Upon hearing that Li Yunzhou's whereabouts had been found, Su Qingyu immediately looked at Wen Zhu nervously, "How is he? Is he okay?"
Wen Zhu shook his head and said, "I'm not sure yet."
As he spoke, he handed the secret letter in his hand to Shen Zhixiu.
Shen Zhixiu took it and read the few words on it. After reading it, he said, "Our people found traces along the river near Liao State. It seems to be Yunzhou and his elite subordinates."
He instructed Wenzhu, "Don't spread this matter outside, and tell our people not to interfere in General Li's affairs."
Wenzhu replied yes and turned around to go downstairs to deliver the message.
Su Qingyu's face was full of joy. "It seems that everything is fine. That's good."
Shen Zhixiu signaled her to go back and rest, as he had to go out of the house for something.
As soon as Su Qingyu returned to the west courtyard, Zhenzhu came in to report, "Madam, the fourth young lady is here."
"Please come in."
He also instructed Chuntao and Qiuyue beside him to bring in the fruits and snacks that the Fourth Young Lady liked.
Su Shunci was growing up that year and particularly loved sweet things. Chuntao brought in four-color crispy candies, osmanthus crispy cakes, pea yellow, and chestnut cakes. Qiuyue wanted to switch to sweet milk tea, but Su Qingyu stopped her.
"Let's give her Biluochun. It's hard for her to digest such a sweet snack and then drink milk tea."
Su Shunci happened to walk in at this time and said coquettishly, "Normally, my aunt and mother control me, and my third cousin also watches me. But when I come to my eldest sister's place, he won't let me eat as much as I want."
Su Qingyu glanced at her dotingly, "If we don't take care of you, I think your clothes will have to be made once a month."
"Third cousin never likes to meddle in other people's business. Why is he watching you eat?"
Su Shunci snorted and sat down, picking up an osmanthus cake and began to eat. "Yesterday at dinner, there was a delicious stewed pork elbow. He grabbed most of it and said that if I ate any more, my face would get rounder."
As he spoke, Su Shunci stood up again and looked in the mirror. "It's not round, but compared to my third cousin, my face is indeed a little fat."
Su Qingyu comforted him, "He's a dishonest person. I'll tell him off next time."
Jinyun, who was standing beside him, couldn't help but interrupt, "Miss, you've misunderstood our third cousin. Before eating the pork elbow, our young lady also ate a basket of steamed buns, half a golden flatfish, and drank a large bowl of ginseng chicken soup."
"My third cousin said he's not afraid of her eating too much, but he's afraid she'll get sick from it."
"I was worried this morning, so I asked a doctor to take her pulse. The doctor said our young lady had excessive stomach fire and prescribed some medicine."
Su Qingyu burst out laughing when she heard this, and she said that even if her third cousin was a bad boy, he would not steal the elbow from her fourth sister.
Su Shunci lowered her eyes embarrassedly, "I didn't expect that I was sick."
Su Qingyu rubbed her head. "At your age, it's okay to eat more, but don't overdo it. You're growing up now. I think in another six months, you'll be as tall as me."
Su Shunci pulled her up and insisted on comparing their heights, and they had to stand back to back to compare.
When they sat down again, Su Shunci motioned Jinyun to bring the things over. Su Qingyu then saw that Jinyun was holding a red lacquered wooden box in his hand.
"What's this? Are you bringing me a gift?"
Su Shunci smiled mysteriously, "It's a great gift, big sister, please take a look."
The box was opened, and inside was a neatly arranged stack of banknotes.
The top one was worth ten thousand taels. Su Qingyu flipped through the notes below, and they were all worth ten thousand taels.
"How much is this?" she asked, pointing to the banknote.
Su Shunci replied, "The capital is 500,000 taels, and there is a surplus of 820,000 taels to be shared with my eldest sister."
"According to my eldest sister's instructions, I also left 820,000 taels and gave 820,000 taels to my mother."
In fact, she gave Lin Wanyin 1.2 million taels last night, but Lin Wanyin looked at the accounts and saw that Su Shunci only kept a few tens of thousands of taels for herself, so she asked her to redistribute it.
Su Qingyu glanced at Su Shunci disapprovingly. "You two are so bold! You just come here with over 1.3 million taels of silver?"
"Next time, tell me and I'll send someone to get it."
If this is seen by someone with ulterior motives, murder and robbery may occur.
Jinyun was deeply touched and said with fear: "Miss, you don't know, I didn't dare to breathe all the way. Everyone I saw looked like a robber."
Su Shunci said, "If I don't tell you, who would know there's silver in there?"
Su Qingyu turned to look at Feicui, "You all go down and take Jinyun to the tea room for tea and some snacks."
After the servants had left, Su Qingyu said to Su Shunci, "Ah Ci, never use money to test people's nature."
"Do you think no one knows you took out so much silver? Jinyun knows, and maybe your shop's accountant knows too."
Su Shunci was puzzled, "Big sister, are you suspicious of Jinyun?"
Su Qingyu shook her head and said, "I don't doubt Jinyun, and I don't doubt anyone around you."
"But you can't use other people's loyalty and kindness to avoid your own risks. Take today's incident for example. What if Jinyun accidentally told his relatives at home?"
"Or maybe she wasn't moved once or twice, but what about over time?"
"If one day someone around you betrays their master or enriches themselves for personal gain, it's because you gave them the opportunity."
Su Shunci nodded vigorously, "I understand what Big Sister said. Just like Big Sister is the housekeeper, everything is handled according to the family rules."
She was indeed careless in this matter. She thought it wouldn't take long and there was no need to mobilize a large force, so she came in person with the banknotes.
The elder sister is right, we cannot use money to test human nature.
Su Shunci added, "This time it's for disaster relief, so we only have this much. Otherwise, we could make more. But my third cousin said that when doing business, we can't just focus on immediate profits."
Su Qingyu thought to herself that she had to find a chance to treat her third cousin to a meal. Ah Ci's success today was largely due to her third cousin.
By noon, Shen Zhixiu had not returned yet, so Su Qingyu invited Su Shunci to have lunch with her.
In the afternoon, Su Shunci said that she agreed to accompany Song Wanwan to Fanjinlou. Su Qingyu personally sent Su Shunci to the gate of the west courtyard to take the carriage. After watching the carriage leave, she turned and walked towards the inner courtyard.
But suddenly, I heard voices coming from the gate of the courtyard where Mr. Zhou lived not far away.
"Mr. Zhou, please pack up quickly and come with me. Our master is waiting. Even though you are a miracle doctor, you can't keep him waiting, right?"
The person who spoke was a middle-aged man. Su Qingyu didn't know if it was an illusion, but she felt that the tone of his voice was a bit weird.
She turned around and called over to a guard in the outer courtyard, asking, "Who is that person?"
The guard bowed and replied, "To answer the Third Madam, it was Chen Ge Lao's housekeeper Chen, who said he came to ask Mr. Zhou to take the pulse of the old lady of the Chen family."
After the guard finished answering, Mr. Zhou said, "Butler Chen, I told you I'll be free tonight. I promised the tofu vendor in the East Market that I'd check his legs."
Butler Chen looked unhappy when he heard this. "I don't care if you're an old man or old woman selling tofu. Just make him wait. As a master, how can we wait for you forever?"
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