Chapter 277 Setting up a "stage" to put on a grand opera

"Why are you in such a hurry? Is it even possible for those things to happen in this world?"

Yuan Hongqu comforted Wang Xifeng, seeing her anxious face, as if her daughter was about to be sold by that wicked uncle.

"You're just worried sick. The entire world of Dream of the Red Chamber has changed beyond recognition. You're still worried that your daughter will be sold off again?"

Yuan Hongqu's voice seemed to possess a magical power; after hearing it, Wang Xifeng immediately felt much calmer.

She let out a soft sigh, suddenly realizing how ridiculous her anxiety from last night until now had been.

Sister Yuan is right, the world of Dream of the Red Chamber has collapsed, and how things will develop from here on out is all unknown.

However, judging from the current situation, it is impossible for Qiao Jie'er's experience in the original work to happen!

Seeing that Wang Xifeng's expression had returned to normal, Yuan Hongqu knew that her inner turmoil had been resolved, so she changed the subject to avoid making her feel troubled again.

"I saw you yesterday, and you seemed very confident about building the Grand View Garden. With so many people around, I didn't want to ask you directly... What methods do you plan to use to build a garden in just a few months?"

Yesterday she wondered if Wang Xifeng was bragging, or if she had some kind of good fortune that allowed her to speed up the construction. Otherwise, how could she have built an ancient garden in just a few months?

When Wang Xifeng heard Yuan Hongqu mention this matter, she couldn't help but laugh.

"Sister Yuan, you've touched on my major."

"When did you ever study landscape architecture?"

Yuan Hongqu was puzzled; Wang Xifeng hadn't studied architecture. Even if she had, in ancient times, without cement towers, cranes, or excavators, the work would have been far too rushed, relying solely on manual labor.

"Hehe, sister, if I can't build a real garden, can't I at least build a fake one?"

Wang Xifeng was very proud when she talked about this.

"Fake? You think you can conjure up a Grand View Garden like magic?"

"I can't do that either! If it were really possible, I'd love to conjure one up myself, it would save even more money!" Wang Xifeng's stingy nature was revealed once again.

"I've had it calculated. Such a large courtyard, including the furnishings and everything else, would cost at least two million taels of silver to complete." She counted on her fingers.

"Two million taels of silver. Even if you search the entire Rongguo Mansion, including the private savings of the wives and all the land, properties, and shops in the public treasury, you can still scrape together the money. But just to bring a virtuous concubine back to her parents' home, does that mean the rest of the family has to give up their livelihood? I'm not going to do that!"

"Oh, so what are you going to use to build the garden? Are you going to raise funds to build a garden and then incorporate it into the Rongguo Mansion's assets, and then distribute the profits to the shareholders once it's running? That wouldn't be entirely fake," Yuan Hongqu guessed.

"I don't have the brains for that. It's too complicated to do such a thing. If I'm not careful, people will say that the Rongguo Mansion is abusing its power." Wang Xifeng is now extremely careful about these things. Although her family is not very ambitious, they still need to have a good "political reputation" and win favor with the Emperor.

Otherwise, if His Majesty hears too much bad talk about his family, he might just drag them out and deal with them if he's ever in a bad mood. He'll have plenty of excuses ready!

Wang Xifeng did not want such a thing to happen at all.

The Rongguo Mansion she's cultivated to the public is an image of a woman in charge, frugal with money. However, she's extremely fond of charity work, even selling her dowry to build houses for disaster victims…

"Then what other good ideas do you have?" Yuan Hongqu really couldn't think of any.

Wang Xifeng clapped her hands and laughed, "It's really not easy! One day I can actually surprise you!"

"Stop keeping me in suspense and tell me the truth!" Yuan Hongqu couldn't help but laugh as she looked at Wang Xifeng's smug expression.

"Props!" Wang Xifeng laughed. "When we were filming, we made fake city walls, fake houses and furniture, even fake decorations... we could make anything look fake!"

Yuan Hongqu suddenly realized why it was fake; she had never thought of it that way. After all, Wang Xifeng was a professional and could think of this method immediately.

Building a simple, decorative garden without regard to quality can save a lot of money.

Wang Xifeng had this kind of insight and knew how to "cut corners".

Most importantly, she remembered very clearly that Yuan Chun would be returning home to visit her family at night. As long as the lights were dimmed a little, she was guaranteed not to be able to tell.

Think about it, spending millions of taels of silver just for a few hours, she's not stupid, she's not going to throw money away like that!

"Only 100,000 taels," Wang Xifeng said confidently. "After Her Majesty's visit home, I'll dismantle everything and sell it, and I can still recoup 50,000 taels!"

Yuan Hongqu looked at Wang Xifeng in disbelief, "You've really taken business to the extreme!"

"Hehe, I like what Sister Yuan said. Based on the current income of Rongguo Mansion, it would take many years to save 100,000 taels. This is using the old family savings. It would only be enough if we got the silver back from the Zhen family in Jiangnan and other families to store."

Wang Xifeng was completely uninhibited in front of Yuan Hongqu.

"The old lady said she's sacrificed half her life's worth of face! But which is more important, face or substance? They spend money like water every day, and I can't turn lead into gold. Increasing revenue won't happen so quickly either, so I can only think of ways to cut expenses!"

"The Zhen family of Jiangnan?" Yuan Hongqu asked meaningfully. "Who came up with this idea?"

"My lord!"

"Your master is truly a man of few words!" Yuan Hongqu praised, noting that he even knew to distance himself from the Zhen family of Jiangnan; such wisdom was rare indeed!

Wang Xifeng laughed mockingly and said, "They said they wanted to build a courtyard, and I said I had no money. Later, the master searched for a long time and said that so-and-so's family had received tens of thousands of taels of silver from the Jia family. After calculating, it turned out to be two or three hundred thousand taels. The master sent Jia Lian around and only brought back one hundred thousand taels. He couldn't come up with the rest for the time being."

Yuan Hongqu had thought that Jia She was a cunning old fox who was pretending to be weak, but she didn't expect that he was just asking for money. She was a little embarrassed because she had already said the words of praise.

Wang Xifeng, however, did not notice and continued, "When the master found out, he was furious. He said that now that it's the end of the year, it's the perfect time to collect debts. He wants to take advantage of the opportunity to repair the courtyard and get back all the money owed to his family!"

Jia She is a scoundrel who doesn't care about anything. When he gets into trouble, he doesn't care about his own family. If he goes to collect the debts himself, he might actually be able to get them all back!

"So, you're not going to keep any of these old connections?" Yuan Hongqu asked, puzzled.

"It's no use. Just treat it like visiting ordinary relatives," Wang Xifeng said bluntly. "Besides, we have a virtuous concubine in our family..."