Yunling really didn't understand these things, but with her mother-in-law Yun as her magic weapon, these matters were naturally decided by her mother-in-law, and she didn't need to worry about them.

Yunling liked these jade ornaments more and more as she looked at them. In Pingcheng, any one of them would be impressive and could serve as a good dowry.

"Mr. Cai, how much does this polishing cost in total?"

Mr. Cai smiled slightly and said:

“Young master, you don’t need to worry about that. Young Master Lu has already settled the accounts with me in advance.”

"Huh? When was it cleared? Was it yesterday?"

"It was on the eighth day of the month that he brought me a New Year's gift and settled the cost of the polishing. However, at that time, we only confirmed how many jade ornaments to make, and he did not inform the young master."

The deal was finalized on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, a date somewhat unexpected for Yunling. But why didn't this guy tell her? The workmanship and polishing costs must have been considerable.

“Master Cai, show me the details here. Although I am familiar with Young Master Lu, I can’t possibly take such a big advantage of him. I have to return the money to him.”

"This...this...our workshop just throws each order into the warehouse after it's finished, and it's hard to find it right now."

Yunling knew this was just an excuse. Did they think she was an innocent child? Such a large workshop wouldn't just leave the orders lying around, and besides, she didn't believe there weren't any ledgers.

However, she had a good impression of this Mr. Cai, so she couldn't be too direct or blunt. Instead, she said it indirectly:

"It doesn't matter whether you can find this order or not. As long as you can do math, that's fine. Since Mr. Cai issued the order, he must know how many copper coins a polished jade bracelet costs and how much a jade pendant costs. Just tell me these unit prices, and I can naturally calculate a rough estimate."

Cai Dongjia swallowed hard. Lu Yinghuai had repeatedly warned him not to reveal the expense to this man, lest things fall apart later. He had accepted the gift and was also keen to cultivate a relationship with the Lu family business.

Moreover, given that Yunling would reap a huge benefit from this situation, why wouldn't she take the opportunity to enjoy the benefits and keep them for herself? Is she afraid of giving others leverage against her?

Yunling didn't know why Cai Dongjia was unwilling to disclose the price. Since he had already pocketed all the money and was safe, it was none of his business no matter how much she and Lu Yinghuai argued. Why should he keep it a secret?

"I just came from the direction of Panlou Street and heard about a polished bracelet. It wasn't very fine, and it cost fifteen strings of cash. But the polishing here at Cai Dongjia's place is exquisite; it must have taken a lot of effort. I reckon it would cost forty..."

Yunling stared intently at Cai Dongjia's expression, and seeing a slight hint of relief on his face, she quickly changed her words:

"Eighty strings of cash each, I guess?"

"No, no, fifty strings of cash."

Cai Dongjia realized he had let something slip and quickly stopped, but Yunling had already started this probing, so how could she stop? However, she didn't need to test them one by one anymore; she only needed to use the jade pendant as a trigger.

"Oh, so it's fifty strings of cash for a bracelet. To be honest, I don't know much about these polishing techniques. I suppose these bracelets, jade pendants, jade thumb rings, jade plaques, and jade beads are all pretty much the same, so I'll just calculate it at fifty strings of cash each. That's..."

"No, young master, you mustn't do that."

Cai Dongjia broke out in a cold sweat. Lu Yinghuai's original intention was not to let Yunling pay. If everything were calculated at fifty guan now, wouldn't that be a waste of effort?

"The jade bracelet, jade pendant, and jade beads are crafted with a higher level of skill, but the jade thumb ring and jade plaque are simpler. Young master, you cannot generalize."

"So, Mr. Cai, just tell me the amount on the order to avoid me making wild guesses and messing things up, okay?"

"This...oh dear, this...this..."

Seeing that her first plan had failed, Yunling devised another one.

"Oh dear, now that things have come to this, I won't hide it from you, boss. I know that the big fool paid the money, but I made a bet with him to see if I could guess the price. If I couldn't guess it, I would have to treat him to a month's worth of meals. How could I do that? So I came to ask you for help, boss."

Cai Dongjia's mind immediately settled. First, he saw how much effort Yunling had put into inquiring about the price, then he heard Yunling call Lu Yinghuai a "big fool," and considering their previous actions, he had no doubts about what Yunling said. He asked:

"And what if the young master guesses correctly?"

"What else can I do? It's just to get that big idiot to call me 'Dad.' You know, men always have a competitive spirit in this regard, don't they?"

Cai Dongjia knew about the desire to win, but he didn't quite understand the desire to win between these two. Logically speaking, if Lu Yinghuai was a complete idiot, and a complete idiot called him "father," then he would be the father of the complete idiot. Wouldn't that be like hurting the enemy a thousand while losing eight hundred of his own?

"Oh, boss, don't overthink it. We'll guess three times in total. I'll just pretend I can't guess the first two times. It won't affect you no matter what."

That's exactly what Cai Dongjia wanted to hear: no matter how much the two of them acted or made a scene, as long as it didn't involve him, that was fine.

Thinking it over, Cai Dongjia felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart. He went outside and soon came back with an account book. As he flipped through the pages, Yunling saw a page full of writing, with a large character "Lu" written on it.

Her gaze followed Cai Dongjia's finger as it slid down, and she saw that the jade bracelets were 50 guan each, six of them would cost 300 guan in total; the jade pendants were 55 guan each, eight of them would cost 440 guan in total; the jade thumb rings were 12 guan each, five of them would cost 60 guan in total; the jade plaques were 10 guan each, six of them would cost 60 guan in total; and the jade beads were 5 guan each, eighty of them would cost 400 guan in total.

Three hundred strings of cash plus four hundred and forty strings of cash plus sixty strings of cash plus sixty strings of cash plus four hundred strings of cash equals one thousand two hundred and sixty strings of cash. When Yunling calculated this number, she also saw the final amount on the ledger.

Below this number was a line of small print that read, "The fee for expedited work is already included." It seems that Lu Yinghuai requested an expedited process. If calculated in this way, the cost of polishing might not be very high even at the normal price, making it a good deal.

Yunling remembered the 1,260 strings of cash, and then she had Gangzi and Tangling take all the boxes with them, rent a donkey cart, and head to the Lu family's trading company.

Lu Yinghuai was seeing his guests off when he saw Yunling get off the donkey cart, her face beaming with joy.

"Second Brother? What brings you here?"

"I came back from Cai Dong's place. Guess why I came here?"

Lu Yinghuai pretended not to know and asked instead:

"So, after you've seen the jade ornaments, are you satisfied?"