When Manager Qiu saw Gu Qinghan, his friendly smile turned into a humble one. He almost ran up to meet her and said respectfully: "Third Madam, I have something to report to you."
"Have you been to the Third Old Master?" Gu Qinghan's expression was calm and calm at this time, without the slightest smile. Once that beautiful face lost its smile, it was not only solemn and elegant, but also had a sense of dignity.
Manager Qiu said hurriedly: "I've been there. I tried to persuade him there for a long time, and the third old man is now a lot less angry. But...!"
"But what?" A sneer flashed across Gu Qinghan's beautiful eyes, "But do you want Qi Yu to continue to watch the mourning?"
Mr. Qiu was confused: "Third Madam, I also know that since the prince is back, it would be against the rules to let Qi Yu keep watch over his body. However, the third old man said that even if Qi Yu is not his legitimate son, he is still the blood of the Marquis. It cannot be that if the Marquis dies, Qi Yu even I don’t have the qualifications to watch the mourning." He glanced at Yang Ning here, then lowered his voice slightly and said: "What the third old master means is that during the day, I will let the prince watch the mourning in the future, but at night I can let Qi Yu do it for me. , there is always no shortage of filial sons in the mourning hall, and the prince can also have time to rest."
Gu Qinghan said calmly: "Mr. Qiu, others don't understand what they mean, but you should know it in your heart. You have been in the Hou Mansion for almost twenty years, and you know very well how the general treated you when he was alive." There was a pause. , blinked slightly, his long eyelashes flickering, "What to do and what not to do, we naturally have to follow the general's original thoughts."
Manager Qiu said with a smile: "What the third lady said is absolutely true. Of course I am following the lead." After a pause, he said cautiously: "Then I will go back and report to the third old lady and tell him that this method will not work?"
Gu Qinghan frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and then said: "Well, it's not impossible for Qi Yu to keep vigil at night, but whenever there are guests, Ning'er must come forward, and the rest must be returned to the back hall."
"Yes." Manager Qiu bowed.
Gu Qinghan then walked over to Yang Ning, with a smile on her beautiful face, bright and elegant, "Ning'er, I asked you to go to the mourning hall, why are you still here? Are you playful again?" Although she said There was a slight blame, but the tone was very gentle and there was no blame at all.
However, Manager Qiu followed Gu Qinghan and did not leave. Gu Qinghan noticed it, stopped and asked, "Manager Qiu, is there anything else?"
Manager Qiu hesitated for a moment and then said, "There is an important matter that I need to discuss with the third lady."
"What's the matter?"
Manager Qiu glanced at Yang Ning and hesitated to speak. Yang Ning was furious and said bluntly: "What do you want me to do? I can't listen to what you want to say?"
Manager Qiu said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, I misunderstood. I... I never meant this."
"You don't have any intention, why don't you tell me quickly?" Yang Ning rolled his eyes. He was most disgusted with Manager Qiu's sneaky appearance, making it seem like there were secrets all over the world.
Gu Qinghan glared at Yang Ning, her eyebrows became more and more charming, she turned her head slightly to look at Manager Qiu, and then said: "Manager Qiu, what is going on?"
"This...!" Manager Qiu hesitated for a moment, then finally said: "Third Madam, in the treasury... there is not much money left in the treasury, I'm afraid it won't last long."
Gu Qinghan's pretty face suddenly became serious and asked: "Didn't I see it a few days ago? Why did it disappear so quickly?"
Manager Qiu smiled bitterly and said: "There are many officials from the princes, nobles and various ministries who have come to pay homage in the past few days, and they all stay in the mansion to eat. Our prince's mansion has to maintain its dignity. It is shabby and has a lot of expenses. In addition, there are many miscellaneous items. This is I thought I would save as much as I could, until I could make up for it with the money from the palace or Jiangling, but... But if I really wanted to do it, the expenses would be quite high, and the money from the treasury was flowing out like water every day. "There was an account book in his hand and he handed it over with both hands, "Third Madam, please look at the expenses one by one. There are details on them."
Gu Qinghan shook his head and said, "Since Mr. Qiu said so, he can't be wrong." He did not accept the account book.
Yang Ning saw this and secretly praised Gu Qinghan for his tact in handling things. Now is an extraordinary time. Although Gu Qinghan is in charge of the overall situation, she is a woman after all. The specific person in charge of all affairs in the Hou Mansion should still be Manager Qiu. If he takes over If you don't have the account books, it means that if you don't trust General Manager Qiu, it will inevitably lead to suspicion. In this situation, of course, General Manager Qiu cannot be embarrassed.
"I'm afraid that the monthly money in the house will not be paid out for a while, and there is also the academy. When Mr. Rizhuo came over yesterday, although he didn't say it clearly, the meaning was already obvious. He seemed to be blaming us for not being able to transfer the academy to the academy for a long time. I'll send the money over." Manager Qiu shook his head and sighed: "Third Madam, it's terrible if this continues. According to etiquette, the general will have five days to go to the funeral. In the next few days, the expenses will only be a lot more, and the general's affairs My son, this is a first-class matter, so naturally we cannot be careless in the slightest. The Madam has said that we must be dignified, so naturally we cannot lose our sense of proportion."
Gu Qinghan had a look of worry in his eyes, and his eyebrows as thin as willow leaves were slightly squeezed together, "Have you moved all the cash from the two shops?"
"I have already made up for it according to your instructions." Mr. Qiu said: "The drug store needs medicinal materials. We allocated a batch of money to buy them half a month ago, so we don't have a lot of cash in hand."
Yang Ning could tell. He originally thought that such a wealthy noble would never have to worry about money, but now it seems that money has become the most difficult problem for the Hou family.
Seeing Gu Qinghan frowning, Mr. Qiu said: "The palace has not said anything yet, which is very abnormal. Third Madam, do you want to send someone to the palace to inquire and find out what is going on? I am in the palace. Someone I know well, my father-in-law, should be able to find out more about the situation."
"Absolutely not." Gu Qinghan said immediately: "There is no decree from the Holy Spirit on this kind of thing, so we can only wait, and we must not go to the palace to talk about it first." After thinking about it, he said: "The money in Jiangling , it should have been delivered ten days ago, why is there still no movement yet? Has anyone over there come to report it? "
Manager Qiu shook his head and said: "No one has come yet. I think it must have been delayed due to something. This has happened before, and there were occasional delays. The longest one was delayed for more than half a month, but everything happened later. Deliver it safely. If there are no accidents, it should be delivered within a few days."
Gu Qinghan nodded slightly and said, "Send the money from Jiangling and all the problems will be solved."
"But my hands are a little tight right now." Manager Qiu felt confused: "There cannot be no cash in the treasury. Money is indispensable for daily expenses. This is the most important moment. We cannot lose the dignity of the Hou Mansion because of the lack of money. , Third Madam, do you think we should...should we ask someone to borrow some money first?"
Gu Qinghan asked: "How much more money is needed?"
"If you can borrow two to three thousand taels of silver and put it into the treasury, it shouldn't be a problem." Manager Qiu said confidently.
Yang Ning originally thought that the Hou Mansion had a big hole in its accounts. When he heard that it was only a few thousand taels of silver, it seemed that the amount was not too big. It was unexpected that such a wealthy family would be in trouble just because of a few thousand taels of silver. Yang Ning's prediction.
"It's always bad to borrow money from others at this time." Gu Qinghan thought for a while, "I still have some money, so why not...!"
"Third Madam, you must not do this." Manager Qiu was smart and immediately knew what Gu Qinghan meant, "This kind of thing was also my negligence. I didn't send Jiangling's money in time. How could I let Third Madam use the soft stuff to pawn? If it gets spread, I'm afraid someone will talk about it behind our back. Besides, we also have a pawn shop at home, so we can't open a pawn shop to pawn goods? In fact, the matter can be easily solved. There must be someone redeeming the pawns at the pawn shop in the past few days. How much can we still do every day? We have some money back, and the business of the drug store is also very good. As long as we survive these few days, everything will get better. It is not difficult for us to borrow some money to meet the emergency, and I will do everything carefully to prevent this matter from being publicized. .”
Gu Qinghan thought for a while and then said: "Then let's do it your way. First, borrow three thousand taels of silver and return it as soon as the money from the Hou Mansion arrives."
"Third Madam, you also know that when the Marquis was alive, we were not allowed to exchange too much money with other people." Mr. Qiu said: "We have to receive three thousand taels of silver this time. Although it is not difficult, it still has to be done. It’s also a rule to take something as collateral.”
"Of course I know this." Gu Qinghan said: "Go and find out first what should be used as collateral, and we will discuss it later."
Mr. Qiu said: "Otherwise, we will use the pawn shop as a mortgage. Our pawn shop has an excellent reputation and business has always been good. As long as we use the pawn shop as a mortgage, the three thousand taels of silver can be withdrawn immediately."
"Pawn shop?" Gu Qinghan hesitated slightly.
Manager Qiu said hurriedly: "The medicine shop was passed down from the time of the old Marquis. It is the lifeblood of our Marquis Mansion. It must not be touched. And we can only use it temporarily for a few days. In less than a few days, the money will be enough to repay it." When we go back, even if we mortgage the pawnshop, it won’t affect the pawnshop’s business.”
"Since you think you can do it this way, let's do it this way first." Gu Qinghan pondered for a moment and nodded slightly, "You tell people that we will pay back the money soon, and the interest that should be calculated will not be less. One article."
Manager Qiu smiled and said: "In this way, there will be no problems in the house. Third Madam, I will take care of it right away." He retreated.
After Manager Qiu left, Yang Ning asked curiously: "Sanniang, do we have no money in the house?"
"If you don't become a householder, you don't know how expensive oil and rice are." Gu Qinghan sighed softly: "There are already a lot of expenses inside and outside the Hou Mansion, plus the general's funeral...!" Her beautiful eyes stared at Yang Ning, "How do you treat these? Are you interested? Usually you never think about where the money comes from."
Yang Ning smiled and said, "I saw Sanniang was worried about money, so I asked."
"Hey, my Ning'er also knows how to care about people." Gu Qinghan said with a smile: "But you don't have to worry about these things. Just let Sanniang worry about the troubles. When you are truly the master of the house, you can worry about these things again. ." Looking to the side, Duan Canghai saw that his face was still a little red, and he frowned and said, "Drinking again?"
Duan Canghai was a little embarrassed, rubbed the back of his head and said, "It's just... I just took a few sips...!"
Gu Qinghan sighed: "I know you feel bad, but we still have to do a lot of things, and there are a lot of things in Tianfu these days, and you have helped a lot."
"I know." Duan Canghai said hurriedly: "Third Madam, don't worry, I won't drink anymore these days." Then he frowned and asked softly: "Third Madam, the palace has no explanation for the general's death?"
Gu Qinghan nodded slightly and said doubtfully: "I'm also surprised. Logically speaking, there should have been a decree from the palace, but so far, not only has there been no news from the palace, but even from the Zhongyihou Mansion, Zhongyihou has not come in person. I I always feel like there’s something weird here.”