Given her current status, she can wear any clothes without looking undignified, and Qingxing will also help her with her jewelry.

"Then let's use the pearl jewelry that the old lady gave us. We've had the pearl jewelry for a year now, but we haven't worn it much yet."

Qingxing then told Xiaotao to move the Haizhu jewelry box out of the storeroom.

Xiao Tao agreed, but as soon as she ran out, she hurriedly ran back in.

"Miss, Mama Chang is here."

Jiang Shuwan quickly stood up to greet her. Mother Chang didn't come to her courtyard often, so her sudden visit today must mean something important.

"Greetings, young mistress."

"You're too kind, Aunt Chang."

Jiang Shuwan invited Chang Mama to sit down and asked Qingxing to serve tea, but Chang Mama only said one sentence before leaving.

"Why did Aunt Chang leave in such a hurry?"

Qingxing came in from outside, carrying tea in her hand. She looked around and saw that all the maids in the room looked unhappy.

She pulled Xiao Tao aside and asked her a few questions, only to find out that it was because the young master was discussing Liu Yunyan's marriage with the old lady.

"What! The young master wants to take Miss Cousin as his concubine?"

"What did the old lady say?"

Qingxing asked Xiaotao in a low voice, glancing at Jiang Shuwan as she asked.

Jiang Shuwan went back to soak her feet, still holding the palace lantern in her hand as before. Her expression was normal, just like usual, but it made Qingxing's heart jump.

"The old lady didn't agree."

Hearing Xiaotao say this, Qingxing finally breathed a sigh of relief, "It's good that she didn't agree. If she had invited Miss Xiaotao into the manor, then Miss..."

She didn't say anything more, but felt even more uneasy.

After all, the Duke of Liu's mansion had a concubine named Jin Jiaoniang who always dominated her aunt, Pei Jing.

Although her young lady is not Pei Jing, it would definitely not be a good thing for Jiang Shuwan to suddenly become a concubine.

After sending the maidservants back to their rooms to sleep, and once everyone had left, Qingxing approached Jiang Shuwan and handed her a warm orange that had been warmed by the charcoal fire.

"Miss, does the young master intend to tell you about this tonight?" Qingxing guessed.

Setting the palace lantern aside, Jiang Shuwan took the orange and gently broke it in half. She gave one half to Qingxing and peeled the other half into small segments, slowly putting them into her mouth.

"It should be."

Because she was eating and talking at the same time, her voice was a little unclear, but Qingxing still heard it. The little girl immediately flew into a rage.

"How can you do this, Young Master? The moment Miss arrives, she tries to embarrass the young lady. Can't you see that?"

He definitely noticed it, and Pei Yanzhi must have privately warned Liu Yunyan.

After all, when Liu Yunyan first arrived, she dared to provoke her directly, but now the two basically never see each other. Even if they bump into each other at the old lady's place, Liu Yunyan won't say a word, and will only secretly try to sow discord between Pei Yanzhi and the old lady.

It hasn't been successfully launched yet.

Qingxing was even more puzzled as she listened to Jiang Shuwan eat an orange and mumble her explanation.

"That's strange. If that's the case, it seems the young master doesn't like Miss Biao that much. Why would he still want to take her into the family? And why don't you seem surprised at all, Miss?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shuwan smiled gently.

She was naturally not surprised.

According to the timeline of her previous life, Liu Yunyan became a concubine of the Marquis's mansion not long after she came from Luoyang.

Keep in mind that this was during the old lady's period of mourning.

In this life, Pei Yanzhi was five months late in announcing his intention to take Liu Yunyan into his household.

It's strange, even though she's the one who married into the Marquis's family in this life, she didn't stop Liu Yunyan from getting close to Pei Yanzhi.

Logically speaking, this timeline should not change.

Furthermore, the fact that Liu Yunyan stopped directly provoking her after Pei Yanzhi gave her a warning was also quite strange.

If Liu Yunyan was truly so favored that Pei Yanzhi disregarded the old lady's mourning period and still wanted to marry her, then she must have received an extraordinary amount of love and affection.

With such favoritism, how could Liu Yunyan be so timid?

When Pei Yanzhi warned her, she really didn't dare to confront him directly, and only dared to secretly sow discord between them.

They're almost abnormally well-behaved!

However, it's impossible to say that nothing happened between the two. After all, Pei Yanzhi was indeed close to Liu Yunyan, and Liu Yunyan could enter the library, which was off-limits to ordinary people.

Knowing full well that the old lady did not agree to Liu Yunyan entering the family, she still deliberately argued with the old lady.

"Forget it, it's going to rain, Mother is going to remarry, and the young master is going to take a concubine. It's none of our business, let it be."

Jiang Shuwan stopped thinking about it. After finishing the orange, she wiped her hands and picked up the palace lantern to play with it.

"Qingxing, do you think it would be worth a lot of money if we tore this painting off the palace lantern?"

"..."

Qingxing was speechless and said dejectedly, "Miss, we're not that short of money, are we?"

"Of course I need it, I'm definitely missing it."

When it comes to money, Jiang Shuwan has a lot to say.

She had previously earned a lot of money and used it to build factories in the north. Logically, she shouldn't be so poor, since General Sun and the old emperor both held shares and had to pay for building factories and buying land.

However, one of them is the emperor, a powerful figure she needs to win over, so she can't possibly ask him for money.

The other one was honest and upright, but he spent all the money he earned either on wounded soldiers or on repairing military defenses, leaving him penniless and a poor man himself.

So she basically paid for the factory and land all by herself.

With February approaching and spring planting season in full swing, the expenses for hiring people to plant sugar beets are not only labor and food costs, but the biggest expense is actually the farm tools.

In this day and age, iron is an expensive and restricted commodity. Ordinary people don't even have an iron pot, let alone iron farm tools.

Jiang Shuwan only realized that farming was truly a manual and physically demanding job for most ordinary people when she went to Lianhua Village last time and saw the villagers harvesting rice with stone knives and axes.

But the land in the north is already barren; how long would it take to clear it with stone hoes?

She leased hundreds of acres of wasteland to grow sugar beets.

If the farm tools are no good, everything else is useless.

General Sun was also of great help in this regard, after all, he was in the army, and without his help, she wouldn't have been able to find so many blacksmiths who made iron farm tools.

Iron itself is also very expensive, and she wanted a lot of things, such as hoes, plows, and sickles, in large quantities. Not only did it drain her savings, but it also left her with a debt.

It's only because the perfume is selling well now that she's doing well; otherwise, she really would have taken Pei Yanzhi's painting out to sell.

"Miss, I feel like the more your business grows, the less money you have on hand."

"Oh, that's how business is..."

Jiang Shuwan waved her hand dismissively. Business people don't keep spare money, especially since everything she does is still in the development stage, and there are places where money is needed everywhere.

It was a mistake on her part. If only she had learned a few tricks from her classmates who were in mineral exploration when she was in school, she would have had everything from oil to iron ore, and she wouldn't have needed to buy them.

Oh, that's impossible too.