Old Lady Lu looked at the letter, feeling extremely distressed. She finally took out a hundred taels of silver from her private room and said, "Take it. After all, Linglong has entered the palace and is also a mistress. If she lives a good life in the future, you will definitely help her."
The messenger took the silver and gave it to the person coming out of the palace.
This is the eunuch who does the shopping for the imperial kitchen. He often helps to pass messages or bring things to the palace.
He knew how much silver was in the heavy purse as soon as he touched it. He grabbed a handful and stuffed it into his arms, then returned to the palace.
The purse passed through the imperial kitchen and was delivered to Xiaolan, and the one hundred taels became less than fifty taels.
Xiaolan glanced at the scattered silver and she realized that her master was a fool. She didn't know how he had won the favor of the emperor, but this was also a lie.
If he really fell in love with her, how could she be a low-ranking Master Attendant?
At the very least, she should be a concubine or Baolin.
Besides, she was probably not favored at home, otherwise she would have sent a sign to her family asking for a meeting instead of giving them money privately, and such a small amount at that.
Thinking of this, Xiaolan kept the remaining money and handed the purse to Lu Linglong.
Lu Linglong saw that it was a heavy purse and was happy for a moment: "This purse was made by someone close to my grandmother. My grandmother loves me and knows that it is inconvenient for me to use silver, so she made it for me.
Lu Linglong happily opened her purse and stuffed a handful of silver into Xiaolan's hand: "Well done, this is your reward."
Xiaolan looked at Lu Linglong with an indescribable expression, and did not put the silver in her hand into her own pocket.
Lu Linglong counted the silver. She had no idea what it meant, but holding the loose silver in her hand felt very special. She didn't know that she actually valued silver so much.
Having had enough of it, Lu Linglong searched for the banknotes, but couldn't find any. She poured all the silver onto the bed, thinking it had been sewn into the lining of her purse, but couldn't find it no matter how hard she searched.
Lu Linglong frowned, "Why is there only so little silver? No banknotes? Did someone else take it?"
Xiaolan took a deep breath and said with a smile, "Master Attendant, you're wrong. The people below wouldn't dare to covet this silver. After all, your mother's family is also the Pingyang Marquis' Mansion. They can always enter the palace to meet you. When the time comes, we'll know how much silver we gave them once we communicate. How dare they?"
"That's true." Lu Linglong nodded, but she didn't believe her grandmother, who loved her so much, would only give such a small amount of silver. She quickly asked, "Where are the scissors? Give me the scissors!"
Xiaolan quickly found a pair of scissors and handed them to her.
Lu Linglong cut the purse into pieces, but couldn't find a single note or even a trace of gold leaf. She was stunned: "Is that all the silver?"
Xiaolan hesitated: "About thirty taels? Master Attendant, do you want to find a scale?"
Lu Linglong shook her head dejectedly: "Go buy some charcoal."
Xiaolan asked, "What kind of charcoal do you want to buy? The best silver frost charcoal is two taels of silver per pound right now. Black charcoal is cheaper."
"Of course I'm buying Silver Frost Charcoal!" Lu Linglong was very irritated. Seeing the silver in Xiaolan's hand, she shouted, "Hurry up and go! Are you trying to freeze me to death?"
This ingot of silver weighs about five taels, and the total amount of silver is thirty taels. I don’t know how long it will last if used like this, but as long as people outside the palace are willing to send silver in, life will not be too difficult.
Five taels of silver certainly could not redeem Lu Linglong's earrings. She didn't mention redeeming them, so Xiaolan pretended not to know.
When he arrived at the inner treasury, he bought two pounds of silver frost charcoal and one ounce of silver worth of black charcoal.
There was a lot of black charcoal, and although it produced a strong smokey smell that was a bit choking, it was enough to light a small stove in the corridor and make some hot food and hot water for them to drink.
As for the night, there were only three of them, and they all slept together in Master Attendant's room. Why would they waste charcoal?
In the palace, Lu Linglong temporarily got some money, which solved her urgent problem.
Outside the palace, Lu Yan was frantically looking at his accounts. "Tomorrow is the deadline, how come there's no money? Don't we have 100,000 taels of silver? Didn't we open a shop? Where's the money we earned?"
I won’t give you any money I make, not to mention that I don’t make any money at all.
Bai Wanyi complained in her heart. She had learned not to cry or make a fuss now. She took out the account books and talked to him quietly one by one, asking how much money she had spent on opening those shops and how much money she had earned back now?
With Wu Ziya around, Bai Wanyi naturally didn't mention the firearms workshop. "It's just that the silver from all the places combined only adds up to about 10,000 or 20,000 taels. The initial investment in the glass workshop was quite large, and even though the silver is coming in more now, the account is still in deficit."
"All the money I have now is what I earned during this period. Most of it was earned from Flowers in the Mirror. Although the milk tea shop makes little money, it makes a lot of money, so if I can make a few thousand taels these days, it's pretty good."
But it was much, much less than she expected.
Bai Wanyi was of course not satisfied with this income. If Qin Wan had not intervened, he would have earned not only 100,000 taels of silver, but even 200,000 or 500,000.
Of course, she wouldn't say these things. Bai Wanyi is just crying poor now.
Wu Ziya listened to these accounts, holding her fox fur muff and asking, "What did I hear your sister's love was?"
"Avril." Her maid reminded.
Wu Ziya nodded and said, "Avril's shop is doing well, but doesn't it also make money?"
Bai Wanyi was prepared. He looked at Wu Ziya and chuckled, "I opened this beauty shop with my own dowry money. Do you want me to use my dowry money to supplement the family's finances? If so, my sister should also contribute some money. Brother Yan, what do you think?"
Bai Wanyi originally respected her status and called Lu Yan "Marquis" to avoid being accused of being ignorant of etiquette. However, she found that Wu Ziya kept calling him "husband, husband" all day long, which was disgusting, so she just called him "Brother Yan".
Lu Yan felt very uncomfortable being caught between two women, especially now that he was worried about money. But he knew best that all the money in Bai Wanyi's hands was given by him.
What dowry? It's all his money!
Lu Yan was about to ask her to take out the money when he saw Bai Wanyi making a gesture. He instantly realized that the money Avril earned was probably invested in the firearms workshop. These things really seemed to be swallowing up money.
He and Bai Wanyi have been in a relationship for eight years, and they have been together through thick and thin. How could he not trust her?
Lu Yan said, "How can we use your dowry to make up for the money the palace owes? Let's just forget it."
Wu Ziya held the 50,000 taels of silver sent by the Fourth Prince in her hand. It was just a gift from a wealthy family. She said generously, "Since I've married into the family, I'm a member of the family. Your debt is mine. I have 50,000 taels of silver here. Please take it first."
Bai Wanyi rolled her eyes at Wu Ziya. This time, Lu Yan was really living off her. However, she couldn't possibly give all the money she had to Lu Yan, so she only gave him 10,000 taels: "The rest should be used to run the shop."
The reason was very reasonable. Lu Yan took the 60,000 taels of silver and worried: "What should I do with the remaining 40,000?"
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