The Lofty Fierce Consort

Chapter 46

The days slid forward in an orderly manner, calm as if it was not so surging in the dark.

As the Buddhists say, there is an effect if there is a cause, and what you plant has a result. It’s not that many things do not exist, but its sense of existence is neglected by everyone, and when it is time to erupt, it will naturally not be overlooked.

Aunt Pei has been very honest recently and rarely shows up in front of people. Even if Yan Ting hasn’t come to her for a long time, she is still honestly like a rabbit.

She is in charge of the housekeeper, but she only grasps the matters of the central government. She is responsible for arranging the distribution of various affairs and the expenses of each room, but does not care about the money. Let’s put it this way, Aunt Pei is only responsible for the housekeeping. As for the income and expenditure of the Weiyuan Hou Mansion, the old lady is in charge of it.

The money for the expenditure is allocated every six months, but now the accountant has sent people several times to urge the use of the money in the second half of the year, saying that it has not been allocated, and the expenses everywhere can no longer keep up.

Aunt Pei knew the old lady’s taboo, and waited steadily for a few days, but there was no movement, so she could only go to Rong’antang to find the old lady.

After listening to the old lady, her face condensed, and she groaned for a while, before she used the silver to transfer to the accountant for a few days.

Aunt Pei was a little confused, but didn’t ask much. Although her aunt preferred her, she still knew what she could ask and what she could not ask.

After Aunt Pei left, Mother Zhao sent all the maids out of the house, closed the door tightly, and approached the old lady, and asked in a low voice: “How can this old lady be good?”

There were only two people in Rong’an Hall at this time, and the old lady did not hide her face anymore, her face was more solemn than when Aunt Pei was there just now.

“There are still some unused items in my warehouse. Find a suitable one and exchange it for silver.”

Mother Zhao looked ugly, she stopped talking, and finally said, “How can this be done? This is the bottom of your press box, so you can’t post them all!”

These words seemed to irritate the old lady, causing her to breathe heavily. She touched and touched the bracelet on her wrist, seeming to be very anxious in her heart, and she must be forced down.

“This is the only way to do this now. You can’t even stop the daily expenses of a large mansion. The income from the Zhuangzi has been asked three times this year, and those shops are raised as soon as there is a surplus each month. The people below are already I feel it. Last time Guan Shi asked a few times in secret, and said that some people were unstable recently. What do you think I can do now?!”

“Why don’t you sell a Zhuangzi, let’s slow down? Those are the things that your wife gave you to dowry back then. They are your last pressing foundation. They can’t all be so ruined!” At the end, Mama Zhao choked a little.

She has served the old lady since she was a child, and the old lady has been married and served as a companion house. How can they bear to see such a situation happen after decades of love between the two.

“No!” The old lady shook her head, with a firm attitude: “Although these villagers and shops make little profits, they are the only place in the house where money can be made. When things are gone, they are gone. Make money. I’m really desperate when the time comes.”

“How good is this!” Mother Zhao stomped and lamented, and even forgot the rules and turned around in front of the old lady several times. “How about tell this to Lord Hou? You can’t hide these things from him.”

She was also in a hurry to go to the doctor.

This time the old lady refused even more decisively, “No, the second child has been annoying enough lately, so I can’t trouble him anymore.”

“Maybe Houye still has surplus? Such a large sum of money, if you take away all the money in the house, you have sold a few shops, and you have spent so many dowry.” Mother Zhao whispered.

It turned out that at the beginning of this year, Yan Ting, who was far away at the border, sent a letter to the old lady, saying that he needed a large sum of money. The old lady has always been responsive to this son. It is obvious that the situation in Ming’s Mansion has not been so good a few years ago. In order to make up the number, not only the money in the mansion was drawn, but also several shops were sold. In the end, it was not enough to keep her for most of her life. All of his private rooms were filled in, and he moved a lot of dowry.

It can be said that the old lady is now a polished shot. Except for some clothes, jewellery, and decorations, most of the warehouse is empty, and the rest is all fabrics and medicinal materials that cannot be exchanged for silver.

The old lady has been in charge of the operations of the Weiyuan Hou Mansion. It is conceivable that there is still an empty shell in the Weiyuan Hou Mansion now. At this time, we can only reduce the expenditures of various places first, and wait until the court next year issues the salary of Weiyuanhou or other places can make some money, and then the energy can be slowed down.

Mother Zhao’s suggestion made the old lady a little excited. At that time, the second child asked for money and said that it was related to the future, but now that the person has returned, the future is temporarily invisible, maybe the silver has not moved?

She rubbed her temples, “Let me think about it, and when my second child comes back, let him come to me.”

***

Today, Yan Ting accompanied Shen Yiyao to the Zhen Guogong Mansion again, and returned without success just like the previous few times.

Sometimes Yan Ting even wondered if he was wrong. If the Lord Zhen Guo called the two of them in and cursed, he would feel at ease, like this, not seeing you at all, no matter how you say it, it made him really feel a trace of panic.

Shen Yiyao was originally from Yu You Xiu Xiu, and now she can’t help but make trouble in Huzhatang twice. People didn’t dare to stop it. They just watched, but Yan Ting couldn’t let her make trouble. After all, he still had it in his heart. A trace of hope, maybe the Lord Zhen Guo is really angry.

Yan Ting was extremely exhausted after a return, and Yan Ting didn’t want to be considerate at this time. Someone in Rong’antang came over and said that the old lady had invited him over, so he left Shen Yiyao, who was still secretly hurt.

Everyone’s patience is limited, but now Yan Ting’s patience is gradually losing.

As soon as he sat down in Rong’antang, the old lady mentioned the matter of silver. Yan Ting’s face became darker, his sword brows frowned, and he couldn’t keep his face gentle.

“Why do you ask about this? There is a lack of money in the family?”

The old lady’s heart tightened and she smiled, “No, there is no such thing. My mother just thought that you took so much silver, saying that it was for the future, and now she has returned to Beijing, but the silver has not been used?”

Yan Ting didn’t speak, and now he doesn’t know what to say. The silver tael is indeed for the future, the future is uncertain, and the silver is gone.

“The silver has already been spent, and everything is already in place. Who knows it was suddenly transferred back.”

The so-called stealing chicken will not lose the rice, that’s what it says.

The old lady trembled with distress, and she cursed Shen Jiakeng in her heart. Seeing her son’s face was not good, she didn’t dare to say anything.

“Mother just ask.”

The old lady’s perfunctory didn’t dispel Yan Ting’s doubts. The mother is a real mother, and she understands well as a son. For no reason, the old lady would never ask such things.

“Mother, don’t lie to me, just say anything.”

Mother Zhao kept talking and stopped, the old lady’s complexion stiff.

“Mother Zhao, come here.”

Mother Zhao glanced at the old lady, gritted her teeth and stomped her feet, and explained the current embarrassment of the Weiyuan Mansion.

Yan Ting frowned as he heard it, and he couldn’t think of the embarrassment now at home.

Actually out of money?

For Yan Ting, silver is only a concept. He knew that everything needed silver, but he had no idea how silver came from. Since he was young, no one has made him short of talents, so it is difficult for him to accept what it is like to have no talents for a while.

The old lady soothed: “Don’t worry about this. Mother will take care of this. After this year, the situation at home will be better next year. I will also explain that I will reduce expenses if I continue to explain it. It is not sad. ”

Of course, the old lady is a comforting language. In fact, no one knows better than her. There are so many people in the mansion, in addition to the servants and servants, they also support the generals of the nursing home. Although the number is small, this is the face of the Hou Mansion. There is also the need to go out to socialize and socialize, which is indispensable.

To survive this year, she needs a lot of thoughts. The old lady didn’t expect Yan Ting to know about these things.

After that, the old lady changed the subject and asked about Yan Ting’s going to Zhen Guogong. Knowing that Zhen Guogong was still missing, she cursed Shen Yiyao and Shen Jia again.

After Yan Ting, the old lady didn’t delay anymore, and ordered Mother Zhao to find someone to take the things from her treasury to exchange for silver. Within a few days, the cash in the account was transferred. The old lady called Aunt Pei over and told her to reduce unnecessary expenses everywhere.

Aunt Pei thinks there must be a shortage of money in the house, because only two thousand taels of money were allocated from the accountant. The annual expenditure of the Weiyuan Houfu was set at 8 thousand taels, which should be 4 thousand taels in half a year. Now it is half of that. Aunt Pei’s housekeeper will naturally report it to her from the accountant.

So the old lady asked her to reduce unnecessary expenses and the cost of each room, she was not too surprised. She considers where to cut.

I took a look at the accounts of various places in the Fuzhong. Aunt Pei saved some unnecessary expenses, such as the maintenance of flowers and trees, regular repairs of unoccupied houses everywhere, and the monthly allowance of every person in each house. , Masters like the old lady, occasionally buy something. For example, Yan Sanye likes orchids, calligraphy and painting, and those who do not exceed a certain amount of silver can be paid from the accountant.

In the past, except for Yan Ting, the quotas for the big room and the third room were the same. After Aunt Pei took care of the house, the quotas for both rooms were deleted. This is obvious, but secretly, except for the big room, the third room is still As usual. This time Aunt Pei gritted her teeth and prepared to cut off the extra expenses of the two rooms. If each room buys anything, she will pay for herself.

After all the adjustments, Aunt Pei had the final say, the money was still not enough, so she could only reduce the cost of each room. For example, if you eat bird’s nest every day, you can eat it once every three days or not eat it, and you will almost be full, and supplements are no longer necessary. There are also various precious ingredients, clothes and fabrics, which can be reduced.

This reduction can be a problem.

Originally, these things were carried out in secret, only moving other things and not moving at all, naturally the people in each room didn’t feel anything. But every month is divided into cases, and food is on the top, naturally no one is a fool.

The Xue family of Dafang is also thicker than ordinary people, so he came to Aunt Pei as soon as he found out. Aunt Pei said it was the old lady’s account, but she did not dare to say anything else.

Sanfang was also aware of it, but because of her face, she was still guessing in her heart, could it be that Aunt Pei moved to Sanfang’s head when she saw someone order food?

Following Yan Qu, he fancyed a pot of orchids outside, which was not expensive, only two hundred taels of silver, and asked the guy in the store to send it back and check with the accountant. It used to be done like this before, but this time it was blocked. At that time, the third wife was not there, and the third wife Chen was a thin-skinned man, it was not easy to argue, so he paid for it by himself.

The money was taken out, and the suffocation in my heart could not be hidden for a while, so I went directly to Aunt Pei for the theory.

Aunt Pei has worked so hard to reduce the expenses in the house for a while, and the people below have complained, but the loopholes are still too big to stop. The Chen came to ask her for a theory, and she didn’t even have the mind to deal with it, so she directly said that it was the old lady’s account.

The Chen didn’t say anything, so he squeezed his handkerchief and left.

When people left, Aunt Pei regretted that her attitude should be better just now, maybe she ended up resenting it. But she also has a temper, and she is so burnt, she has done so many things.

In the past, two hundred taels of silver was not a big deal, but the amount of silver used in the past six months was only two thousand taels. Before the silver was allocated, I owed a lot of silver to the merchants who gave various things to the Fuzhong. It’s not yet the checkout day. Now that the silver has come down, it is natural to clear the old accounts. After the old account was cleared, half of the money on the account was gone, so naturally I had to save money.

She also had a bit of resentment in her heart. She had nothing to buy for orchids. She likes to toss about. Two hundred taels of silver is enough for a few days in the mansion. It’s really not a master, I don’t know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are! ?