He Yi and Cen Ang sat facing each other, chatting as they sorted out the month's accounts.

"Sister, you have no idea what a mess the house has become while I've been away. When I came in yesterday, the three of them were sitting around a pot of braised pork, eating it with steamed buns and some vegetables with dipping sauce. They didn't even use any bowls."

"I asked why we didn't use a bowl to catch it, and guess what my eldest son said to me?"

"What did you say?" Cen Ang asked, continuing the conversation.

"People say that if you use one less bowl, you have one less to wash. If it weren't for the girls in the building coming over to sweep the yard from time to time, I doubt anyone could stay in this house."

Cen Ang smiled helplessly and said

“My girls are willing to clean. Guess what they were talking about the other day?”

"People say that ever since Sister Chunying got married, Ping'er, a girl, can earn the wages of two jobs, which makes them extremely envious."

Ping'er would go to the Huo family every now and then to tidy up Chunying's room. The courtesan didn't have to do anything herself in the building. When Huo Xiaocheng went out, the little maid would skip over and tell the young lady, then take a feather duster and a rag and go.

When the young general returned and saw how clean the room was, he asked...

"Who disciplined the wife?"

He knows his sweetheart well; she can fight with a knife and dance, but she can't do anything else, from laundry to cooking. She's the one who takes care of everything in the family.

The courtesan applied face cream to her face on the kang (heated brick bed), waiting for her husband to peel a grape and put it in his mouth before saying...

"Bottle."

This made Huo Xiaocheng feel extremely embarrassed, so he insisted on giving the little maid another paycheck, which made Huanlu incredibly envious. Yousheng was earning that money, and so was the little maid Zhihua, but she herself wasn't.

There isn't one now, and there won't be one in the future.

Because Master Miao doesn't have the money to buy a house.

Master Miao, along with his younger siblings, followed Huo Xiaolong to work. The Xu family insisted on getting involved in the road construction, as Miss Qiushui had said...

"You make money without me, don't you feel any remorse?"

The little dumpling imitated Xu Qiushui's crossed legs and said...

"It doesn't hurt. I don't have that thing. Besides, this stuff doesn't make any money. It's all about doing good deeds out of conscience."

"At most, they'll add a name to the signboard after the road is repaired."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qiushui's eyes lit up. "Okay, a name is fine too."

“I’ll offer ten thousand taels of silver, and you must add my name to the list.”

"It's a losing proposition, Miss," Huo Xiaolong said to the young lady.

"Is that how you see me? As the daughter of the richest man in Jiangnan, can't I do something good for the world for such a petty profit?" Xu Qiushui kept putting accusations on Huo Xiaolong, who had no choice but to agree.

Miao Cuifang said to her younger brother and sister-in-law

"You're in charge of recruitment today, so just hire people who are physically strong and capable."

Then he continued speaking to the saintess

"If you can write, write down all the names and then divide them into two groups."

"Okay, bro."

The job at the brothel was really lucrative. The younger siblings who were the foremen could earn three taels of silver a month, including room and board, while the Holy Maiden, who was literate, earned six taels a month.

The Miao group had already decided that even if they only worked for three months, it would be worthwhile, enough to buy a mu of top-quality land for their families.

"Young man, is this where you register for jobs at the brothel?"

"right."

"Do you think I'm suitable? If so, where's the document? I'll go and register my name."

The man in front of him was tall and strong. The news that the brothel had partnered with the government to hire people to repair the road had already spread far and wide, and people from all around were eager to come. There had been no corvée labor in recent years, so everyone was idle anyway, and besides, the pay was good, with meat at every meal. These days, the last thing people lacked was strength.

The Miao boy nodded, looking at the bulging veins on the man's arm; he could tell at a glance that the man was strong.

At first, the Miao youths were worried that Cen Ang was deliberately giving them work opportunities, since there were so many people and they wouldn't need to hire so many. But after only one morning, the boys and girls felt as if their souls had left their bodies.

The saint's hands were cramping.

Huo Xiaolong yawned in the pavilion, his little hands still busy helping the little girl with her homework, muttering to himself.

"I wonder if my second sister has finished writing it. She's only been gone for more than half a month. Why did the teacher leave so much?"

"Yours is alright, it's all big characters. I still have to memorize the text!" The little girl was so anxious that tears were about to come out. Fortunately, she still had a day off. She would do her best to memorize it tomorrow, otherwise she would get a beating on the hand again.

It was a double whammy from the husband and mother!

The two kids didn't dare to do their homework at home because they had taken it to Biluo Mountain Villa. As a result, they didn't even take their pens and played wildly at the villa for half a month.

When asked by their parents, they would say they had finished writing and then disappear without a trace.

Now, he's writing furiously in the pavilion.

Xu Zheng, who was out buying some things, had just gotten off the carriage when he saw Hou Xiangxiang with an oil bottle hanging from her lip. He said to the lady of the house he had just met...

"Sister Shi, is that your Xiangxiang?"

Lady Hou raised her eyes and smiled at the two children who were working hard.

"Hmm, it must be because he hasn't finished his homework and is cramming at the last minute."

"Xiangxiang is lively and cute, and she will surely be as generous and poised as Shimei in the future."

The woman turned her head and looked at Xu Zheng with a strange gaze. The man blushed slightly under her stare. This was the first time in his life that a woman had so openly looked him up and down.

Then Lady Hou said

Are you making fun of me?

"ah?"

You mean she'll grow up to be like me?

"I didn't mean for Xiangxiang to become a widow in the future..." Xu Zheng explained awkwardly, feeling inferior to her every time he was around her.

Lady Hou rolled her eyes at him, realizing she hadn't even thought of that.

What she meant was that although Xiangxiang was her daughter, it was really unlikely that she would be as generous and proper as her in the future, as she didn't know whose taste the child would inherit.

"Don't get angry when you get home, Shimei. Xiangxiang is just like a child."

The woman hummed in agreement.

"Sometimes mothers just turn a blind eye, as long as the homework is finished before school starts. If it's not finished..."

Finally, with the help of servants, Lady Hou boarded the carriage, and Xu Zheng breathed a long sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Xu Qiushui grew up peacefully. If she had really been stuck with a daughter like Hou Xiangxiang, who knows how much more trouble she would have suffered.