strictlysupreme Chapter 114 Can’t afford it
Chapter 114 Can’t afford it
Entering the front hall of Canglan Courtyard, Liu Tianshu asked Qingshan and Guanxue to take off their raincoats and umbrellas, and then came in front of Hou and bowed slightly.
"I've met the old lady."
"No need to be polite, just sit down..."
Hou gave Liu Tianshu a cold look.
"Thank you, madam."
Liu Tianshu sat down in the first seat under Hou, and a maid soon brought her a cup of warm water.
After taking a sip of warm water, Liu Tianshu calmly put down the teacup in her hand.
"Madam, do you want to ask your daughter-in-law to come over for something?"
Hou didn't expect that Liu Tianshu could be so calm even when drinking boiled water, which made her at a loss as to how to start what she wanted to say.
"Liu, I've drunk up all the tea in my yard. I asked someone to go to the storehouse to get some, and then I found out that the tea originally prepared in the mansion has all gone moldy. I can only treat you to a glass of plain water..."
When Liu Tianshu heard Hou directly raise the issue of tea leaves, she angrily said, "When the rain came, I reminded the housekeeper and Nanny Yue to pay attention to moisture-proofing the tea leaves. How could the tea leaves in the warehouse suddenly become moldy? Where is Madam Zhao, the warehouse manager? Where are the housekeeper and Nanny Yue?"
Seeing Liu Tianshu getting angry, Hou's eyes flickered.
Nanny Yue and housekeeper Uncle Xiang are both the Queen Mother's people. Even if she had a hundred guts, Hou would not dare to say anything wrong about these two people, but she was reluctant to push out her confidant, Nanny Zhao.
"It's just some tea leaves. If they go bad, we can just buy some more..."
"It's easy for the old lady to say that. Not to mention that there is only one thousand taels of silver left in our official account, even if we have more money, we can't have that much extra silver for no reason."
Hou frowned.
"It's just buying some tea for your family, how expensive can it be?"
"Old Madam, you don't know that the price of tea on the market has increased tenfold compared to before. Yesterday, I told the maid in the room that fortunately our house had made preparations in advance, so we didn't have to waste money on expensive tea. I didn't expect..."
Unexpectedly, Liu Tianshu did not continue speaking, but Hou's face became more and more uglier.
"Liu, even if the price of tea on the market has increased several times, our mansion can afford it..."
"That's what the old lady said."
Liu Tianshu said calmly: "The Marquis' Mansion didn't have this much money before, where will it be embezzled from?"
"It's just a matter of a few dozen taels of silver, Liu. You wouldn't be so stingy with such a small amount of money, not to mention that there is still money in the account of the Marquis' Mansion."
"There is indeed one thousand taels of silver in the official account of the Marquis' Mansion. That is all the expenses for the next two months. Every penny of silver has its proper place."
After saying this, Liu Tianshu didn't wait for Hou to get angry and calmly drank a sip of boiled water.
"Madam, this is not just about the tea leaves. It's also the fault of the servants in the Marquis' Mansion who didn't do their job seriously. If we let this matter go lightly, others will follow suit next time. How can we, as the masters, manage the servants in the Marquis' Mansion?"
Hearing Liu Tianshu's words, Hou frowned.
"Madame Yue and Uncle Xiang, the housekeeper, are both the Queen Mother's people. Are you sure you want to touch them?"
"Uncle Xiang and Nanny Yue are not the ones who actually manage the tea leaves in the cauldron. At most, they have not fulfilled their supervisory responsibilities. If we want to investigate, we should investigate the person who is directly responsible for the tea leaves."
Hou was vague for a long time just wanting to protect her last few subordinates in the Hou Mansion, but she didn't expect Liu Tianshu to bring it up directly.
"It's just a little money for tea..."
"Madam, the price of tea has increased tenfold and there is still no demand. The weather is bad, so Madam Zhao should prepare in advance.
Although my mansion is rich, we cannot afford to pay for the mistakes made by Madam Zhao."
After saying this, Liu Tianshu looked at Hou steadily.
"Madam, there is no order without rules. We have hundreds of servants in the mansion, and all of them are watching us masters. We must be fair and just to convince others.
I know that Madam Zhao was your dowry, and she has been working diligently for the family all these years. I am not the kind of person who would kill her without mercy. As long as she can get over this matter, I will forgive her for what she has done."
Hou asked Liu Tianshu to come over to ask her to pay for what Zhao Mama had done wrong, but now it was Zhao Mama herself who had to pay for it, otherwise she would leave.
Mother Zhao had been with Mrs. Hou for decades, and the crime she committed this time was not serious, so Mrs. Hou wanted to save her.
Hou heaved a sigh of relief when she heard that Liu Tianshu was willing to let her go.
"Even if the price of the tea has increased several times, it is only a matter of a few hundred taels of silver. I think that in order to stay in the Marquis' Mansion, Mother Zhao will be willing to pay this money. At the same time, this can be regarded as a relative punishment for her."
After talking about the tea leaves, Hou told Liu Tianshu a lot of other things about the Hou Mansion so as not to appear to be making a fuss and letting the person go.
Liu Tianshu didn't want to stay in Canglan Courtyard at all. Now that she could finally leave, she put on her straw raincoat, took an umbrella, and left with Qingshan Guanxue.
As Liu Tianshu and her servant left, a middle-aged woman came out from behind the screen and knelt directly in front of Hou.
"Thank you, old lady. I will go buy some tea right away and I will make sure that your house will not be without tea."
"This is just the first time. It won't happen again." Hou said in a cold voice.
"I know I was wrong, and I won't do it again."
Mother Zhao said in a panic.
Last time, when Fang's mother got into trouble, she didn't tell Hou Shi immediately, and in the end the whole family was beaten to death. That scene really scared all the servants in the mansion.
This time, due to her momentary negligence, something went wrong with the tea. Mother Zhao was terrified and instinctively wanted to escape from the mansion, but she felt reluctant to leave when she thought of her family.
Yes, Mother Zhao also has family in this marquis's mansion. Fortunately, although the price of tea on the street is expensive, it is within her affordability.
Before she came to see Hou in the morning, she had already prepared herself mentally to lose money on the tea. Now she heard that as long as she bought enough tea, she could not only save her family's lives, but also keep her job in the Hou Mansion.
The final result was pretty much what she expected, and Mother Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, but it was too early for her to relax.
When she took five hundred taels of silver to the street to buy tea, she found that the price of tea on the interface had doubled. With her five hundred taels of silver, she could only buy three to five kilograms of ordinary tea at most.
This time it was not the people behind Ming Yi who deliberately targeted the Marquis' Mansion, but the price of tea on the market now was just this.
Although three to five kilograms of tea can be consumed for several years in an ordinary family, in the marquis' mansion, the masters drink top-grade tea.
An ounce of that kind of tea is worth thousands of gold. She stood in front of the tea shop counter, listening to the price the waiter said, her heart sinking.
can not afford!
With the little fortune she had accumulated as a servant, she couldn't even afford to buy a pound of high-quality tea...