"And what are you thinking about, wife?" "I cannot stop thinking about that absolute horror of a lunch banquet that The Mistress Han put on for the ministers of The Emperor's Imperial Court. Fortunately for us, the majority of the women were rather impressed with The Seo Girl, so it looks like somebody has definitely been leaking stories about us." "What do you mean?" "How else does everyone in that party know that we stuffed this home with concubines in the beginning, only to have to let them go in the end since our daughter's nephew ignores them all? How else do they know that we were the ones to sent them to him endlessly? The stories that they told each other made su sound like burdens to the younger generation! Then there was talk ion wicked servants who bully their masters…" "What are you saying girl? Everyone knows of these things? Who would dare to tell anyone…." "Isn't it obvious, husband! This is why I had my doubts about The Mistress Han from the very beginning! Wasn't this her home that she meticulously picked out before The Lord Nam brought her here? Isn't her servant in charge of the household and it's staff? The Seo girl may have her name on this deed, but didn't she say that she would willingly relinquish this entire household to The Mistress Han? In terms of status, The Seo Girl is still beneath us, but I have to admit that in terms of everything else, she has the born qualities of a noblewoman. She hasn't exhibited any greed or jealousy at all, not has she displayed any intentions to rule our lives and make decisions on behalf of her elders, unlike The Mistress Han. She was alone when she came here with no backers, but she still has quite a god head on her shoulders. She resolves situations peacefully without raising her voice, panicking or even succumbing to violence or malevolent tricks. She is even beloved by The Emperor and all of his children equally; the required standards of a wife are already quite high in this world and if women like The Mistress Han keeps making ur lives difficult, then she will end our bloodline before The Seo Girl does. She is telling all of our intimate matters to complete strangers in order to wear off The Seo Girl's patience, but all she is doing is exposing us instead for doing the very things that she is asking us to do herself! A lot of problems are caused by shallow talks despite their relationships; people need to create a level of expectations between each other so there would be no outward disappointments or any motivation to escalate matters."
"How can The Mistress Han still be so unruly and dim like this, and at her age as well? They are indulging themselves to the point of disregarding natural immorally; how dare she hang her dirty laundry in front of the entire world to see? Does she have no shame at all? At least The Seo Girl is a legitimate daughter, unlike The Mistress Han who prances around as if she is one even though her father is unknown. We need to discipline her before she gets hostile with us as well; she had the keys to his very yangban and she may kick us all out if things do not go her way." "If we keep yielding to her, our short days will be even more difficult to live out and we would lose all control of our remaining clan. And what will happen if she succeeds in pushing The Seo Girl out? Will she scare of the rest of the noblewoman in the village because they will end up refusing to associate with her? The more silent we stay, the more domineering she will become; I have never endured grievances before, and I shall not do it now, it is simply not in my nature to do so! She is disobedient, unfilial and a downright bully to the weaker kind of people, but she is also another dangerous kind." "What do you mean wife?" "She is an illegitimate girl who has done god only knows what to climb up the social ladder and retained at least some kind of attention. How much tyranny must she let loose on this household staff as well? I think she even invited some concubines to that banquet, what on earth is she thinking! She has brought more trouble upon us than she is even worth; and we shall not be swindled and framed for evil by her kind!"
"I thought you told me about what our eldest daughter did, how comes she hasn't gotten into any trouble yet?" "The love birds have run off together for a short while, so we have to wait until they come back to finally see some results! I will not have lived in vain if I keep swallowing such shame upon us, but it is also too soon to bring in another girl of our choosing. And judging by how precious she is to him, we have to wait until she has given brith until we choose someone for him and prevent anyone from filing a complaint about what issues arose today. Mistress Han is almost a public official at this point, but The Seo Girl has more backers than she knows, and subduing someone higher than them goes against all logic, it will be worth something if we get some peace out of it. Servant! Come by my side and tell us the general feedback of the lunch that took place today!"
"My Lady, everyone praised The Madame Nam for being a good, polite and sensible hostess today. She went out of her way to make sure that everyone was tended to and they even complimented you for loosening your grip upon her so that she can live up to the normal daughter=in=law standards." "I thought that she originally had a hard time getting on with other political families due to her past; but it looks like the wind has changed in her favour now from the hostage that she used to be." "My Lady, even The Senior Scholar's wife has personally sent her invitations for lunch in return, she seemed quite eager to talk to her all throughout to be honest." "You see that husband? That girl has gained the favour of the man my nephew needs help from in a single day compared to what The Mistress Han has tired to do in over a year now! We can get a grip on her later as soon as she regains The Lord Nam's reputation when she is launched in the public eye even more for her new status as the daughter=in=law of this clan." "She is our benefactor on some level, but cannot openly acknowledge that as her elders; she is a good girl on the surface but she is far too smart for her lowly status and that makes me feel uncomfortable. She is also of one heart with her husband even more so than any other couple that I have come across and they rely on each other too much. Their foundation is untouchable and she takes on his burdens and pains quite well." "There is no man and wife who are really that much in love and are of one body husband, they are also childhood friends, so that can explain their deep bond. Husbands think that they control everything and in doing so they exercise their right to be unfaithful." "Are you suggesting that we create such a ruse for The Seo Girl after our nephew retains his career in the palace?" "She is an untamed spirit who will surely show her flaws later on as her husband climbs up the social ladder and puts her in the public eye even more. So we must heavily reward anyone of these servants that can bring us news…" "We cannot do anything with her loyal servants in the way; even she acts rather haughty and above her station as well. She even contradicts us elders, but we cannot publicly go after her in front of everyone else in this household." "Well now that they are absent and who knows for how long, it seems as though we can deal with the servant right away. And as for our daughter's matter, do we really need to wait for their return? Do not forget wife that the heir to this clan is more important than anything in this yangban, and we need to eliminate those that will do him harm. Even if The Lord Nam continues to reject us, our Nam bloodline must continue no matter what." "Very well, let us deal with the most imminent threat first before we deal with the headstrong servant girl."
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"My Lady…" "Did you really not think to tell me about your relationship with The Young Master Nam before I recruited you here and gave you a better life than even he would have!" "My Lady, please forgive me, but I really had no idea that you would recruit him at all here!" "Well, you didn't bring any results into this yangban, so maybe it is time to let you go after all. I shall call for your family to come and collect you from here and I shall send a servant to pack your things for you." "But My Lady!" "I am trying to fix the heavy damage that I have caused this family and our image is the most important thing! The Lord Nam has already written to The Princess that his cousin will come along with company, so…" "My Lady, are you really going to leave me at the mercy of the most jealous Princess that has ever come into existence! After everything that I have…" "Well what did you expect when you started keeping secrets from me! If you have old me earlier, I would have gotten rid of him long before she damned Princess took a great liking to him!" "But I told you that it wasn't my fault! I didn't know that I would ever cross paths with him again and I certainly didn't expect him to turn up here!" "Be that as it may, The Lord Nam has already made his decision and as his wife, I must obey him." "His wife…? But he doesn't even…" "Even if I had luck prepared beforehand, it will no longer work this time around. Everyone already knows that he has not titled you nor consummated your marriage, so what is left here for you? We tried and nothing worked, so it is time for you to leave and I will find someone else and…" "But I do not wish to leave!" "What choice have you given me? Or yourself? I do not understand you, you are trading a cold man who barely lives at home for a man who will marry a Princess! You shall reap rewards for just having the right man, a man who is comfortable with you, unlike myself. Trust me and indulge in whatever love The Young Master Nam has for you instead of wasting away like myself here."
His wife? Did she really just call herself that? The Mistress Han didn't have a single clue what love was even if somebody wrote it in ink on her forehead! I had been so busy in trying to observe The Lord Nam and his wife when I am the one who should have taken a closer look at the woman that I was serving instead. She wanted the same amount of love that a man got from a woman, just like The Madame Nam loved her husband dearly. But she was making her own issues worse because that didn't exist, with the rare exception of The Lord Nam himself. No man would accept a woman that humiliates him, that shames him and nags him endlessly like she does! The Lord Nam would much rather protect the walls of this yangban over her! He didn't have a single protective feeling over this heartless wench, not compared to how he treated me so tenderly when he found out who I was and who I was working for. The women in his close circle had both security and freedom, unlike her who would enslave anybody to achieve what she wanted. Even I knew that The Lord Nam wasn't perfect and he also knew this, so he needs somebody to bring about the best qualities of himself, but Seo Yeon wasn't the only woman in the world. I just had to wait for The Lord Nam to return, and then I would show him what he was missing out on.