The Lucky Farmgirl

Chapter 2363: Chapter 2338: Showing Off

Zhou Liru rummaged out a box, hugged it and ran to find Manbao. "Little Aunt, this is what you were looking for."

Manbao took it over in high spirits, opened it for them to see, and said, "Look."

Mingda and Changyu couldn’t help letting out a "wow," their eyes shining as they stared at the gems in the box. They were two very large gemstones, much bigger than the ones in their own boxes.

Changyu picked up a red one and exclaimed in amazement, "You could make a phoenix crown with this."

Manbao nodded repeatedly. "Exactly! That’s what I thought when I saw them. When you get married, you can have them set into your phoenix crowns."

Changyu said, "You’re giving them to us? Forget it, you love money so much and you’re poorer than we are, how could we take your things?"

She generously said, "How much did you pay for them? I’ll buy them from you at that price."

Manbao laughed and said, "That would be expensive. I asked merchants from the Western Regions, and they said that a stone like this would cost at least a hundred bolts of brocade to trade for."

Not only Changyu, even Mingda’s mouth fell open.

Changyu reluctantly put it down, sighing with regret, "Then forget it, I can’t afford it for now."

Princesses can be poor too.

Manbao stuffed the red ruby back into her hand, then shoved the other blue one at Mingda, smiling as she said, "These are for you. I found these two gems in a bandit den. It was a mess back then, and Governor Duan doesn’t know about these things either, so I just picked first."

Holding the gem, Changyu couldn’t help asking, "Aren’t you going to get married too? Why don’t you keep them for yourself?"

Manbao said, "Gems this big need an enormous, lavish crown to match. I can’t carry that off."

Mingda couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing. After tucking the gem away, she asked, "What else did you take from the bandit den?"

"A great many things," Manbao said excitedly. "Just this one trip tripled my assets, and that’s not even counting how I took some goods into the Western Regions and let money make more money."

Changyu sighed. "No wonder so many people like to run to the Western Regions. Even with all those bandits, you can’t stop them."

Manbao thought for a moment and said, "It’s not that many people. On our way there we only ran into one caravan, surnamed You. It was quite pitiful—they were robbed by horse bandits halfway. After the bandits were wiped out, we sold the seized goods in Shazhou, and it was just enough for their traveling expenses and death benefits for the men who died in the fighting—no profit, that’s all."

Mingda said softly, "To come out not losing money after such an accident is already a great blessing."

"We all thought his luck was extremely good. Too bad that when we got back to Shazhou he had already left; otherwise, traveling back together we might have borrowed a bit of his good fortune."

Manbao also took them to see her private collection and the goods they brought back from the Western Regions. She first led them to her room, took out one big box after another and opened them for them to see. "These are all the things I picked out because I like them. I’m going to save them to have jewelry made for myself in the future, or leave them for my children and grandchildren, or use them as gifts someday."

Mingda laughed. "You’re thinking that far ahead already?"

"Of course," Manbao said happily. "That’s what they call ’if a man has no long-term worries, he’ll soon have near-term troubles.’ If you think farther ahead, then you won’t even have long-term troubles."

Only then did she lead them to the storeroom to see the chests piled inside. When they saw what was inside, Mingda and Changyu clicked their tongues. "So many gems and spices?"

Manbao nodded. "Big BoLv and Junior Bolu are at war, and rumors are rife over in the Western Regions that our Great Jin is done for, so the trade routes got cut off all at once. There are hordes of bandits on the roads. Quite a few merchants from the Western Regions got stuck in Xizhou, neither able to go home nor to get away."

"We brought a lot of cloth with us at the time and basically just bartered with them," Manbao said. "And jade and gemstones from around Xizhou and Kucha were even cheaper. As long as you had gold and silver you could buy them, never mind that we also brought some tea and cloth. It was only after this trip that I realized in the Western Regions, tea and cloth are even more solid than gold and silver."

She said, "With gold and silver you might not be able to buy anything, but with tea and pretty silks and brocades, you can definitely buy things."

Changyu listened with her eyes shining and asked, "Is your family really not planning to take the Western Regions route?"

Manbao shook her head. "The Western Regions are too far. A round trip takes a full year. Even now that the trade routes are open again, it’s still very dangerous. And my fourth brother hasn’t even gotten his business on the grasslands fully established yet, how could he go to the Western Regions?"

Changyu was skeptical. "If you could go, why can’t a grown man like him? Is it because there’s not enough money? That’s fine, I have some."

Mingda said, "Sister, if it was a money issue before, perhaps. But do you think Manbao is still short of money now?"

Changyu followed her gaze and looked at the things in the storeroom. What was here wasn’t actually worth as much as the things in their private treasury, but all of this was merchandise, easily turned into cash. Once converted into gold and silver it would be a huge sum, so Manbao’s family really wasn’t short of money.

Speaking purely of ready money, Manbao might actually be richer than Changyu.

Changyu could only stare wistfully at Manbao, her eyes full of grievance.

Manbao laughed and said, "You have to eat your meal one bite at a time, and walk your road one step at a time. Doing business is not like me going to the Western Regions on official duty. I had Assistant General Nie leading soldiers to protect us, government offices along the way looking out for us, and when we ran into bandits we could ask the governor to come out and wipe them out. A caravan on the road is far more at risk. Even if you want to go to the Western Regions, you have to take it step by step. Wait until my fourth brother has the route well in hand, then we’ll talk."

Hearing her tone soften, Changyu quickly asked, "So you’ve agreed to collude with—pah, I mean, cooperate with your fourth brother and me?"

Manbao and Mingda couldn’t help laughing. Manbao nodded. "I did agree, but when are you going to marry and open your own household?"

Changyu calculated the time. "At the earliest, it’d have to be after the Winter Solstice."

She had to come out of mourning first.

By that reckoning, there were still ten months to go.

However, while the wedding itself needed that much time, they could privately start discussing the match first and get things prepared.

The three of them huddled in the room whispering secrets. At noon, the kitchen prepared an especially lavish meal and set it directly in the open pavilion in the back garden.

They laid out four tables. Manbao and the others invited the princesses to take the main seats at a table by themselves, which was more comfortable that way.

Bai Shan ran over to sit at the same table as Old Madam Liu and the others. After whispering for a while, he ran back and said to Manbao, "Grandmother and Uncle Zhou and I have discussed it. We’ll schedule the family banquet for the fourth month."

"Hm?" Manbao lifted her head, puzzled.

Bai Shan explained, "I have to sit the Ministry of Rites and Ministry of Personnel examinations. We’ll wait until the results come out and then invite relatives and friends all at once; there’s no rush."

Only then did Manbao understand, and she nodded with no objections.

Entertaining relatives and friends was lively, but also exhausting, and the food at banquets wasn’t necessarily better than their daily meals, so she wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

Bai Shan, on the other hand, suddenly had a bit more to look forward to, because just now at the table Old Madam Liu had said, "That’s good too. When he passes the Ministry of Personnel exam and goes to ask for an official post, we should also mention the children’s marriage to the in-laws. Then we can inform our relatives and friends at the same time and, once we’ve picked a good date, invite them all to come drink wedding wine."