ALL NOVEL Lately, Minglan had been up to her eyes in preparing for the feast. The first problem was about the money.
At that time, after a few days they had got married, a distant relative of Gu family had also held a wedding. Since this relative was only distantly related to them, Minglan and Gu Tingye didn’t need to attend the wedding. However, this relative’s family was of high status and Gu Tingye would sometimes run into their family members on the imperial court. It was better to maintain a good relationship with them. So Minglan had sent a wedding gift to them.
Sending gifts was a custom. As long as someone whom you were related to or had a close relationship with sent an invitation to you, you would have to present a gift to him or her no matter you would attend the feast or not. As for the price of the gift, it depended.
Although Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion didn’t have a flourishing population, it was still a large established family with lots of relatives in or outside of the capital since the family had already existed when the country had been found. What’s more, the number of Gu Tingye’s friends and buddies was also quite remarkable. And that didn’t include his friends who were staying outside of the capital now.
It had only been a month since they had got married and Minglan hadn’t attended any feast publicly yet, she had already sent out eleven and a half pieces of gifts, including four pieces to the elders’ birthday, three pieces to the weddings, two pieces to the one-month feasts for babies, one piece to an official’s promotion and one and a half piece to the funerals– The half piece was because she and the people of Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion had sent one piece together.
Minglan finally understood why the people of all the large families liked to live in many family groups. If a family had three or four generations under the same roof, they could receive all kinds of gifts on every occasion such as the birthday of the Old Master or the wedding of the Great Grandson and his concubine. The weddings, the funerals just kept happening in one family. Of course, courtesy demanded reciprocity. Therefore, most of the time a large family wouldn’t suffer from payment imbalance due to the gifts they had sent to others.
However, Gu’s mansion suffered a great loss:
A feast for the elder’s birthday? The Old Master and Old Madam of the Sheng family all lived next door.
A wedding? Gu Tingye had just married a wife. And it was unlikely for Minglan to be dead for the moment.
A wedding of their daughter? Rongjie’er had just reached the age to go to the primary school. Even in ancient times, it sounded so cruel to let her get married right away.
One-month feast for a baby? Even if she and Gu Tingye worked very hard on that, there was not enough time right now!
The income from the gifts was none. However, since they had already lived in their own mansion, they had to send gifts independently. Minglan kept gasping while facing the account book, feeling her heart broken. She finally understood the feeling of a knife piercing her heart. She nearly wanted to persuade Gu Tingye to move back to Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion.
Seeing Minglan being upset for no reason, Gu Tingye asked her what had happened. Then Minglan answered him sullenly, “My dear, when you left your family and wandered at the outside, have you ever been troubled by money?”
Gu Tingye, having put his left arm on the rosewood armrest with a smile in his pretty eyes, held up the tea cup and drank the tea slowly, saying, “Of course I have. There was a time I had to eat plain noodles which only costs three copper coins for a bowl.”
Minglan nodded while looking at him with a sad look and then sighed, “Honey, do you know that the gifts we have sent over these days are worth six hundred and fifty-three thousand and four hundred bowls of plain noodles? Alas… We should have attended those feasts. At least we could make the money worth.”
Gu Tingye almost spitted the tea from his nose hearing that. Then he put down the cup right away and couldn’t help laughing, “It doesn’t matter. They’ll give us gifts as returns afterwards.”
Minglan, being contemptuous of his words, rubbed the man’s straight nose and sneered, “Commander Gu, I think it has been too long that you haven’t handled the family affairs. Now there are no elders or children in this mansion. We have no reasonable cause to receive gifts unless you marry a concubine now!”
Gu Tingye looked at Minglan with a pitiful look while giving her an earnest instruction, “Let me teach you this. People would always add firewood to the popular stove even if it is the hot June in summer.”
His words sounded quite philosophical, but also revealed his complacency. Minglan then looked at her husband with increased respect and saying sincerely, “Honey, you are so wise!” The respectful expression in Minglan’s eyes made Gu Tingye feel great about himself at once. Then, as joyful as he was, he couldn’t help but curve the corner of his mouth.
“But…” Next second, Minglan couldn’t help asking, “If the fire gets to hot, will the stove be collapsed?”
Gu Tingye nodded and said smilingly, “You are right. So we have to guard the entrance of the stove. Not anyone can add firewood into our stove.”
Minglan got relieved hearing his words. Then she waved her hands and said, “Hmm, just be cautious, honey.”
Gu Tingye lifted Minglan by her neck from her behind with a smile as if he was lifting a poor kitten, saying, “My dear wife, I need to remind you this. We are on the same stove now.”
Minglan shrank her neck and watched Gu Tingye for a while. Then she accepted his advice right away, “Then let’s both be cautious.”
…
Gu Tingye always foretold things accurately. About five or six days ago, the janitor’s room had started to be piled up with gifts from the people in or out of the capital. Those people included the generals who were garrisoning the frontier far away, the officials in the capital and some really remote relatives and friends. Most of the gifts had cards that wrote ‘Congratulations on the happy event in your mansion! Sorry that I can’t come due to some affairs. Please receive my humble gift.’
As Minglan checked the name cards, she got very confused– She hadn’t even sent invitation to lots of them? So why had they sent their congrats anyway? Then she brought the gift list to Gu Tingye.
Gu Tingye glanced at the names on the list. Sometimes he raised his eyebrows and made no comments, sometimes he pondered for a while and seemed to be hesitating. Sometimes he snorted with a disdainful look in his eyes. At last, he told Minglan to accept all the gifts except for the overly expensive ones.
“If we don’t receive someone’s ‘humble’ gift’, he might get more flustered.” Gu Tingye turned around and entered into the outer study with a calm look on his face.
Minglan didn’t ask anything else. After that, she came back to her room and wrote down the names and the notes of Gu Tingye’s attitudes towards each of the names in case of need. After that, she only needed to leave the gift list to the Report Department to keep it on file.
When she looked at the boxes of gifts behind her, she felt them being an eyesore all of a sudden. She wished she could return those gifts right away in exchange for a peace of mind. Thinking of that, Minglan sighed deeply. Only until today did she feel herself being like a transmigrated girl. Because today she could finally regard money as dirt.
After two days, the gifts from the imperial palace also arrived. There were a box of large and pure pearls from the Southern Sea, a one-foot high red coral tree which looked glossy and vivid. Apart from the two valuable treasures above, the emperor had already sent three hundred ounces of silvers in a yellow satin bag to them.
The gifts were stood for the emperor’s words, “Hey eveyone, see? I got my man Gu Tingye covered.”
Minglan held the silvers which weighed a bag of rice in her arms, feeling not tired at all. Instead, she made compliments emotionally, “One can always feel at ease to accept the awards from the country.”
However, her tender body was not suitable for physical labour. Perhaps she had held the silvers for too long, both of her arms got swollen at night. Gu Tingye brought the unguent into the room with his twisting face. Danju who had wanted to take over the unguent was scared away by the fierce look in his eyes. After that, he began to massage Minglan’s arms. As his two large hands moved up and down to rub her arms, he couldn’t help cursing anxiously. “… Haven’t you seen silvers before?”
“Haha, not the ones which are rewarded by His Majesty.” Minglan gasped, feeling her arms sore and painful, but didn’t dare to cry out. When she glimpsed at Gu Tingye, she found the latter wearing a gloomy face right now. Then she asked, “What’s wrong with the rewords from His Majesty.”
Gu Tingye said in a serious voice, “His Majesty is having a hard time right now. He really didn’t have to reward us so many precious gifts. I know about his difficulties.”
“I thought the funds in our national treasury were abundant.” Minglan said surprisedly. One of the biggest performances of the previous emperor was leaving a large amount of money in the Treasury.
“That’s only the numbers on paper.” Gu Tingye snorted, “His Majesty needs money on the garrison of the frontier on the north, the troops in southern area and the recovery work of the Huainan and Huaibei areas. In a moment like this, the Ministry of Revenue was not able to provide any money! Those useless bastards. The only thing they know is making fake accounts!”
“Then why didn’t His Majesty criticize them? Now everyone in our country assumes that our Treasury is filled with money.” The look on Minglan’s face also turned stern.
Gu Tingye snorted, “First, if His Majesty reveals the truth not long after he took the throne, it would be like he disrespecting our last emperor. Luckily, the three years of mourning for our last emperor is about to finished. Second…” He, not knowing how to explain the next things to Minglan, hesitated for a second.
“Second, during the first few years after His Majesty ascended the throne, he has to keep the nation steady. Let alone that His Majesty has stayed in the remote area for many years and doesn’t have any foundations in the capital. So it’s not a good choice to straighten out financial affairs right away.” Minglan said after him slowly, “Besides, dealing with mutineers like Lord Jing or Lord Tan is more urgent than fighting the corruptions at that time.”
Gu Tingye only felt his mind clear. As he slowed down his movements of rubbing Minglan’s tender and jade-like arms, he said in a low voice, “Since His Majesty is having a rough time now… let’s hold the feast in a small scale.”
Minglan nodded seriously.