Chapter 278 Achieving Big Results with Little Money
"Now Consort Xiande is quite popular. Regardless of whether she is favored or not, in the eyes of outsiders, the Rongguo Mansion is related to the imperial family. With such a reputation, which family wouldn't fawn over her!"
Wang Xifeng also understood these intricacies.
Using someone else's name to intimidate others is something everyone knows how to do.
As for the inside, who would dare to go into the palace to find out the truth?
Even if someone really wanted to find out, there was the Empress, Yuan Jie's good student, to help cover it up!
Her elder sister had assured her that as long as Jia Yuanchun didn't cause trouble or make a scene in the palace, and behaved herself, the Empress would protect her and ensure she would have all the dignity she deserved.
So she used this small banner to try and get back the silver she had stored up from last year.
It's perfectly reasonable!
"Who's watching over the garden? Can you manage all that?" Yuan Hongqu asked casually.
“Keep an eye on things for the Second Master,” Wang Xifeng said, feeling that she had done a clever thing.
“It’s because his daughter wants to go back to her parents’ home, and he’s in the Ministry of Works, so building a garden is a perfect fit for him. The total budget is only 100,000 taels of silver. If he exceeds the budget, he can use his second wife’s private funds to make up the difference. I won’t care!”
"Would he agree to your garden construction plan?" Yuan Hongqu thought that Jia Zheng was upright and serious, and he probably wouldn't accept such deceptive things.
"He agreed." Wang Xifeng was also a little surprised. She originally thought that the Second Master would not agree to this approach, but she did not expect that he would agree, and he agreed almost without hesitation.
However, after a moment's thought, Wang Xifeng understood.
"The Second Master naturally wants to be illustrious, but the family has no money. Just because his daughter goes back to her parents' home once, does that mean his son and grandson won't have to go to school or get married in the future? No matter how well the garden is built, it can't feed and entertain. If he really makes money from the garden, that would be shameful! He's not stupid." Wang Xifeng said without any politeness.
The Rongguo Mansion's finances are now practically transparent; the family is strapped for cash and has long been living beyond their means. Otherwise, Jia Lian and Wang Xifeng wouldn't need to engage in business.
Although money was scarce, it was almost impossible to get those gentlemen to change their usual extravagant lifestyles.
If building such a garden means the family will have to cut back on food and clothing, that would be worse than killing them.
Yuan Hongqu sneered, "Heh, they don't know the pain of spending money that isn't their own. They'll know when it's their own flesh and blood involved. In my previous life, they had the Lin family's million-dollar fortune to squander, and that garden was built!"
Wang Xifeng nodded vigorously in agreement, while Yuan Jie's expression turned strange, as if she wanted to kill someone.
He must have been thinking about things from the original story, which is why he got angry.
At this time, you absolutely must not provoke her.
Wang Xifeng's eyes darted around.
"Sister Yuan, you have no idea how effective it is when I put the calculations from the accountants about the cost of building a real garden and the cost of building a fake garden in front of them."
"What do you mean?"
Wang Xifeng said with a smile
"After reviewing the account book, the master even felt that 100,000 taels of silver was a bit excessive. Did he really have to build a garden to welcome the Empress home? A garden can be built every three miles, or even every three zhang. If not, build a smaller one, 20,000 taels of silver will suffice!"
Thinking back to Jia She's face back then, Wang Xifeng really wished she didn't have to spend a single tael of silver!
"If it weren't for the second master saying there were standards set out there, the first master would really have planned to build a small garden."
Most of them knew how Jia Yuanchun, the virtuous concubine, came to be, and they had no hope that she could promote the Jia family's sons.
Although Jia Yuanchun was closer to the Jia family by blood, they secretly felt that this title of "Virtuous Consort" might not be as useful as Lin Daiyu's title of "Princess Jiangzhu."
Lin Daiyu is the Empress's junior sister, and the Empress dotes on her like the apple of her eye. Even the Emperor occasionally bestows gifts upon her.
As for Consort Xiande, the number of times she has seen the Emperor can probably be counted on one hand.
The masters of the Rongguo Mansion are all shrewd when it comes to these kinds of interpersonal relationships!
Even if it involves their own daughter, it will still be weighed.
In comparison, Consort Xiande is far inferior to Princess Jiangzhu.
One hundred thousand taels was not the limit that the Rongguo Mansion could come up with, but rather the amount that the Jia family members valued so highly of this matter.
If Yuan Hongqu hadn't known that Wang Xifeng was simply trying to save money, she would have genuinely believed that the Jia family had a mastermind behind them.
The construction of this garden to welcome the Empress home for a visit was actually an order from the retired Emperor.
The Emperor intends to keep an eye on these families to see which one still obeys the Emperor Emeritus's orders!
After the emperor visits his family, he will slowly settle accounts with each household one by one.
This time, the Jia family outwardly complied but inwardly defied orders, thus escaping disaster once again.
Yuan Hongqu looked at Wang Xifeng with a smug expression, but amidst her smugness, she occasionally revealed some of the brainlessness that belonged to the original Wang Ying.
Yuan Hongqu wondered if this was Wang Ying's cheat code after transmigrating into Wang Xifeng: she could always help the Rongguo Mansion escape disasters from a very unique angle by some unexpected means.
Time was of the essence at Rongguo Mansion, and after finalizing the plan, construction began despite it being winter.
Because Lixiangyuan is close to the new garden, it was simply designated as the headquarters.
Aunt Xue and her daughter, along with Xue Pan, were politely invited to another small courtyard, located in the northeast corner of the Rongguo Mansion, not far from Pear Fragrance Courtyard.
Xue Baochai, however, felt that living like this was really boring and urged her brother to quickly repair their house so that they could go back to their own home.
Although Aunt Xue was unaware of the specifics of the garden renovation, she still gave Madam Wang 50,000 taels of silver, which naturally ended up in Madam Wang's private funds.
Wang Xifeng was too busy and paid less attention to the Xue family. When she was raising money to repair the courtyard, she thought about the Xue family, but she thought that Aunt Xue would definitely send money to the Second Madam in private, so she did not go to Aunt Xue to complain about being poor.
As for the second wife accepting the money and not taking it out, that's impossible!
Once this prop garden is built, everything will be bare.
The second wife probably couldn't bear to see her daughter suffer when she returned to her parents' home. Without Wang Xifeng even having to ask, with the second master acting as the supervisor, the second wife would obediently hand over the money.
Before winter was over, spring had arrived. Construction teams, stonemasons, carpenters, and other craftsmen and artisans throughout the capital began working day and night. Orders for embroidery workshops of all sizes throughout the capital were also fully booked.
The vocational students at the girls' college branch had already secured jobs before they even left campus.
The other students also had their own plans, most of them going to the homes of the empresses who were coming to visit their families to make an appearance.
However, this year's contracts are quite strange; all the students are only willing to work until the end of their family visits.
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