Chapter 2
Relying on that unofficial history, Chu Huan successfully made it to the end of her shift. She couldn't wait to get into her carriage and happily hugged her soft pillow. "Starting tomorrow, I can sleep until I wake up naturally!"
Chu Ping chuckled: "I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Chu Hua: "Let's make it clear first."
Chu Ping: "Your brother has been promoted to the sixth rank of Hanlin Academy editor."
Chu Huan wore a mask of pain: "...The bad news isn't that I have to wake up at dawn every day to attend court, right?"
Chu Ping's face was full of praise: "Huan'er is really smart."
"Ah—" Chu Huan cried. It was clearly all bad news and even worse news! She couldn't keep this biological father anymore!
Hearing the crying coming from the carriage, the Jinyiwei spies disguised as civilians passing by wrote down the news and sent it to the palace as quickly as possible.
Before the Chu family's carriage arrived, the emperor in the imperial study received the news: "Miss Chu was so moved by learning that she would have to wake up early every day to attend court that she burst into tears."
The emperor, who was originally dizzy from reviewing memorials, burst into laughter when he saw this.
Seeing you unhappy makes me much happier! I can even approve two more copies of such a boring memorial to pay my respects, hahaha!
Chu Huan, extremely unhappy, returned home without even changing out of her official uniform, hat, or boots. She ran to Wen Shi and cried, "Mom, Dad is harming me. You have to help me!"
Wen, who was reading the storybook, was shocked and hurriedly hid the storybook, "Hurry, hurry, hurry."
Nanny Liu and the maidservant swiftly collected the books, fruits, and preserved fruits on the table, piled up the thick account books into a small mountain, and brought out a sandalwood abacus, creating an atmosphere of order amidst chaos.
When Chu Huan walked through the screen and entered the inner room, she saw Wen's delicate face full of sorrow, her willow-shaped brows slightly furrowed, and she looked sadly at the thick account books piled on the table.
Oops, I forgot today is the monthly account review day.
Chu Huan's smile froze, and she turned slightly on her toes, her tone even softer, "Mom is busy, I won't disturb you."
"Huan'er." Wen waved her hand, "Don't leave so quickly."
The maids came forward one after another, half-crowding and half-grouping together to take off Chu Huan's official hat, official uniform, and official boots, and cleaned her face, rubbed her shoulders, soaked her feet, and some peeled grapes and fed her juice.
After being served so thoroughly, Chu Huan felt relaxed both physically and mentally. How could she feel comfortable leaving?
Mrs. Wen smiled as she handed the bird's nest to her daughter. Along with it, she also pushed the account book to Chu Huan's hand. "Hun'er, you've worked hard. Come and try it. Mother had someone stew it for you this morning."
Chu Huan: “…” Okay.
After drinking the bird's nest, I checked the accounts. I took out white paper and charcoal pencil, used Arabic numerals with fewer strokes instead of words, and used the debit and credit accounting method to record the accounts on both sides. I quickly went through the accounts of various shops this month.
When Wen saw that her daughter had sorted out the accounts quickly and well, a hint of pride flashed in her eyes.
She was not idle either. She used an abacus to calculate it to see if the final number was consistent with the one calculated by her daughter.
The mother and daughter each used an abacus, and the wooden beads made a crackling sound in the quiet room until they finished checking the accounts for the month.
"Done!" Chu Huan lazily lay on the chaise longue, enjoying the hand rubbing, shoulder kneading, and leg beating services of the beautiful maids, and casually pulled out a storybook from under the pillow.
"Eh——" Wen's expression changed slightly, but it was too late to stop it now.
"'The Romantic Widow and the Pretty Scholar', when will the new version be released? Mother didn't even tell me." Chu Huan muttered, quickly flipping through the pages, shouting in her mind: [System, come read this together!]
System: [Here we go~]
Wen: ???
She knew her daughter's voice very well, but what about that strange child-like voice? They said they were reading a storybook together, but no one was there?
Wen looked at Liu Ma and other maids who came with the dowry and asked: Did you hear that?
Nanny Liu and the maids nodded hesitantly. They also heard it, but they didn't know what was going on.
A maid came and said, "Madam, the master asks you to go to the front yard."
Mrs. Wen thought something was going on in the front yard, so she hurried over with Madam Liu. Unexpectedly, Chu Ping's first words upon seeing her were, "Madam, did you hear what Huan'er said to the system just now?"
Wen was stunned. "Master, did you hear it in the front yard?" Could the sound be so loud? It could actually be heard so far away.
Chu Ping skipped over the key points of today's court session and gave a brief summary. "Huan'er is connected to the system. We can't see the system, we can only hear their conversations within a range of fifty meters. The emperor has issued a clear order to keep this secret from everyone, including Huan'er herself. This matter concerns the life and death and future of everyone in the mansion. Madam, you will send this servant away today who has lost his temper."
Wen knew the importance of the matter and agreed immediately. The careless servant packed up the things and sent them to the farm overnight. Two young maids in Chu Huan's yard were also sent away.
Chu Huan knew nothing about this. It was too difficult to get up at three in the morning. She couldn't even open her eyes, so how could she pay attention to whether the maid was there to sweep the yard?
She opened her sleepy, bloodshot eyes and was led to the station by Liu Ziang in the cold wind.
Many officials took leave today, so the two of them stood closer to the front than yesterday, but it was of no use as they were still being blown by the cold wind outside the hall.
Chu Huan let out a long sigh.
She couldn't openly speak to others in a female voice, so she could only complain to the system: "System, I finally understand why so many people are trying so hard to get promoted."
The officials waiting for the emperor to arrive answered in their hearts: It's nothing but money, power and sex.
The system is very cooperative: [Why? ]
Chu Hua: [Because I get a promotion, I can enter the palace without having to stand in the cold wind. It's so cold outside. If I had to go to court every day in the middle of winter and stand outside every day, I'd get cold legs sooner or later. Just for these legs, I have to work hard to climb up.]
Officials: "..."
system:【……】
It's quite novel.
Chu Huan was both sleepy and cold, stamping her feet repeatedly: [It's too cold. I'd better make a mistake and have my brother demoted.]
An official who was familiar with Chu Ping couldn't help but look at him with sympathy: You have a good daughter.
Chu Ping's face turned red when he was looked at. "Stop thinking! Stop cheating on your brother!"
The system was shocked: [Are you serious? Are you trying to trick your brother?]
Chu Hua: [If it wasn't a kiss, I wouldn't have cheated on him.]
Because the eunuch reported that Chu Huan had started, the emperor hurried over and just heard this. He couldn't help but feel pity for Chu Qin.
System: [He will cry.]
Chu Huan yawned: [It's easy to get carried away when you get promoted too quickly.]
System: [Given your brother's calm personality, he shouldn't get carried away.]
Chu Hua: [That's because you don't know how much I've contributed to his growth!]
When she said this, the system immediately became excited: [Wait a moment, I'll go dig up some of your brother and sister's melons.]
One minute passed, five minutes passed, and the system still didn't come back.
This speed made the officials who were listening with their ears perked up, and the emperor who was hiding behind the door and eavesdropping anxious.
System, are you incapable?!
Ten minutes later, the system returned with a full-throated "Wow!": [Wow—you two are really, really... I don't even know how to describe it.]
emperor:? ? ?
Officials: ???
Is this system truanting like crazy at the age when it should be going to school? It can't even come up with an accurate adjective. Go back and learn again!
System: [Sister Huan! When you were only seven, you were able to swindle all of Chu Qin's private money when he was fourteen! I'll call you Sister for now, out of respect!]
Then he muttered softly: "I really want Chu Qin to download an anti-fraud app."
The emperor and his officials were stunned by this old story, and immediately urged in their hearts: Hurry up! Say more!
Chu Huahun didn't care: "I was using my own experience to tell him that scammers are everywhere. Even family members can't be trusted 100%. You have to be extra careful when it comes to money."
[Also, two years later I gave him a shop so he didn't have to do anything and could just lie back and collect money. He kept his private money there, and it wouldn't generate any extra money.]
emperor:"……"
Officials: "..."
His face was twisted with jealousy!
They also want this kind of deceptive sister who will give away shops and money!
System: [But you immediately swindled him out of the private savings he had saved for two years.]
emperor:"……"
Officials: "..."
Instantly, jealousy turned to speechlessness: Chu Huan, do you really have to be so picky about your brother's private money?!
Chu Hua: [Tong, you certainly didn't see that year when a group of thieves and bandits came along the road from the capital to Songshan College and plundered everyone. My brother was the only student who wasn't robbed, right?]
The system called out, "Wait a moment," and then went to eat the melon, exclaiming repeatedly, "Hi, sister! You're amazing, Sister Huan! No wonder when I first came to Dasheng, I used melon energy to search for the most suitable binding partner in Dasheng, and you were the one! You're literally covered in melon energy! If I bind you, I'll never lack melon energy again!"
[No, that's off topic. How did you know there were bandits trying to rob people on the road?]
The officials and the emperor were also curious, and some even speculated: Could those bandits be related to Chu Huan? Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for them to just let Chu Qin go. But Chu Huan certainly wasn't foolish enough to leave such an obvious loophole.
Before I could continue my thoughts, I heard Chu Huan sighing, "That year, the entire Dasheng Dynasty was plagued by drought in the west, floods in the south, and snowstorms in the north. Natural disasters were frequent, and the imperial court failed to provide timely disaster relief. It's inevitable that some people would be forced to become bandits to survive."
Songshan College's location, while pleasantly described as surrounded by gentle breezes and bright moonlight, is, in reality, a barren wasteland, home to a group of feeble scholars who can't lift anything. Aren't they just a bunch of fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered? If we don't slaughter them, we'd be doing a disservice to this ideal environment, location, and people.
emperor:? ? ?
Officials: "..."
Is this how you use the right time, right place, and right people? You should go back and relearn it too!
Chu Hua: [I opened a grocery store at the foot of Songshan Academy. He can just go get whatever he wants. What's wrong with traveling without money? It's a good opportunity for him to experience what it's like to be robbed. Look, didn't he later take the initiative to learn martial arts? Carrying two buckets of water in one go is effortless. How great!]
Chu Ping was numb when he received the gazes from his colleagues.
If his daughter hadn't blown herself up today, he really wouldn't have known that she had put so much effort into it!
After these two incidents, the system has learned its lesson and no longer makes arbitrary definitions: [So what is the purpose of demotion?]
Oh, that's...
The emperor and his officials were enjoying their melons when Chu Huan changed the subject: "Huh? Why hasn't the emperor arrived yet?"
Oh no! I was so engrossed in eating watermelon that I forgot the time!
The emperor hurriedly arranged his dragon robe and crown, preparing to make a majestic appearance.
Chen Jiu, the personal eunuch who was also immersed in eating melons, came back to his senses and cleared his throat, "The Emperor has arrived——"
"Long live our emperor!"
"Everyone, please stand."
Officials began to discuss state affairs.
Chu Huan was closer than yesterday and could hear more clearly. The Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Rites submitted memorials one after another, and the central topic was only one: crying poor.
The system's childish voice was filled with disdain: [This emperor is so poor.]
The emperor's face turned blue.
Can you speak?! Is that because I am poor? It’s because the national treasury is poor!
The poverty of the national treasury is caused by natural disasters and corruption among officials. What does it have to do with me?
I spent money on smuggling, what does the national treasury's poverty have to do with me?!
All the officials looked up quietly, "..."
Oh no, the emperor’s face turned so pale that even his crown couldn’t cover it!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
