Chapter 980 Mrs. Bai’s true nature is revealed!
Yijing, Ye Mansion

An Miaoyi was looking at the account book, checking the recent expenses of the mansion. Although Ye Cui's 60th birthday was just a few days away, as the de facto head of the Ye family, An Miaoyi did not dare to relax at all when it came to financial matters. She had to make sure everything was under control at all times...

Just as An Miaoyi was looking at the account book, a maid came over and reported to An Miaoyi:

"Madam, Madam Liu wants to see you for something!"

An Miaoyi was a little surprised to hear this. After the establishment of the Attendant's Department, Ye Cheng, the original steward of the Ye Mansion, was mainly in charge of the affairs of the Attendant's Department and had less control over the affairs of the mansion. He was only responsible for some of Ye Mingsheng's daily life arrangements in the mansion.

Pei Zhixiu, who was in charge of the affairs of the mansion, did not like to fight for power and profit. Most of his thoughts were on his son Jingxuan and the Changshan Medical Clinic. Therefore, An Miaoyi, who held all the power, did not show any emotion and arranged the affairs of the mansion to a few trusted maids around her.

And this Madam Liu is one of them. An Miaoyi entrusted many matters in the mansion to her!
However, because Ye Cui's 60th birthday is approaching, there are many things to do between the mansion and the government, so An Miaoyi handed over a lot of things to Nanny Liu yesterday.

So logically speaking, Nanny Liu should be responsible for completing the tasks assigned by An Miaoyi, instead of coming here to report anything!
An Miaoyi frowned when she thought of this, but still nodded to the maid. A moment later, a nanny in her forties came to An Miaoyi.

"This servant pays her respects to the Madam..."

Seeing this, An Miaoyi nodded, motioned for Aunt Liu to stand up, and then she got straight to the point and asked:
"Did anything happen on the old lady's birthday?"

Facing An Miaoyi's question, Aunt Liu immediately shook her head and said:

"Madam, everything is going well with the birthday celebration. Everything you instructed is going according to plan. I guarantee there won't be any mistakes!"

An Miaoyi felt relieved after hearing that, but she was also a little curious. If everything was normal, then why did she come to her place?
This Nanny Liu was once someone close to me. She should understand that I have a lot of things to do now and that she shouldn't come here to disturb me unless there is something important.

Aunt Liu seemed to see what An Miaoyi was thinking and immediately said:
"Although there is no problem with what you have instructed, Madam, there are some problems with Madam Bai!"

Hearing this, An Miaoyi frowned slightly but continued:

"Tell me what the problem is!"

Aunt Liu whispered:
“Xiaoqing, the maidservant beside Madam Bai, came over and said that Master Jingheng was one month old and needed more servants to take care of him. She wanted to transfer a few maids and servants from the mansion to him. But there was a rule in the mansion that Madam Bai could only have three maids and two maids serving her, so I politely declined Xiaoqing’s offer…”

"But Xiaoqing came over again today and said that if the mansion doesn't arrange for anyone, then Madam Bai's family is willing to arrange for a few servants to come into the mansion to serve!"

"Also, because we were short of manpower for the old lady's birthday, we had to draw manpower from the ladies' courtyards according to the pre-arranged plan!"

But Madam Bai said that Master Jingheng needs someone to take care of him now, and they don’t have enough manpower in their courtyard, so they are unwilling to send anyone! Let us draw more people from Jinyu and Madam Shen’s house to fill this vacancy!"

"Madam Jinyu agreed, but Madam Shen disagreed and even had some unpleasantness with Madam Bai!"

After listening to what Madam Liu said, An Miaoyi roughly understood what happened, and then continued:
"Should we transfer a few servants from Madam Bai?"

Aunt Liu spoke without hesitation:
"One nanny and two maids. Madam Bai only sent one maid. Madam Jinyu didn't send a nanny. We are still short of one maid!"

After hearing this, An Miaoyi nodded slightly and said:

"I understand, go down and do your work!"

Upon hearing this, Nanny Liu retreated as if she had been pardoned. To be honest, the matter was not a big deal, just a vacancy for a maid. However, Nanny Liu couldn’t stand the maids and old women around Bai Yuanyuan. After Master Jingheng was born, they acted like villains who had succeeded. That’s why she planned to file a small complaint to An Miaoyi...

After Madam Liu left, An Miaoyi also looked at the account book in her hand. At this time, the account book clearly wrote that in Bai Yuanyuan's courtyard, in the name of Master Jingheng's needs, an additional 570 taels of silver were withdrawn from the mansion's account in the past two months, and there were also a lot of supplements and other things, with a total value of about 1,000 taels of silver.

Originally, because Bai Yuanyuan did give Ye Mingsheng a son, Ye Mingsheng gave him the name Jingheng before he led his troops on the western expedition, which was considered a great achievement in expanding the Ye family.

In addition, the two brothers Bai Changrong and Bai Changjiu from the Bai family also hold important positions in the Fengwu Army and have a promising future, so An Miaoyi also intends to win over the Bai family. Therefore, even if Bai Yuanyuan's expenses are a little over the limit, An Miaoyi has no intention of arguing with her.

But now, with Jingheng's birth, Bai Yuanyuan seems to feel that she can gain status as a mother by virtue of her son, and she starts to lose track of who she is?
At present, apart from the eldest lady An Miaoyi, there are five other people in the Ye Mansion who have official titles: Murong Qingwu, Pei Zhixiu, Shen Yutong, Bai Yuanyuan, and Jinyu. As for the others, although Ye Mingsheng has slept with several of them, he has not given them official titles.

Not counting the unborn baby in Pei Zhixiu's belly, Ye Mingsheng currently has four sons and two daughters: Jingren, Jingcheng, Xingtong, Jingxuan, Kexin and Jingheng!
Because of the Cui family as a relative and the blessing of Jingren, the eldest son, An Miaoyi's position is still very stable, and her reputation in the Fengwu Army is also good. Even though Murong Qingwu's family is also powerful, but because she only has Kexin, it is difficult for her to pose any challenge to An Miaoyi... Pei Zhixiu, who has a son, has no intention of participating in the battle for the throne. Although Shen Yutong is willing, various conditions do not allow it. She originally planned to use all means to get the Yuan family as a strong ally for her son Jingcheng, but her plan was strangled in the cradle!

This situation of one family dominating the market was broken with the birth of Jing Heng!

The Bai family was originally just a small family in Liaoyang, and was a subsidiary of the Gongsun family, one of the three clans in Liaoyang at that time. However, because they chose to follow the Fengwu Army early on, they also shared the dividends of victory in the rise of the Fengwu Army!

The head of the Bai family, Bai Wanhao, is currently running the Bai family's business. The business is very large and spreads all over the Fengwu Army. The Bai family also made a lot of efforts in the preparation of Ye Cui's birthday banquet this time!
The eldest son of the Bai family, Bai Changrong, became disabled in the previous battle between Hebei and Henan, but Ye Mingsheng appreciated his contributions and arranged a position of reserve general for him, making him responsible for the training of all reserve soldiers!
The second son of the Bai family, Bai Changjiu, had been working in the Youyan Provincial Government before. He had a good reputation in the Youyan Provincial Government and got along well with his colleagues.
When the position of deputy director of the Personnel Bureau was vacant before, people from all sides competed for it, and Bai Changjiu was no exception. However, he was defeated in the competition, and still remained in the position of Youyan Provincial Government...
Although he failed in the competition for the deputy director of the Personnel Bureau, this competition also brought him into Ye Mingsheng's sight!
After fully examining Bai Changjiu, Ye Mingsheng sent him to Anqing to serve as the deputy envoy of Anqing's provincial government. Although he was only a deputy envoy, as the third-ranked figure among Anqing's civil servants, Bai Changjiu could barely be considered a provincial governor!
Bai Changjiu not only has a relationship with his younger sister Bai Yuanyuan, but he is also the son-in-law of the Cui family, and his background is very strong!

Therefore, Bai Changjiu, who had a background, ability and a good reputation, was also widely favored in the Fengwu Army. It was generally believed that as long as he made political achievements in Anqing, he would either directly govern a region or be transferred back to the central government to hold an important position!

There is no doubt that Bai Changjiu is already a rising political star in the Fengwu Army system!

So even though the Bai family's power is not particularly great, under such circumstances some people have noticed that the Bai family is on the rise, and there is also the key figure, Master Jingheng!

Therefore, some people also regarded the newly born Master Jingheng as one of the potential challengers to Master Jingren, and believed that the Bai family, as an in-law, was ambitious and capable!

An Miaoyi had also heard some rumors about this but she never took it seriously. Although she had a good relationship with Bai Yuanyuan on the surface, she looked down on Bai Yuanyuan and the Bai family from the bottom of her heart.

An Miaoyi felt that the Bai family was able to rise to power because of Bai Yuanyuan’s beauty, just like a rootless duckweed without any family heritage at all·····························

Bai Yuanyuan won the favor of her husband entirely by being sexy and open-minded. Moreover, Bai Yuanyuan is the oldest among the girls in the Ye family, two or three years older than her husband!
Although I am lucky enough to have given birth to a son for my husband, he will be old and ugly. Even if not now, then in the next few years!

As the ancients said, those who serve others with beauty will lose their love as their beauty fades. Therefore, as Bai Yuanyuan grows old and loses her beauty, the current upward momentum of the Bai family will inevitably decline. Therefore, An Miaoyi has no interest in suppressing the Bai family and is only waiting to see the Bai family's jokes in the future.
Not only that, An Miaoyi originally planned to treat Bai Yuanyuan better in order to shut others up and show her magnanimity as a lady!

Although An Miaoyi knew before that Bai Yuanyuan had many ideas and coveted her position, she also said a lot of sour words in a sarcastic tone when Pei Zhixiu got the power to assist in the affairs of the mansion.
But because Bai Yuanyuan hid it well, An Miaoyi looked up to her at the time. But she didn't expect that after giving birth to a son, she felt that she was a good mother and thought she was okay again. This completely exposed her true nature!
Thinking of this, An Miaoyi couldn't help but shook her head with some disdain. Ye Mingsheng once told her that if God wants to destroy someone, he must first make him crazy. That's why she would not deal with Bai Yuanyuan now...

Not only did he not deal with Bai Yuanyuan, but he continued to indulge her. Now that Bai Yuanyuan had just given birth to a son, her husband still had some feelings for her, which was perfect for her to be used as a gun!

The only pity is that Murong Qingwu is not in the mansion now, otherwise it would be a good choice to arrange for the two of them to meet!

I can just watch them fighting each other with a smile, and then as the wife, I can come out to clean up the mess and reap the benefits!

Thinking of this, An Miaoyi couldn't help but feel that it was a pity that Murong Qingwu was not in Ye Mansion at this time, otherwise this would definitely be a very exciting show that would feast people's eyes!

Thinking of Murong Qingwu, An Miaoyi's mind gradually became serious. As the saying goes, a biting dog doesn't bark. Someone like Bai Yuanyuan, who became arrogant and domineering just after giving birth to a son, is not a threat at all. The people in Murong's family are the real danger!

Although she was forced to give up the idea of ​​killing Murong Zhengshan and framing Lu Jianchao, An Miaoyi had been keeping an eye on Murong Zhengsheng's movements.

Judging from the news sent by the Coordination Office, thanks to Murong Zhengshan's efforts, Lu Jianchao basically remained neutral in the battle between the Fengwu Army and the Zhennan Army, except for letting the Zhennan Army of Chishan Prefecture go.

Although it was just maintaining neutrality, An Miaoyi, who had been checking the reports of the Central Court's General Staff during this period, knew very well that this was already a very valuable result...

After all, compared with the Zhennan Army, the Fengwu Army has an absolute advantage in strength. Therefore, as long as the Zhennan Army can refrain from helping either side, and wait until the main force of the Fengwu Army withdraws from the north, it will not be too difficult for the Fengwu Army to deal with the Zhennan Army!

As long as Xu Zhaojie and the Zhennan Army are defeated, Lu Jianchao will be unable to hold on alone in Jiangnan, and it is highly likely that he will choose to surrender under the mediation of the Murong family!

An Miaoyi's heart couldn't help but hang in the air when she thought of this. As Ye Mingsheng's bedside companion, she could more or less guess what Ye Mingsheng was thinking!
She knew that Ye Mingsheng's attitude towards Cui Shao was to use him but also to guard against him. Now, in order to unify the world as soon as possible, Ye Mingsheng tacitly acknowledged Cui Shao's huge influence among the civil servants!

After the country is unified, Cui Shao's role and value will not be very great. By that time, Ye Mingsheng will most likely let this loyal minister return to his hometown to live out his life in peace.

It would be best if Gu Sansi took over Cui Shao's class at that time. After all, Gu Sansi was Jingren's teacher, so naturally An Miaoyi on her side could completely accept it.

However, the Murong family has made such a great contribution, so the husband will definitely reward them. Therefore, it is entirely possible that Murong Yuliang will become the central envoy based on this achievement, which is extremely disadvantageous to An Miaoyi. This is also what An Miaoyi has been worried about all along...

(End of this chapter)