After all, her elderly father had spent his entire life gently protecting her future.
****
Ten days later, the academy closed for a break, and Luo Cuizhen returned home.
As soon as I entered the door, my elder sister secretly called me aside.
"Want to earn some extra money on the side?" Luo Cuiwei raised an eyebrow and winked at her.
With the family business matters mostly settled, Luo Fengming set off south as planned, and Luo Cuiwei then intended to return to the Prince Zhao's residence.
Staying in the Prince Zhao's residence would allow her to know immediately if Linchuan sent any news.
However, before returning to Prince Zhao's residence, she planned to discuss a small deal with Luo Cuizhen.
Luo Cuizhen looked around warily, but finding no trace of her mother, she suddenly nodded: "I want to!"
Luo Cuiwei said, "Go and see Xu Yan for me."
After the previous turmoil, Luo Cuizhen felt a headache coming on whenever she heard "Xu Yan." "Sister, I really know I was wrong! The prodigal son has turned over a new leaf! Don't test me anymore. I'm firmly on your side and will never talk to him again!"
"Why would I test you?" Luo Cuiwei patted her head. "I've been thinking about this for several days. You're close to Xu Ying, so it's most suitable for you to handle this for me."
Seeing her stunned, Luo Cui smiled and said, "Xu Yan has a shady business deal, and I have a small stake in it. Although I dislike him, I don't dislike him making money for me. From now on, you'll run errands for me, and I'll give you 10% of the profits he gives me at the end of each year. Deal?"
Luo Cuizhen suddenly realized what was going on, and smiled broadly, bowing to her and saying, "Deal! I hope you will help me out in the future!"
“I’ll write a letter later, and you can take it to him,” Luo Cuiwei nodded with a satisfied smile, then whispered a reminder, “If he replies, bring it to Prince Zhao’s residence for me; if he insists on meeting me, just tell him that I don’t want to see him, and that he can send me any messages he has… This will continue to be done in the future.”
In February, outside the post station, she told Xu Yan that if he wanted to expand his business in Pingcheng, he could ask her to invest more.
She guessed that Xu Yan's eagerness to see her by sending the invitation must also be about this matter.
The deal with Xu Yan was an accident, small in scale and profit, and the initial capital was Luo Cuiwei's own pocket money. After she told Luo Huai about it, Luo Huai told her to put the small profit into her own private account and not to include it in the Luo family's accounts.
After finishing her business these past few days, she carefully considered her options and decided that if Xu Yan asked her to increase her investment again, she would simply transfer the profits from this business to the Prince Zhao's residence.
Thinking of this, Luo Cuiwei's face flushed slightly, and a gentle smile appeared between her brows and eyes—
Let's just consider it as her dowry.
****
In fact, Luo Cuiwei has not yet been officially appointed by His Majesty. Strictly speaking, according to regulations, she is not yet the rightful mistress of the Prince Zhao's mansion.
However, when Luo Cuiwei first approached the Zhao Prince's mansion, she became friendly with everyone there. In addition, since Yun Lie had given her half of the gold seal, everyone in the Zhao Prince's mansion had already received Yun Lie's instructions, and they naturally regarded her as another master who was on equal footing with Yun Lie.
Because Luo Cuiwei had boasted to Yun Lie that she would throw silver in his face when he returned, after finishing her business with the Luo family and returning to the Zhao Prince's Mansion, she asked the head steward Chen An for the mansion's account books.
Compared to the Luo family's extensive and complex accounts, the Zhao Prince's account books were so thin that they were hardly worth mentioning. Luo Cuiwei managed to sort out the accounts clearly in just a few days.
The most messy and unfortunate thing was the advance payment of food and supplies to the Linchuan army.
"Uncle Chen, when the Ministry of War usually reissues the back pay and rations, is it always sent directly to Linchuan?" Luo Cuiwei asked the old steward while skillfully manipulating the abacus.
Finally, there was someone in the manor who could manage the accounts. The old steward was so pleased that every wrinkle on his face was filled with a smile. "According to the rules, they should first send someone to the manor with documents to request an official seal. If His Highness is in the capital, the provisions and salary will be transferred to His Highness on the spot. However, His Highness is usually in Linchuan, so the provisions and salary are usually sent directly to Linchuan before requesting an official seal from His Highness."
With the provisions and supplies arriving in Linchuan, Yun Lie became too lazy to bother calculating the debts he had previously incurred.
"It must be really tough on you. The treasury is so empty, yet you still manage to manage it all," Luo Cuiwei stopped fiddling with the abacus, frowning and resting her chin on her hand. "Now that I have the seal, do you have any way to persuade them to come to the mansion to request the seal according to the rules?"
"That's no problem. I'll have the clerk in the manor write a letter later, and after you stamp it, we'll send it to the Ministry of War."
Luo Cuiwei nodded and smiled at the old steward, "Uncle Chen, you are an elder, so please don't address me with such formality, otherwise I feel like my ancestors would jump down from the sky to beat me."
The head steward nodded with a smile, deeply impressed by the prince's excellent judgment.
Before they knew it, it was early April. The Imperial Clan Court delivered the monthly allowance for Prince Zhao's residence. Luo Cuiwei immediately took half of it and had Xiahou Ling purchase a batch of woodblock prints for picture albums from her aunt, Luo Bibo.
After printing a batch of picture albums using these woodblocks, she secretly instructed Luo Cuizhen to inform Xu Yan and have him distribute the albums to Yizhou and Yizhou through his connections.
Luo Bibo was already a renowned woodblock engraver. Yizhou was in the southwest and Yizhou was in the west, both far from the capital. In these two places, Luo Bibo's woodblock-printed albums were rare, and he didn't need to go out of his way to find a market for them; the booksellers would take them over as soon as they were sent there.
However, Luo Cuiwei was not greedy. After all, picture albums are not like rice and grain, which every household needs. So she couldn't just print a large quantity out of thin air. She printed only a quantity that was "good enough to make a profit".
By early May, the money from those picture albums had been recouped, and after deducting all costs, the profit was nearly three hundred gold coins.
Luo Cuiwei left 40% of the profit, 120 taels of gold, to Xu Yan, and gave Luo Cuizhen 30 taels of gold as a running fee; of the remaining 150 taels of gold, she took 100 taels to deposit in the Luo family's money shop to accrue interest, and gave the other 50 taels of gold to Steward Chen to be used to pay off the debts and add meat to the meals of everyone in the mansion.
For Luo Cuiwei, this "deal" was just a casual, piecemeal affair. It was simply something she was doing to pass the time and avoid overthinking since Linchuan hadn't sent any word back.
But Steward Chen was surprised, delighted and impressed. In just over a month, the monthly allowance that Luo Cuiwei had taken out of her hands had turned into 150 gold coins!
The people of Prince Zhao's mansion spread the news excitedly: "The lady has turned stones into gold! From now on, we'll have meat to eat every day!"
In mid-May, the Ministry of War reissued the quarterly rations and pay owed to the Linchuan Army last year, which were first delivered to Prince Zhao's residence.
Luo Cuiwei instructed Uncle Chen to arrange for 60% of the supplies to be sent to Linchuan as usual.
She originally intended to write a letter and have them deliver it to Yun Lie on their way.
But when she picked up her pen, she didn't know what to write.
After all, since Yun Lie left in early March, there had been no news from Lin Chuan, and she had no idea what the situation was like there. She wasn't sure whether sending the letter would be good or bad for Yun Lie, so she eventually gave up on it.
****
She kept the remaining 40% of the supplementary salary, which served as a small way to cover up the debts that Prince Zhao's mansion had previously advanced.