allonlinenovel Chapter 127 The Sinister Son's Sister-in-Law 3
Chapter 127 The Sinister Son's Sister-in-Law 3
Xie Qingyu stared blankly at the silver ingots in the mahogany box, while Tingling quickly comforted her.
"Don't worry, Miss. At least you get a monthly allowance from the Marquis's mansion, so you can keep the money you have."
Judging from Tingling's tone, you can tell that she is genuinely happy for Xie Qingyu.
It's easy to imagine the hardships the original owner must have endured.
They couldn't even save a single coin.
Even now that I'm married, I only have this much savings.
Fortunately, the Marquis's family still considers the dowry when a wedding is held, and her father, who is the Minister of Rites, did a good job of maintaining appearances, so there were other things that could make a good impression.
Xie Qingyu thought back and suddenly said, "Aren't there still the property deeds and account books for those shops? Go and get them for me."
The shop that came with her dowry was left by the original owner's mother. These things were given to her by her father when she got married. Before that, they were kept by her stepmother, and she had never seen any of them.
Upon hearing this, Tingling immediately went to search the box. These items were all stored separately and the original owner had never opened them.
A yellow wooden box was brought over by Tingling, with a key still hanging on the lock, exactly the same as when her father gave it to her.
Tingling placed the box on the table.
Xie Qingyu opened it.
Inside were a thick stack of account books and some thin contracts.
Xie Qingyu first looked through the ledgers, which only contained accounts from the past two years. Unsurprisingly, all the shops were losing money.
Xie Qingyu glanced at a few ledgers and put them down, then reached for the house deeds.
I only realized something was wrong when I picked it up.
Xie Qingyu flipped it over and saw that besides the deeds to several shops on top, there were several silver notes underneath.
Even each one was a large denomination banknote, worth a thousand taels of silver.
There are five in total.
The original owner had no memory of these silver notes; they were probably put there by the original owner's father without him telling the original owner directly, and the original owner never opened the box.
“This…” Tingling’s eyes showed a hint of surprise, and she immediately covered her mouth, as if afraid that her voice would be too loud and others would hear it. “Master still cares about Miss.”
Xie Qingyu put the silver note back and looked at the house deed in her hand.
I don't think I feel sorry for him; I'm just afraid my conscience won't allow it.
Seeing the bill showing losses across all the stores, and knowing he was in the wrong and couldn't fool anyone, he offered some incentives.
It's good to create the impression that your father still values you.
Xie Qingyu could roughly guess that if it weren't for the fact that she was married to the eldest son of the Marquis's family, she probably wouldn't even have been given these loss-making shops, let alone these silver notes.
"Put these away." Xie Qingyu handed the silver notes to Tingling, watching her carefully place them into the mahogany box.
"These shops?" Tingling put the silver notes away and looked back at the property deeds in Xie Qingyu's hand.
These are all the property deeds for the shops, but that's all there are.
Xie Qingyu wanted to laugh when she saw this. This was taking advantage of the fact that the original owner had never properly dealt with the affairs of a steward, and they didn't even give her the indenture for the servants in the shop.
It's no different from not giving her the shop at all.
"These are our shops, the ones that will support us in the future. Of course, we have to go and take a look." Xie Qingyu looked at the land deeds that had been laid out in front of her and checked the accounts on the other side to see what each shop was doing.
"It's one thing for the rouge shop to lose money, but it's another for the herbal medicine shop to lose so much in a year." Xie Qingyu almost laughed.
Perhaps because the original owner couldn't read the ledgers, the forgery on these ledgers wasn't very sophisticated.
Tingling glanced at Xie Qingyu's expression and said with some difficulty, "Miss, we haven't been to any of these shops, so we don't know how the business is."
“Yes, we haven’t been there yet. Let’s go check it out this afternoon,” Xie Qingyu said.
One of the advantages of getting married is that it's more convenient to go out.
Xie Qingyu travels by the Marquis's carriage.
The first place Xie Qingyu went to was a rouge shop.
The shop assistant at the entrance was quick-witted; just by looking at the carriage, he knew the person getting off must be someone of importance, and he immediately went forward to greet them.
When Xie Qingyu helped Tingling down from the carriage, the servant's smile deepened.
The young lady was always generous and could buy more.
"Please come in, Madam." The servant's voice was loud and clear, and his smiling face made a very good impression.
Xie Qingyu entered the shop without saying a word. This shop was the largest of all the shops, and it was divided into two floors.
After entering, Xie Qingyu first strolled around the first floor.
It's basically lunchtime now, so it's not peak business time yet, but there are still quite a few people on the first floor.
Groups of two or three occupied the counter, including young men and women, as well as older ladies with their female relatives.
A lively scene.
The servant who had just greeted Xie Qingyu was now beside her. "Madam, what kind of rouge would you like to choose today?"
Xie Qingyu had already looked through most of the things on the first floor. Although it was called a rouge shop, it actually had all the face products that women used.
"There are so many people today." Xie Qingyu turned and walked upstairs.
"Madam, you've come at just the right time. There aren't too many people yet. Our shop's goods are excellent and always popular," the servant said with great pride.
Xie Qingyu's expression remained unchanged as she asked, "Any new gadgets lately?"
"Then you've come to the right place, Madam. We just launched a new rouge. We only had ten boxes yesterday and they were all sold out. We just got some more today, and they're almost sold out by noon."
The servant led Xie Qingyu upstairs while talking to her.
"Really? What kind of rouge is so popular? I'd like to see it too." Xie Qingyu looked interested.
"Please take a look, Madam." After the servant led Xie Qingyu upstairs, there was a display area upstairs.
The second floor is about the same size as the first floor, and there are quite a few customers up there as well.
This shop doesn't look like it's doing badly at all.
Xie Qingyu watched as the servant displayed the rouge.
From the packaging and colors to the salesperson's explanation, everything about it makes you want to buy it.
"How much is this rouge?" Xie Qingyu asked.
"This rouge can be taken home for just five taels of silver," the servant said.
Five taels of silver.
Xie Qingyu's monthly allowance in the Marquis's mansion was only twenty taels of silver, and even a head maid like Tingling only received two taels of silver a month.
This rouge costs five taels of silver.
They've been losing money year after year.
Xie Qingyu looked at the young man, wanting to ask him something.
Before he could even speak, he heard a familiar voice coming from the stairwell.
"I'll buy it for you whatever you like." The man was walking upstairs with a petite woman nestled beside him.
The man was none other than Xie Qingyu's husband, whom she had just met that morning.