Zhou Gu never considered himself exceptionally ignorant, but the price quoted by the Duchess certainly took him by surprise.
The Duchess spoke to him tersely, "Cloud Brocade itself is a rarity let alone top-quality Cloud Brocade. Its production process is complex and time-consuming, demanding supreme craftsmanship. Each step must be faultless to yield a material of such quality and pattern. Look at what you’re wearing. Its radiance imitates the colourful morning clouds. Not only that, the embroidery involves a hefty amount of gold and colored thread. Even with a glance, can you say it’s made of ordinary fabric? Our family is of martial origin, we might not care for such extravagance, but given the number of palace banquets you’ve attended since childhood, you should not be ignorant of the worth of this clothing."
"I knew it was expensive, but not this expensive." Zhou Gu stuttered, "I do not keep an eye on the ladies of the palace."
The Duchess was at a loss for words.
Zhou Gu fell silent too.
For a moment, the room was impeccably quiet.
After seating awkwardly for a while, Zhou Gu straightened his back and proclaimed, "I remember that such clothing material is not only worn by the ladies of the Palace, but also by my grandmother, mother, aunts, and sisters, right?" After considering for a moment, he confidently added, "My grandfather, y brothers, and I, seems like we’ve never worn such."
The Duchess glanced at him coldly, "It’s not ’seems like’, you guys simply haven’t."
Zhou Gu looked at the Duchess and asked, "Why?"
Did that mean they were not worthy of such fine items?
The Duchess couldn’t help but chuckle at his expression, "Your grandmother, I, and your aunts do have this kind of material, all are rewards from the palace. Your grandmother, due to her long life, has accumulated more, and your aunts and I have no more than 2 sets each. Each of your sisters gets one when they reach womanhood to keep up appearances. As women, we naturally dress better. Whereas men like you should dress more roughly, no matter how good the material, it can’t withstand your daily swordplay."
Zhou Gu: "..."
He understood, so in plain words, they weren’t worth it!
He tugged at his sleeve and looked at his outfit. He hadn’t thought this one outfit would cost tens of thousands of taels of silver. Had he known, he would have argued it out with Su Rong. This amount of money could have been used for far more worthy causes instead of dressing him. Although it is beautiful, he doesn’t quite suit it.
Back in Jiangzhou, while dealing with Jiang Sheng’s power, he had fought while wearing one of the outfits she’d given him. Fortunately, he had only engaged in a few moves and hadn’t torn the clothes; otherwise, wouldn’t he be heartbroken now?
It seems he has to be careful in the future not to ruin his clothes while fighting with others.
Zhou Gu suddenly felt the burden of his sweet attire.
The Duchess added, "Because you’re a scholar and studied as a companion in the Eastern Palace, the clothes that your grandmother and I bought for you are more expensive than what your brothers wear. The cheapest clothes on you are worth three or four hundred taels of silver, while those on your brothers are generally assessed to be around hundreds taels. Only a few clothes are as expensive as yours for attending Palace banquets."
The unsaid meaning of her words was that you were already the most favoured among us, and who knew that after a trip to Jiangning, you dared to wear such an expensive outfit.
She had significantly underestimated her son.
Zhou Gu blushed in embarrassment, his voice faltering when he said, "Well, Xiaoqi made me three sets of clothes like this. The fabric she gave me also contains similar material, but I am not sure how much since I didn’t look in detail."
The Duchess inhaled deeply, "Even if you did not know the exact price of these clothes, you knew they were expensive, so how could you accept so many at once? How did you have the gall to accept them?"
Zhou Gu blushed and shifted uncomfortably as he explained, "Xie Lin was there at that time."
"What does Xie Lin have to do with this?" The Duchess did not understand her son’s train of thought.
Zhou Gu immediately lifted his neck in pride and stated, "Of course, I had to make Xie Lin watch me with envy, jealousy, and resentment."
The Duchess: "..."
Princess Sheng An along with others: "..."
The Duchess laughed at this absurdity, "Did you, after the incident, give back the silver?"
Zhou Gu said in a low voice: "No."
The Duchess frowned, "You comfortably allow a young lady to spend so much silver on you, how did I teach you? Have you forgotten everything?"
Zhou Gu certainly hadn’t forgotten and responded in an even softer voice, "After it happened, I offered to pay her back, but she said since she gave them to me, they were mine. If I were to repay her, wouldn’t that mean she sold the clothes to me? That Brocade Pavilion owns part of her share; she’s one of the owners too." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
He scratched his head a bit, "She sincerely gave me clothes, how could I not save her face? Mother, didn’t you tell me to give young ladies dignity? She clearly said she gave it to me. If I forced her to take the silver, wouldn’t that be inappropriate?"
Gaining momentum, he continued, "Besides, I didn’t have a lot of spare silver. Except for the thousands of taels of silver I brought when I left the capital, and I didn’t carry any valuable goods to return the favor. I thought I could only discuss it when I got back. Of course, I can’t just accept things for free from others, so shouldn’t I ask grandmother and you about what valuable things I could give back to her?"
The Duchess’ face lightened a bit upon hearing this, "That does make sense. It’s reassuring that you could think this way."
Zhou Gu pouted, wanting to say "Of course I am not confused.", but after receiving so much, he originally thought it would be just tens of thousands of taels worth of clothes. Suddenly knowing it might be more than that and it might exceed his understanding, he lost his enthusiasm.
"Alright, have you brought back all those clothes and fabrics?" The Grand Princess Sheng An cut off the Duchess to stop her from scolding Zhou Gu further.
"Brought them back." Zhou Gu nodded.
"Tell them to bring it all. Let’s take a look and see what good materials there are. If it’s all similar to what you’re wearing, then what this young girl has given you is indeed lavish." The Grand Princess Sheng An said.
Zhou Gu nodded, "Just let Zhou Xi bring them."
Upon hearing this, the Duchess immediately told someone to pass the message to Zhou Xi.
Before long, Zhou Xi came to the Grand Princess Sheng An’s courtyard, bringing along immaculately packaged and well-preserved clothes and fabric that Zhou Gu had hauled back from Jiangning County.
The Duchess asked Zhou Xi, "Mr. Zhou, do you know how much the clothes on Gu’er’s body cost?"
Zhou Xi saluted and nodded, "Yes, Madam. The clothes on the Fourth Young Master are Yunjin, every inch embroidered with gold. Made into clothing by top-notch embroiderers, it costs a fortune, likely thousands of gold, if not less than tens of thousands of taels of silver."
Zhou Gu looked at Zhou Xi when he heard this, "If you knew the real value, why didn’t you remind me?"
Zhou Xi cried injustice, "Fourth Young Master, I did remind you. When the fabric was delivered from Brocade Pavilion that day, I knew they were very valuable. When you came back to the residence, I told you that these fabrics were too valuable and there was so much of it, can Xiaoqi really spend so much money? But you waved it off."
Zhou Gu: "..."
He reflected a bit, and indeed, such an incident happened. He said, "I thought the most expensive clothes would not cost that much."
Zhou Xi didn’t know what else to say, "I reminded you twice at that time, you said we had already accepted it, so carefully keep it..."
Zhou Gu was rendered speechless, indeed, he initially thought so, since he had accepted it all anyway.
The Grand Princess Sheng An looked at Zhou Gu amusedly, and ordered Zhou Xi, "Unwrap them all, let us see."
Zhou Xi agreed, fearful of others touching them with clumsy hands, he unwrapped each of them himself, lined them up and placed them on the long table.
As each package was unwrapped, there were rapid intakes of breath all around.
Zhou Gu knew he had done something wrong and felt a bit awkward. But he also thought, Su Rong’s expression was really too calm, as if she was looking at ordinary items. She didn’t keep gushing over them or getting attached, only Xie Lin uttered exclamations. If Su Rong had shown the same surprised expressions his mother and aunt showed on seeing these fabrics, he would have definitely stormed off and outright rejected them, and wouldn’t have been deceived by her.
Grand Princess Sheng An was slightly better than the rest, having seen too many good things. But similarly, looking at the huge pile of fabric, she was quite taken aback as well.
She stood up with the help of her attendants, walked over to the table, and looked over all the fabric. She then turned to the Duchess and beckoned, "Come and have a look, you should recognize all these fabrics, right? Now, according to the current market price, calculate the value."
The Duchess nodded and stepped up to Grand Princess Sheng An.
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