Chapter 49: Nothing Left

Pei Wanyue could not understand. Xie Qiao had never met them, right?

Why did she seem so close to them after chatting for a little bit?

Pei Wanyue thought about it and seized the opportunity to speak. “I lost my silver pieces when we were picking up Sister Qiao. Sister Xi’er, I prepared quite a sum of silver pieces for you. It’s unfortunate that I can’t give them to you now…”

Xie Xi lifted her head to look at her. Her eyes were pure.

“You lost money? How much did you lose?” Xie Pinggang frowned.

Ms. Lu had been away during that period. It was impossible to depend on his father to check the ledger, so he had been doing that.

He had a rough idea of how much money the family had.

When Ms. Lu had gone out, she had taken 5,000 taels of silver with her.

His father and his salary were rather complicated. As officials that did not partake in bribery, after spending on food and miscellaneous things, the duo’s annual income would only come up to hundreds of taels of silver.

Naturally, that excluded the income from the fields they had been given, rewards, and the villages and stores they owned. They depended on those properties’ income every year.

The family had three villages and some ten stores. They did not run them themselves, so they were all rented.

Those fortunes could not be compared with other people.

His father refused to meet anyone, so he had never been given any gifts. He had started all of the stores with the little money that he was left with back then.

Apart from those family properties and the items in the storeroom, the available silver at home was less than 20,000 taels in total.

It seemed a lot, but Ms. Lu had taken 5,000 taels.

After spending 5,000 taels for his eldest sister to get into the academy, they would only be left with 10,000 taels.

10,000 taels were quite a lot, but it depended on how one utilized them.

There would be money and gifts involved between officials. His father would spend 150 taels of silver while he would spend 100 taels every month they went socializing.

He had a brother and sister below. Each of them got 20 tales of silver as allowance each month, excluding the expenses of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

As the mistress, Ms. Lu would control the money at home. She had no monthly allowance in the past. However, when Xie Pinggang had checked the ledger, he had found out that Ms. Lu spent approximately 300 taels of silver each month. Among them, quite a sum was to subsidize his brother, and some were to buy clothes and accessories.

Apart from that, they would have to pay for the food at home, the monthly salary for the servants, money to keep the horses, the house’s expenses, clothes of four seasons, as well as feeding the Xie family’s old lady, the other wives, and the other family members…

They would have to spend over 1,000 taels of silver in total per month. And that was the amount from being thrifty.

They would usually only receive the money from the villages and stores once a year. Therefore, the 10,000 taels would have to last for a year.

It seemed insufficient now.

If something major happened in between…

For instance, having to keep Pei Wanyue and pay for her pass into the academy…

Xie Pinggang frowned hard as he thought.

“She only lost 200 taels of silver. It was a crowded place with all sorts of people. She had never thought her purse would be gone as she walked.” Ms. Lu smiled, looking calm.

Xie Pinggang nodded upon hearing that.

Indeed, 200 taels were not considered much.

“Oh yeah, does Mother have any money left from your trip this time?” asked Xie Pinggang.

Ms. Lu was stunned and then looked away. “The mountains were high, and the journey was long. I needed to spend quite a lot along the way. It was hard to have anything left.”

Xie Pinggang was rendered speechless once again, and his eyelids twitched.

Hard to have anything left!?

It was 5,000 taels, not 500 or 50 taels!

She had only brought over 20 people with her during the trip. Even if everyone luxuriously ate meat and vegetables every day, one to two silver pieces should be enough.

It was only a little over 100 days, so would 2,000 taels not be enough?

He thought Ms. Lu should be able to save half of the money she had brought for the trip even if she was being a spendthrift!

Pei Wanyue said immediately, “Don’t blame Mother, eldest brother. When we were in Liaozhou, Mother got me some good stuff seeing that I was dressing and eating poorly…”

That was right—everything she was wearing was brand new, from head to toe!

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