My aunt was a woman with a long, round face. Unlike Mi Niang's grandmother, whose lips had become chapped and her skin had been sagging since a long time ago, she was forty-five years old this year. Her whole body was shiny and smooth, and she was dressed in silk. She did not look like the wife of a minor official, but more like the wife of an official.
The three-story house was quite large, with servants both inside and outside. Mi Niang counted them and found that there were as many as thirty or forty servants in the Yu family.
The person who brought them in was called Mother Ding. Although she was called Mother, she looked to be in her early thirties. She was wearing a rose-red jacket with snow plum embroidery and a silver hairpin in her hair. She treated them very warmly.
"Second Madam, our wife said that Second Master and you will stay at our house tonight, and we still need to clean up the house. If you want to do anything tomorrow, just go to the South Gate. It's cheap to hire a car."
Mrs. Ding held Mi Niang in one hand while chatting with Mother Ding about family matters.
Mi Niang looked around and was a little surprised. A minor official's house was so big. It was hard to believe that he was not greedy. She had lived in the home of her aunt for about two years. She was still young at that time, and because of her father's death, she could not raise a child. She lived in the side room of the Yu family and was not allowed to go out all day.
If she hadn't been unable to bear it anymore, she would have secretly informed an elder in the clan, and later had the marriage with the Li family, she would have been able to return to the Ruan family.
Of course, if Li Guan had not betrayed her and she had been chosen to enter the palace, that would have been a different story.
Therefore, Mi Niang didn't believe in the so-called good things about the Yu family at all.
They soon reached the main courtyard. Aunt Yu was very happy to see them. Before the ceremony was over, she asked Second Madam Ding to stand up and pulled Mi Niang to her side, saying, "Oh, Mi Niang has really become a grown-up girl."
Everyone likes to hear good things, including Second Mistress Ding, especially when others praise Mi Niang, which is better than praising her.
She then said modestly: "I am not a grown-up girl at all. Even though I pretend to be good in front of others, I am still a crazy girl."
"The Jiading college entrance examination will be held in a few months. How confident is he?" Aunt Yu asked casually.
Mrs. Ding Er smiled and said, "I don't know the details, but I heard from my husband that the teachers in the academy said that he could give it a try. However, to be honest, I still need to ask my cousin for advice."
Aunt Yu’s son was a scholar. After failing twice in the provincial examination, he got married the year before last and had a son last year.
"Oh, really? Then it looks like Jiading is really going to be developed, haha."
Aunt Yu smiled a little awkwardly, but Second Aunt Ding didn't notice.
This time, Mi Niang's father rented a house with a courtyard here. My mother was very loyal and brought her mother-in-law here as well. However, the house still needed to be cleaned and furnished, so she stayed at Yu's house for one night first.
In the middle of the night, Ruan Jiading and Ding Ernai lived separately. It was said that it was some custom that couples could not sleep together in the host's house. Although Mi Niang didn't know why there was such a custom, it made it convenient for her to gossip with Ding Ernai.
"Mother, my aunt's house is so big that it seems like I can never walk around it all. Mother Ding also said that my cousin and uncle both bought houses in the provincial capital. How much money do they have? Is it possible that the house is full of money?" Mi Niang seemed to be chatting casually.
Hao Po was sleeping on the couch next to the bed. When she heard Mi Niang's question, she curled her lips and said, "Mi Jie, it's not just about that. They have a shop and land at home. This is not something that ordinary people can afford."
Second Aunt Ding coughed and said, "Okay, don't say these things in other people's homes." But she couldn't help but think a lot in her mind. You know, the family that this aunt married into was not very good. There were six sons in my great aunt's family, but none of them even got a house.
A house this big in the capital city would cost at least one hundred taels, not to mention the provincial capital. It's difficult for this aunt to say that she is not greedy for money.
It was not a big deal if he was just a little greedy, but when he was so greedy, Mrs. Ding felt a little uneasy.
The Yu family’s dishes have one characteristic: they are very oily.
As a result, Mi Niang, who had been eating cooked food all year round, felt a little uncomfortable in her stomach and even had diarrhea the next day.
Fortunately, they moved to Ruan Jiading's small house in the afternoon. It was a house near the provincial school. It was very large from the entrance to the left and right, with just three rooms and a well.
Everyone was very happy. Although this place was simple, it was their home after all.
Lian Haopo was also happy, "Second Madam, this place is close to the street, and it is convenient for buying groceries. I, an old woman, don't have any other thoughts. I am just happy to see you getting better and better."
Mi Niang was delighted that she finally had her own room and no longer had to share a house with her parents. This couple was probably just a bunch of fiery passions, burning too much energy every day, so much so that Mi Niang almost pulled all the cotton out of the mattress to plug her ears.
In the evening, Aunt Ding Er went into the kitchen herself and made a dish of stir-fried bamboo shoots with pork, a dish of fish cake soup, and a dish of pickled cabbage with vinegar. She also put taro in the rice, which was soft and sticky.
"These bacon and fish cakes were given to me by my aunt. I said I didn't want them, but she insisted on giving them to me." Second Aunt Ding was still a little embarrassed.
Ruan Jiading didn't take it seriously: "My aunt treats me like her own child. I will repay her one day in the future."
If it were before, Second Grandma would not have thought there was any problem. After all, Aunt Yu was very kind to them. But today she couldn't help but think more.
"My husband, you passed the imperial examination in just one year. Your aunt's family is so rich, why didn't you borrow some money from them?" It was only three or five taels of silver, and she could pay it back when her husband became a scholar.
Ruan Jiading said with some displeasure: "At that time, in order to pay off my father's debts, my aunt sold my land for me and took care of everything. She also put a lot of money into our family. How can I still have the nerve to ask my aunt to lend me money?"
Mi Niang pretended not to know and asked, "Dad, why do you need to arrange for the repayment? My aunt is an official, shouldn't those people in the casino be afraid of him?"
"Don't interrupt children about these matters." Ruan Jiading glanced at Second Mistress Ding and felt that his daughter talked too much.
Since his grandfather passed away, the family has relied on his aunt to take care of the family, and he would not allow anyone in the family to say anything bad about his aunt.
Mrs. Ding gave Mi Niang a soothing look before saying, "Our Mi Niang is smart. Don't you know that many adults may not be as clear-headed as Mi Niang?"
"Mi Niang is smart. Humph, I knew that one mu of top-quality farmland is now worth twelve taels of silver, and Daddy's one hundred mu is worth more than a thousand taels of silver. I think although Grandfather likes to gamble, he won't lose more than a thousand taels of silver. Besides, Grandmother hid all her dowry like treasures, so why let Daddy sell the farm alone? Fourth Aunt Shang said that Daddy's top-quality farmland is now unavailable even if you spend money. Now one mu has risen to sixteen taels of silver."
Ruan Jiading was a little annoyed: "Children should not interfere in adult matters." Then he said to Second Madam Ding: "At that time, it was not easy to find a buyer in such a hurry. They gave six taels per mu, which was already a lot."
Mrs. Ding was so angry that she spat out a mouthful of blood. She was living under the control of her uncle and often had to go to the fields to do farm work. You have to know that this kind of top-quality land is in short supply and it is difficult to buy it even if you have money.
If someone were to sell top-quality land, buyers would flock to it. How could they possibly sell it at a low price?
She was speechless and said, "My husband, my uncle wanted to buy the best land but couldn't. How could it be that the best land is hard to sell? The soil of the best land is like fine sand, and it is hard to find a piece of land. How could it be that there is no buyer? I believe you when you say that the salty and sandy land is hard to sell, but you were still young at that time, and you didn't know that this is what should be done."
Although Second Madam Ding usually speaks in a soft voice, Ruan Jiading dares not disobey her words.
This is also what Mi Niang found magical. After she entered the palace, she was extremely gentle to the emperor. Even if she had a little temper, it was within the scope allowed by the emperor. After all, to the emperor, concubines, including the empress, were just high-level servants, no matter how high their status was. It was because Empress Ruan did not realize this that she was neglected for many years.
But ordinary couples seem to be different. Some are like her grandparents, who each do their own thing, collect their own private money, and don't care about the life and death of others, and some are like her parents.
To outsiders, her parents seemed to be patriarchal and her mother was often weak. But when she observed carefully, she found that her mother didn't seem to be afraid of her father. Although she looked weak, Ruan Jiading would actually listen to what she said.
So, this is why Mi Niang dared to say it in front of her parents.
First, let Second Madam Ding become suspicious of the source of the Yu family's wealth, and then deliberately bring up the matter of selling the land. Originally, Mi Niang was just testing the waters, but now it seems that the Yu family must have made money from it. Not to mention the extra money from the one hundred acres of land, they must have made at least five or six hundred taels.
If he had five or six hundred taels, Ruan Jiading would not have lived such a difficult life, unable even to afford books. All the books he was reading now were copied by himself in the academy, using the worst straw paper.
Perhaps Ruan Jiading did not want to suspect, nor did he dare to suspect Yu Yitai, but if Second Madam knew about it, she would definitely often make noises.
Ruan Jiading doesn't pay attention to household affairs, but Second Wife Ding is definitely a shrewd person.
However, Mrs. Ding thought her daughter was smart. She privately told Ruan Jiading, "Maybe I'm not pregnant, so I'll only have Mi Niang as my daughter in the future. You don't have to scold her for everything. I think Mi Niang is a very smart child even though she's young. She sees things better than you do. She doesn't even need an abacus to do the math at such a young age. I'm always amazed at her intelligence. Husband, have you never thought about your aunt embezzling our money?"
Ruan Jiading shook his head: "It's not that I haven't thought about it completely, but my father was like that back then, everyone in the clan fled far away, only my aunt treated us as before. Those debt collectors back then were so ferocious and evil, you haven't seen it..."
He even forgot to say that his father was almost expelled from the clan.
"Were my uncle and his family here when those debt collectors came, or did they come after they left?" Second Aunt Ding quickly grasped the key point.
Ruan Jiading thought for a moment and said, "My eldest brother said that the debt collectors were too vicious and evil, so he didn't allow my aunt and the others to come. Later, my father was arrested, and I had nowhere to turn to for help, like a headless fly. My eldest brother took me to find my uncle, who was working in the government office after all."
In other words, the Yu family didn't come at all. Second Mistress Ding spread her hands and said, "My husband, you know that Aunt Xiao's family has not only a three-story mansion in the capital, but also a shop and two houses in the provincial capital, not to mention fifty or sixty acres of land in the countryside. I calculated these belongings, and it would cost at least two thousand taels to buy them all."
He used to be just a helper in the county and had only been an official for a few years. Even if he took advantage of the government, twenty taels a year was considered a lot, and that was after deducting his daily expenses.
But two thousand taels, even if a county magistrate worked for ten years, he might not be able to acquire such a large fortune.
I don't know where the money came from, but perhaps Ruan Jiading also contributed to it.
Seeing that Ruan Jiading remained silent, Second Mistress Ding knew that he had heard her, and she added, "Actually, I didn't mean anything else. They helped you, and I wouldn't say anything even if they made some money as errand fees. But they refused to lend you even a few taels of silver. Isn't this hindering your future?"
The last sentence is what Ruan Jiading cares about the most. What scholars care about most is their future.
"Shujun..." Ruan Jiading said hesitantly, "I will definitely pass the entrance exam this year."
Mrs. Ding curled her lips, she knew that her husband had taken everything she said to heart.
She whispered in his ear coquettishly: "My husband, it would be even better if double happiness came to our house."
Mi Niang, who lived next door to the couple, was sleeping on her back, immersed in the joy of her new home. When she heard the creaking sound, she couldn't help but bury her head in the quilt, thinking to herself, Dad and Mom, you guys should be more frugal.
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