Flowery Hair: A Maidservant

Chapter 30 Execute First, Report Later

Meng Shu took the food box and thanked her mistress on behalf of her. The maids next to her also gathered around.

The head maid said with some pride, "This pastry is called Longjing Tea Pastry. It's quite interesting; it's a pastry created by our young lady. It's made from the finest oolong tea ground into powder, and the aroma of tea fills your mouth when you eat it. The young lady heard that Mr. Lin is teaching tea ceremony today, so it's perfect to go with it."

Meng Shu paused, her hand about to open the food box, thinking she had misheard.

How could a master in the prestigious Tang family steal a maid's skills?

Upon opening the package, I indeed found two plates of round tea pastries, which looked exactly like those made with winter melon.

Seeing that Meng Shu seemed distracted, the head maid gave her some instructions but still felt uneasy. She waited patiently for a while until Mr. Lin announced a half-hour break. The head maid immediately picked up the food box and went past Meng Shu into the room.

Meng Shu quickly composed herself and led the remaining maids inside to help. After tasting the tea, Mr. Lin praised it, saying that the young lady was intelligent and clever, and had come up with a unique approach by using tea as a dessert.

The head maid remembered the compliment and left satisfied.

Meng Shu then came to her senses. It seemed that the eldest young lady was discussing marriage and wanted to use Mr. Lin from the capital to spread her fame through her fresh pastries. If she was right, it wouldn't be long before Mr. Lin's words, along with the eldest young lady's reputation for being intelligent and virtuous, would spread throughout the Tang family.

But the old lady, Madam Yun, and the people at Fu'anju all know who made these pastries. Could the young lady be so stupid?

The young lady was not stupid. Before noon, Donggua hurriedly found Meng Shu and told her the whole story. Only then did Meng Shu realize that the young lady had actually made a move of acting first and informing her later.

It turned out that last night, someone from the young lady's side had come to Donggua, asking her for the recipe for tea pastries. Donggua, completely unaware of what was going on, naturally gave it to her. After the news of Mr. Lin's praise spread throughout the mansion today, the old lady sent someone from the courtyard to ask Donggua, and after hearing the story, she already knew what had happened.

But even knowing this, he could only cover for her. So Guangbai went to Donggua in person to ask her to remind Mengshu. The old lady also knew that the two of them had been wronged, so she gave them another thirty taels of silver.

"This move is really not very clever."

Meng Shu was at a loss for words. While this might earn her a good reputation among the women, wouldn't it leave an impression of moral depravity on the old lady and her stepmother, Madam Yun?

Or does she think that once she has a good reputation and has completed the marriage negotiations, she no longer needs to care about the opinions of the elders in the household? But the marriage hasn't been finalized yet.

Donggua didn't think too much about it. She smiled and weighed the silver in her hand. "Meng Shu, use your brain. If we make more different kinds of pastries, we can live a good life by relying on tips in the future."

At Fu'an Residence, the old lady was also talking to Madam Yun.

"Where did that young lady learn her manners from? This kind of behavior is utterly disrespectful and incredibly stupid."

Madam Yun, holding a brocade fan, said with a wry smile, "Mother, don't be angry. This girl would never have acted like this before. I think she might have heard that we intend to discuss marriage with the Qin family."

The old lady took a sip of tea to calm herself down, and after a long while said, "Looking at it now, it's best to let it go. Her personality is only suited to ordinary families. She shouldn't jeopardize the marriages of the other young ladies in the household."

Although the eldest daughter of the Tang family was born out of wedlock, given the Tang family's immense wealth in Lin'an and their indirect connection to the Marquis of Huai'an's mansion, she was more than qualified to marry into an ordinary official family. Therefore, since the marriage proposal began, Madam Yun had taken her to many gatherings.

Finally, there was one family that the old lady and Madam Yun were extremely satisfied with. It was the son of a concubine from the Qin family, who was a fifth-rank official. Although he was a concubine's son, he was extremely capable. He had already passed the imperial examination at the age of seventeen. Moreover, the Qin family's legitimate son had died young, and there were only two concubine's sons in the household.

However, the Qin family is a family that values ​​poetry and literature, and they are not particularly interested in the wealthy Tang family. It was the Tang family that first gave a hint, but the Qin family has not yet given a definite answer.

Miss Tang did this simply to increase her bargaining power in the marriage negotiations. Mr. Lin's status was special; besides teaching at the Tang family's girls' school, he also frequently interacted with women from prominent families, so her words naturally carried a great deal of weight.

Meng Shu was unaware that Miss Tang's cleverness had backfired. As a second-class maid, she had no right to care. She spent her days reading and playing chess with the quiet second young lady, and secretly learned quite a bit.

She has a photographic memory, can apply what she learns to other situations, and is an expert at summarizing and generalizing. Therefore, she can grasp anything she learns very quickly.

Right now, the second young lady is frowning, helpless in the face of the unfinished game on the chessboard. Meng Shu stands by her side, already having three or four ways to solve the problem in mind.

But she couldn't say it, nor could she show that she knew a lot.

This is actually difficult.

On the last day of June, Meng Shu sorted out the purses, handkerchiefs, and sachets she had recently embroidered, intending to distribute them to her sisters and managers who had previously traded scraps of fabric, and to hand over the rest to a peddler for consignment.

She didn't plan to embroider these things to earn money anymore. Firstly, it was hard on her eyes, and secondly, because of the various tips she received recently, she now had seventeen taels of silver, plus two sets of jewelry and fabric. She was already one of the wealthiest maids.

As soon as she stepped out of the room, she saw Ruizhu waiting at the door. Ruizhu eagerly accepted many embroidered items and followed Meng Shu obediently.

Given this situation, it can only be said that Meng Shu has indeed won her over.

When dealing with people whose emotions are written all over their faces, Meng Shu's approach is to slap them in the face.

Since she feels she's been taken over her job, then let her take it completely.

So, on the second day after Meng Shu arrived at Yunyi Courtyard, she went to find Steward Cao and asked him to introduce the best hairdresser in the mansion. She also dragged the kind-hearted Green Willow over to be her model. In less than two days, she learned seventeen different hairstyles.

Through An Madam's connections, she found Hua Ying, the head maid in charge of jewelry and dressing by the old lady's side, and carefully learned the skills of matching jewelry and clothing for women of different ages. She also learned other skills, such as how to judge the quality of various gemstones and what the most fashionable jewelry in Lin'an was this summer.

When the old lady learned of her ambition, she even instructed Huaying to bring out twelve sets of the latest headdresses from Yongbaolou, made of gold, silver, jade and various intricate craftsmanship, to broaden Meng Shu's horizons.

After learning enough, Meng Shu immediately put her knowledge into action.

Just then, Miss Meng Shu received an invitation to the Prefect's daughter's garden party. In the morning, Rui Zhu chose a light green dress for Miss Meng Shu that perfectly showcased her youthful liveliness and charm. Meng Shu then naturally suggested that this dress would be more suitable for her hair with cascading hair.

Ruizhu was dumbfounded; she couldn't do it.

So she watched helplessly as Meng Shu took over the job from her, and even discovered that Meng Shu's makeup skills were actually better than her own, and that the young lady's small face was indeed more suitable for hanging sideburns.

During the garden party, the second young lady received a ton of praise. Before she even returned to the manor, she gave the order in the carriage that the task of dressing up should be handed over to Meng Shu.

Ruizhu, having stumbled in her childhood service skills, was naturally indignant and went to Qin Mama to complain. Meng Shu then brought over a winter melon and a green willow, and the two had a competition. Meng Shu styled thirteen different hairstyles in half an hour, which directly destroyed Ruizhu's mind.

Qin's mother looked at Ruizhu pitifully, then turned to Madam Yun and said, "It's so sad that you're not as skilled as others."

However, although Ruizhu is petty and jealous, she is still quite clever. If she can't win, she immediately submits. Recently, she has even treated Meng Shu as a good sister.

Now she followed Meng Shu with a bunch of purses in her arms. Seeing how easily Meng Shu handled Manager Cao and Mother An, and how she could give gifts with a sense of long-standing human warmth, she was even more impressed.

Looking at the connections within the household alone, she couldn't muster even the slightest competitive thought.

Before she even reached the side gate, Meng Shu saw Lü Liu rushing over. When she got closer, she found that Lü Liu's face was covered in tears, clearly she had just been crying.

Upon seeing Meng Shu, she suddenly hugged her and cried, "Meng Shu, can you... lend me three taels of silver? I promise I'll pay you back."