Chapter 3 — After My Father Inducted Seven Nuns, They Immediately Prepared Me A Timetable

My eyes immediately turned red. The seven concubines looked at me, but no one spoke up to urge me. After a long time, I quietly asked:

“So after you enter the palace, what will you do?”

Concubine Du placed the abacus in her hand on the table.

“First of all, we must arrange a schedule for the lady.”

That evening, our schedule was officially completed. Now Mao wakes up and practices walking for half an hour. Now Dragon reads books. Now Ty learns to look at books. In the afternoon, study medicine. Than now learns horseback riding and archery. Now Dau learns female martial arts and how to distinguish fabrics. After dinner, we had to listen to Concubine Lieu explain about the human relationships in each palace in the capital. I looked at the schedule filled with words in front of me, and I only felt my eyes darken.

"Are you sure this is the schedule for the young lady of the Marquis Palace? Isn't it supposed to be for the poinsettia, the professor, the treasurer, the doctor and the lady to study together at the same time?"

Concubine Liu smiled very gently.

“Miss, don't worry, try it for three days first.”

I immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

“Try for three days?”

Concubine Tan continued next to her:

“After three days there will be more.”

I turned my head to look at my father. He was bowing his head and drinking tea. Pretend like you didn't hear anything. I gritted my teeth. He raised his head.

“Father, don't you care?”

He looked at the schedule once, then looked at the seven concubines once again. Finally, he looked towards me and said very sincerely:

“Dad doesn't understand these things.”

I almost burst out laughing. Father brought home seven concubines at once. Yet he said he didn't understand. Concubine Do pushed an abacus in front of me.

"Miss, let's start with the simplest things first. Do you know how much the Marquis Palace spends each month?"

I shook my head.

“Do you know how much dowry your mother left you?”

I shook my head again.

"Do you know which shops in the palace are your dowry, which estates are the old Marquis's property, which money belongs to the public fund, and which money belongs to your private account?"

I bowed my head down. Still shaking my head. Concubine Do did not scold me. She just sighed softly.

“Miss, if you don't know these things, someone else will dare to know for you.”

That statement is very light. But it was like a needle piercing straight into my heart. I suddenly remembered that after my mother passed away, Third Uncle in the clan once came to the palace. He patted my head and said:

"An Ninh is still young. The shops and estates that your mother left behind should first be given to the clan to manage on your behalf. When you get married later, we will give them all back to you."

At that time, my father was not in the palace. I almost nodded in agreement. It was the devil who stopped me. Then when Third Uncle left, his face was extremely ugly. At that time we still did not understand why. At this moment, I suddenly understood everything. Do Di Nuong said:

"Miss, silver is not an ordinary thing. Silver is a support. You may not be greedy for money, but you absolutely cannot not know where your money is."

I pursed my lips. Do Di Nuong laughed. But very quickly I discovered that the so-called "simplest" thing she talked about was not simple at all for me. We recognize every digit in the books. But when you put them together, I immediately started to feel sleepy. Which are revenues, expenses, remaining silver, losses, silver in the warehouse, existing silver. I watched for half an hour, my mind heavier than my father's steed. Concubine Do is not in a hurry. She picked up a plate of breakfast.

“Miss, this plate of cinnamon flower cake, the purchasing department said it was a tael of silver.”

I'm surprised.

“A plate of cakes but a tael of silver?”

“It says so on the books.”

“No way.”

“Why can't it be?”

"Last month, I went out to buy it with my mother. A new box only had a hundred coins."

Do Di Nuong nodded.

“So this is the problem.”

I was immediately wide awake. She opened the book and showed it to me.

"Every month, the Hou Palace reported the cost of buying breakfast to be twenty taels of silver. If calculated according to the market price, it would only be about ten taels at most. So where did the extra ten taels in the middle go?"

I stared at that text.