Chapter 31 – My Streamer Can’t Be So Cruel (5)
This is strange; Lady Die has never really liked Liu Lanting. While she didn’t actively bully this legitimate son when managing the Liu Residence, her treatment was hardly favorable. Over a year, they’d barely met three or five times, totaling maybe ten sentences exchanged—very cold indeed.
In this situation, she holds the biggest secret about Liu Lanting, yet not a whisper of it has leaked outside?
Either Lady Die has her own concerns, or… perhaps she doesn’t despise him as much as he thinks?
When Lady Die heard Jiang Pengji’s unexpected words, her interest was piqued. “What have you discerned?”
“People are like fine wine; they only improve with age. Aunt Die hasn’t aged a bit over the years but has actually become more enchanting.”
As Jiang Pengji said this, she heard several gasps in the room.
Probably everyone’s thoughts were showing on screen, akin to comments like “The Second Young Master is actually teasing his stepmother in public, what the heck!”
Lady Die pinched the napkin, her lips curling into a low laugh. “When did your tongue become so sweet? You’ve got me almost believing it.”
“Aunt Die is innately beautiful; how could she let herself go? If others compliment her, it’s undoubtedly sincere.”
The “mother and son” duo bantered back and forth, unintentionally ignoring the steward couple kneeling below, appearing quite merry. Suddenly, Lady Die mentioned the tear mole at the corner of her eye and asked Jiang Pengji if she was beautiful.
Jiang Pengji was perplexed but still answered earnestly, “A finishing touch, minus it, and it loses charm.”
At this, the gasps in the room ceased. Jiang Pengji frowned internally—had she offended a taboo?
Just then, a viewer, possibly knowledgeable about fortune-telling, commented, “【Feng Shui Master’s Disciple】: The streamer has stepped on a taboo. That tear mole is an ill omen, likely to bring harm to husbands and sons, plus there’s a possibility of infidelity!”
Jiang Pengji: “…”
Unexpectedly, instead of being angered by the stepping on a sore spot, Lady Die smirked coyly, “Such a sweet little mouth, just like your mother.”
Mother? Lady Die knows Liu Lanting’s mother? From her tone, their relationship doesn’t seem as antagonistic as the rumors suggest?
While puzzled, Lady Die leaned against the table, turning her gaze towards the steward couple behind the screen.
“They say you privately handed the guarding house servants to the steward to deal with, insisting he send them to the government office and have their home searched? Is that true?” Lady Die shifted the topic, her demeanor cold, seeming to have changed from the previous lighthearted conversation with Jiang Pengji.
Jiang Pengji also straightened up, saying, “There’s indeed such a thing. Did their whole family come to trouble Aunt Die?”
“After all, they were arranged by your father; even if you want to handle it, you should be cautious to avoid gossip.”
At Lady Die’s words, the steward couple’s gloomy faces instantly brightened, even showing a hint of pleasure.
“But it’s merely dealing with a few errant servants. Should I really allow them to hold power over me? Though they are old servants left by my father, that doesn’t give them the right to be domineering. Moreover, I’d like to ask Aunt Die, which is worse—dealing with servants with poor reputations, or dealing with domineering old servants and being bound hand and foot, further exposing our grievances?”
The former would only imply the steward wasn’t strict, leading to troublesome servants, while the latter would completely disgrace them, turning them into a joke among the gentry of Hejian.
“Everything requires evidence. Even if they are servants, they must follow the rules,” Lady Die said with a smile that was hardly a smile.
Jiang Pengji sucked in a breath. She really wasn’t used to the way things are handled in this era.
In the past, simply swatting someone might not have been enough; now they expect her to provide evidence?
An old man hanging himself? Life must be really frustrating!
Initially wanting to leave a bit of face, perhaps forcing them into a distant place to avoid seeing them, but now? Truly asking for trouble.
“Steward, go to the kitchen in the inner courtyard and find a maid. I don’t know what she looks like, but she has a distinguishing feature; she might have been sick today and reported in, or perhaps she was pushing herself to work but seemed a bit out of it…”
Jiang Pengji’s request sounded strange, but apart from her, nobody noticed the trembling legs and clenched fists of the guarding house servant kneeling beside the steward couple. She snorted coldly within, her eyes glimmering with killing intent.
You wanted evidence? Good, let’s cut off the path of survival for your family of three!
The steward took his leave, and Jiang Pengji held her sandalwood fan, opening and closing it with a bloodthirsty smirk.
The comment section oddly fell silent. At this moment, the viewer count in the live stream had quietly climbed over fifteen hundred, with even over three hundred followers. This meant that when Jiang Pengji streamed next, these users would receive instant notifications, slowly building a regular audience. The system watching this number was practically overjoyed.
Before long, the steward returned with a maid wearing a gray coarse cloth dress. “Young Master, the person has been brought.”
After speaking, the steward knelt beside Jiang Pengji and whispered, “When we found her, she was attempting to take her own life.”
Jiang Pengji narrowed her eyes and turned to Lady Die, saying, “Lanting has a humble request; may I borrow Aunt Die’s maid for a use?”
“Of course.”
Lady Die observed this scene, her eyes suddenly filled with curiosity and interest; she wanted to know what Jiang Pengji was up to.
However, the next second, Jiang Pengji’s words almost brought her to anger.
“Take this maid away for inspection to see if she has recently been violated…”
Before she could finish, Lady Die slapped the low table beside her, the sound resonating throughout the room.
“Wretched!”
When Lady Die came down with that slap, or rather when Jiang Pengji spoke that line, the guarding house servant panicked completely. Just from his reaction alone, everyone vaguely sensed something was off and gasped in surprise.
A guarding house servant from the outer court, having an affair with a maid from the inner kitchen?
The inner courtyard is a forbidden place where no men, apart from Liu Father, Second Young Master, and one young illegitimate son, can enter. Even the Old Steward must be watched when entering, and only when there’s a significant reason should he stay, all while adhering to strict time limits.
“Yesterday, I unfortunately encountered a thug, Aunt Die sent someone to look for me, yet these audacious house servants, instead of saving Liu Lanting, went to the brothel for fun and even visited the gambling house, returning at dawn and sneaking into the inner courtyard to force themselves on an unlucky kitchen maid who just happened to be up at night… The inner courtyard is precisely where my mother, Aunt Die, and younger sister sleep!”
Relying on these fools to save Liu Lanting? His corpse must’ve gone cold long ago.
“Just based on that, they can’t be dealt with?”
The steward couple stared wide-eyed, but seeing their son’s panicked avoidance, they felt a chill in their hearts.
“It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! It was that wretched maid who seduced me! Not me…”
The house servant hurriedly denied loudly, even standing straight to push away the dazed maid beside him, a panic-stricken look as if someone had uncovered his secret.
Absurd! A servant daring to insult a maid from the estate? He was definitely asking for death and couldn’t admit it.
“Ha, entering the inner courtyard without permission. I guess it’s about your mother… She was working last night… You were looking for gambling money, right?”
