In the backyard, there was a small garden. It wasn't large, featuring three flowerbeds and two rockeries, arranged to create a charming miniature landscape.
Seeing Zi Yu run off, Zi Cao feared she would cause further trouble and was about to chase after her.
Suddenly, her vision blurred, and a dark green figure blocked her path.
Zi Cao was startled. When she opened her eyes wide and saw who it was, she greeted him with surprise and delight, "Grandma Zhao, why have you come?"
"You don't need to chase her. It's no use," Grandma Zhao's tone was cold.
"But, she and I, I want to persuade her again." Zi Cao had always been steady and had her own principles for doing things.
Zi Yu had grown up with her, been sold together, and entered the Shen family together.
She didn't want to just watch her stray further down a wrong path.
However, Grandma Zhao was now the head stewardess of the backyard, highly trusted by the masters.
Moreover, she was a good person, always teaching them how to conduct themselves.
She also did what she could for them within her capabilities.
Zi Cao believed she had learned many useful things from Grandma Zhao.
Therefore, she was grateful to Grandma Zhao and respected her from the bottom of her heart.
She would definitely listen to her words at this moment.
She stopped and looked at Grandma Zhao.
"Don't speak of you being together.
When you entered the Shen family, you were no longer who you were before.
Once you change your name, you should sever ties with the past and have no divided loyalties, otherwise, you are betraying your master." Grandma Zhao had also heard about what Zi Yu had done from Zhang Yu.
Zhang Yu, who was from the Jianghu, would not show any consideration for Zi Yu's reputation.
She described the incident with as much exaggeration as possible.
Hearing it, Grandma Zhao wished she had wings to fly to Zi Yu and slap her across the face.
This would awaken her and stop her from coveting someone who had nothing to do with her.
"What kind of person is the Master? How could she, this little slut, covet him?" Grandma Zhao scolded angrily.
Her temper was usually quite mild, and she rarely lost it.
But this matter concerned Su Xiao Qi, whom the Old Madam had explicitly stated she needed to protect.
She naturally had to manage the backyard well for her.
She couldn't just watch such a sordid thing defile her eyes.
Furthermore, Zi Yu had learned some rules from her, and now that she had caused trouble, Grandma Zhao felt she was responsible.
With that, Grandma Zhao strode angrily towards the backyard. Zi Yu would certainly be punished.
Otherwise, wouldn't everyone in the courtyard start having wicked thoughts in the future?
Zi Cao sighed and said nothing more.
At this moment, Su Xiao Qi and Shen Yun had returned to the main house from the front yard.
"It's best to sell her off," Shen Yun said, still referring to Zi Yu.
Su Xiao Qi replied, "Let's wait and see. Grandma Zhao will handle it."
Her heart was ultimately not that hard.
Shen Yun also knew that his wife was good in all aspects, except that she was too soft-hearted.
Well, this was her kindness, and he would have to put in more effort.
Otherwise, these people would not know how to climb over them and act presumptuously.
Just like the last time in the Devil's Stone Forest, the little maid who guided them, he wanted to hand her over to the authorities and deal with her for the crime of betrayal, but Su Xiao Qi stopped him.
She said that while the maid was guilty, her crime did not warrant death, and it was also because of her that they were able to save the young pavilion lord of Misty Rain Pavilion.
This was perhaps predestined by fate.
Perhaps their purpose in doing so was all orchestrated by the hand of fate.
If anyone else had said these superstitious words, Shen Yun would never have believed them.
But he had to listen to what his wife said, so the little maid was only sent to a farm to do manual labor by the Du family, without any real punishment.
As for the mastermind behind it, he originally wanted to stand up for his wife and teach them a harsh lesson, but he was stopped by his wife again.
However, this time Shen Yun had misunderstood Su Xiao Qi.
She naturally cared about Liu Nini's scheme against her and felt that she should be taught a lesson.
After all, she wasn't a saint.
But the situation had not developed that way at that time.
First, Liu Nini's mother, Madam Wang, reacted quickly and came to apologize with people.
Then, the Grand Princess intervened to mediate. Of course, the most important thing was that Su Xiao Qi suddenly remembered the Wang family in the book, who was second only to Shen Yun.
As well as the power the Wang family would wield in the imperial court in the future.
Considering Liu Nini's relationship with the Wang family, she had to rein in all her thoughts.
Shen Yun advised, "It's good for my wife to be kind-hearted, but unconditional kindness might not always be beneficial."
Shen Yun brought up the old matter again. Su Xiao Qi was not surprised. She had already realized that Shen Yun was somewhat dissatisfied with her letting Liu Nini off easily.
It was only because he respected her opinion that he did not voice his opposition.
But in his heart, he couldn't understand.
"Husband, you've been holding this in for a long time, haven't you?" Su Xiao Qi looked up at Shen Yun with a smile.
Even if he didn't say it, she knew.
"My wife, it's not that I'm petty, but Liu Nini had no recent grudges or past enmity with you, yet she tried to harm you so severely. Either she has a problem herself, or she was instigated by someone with ulterior motives.
It's fine to let her go, but why not investigate the person behind her?"
"Liu Nini is the granddaughter of the Wang family. Lord Wang has been reinstated and is on the rise, destined to hold a high position in the imperial court. Your foundation is still shallow; it's best not to provoke such an old minister."
Su Xiao Qi's words were not baseless.
In the book, Su Xiao Qi remembered that before Shen Yun, there was a Lord Wang who was also very powerful.
"Wang Chengyi, the Vice Minister of Personnel?" There were many officials with the surname Wang in the court, and Shen Yun, to avoid confusion, specifically asked for clarification.
Su Xiao Qi nodded, "That's right, Vice Minister Wang Chengyi. I heard that his career was extremely bumpy, full of twists and turns.
But he is now able to hold the position of Vice Minister, a third-rank official, so he must be formidable."
Shen Yun's gaze fixed on Su Xiao Qi, as if trying to discern something from her elegant and beautiful face.
Shen Yun had always known that his wife was different from others.
Although she came from the small Mianzhou city, even from the marketplace.
She was knowledgeable about court affairs.
Even the Lord Wang Chengyi she mentioned, someone who did not stand out prominently in the court, she actually had considerable knowledge of.
"Wife, did you really grow up in a place like the City God Temple?" Shen Yun murmured.
It was both a soliloquy and a question to Su Xiao Qi.
He had always wanted to ask, but being as intelligent as he was, he knew that if he asked directly, Su Xiao Qi might not tell him the truth.
Asking this way might yield unexpected results.
Upon hearing this, Su Xiao Qi almost reflexively replied, "Who said I grew up in the beggar's den of the City God Temple?"
Her modern family, while not extraordinarily wealthy, was a family of traditional Chinese medicine.
From her grandfather to her uncles and cousins, they were all engaged in TCM treatment due to their family heritage.
They were either TCM doctors in large hospitals or opened their own TCM hospitals. Only she, after studying TCM for over ten years, chose agronomy.
However, she was ultimately taught by her grandfather, and her medical skills were not to be underestimated.
Previously, to avoid scrutiny of her origins, she had not elaborated on her background.
But now, with Shen Yun asking like this, she found it unbearable.
"Oh, I knew my wife definitely wasn't..."
Not the original Su Xiao Qi, and not someone who grew up in the City God Temple.
Shen Yun paused deliberately, as if waiting for Su Xiao Qi's explanation.