Chapter 69: Personal Savings (2) (1/2)

Meanwhile, back at the Jing’an Estate’s Songtao Court, Chu Lian was peacefully sleeping, completely unaware of all that had transpired.

After eating the desserts with the servants, Chu Lian had retired to her bedroom.

There was a small study by the bedroom she shared with He Sanlang, and it was meant for her use. It wasn’t very big, but since it was right next to the bedroom, it was convenient.

Chu Lian whiled away her afternoon inside the small study. The books she had brought over from the Ying Estate were placed on the bookshelves here, as well as the books that the Jing’an Estate had added on. There weren’t many of them. On the bottommost shelf, there was a pear blossom wood container with copies of some of the works by a few famous calligraphy masters.

In the original story, although ‘Chu Lian’ hadn’t been exceptional in calligraphy, her handwriting had still been neat, delicate, and pretty.

Chu Lian didn’t have any big ambitions, but she still understood that her calligraphy skills weren’t good enough. She couldn’t even read all of the traditional Chinese characters in that comedy book she had been reading… she usually just guessed at them.

Thus, come afternoon, Chu Lian sent away her maidservants and left Xiyan to guard the door outside. Then, in the safety of the study, she practised her writing in secret, making use of an empty book that she had found earlier.

After writing for two hours, Chu Lian tossed the previously empty book into the charcoal brazier and burned it. She had a good memory, so the two hours of practice was good enough to learn over a hundred or so characters. Chu Lian was pretty satisfied with her progress.

Following her calligraphy practice, Chu Lian sent Xiyan out to bring back the box she kept her money and accessories in. She wanted to see exactly how much money she had.

Senior Servant Gui watched from the side.

First, Chu Lian looked at the public account books, where the expenses of their courtyard had been recorded. Every month, they would be given a stipend from the Jing’an Household. Of course, the salaries of all the servants in their courtyard were to be paid from this stipend.

There were almost eighty taels of silver in the public account. These were saved up from the time when He Changdi had been the sole master residing in this courtyard, and when there had been fewer servants around.

Otherwise, in most situations, the stipend wouldn’t be enough to cover the monthly expenses, and they would have to fork out a portion of their own personal accounts.

Chu Lian put down the account books and ordered Xiyan to open up the chest where they kept the silver for daily expenses. It was a huge chest with several layers, but only the first layer contained anything: a few silver ingots, some loose silver pieces, and a few strings of bronze coins.

There were fifty taels in total.

Together with the silver she had gotten on the day of her wedding, and after giving Senior Servant Gui a hundred taels, she only had four hundred taels left with her.

She hadn’t saved much from when she was still living at the Ying Estate. Furthermore, her mother had died when she was young, so she didn’t have any silver lying around.

In total, she only had about four hundred and fifty taels of silver she could use.

Although Chu Lian’s expression didn’t change at all, Senior Servant Gui and Xiyan appeared to be holding back their emotions.