Grass and mustard reign supreme

Chapter 2 Granny Tu's Thoughts

Two women were sitting outside the wedding tent.

One was the bride's dowry maid, Granny Tu, an old woman with a withered appearance and figure;
One is Xiao Qingmei, Suo Chanzhi's personal maid, with a face full of collagen.

Two women, one old and one young, sat side by side at the entrance of the tent. Xiao Qingmei had a sword across her lap, while Tu Mama had nothing in her hands.

The wedding tent is located at the highest point in this Gobi Desert, overlooking the entire camp.

In the distance, several wild camels were still gnawing at the horizon.

The campfire below the slope cast long shadows of people onto the Gobi Desert, like an old sheepskin painting.

The people were piecing together a coffin with planks from a cart, and the faint clanging and banging sounds made the night seem even more peaceful.

The little plum blossom had sparkling eyes and a charmingly innocent and lively appearance.

She sat cross-legged on the ground, neither using her hands for support nor moving her legs, but simply swaying her hips as she moved closer to Granny Tu: "Ahem! Granny Tu, our young lady... just casually found a man... and consummated her marriage like that?"

Granny Tu replied calmly, "Otherwise what? Do you want your daughter to be burdened with the title of the eldest daughter-in-law of the Yu family for nothing, and then never have a chance to rise in the world?"

"Of course I don't want to, but... is it even possible for this to happen?"

“Why not? The only people who know that the young master of the Yu family has not yet consummated his marriage with Miss Chanzhi are you, me, and Yang Can. As long as you don’t say anything, I don’t say anything, and Yang Can doesn’t say anything, then once Miss Chanzhi becomes pregnant… that child will naturally be the eldest grandson of the Yu family.”

Qingmei asked worriedly, "But what if the young mistress is carrying a girl?"

Granny Tu said coldly, "We can't worry about that now. Let her get pregnant first. Once she's pregnant, we'll have ten months. Ten months is enough time to do a lot. If she really gives birth to a girl, we'll have another chance to switch the baby."

Little Green Plum hesitated and said, "But that man surnamed Yang is Young Master Yu's advisor. Will he agree?"

Granny Tu said disdainfully, "If he doesn't agree, he'll die immediately. If he agrees, even if he doesn't believe our promise, at least he'll have a stunning beauty to enjoy before he dies, and his descendants will have a chance to rise in the world after he's gone. Do you think he'll agree?"

Little Green Plum thought about it carefully, but before she could come up with a solution, she heard the "answer".

The answer came from inside the wedding tent—a gasp of surprise.

"Eh~~~"

Both surprised and timid, like a young girl picking flowers who suddenly gets pricked by a thorny branch, her cry of surprise tinged with hidden pain.

In the distance, several wild camels still lingered under the moonlight.
The flickering campfire cast shadows of people onto the Gobi Desert.

The clanging and banging sound of piecing together the coffin was faint and indistinct.
The scene was so bizarre, yet suppressed groans gradually emerged from the wedding tent, sounding like pain and helplessness, twisting and turning.

An old woman and a young girl sat quietly outside the wedding tent, listening.

When she sings softly, Xiao Qingmei's ears will unconsciously perk up.

When the silver bottle suddenly breaks, Xiao Qingmei's body trembles with fright.

Gradually, her face became redder and hotter, so hot that it could almost be used to make pancakes.

Although she was still a young girl who had never experienced anything, she was Suo Chanzhi's maidservant and had accompanied her mistress to see the "bottom of the trunk" before her marriage.

"The bottom of the chest" is a picture book that the bride's family would take out before her marriage to educate her about sex.

At this moment, the images in those picture books that she only vaguely understood seemed to come alive, running wild in Xiao Qingmei's mind and turning her brain into a complete mess.

The sounds emanating from the large tent seemed to be the voiceover for these activities, perfectly matching every "action".

Little Green Plum began to fidget, as if ants were crawling all over her.

Suddenly, she scrambled to her feet, her hands and feet weak, and said shyly with a flushed face, "Granny Tu, I... I'll go get some water."

After saying that, Xiao Qingmei picked up her sword and ran away. However, although she was in a hurry, she unconsciously squeezed her thighs together and walked with her toes pointing inward.

Granny Tu remained seated, her wrinkled face radiating disdain. "Little girl, you can't even handle this? Tch!" Granny Tu was sold into the Suo family at the age of twelve. She rose from a lowly maid to a junior maid, then to a head maid, a nanny, and finally a head nanny, a journey that took her a full thirty-nine years.

Now in her fifties, she has never been with a man in her life and has never married.

When she was young, she would blush as she listened to the old women and head maids recounting amusing stories about their masters' intimate moments. In the quiet of the night, she would even feel a longing for those stories she had heard.

But from some point onwards, Granny Tu found matters of the heart between men and women utterly uninteresting, and even instinctively felt disgusted.

To this day, her only pursuit in life is power.

However, within the inner quarters, her career path had reached its limit; there was no room for advancement. Therefore, she set her sights on the position of external affairs steward.

In the homes of ordinary wealthy gentlemen, a steward is simply a manager or steward, the difference being only in the title. However, in the homes of powerful clans, steward and manager are two completely different positions.

There are eight powerful clans in Longxi, each ruling its own territory. The external affairs officers of these clans are "regional officials" who manage and guard the area on behalf of their clan leaders. All the scholars, farmers, merchants, and other trades in the area are under their jurisdiction.

These foreign affairs officials wielded power and status no less than, and perhaps even more than, the regional military governors of the Central Plains empire. Because the administration of the Longxi region was relatively lax, their authority surpassed that of the imperial ministers.

The external affairs steward was a retainer of a powerful family, while even if Granny Tu reached the position of head steward, she was still just a household slave. The difference of one word made all the difference.

What Granny Tu wants now is to transcend social classes and become a retainer of the Suo family of the Jincheng Clan.

Therefore, she won the job of being a dowry maid in the Yu family.

"Hehe, that girl Chanzhi is really easy to fool."

Granny Tu thought smugly, "I've fooled her with just a few words. But it's not exactly deception, is it? After all, if this succeeds, it will truly benefit her and her family. However, the greatest benefit will still belong to me, Granny Tu..."

Thinking of her triumph, Granny Tu's face lit up with a joyful smile.

In this world, the Central Plains are divided by the Shichuan River, with the Chen Kingdom to the south and the Mu Kingdom to the north, two great empires ruling the world.

The Longshang region, on the other hand, was ruled and governed by eight powerful clans.

Among the eight major clans, the most powerful were the Suo, Yuan, and Murong clans, known as the Upper Three Clans.

The weaker clans were the Yuwen, Li, Dugu, Zhao, and Yu clans, collectively known as the Lower Five Clans.

The three upper clans are now restless and eager to rise up. They all want to unify the eight clans, establish a new dynasty, and stand on equal footing with the two great empires of the Central Plains.

At this point, the Yu family's Tianshui valve became exceptionally important.

Although the Tianshui Valve ranks last among the eight valves, the territory occupied by the Yu family is known as the "Granary of Longyou".

Therefore, when the Yu family proposed a marriage alliance to the Suo family, the Suo family readily agreed.

When a wealthy family marries off their daughter, a head maid will always be included in the dowry. This is because the bride will be in charge of managing the household affairs of her husband's family, and having a head maid to assist her will help her quickly master the skills of managing servants, finances, etiquette, and other domestic matters.

However, the real mission of the dowry maid sent by the Suo family was to control the Yu family through Suo Chanzhi, the eldest daughter-in-law of the main branch, and then control the Yu family, ultimately putting the "Longyou Granary" in the hands of the Suo clan.

This process may take a long time, but for a great undertaking like governing a country, which may require several generations to complete, it is not long at all.

However, Yu Chengye's death disrupted the Suo family's plans, and Tu Mama's dream of being promoted to Grand Steward of External Affairs based on this merit was shattered.

Fortunately, in her desperation, she came up with the idea of ​​using a sperm donor to "bring the dead back to life" and successfully persuaded Suo Chanzhi.

If this plan succeeds, the Suo family's schemes can continue, and she, who knows Suo Chanzhi's secret...

Hearing the "painful" groans coming from inside the tent, Granny Tu's smile grew even more delightful.

　As usual, a "supporting characters" thread will be set up in the book review section, and book lovers are welcome to sign up.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)