The bear child of the Red Chamber, Jia Cong

It is said that Mrs. Xu couldn't help but order her third daughter-in-law, Yao, to take over the family's accounts.Yao's family is mediocre, and only a small village is considered property in the dowry. In the past two years, he has made some money translating Sanskrit materials for Qin Keqing.She is sincere when she says she doesn't manage accounts.It's just that the account books are piled up on the desk like a hill, and it won't work if you don't read them.Qiang looked at it for a while, and the child in the wing room suddenly burst into tears.As if he had received an amnesty, Yao shi left the account book behind and ran to the next door.The two maids laughed dumbfoundedly.That night, relying on the child's clinginess, Yao never looked at the account books again.

Early the next morning, the daughters-in-law came to Yao's courtyard to answer questions one after another, and Mrs. Xu even sent two useful housekeepers to help her.Yao shi was confused by what he heard, and in the end, he simply pushed the matter to the two women in charge.After talking for less than a stick of incense, the wet nurse came in with the baby in her arms and said, "Master is looking for mother", Yao immediately left the others behind.Xi smiled and carried the child away.The woman in charge yelled several times behind her, but she just pretended not to hear it.The two women had no choice but to help her deal with things.Yao shi was really cheeky and never returned to the hall.

The mother-in-law went back to Mrs. Xu and said: "The third grandma didn't want to take care of the account, so she ran away after finding an excuse."

Mrs. Xu closed her eyes and twirled her rosary for a long time, and said: "The housekeeper has always worked hard, so it's not surprising that she doesn't want to be tired. It's only the first day, and it will be over in two months." The old woman looked at each other and answered "Yes". And retreat.

Yao shi finally waited until those people left, and heaved a sigh of relief.The servant girl smiled for a while, and said, "Grandma, it's not a problem if you go on like this."

"That's not it." Yao said sadly, "I don't know what to do either."

Then he went back to the house and wrote a letter to his best friend "Miss Nie" asking for help.She has been a Sanskrit translator for the Palace Museum for more than a year, and she has written letters with researcher Nie Chunduo and is very close.Between the pen and paper, I feel that this person is quite stable and dignified, and he should be older than himself.Nie Chun once mentioned that there is only one old father in his family, so it is known that he is not married yet.Yao shi thought, Miss Nie probably delayed her marriage because she was obsessed with learning.Today, encountering such troublesome and hard-to-get rid of accounting management, Yao immediately thought of Miss Nie.

After sending someone to deliver the letter, Yao Shi felt at ease and waited for someone to give her advice, and coaxed her son to play.About an hour and a half later, the little girl He Xiaonan who usually helped her deliver materials came again.Yao flipped through it, and there was a note inside, which was Nie Chun's reply.

Nie Chun's meaning is quite simple.When managing accounts within a big family, one is afraid of spending money indiscriminately, and the other is afraid of people who don't know the root cause spreading rumors indiscriminately.Since there are rumors that the income cannot make ends meet, it is probably necessary to ask for some titles.It's just that if you scatter the breath indiscriminately, you may be suspicious.If not, the accounts will be made public.How much is the monthly income, how much is the current expenditure, the number is clear at a glance.Discuss with Mrs. Xu and sister-in-law and sister-in-law which item to keep.Since Yao shi himself doesn't want to take care of the account, why can't he pick out an interested and talented one from his sister-in-law?Just throw it to her and it's over.

This idea is really unreliable, Yao held the paper in a daze: According to Nie Chun's usual letters, it doesn't look like such a messy master.He Xiaonan asked: "What is Ms. Yao doing in a daze?"

Yao Shi said: "It's nothing." After thinking for a while, he said, "Xiao Nan, what do you think is the reason why a person who is used to acting prudently suddenly becomes outrageous?"

He Xiaonan said casually, "I don't want to do that anymore."

Yao's eyes lit up: "So it's because of this!" Unknowingly smiled, "What did I say?" Then he packed up the materials, chatted with He Xiaonan some more, and sent her away.

Yao Shi then ordered the servant girl to get a big wooden plank.The servant girl said: "Grandma is making things difficult for me? White eyebrows and red eyes don't make furniture, where can I get wooden boards?"

Yao said: "If you don't have it in the mansion, call it. Find a carpenter's shop, ask him to take the cheapest fir wood to make a plank, and then build a shelf for me."

"The shelves are also made of fir?"

"Yes. If there is cheaper wood, it will be the cheapest anyway." The servant girl smiled and left.Yao found out the abacus and flipped through the account books to calculate the number.

After a while the servant girl came back and said: "Go back to grandma, the carpenter said that fir is the cheapest. If grandma wants something cheaper, he will make it for you with scraps. I agreed."

"Good job." Yao shi checked the account book and said.

The maid said: "Grandma, it's just that the things made in this way are not strong."

Yao said: "Anyway, it's just for pasting a few sheets of paper, and it's not strong enough to paste the paper assembly. I've used it once and probably won't use it again."

"So that's how it is. Grandma said that a long time ago, and I already understood." Yao Shi was in a good mood, and gave her a look.

Three days later, Mrs. Yao went to greet Mrs. Xu, and said with a lowered hand, "Thanks to Mrs. Meng, who thinks highly of my daughter-in-law and entrusts me with the important task of housekeeper. My daughter-in-law has been having trouble sleeping and eating these few days, as if a knife is hanging above her head."

Mrs. Xu smiled and said: "I have heard that you have never left your account books these days, and you don't hesitate to ask people for advice. It's very good."

Yao shi lowered her head: "It's just to check some figures. Today, my daughter-in-law has encountered a big problem. I really don't know how to deal with it. I ask my wife for advice and discuss it with my second sister-in-law and a few girls."

Mrs. Xu said: "You are the housekeeper, discuss with others what to do."

Yao shi said: "We must discuss it with everyone. Otherwise, the daughter-in-law has no way to deal with it."

Mrs. Xu frowned, and said after a while: "Since that's the case, tell us about it."

Yao Shi was overjoyed and saluted: "Mrs. Xie!" Then he said to everyone, "I can't explain it with empty teeth, so I made a chart these days for everyone to have a look."

The two maids beside her worked together to bring in a fir shelf and put it in front of the hall, and put a huge wooden sign on top of it.Second Mistress smiled and said: "What a big shelf! What a fresh brand!" Yao looked at her and smiled.

A large piece of white paper was pasted on the wooden signboard with words on it.The girls and grandmas all stretched their heads to look, and some murmured.Pointing at the paper, Yao said, "Our family has a big problem right now, that is, we can't make ends meet. The total income last month was three hundred—"

Mrs. Xu immediately slapped the case again and yelled, "Shut up!"

Yao Shi was taken aback: "Madam?"

Mrs. Xu pointed at her with trembling arms: "I thought you were a sensible person, but you are so confused? Can the accounts of the mansion be spoken and heard?"

Mrs. Yao turned her head and looked at her sister-in-law and sister-in-law, "Aren't these all from my family?" Mrs. Xu took the case again, more serious than before.Yao said again, "If you don't make it clear to everyone, how can you discuss it?"

Mrs. Xu shouted: "I was asking you to be the housekeeper, what are you discussing?"

Yao said: "It's so hard to make ends meet, so naturally we have to lose many items, otherwise it will be difficult to settle the accounts. If we don't discuss with everyone, which ones are not to be paid? Madam, you don't know, the current way of spending money in our house is absolutely impossible. If you can get rid of three or five items that are not painful or itchy, you have to get rid of a lot of them."

Mrs. Xu made another case, more serious than the previous two: "What does the housekeeper's wife do? Isn't it just to let you straighten out these things?"

Yao Shi became anxious: "No matter what I do, I won't be able to get in less money and out more money! Could it be that money will fall from the sky?"

Mrs. Xu threw out the crutch in her hand, and it hit Yao's feet with a "bang".Yao shi was startled, looked up at her mother-in-law who was almost overwhelmed, at a moment she didn't know what to do, so she turned to Second Mistress for help.Second Mistress shrank her head, fearing that someone would see her.

There are four girls in Xu's family, two of them are concubines, and the other two are concubines.The third girl is 14 years old this year, she stepped forward and said: "Madam, since the matter has come to this point, we can no longer hide it. What the third sister-in-law said is not unreasonable. Since the family is facing difficulties, it is better for the whole family to work together to overcome this difficulty. "

Two maids beside Mrs. Xu were rubbing her chest.After a long while, he sighed: "How do you know... In the early years, your grandfather was still serving as the servant of the official department, and his family was well-off. He said, your father is a scholar and is not good at management. , collecting rent to live. Since the female prime minister came back from overseas two years ago, she changed the policy of land tax in spite of public complaints. Many slaves escaped. Even if we reduced the rent, we couldn’t find so many tenants. Who knows...the imperial court didn’t give them any kindness, so they really fined them with taxes. We had no choice but to sell a lot of land.” Nai shed tears, "Why did the Xu family fall into such a state?" When she cried, all the daughters-in-law, concubines, granddaughters, maids and mother-in-law in the room cried along with her.

Miss Xu San couldn't help but shed tears for a while, she said: "The family business is so difficult, it is all carried by the wife alone, it is hard for the wife." Mrs. Yao also stood beside the wooden sign and pretended to wipe her tears with a handkerchief, secretly in her heart. Thinking: In the past few years, the elder sister-in-law has been in charge of the accounts, what does it have to do with the wife...

Mrs. Xu sighed: "You are all children, innocent and innocent, how can I let you know these things."

Miss Xu San said: "It's our blessing that my wife loves us. It's just... why does my wife come to bear it by herself? Baba is a source of complaints. Now that everyone knows it, why don't we discuss it? It's not a way to sit and eat, it's really a good idea." Open source and cut expenditure is what it is.”

Mrs. Xu nodded and said: "Very true." She stared at Yao Shi, "You only know that you have to pay for the expenses, but you don't know that you can pay for everything, so how can you get the rest? Only open source."

Yao Shi hurriedly said: "Next year will be Chunwei. The third master writes the best articles, and he will definitely be able to go to high school. At that time, the family will have an extra salary."

Mrs. Xu hummed: "According to my son's learning, Jinshi and the degree are not a problem. It's just that you will be fine if you are in the middle? There are so many Jinshi in each subject, there are no officials to do too much. Don't use some money to buy joints. , where it will be his turn."

Yao shi quickly shut his mouth, lowered his hands and head.Mrs. Xu just looked at her, her eyes, nose and mouth.On the contrary, Miss Xu San said softly: "Sister-in-law three, I heard that you met some very capable female hostess at the charity meeting?"

Yao thought for a while: "It's about Dong Qin's family. I only talked about things in Sanskrit with her. Our family is a family of poets and books, and it's not a businessman. Naturally, I don't talk about anything else with her. "

Mrs. Xu sighed and said: "That being said... there is nothing to be done in this realm. What kind of merchants are not merchants? Hasn't the imperial court removed their merchant status? Merchants are also good people."

Yao frowned slightly, and said: "I'm afraid... our third master won't agree." Mrs. Xu was so anxious that she choked to death!She went on to say, "If the master agrees, there is nothing the third master can do. Why don't you persuade the master, madam?"

Mrs. Xu got annoyed, picked up the teacup on the desk and threw it at Yao's feet.Yao Shi was startled again: "Ma'am!"

Mrs. Xu pointed at her and shouted: "Get out!" Yao turned to look at the wooden sign.Mrs. Xu yelled again, "Get out!" Mrs. Yao saluted hastily, not even the shelf and the wooden sign, and walked away.As soon as he stepped over the threshold, Mrs. Xu shouted behind him, "Get out!"

Yao Shi shivered, and shouted in a low voice: "Run!" and led the two maids to run away.When the girls and grandmas came out from behind, they could only see the backs of their three masters and servants flashing past the turning like civet cats.

There was no one else in the room, and Mrs. Xu smashed the teapot again.After a long while, he scolded: "It's smelly and hard! It's not as sensible as the old master!"

Yao shi returned to her home, covered herself with a quilt and smiled enough for a cup of tea.The two servant girls already understood what was going on, one supported the edge of the bed and the other the chair, both of them laughed until their stomachs ached.The three of them finally stopped laughing, and ordered the nurse to bring the young master over, and everyone watched him play, and then laughed again.

After a while, a servant girl hummed: "I want grandma to help them earn money, and I also want grandma to carry the name of a merchant on her back. It's a good plan!"

Yao said leisurely: "More than that. They also hope that I will quietly take over this matter without telling anyone. The door is mine, the strength is mine, and the blame is mine. They just want to enjoy the benefits. The one who swallowed the front teeth?" The maids laughed again.Yao shi let out a long breath, "Anyone who can read the wooden sign today can understand it. I won't give it to me again."

Another servant girl said: "Grandma, I probably escaped this time... I'm afraid that if the wife doesn't give up, there will be another time."

Yao Shixu held his son's soft paw and said: "I'm not afraid no matter how many times. I just push the third master on the head. If the third master doesn't agree, I will never dare to do it."

That said: "What if the third master agrees?"

Yao Shi snorted: "Your third master may not know me, but I know him clearly. He is a gentleman and happy to be poor. If he agrees, unless the sun comes out from the west!"

As soon as the words were finished, a woman came in and said, "Grandma, the wife sent two mothers to pick up the booklet, saying it was for the second grandma."

I saw two women in charge walking in with sullen faces like Vajra Bodhisattvas in the temple.Yao said happily: "It's all there! Take it, take it! Take it all!"

The servant girl smiled and said, "Amitabha, these things can be regarded as taken away! Our grandma can sleep peacefully tonight."

The woman in charge looked at her for a long time, but she really didn't know what to say, so she ordered the daughter-in-law following behind with a dark face to take away the account books.

There was a naughty maid who quietly followed behind to watch the excitement.After a while, she bounced back and laughed, "Grandma! The second grandma is sick!"

Another maid hurriedly said, "Grandma, can we pretend to be sick too?"

"No need." Yao waved his hand and said, "The designation has fallen into the hands of the third girl." Nai stretched her waist comfortably, "Children are not sensible. Everyone shrinks, but she stretches forward. ask for trouble."