251 They Can’t Dominate Anymore
“Madam, what is the girl trying to do? She’s bringing an outsider to see the old madam. What if…”
“Hmm?”
The mammy disagreed with Yuan Hui’s action and grumbled to Madam Huo about it. Halfway through her ramble, Madam Huo cut her off with a look.
“Sorry.” The mammy lowered her head.
“What the girl wants to do is her business. As a mother, I should have my boundaries when it comes to disciplining and educating her, lest it causes us to become distant!” Madam Huo said impassively. “From now onward, you’re not allowed to speak behind her back.”
“Yes, madam.”
“Now go.”
Madam Huo waved to signal the mammy to leave.
She hurriedly left.
After she left, Madam Huo’s head maid said, “Madam, why didn’t you stop her? What if something happens to old madam? That would be…”
“The girl never liked me. Since coming back from Yuanjiang County last time, she has been treating me like an enemy. If I tried to stop her from doing this, she’d probably hate me for it. Right now, the Yuan clan is in a precarious position. We can’t make things worse.”
“But why don’t you explain it to her? Madam, you care about the girl more than anyone else!”
“Explaining won’t work because she won’t believe me.”
“But if madam doesn’t tell her, she would never know. Like right now, she’s going against you for everything. It’s very disadvantageous for you, madam.”
“Young people have the right to be a little capricious. It doesn’t matter what she thinks of me or what misunderstandings she has. I will treat her as my daughter, even if I didn’t give birth to her.”
“Madam…”
“I understand what you’re trying to say, but we have no other options right now. You’ve been with me for a very long time. You should know my character better than anyone else. I don’t want to hear you say anything like this anymore in the future!”
The maid wanted to say something but decided to keep quiet in the end. “Yes, madam,” she said.
“Go. I need some silence alone.”
Madam Huo told all of her closest subordinates to leave her.
She sat there alone and pondered for a long while with a calm expression on her face. She sighed as exhaustion crept up her face.
To be honest, she didn’t want to fight with Yuan Hui like this for much longer.
In the eyes of others, the Yuan clan was like a plump lamb. They had raised their knives and were ready to bring them down on them at any time. Yuan Hui had been extricated from this issue since the beginning. The only way for her to continue threading at the outskirts of the conflict is to be in conflict with her stepmother.
Even if those people strike out at them, they will let Yuan Hui go.
When that happens, perhaps Yuan Hui will be able to protect her sons.
Madam Huo closed her eyes. Unfortunately, she would never be able to tell Yuan Hui about these things. All she could do was continue their feud. Otherwise, Yuan Hui would be dragged into the Yuan clan’s turmoil.
After being in this emotional and exhausted state for a while, Madam Huo returned to her usual decisive and domineering demeanor.
Regardless of what happens in the future, she will try everything to protect the Yuan family, even if it costs her all of her savings.
In Madam Huo’s eyes, money could never be as important as her family!
Hopefully, the girl Yuan Hui brought back was part of her plan. She hoped that Yuan Hui could learn to be a bit wiser and more cautious when dealing with people, even if she practiced it on Madam Huo.
Of course, Zhao Chuchu didn’t know what Madam Huo was thinking. She arrived in Yuan Hui’s courtyard and wrote a prescription for her. She said, “These are the herbs that I’ll need to cure your grandmother. Get the ingredients based on this list, but don’t let other people cook the medicine for you.
“Also, after you bring back the medicine, pass it to me first. Some of the ingredients and dosages on the list are decoys to trick other people, so don’t do anything with the ingredients! Your grandmother can still be cured. You don’t need to be too worried.”
Yuan Hui was very excited, but she had to suppress her emotions. She grabbed Zhao Chuchu’s hand and said softly, “Chuchu, are you telling the truth? I’m not dreaming right now, right?”
“If you want to know whether you’re dreaming, you can grab yourself. You don’t need to grab me. It hurts!” Zhao Chuchu muttered helplessly.
Yuan Hui hurriedly let go of her and said, “I’m sorry, I got too excited. Chuchu, thank you.”
After that, she gave Zhao Chuchu a big hug.
“It’s been a long time since I felt so happy. If my grandmother can be saved, my mother won’t be able to dominate the clan on her own in the future.”
“She will be fine.”
Zhao Chuchu didn’t explain to Yuan Hui that Madam Huo wasn’t actually the kind of person that Yuan Hui thought she was.
“I’ll get someone to buy the herbs right now.”
“Wait, there’s no need to hurry. Wait two more days before going. Your grandmother will be fine in the short term.”
“Right, I might alert my mother if I act too soon. If she tries to jeopardize this, things will get very troublesome. Chuchu, I’ll listen to you for this.”
Zhao Chuchu nodded.
Yuan Hui kept the medicinal recipe and brought Zhao Chuchu to the room that the servants had prepared so Zhao Chuchu could rest.
Since Yuan Hui returned to the Yuan clan, she has had an unending list of things to do. She didn’t have time to accompany Zhao Chuchu at all.
Zhao Chuchu was glad about this. She would rather be alone.
For the next few days, Zhao Chuchu went to the inn every day for Huan’er and took the opportunity to walk around the city and find out more about the Xia clan.
After asking around, she realized just how arrogant and haughty the Xia clan was in the province.
If there were no Yuan clan on top of them, they would probably become “kings” in the area.
This was because they were extremely rich. Even though they were on the decline now, the wealth that they had accumulated over several generations was enough for them to splurge on anything they desired.
As for the women who had married into the Xia clan, Zhao Chuchu also found out about them. The most successful one was the girl from the Kang clan.
But now that the Kang clan seemed to want to replace the Xia clan’s status, the two clan’s relationship had worsened. This was why Xia Chengxuan’s life in the Kang family wasn’t very good. Even a lowly mammy dared to take advantage of her.
As the eldest daughter of the Kang clan, Kang Xiuwan was also neglected in her family. On the contrary, her sisters had been famous around the province, and all of the men in the province knew how talented the daughters of the Kang clan were.
Zhao Chuchu wasn’t interested in the Kang clan’s domestic conflicts.
...
More importantly, how much longer could the Xia clan put up with the Kang clan’s actions?
Given how they were used to being on top of other people, there was no way the Xia clan would be okay with letting their subordinates become their superiors.
Zhao Chuchu thought about how he could make the Kang and Xia clans fall out.
If these two clans fought against each other, the other clans related to the Xia clan by marriage would definitely not just watch from the sidelines.
Despite their decline, the Xia clan was still extremely wealthy. Of course, the others would want to get something from them.
Over the next few days, Zhao Chuchu combined the information that she had gathered with what Xie Heng told her and gained a deeper understanding of the factions in the capital of Guangqing Province.
The Yuan clan was fragmented internally as well. Faced with external threats, most of the members of the Yuan clan weren’t thinking about how to overcome the challenge together. Instead, they were all thinking about how to get the position of the clan chief.
Moreover, Old Mrs. Yuan was unconscious then. This was a one-in-a-million chance in their eyes.
Once Old Mrs. Yuan died, everything in the Yuan clan would belong to them.
This is why they all saw Madam Huo as their enemy.
They were afraid that Madam Huo would take all the wealth in the clan and marry someone else, which would cause them to lose their spoils.
...
“People often say that the bigger the clan, the more complicated their internal affairs are. In such a large clan, the more likely there will be internal conflicts,” Zhao Chuchu sighed and mumbled to herself. This is the best place to hide all sorts of filth and muck!”
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