On the Difficulties of Escape in Ancient Times

Chapter 436 Apology 4
After Li Yan's explanation, Xiao Xiao understood.

The dowry a woman receives when she gets married is considered private property. As long as she does not commit a serious crime such as confiscation of property and extermination of her family, the dowry belongs to her and not even her husband can touch it.

But after you marry into your husband's family and set up business, all that belongs to his family.

Now the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Gu family have registered the title deeds and land deeds of the cloth shop under their names. Even if they say it is their dowry, if it is exposed, it is still the property of the Gu family.

Furthermore, the actions of the Gu family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were most likely to be the result of secretly purchasing the property using ill-gotten gains.

"Both the cloth shop and the grain shop are very large, and they are connected to the warehouse and the courtyard where people live." Li Yan couldn't help but be curious: "I will have someone keep an eye on them and find out where the Gu family embezzled the money from."

Xiao Xiao poured cold water on him: "I heard from my sister-in-law that the Gu family was originally a famous grain merchant in Qi and Lu. Later, they sent their eldest daughter to the palace as a concubine, and then they all moved to the capital."

"Isn't it normal for grain merchants to be wealthy? It's possible that the Gu family hasn't split up yet, so Madam Gu wants to transfer some of the property first."

Li Yan gently squeezed her hand and whispered, "Fortunately, the emperor and the queen gave you two farms before, otherwise we don't know when we can separate the family, and we can't buy our own private property."

Now brown rice is five or six wen per pound, polished rice is about twelve wen per pound, pork is twenty wen per pound, and beef is fifty wen per pound.

He was the deputy commander of the Imperial Guards, and his monthly salary was nearly eighty taels of silver, which was not a small amount.

Of course, venison, green rice, and bird's nest are considered high-end items and are a bit costly.

However, Madam Li did not ask her eldest son to hand in his salary. They lived and ate for free, so Xiao Xiao could save half of his salary every month.

Xiao Xiao didn't have much ambition, so she wasn't in a hurry to start her own business: "As long as Madam doesn't do anything naughty, it's fine for us to do this."

Of course, even if Madam Li was causing trouble, they couldn't separate them.

It is an ancient saying that as long as parents are still alive, the family should not be divided.

In ordinary families, when there are too many children and grandchildren and there is no room for them to live in the house, they will split up.

There are also elderly people who would rather live in a crowded space than separate their children in order to control them.

The noble families like to stick together, and it is absolutely impossible for them to split up as long as their parents are still alive.

Unless Li Yan can achieve great merit and be granted the title of marquis, then he can move out with justification from the marquisate bestowed by the emperor.

But this is not easy. Look at Li Yan's biological father, who followed the emperor for half his life and made great contributions, but was not even given a title of nobility.

However, Xiao Xiao thinks that people should think positively. As long as her mother-in-law doesn't act like a troublemaker, her life will still be good.

Now I don’t have to support maids and old women myself, and I don’t have to worry about lack of food and clothing.

If the family split up, Li Yan's salary would barely be enough to cover the family's expenses.

Now the income from Haiweilou and the two farms awarded by the emperor and empress belong to her.

This can bring in nearly 10,000 taels of net income each year.

I have definitely become a rich, white and beautiful woman.

Xiao Xiao couldn't help but boast: "My husband, you are so lucky to marry a virtuous woman like me."

Li Yan also felt that he was indeed lucky: "Yes, I am most grateful that I can marry you."

He really thought so.

Before Xiao Xiao came into the family, the lady wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. He could hide away, but he was afraid that the lady would be angry with his aunt. He was in a dilemma. After Xiao Xiao married him, she didn't suffer much from the lady. Now she gets along well with the lady, and his aunt is also living a comfortable life.

The most important thing is that she gave me a family and now I am pregnant with my own child.

At this time, let alone praising her sincerely, Li Yan was also very willing to just flatter her.

Xiao Xiao thought he was being too reserved in his compliments, so she pinched his waist and said, "No, I feel like I'm a fairy riding on a colorful cloud, right?"

"Yes, yes, you are absolutely right, you are the fairy from the sky..." This was a bit of a challenge to Li Yan's acceptance, and he was a little unable to say it.

The person who said it blushed a little, but the people who listened to it smiled happily.

In the next few days, Xiao Xiao went to the charity hall every morning and found that there were hundreds of more people, all of whom were arranged by Yan's mother.

Now the craftsmen have started working. In order to ensure that the little girls will have no place to live, they are going to tear down a row of houses and re-dig the foundation. After building this row of new houses, they will tear down another row of old houses.

There were also more than thirty people behind him digging the smelly ditch deeper and wider.

Xiao Xiao also borrowed the embroiderers from the mansion and asked them to teach the maids how to tailor.

There are also teachers who teach embroidery and weaving.

They also issued strict regulations that required students to learn to read every morning and help with work within their capabilities in the afternoon.

It is possible that these little girls were previously ignored, despised, and not well fed or clothed.

Now that Xiao Xiao has taken over, she has ensured that the girls are well fed and clothed, and that they can learn to read and embroider. She has also built a new house for them. This makes the little girls very grateful to her, and they are particularly obedient.

In the blink of an eye, it was Li Ren's wedding day.

The house was filled with guests, and Xiao Xiao and Xiao Zhou also followed Madam Li to receive the distinguished guests who came to congratulate.

There were few female members in the Li family, and Xiao Xiao and Xiao Zhou were both pregnant, so Madam Li did not dare to give them too many orders and had to take care of them herself.

Only after the ceremony did Mrs. Li heave a sigh of relief and warmly invited all the female family members to sit down and start the feast.

In fact, there were only six tables of female relatives that she could personally entertain, including the wives of marquises, ministers, generals and old ladies.

Xiao Zhou and Xiao Xiao entertained a room full of grandmothers and girls.

Xiao Zhou was also a noble lady, and she took this opportunity to bring Xiao Xiao to meet many female relatives.

There were more grandmothers and girls, with twelve tables in total.

Among them were also the wives of some low-ranking officials, such as officials of the fifth or sixth rank, or the wives of some wealthy merchants.

Xiao Xiao's two elder sisters from her natal family, as well as Old Mrs. Jiang Liu and Mrs. Chen, all came.

After Xiao Xiao followed Xiao Zhou in toasting, she sat next to her mother: "I'm almost stiff from laughing so hard, and my stomach is revolting. I'm starving to death. I want to eat meat."

Liu picked up some braised pork for her, and Xiao Xiu scooped a bowl of tofu soup for her: "Then eat something to fill your stomach."

Xiao Lian also came over and asked, "Xiao San'er, I heard that you are now the chief steward of the charity hall? Or was it appointed by the Queen herself? And she also rewarded you with a lot of gold, silver and jewelry?"

The charity hall is also seriously short of people now. Xiao Xiao thought that she could fool as many people as possible, so she smiled at her and said, "The Queen Mother asked me to hire a few more steady and capable managers. Second sister, you and Sister Mo can also go to the charity hall to help."

"You'll get a monthly salary of ten taels of silver. If you do a good job, you'll get a reward from the Queen at the end of the year."