Thirteenth Lady's Comback: Her Everyday Life as a Bystander-Chapter 157 - 5: Regulations 2 (Revised)

Even with familiar families, Zhao Youshen did not call the two into the manor, only asked Lin Sheng to come out and send off his son and daughter-in-law. His daughter Shuimo quietly revealed a few words to him, saying the lady couldn’t tolerate dishonesty and emphasized a single act of disloyalty would end in complete distrust. Do not rely on the lady’s kindness, calling out uncle and aunt, and then try to gain false credit for oneself.

This matter didn’t come before her, so Susu pretended not to know, as it was something not worth her concern.

Actually, Susu hadn’t noticed that after leaving the mansion, she subconsciously adopted the demeanor of someone in power. When you can control the life and death of some with a wave of your hand, some become more respectful of life, while others become indifferent to it. Susu stood at this crossroads, one step to heaven, one step to hell, watching to see if she could control herself.

For now, Susu hadn’t realized this, while others were deceived by the various appearances she presented and didn’t notice. Perhaps some did, but they didn’t care.

After all, this was a society with strict hierarchy. Unusual acts like becoming sisters with maids and making friends with servants, as written in some transmigration novels, were inappropriate outliers.

Currently, Susu was pondering her future life. Though she might marry into a family and head to the Northwest in a year, the Capital was her root, and she’d eventually return. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Moreover, she needed to stay in the Capital for at least another year; she couldn’t just eat, drink, and be merry without accomplishing anything.

Since she had left the mansion, she should live like ordinary commoners, not to mention she had more than thirty servants to support. The monthly salary would amount to dozens of taels of silver, and with her personal expenses, fifty taels a month were certainly possible.

Even if she had personal savings, she couldn’t just sit and eat away her fortunes; she needed to find some income.

Susu’s first thought was to buy land; her intelligence was just enough to be a landlord. Then she considered buying a house, with future information clearly indicating that house prices would only rapidly rise, not fall.

Susu had quite a sum of silver coin in hand; previously, she needed it to prepare dowry. Nowadays, Old Madam had prepared everything for her, privately giving her a silver note of twenty thousand taels, openly another three thousand taels, the First Duke three thousand taels, the Second Duke two thousand taels, and the Third Duke two thousand taels. Along with Susu’s own holdings, the silver notes alone totaled nearly forty thousand taels.

With such a large sum of silver, Susu naturally wouldn’t put it all into her dowry. No matter how much silver there was, it was lifeless in itself; Susu intended to use half to buy houses and land.

Previously, she had entrusted Grandpa Qiao, yet no one had expected Susu to hurriedly leave the mansion, causing delays in the matter.

Susu considered reaching out to Yang Liu, a considered local influential figure. However, this matter couldn’t be rushed, so Susu shifted her focus to her current lands and manor.

The rear of Susu’s manor lay a small barren mountain, part of the manor’s land deed. Steward Zhao was trustworthy, and he previously reported to Susu that he took silver to plant thorn bushes and prickly flower trees around the barren mountain, enclosing it to plan the cultivation of fruit trees and free-range chickens and ducks—if managed well, it could generate three to four hundred taels of silver income annually.

Three to four hundred taels of silver might not be much in the Song Family, equivalent to a few sets of clothes, a suite of jewelry, or several banquet tables. However, as "Dream of the Red Chamber" mentioned, Granny Liu saw that Jia Mansion spent twenty taels of silver on a crab feast, exclaiming that it was sufficient for a tenant family for a year.

Bear in mind, Granny Liu’s family was considered middle-class, a moderately wealthy family owning real estate and capable of hiring long-term laborers and maids. Her first visit to Jia Mansion, after receiving twenty taels from Wang Xifeng, she was deeply grateful.

Great Chu’s prices equated to those during the Ming and Qing periods, and in recent years, due to favorable weather and national strength, rapid commercial development rendered the purchasing power of silver significantly high.

Yet Susu now held a different view; while planting fruit trees was fine, free-range chickens and ducks required significant manpower and diligent management. The manor housed barely more than thirty servants, half were women inexperienced with manual work.

Even the men, prior weren’t stewards or errand runners. Apart from Zhao Youshen, who managed the manor before, perhaps the others couldn’t differentiate between unpeeled rice and wheat, not to mention risking embarrassment by treating wheat flour as chives!

This necessitated hiring a few long-term workers despite the ample number of servants available.

Still, despite Susu’s "extravagant wealth," she felt she shouldn’t squander on foolish expenses, nourishing a group of "Dukes" and "Ladies" for no reason.