Peaceful Farm Life

Chapter 2471: Chapter 2472: Return to Tianyun (38)

Su Xing just huffed but didn’t argue further. She could see that this Ru Song truly treated her husband as his master, attending to everything for her husband’s benefit, understanding everything clearly. Plus, her husband also trusted him quite a bit, so she sometimes spoke without avoiding him.

Not being punished by Su Xing, Ru Song wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He thought to himself: He could see now that his young master was truly captivated, and he could never speak ill of his young mistress again, otherwise, his young master would definitely find a way to punish him.

...

The next day, before Mrs. Cao sent someone to deliver the collected rent, taking advantage of the time when Tao Mingye’s commoner sisters and brothers were paying respects to Mrs. Cao, Su Xing brought the maidservant Redleaf to Mrs. Cao’s place.

”Mother.” Su Xing slightly bowed to Mrs. Cao.

Mrs. Cao hated Su Xing to her core, but on the surface, she still put on a kindly face: ”Didn’t I tell you to take good care of Mingye? You don’t need to come to pay respects to me.”

Su Xing smiled and said, ”I just happened to have some matters, so I came.”

Seeing as she spoke so loudly, and with the commons sons and daughters present, Mrs. Cao, who always acted the part of the affectionate mother, couldn’t pretend not to hear and asked with a smile, ”What kind of matter that you came here in person?”

”It’s like this, Mingye has a few shops in the bustling district of the Imperial City, rented out for people to sell goods, and I’ve heard that mother has always been helping to collect the rent.” Su Xing said unhurriedly as she took her seat.

Mrs. Cao smiled and said, ”Yes, I’ve been helping to collect the rent. Yesterday I already sent someone to collect it, and today I was just planning to have someone send the rent to Ye’er. I didn’t expect you to come; are you worried that I won’t give you the rent? The rent is yours, it is yours, mother would never keep it for herself. For all these years, when have I ever not given the rent? You can ask Ye’er yourself.”

Not only did this turn the tables on Su Xing, accusing her of suspecting her of embezzling the rent, it was also a warning to Su Xing.

Su Xing understood but smiled, ”Mingye has already told me, mother always takes great care in helping to collect rent for him, and he is very grateful, Xin’er is also grateful, just... mother, you’ve been deceived by your own people.”

The commons sons and daughters, initially hesitant to leave because their stepmother Mrs. Cao hadn’t let them go, now found Su Xing’s verbal battle with Mrs. Cao very entertaining and had no desire to leave. This drama is so good to watch~

Mrs. Cao frowned, ”I’ve been deceived? Deceived about what?”

Su Xing explained, ”It’s like this, mother, a few days ago I returned home, and happened to pass by those few shops, so I went in to take a look and asked around. After all, they are my husband’s shops, I should know something about them, right?”

Mrs. Cao’s face instantly changed.

Regardless of whether Mrs. Cao’s expression changed, Su Xing continued, ”But I heard from those tenants that they rent these shops for a monthly rent of twenty taels, and they all have documents as proof. Yet, the people sent by mother clearly charged twenty taels for each shop, but only handed over ten taels per shop to give to Mingye. Mother, if this isn’t being deceived by your own people, then what is?”

The commons sons and daughters all inwardly praised: This sister-in-law is too formidable, we like her!

Actually, Mrs. Cao had been embezzling the rent from these shops, but how could Mrs. Cao possibly admit to it?

The problem was that those tenants indeed had documents proving that her people collected that much rent...

Helpless, Mrs. Cao could only feign anger and scold, ”Bring that scoundrel Zhong Dasheng to me! How dare he deceive me!”

Mrs. Cao’s close maid hurriedly went to find Zhong Dasheng.