After dinner, Zhou Shuren took his son to the study and checked on the progress of his grandchildren. He had been too busy these days and seldom went home, thus neglecting his children a lot.
Zhulan went back to the house and took out the box containing the silver bills. There were not many silver bills left in the box. She took them out and counted them. Including the small change, there were less than seven hundred taels left. She took out five hundred taels at once, and there were less than two hundred taels left. It had been a long time since she felt that she had not enough money to spend.
I've been spending a lot since coming to Beijing recently, and Zhou Shuren's promotion doubled his monthly salary, so I'm a little tight on money.
Although a lot of gifts were received at the dinner party, they were all items and could not be used as silver. This amount of silver was not enough for the autumn harvest, as the expenses in the capital were too high.
When Zhou Shuren came back, he saw the silver notes on the table and only took the silver note of 400 taels. "I haven't had a chance to use the silver you gave me last time. 400 taels is enough."
Zhulan, "You should pretend. We didn't have the chance before because the Ministry of Revenue was busy. When the Ministry of Revenue has some time off, we will definitely treat you to a meal."
"There's not much money left at home!"
Zhulan, "Don't worry about home. I will ask Steward Ding to go to the fishery tomorrow to process some of the fish in the ice cellar, and we will have the silver."
Zhou Shuren, "Deal with it in advance!"
"Yes, I originally wanted to wait until the end of the year to sell it for a good price during the New Year, but now my family needs money."
Zhou Shuren put the banknotes into his purse and said, "It would be a pity to deal with it in advance."
Zhulan also felt pain, "Fish prices are cheap now, and I'm losing a lot of money!"
Zhou Shuren took off his coat and said, "My salary is useless."
"It's very useful. Without your salary, our family would have run out of money long ago."
Zhou Shuren saw Mrs. Song and the maid coming in, and said quietly, "I'm getting old, and I can't stand staying up late anymore. It's hard to make up for the effort. Fortunately, I finally made it through. I can sleep more peacefully in the future."
Zhulan covered the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief and glanced at the maid, who was playing the victim. "I haven't seen the master in the past few days. Why do I feel that the master's hair has become much whiter?"
After a pause, he instructed Mrs. Song, "Make black rice porridge tomorrow morning."
Mrs. Song: "Yes."
Zhou Shuren washed his hands and said, "I've lost a lot of hair!"
Zhulan cooperated with concern, "Then you have to take good care of yourself. I see that the master seems to have lost weight too."
Zhou Shuren: "... Yeah."
Mrs. Song and the maid left. Zhulan stopped acting. When the footsteps faded away, Zhulan lowered her voice and asked, "Do you want to get a reward by playing the victim?"
Zhou Shuren took off his shoes and said, "Well, don't hold your hopes too high. It all depends on the emperor. However, I don't think the hope is great. The officials of the Ministry of Revenue have all made contributions. The chance of rewarding me alone is too low. Even if I think of a good idea, I am in the Ministry of Revenue, and these are what I should do."
Zhulan pulled the pillow over and said, "I don't hold out hope either. It's better for you to play the victim, so that people won't think you are made of iron."
These days, she could see that her husband was tired and she felt distressed.
Zhou Shuren lay down, "It's still more comfortable at home."
Zhulan went downstairs and blew out the candles. "Then have a good rest."
Zhou Shuren fell asleep quickly. He didn't feel at ease in the Ministry of Revenue. Without his wife by his side, he had too many things on his mind and had not had much rest.
The next day, at the Ministry of Revenue, as soon as Zhou Shuren arrived, he saw a queue forming. From the way they were dressed, it could be seen that those in the queue were all merchants. The rewards from the Xu family stimulated the merchants.
Zhou Shuren entered the Ministry of Revenue and work had already started in the yard.
After waiting for a while, various departments came to deliver donations of silver. Although not as much as merchants, it was still a considerable amount of silver. Not counting the emperor's 100,000 taels, the crown prince contributed 10,000 taels, several princes contributed 5,000 taels, and the dukes and marquises did not contribute more than the prince.
Xiao Qing felt that this was the happiest day since he became the Minister of Revenue.
In the afternoon, the amount of silver donated by each merchant household became less. Some of these people were small merchants, and some felt that most of the money had been donated, and they would feel embarrassed not to donate, so they donated some.
Zhou Shuren counted the amount and said, "Sir, this is the amount donated this morning."
Xiao Qing took it and looked at it. "One million, six hundred and fifty-five thousand taels of silver. This is only the silver from this morning."
Zhou Shuren, "Yes."
Including the Xu family’s silver, it’s more than two million taels, which is a huge sum of money.
After Xiao Qing got excited, "This amount cannot be known to outsiders, otherwise, there will be more reasons to ask for money."
Zhou Shuren stood up and said, "Sir, I will go back first."
"good."
As soon as Zhou Shuren walked out of the door, he saw Eunuch Liu, "Why did you come to the Ministry of Revenue?"
Eunuch Liu said politely, "I am here to convey the emperor's oral instructions."
Zhou Shuren heard it and said, "Please come in, eunuch. The minister is here."
Eunuch Liu nodded and said, "Sir, please go ahead and do your work."
Not long after Zhou Shuren returned to the room, the Shangshu called the officials of the Ministry of Revenue above the fourth rank over.
Seeing that everyone was present, Xiao Qing said, "The Emperor has seen the hard work of the Ministry of Revenue. There will be rewards for everyone in the Ministry of Revenue. Rewards are given according to rank. The third and third rank are both rewarded with 300 taels of silver, the fourth and fourth rank are 200 taels, the fifth and fifth rank are 100 taels, the sixth to seventh rank are 50 taels, the eighth to ninth rank are 20 taels, and the ranks below are all rewarded with 10 taels of silver."
Xiao Qing paused and continued, "Right Assistant Minister Zhou Shuren has just taken office, but he has solved the problem of the Ministry of Revenue's shortage of silver. The emperor has specially rewarded the Right Assistant Minister with an extra 200 taels of silver. He hopes that the Right Assistant Minister can continue to work hard for the court."
Zhou Shuren hurriedly thanked him, but thought in his heart, the emperor is really good at calculating, five hundred taels is exactly the silver he donated!
This was a happy event for the Ministry of Revenue and the news soon spread throughout the ministry.
Zhou Shuren did some calculations and found that the Ministry of Revenue had the most departments among the six ministries, and also had the most officials, especially those below the sixth rank. Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue donated the most silver. He quickly worked out the accounts and found that the emperor's reward was only two-thirds of the donation!
The emperor is the emperor!
In the evening, when Zhou Shuren came back, Zhulan still asked with expectation, "Is there one?"
Zhou Shuren took out the banknote and handed it to his wife, "Yes."
Zhu Lan's eyes were full of surprise. There really was one. Then she was stunned. It was actually a reward of silver notes. She counted five hundred taels and asked, "This?"
Zhou Shuren was changing his clothes. "The entire Ministry of Revenue received a reward..."
After Zhulan heard this, she said, "... I'm convinced."
Zhou Shuren asked, "You didn't send the housekeeper to the fishing grounds!"
"Not yet. I said I wasn't looking forward to it, but I was still looking forward to it in my heart. So I thought a day or two wouldn't make a difference, so I thought about letting the butler go after two days."
Zhou Shuren smiled and said, "With this silver, it should be enough."
Zhulan smiled and said, "With your salary, it's more than enough."
At the Mansion of Marquis Yao, Yao Yao was ready to go home. Today she had accompanied her mother to take care of her younger brother for a whole day. Her younger brother had been plotted against, and after finally going out for some fresh air, he was pushed off the pavilion and hit his forehead on a rock. He was still unconscious.
Yao Yao stood up and said, "Mom, I'm going back first. I'll come back tomorrow."
Bai's eyes were swollen from crying, and she said in a hoarse voice, "Okay."
Yao Yao glanced at her brother and regretted it in her heart. If she hadn't given him the drug, his brother wouldn't have been so weak that he would have been killed. He walked in a daze and didn't look at the road. When he bumped into the servant at the door, the dowry maid hurriedly supported him, "Miss, are you okay?"
Yao Yao frowned and stared at the servant that the butler took away. This man looked familiar.