Yingxiu exclaimed, "Isn't that Xiangyun beside the cousin?"
Shen Qing smiled faintly and put down the carriage curtain. "Let's go back."
Early the next morning, Shen Qing got up early again to practice with the spear. The set of spearplay that had been extremely strenuous for her to perform yesterday was much more proficient today.
The old madam had failed to summon her yesterday, so she was seething with anger. She summoned Xu Yanchi early in the morning.
"Chier, you've really married a good wife. She's becoming more and more outrageous. It's this late, and there's still no sign of her coming to pay her respects!"
Xu Yanchi was taken aback. He thought it was something else that she had to say before he went on duty. But before, Shen Qing would indeed come to the Renshou Hall early to wait at this time.
While serving the old madam to get up, Jiang Chan said worriedly, "Auntie hasn't had a good appetite these past two days. She wants to eat the soup cooked by sister-in-law herself, but when Nanny Cui went to invite her yesterday, she failed to bring sister-in-law here..."
A look of impatience flashed across Xu Yanchi's face. "What's so difficult about this? Serving one's mother-in-law is her duty. How could she be so slack? I'll go and scold her right away."
After saying that, Xu Yanchi bowed and left.
The old madam looked calm. This wasn't the first time she had done this. When Shen Qing had just married in, she would often make her stand in the corner as punishment. When Shen Qing couldn't bear it and wanted to complain to Xu Yanchi, she would always tell Xu Yanchi first that Shen Qing was slack. Then Xu Yanchi would go to her like this. After that, Shen Qing never said anything again.
Seeing Xu Yanchi leave, Jiang Chan whispered, "Auntie, Chan'er will also go and have a look. Don't let cousin delay his duty."
The old madam nodded. "Go."
When Xu Yanchi and Jiang Chan arrived at the Zhuoying Courtyard, they happened to see Shen Qing in a red tight-fitting outfit. The red-tasseled long spear seemed to be one with her, shining brightly in the dim morning light. She was so beautiful that she seemed to be from another world.
Xu Yanchi couldn't help but be stunned.
He had never seen such a lively side of Shen Qing before.
In his memory, she was always serious, well-behaved, and even a bit dull. Although she was beautiful, she always seemed to lack a soul. But today, she was breathtakingly beautiful, and suddenly, she crashed into his heart.
Seeing his expression, how could Jiang Chan not know what was on Xu Yanchi's mind? She was so jealous that her palms were almost bleeding. She stared at Shen Qing as if she wanted to bore a hole through her.
No wonder Shen Qing hadn't gone to serve the old madam these past two days. It turned out that she had been here seducing men!
Jiang Chan opened her mouth to say, "Cousin..."
But as soon as she spoke, she was stopped by Xu Yanchi.
Shen Qing had already noticed Xu Yanchi's gaze. There was no other reason. Such a gaze made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
To be honest, seeing these two people early in the morning really put a damper on her mood.
Her eyes turned cold. With a flick of her wrist, the tip of the spear stabbed towards Xu Yanchi.
Xu Yanchi's pupils dilated suddenly. He took a step back, and Jiang Chan almost let out a scream.
Shen Qing retracted the spear and stood still. She let out a soft snort. This snort sounded extremely sarcastic to Xu Yanchi's ears. "My lord, why aren't you going on duty early in the morning and instead come here with your cousin?"
Xu Yanchi couldn't help but feel annoyed. Why was he so impatient? He had just let her look down on him for nothing.
Jiang Chan said in a panicked voice, "Sister-in-law, we..."
Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Xu Yanchi again. "It's nothing. We just came to see what you were doing. It's getting late. If there's nothing else, I'll go on duty."
Shen Qing raised her eyebrows and let her gaze linger on Jiang Chan for a few seconds.
"Then I won't see you off, my lord."
"Cousin!" Jiang Chan stamped her foot in anger.
Xu Yanchi also glanced at her. "Aren't you going to serve mother to get up? What are you still doing here?"
Jiang Chan was so angry that she almost exploded. This was originally Shen Qing's job. How did it become hers?
If it weren't for the fact that she still needed the old madam's help to become a concubine, she wouldn't have gotten up so early to serve the old madam!
She stamped her foot and followed Xu Yanchi.
Sitting in the carriage, Xu Yanchi didn't know why he had originally come to tell Shen Qing to go to the Renshou Hall to serve his mother, but suddenly he didn't want her to go anymore.
He just felt that Shen Qing this morning looked much more lively than usual.
But then he thought again. Shen Qing had never shown such a lively side in front of him before. Had he really ignored her for too long?
Xu Yanchi and Jiang Chan were just a small episode for Shen Qing. After they left, she simply stopped practicing. She took a bath and told Yingxiu to prepare breakfast.
After breakfast, she went to pay her respects to the old madam just in time.
The old madam's face was even uglier than yesterday. Shen Qing bowed. Just as the old madam was about to start scolding her and make her stand in the corner as punishment, Shen Qing said worriedly first,
"Mother, these past few days, I've been checking the shops. I've found that many of the shops of the marquis's mansion are running at a loss. This can't go on like this!"
As soon as the second aunt and the third aunt heard this, they knew it was not good. They hadn't divided the family yet, and they also had a share in the shops of the marquis's mansion. They quickly asked,
"Daughter-in-law of Chier, what's going on? Weren't these shops always in your charge? How could they be running at a loss?"
"Don't be in a hurry, aunts. Sigh..." Shen Qing pretended to be in a difficult situation and glanced at the old madam.
"If I tell you to speak, then speak. Why are you looking at me?"
Shen Qing said, "Then I'll just say it straight. These shops have never really made much money. Most of them just break even. Originally, it was enough to cover the expenses of the mansion. But in the past year, my lord has taken quite a lot of money from the shops, and there are also his outside expenses. In total, it's more than ten thousand taels..."
"More than ten thousand taels!"
This was no small amount!
Ge's face immediately turned ugly. She looked at the old madam. "Old madam, my lord never told us what he used this money for. This isn't a few hundred taels. It's more than ten thousand taels!"