Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

64. Who Turns out to be Petty

Translator: Sissy That Walk

Dongzhi checked the accounts with the dishes carefully before she asked other maids to serve the dishes, and they all noticed the portion size had shrunken greatly, merely one third as the old days.

They had ordered more than twenty dishes, but it was actually not as much as they had expected.

Mammy Shao sneered, “How miserable and shabby! What a petty young madam you have! Tut tut tut!”

Lady Lu’s face darkened when she saw the dishes, “Our relatives from Qing zhi Alley will come pick up stuff for the Spring Festival today, Mammy Shao, you go check whether they are here not, and invite them here for lunch if they’ve arrived.”

… …

Cao Mo on the other hand had no clue his new policy had annoyed his mother-in-law that much for he was too busy taking care of the principals from Xiao Family’s country estates paying tributes for the Spring Festival.

Xiao Cheng from one of their country estates called Xiaojiaao came with thirty carriages of tributes, the newly assigned stewards of the Treasury checked the goods and counted the number:

Thirty six thousand kilos of nonglutinous rice, seventy five thousand kilos of japonica rice, sixty thousand kilos of millet, forty kilos of soybean, red bean and jerky, thirty cows, chickens, ducks and geese five hundred apiece, three thousand kilos of silver charcoal… …

Moqin handed Cao Mo the account book after a careful checking and inspection.

Cao Mo frowned on seeing the number on the book, the quantity of tributes dropped about ten percent than usual.

Xiao Cheng produced a pouch of silver from the carriage and handed it to Cao Mo, “Young Madam, please kindly accept this small gift from me and the other principles. One of the worst droughts on record broke out this year, hence we suffered a bad harvest. Please take this factor into consideration and give us principles a break, I promise we will make it up next year, please make an exception.”

Cao Mo chuckled, his face a very careful picture of innocence, “Principle Xiao, I am young and inexperienced, but I do know there are certain rules which cannot be bent. This silver, please take it back and let’s pretend this has never happened. I understand you are doing a great job and this year is a drought year, but I’d like to know if I take this silver and stretch the rules for you, what about next year? The year after next year? Are you that confident that you can refill quantity? Plus, I need to report this to the master of this manor, Amida Buddha His Lordship trusts me and seldom asks me about the domestic affairs, but what if he asks about the tribute? Should I lie to him?”

Xiao Cheng’s face reddened, “Young Madam, we indeed are suffering, if we tax our tenant peasants like the past years, I’m afraid we will lose them.”

Cao Mo asked promptly, “Have you been mistreating the tenant peasants?”

“No Young Madam! Us Xiaojiaao is famous for being understanding and sympathizing with our tenant peasants. The yamen (T/N: government office in feudal China) solicited labour to build canals, that had worsened the case.” Xiao Cheng’s voice quavered, “Xiaojiaao is next to a few country estates of Prince Xing’s, those yamen officers dared not to solicit tenant peasants from those country estates, they had forced our tenant peasants Xiao to toil for them, Amida Buddha, several tenant peasants had died from overworking!”

“Have the yamen officers comforted and compensated the bereaved families?” Cao Mo gasped, he took a deep breath to suppress the anger simmered inside him, “Do they have any family left?”

Xiao Cheng shook his head in pain, “No, the officers ended up complaining about them delaying the scheduled plan of the canal building! They do have family left, it’s heart breaking to watch the wife and kids suffer, they are struggling so hard without a man in the family.”

Cao Mo’s heart sank, he sighed, “Principle Xiao, thank you for letting me know about this. I’ve just taken over this whole house management thing, I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you out. Please compensated the bereaved families, two taels of silver, ten kilos of rice, five yards of cloth each family. Principle Xiao, please inform me earlier next time if things like this happens, I will do my best to mediate, at least I will try to save their lives. I will visit Xiaojiaao after the Spring Festival, thank you for your hard work.”

Xiao Cheng was surprised that Cao Mo was so kind, Lady Lu would have totally given him a good flogging without even listening to his reasons. Xiao Cheng was so grateful.

Mohua now walked to Xiao Cheng and showed him the menu, asking what he felt like for lunch.

Xiao Cheng was stupefied, little did he expect that not only had he escaped from a flogging but also he was treated for lunch. Tears welled up in his eyes when Mohua explained this new travelling allowance system to him, Xiao Cheng was now on a business trip, he would receive five coins as perks per day. He did a quick maths in the heart, he would receive at least one tael and a half from this trip.

And that wasn’t the end of the good news, Xiao Cheng would have a lunch which was worth a hundred coins. Xiao Cheng ordered four dishes plus a soup, he even regretted that he hadn’t brought his son with him when he sat down by the lunch table, he was served with abundant fish and meat — rich food!

Xiao Cheng kept saying, “How gracious the Young Madam is!”

However, Lady Lu was cursing the gracious Young Madam in Osmanthus House.

… …

Relatives from Qingzhi Alley, Zizhu Alley, Hongfeng Alley and Qinglian Alley were seated at the lunch table together with Lady Lu sitting in the center.

Lady Lu was livid with anger and she sent her Dongzhi to ask Cao Mo come to see her.

“Your Ladyship, are you looking for me?”Cao Mo asked innocently when he arrived.

Lady Lu pointed to the dishes and asked, “Did you changed the rules n the kitchen?”

“Yes!”

“How dare you, I’m treating our family relatives today, and look at the shabby dishes!” Lady Lu countered.

Cao Mo smiled, “Your Ladyship, there are about one hundred and sixty dishes available, how come you only ordered twenty? Please order more for our distinguished guests.”

The guested exchanged a look, ‘Ah~ there are more dishes available.’

It was Lady Lu who was being cheap and petty.

Cao Mo continued, “This is regular dishes you have ordered, Your Ladyship, the portion size is for one person. Please let the kitchen know you are entertaining guests next time, we have big plates available. Lunch is on me today, I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

Lady Lu wouldn’t give Cao Mo this opportunity to impress the guests, she continued, “That’s okay, I just want an explanation, isn’t it a bit too luxurious to have one hundred and sixty kinds of dishes per meal? We should manage the household industriously and thriftily.”

“Don’t worry Your Ladyship, each house can just order accordingly, I don’t think there will be waste.” with that Cao Mo withdrew the room.

He asked the kitchen to send more dishes to Lady Lu after he left Osmanthus House.

Forty dishes later, Mrs. Liu from Qingzhi Alley kept exclaiming, “That’s so generous! Please tell the kitchen we are full already, this is such a feast!”

Lady Lu’s eyes smoldered with anger, she was using this as an opportunity to punish Cao Mo, but she ended up giving Cao Mo an opportunity to show the guests how great his new policies were! The more she thought of it, the angrier she grew.