Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan 知否知否 应是绿肥红瘦

C174. The Household Chores for a Madam (2)

Minglan was sitting in the right side room to eat her breakfast. As she was chewing the not-so-delicious fried cake in her mouth with her eyebrows knitted, she also tried to slowly recall the things that she had read last night. Then she decided to put the accounts aside and checked on the people first. After Minglan had taken over the name list of the personnel, she started to sort out the information in her mind quickly.

All the servants in Commander's mansion added up to 62. That number was too little for a huge mansion like this indeed.

Meanwhile, those people could be classified into three groups. The first group of the servants who had been bought by Gu Tingye from the outside had no roots. However, it was still likely that they had already been at someone else's service. The second group of the servants had been awarded by the Emperor. Most of them had used to be the family servants of the guilty officials before. There might even be some ladies or young masters among them, which was worth paying attention. The third group consisted of four families which were from Marquis Ningyuan's mansion. Two families had been sent by Old Madam Qin while the other two families had been sent by the Fourth and Fifth Old Madam respectively.

Well, Minglan almost forgot to count the servants who had come with her from Sheng's family.

After she had finished eating the breakfast, she checked her appearance quickly and then put on an informal front opening coat embroidered with plum flowers on twisted branches and a virescent gauze cloak. Today she chose the bright color and gorgeous dressing style. Then she was led by a few maids to the Morning Sunlight Hall.

At present, the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The doors on the four sides of the hall had already been opened. There were four Central Scroll Paintings on the eastern and the western walls. On the front wall on the north hanged the tablet which was granted by the emperor. A glossy rosewood square table was right below the tablet with armchairs of the same material by both sides. Two rows of wide chairs with short backs were arranged trimly by two sides of the hall. There was a small tea table carved with Ruyi patterns between each two of the wide chairs. The floor was paved with polished Blue Flagstone with a dark red woolen carpet in the middle.

What a hall of the mansion! It was grand and magnificent of great momentum.

Minglan looked at that rosewood huge chair with high back while thinking that only a woman in Old Madam Sheng's age would look so commanding on that chair. However, since she was the madam of this mansion, there seriously was no one who could sit on that chair other than her.

After she had walked steadily toward the chair and took her seat, the elder servants who had carried the tea tray there for a long time stepped forward right away to give their obeisances. Minglan then nodded to them slightly. As she raised her head to have a look, she saw that the swarm of people who stood under the stairs had already been divided into a few groups. Some groups stood there neatly while the other ones being rather attentively.

Liao Yong's wife took a step forward and said reverently with her head lowered, "Madam, that's all the servants in the mansion except for four doormen. I have also brought the servants who work in the kitchen."

Being very satisfied with the straightforward style of Liao Yong's wife, Minglan glanced at the latter with admiration and nodded.

Liao Yong's wife seemed to be inspired. Then she pointed at several rows of people who were standing outside of the hall and introduced shortly, "These ones are in charge of the cleaning, these ones do the needlework. These ones take charge of the purchase work. These ones guard the yards. As for them..." After her long speech, she pointed at dozens of girls who seem very young and said, "They haven't been assigned to anything yet. Momo Chang said that after Madam married into our family, those girls should be taught about the rules before they serve. Minglan memorized secretly of which groups of people stood there orderly and which groups looked less disciplined. She also memorized the leader of each of the groups.