Chapter 101 Chapter 101 Success, get married?
Li Shuyao:?
She actually didn't understand. What was the necessary connection between being able to distinguish between "east, south, west and north" and whether or not she could help Concubine Tong?
It’s just that…the imperial concubine said there is, so it must be there. Anyway, it’s not something worth arguing about.
Li Shuyao quickly learned to be self-sufficient. She patted her chest confidently and smiled at Concubine Tong. "Don't worry, Sister Tong. Although I don't know which direction is east, south, west, or north, Nanny Yan, Tian Jiarou, and Yue Shu all know it. They'll help me! And as for the big characters you just mentioned, I actually recognize a lot of them now!"
"The emperor came to my palace the other day and saw my large calligraphy. He praised me! He said I had made great progress and told me to keep working hard. I'm sure I'll become one of the most talented women in our harem in the future!"
When she said this, her cheeks turned slightly red and she looked a little shy.
Concubine Tong was skeptical when she heard this. "Did the emperor really say that?"
Li Shuyao immediately lost all sense of embarrassment and nodded repeatedly, "Really, really, the emperor really said that. He also asked for a copy of the character 'Yong' that I wrote, saying that it was particularly good and wanted to take it back for his collection!"
The tone sounded very proud.
After hearing this, Concubine Tong remained silent.
If she remembered correctly, the character "永" (Yong) was the first big character she could easily copy when she first started learning to write big characters at the age of three.
Therefore, in her view, Li Shuyao's proof was just like a young child who had just learned to recognize "one, two, three" and suddenly ran up to her and asked to do some problems in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art.
Concubine Tong subconsciously wanted to refuse.
But when facing Li Shuyao's apricot blossom eyes that shone with a sparkling light after just a few blinks, making her eyes look exceptionally bright, the word "no" on the tip of her tongue could not be said no matter what.
Then he thought hesitantly, how about asking her to give it a try?
Just take a few of the simplest ones, for example, um... take, which palace's account book should I take?
Concubine Tong pondered for a long time before she made up her mind and said to Li Shuyao in a serious tone, "Then, you can give it a try."
After saying that, she turned around and told the senior palace maid beside her to bring back two thin account books and hand them to Li Shuyao.
Li Shuyao approached curiously. When she saw the number of account books in the maid's hand, she was a little disappointed. "Only two..."
But on second thought, this was the first time in her life that she had taken the initiative to undertake such an important task, so it was understandable that Concubine Tong would be worried about her.
The fact that Concubine Tong agreed to give her two books to practice on was already a sign that she had great trust in her. She shouldn't be greedy and expect to swallow an elephant in the first bite. It would be better to take it slow.
After figuring it out, he slowly took the two account books, silently flipped them open and took a look, then suddenly he was a little surprised, "This, this is from my palace..."
Concubine Tong nodded. "This is a detailed list of your palace's expenses for fabrics and small kitchens. Since you're so willing to help me, why not practice with your own palace's account books first?" She paused, leaned closer, and whispered in Li Shuyao's ear, "Also, you'll be crowned a concubine soon. As one of the four concubines, you should have a clear understanding of everything going on in your palace. No matter how capable the maids and the palace maids are, you can't trust them completely."
Concubine Tong moved back a little, her clear eyes fixed on Li Shuyao's delicate and beautiful face, and she asked in a low voice, "Did you remember everything I said?"
Li Shuyao quickly suppressed her expression and assured her seriously, "I've got it in mind."
Afterwards, seeing that Concubine Tong had nothing else to say, he turned around and returned to Changchun Palace.
She first placed the account book in the study drawer and locked it carefully before turning to ask Nanny Yan, "Where is Yinzhen?"
Nanny Yan lowered her brows and replied, "Your Majesty, our prince has gone to Concubine Yi's place next door and is playing with the Seventh Prince."
The Seventh Prince is the little boy born to Qingyao.
The jade discs of the Qing Dynasty were revised every ten years. Now is not the time to re-edit and revise them, so the ranking of the little ones is still based on the order of the last revision.
In other words, the current little Yinzhen is the Sixth Prince, and the little boy from Qingyao's family is the Seventh Prince.
Little Wanfu had just died not long ago, and the emperor was still heartbroken. At the moment, no fool would deliberately run to the emperor and remind him to change the order and titles of the princes and other related matters.
Li Shuyao nodded, said nothing, and obediently followed Yueshu to change into new clothes.
Then he returned to the study and solemnly took out the two account books that had just been locked. He pulled over a few blank sheets of rice paper and, according to his previous habit, replaced all the "one, two, three, four" in the account books with Arabic numerals.
Tian Jiarou came over to grind ink for her. Seeing the series of crooked symbols written by Li Shuyao on the snow-white rice paper, she tilted her head in confusion.
What's this?
She wanted to ask, but seeing her queen being so serious that her head was almost buried in the account book... she just moved her lips and temporarily suppressed all her doubts in her heart.
After quietly grinding the ink for Li Shuyao, he tiptoed out of the study and closed the door carefully.
Li Shuyao spent a whole afternoon sorting out the two account books given to her by Concubine Tong.
It also gave her a clearer understanding of her current "extravagant" life.
When she first came here, she thought her life was pretty good with only twenty taels a month. After all, outside the palace, these twenty taels were enough for a family of three to have food and clothing for a whole year, and even a small amount of savings.
So at that time she always thought that she was a "little rich woman" among the palace maids.
But now it seems...just the ordinary Manchu dress she was wearing would cost dozens of taels of silver.
During the New Year holidays, or when the palace was hosting a banquet, the clothing expenses for her and Yinzhen alone in Changchun Palace would exceed five hundred taels, not to mention the usual gifts and rewards for servants...
All in all, a rough calculation shows that more than two thousand taels have been spent in half a year.
And this is only part of the expenditure for clothing and the small kitchen, not the total expenditure for the entire Changchun Palace.
The more Li Shuyao calculated, the more frightened she became. She could hardly hold the brush steady. Every time she wrote a stroke on the rice paper, she felt as if white silver was flowing out from under her brush.
In the end, he couldn't bear to waste even the clean rice paper, so he simply sat down, bent down, and rummaged through the wastebasket under the table for a long time. He took out all the waste papers that were half-used or discarded after only a few strokes of writing, and used them as draft paper.
On the other side, after teasing his younger brother in the Yiku Palace, little Yinzhen contentedly held the snacks and small gifts given to him by Yi'en Niang, and ran to the door of Li Shuyao's study with his chubby legs and the sound of clattering footsteps.
He knocked his round little head against the door frame and called out in a clear, baby voice, "Mother, Mother!"
"Is my mother in there?"
"I look like Yinzhen!"
He couldn't wait to show his mother the little gift that Yi's mother had given him.
However, Li Shuyao was still immersed in counting numbers and did not hear the calls from the door.
Little Yinzhen continued to shout a few more times without giving up.
Li Shuyao suddenly came to her senses, hurriedly locked the account book in the drawer, and crumpled the messy draft papers on the table and threw them into the wastebasket.
After finishing cleaning, he walked over with a dazed look on his face and opened the door.
"Mother, look at this! Mother Yi gave it to me!"
Li Shuyao had just opened the door when a round little head bumped into her knees with a "bang".
It doesn't hurt much.
Li Shuyao took two steps back, and saw the little head also move back, then raised its little head with some effort, and after confirming that it was his dear mother, it opened its little mouth and showed Li Shuyao a "toothless" bright smile, and then held the little thing in its arms high to show Li Shuyao.
As soon as Li Shuyao lowered her head, she was almost blinded by a burst of golden light.
Little Yinzhen was holding a small treasure box in his arms, about the size of his head. The lid of the box was turned inside, revealing more than ten beautiful, slender hairpins made of pure gold.
"Uh, mother, look! This is what Yi mother gave me."
"Mother Yi wanted to thank me for putting my brother to sleep, so she asked me to go to her storeroom and pick out a gift. She spent a long time choosing. Do you like it?"
Although little Yinzhen was only a little over one year old, there was an adult in his several dozen years old living in his body, so his speech was very clear and fluent.
However, due to the baby's poor physical agility, he cannot speak very long sentences and sometimes he will stutter.
While holding the treasure box to show his mother, little Yinzhen thought to himself, it's all gold, my mother must love it very much!
He was really proud.
Without waiting for Li Shuyao to speak, he quickly bent his legs and put the treasure box in his arms on the ground. His chubby fingers scratched the middle and lower part of the treasure box and pulled out the two drawers at the bottom.
"The gold ones on top are for Mother. The silver ones in the middle are for Aunt Yueshu and Aunt Jiarou, Nanny Yan, and Aunt Wenmei. The small jade stones at the bottom are mine..."
The small round dumpling squatted on the ground, and its fingers, as white and shiny as lotus root nodes, fumbled back and forth on the surface of the jade in the bottom layer of the treasure box with great interest and reluctance.
Li Shuyao:?
Jade, jade stone?
What jade stone?
She came to her senses, squatted down, and moved the little girl's head to the side. Only then did she see clearly that the bottom drawer of the treasure box was filled with several jade raw materials, such as white mutton-fat jade, emerald green, and pink hibiscus quartz...
There are seven or eight of them, and each one is as big as a passion fruit.
Li Shuyao made a simple estimate in her mind and felt that the emerald jade alone was worth a fortune.
Why?
How come this little brat of hers is so good at counting?
He left the gold to her and the least valuable silver jewelry to Yueshu and the others, secretly hoarding so many jade stones for himself, and in the end he had to say aggrievedly that he only wanted these jade stones.
Also "Stone"...
Which little kid calls jade raw material stone?
Thinking of the astronomical figures in the two account books in the study, and then thinking of his own small treasury which could be described as "poor".
For the sake of his quality of life in the next few decades, Li Shuyao felt that it was time for him to embezzle some money.
Anyway, little Yinzhen is only a little over one year old and his brain is not fully developed yet. What can he remember?
Confiscate it first!
After thinking about it, Li Shuyao suddenly became bolder and turned to the evil side -
Without thinking, he stretched out his hand and gave the kid who was squatting on the ground playing with jade a push, neither too hard nor too light. When he was unstable and fell backwards, he fell on his butt, and he quickly closed the drawers of the treasure box with both hands, then hugged the kid in his arms.
She raised her chin towards the confused kid sitting on the ground and said in a resounding voice, "You are still young and don't know how to hide things, so I will help you keep the things in this treasure box. I will return it to you when you grow up and get married!"
Little Yinzhen exclaimed "Ah" and blinked his eyes.
OK, get married?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
