My Husband’s Deceased Wife is Back

By 此臉不要

Chapter 5 Chapter 5 An outsider, don’t give orders…

It was cold, and He Tao was arranged by Yi Yu to wait in the warm room.

Xue Ming’s murderous and bloody posture had spread throughout the Xue Mansion early on.
He

Tao was very proficient in interpersonal relationships, and she had already tricked the maids
and old women into revealing things.

He Tao was waiting anxiously at Meilin’s place, and happened to meet Yi Yu who was
walking with his head down, with a thoughtful look on his face.

She greeted him with a smile on her face:

“Congratulations, Madam, you are blessed by God! Now that the general is back, you can
tell him about Meilin! I have been in the mansion for a long time. Although the general looks
like a killing god, he is very compassionate to the weak and very human!”

“Let’s talk about our sufferings. Even if there are more disagreements, the general will
probably agree!”

Yi Yu clenched his fists and shook his head, “No.”

He Tao didn’t understand.

Yi Yu lowered her head and spoke in a low voice, but her tone was firm: "I will not pull out
the Merlin."

He Taohuo asked, unable to help but worried: "Why, Madam? What a good opportunity!"

Yi Yu only said: "Those are the few things my sister left behind."

She paused and pursed her lips: "I don't want to make him sad. "

Yiyu's idea of pulling out the plum blossoms in the forest disappeared when she saw Xue
Ming, such an unruly man, now delicately and gently stroking the equally hard and
unyielding plum blossoms with his fingertips.

Anything belonging to her sister is very important to Xue Ming.

This is one of the few pillars of support for Xue Ming.

will even protect it with all her heart.

He Tao didn't know what to say.

She knew that Yiyu was just like that. She was so nice to her, a girl she had never met
before, and she was even the dowry of her husband's original wife.

Not to mention Xue Ming, the only one who had done her a favor since she was a child.

Obviously Yiyu is two years younger than her.

Yiyu is just about to reach the age of 15. She

felt inexplicably reluctant.

He Tao suppressed her injustice.

After all, it was better for her to stay out of the master's affairs and keep herself out of
trouble.

He Tao: "Then does Madam want to try the second method? Go and fight those wild and
unruly old women?

Yi Yu remained silent.

He Tao sighed, "

You didn't want to get involved in these affairs of the inner mansion, and you don't have your
family backing you up. Everyone in the mansion is looking to find fault with you. In this
dangerous situation, you're going to be the housekeeper, but it's a thankless task. What can
you do... Alas."

"And the general's attitude towards you is really not worth it!"

Yi Yu patted He Tao's back to comfort her, with only a calm smile on his face, seemingly
unfazed. "Since I've made up my mind, I'm naturally prepared to bear the consequences. I
have some capital to resist, so I don't blame him. Thank you for standing up for me. I will
protect you, don't worry."

He Tao looked at Yi Yu, wondering what she felt.

Even at this time, he was still comforting her, protecting her, and still defending Xue Ming.

How did he develop such a temper? How much suffering did he endure?

*
Yiyu knew that Xue Ming didn't like her, and even disliked her.

Originally, Yiyu and Xue Ming's courtyards were adjacent to each other by the same road,
but Yiyu was afraid that they would bump into each other and that

he would cause trouble if he saw her. Xue Ming must be very upset now that his wife has
passed away.

So, in order to prevent him from seeing her unhappy, Yiyu specially walked around the entire
Xue Mansion before returning to her own courtyard.

But when she passed by the corner gate of the Xue Mansion, she saw the servant changing
wooden boxes.

Most of the wooden boxes nowadays are custom-made from a single shop, especially this
wooden box that is tightly sealed, most of which are exported overseas.

A closer look at this wooden box revealed that it did not contain the secret beeswax of that
shop, so it was not custom-made from that shop.

It was even one-third smaller than the ordinary ones exported overseas.

Yiyu's business intuition, which she developed at her maternal grandparents' house in
Hangzhou, made her feel that something was wrong.

She went forward to ask, and sure enough, the servant was startled to see someone
coming.

Yiyu was always curious about business.

When she asked, the servant started to make up for it. Xiluo pieced together the whole story
bit by bit.

But he refused to reveal the mastermind behind this.

Overseas countries are extremely fond of porcelain from this dynasty, and are willing to pay
a huge price for it.

Therefore, porcelain is often purchased from this dynasty.

For convenience, it is sold in boxes and baskets.

And it is unknown who in the mansion, in order to grab customers, lowered the price on the
surface, but secretly reduced the size of the boxes by half.

Yiyu was shocked.

If this move was discovered, and Xue Ming was now a big name...

Besides, with the current booming domestic and foreign trade, this path was obviously a
long-term one.

Yiyu, who grew up in a merchant family in Hangzhou, knew very well that this kind of
behavior would not lead to long-term business and was also potentially dangerous.

Yiyu asked him to keep it quiet and exchange the boxes for the original ones.

When the mastermind behind this was revealed, she would use her dowry to make up for the
difference in the price of the boxes, thus achieving both the benefits and the benefits.

Then she could persuade him, and it would probably work. There was

more going on in this mansion than she thought.

After questioning the plan for a long time, Yi Yu observed and visited the garden for several
days, and she didn't know how much ridicule she had received from the maids and servants.

Finally, after three days, she planned a reasonable method.

Today, the maids and servants lined up in three rows, showed no respect to her, and were
whispering to each other.

Demei and the garden manager were in the front, facing Yi Yu.

Yi Yu didn't care about the maids' disrespect. She just went to the problem of the slow
efficiency of the garden and asked one by one.

The questioning went up and down layer by layer.

It turned out that they were all passing the buck.

In the end, the buck fell to the manager, who in turn passed it to the eldest lady-in-law.

The manager was naturally happy to see Yi Yu in charge, and he told her all the problems
that caused the slow renovation of the garden, and tried his best to distance himself from the
matter: "It turns out that in order to gain power and avoid having the final say, Madam
Mingyu had to wait for approval from above before I could order the servants around.
Wouldn't it delay things if it had to be approved by all the levels? I don't have much power. "

Although the higher-ups hold the power, they don't have any real authority to do things.
Moreover, because they need approval from various levels, they can pass the buck to each
other and shirk responsibility.

Naturally, the efficiency is low.

This is exactly what Yi Yu has found out in the past three days.

Yi Yu sighed softly.

Afterwards, she took out the little notebook in which she had made her plans, met with De
Mei and the manager alone, and said:

"Yi Yu has to finish the garden this month, so I have been thinking hard and have an
unwritten method, maybe we can try it."

De Mei was impatient, but the manager was looking forward to it.

After all, she was quite curious about her mistress, Yiyu.

Who could possibly be so familiar with the gardening industry? And so proficient in the
ledgers? She

'd even caught her off guard a few days ago.

This little girl might not be as easy to bully as she appeared.

Yiyu: "Let me be frank."

She explained: "I just interrogated everyone and found that everyone is blaming each other.
It seems the servants are lazy, but in reality, the system at the top is flawed."

"The managers down there don't have real power. If they want to do anything, they have to
go through layers of directives, which leads to low efficiency."

Demei frowned, wondering what was going on.

The manager nodded in agreement.

Demei, annoyed, demanded: "So, what do you, great Buddha, want to do?"

Yiyu didn't care about her attitude; after all, she was willing to listen.

She said: "Please tell the mothers and maids that from now on, you don't need to ask for
permission from above. Each group should just do its own thing." She

then detailed the cost and time required for the garden project and her plan for dealing with
it.
She also pointed out that this was the housekeeping method she had learned through
practical experience at her maternal grandmother's house, to increase her credibility.

Demei couldn't help but laugh at this statement.

Was he going to change the housekeeping method left by the madam before she passed
away?

She scoffed,

"If you know it's unwritten, then don't say it."

"Madam Mingyu's housekeeping method was learned from books. I bet you can't even read
a few words, how could you say you learned it from your maternal grandmother in
Hangzhou? For a lowly merchant, Madam Mingyu's method is what the book says.

It's the golden rule. Who are you to interfere with?" "The madam has always been in charge
of the garden. It's not the place for an outsider to interfere."

"I really don't understand how some outsiders can put their status in the right place. Raised
in the countryside, with no good upbringing, they dare to try to change the housekeeping
model left by the great talents of the capital. It's laughable."

The madam she was referring to was Yiyu's elder sister, Mingyu.

Yiyu didn't dwell on the name. Surprisingly,

she wasn't annoyed at all when she heard this.

He Tao couldn't help herself; she had long been fed up with De Mei's condescending
attitude.

Perhaps it was for Yi Yu's sake, but more likely she was just taking the opportunity to vent
some old anger. She retorted directly,

"Other people's modesty is just politeness, but you really take it seriously? You're a young
lady from an official family, forced to work like a servant because you're innocent, and yet
you don't seem to understand etiquette. You're so careless and careless, so much worse
than those young ladies in the capital. You're a joke."

De Mei, aloof by nature, hated being spoken of this way. She immediately retorted, her face
flushing red,

"Zang Huo, I know it! You're just a maid. What right do you have to criticize me? What do
you know?"

He Tao rolled her eyes and muttered, "You've been flattered, you're acting like you're not a
slave."
De Mei's breath quickened in anger.

At the moment of stalemate, a figure in red, with a stern expression, approached De Mei,
whose face was red with anger, and shielded her with her slightly taller body.

The visitor was a young woman with sharp features, a beauty and depth of exotic beauty.

Her frown added a touch of intimidation.

She was Yiyu's sister-in-law, Xue Ming's younger sister.

As far as Yiyu knew, she and Mingyu were good friends.

She coldly rebuked Yiyu, "Keep a good eye on your girl. If you're incapable, admit it. I don't
recommend you do it for me."

He Tao was terrified of her sister-in-law. After all, she was rumored to be cruel and ruthless,
a bully since childhood, acting erratically and unrestrained, leading her girl on a lawless
rampage. She

had even used draconian tactics to marry a son-in-law and then murdered his fiancée.

Yiyu simply approached Demei, neither servile nor overbearing, and spoke gently,

"I know your housekeeping skills are excellent, and they were indeed effective at the time.
But one must always adapt to the situation. Yiyu is simply adapting to suit one's own needs,
not denying you."

Demei scoffed, "Hypocrisy."

Yiyu simply smiled, "Demei, you're actually quite capable. Not everyone gets the privilege of
being raised in a wealthy family; it's a rare gift."

"Although it's difficult for you to accept me, there's no need to be antagonistic. If we can't be
friends, I hope you'll always be well."

Demei scolded him for his hypocrisy.

This method might work, but she absolutely didn't believe Yiyu, a coward, could win over
people!

Without people's hearts, the method would be ineffective!

Madam Mingyu needed all sorts of flattery and intimidation. Huai Yiyu, unwilling to please
and lacking the authority to intimidate, how could she manage the gardens?

*
Yiyu was the garden manager, after all. If any of her strategies were suppressed, wouldn't it
be a deliberate act of preventing her from managing the household?

Moreover, the eldest cousin's wife was very confident, flattered by her praise, and she felt
that Yiyu, a timid girl raised in the countryside, could not accomplish anything.

The difficulties in this matter were nothing more than two points: people's hearts and
efficiency.

First, people's hearts. Yiyu did not, like Mingyu, deliberately curry favor with the servants,
cultivate good relationships, or intimidate them into patrolling every night. She

simply assigned tasks according to her position and avoided all sorts of extraneous tasks,
knowing that flattery was only temporary and not sustainable.

Unexpectedly, over the past month, everyone has naturally obeyed her, knowing that Yiyu is
working towards a common goal and that her leadership methods are effective and wise.

Without flattery or intimidation, people's hearts have naturally won over, which Hetao
marveled at.

Her initial concerns that Yiyu, raised in the countryside, was timid and inexperienced and
unable to handle these women were now gone.

She was much more capable than that talented woman from the capital, Madam Mingyu,
who, after Huai Mingyu, spent all her dowry to please the women, only to find temporary
peace.

Huai Yiyu understood that blindly praising and socializing wouldn't last long; only genuine
work could bring true success.

Efficiency was paramount.

To ensure efficiency, she not only divided managers into smaller groups to prevent them
from shirking responsibility and delegating authority, but also to prevent team leaders from
having too much say.

She also created two teams within each group, competing against each other to see how
much more efficient they were.

She generously offered the gold jewelry shop from her dowry as a reward for the winner.

This intensified everyone's efforts, leading to increasing efficiency.

These days, Yiyu's beatings had left Demei's face livid, as she watched helplessly as those
she once considered stubborn and recalcitrant individuals were now working feverishly.
Under the supervision of her master, Huai Mingyu, the garden was inefficient and
disorganized...

This only served to prove that the idealistic, bookish ways of Huai Mingyu, the talented
woman she so proudly mocked Yiyu, were childish and ridiculous compared to Yiyu's
pragmatic approach.

Despite

her best efforts, the gaps were too great.

He Tao is worried.

She asked, "Madam, although the garden renovation is fast, we have fallen behind too much
before. Can it really be completed?"

Yiyu smiled calmly, "It can't be completed."

He Tao was surprised: "Then what should we do?"

Yiyu said calmly: "This time it is nothing more than an inspection of the efficiency comparison
between me and my eldest cousin's wife. No one said it must be completed."

He Tao: "What can you see in a month? The gap can't be particularly large."

Yiyu pointed to the account book in her hand: "You can't see anything."

"But who asked my eldest cousin's wife to make false accounts in order to transfer money?
When we compare them, the gap will be huge."