684 Betrayal

After Chang Zai rushed over, he paid his respects to the eldest miss with fear and trepidation.

This Eldest Miss may be young, but she had a formidable presence. Every time Chang Zai stood before Eldest Miss, he didn't even dare take a deep breath.

"Assemble all the servants in the entire estate within five minutes." Qiao Mu coldly commanded, "Bring me all their indenture contracts. Also, send for the middleman."

Chang Zai sank with a thump. He didn't dare hesitate any longer and rapidly notified all the servants, as well as sent someone to invite the middleman over.

Inside the quiet courtyard, Qiao Mu had people bring over a chair, where she sat down front and center. Meanwhile, on top of the small table set up in front of her was a personnel register.

Chunying and Xiayun were the earliest to arrive, and they had even sweated a bit from jogging over. When they saw their eldest miss flipping through the personnel register while sitting there, the two didn't dare say anything and submissively stood still.

Soon, five minutes had passed, and other than Chunying and Xiayun, only the gardener Old Bai, the cleaning nanny Mother Xu, two outer yard maidservants, and two boy servants had come.

The eight people, who had lined up in two rows, looked at each other in dismay.

Qiao Mu didn't speak either and only ordered Shaoyao to light a stick of incense on the table. She thumbed through the register lightly and only occasionally raised her head to look at the people who were present.

It wasn't until two sticks of incense had finished burning did the last two late maidservants rush over while yawning. Yet upon seeing that there were a lot of people standing in the courtyard, those two maidservants hastily squeezed into the back of the crowd.

Compared to other estates, there were indeed not many servants in the Qiao Estate. However, the estate also had few masters. The eldest branch's family of five plus the second branch's mere two people only added up to seven masters. Moreover, Qiao Mu hadn't been home for years on end. When put this way, it was more than sufficient for 15 to 16 servants to wait upon six masters.

Dad Qiao, Mom Qiao, and Second Uncle Qiao were all amiable people, and there weren't many chores for them to do normally either. Look at how undisciplined these people had become.

Qiao Mu sneered. She first had the eight people who had arrived on time to step out to the side before gazing coldly at the remaining seven to eight servants.

"Steward Chang, you didn't notify them to come see me within five minutes?" Qiao Mu questioned coldly.

"T-They were notified." Chang Zai responded with fear and trepidation.

"They were notified, yet they still dared to disobey. That means they totally disregarded me, their master." Qiao Mu gave another sneer. "First, each person gets 10 planks as punishment."

Those seven to eight boy servants and manservants immediately panicked, but they were promptly pressed down by several black-clothed youths who abruptly jumped out from behind Qiao Mu. Without room for objection, those black-clothed youths brandished their clubs.

Among them was a boy servant who made the biggest fuss and shouted the most ruthlessly. Qiao Mu recognized him as precisely her younger brother Qiao Sen's lapdog.

After beating each person exactly 10 times, the several black-clothed youths retreated behind Qiao Mu in a disciplined fashion.

Qiao Mu coldly swept her gaze over the people present. "If you still dare to howl, you'll get hit another 20 times."

In the blink of an eye, the front courtyard was absolutely silent.

"The reason I assembled everyone here is to have you all honestly answer a question." Qiao Mu's gaze turned abnormally bone-chilling as she scanned her gaze across each of the servants standing before her.

"Before today, someone had sold out my court's information to the Wu Family's eldest miss. That person said I was unsympathetic, with a crafty and detached nature, and didn't like being waited upon in close proximity. And had thus dismissed all of Nanzhu Garden's servants."

As soon as Qiao Mu finished speaking, the last two little maidservants that had mingled into the crowd hung their heads as low as possible, but their bodies had already started trembling uncontrollably.