She Became A Downfall Noble Lady
Chapter 165 - 164: The Maid with a Humble and Respectful Smile

Chapter 165: Chapter 164: The Maid with a Humble and Respectful Smile

The kitchen was cramped and couldn’t fit many people, so Nanny Jin brought out a high stool and placed it in the courtyard under the autumn sun.

Ye Xinyan sat down, clearly displeased as she glanced at Nanny Liu and her companion and said angrily, "As for their master, it’s not just a matter of being difficult to talk to. That’s simply an understatement!"

Ye Xinyan was currently the master of Nanny Liu and Bi Ning, so neither of them dared to refute her words. However, they did feel wronged. Whether their Sixth Master was easy to talk to was not something they could say, but when it came to dealing with Lady Qi, he was very approachable.

Just now Lady Qi had given the Sixth Master the cold shoulder, yet he didn’t take offense or get angry. Instead, he made concessions. How could anyone say he was difficult to talk to?

Nanny Jin glanced at the expressions of Nanny Liu and her companion and couldn’t help but laugh and said, "Ye Zi, is the cow milk business settled? The Sixth Master Rong is always magnanimous and wouldn’t usually hold a grudge against you, right?"

"It was settled, but me..." Ye Xinyan paused and glared at Nanny Liu before continuing angrily, "I merely inquired about my mother’s well-being, and her master accused me, calling me a ’source of trouble’."

Nanny Liu’s eyes widened instantly. Wasn’t this blatantly lying and making up stories to discredit the Sixth Master? When had the Sixth Master ever said such a thing? She had been present the whole time.

Before Nanny Jin could even ask about the wife of the heir apparent’s recent condition, she quickly rebuked Ye Xinyan, "Ye Zi, how can you say such things? Whatever the Sixth Master said, it was for your own good. You should be grateful."

While chiding Ye Xinyan out loud, she felt relieved inside. If the young miss was this angry, it meant that the Sixth Master had got the upper hand, and she had likely suffered a small setback. There was no need to worry then. It’s better to let the princes have the upper hand sometimes—it’s safer to suffer a small loss.

After hearing Nanny Jin’s words, Nanny Liu felt even more aggrieved. Putting aside whether it was for someone’s good or not, the main point was that the Sixth Master had never said such a thing.

Facing Ye Xinyan’s lack of respect for her elders and betters, Nanny Jin was at a loss.

She turned and said to Nanny Liu with an apologetic smile, "Nanny, please don’t take it to heart. Our Ye Zi is just simple-minded and outspoken with no ill intentions. So, what did the Sixth Master Rong actually say?"

Finally given an opportunity to rebut, Nanny Liu glanced at Ye Xinyan, and seeing that she didn’t intend to interrupt, said in a jesting tone to Nanny Jin, "Lady Qi’s young daughter has a very pleasant personality. Lady Qi asked the Sixth Master..."

Nanny Liu recounted the exchange between Ye Xinyan and Jinrong to Nanny Jin, who didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The young miss hadn’t misunderstood, but the other party had not meant any harm. Once passed through the young miss’s interpretation, it immediately sounded unpleasant.

"Sigh." Nanny Jin let out a sigh and instructed Xinger, "Bring two servings of tea snacks for Nanny and this young lady, and have them rest for a while in the small partition of the rear hall."

After instructing Xinger, she asked Ye Xinyan, "Would you like to rest with the nannies, or do you have other plans?"

"I’m fine. I just haven’t been here for a while and wanted to come by," said Ye Xinyan as she rose to her feet.

Nanny Jin smiled and said, "Then you might as well rest with the nannies. Try some snacks and see if the taste is to your liking or if anything needs adjusting."

However, Nanny Liu quickly demurred, "That wouldn’t be right, Nanny. Wouldn’t that disturb the proper hierarchy? We are servants serving Lady Qi, and our duty as servants is to serve our master well. Where did you get the idea we are so delicate?"

Ye Xinyan said to Nanny Jin, "Please have Nanny Liu and Bi Ning go to the partition in the rear hall to rest a bit. I’ll just look around casually. There’s no need to try the snacks; the ones you often bring back are quite nice. Yun Niang and Xinger surely put a lot of effort into their work."

Upon hearing Ye Xinyan’s words, Xinger, who was awaiting instructions, immediately blushed with joy and satisfaction flooding her eyes. Even the highly capable eldest sister in the hall praised her; today, when she went back, she would definitely tell her mother about the eldest sister’s compliments.

Ye Xinyan stayed in the snack shop for two quarters of an hour, observing the current state of business. After making the rounds, the cramped and restricted space of the snack shop became very apparent.

The hall outside only had so many tables, limiting the number of guests that could be accommodated. This was nothing compared to the steadily increasing variety of snacks and the growing supply of pastries and soups for the Great Crane House; the back hall and kitchen were obviously insufficient.

Currently, the finances of the cattle farm, the snack shop, and the cow’s milk processing were kept separate to clearly see the profits of each.

At present, it appeared that the snack shop was the most profitable, with decent earnings from their own operations and a significant portion coming from the supply to the Great Crane House.

Next came milk processing; because the components of the milk weren’t being fully utilized, the profits from milk processing weren’t much, only slightly better than those of the cattle farm. Besides supplying cream to the snack shop, other by-products like whey and dried cheese were difficult to use elsewhere due to suboptimal processing, greatly limiting the profitability of the milk.

There’s not much to say about the cattle farm, which only had income from selling milk. In the Great Xia Dynasty, the milk yield of ordinary draft cattle wasn’t very impressive; milk-producing cows could give a dozen or so pounds of milk a day, while the lesser ones only yielded two or three pounds. Therefore, the revenue from milk sales barely sustained the cattle farm’s operations.

Luckily, the autumn harvest was approaching, and many farmers had already reserved the use of draft cattle with their leftover corn stalks, wheat straw, green grass, and soybeans. With these resources and the previously stored fodder, they could save the cost of buying feed, and most of the income from selling milk in the winter could be retained as pure profit.

Ye Xinyan quietly calculated the current situation. Jinrong was right; in Qingyuan County, the cattle farm was quite a sizeable industry. If the dairy product workshop were also to be set up, they should arrange for two horse-drawn carriages for transport and relaying messages.

If Jinrong’s people were diligent enough, they should soon finalize the issues concerning the Dairy Products Store. With no better options available, they had to use the simplest methods to quickly put the already dried whey and cheese to use.

It would be best if they could handle all the existing dairy inventory in the house before Jinrong’s investment, supplying everything to the snack shop to save on future trouble and disputes.

If the snack shop could make good use of these products, it would be a significant source of income, enough for building houses and purchasing carriages for the household.

Ye Xinyan discussed with Nanny Jin, "This snack shop is truly inadequate. Nanny, find Steward Yang today and ask if the shops next door have any intention of selling, and inquire if we could buy the residential house behind the snack shop.

Consider how much silver you have at hand; even if it costs a bit more, it’s fine to purchase it. If there isn’t enough, we can transfer some from the household. In any case, these two matters must be resolved quickly.

The residential house behind the snack shop should be easy to negotiate; with an offer of twenty or thirty percent more silver, we should be able to acquire it without difficulty. Once we have it, we can renovate the house and connect it to the snack shop’s backyard to expand the kitchen."

After briefly discussing various possibilities for the expansion of the snack shop with Nanny Jin, Ye Xinyan stood up, intending to leave and hire a carriage to return home.

Nanny Jin saw Ye Xinyan out, reminding her to hire a comfortable carriage and to be careful on the road, not to delay. She hadn’t finished her fussy admonitions when she stopped talking and looked past Ye Xinyan.

Ye Xinyan looked back questioningly and saw a maid approaching her. By the time Ye Xinyan noticed her, the maid was already a few steps away, her face full of humble smiles.

Nanny Liu, who was following behind Ye Xinyan, had already turned around and asked the maid, "Miss, is there something you need?"