Thirteenth Lady's Comback: Her Everyday Life as a Bystander-Chapter 29 - 13: A Joyous Occasion

On this side, the Third Miss and Fourth Miss were too excited to sleep, while on the other side, the First Madam and Second Madam were secretly cursing. The money deducted from the illegitimate daughters each year was enough for their maternal families to live on.

The maternal families of the two madams were not wealthy and had no promising descendants, relying entirely on the daughters to supplement the family finances. Although they had been allocated family assets, because of events in previous years, they could only manage the affairs of their own courtyards and couldn’t touch anything else. They needed to save for themselves and support their maternal families, to the point of scraping oil off the wings of passing mosquitoes. It must be said, the marriages that the old master arranged for his legitimate sons not only harmed his old wife but also his sons and grandchildren.

He only thought about gaining fame alongside wealth, not realizing that a good wife would benefit three generations, while a bad one could ruin three generations. Fortunately, the two lords were not muddle-headed, and there was an understanding old madam.

The Fourth Miss moved and packed up everything by the twenty-third of the last lunar month, a day for sacrificing to the kitchen god, cleaning, and eating sugar figures.

The Song Family was wealthy, and as soon as the twenty-third arrived, it was even livelier. Outside, porridge was being distributed, along with cotton clothes and Copper Coins. Inside the garden, the servants were given two months’ bonus and new clothes.

The courtyard of the Old Madam was filled with New Year gifts from various places, not to mention those from the three uncles, as well as gifts from the Old Madam’s own family and friendly families, and carloads of gifts from the three madames.

It was only then that Susu learned that the three madames included one legitimate and two illegitimate daughters: the legitimate Lady turned out to be a concubine of the original Prince Rong. The Song Family was the money bag for Prince Rong, and once he ascended the throne as Emperor, he was busy with affairs in the Capital, and by the time he remembered the Song Family, it was already the year’s end. Therefore, along with the Lady’s New Year gifts, a Ministry of Rites official with the Emperor’s decree and several eunuchs arrived. After these officials returned to the Capital with offerings from the Song Family estimated at ten thousand taels in silver notes, the entire Song Family was plunged into ecstasy.

There were two reasons: First, the Lady was granted the title of a Princess Consort with the bestowed title Xi, becoming a chief position in the palace; Second, the eldest master of the Song Mansion was granted the title of Shun’an Earl by the Emperor. Even though it was a title without real power, only inheritable for three generations before being downgraded and ended, the Song Family was no longer just merchants but was now considered nobility.

The Old Madam and First Madam instantly transformed from merchant women to Old Lady Shun’an and Lady Shun’an with a Super Rank official title, while even the wife of the Yangzhou Prefect was just a Madam of the Fourth Rank accompanying her husband.

This was followed by visits and New Year gifts from officials all over Yangzhou. For the first time, the Old Madam, filled with authority, gave a stern warning to the entire mansion, essentially stating they should not be arrogant, abuse their power, or cause trouble for Princess Consort Xi in the palace.

Princess Consort Xi and the eldest master were twins and now thirty years old, yet they had no offspring. Although the family had money, aside from Silver, there was not much else they could offer. Fortunately, the three uncles in the mansion were not the kind of people who lose their senses when they gain success.

From now on, the Song Mansion would be renamed the Shun’an Earl Mansion. It was merely a title that sounded nice; the annual salary altogether amounted to only one hundred taels of gold, less than what was given as bonuses to the household staff. Previously, the Song Family handed over between one hundred thousand and five hundred thousand taels of silver to Prince Rong every year for nearly fifteen years. Granting a Third-class Earl title to the Song Family, the Emperor truly knows how to do business.

The Song Family had leapt from being Salt Merchants to an Earl Mansion. For the little maids, it just meant more bonuses. Their monthly salary was already high, and there was no increase this time. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The Old Madam, becoming the old lady, did not change her nature. She was not fond of social visits in the past, and now she had no need to curry favor with anyone. In Yangzhou, she was now the highest rank official madam. Some usually distant official wives suddenly became frequent visitors to Sui’an Hall. The old madam disliked their false faces and left the hosting to the First Madam, but she genuinely loved her granddaughters, often bringing them out to greet the guests. Once daughters from a Salt Merchant’s family, they had become daughters of an Earl Mansion. Even as illegitimate daughters, they had bright futures.

Moreover, all of Yangzhou knew that the Song Family treated their illegitimate daughters fairly. In the past, the two illegitimate madams were married off with large dowries: one married into the richest family in Suzhou’s Sun Family, becoming the housewife; the other married a poor scholar who, thanks to the Song Family’s connections, was now a local magistrate, making the Lady his magistrate madam.

Now that their maternal family had become nobility, the two illegitimate madams held their heads higher. When they returned home with their New Year gifts on the second day of the New Year, it was thirty percent more generous than usual, giving hope to the several girls in the family, making them more filial toward the Old Madam.