Zhu Lan explained: "Xue Han has been the housekeeper for many years, and she is about to get married. In the past two years, she has been preparing to get married and will not be the housekeeper in the future."
After a pause, he continued, "In the future, the four of you will take turns to manage the household expenses, one month each. I am not worried about the third and fourth daughters-in-law, but you and the second daughter-in-law should learn more. What you learn is yours. Sooner or later, you will have to manage your own household."
Li reacted quickly and asked cautiously, "Mom, do you want to divide the family?"
Zhulan smiled and said, "It's too early to separate the family. We have to wait until your father and I can no longer manage the family."
Li was lost, so the family still had to be divided, "Mother, my daughter-in-law doesn't want to divide the family."
Zhulan smiled and didn't say anything. It didn't matter whether she and Zhou Shuren divided the family property or not, but after she and Zhou Shuren passed away, the family property would still have to be divided. It was only a matter of time.
Xue Han held the account book and placed it in front of her sister-in-law, "Sister-in-law, this is the account book for the household expenses. Take it back and take a look first."
Zhulan continued, "It will be next month in a few days. Starting from next month, you, the eldest daughter-in-law, will be the first housekeeper. Try to get familiar with it today. If there is anything you don't understand, ask Xuehan. Yes, let Yulu help you with the housekeeping as well. It's time for her to learn as well."
Li's eyes widened. Where are the six account books? "So many account books?"
Xue Han introduced, "The first one is the monthly salary account book for the master and the servants, the second one is for the kitchen purchases, the third one is for the sewing room, the fourth one is for the expenses of carriages and horses, the fifth one is for the monthly repairs and other expenses, and the sixth one is for the monthly expenses of the masters. There are also some detailed accounts, which I will send to my sister-in-law later."
Li had only been in charge of the kitchen before. At that time, there were few people in the kitchen and it was easy to manage. Now there are only three cooks in the kitchen, as well as several maids and servants helping in the kitchen, a maid who washes vegetables, and a maid who does shopping, so there are quite a few servants in the kitchen.
Li's head hurt a little when she calculated the monthly expenses and the servants of the entire Zhou Mansion. However, she met her mother-in-law's indifferent gaze and gritted her teeth, "Mother, your daughter-in-law will definitely not let you down!"
Zhulan nodded with satisfaction, "This is what a sister-in-law should be like."
With just these few words, Li suddenly felt the pressure and silently said to herself that she was the eldest daughter-in-law and had to be a role model!
The Zhao family members also hurriedly expressed their gratitude, and then Zhulan let her daughters-in-law go back.
Li returned to the yard with the account book and took her daughter to look at it. Fortunately, she had a well-educated daughter.
Zhao returned to the courtyard. Yu Shuang was teaching Xiao Mei to read. "Mother, what did grandma tell you to do so early in the morning?"
Zhao smiled and took the little girl. "Good thing. From now on, your aunt and aunts will take turns to be the housekeepers. You will also be the housekeepers."
She didn't care about the housekeeper's power and was glad that her mother-in-law treated everyone equally and didn't favor anyone over anyone.
Although the backyard of the Zhou Mansion is peaceful, there are too many servants, and places with many people are always full of thoughts. The servants of the Zhou Mansion dare not talk about their masters, but sometimes their attitudes are more or less different.
The kitchen is an example. In the past, the first wife was respected because she was the eldest son and grandson. The servants were not stupid, and the servants in the entire Zhou Mansion were particularly respectful to the first wife.
The servants have always been trying to please the fourth wife. She has a county lady, money and rank, and her brother-in-law is also going to take the imperial examination, so the servants also flatter her.
Later, the third branch, Chang Lian, became successful and the third branch also rose to prominence.
The second branch has always been in a weak position, and because of the Zhou family's rules, the servants dare not discuss or neglect them, but their attitude can be felt.
Now the four daughters-in-law take turns to be the housekeeper. In the future, the servants will have to live under her for a month, and they dare not be too obvious in their attitude. She is really happy.
In the third room, Mrs. Dong returned to the courtyard and said, "This is an opportunity given by my mother-in-law."
The old woman has always had some thoughts in mind, "The mistress values you."
Dong looked at the maid, but she was thinking that the maid who came as a dowry later was too cunning. This was a favor, and she couldn't hold her back. "Granny gave us the opportunity to be the housekeeper, which was an opportunity to learn and train us daughters-in-law. Now Zhou's family is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and the guests they receive are all knowledgeable. Grandma is training us to be independent."
The old woman knew that she had misunderstood and did not dare to look the young lady in the eye. When the young lady first joined the Zhou family, she did not follow. Later, when the Zhou family became officials, she was sent here by the master. At that time, the young lady had a old woman by her side, and when she came, the old woman was transferred away.
This time, Miss Jingcheng is in charge of the family alone. She has grown a lot and is becoming more and more dissatisfied with her. She is sweating on her forehead and dares not say a word.
Dong withdrew her gaze. She couldn't send the person back. That would be a slap in the face of her natal family and would also lose her face.
In the fourth room, Su Xuan is the most comfortable. She can also be the housekeeper. She is the most confident and capable.
Su Xuan looked at her sleeping children and missed her husband. "It's been a while since he left. I don't know where he is."
The old woman said, "The weather has been good recently, very suitable for traveling. If we don't delay and hurry up, we should be able to travel one-third of the way."
Su Xuan felt that it was too slow. They had never been apart since they got married. It would take a long time for him to come back. She missed Changzhi.
The old woman looked at the time and said, "County Lady, it's time for you to practice calligraphy."
Su Xuan, “… . . . .”
She didn't want to think about it anymore, not at all. She really regretted agreeing to practice calligraphy with her husband. This guy would come back and check it!
Ministry of Revenue, Lord Xiao did not assign any official duties to Zhou Shuren, which really gave Zhou Shuren time to familiarize himself with the Ministry of Revenue.
Zhou Shuren went to the Dirty Penalty Department and said, "I want all the financial information of the Dirty Penalty Department for the first half of this year."
Although the ambassador was puzzled, he still respectfully found three thick account books and said, "The one on the left is the account book for the first half of the year. The thickest one on the right records the items disposed of in the first half of this year. The one in the middle is the silver and money account. Sir, everything you want is here."
Zhou Shuren looked at the thickest one and said, "We dealt with a lot of the dirty penalty department's inventory in the first half of this year."
The ambassador's tone was a little tired. "You need money everywhere. The Minister has basically dealt with all the items worth money in the past six months. Some of them were piled up a few years ago, so the account book is so thick."
He and the deputy envoy were particularly busy for a while. The superiors were anxious, and they were anxious too.
Zhou Shuren had expected that the items worth silver would be disposed of. It would be strange if they were still in the warehouse. The Shangshu was not blind and he would not be able to see such a large amount of items.
Zhou Shuren said: "Take me to the warehouse to have a look."
The ambassador was very confused, but he still took the key and said hesitantly: "Sir, there are a lot of things in the treasury, but there are really not many worth of silver. You know, in the past few years, the Ministry of Revenue, well, the national treasury also tightened its belt to make ends meet."
So the emperor did confiscate a lot of property, but he basically dealt with everything that could be dealt with, because he was always short of money!
The corners of Zhou Shuren's mouth twitched, and his tone sounded so pitiful.
The ambassador said with some nostalgia: "I have been working in the Ministry of Revenue for several years. Last year was the best year for the Ministry of Revenue."
It's a pity that the war broke out. Just when I felt like I had some money in my hands, I became poor again and had to spend it all!
As they were talking, they arrived at the warehouse, which was quite different from the warehouse Zhou Shuren remembered. "I thought the warehouse would occupy a large area."
The ambassador laughed dryly, "If we can't store anything, there's no chance of expansion."
Zhou Shuren looked at the ambassador of the Dirty Punishment Department. This man's words were very interesting. "Open the door."
The lock of the warehouse was very new, and it was obvious that it was often opened. There was no old smell in the warehouse, and it was very clean. There were a total of ten rooms used as warehouses, and there were not many things left in each room. There were no ornaments, let alone antiques, and even the precious furniture was gone.
It’s really quite empty!
Zhou Shuren looked at the unsealed boxes. The items in the alley were sorted into different categories. The remaining items were indeed worthless. There were a lot of items packed by the women. Some of them were several years old and old in style. They had not been well maintained and were old and worthless.