Chapter 66 Chapter 66 These aristocratic families, from generation to generation...
These aristocratic families have accumulated wealth from generation to generation. As a vested interest, the wealth is naturally astonishing.
However, their family tree is huge, and many people can marry, take concubines, and have more than ten children.
As the family has more children, it needs to hire more servants to serve them. Every family member in the family spends lavishly, and with so many mouths to feed, the expenses are staggering.
If one is not good at management and only relies on the output of the family farmland, it is inevitable that one will be stretched to make ends meet.
For example, the Xue family's mansion is also a family with hundreds of years of history, and its assets are no less than those of the Ye family.
But the Xue family has several times more people than the Ye family. After the family property was divided up again and again, not much remained in the hands of each family.
Even though Lord Xue inherited most of the Xue family's fortune, he also had seven or eight brothers from the same father. These brothers are considered to be the side branches of the Xue family. They are unwilling to move out on their own and still rely on the Xue family's mansion for their food, clothing and other expenses.
Every year, most of the Xue Mansion's income is used to support these side branches, leaving much less for the family.
And a portion of this silver will be given to the prince Xue Fenglin.
Xue Fenglin had so much dowry from the Ye family in his hands that he didn't need to use even a penny of it for public use. The monthly allowance he received from the public was more than that of his younger brother Xue Fengli.
Because of this, Bai has always been jealous and hateful towards Xue Fenglin. She is also concerned about Ye's dowry and wishes she could snatch all the property from Xue Fenglin!
That is to say, there is a law in the Great Jin Dynasty that a woman's dowry can only be inherited by her own biological children. The Ye family also kept a close eye on the situation, not giving the Bai family any chance to take action, thus helping Xue Fenglin to keep these properties.
If Xue Fenglin had died in Yunshui Village last time, Ye's dowry would have belonged to the Xue family according to the law, and Bai would have been able to transfer all these properties to her son in a legitimate way.
Jin Shiyue kept pestering Shen Xuan to attend the Spring Festival banquet held at the Jinning Palace after the New Year. Shen Xuan couldn't stand it anymore and couldn't refuse, so he had to agree.
After he treated Jin Shiyue to dinner, he sent him out. Watching the carriage from the palace leave, Shen Xuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the owner of Jinning County is naive, he is not a bad person at heart. Moreover, Princess Jinning treated herself very politely. When she heard that Shen Xuan had invited Jin Shiyue to dinner, she sent people to deliver a lot of gifts.
Inside was a goose-feather quilt used by the royal family in the palace. It was very light and warm, and not available everywhere.
These were all favors from the Jinning Palace. Shen Xuan had accepted their favors, so he had to repay them. In addition, the Xue family and the Ye family also need to interact with each other openly.
So even though Shen Xuan was alone in the capital, he still needed to prepare return gifts after the New Year.
It's not that Shen Xuan doesn't understand the dealings between these famous families in the capital, but he finds them annoying and didn't bother to do them in the past. But now that he has decided to stay with Xue Fenglin, he still has to do what he should do.
So Shen Xuan called Su Yue, mentioned a few things, and asked him to purchase them as holiday gifts.
Su Yue didn't expect that Chen Xuan, a country boy, was so proficient in these social interactions, and she was very surprised.
Ever since he came back from the Ye family banquet last time, he saw that the prince treated Chen Xuan very well, and he had some other plans in his mind, so he treated Chen Xuan even more respectfully.
Now that Shen Xuan asked him to purchase festival gifts, Su Yue naturally did as Shen Xuan asked.
When he was serving Secretary Ye before, since he knew a few words and had come into contact with these matters of festival gift-giving, he told Shen Xuan some of the Ye family's previous experiences in gift-giving.
After listening to Su Yue's words, Shen Xuan thought for a while before looking at him and said, "You did a good job, which is very useful to me. I will naturally refer to your opinions."
After that, he adjusted several of the festival gifts that had been prepared, and then took out a silver ingot of two taels, handed it to Su Yue in front of Su Yun, and said, "This is a reward for your good work."
Su Yue accepted the silver ingot with great joy and thanked Chen Xuan.
When I returned to the room, I heard Su Yun say sourly: "Now that you have been with Brother Chen for several months, you are more loyal to him than to the Ye family."
Su Yue looked at Su Yun after listening to her, and after putting away the silver, she said, "It's just a few useful ideas, how can it be disloyal to the Ye family? Besides, the Ye family doesn't have any sons who need our service, so they sent us to Brother Chen. Brother Chen is generous and gives a lot of rewards, so we have to listen to what he says."
"If Brother Shen marries the prince in the future, I'm afraid our indentures will have to be handed directly to the prince."
"Do you really think the prince will marry Chen Ge'er?" Su Yun asked after hearing this.
Su Yue then said, "How should I know? But after all, there is an engagement, and Chen Ge'er likes the prince, and I think the prince treats Chen Ge'er very well."
After hearing what Su Yue said, Su Yun became thoughtful. He had never been to the Chongyang Banquet and had not witnessed what happened at the Ye family banquet.
But after Su Yue came back, her attitude changed completely.
Suyun is not a fool. Although Suyue didn't say it, she knew that this matter must be related to the prince's attitude.
Considering that Su Yue now obeyed Shen Xuan's every word, Su Yun also secretly made a decision after that day, and her attitude towards Shen Xuan changed compared to before.
Time flies, a few days passed in a flash, and it was almost the end of the year.
The Chinese New Year is a big event. This is the first New Year after Shen Xuan traveled back to Dajin. He has to celebrate it well even if his home is deserted.
Suyun had already prepared New Year's food, which cost more than one hundred taels in total.
This year, due to the severe disaster in the northwest, the prices of various commodities are much higher than in previous years, and the cost of the theater's fairy food has increased a lot.
Fortunately, Shen Xuantun had a lot of spices before, and now the cost has only increased for the ingredients, so there is still profit. If the price of food goes up again after the New Year, he won't be able to afford to raise the price of Xiyuan Xianwei.
All the outsiders in the capital have returned home, and even busy streets like Zijin Street have become much quieter.
By the 25th day of the 12th lunar month, the butcher shop will have closed and will not reopen until after the 15th day of the 1st lunar month.
Taking advantage of the cold weather, Shen Xuan prepared two days' worth of food in advance and stored them in the yard.
However, on the 27th, all the food he had stored was sold out, so he officially gave both the Theater Xianwei and Xuanzifang a holiday, allowing the employees who had been busy for more than two months to have a good rest for a few days.
Nowadays, most of the shops in the capital have closed down, and only a few shops, theaters and brothels are still open.
On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Shen Xuan asked the servants from both sides to gather in the backyard of Xuanzifang, preparing to have a New Year's dinner together and celebrate the New Year in advance.
The New Year's Eve dinner was scheduled for noon, and Shen Xuan asked someone who could cook to prepare two dishes.
Fried chicken and red oil skewers are of course indispensable. In addition, Qingkang and Qingping made a dish of mapo tofu and a dish of stir-fried vegetables and meat. The four employees in the writing generation can all cook, and each of them made a home-cooked dish that he or she is good at.
Shen Xuan also showed off his skills and made a dish of steamed pork ribs with rice flour and a dish of mutton soup for them.
Spare ribs and mutton are expensive dishes, and these employees would never be willing to buy them for themselves on weekdays.
Now that it was the New Year, Shen Xuan was generous and let them enjoy a feast.
The dishes he cooked tasted so good that everyone rushed to eat them until their mouths were full of oil.
After the New Year’s Eve dinner, Jinzhi and Jingui brought a pot of steaming dumplings. Wenzhu’s favorite food is dumplings, so she quickly scooped a few into her bowl.
He took a bite, let out a "ouch", and spat out something that had been bitten flat.
After taking a closer look, I realized it was actually a dime.
"Huh? There is silver in the dumplings!" Wenzhu said immediately with great joy.
After hearing his words, everyone rushed to eat the dumplings. After a while, a few people really found a few dimes in the dumplings.
During the Chinese New Year, the master personally cooks for you, you have food and drinks, and you also receive money. Where else can a servant have such a good thing?
Those who received the silver coins jumped three feet high with joy, and thanked Shen Xuan again and again.
This New Year's Eve dinner was very lively and everyone's face was rosy.
Chen Xuan waved his hand again, asking Jin Zhi Jingui to bring out some New Year goods, and then said to them: "Before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, both shops will be closed. During this holiday, I will not come over, and you will have to take care of your own food, clothing and other expenses."
"Everyone was busy with work before and had no time to go out to buy New Year's goods. Now it is definitely too late to buy anything. But you don't have to worry, I have prepared the New Year's goods for you."
After he finished speaking, he asked Jin Zhi Jingui to distribute some food, cloth, soap and other daily necessities. Everyone can get a big bag, which is enough for not only the ten days during the New Year, but even a month.
In addition to this, Shen Xuan also prepared a red envelope for each of them. This was the reward money that had been promised before, but because he was very busy every day, Chen Xuan did not distribute it, but instead kept it together to be distributed during the Chinese New Year.
After everyone received the red envelope, they opened it and found that there was a small silver note worth five taels inside.
They worked in the shop and were provided with food and accommodation. The monthly salary was one hundred coins, which was already the same level as the servants in wealthy families.
I didn’t expect to get such a big reward at the end of the year!
"This is the first time I've received a reward of five taels of silver!" Shengfu said excitedly.
He used to serve a rich young man closely, and his reward was no more than one or two hundred coins at most. He never dreamed that there would be a day when he could get five taels of silver.
You should know that although the waiters in the capital can earn one or two taels of silver a month, they are different from the waiters who are born as good citizens. They are servants whose indentures have been bought out.
Moreover, the waiters do not live in the shops and pay for their own food and accommodation expenses. In comparison, they actually got more.
“Me too…” Shengcai actually cried, wiped his tears and said, “I don’t know where my parents and my brother and sister-in-law were sold to, and whether they can meet a master as good as Brother Chen like me.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the whole room suddenly fell silent.
The servants here were all sold here, and their parents and family members are not around. It was Chinese New Year now, and they all missed their families very much.
Although Shen Xuan bought out the indentures of these people in order to protect the secret recipe, he was a man who had lived in the modern world after all, and he actually treated them more like ordinary employees than servants who were like slaves.
It was also for this reason that Shen Xuan treated them well on weekdays, gave them New Year's goods and bonuses during the New Year and other festivals, and let them take a few days off to rest.
Fortunately, the servants he picked were all grateful. They knew that Shen Xuan treated them well, so they worked extra hard.
Seeing that they were all a little sad, Shen Xuan actually felt a little homesick.
He traveled to the modern world and lived there for more than 20 years. His parents and brothers treated him very well. Now that I have traveled back in time, I still can’t forget them in my heart.
He took the golden branches and golden osmanthus home, and the carriage journey was silent.
After arriving at the Shen Mansion, he called Su Yue, Su Yun, the cook, the driver and several other servants to his side and said, "You are all servants of the Ye family and the Xue Mansion. Now that the New Year is coming to an end, you must miss your families very much. I will make a decision and give you a holiday. You can come back to the Shen Mansion after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month."
All the servants had not been home for several months, so they were very happy to hear this and thanked Shen Xuan one by one.
Chen Xuan asked Jin Zhi and Jin Gui to give each of them a red envelope, which also contained a silver note for five taels of silver.
After everyone took the red envelopes and left, looking at the empty yard, Shen Xuan suddenly felt that the Shen Mansion, which only had three entrances, was particularly deserted.
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