In the afternoon, the sun is blazing.
"Where is the remaining 70%? I want to know too!" Qiu Yilan leaned lazily on the soft couch, stroking Dabai's smooth fur, and said with a smile, "But Kang Lizhang will tell Qiu Hongzhi? Beat him to death. If you can't recover the things you've got from Qiu Jinzhu and the servants around Qiu Yinzhi, it's all in vain!"
When Kang Lizhang suggested that Qiu Hongzhi join forces with her to steal the belongings of Qiu Jinzhu and his sister in exchange for money, Qiu Yilan had an idea and instructed her to give priority to selling the dowry of Princess Lian and Princess Ruan. In fact, as early as Mrs. Lu, Mrs. After her death, Kang Lizhang expected that it would be difficult to preserve the private property her mother and daughter had saved.
So she ordered her confidants to send a batch of the most precious things out of the palace overnight and hide them.
Later, in order to win Qiu Yilan's trust, Kang Lizhang told her all this - but Qiu Yilan had an enemy in the Xihe Palace, so he was not in a hurry to get back what he deserved, so he let her continue to take care of it... Anyway, Qiu Yilan is not someone who really cares about money.
"My cousin gave the palace three days' time, but it's missing 70% of everything. How can they get it all together?" Chunran also laughed, while Zhou's mother and Su He were beside them, but they hesitated to speak.
Qiu Yilan finished eating a peach, took the handkerchief, wiped her hands, and asked doubtfully, "What's wrong?"
"Before, the princess sold her dowry and secretly helped the old general." Zhou's mother asked Su He to go out and watch, then whispered, "At that time, except for the old slave, all the people who handled it at that time were taken over by Princess Yang and the others after the princess passed away. Let it go, I wonder if people like Guan Mama and Dong Yao will appear?"
Qiu Yilan thought for a moment and said, "I've heard about this too... But when selling things, are there mother-concubine marks on them?"
Mother Zhou smiled bitterly and said: "It's true! After all, the things that the princess took out were not something ordinary people could have. People are also afraid of getting into trouble for buying stolen goods, and they are also afraid that if they give money to the front foot, they will be detained on the back foot. The charge of theft. Therefore, I wrote a note to prove that the princess wanted to sell it."
"... What the mother-in-law was selling was just her dowry, right?" Qiu Yilan pondered for a moment, sat up straight, and asked.
"Yes." Zhou's mother explained, "The princess said that all the things belonging to the concubine belong to you, and you can't touch them under any circumstances."
Qiu Yilan nodded: "Then Qiu Mengmin and the others have no excuse to withhold the dowry of the concubine. According to my cousin, the dowry of the concubine back then was nearly 400,000 yuan."
Chun Ran and Xia Ran exclaimed: "So many?" They had seen the world by following Ruan Qingyan, but the dowry of 400,000 taels of silver was really not a small amount. After all, the daughter belongs to the family, and the generous dowry is based on the loss of her mother's family's property.
"Not as many as our princess!" Zhou's mother blurted out!
"The mother-in-law's dowry is indeed larger. And if you want to pay me back now, you can't just follow the list!" Qiu Yilan sneered, "The income of those shops and manors over the years has not been counted. The land in the dowry is all good. Yes, the shop is also prosperous - not to mention the concubine's dowry, even if they don't produce more than 90% of the original dowry, Qiu Mengmin can't be freed from the crime of misappropriating the concubine's things! If you dare not calculate your income according to the market price, my cousin will never let him go!"
There is a reason why the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have rich dowries: the Xihe Palace is a hereditary family. Although Princess Lian was the daughter of a minister, her family background was not deep. In order to prevent her daughter from being looked down upon, she lost everything. Prepare dowry.
The same goes for Princess Ruan. Although the Ruan family has been officials for three generations, it is still not as good as the founding king Jue Xihe Palace before its decline. In addition, General Ruan spent his whole life in the military and made a lot of war fortune. Naturally, he would not be stingy about his daughter marrying into a high family. After learning about the dowry list left by the Xia Lian and Ruan families, Qiu Yilan knew that the original embroidery It's true that Yan said eight hundred thousand taels of silver. The property these two left to themselves, now calculated, is one million taels.
In other words, not counting the private details that Qiu Yilan didn't know, at least one third of the current Xihe Palace must be cut off for her!
It is conceivable that Qiu Mengmin's family will resist like crazy!
"Fortunately, the Yang family has no way to teach their daughter, and now they are fighting to the death with the Ding family... Otherwise, Qiu Mengmin and his wife will definitely ask these two families for help, and God knows how many changes will happen!" Qiu Yilan couldn't help but secretly wiped away a cold sweat when she thought of this. .
She calmed down and said, "As for the things sold by the concubine, my cousin has already been calculating the sales and expenses of the General's Mansion over the years. It will be compiled into a book in about two days - the concubine's subsidies for the General's Mansion. The money is, at best, the difference between what the General’s Mansion sells and its expenses!”
Mother Zhou hurriedly asked: "What about our expenses over the years..."
"The palace should support us. Qiu Mengmin dares to let people know that the palace has been deducting from us all these years. As a result, we have many necessary things. The mother-in-law can only sell the dowry and go out to buy it?" Qiu Yilan reminded with a smile, " So you don’t want to accept all the notes that the concubine agreed to sell off. Just because Xu Qiu Mengmin is lax and has a servant who steals, we are not allowed to have a servant who betrays the master? "
Chunran asked: "But in this case, it can also be said that the princess lost things because she didn't take care of her servants and didn't care about their affairs."
"Who said that the servant who sells things is serving me and my concubine?" Qiu Yilan said disdainfully, "Since they are stealing the concubine's and concubine's things and selling them, what happened back then is very likely They are the ones who did it, right? What’s more, since Qiu Mengmin took over the throne, she has no longer been the master. If there is a servant in this house who sells the master’s property privately, who should I hold accountable if I don’t hold the master accountable?”
Zhou's mother said cautiously: "But the princess stamped her private seal..."
"You can steal so many things, but you can't steal a private seal?" Qiu Yilan said calmly, "Besides, no matter how much the mother-in-law sells things, they are all antiques, hairpin rings, etc.? The farms and shops outside will not easily touch them. ? Those alone can make the palace miserable!"
Zhou's mother thought for a moment: "That's true, but... although I haven't heard the princess mention selling the shop or land, now that the prince has entered the house, no one has come to pay us the rent."
Qiu Yilan said in surprise: "Is there such a thing?!" After pondering for a while, she asked in a low voice, "Did my grandfather spend money to provide activities for him after he was defeated?" This kind of expense is huge. Throwing all one hundred thousand taels of silver into it is just trivial.
"I don't think it's the case, old slave." Fortunately, Zhou's mother pondered for a while and shook her head, "At that time, the late prince and the prince died one after another. The concubine and the princess were too sad to say anything. Even the things in the house were held by you. They tried to comfort each other, but they were totally helpless about the old general’s affairs!”
Qiu Yilan felt very puzzled: "Then why no one came to pay the rent?"
"The old slave asked the princess. The princess said that she was afraid that the current prince and the others would take it away, so she asked those people to sell it privately and bring it in with silver notes." When Zhou's mother said this, her voice lowered, "The question Yes, the old slave has calculated the income, and if it is really all given to the princess, then there is no need for the princess to treat it as a thing when supporting the general's palace! So the old slave has always suspected that those properties are probably gone. "
"But where will it go?" Chunran couldn't help but ask.
Mother Zhou sighed: "The old slave had speculated with Mother Li before, whether the current prince was angry with the princess because he was expelled by the concubine. In order to keep the princess, the princess gave him part of the dowry in exchange for They can’t move the princess?”
Qiu Yilan frowned and said, "I don't think Qiu Mengmin will agree. The woman's dowry is supported by a list collected by her mother's family. Isn't he afraid that my mother-in-law will still be there when I grow up?"
Xia Ran also said: "At that time, my young master had not yet adopted me, and the general's palace was waiting for an heir. My servant said something bad: As long as the princess and the princess... How much dowry does the princess have, won't it all fall into the hands of the palace?" According to the rules. , a woman's dowry can only be inherited by her biological flesh and blood. If there is no biological flesh and blood, or the biological flesh and blood is gone, then it will be returned to her natal family.
But if there is no one left in the natal family, it will naturally belong to the husband’s family. At most, the woman can be given an heir, which is not free of charge.
So if the Xihe Palace wanted to seize Princess Ruan's dowry, all they had to do was kill Princess Ruan and Qiu Yilan.
It was Mrs. Lian’s share. If the Lian family hadn’t revolted this time, how could they know Qiu Yilan’s life or death despite being thousands of miles apart? How could he get back the Dowager Dowager's dowry if he didn't know her life or death? In the end, the Xihe Palace was not cheap.
"No wonder I can't find those two dowry lists." Thinking of this, Qiu Yilan suddenly realized, "It's not that the lists were left out and there was no place to look for them, but that Princess Ruan deliberately destroyed them, right? The palace of Xihe Palace couldn't find the dowry. List, I can’t accept the two dowries at once! I also think that Princess Ruan is just a daughter, so she will definitely give me such an important thing... take advantage of their greed and set up a way to save my life? "
She secretly wiped a cold sweat and said, "Sure enough, life and death are determined by fate, and wealth is determined by heaven - otherwise, how could such a delicate little girl live to be ten years old with so many conspiracies and plots, both open and covert, and protected by a poisoned mother? Two years old!"
"The old slave can't guess." Zhou's mother's voice interrupted her thoughts, "Or maybe it will be used to help the old general's family members who were implicated? But this is also unlikely. After all, the princess has been raised in a boudoir, so there is no way I don’t know those people. Even if I want to donate money, I have to go through the General’s Mansion, but all the things sent to the General’s Mansion go through the hands of the old slave, and there is absolutely no income from those places!”
Qiu Yilan thought for a moment and then said, "I can't guess—send someone to ask Ruan An and the others tomorrow?"
That night, Qiu Yilan just settled in, and was awakened by the rustling sound behind the screen. She stroked her forehead and thought, "Isn't that right?"
A moment later, under the dim gauze lamp used at night, she saw Jiang Yashuang, who was wearing a black robe and her hair tied with a jade ring, coughing slightly and turning in. She sighed deeply: "Why are you here again?"
"I heard that the Ruan and Lian families came to ask for your dowry today?" Jiang Yashuang asked directly without going into details.
"Yes, have you seen it?" Qiu Yilan rubbed her forehead across the curtain and said lazily, "My cousin and cousin-in-law will be here in two days. I don't think there is anything to say there."
Jiang Yashuang said: "Since it belongs to you, why should you allow Qiu Mengmin to deny and delay it? Tomorrow I will invite my Eighth Brother to accompany me and come to your door to do this for you!"
Qiu Yilan quickly climbed up and sat up: "Rumors, have you forgotten that it was Princess Chunfu who came forward to smooth things over for us?"
"It doesn't matter." Jiang Yashuang said confidently, "Have you forgotten how much trouble the Yang family and Ding family are having now? It's too late for the government and the public to care about them, so how can they bother to care about what's going on in the Xihe Palace?" He added, " Even if you don’t care, just say that my Eighteenth Sister is on good terms with you, and for this reason, I have asked my Eighth Brother to take care of this matter.”
"My grandmother and mother-in-law left me a lot of property!" Qiu Yilan disagreed, "My uncle is always a prince, how can I give it up so easily?"
Jiang Yashuang said lightly: "If you can't bear to leave him, just die!"