The morning mist of the Marquis's Mansion clung to the white walls and gray tiles like shredded cotton, wrapping the bronze bells on the eaves of the ancestral hall in a layer of hazy, damp vapor. Jiang Wan knelt on the cushion, the hard bricks pressing against her knees through her skirts, a dull ache crawling up her spine. The gilded Buddha statue on the altar gazed down with half-lidded eyes; she stared at the ruyi scepter held in its palm, suddenly recalling her Grandmother’s words—it had been part of her mother’s dowry when she married into the Marquis's Mansion and had been laid out for her to grab at her hundred-day banquet.
"Miss, your porridge is getting cold." Xiaotao pulled back the cotton curtain. The glutinous rice porridge in the celadon bowl was still steaming, the goji berries bobbing on the surface just like the worry in the Old Madame’s eyes the previous night. The red mole at the corner of the maid’s eye trembled with each breath as she lowered her voice, "The Second Mistress ordered the kitchen to cut off your bird's nest this morning, saying..."
"Saying that a legitimate daughter of the Marquis's Mansion shouldn't be so extravagant?" Jiang Wan took the bowl and smiled as the porcelain rim touched her lips. "Go to the front courtyard and invite Steward Zhou. Also, have the accounts office prepare the distribution records from the West City Gruel Kitchen for the past three months—I want the originals with the fingerprints." She scooped up a spoonful of po…
Chapter 208