Chapter 424: New Start
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling opened her eyes and got up from the bed. With a yawn, she asked, “Is Fourth Master back?”
Three days after Qi Haoran entered the capital and met everyone he should meet, His Majesty summoned Qi Haoran.
“He’s back, but Master called him to the front.”
Mu Yangling thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll go to Sister-in-law’s place to take a look.”
Mu Yangling was in high spirits after her afternoon nap. She stretched a bit before bringing Spring to Zhaode Hall.
Even though Li Jinghua was already three months pregnant, it was impossible to tell that she was pregnant under her thick clothes. She had just woken up from her afternoon nap and was lying on the couch in a daze. When she saw Mu Yangling enter, she waved her hand and called her over. “I was about to tell you that our expenses are separate from the residence’s. We can ask Fourth Brother to go to the accountant for the money, but I’m afraid it’ll cause another commotion, so I think we might as well pay from our dowry.”
Li Jinghua and Mu Yangling had quite a lot of dowry. They only needed to be responsible for their own food and drinks, excluding that of the servants. The rest were still charged to the public accounts. For example, the monthly salary of the servants would definitely have to be paid by the Qi Residence. They could still afford this bit of expenses.
Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “How can I ask for Sister-in-law’s dowry? Brother Haoran has already given me the money.”
Mu Yangling turned around and asked Spring to go back and retrieve the small box from the bedside table. Qi Haoran had given it to her last night, and she had forgotten about it in her dazed state after waking.
“What Brother Haoran means is that we’ll pay with our own money for the small kitchen in Sister-in-law’s residence and the people we brought from Jingzhao Prefecture. Don’t worry, with Brother Zijin is in the capital, we won’t have to use our dowry no matter what.”
Li Jinghua looked at Mu Yangling speechlessly and said in a low voice, “But you can’t always rely on Zijin. Tell me honestly, how much money did you take from him?”
Mu Yangling blinked and said, “If we don’t take it from him, do we have to ask Big Brother to send it over, and then have Brother Zijin send it to Big Brother from here? After going one big round, the money will still come from Zijin.”
Li Jinghua immediately fell silent. Seeing how self-righteous Mu Yangling was, she could not help but pity Fan Zijin. He was clearly being treated like a bank.
Li Jinghua didn’t know that Qi Xiuyuan’s goal wasn’t the general anymore, but the supreme position.
This definitely required a lot of money, and the source of their money—other than his various businesses with others—came from Fan Zijin.
Before knowing that Qi Xiuyuan wanted to rebel, Fan Zijin was already letting Qi Haoran spend his money freely. Now that he knew, he freely allowed the Qi brothers to spend his money.
After hearing Li Jinghua’s words, Mu Yangling felt that this indeed didn’t seem nice. She said, “It’s alright. Before we came, Big Brother gave Haoran a lot of silver. It should be enough for us to use for a while.”
Mu Yangling tilted her head and said, “But we can’t just sit around and spend our savings. The Qi family hasn’t split up their assets yet. With the parents around, the children can’t have private assets. It’s not good for us to use this money to buy assets either. When the time comes, we won’t be able to explain ourselves. Why don’t we use our dowry silver to buy assets? It’ll be more convenient for us to do things in the future.”
Li Jinghua had the same idea and said excitedly, “Farmsteads make for the safest investment, but the shops earn money the fastest. However, the shops and fields in Lin’an Prefecture are all expensive. I wonder if we can buy good ones.”
Recalling she had always wanted to find a place with warm climate to try out her seeds, Mu Yangling couldn’t help but sit up straight and say, “Instead of buying a shop, I plan to buy a farmstead outside Lin’an City. It doesn’t matter if it’s further away, but ideally there should be a large area of farmland. When the time comes, I’ll get someone to tidy up the farmstead. When we’re bored, we can still stay in the farmstead for a period of time.”
Li Jinghua nodded with a smile. “In that case, I’ll get someone to ask around and see if there are any suitable farmsteads and shops.”
She couldn’t very well ask Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin for help for everything. Since her pregnancy was already stable, Li Jinghua planned to slowly integrate into the capital.
It was almost the new year, and there was plenty of land and shops up for sale. The shops were fine, but it was very difficult to buy farmsteads. The land in Jiangnan was expensive, and as the capital, Lin’an Prefecture was even more expensive.
In Xingzhou Prefecture, an acre of high-grade land cost five taels of silver. Here, an acre of high-grade land costs between 12 to 15 taels of silver, based on the distance from Lin’an City and the condition of the soil and water.
Their people had been out and about for two days. The farmsteads they enquired about were either very far away or had an especially high price. Moreover, they were of a very small area. It was impossible to build a farmstead over a large area. How were they going to build a farmstead like this?
Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin also helped to ask around, but they could not find a suitable one for the time being. On the other hand, Li Jinghua took a fancy to two shops at once. The price and location were both suitable. She wanted to let Mu Yangling have one of them, but Mu Yangling did not know how to do business. She would not know what to do with it even if she took it, so she rejected it. She felt that it was more practical for her to focus on farming.
However, they quickly lost the mood to worry about this because the emperor had announced that the Qi family could attend the New Year’s banquet on the 29th.
Every year, the palace would hold a New Year’s banquet on the 29th. Ministers above the third-grade and their families could enter the palace to attend the banquet. Other than these courtiers, the various nobles conferred by the Imperial Court had to attend. Some aristocratic families would also be invited. This was the first time the Qi family could attend such a palace banquet.
This was because Qi Feng had always been a fourth-grade official. Every year, he would advance by a level. Qi Xiuyuan, on the other hand, was a second-grade official and had met the requirements a few years ago. However, he had always been away from the capital and he was previously unmarried. No matter how shameless Qi Feng was, he was too embarrassed to use his son’s position to attend the palace banquet.
This year though, Li Jinghua had returned. Qi Haoran, Mu Yangling and herself were all inclined to have her be excused on grounds of her pregnancy. Qi Haoran had also entered the palace early on to request that she be excused. Unexpectedly, not only did the Emperor not approve it, he even called the rest of the Qi family over.
The rest of the Qi family naturally referred to Qi Feng and Madam Wu. Madam Wu was very eager to bring her two daughters-in-law and sons along, but they had no official positions, so Qi Feng would not allow it.
However, this was enough to make them excited. Very early on, Madam Wu tailored new clothes and bought new jewelry.
Li Jinghua was also helping Spring prepare suitable clothes and jewelry for Mu Yangling. She also pointed out some things to take note of in terms of etiquette.
Although she looked calm on the surface, she was actually a little anxious in her heart. Even though she had been taught etiquette since young, this was her first time entering the palace after all, so it was inevitable that she would be nervous. However, in front of the more ignorant Mu Yangling, she could only force herself to put up a calm front. At the very least, she could not be weak in terms of aura.
Instead, Mu Yangling smiled and comforted her. “When the time comes, we just have to eat. The Empress won’t make things difficult for us, right?”
Li Jinghua forced a smile and said, “Her Majesty naturally won’t make things difficult for us. Ah Ling, you have to follow me at all times after entering the palace. We can’t get separated.”