Make money
After returning from Guangji Temple, Fu Zhi Qiao fiercely rejected her previous lazy attitude. The Fu family was not a place to stay for long, and she had to find a way out for herself as soon as possible.
First, she needs loyal people to do things for her.
Granny Cui was one of Yu Roulan's maids who came with her when she was dowry. There's no doubt about that. Yinxing grew up with her since she was a child, so she's naturally very loyal. There are also Fu Changyue's servants Defu and the two guards Wenjiang and Wenshan. All of them are loyal.
After looking around at the people around her, Fu Zhi Qiao thought to herself, "Luckily, there are a few people who can get things done, otherwise, no matter how many ideas I have, they will be hard to realize."
Secondly, Yu Roulan's cooperation is needed for the matter of leaving the mansion.
The question is, will Yu Roulan agree?
That day, Fu Zhi Qiao accompanied Yu Rou Lan to breakfast as usual. Cui Mama, being very perceptive, withdrew so that the mother and daughter could have some private conversation.
Looking at Yu Roulan, whose eyes were smiling, Fu Zhiqiao hesitated whether or not to tell her the truth about Fu Changyue's death.
Yu Roulan is only in her thirties. In her own world, being in her thirties is the prime of life, and she can live a carefree and unrestrained life even if she is single.
Unfortunately, this is the Great Wei Dynasty, and the reputation of a widow will follow Yu Roulan for the rest of her life.
A bittersweet feeling welled up in Fu Zhiqiao's heart.
Yu Roulan is slowly recovering from the pain of losing Fu Changyue. Fu Zhiqiao doesn't want to reopen old wounds, but being deceived is even more unbearable. After much deliberation, he decides to tell her the truth.
As Fu Changyue's wife, she has the right to know the truth.
"Mother, I have something I want to tell you."
"Ah Qiao, what's wrong?" Looking at Fu Zhi Qiao's serious expression, Yu Rou Lan's eyelids twitched, and she had a bad feeling.
"Don't you think Father's death was suspicious?" Fu Zhiqiao met her gaze. "Father traveled this road from Yuzhou to the capital no less than five times. Why did he only have an accident this time? Second Uncle said it was a robbery by Jiang bandits... but were they really Jiang bandits?"
"You mean..." Yu Roulan's eyes widened in disbelief, her gaze fixed on Fu Zhiqiao, her breath slightly catching in her throat, "You mean it? It's my second brother and the others..."
“I don’t have any evidence right now, but…” Fu Zhi Qiao held Yu Rou Lan’s trembling hand tightly and then explained to her, “My father’s body is barely cold, how did my second and third uncles manage to win over people’s hearts in just a few days and successfully take my father’s place? Why do all the shopkeepers obey his orders? I’m afraid it was premeditated.”
Then she told Yu Roulan about how the two brothers from the second and third branches of the family had taken Fu Changyue's account books in the study.
Yu Roulan clenched her fists so tightly that her nails almost dug into her flesh. Her eyes were red and her voice choked with sobs as she cursed, "These beasts! It's all thanks to Changyue for being so good to them, never using his status as the eldest son to bully them..."
She slammed her fist on the table, all her pent-up grievances and anger erupting at that moment.
Once she calmed down, Fu Zhiqiao leaned closer and said, "Mother, we can't stay in this house any longer. Don't worry, I'll arrange everything. If things go smoothly, we can leave next month."
"Leave? Why should we leave?" Yu Roulan was unusually calm at this moment.
“Since the second and third wives want the property, I’ll make sure they don’t get their way.” Yu Roulan looked up, her eyes burning as she stared at Fu Zhi Qiao, and blurted out, “Qiao, I can adopt a child, the eldest son of the Fu family, the legitimate son of Chang Yue. I’m sure someone will be willing to take that title.”
A fierce fire ignited in Yu Roulan's eyes. Although she had no son, she could adopt a boy from a neighboring family into her own name. In this way, the first wife's family would have an heir, and the second and third wives would not be able to take away the first wife's property.
No one would refuse the chance to go from a child from a humble background to the eldest son of the Fu family.
Fu Zhiqiao understood Yu Roulan's thoughts. In a patriarchal society like the Great Wei, the death of a man in a family meant the loss of all support, especially when there were no male members and only women and children. Other clansmen would try to seize the inheritance under various pretexts.
This is also why the people of the Great Wei valued male offspring.
Yu Roulan's expression twisted when she said she wanted to adopt a male heir. Fu Zhiqiao tried to bring her back to her senses: "Mother, Mother! Calm down, it's too late, Second Uncle has already taken over the business outside!"
For Fu Mingjie, there was no reason to spit out the meat that was already in his mouth. He would do everything he could to stop it. Forcibly adopting a child into Fu Changyue's name would only implicate the innocent child.
After a long silence.
Fu Zhiqiao gently comforted her, "Mother, the Fu family mansion is no longer our home."
Yu Roulan felt incredibly sad. She had lived in the Fu family for more than ten years, married and had children here, and she had grown attached to every plant and tree in Tingxue Hall.
But she knew that Fu Zhi Qiao was right; the Fu family home was no longer their home.
Looking at her daughter so calmly, Yu Roulan was somewhat dazed. She thought Fu Zhiqiao would be scared and cry, but all she saw was a serious and resolute face, talking about her father's murder as calmly as if she were talking about someone else's story, without showing any sadness.
My daughter seems to be a little different.
Fu Zhi Qiao said a lot, but Yu Rou Lan still couldn't make up her mind.
Living in the Fu family mansion meant they wouldn't have to worry about survival, but what could these two weak women do outside the mansion? Wouldn't they be bullied as orphans and widows?
"Mother, Father appeared to me in a dream."
Yu Roulan snapped back to reality, her voice trembling: "What did he say?"
"It was all dark in my dream, and my father was dressed in white..." Fu Zhiqiao described her dream to her.
“Dad said I’ve grown up and will be the pillar of the family from now on. He told me to take good care of Mom and that he would bless us from heaven.”
Yu Rou silently shed tears.
After a long while, she sighed resignedly, "I'll do whatever you say, Mother."
Yu Roulan patted Fu Zhiqiao's head. As a mother, how could she always let her child be at the forefront? Regardless of whether her husband had really appeared in her daughter's dream, she had to pull herself together and not let her daughter worry about her anymore.
*
Leaving the manor is only the first step. What will we eat after that? Where will we stay?
After careful consideration, the mother and daughter held hands and discussed the matter thoroughly in the room before finally deciding to go to Qingzhou.
Qingzhou was Yu Roulan's ancestral home. When they got married, Fu Changyue bought a house in Qingzhou and gave it to Yu Roulan. No one in the Fu family knew about the existence of this house, and Fu Mingjie couldn't even get close to it.
Now that we've solved the housing problem, how do we take care of our daily needs? Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation—all of these require money. We can't just sit around waiting to die; we need to find a way to make a living and earn money.
Currently, the mother and daughter can only rely on the property left by Fu Changyue to make a living. Apart from some fixed assets, Yu Roulan has only about four or five thousand taels of silver on hand, while Fu Zhiqiao has more than a thousand taels. The two of them together have less than six thousand taels.
Six thousand taels of silver may seem like a lot, but after they leave the mansion, they will have to be responsible for every expense, such as the maintenance of the house and the care of servants. If they want to maintain a good standard of living, this amount of money is far from enough.
Yu Roulan said she could bring out her dowry. She was originally the daughter of a county magistrate, not from a humble family. It was just that her father was an honest official and died early without leaving any property, so Yu Roulan, the daughter of an official, married into the Fu family, a merchant family.
However, her dowry was not generous.
"Ah Qiao, it's all my fault for being useless..." Seeing that she couldn't help much, Yu Roulan looked apologetic.
Her father passed away when she was young, and Yu Roulan grew up with relatives. Living under their roof for decades shaped her non-competitive and unassuming personality. To put it nicely, she was as gentle as a chrysanthemum; to put it bluntly, she was weak-willed.
Fu Zhi Qiao quickly comforted her, explaining that the four or five thousand taels should be Yu Rou Lan's private savings. She was kind and upright, and had managed the household affairs for two years without seeking any personal gain. Moreover, dowry is the bride's private property, and the groom's family has no right to use or interfere with it. Fu Zhi Qiao would not touch Yu Rou Lan's dowry unless absolutely necessary.
The mother's dowry was untouchable; the only thing that could be touched was her own "dowry".
Fu Zhiqiao first summoned Defu and handed him two land deeds. These two land deeds were taken from the dowry box that Fu Changyue had prepared for her. It was thanks to Fu Changyue's foresight that he had prepared some private property for her long ago.
Fu Changyue had a businessman's mindset, and what he gave her were shops and real estate, all of which were worth tens of thousands of taels of silver.
However, these are all real estate properties and cannot be converted into cash in a short period of time. Fu Zhi Qiao only plans to convert a portion into cash. She is leaving Yuzhou, and having cash on hand is the most important thing. She can buy back these two or three shops if she has the opportunity in the future.
Two tea shops and one rouge shop—all three shops are located in a prosperous area, in a fairly good location. The three shops, two large and one small, are estimated to sell for more than a thousand taels of silver together.
There's also Fu Changyue's private estate and shops, which need to be transferred to my name as soon as possible, lest Fu Mingjie finds out and takes them back if too much time passes.
Fu Zhiqiao took out her talisman and handed it to Defu. The talisman served as a token, representing her identity.
Defu was bought into the Fu family when he was young. He was clever and knew how to read people's expressions. He was first taken in as a godson by the old steward of the Fu family. Later, he stood out from a group of servants and became Fu Changyue's servant. Fu Zhiqiao was very relieved to entrust him with the task of taking over the house with the talisman.
Defu also felt indignant about the fate of the eldest wife. Among the Fu family, the eldest wife was the kindest and most amiable person, and she was not harsh on the servants. He never expected that she would end up like this. The wife and the eldest daughter trusted him so much, which strengthened his determination to repay their kindness.
Then Fu Zhiqiao summoned two more guards. The two guards were brothers, the older brother was named Wenjiang and the younger brother was named Wenshan. Both of them knew some martial arts.
Fu Zhiqiao gave them a thousand taels of silver to renovate their house in Qingzhou, and then to go to the countryside to see if there were any suitable estates to buy. Fearing they might forget, Fu Zhiqiao specially compiled his requirements into a booklet and had the two brothers carry it with them to look for suitable estates according to the requirements written in it.
Wenjiang looked at the thick stack of silver notes, a full two thousand taels! He was so excited that his liver was trembling. The young lady trusted them so much that such a large sum of money was handed over to them.
The two men solemnly accepted the silver notes: "Don't worry, Miss, we will definitely take care of it for you."
Fu Zhi Qiao wasn't worried about the two brothers absconding with the money. She had observed them over the past few days and found them to be reliable. Because they had been sold into servitude to bury their father when they were young, they were extremely grateful to Fu Chang Yue. The two brothers had been by Fu Chang Yue's side for many years, and their loyalty was beyond doubt.
After explaining everything, Fu Zhi Qiao felt a pang of regret for spending several thousand taels of silver. Times had changed; every penny had to be spent wisely.
One tael of silver was roughly equivalent to one thousand coins. One thousand taels had considerable purchasing power in that era. In addition, she owned a lot of real estate. After calculating her assets, Fu Zhi Qiao felt much more at ease.
Having money in hand brings peace of mind! However, this amount of money is still not enough if one wants to leave the mansion and live alone.
She didn't have much cash on hand, but the Fu family was certainly not short of money!
You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub; if she wants to get the money and leave the mansion openly, she'll have to think of a way.
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