Lu Yan looked at the group of craftsmen gathered at the door, his mind was about to explode. Why were they here again?
What happened this time?
He took a step back, and the tribesmen who did not leave also protected Lu Yan behind them.
This is completely different from the commotion in the mansion just now. That happened at home, and the victim was a servant in the family. No matter how embarrassing it was, it was a family disgrace.
But now I am at my doorstep, these are outsiders, and even two of the craftsmen look very familiar.
Lu Yan subconsciously thought that they were here again because of the Huayuanzi incident. He pressed his brows and suppressed his anger: "Hasn't the Huayuanzi incident been resolved? And we don't owe you any money."
Lu Yan paused, looking at the growing crowd of onlookers, and said in a deep voice, "When the garden collapsed, our mansion didn't ask you to pay for it, but it was lucky enough. Why are you here causing trouble now?"
The lead craftsman was the one who had built the pavilion the previous time. He stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Lord Lu, it's not that we have to come here to cause trouble. It's just that it's the end of the year, and every household wants to celebrate the New Year. We craftsmen also need to use our money to support our families and apprentices."
"Before the Lunar New Year, we did some work for the Marquis's Mansion. We should have been paid before the 20th day of the 12th lunar month, but the accountant said that there were a lot of gifts to be given out before the Lunar New Year, so they didn't have the money yet and asked us to come back later. We came every day and waited, and now it's the first day of the Lunar New Year. Shouldn't we pay the money we are owed?"
After he finished speaking, the other craftsmen laughed and said:
"That's ridiculous. The Marquis' Mansion has money to spend on New Year's gifts, but doesn't have money to pay us back!"
"It's not a lot of money, but the behavior of the Marquis' Mansion is disgusting!"
“It is only natural to pay back your debts!”
Lu Yan frowned: "What debt?"
The craftsman from last time said, "Your family built five small courtyards before the Lunar New Year. Although the courtyards are all of similar size, you had to move in before the Lunar New Year, so you asked a few of us to work with you on the construction. We started construction around the same time and finished it at the same time. But your family has not paid us yet."
"It's not much, just one hundred taels for a small courtyard. But it's been delayed since the twelfth lunar month until now. I heard that during the New Year's gift period, a porcelain vase costs several hundred taels of silver, and we only have five or six hundred taels. My Lord, please be kind and let go of your hands and settle the money."
Lu Yan finally understood that no money was given for the construction of the inner house!
He took a deep breath and said to the tribesmen around him, "I have something else to do here, so I won't see you off. Bye."
The tribesmen hurriedly bowed and said goodbye.
Lu Yan welcomed the craftsmen into the mansion, dispersed the onlookers at the door, and sent someone to call Wu Ziya to the front for questioning.
Wu Ziya was very calm when she received the news, but her maid was more anxious than she was: "Young lady, what should we do? We didn't give the silver. Will the old lady blame us and embarrass the marquis?"
Wu Ziya walked slowly towards the front yard. "Blame? This is to build a house for the Marquis's Mansion, so of course the Marquis' Mansion has to pay for it. If the Marquis' Mansion doesn't have the money, they have to ask the Marquis for it. As for embarrassment? A man who has established a household should not be embarrassed if he can't afford the household expenses."
Wu Ziya admired Lu Yan, and especially liked his good looks, but if there were some things about her own man that she wasn't satisfied with, she would be ruthless in correcting them. Otherwise, that little bit of dissatisfaction would become a knot between the two of them over time.
Her life became more and more unhappy. She had to consider the long-term. Not to mention other things, just look at the harmony between her sister and brother-in-law, and her mother's words and deeds.
Good days are all planned.
When they arrived at the front hall, Wu Ziya stood behind the screen, knelt down and saluted Lu Yan, then sat down.
Lu Yan took the bill from the craftsmen and asked Wu Ziya, "These craftsmen built the inner courtyard, and they said you didn't pay them?"
Wu Ziya nodded and had the account books delivered to Lu Yan. "This year, all the profits from the various shops and farms in the mansion have been sent in. I settled the accounts elsewhere, and also made some purchases for the mansion during the New Year. So, there's not much money left."
The craftsman complained, "Without much silver, how could you possibly send out gifts to other families like water? I've heard that bottle cost hundreds of taels of silver! And with all those carts of stuff, who would you send gifts to without hundreds of taels of silver? You've sent gifts to so many families, how come you don't have any money left when it comes to us?"
Lu Yan also frowned: "Yes, how can there be no money?"
When the craftsmen saw that Lu Yan also agreed with them, they immediately started to criticize him:
"You have money for gifts, but no money for us, right?"
"When Madam came in just now, we saw that the maids around you all wore gold hairpins. Wouldn't it be enough to pay us back if you just sold a few of them?"
"You wear silver yourself, and you don't have any money to give back to us? We all work hard and rely on silver to celebrate the festival, but if we don't receive the silver, we won't be able to celebrate the New Year well. Tomorrow is the second day of the New Year, and I'm going to my father-in-law's house with my wife. I can't go there with my paws drooping, right?"
"Yes, we have to accompany my wife to my father-in-law's house tomorrow, and my son and daughter-in-law also need to bring gifts back as a token of appreciation. How can we do anything without money?"
Wu Ziya saw that Lu Yan was not helping her but was speaking for the craftsmen instead. Her brows furrowed slightly, but she remained calm. After waiting for the craftsmen to finish speaking, she said to Lu Yan, "My Lord, you don't know that the gifts sent to various places are all from the mansion's treasury. What the east family sends, we give to the west family. It's only by circulating the things in the treasury that we save money."
"Speaking of which, we are frugal, but if it weren't some rare antique or something, it would be a joke if it were circulated like this. People would just say our mansion is stingy and unwilling to spend money on gifts, all for the sake of face. That's why three families also spent a lot of money on festival gifts."
"One is from my mother's family. I know we're struggling financially, so I used my own dowry money to buy it myself. The other is from the princes' mansions. Besides the rare antiques selected from the mansion's treasury, the rest of the items were also carefully purchased. In total, I only spent a few dozen taels of silver."
The focus of this prince's mansion is the festival gift from the Fourth Prince's Manor. There is no need to make this clear in front of outsiders. It is in the account book, and Lu Yan just needs to see it.
Wu Ziya paused, glanced at the craftsmen who were clearly unconvinced, and said, "What good things has the prince's residence not seen? So there's no need to prepare too much. Just be thoughtful."
"The last one is the old lady's family. Although her brother, the Marquis' uncle, is no longer with us, they are still relatives, and they have prepared a generous holiday gift. The old lady knows that her family is in financial difficulty, so this gift was also purchased with her own money."
"There's another item I didn't write down here. I only remembered it when I mentioned the old lady. This is the Marquis's maternal family. Your maternal family is not in the capital, so when the twelfth lunar month arrived, I sent someone to deliver a special festival gift. The mansion prepared one and sent someone to buy more locally. This gift was also paid for from my own pocket."
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