As the end of the year approaches, everyone in the Duke of Qing's mansion is busy.
Princess Guihe is in charge of the imperial edicts. At this time last year, she was so busy that she fell ill.
This year, Xue Qin was worried that she was overworked, so he suggested that Wang Hanyu follow Princess Guihe to take care of the chores. On the one hand, it was naturally to share the complicated affairs, and on the other hand, it was to create an opportunity for the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to get along with each other and ease the relationship between the two.
Princess Guihe had no objection and only said to Xue Qin: "If you can persuade your second aunt to come over, and let her come together, I will feel at ease if they are together."
Xue Qin had no choice but to lobby Xue Zhi, hoping that he could help persuade her.
Xue Zhi immediately waved his hands and said, "Your aunt has been busy settling the accounts of the shop and farm under my name recently. She has become thinner and thinner. I can't open my mouth."
Zheng Xiu was indeed busy and thinner. Last year, she started to check the accounts before the end of the year and finished them after a few days of rough checking. This year is the first year that Xue Zhi has handed over the shop and farm to her, so naturally there can be no mistakes. She checks the accounts in the house every day after getting up. If she finds something she doesn't understand, she will ask someone to call the manager to the backyard for questioning.
This person, when she is busy, she has something on her mind, even her appetite is not good, and her temper will be worse.
One day, Xue Zhi got off work and had a small gathering with his colleagues outside. After drinking some wine, he came back.
Zheng Xiu looked unhappy, and Xue Zhi smiled to comfort her.
In the middle of the night, Xue Zhi was too drunk and woke up because he was hungry. He got up and asked someone to go to the kitchen to prepare a midnight snack for him.
Zheng Xiu slept uneasily, and although he had deliberately slowed down his movements, he still woke her up.
On other days, although Zheng Xiu would scold him, she would definitely get up and help prepare midnight snacks.
But on this day, she was very unhappy. She scolded Xue Zhi with a stern face and sent him to the study in the front yard to sleep.
Later, when the year was coming to an end, the officials all had their New Year holidays, so Xue Zhi did not have to go on duty. The two of them spent more time together. Xue Zhi felt sorry for her being busy from morning till night, so he told her to "just forget about it. Anyway, the total amount from the manor and the shop is only so much a year. Just roughly calculate it and it's about the same as last year." This one sentence made Zheng Xiu unhappy. She lost her temper and threw the account book in his face.
Xue Zhi couldn't figure out why her temperament changed so much for a moment, and just thought she was too busy and impatient. Therefore, when Xue Qin came to him, Xue Zhi refused to agree and told him to go to Zheng Xiu to talk to him.
Xue Qin had no choice. Wang Hanyu had been married for almost a month. After the day of returning to Ning, she went to Changfeng Garden to pay her respects, but Princess Guihe didn't even let her in. She only let Qiu Rui come out to talk and blocked Wang Hanyu back. He was also afraid that if this went on, Wang Hanyu would become cold and unwilling to get close to his mother. If the two of them became cold, their relationship would really become strained.
When Xue Qin went to Changfeng Garden, Zheng Xiu was clacking away on her abacus in the house.
Because she was upset, the account couldn't be calculated correctly, and she got even more angry, and it seemed as if she was going to break the abacus apart.
Minghui and others knew that she was in a bad mood because she was busy these days, so they didn't dare to disturb her and just waited outside.
After Xue Qin came, Minghui went in to pass on the message.
Zheng Xiu was frowning and looked irritable, but when she heard that Xue Qin was coming, she closed her eyes, put on a smile, and asked Minghui to welcome Xue Qin in and serve tea.
In the past half month, Zheng Xiu stayed in the house all day to do the accounts, and the two of them hadn't seen each
other for many days. Xue Qin saw that she had lost a lot of weight, her chin was pointed, and her hair was no longer smooth in the rabbit fur collar. Her jacket was loose and didn't fit her well. He couldn't help but be surprised: "I haven't seen you for a few days. How come you have lost so much weight?"
Zheng Xiu has heard this a lot recently. Xue Zhi always nags her about losing weight at the dinner table while picking food for her. Even her father saw her a few days ago and told her to take care of herself.
She smiled nonchalantly, "It's only this busy a year. It will be fine after this busy period."
Xue Qin said, "No wonder uncle is so worried about you, aunt." Then he glanced at the pile of account books on the table, knowing that Zheng Xiu was really busy, so he stopped chatting and got down to business.
When Zheng Xiu heard that Xue Qin wanted her and Wang Hanyu to help with the affairs, she frowned and said, "Prince, to be honest, I am really busy right now. If I am free, I will definitely help you."
Xue Qin explained, "It's not that Second Auntie has to do anything herself, but just take on a title and report to Mother with Hanyu. The matter will be handed over to Hanyu, and she will handle it."
This is indeed not a troublesome matter. Under normal circumstances, Zheng Xiu would naturally be willing to do it. But she didn't know what was wrong. Recently, she just didn't like everything for no reason. When she heard that she had more things to do, she couldn't help but feel annoyed.
But emotions are emotions. Xue Qin is her junior after all, and it is rare that he asks for help. It is hard to refuse.
Seeing that she did not speak, Xue Qin hesitated and said, "If Second Aunt is really too busy to come, then..."
Zheng Xiu sighed and smiled, "It's okay, it's just a piece of cake. Since the prince came in person, I should not refuse."
Xue Qin stood up and bowed to her respectfully, "Then Ah Qin would like to thank Second Aunt first."
"No need to be so polite."
The two exchanged a few more words, and Xue Qin said goodbye very tactfully.
After leaving Hao Yetang, he realized that he was sweating all over his back.
He couldn't help but think with self-mockery, what happened? He had never been so nervous in front of his mother and superiors. He didn't know why he was so nervous in front of his good-tempered aunt.
But he also realized that although his aunt was always smiling and very polite, she seemed to be enduring something. She was completely different from her usual gentle and approachable appearance.
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