Chapter 5

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Taking advantage of the night, Shen Yao returned safely to her residence.

The hot water for bathing had already been prepared, and at this time Shen Yao did not need to run to her stepmother's place to put on a show of paying respects.

She early sent Chunhua to prepare what needed preparing, Shen Yao comfortably took a hot bath, then happily lay on the bed and fell asleep.

After sleeping a full night, outside it was already dawn.

Shen Yao, full of spirit, rose from the bed, and conveniently called Chunhua to serve her in dressing and adorning herself.

In one more day she would enter the palace, so today her schedule was still very tight.

"In a while, Chunxue from grandmother's side will send a batch of maids over.

Chunhua, you have served by my side for many years; this time entering the palace the situation is still unknown, your family and parents are all at the estate, so you need not follow me inside again."

Shen Yao looked at the young girl in the copper mirror, pinching the wooden comb as she tidied herself.

Chunhua was originally combing Shen Yao's hair; hearing her own young lady speak like this, she thought the other party was dissatisfied with her in her heart, and immediately knelt in fright to beg for mercy.

Shen Yao: …… Not to that extent, truly not to that extent.

Even though Shen Yao had experienced several worlds, she was not the kind of ruthless, murder-loving demon lord.

She waved her hand, signaling Chunhua to hurry up and stand, "It's not that you did anything wrong, merely that you are older in years; entering the palace would be bad for marriage.

Taking this opportunity, you can smoothly return to your parents' side to fulfill filial duty, and also complete the master-servant bond between us."

For a constant attendant of her rank, only one maid can be brought into the palace.

It's not that Chunhua is bad, merely that Chunhua is not the person Shen Yao wants.

Shen Yao patiently explained a couple of sentences, then reached out and took out a banknote of no small denomination and handed it to Chunhua, "Quickly keep it; when I enter the palace you will leave the mansion.

Although life in the Shen Mansion is wealthy, it cannot compare to the estate's leisurely ease."

Chunhua merely likes to protect herself wisely, and is not ungrateful to Shen Yao.

Shen Yao feels this is fine; she selects a usable maid to enter the palace, Chunhua who has cared for this body for over a decade takes the silver and returns to the estate to marry, and thus settles a karmic debt.

Shen Yao's handling counts as good; even though Chunhua misunderstood at first, but once her own young lady handed the banknote into her hands, including the subsequent matters also not being kept from her, Chunhua finally understood.

Turns out the young lady wasn't angry and driving her away; the young lady truly was considering her.

Chunhua, obtaining this result, was moved to a complete mess by Shen Yao's conduct.

She quickly rallied her spirits, first pledged a string of loyalty to Shen Yao, then energetically made preparations for Shen Yao's upcoming palace entry.

Shen Yao:?

Shen Yao didn't understand, but looking at Chunhua, clearly the other party wanted to express gratitude through action, so Shen Yao accepted it without ceremony.

Don't think that because she enters the palace with the rank of constant attendant, it is very relaxed.

Not necessarily so, because even as a constant attendant she can prepare some dowry; unless those originally palace maids who rose in rank, who don't bother with formalities and just carry a bundle and go, for a consort like Shen Yao who entered via the imperial selection, the higher the rank, the more dowry she can bring into the palace.

With Shen Yao's current rank, she can bring three large chests of dowry into the palace.

Originally, the Shen family prepared only some ordinary gold and silver jewelry and fabrics, calligraphy and paintings, counting as the standard operation of an ordinary official family.

But since last night, Shen Yao had a long talk with her cheap grandmother Ji Shi, and Shen Yao's dowry became richer than before.

The richness here refers to things like antiques and jade that can be stored for a long time and also display the clan's ancestral heritage.

Although three large chests are not many, each contains fine pieces; totaled up the silver value easily exceeds ten thousand taels.

Chunhua led the small courtyard's servants to bustle about, and conveniently registered every item inside the ledger, not missing even a single silver hairpin.

"Young Lady, this is the relevant account book; when you enter the palace, it can be used for comparison and verification."

At the same time, it also prevents others from embezzling the family's things and then being unable to find them.

Shen Yao gave an "mm" sound, accepted the account book, then asked about the arrangements on the stepmother's side.

You must know this afternoon she still needs to communicate with this body's current birth mother; although the birth mother is not many years older than her, women before marriage have always been so; the only strangeness can only be the Shen family's oddity.

Chunyu, hearing Shen Yao mention the stepmother, had a momentary stiffness of expression; although she concealed it quickly, it was still discovered by Shen Yao.

Mm, there's still something else inside this?

Chunyu carefully said, "Young Lady, Madam is busy with affairs, and has already sent people to deliver the things over."

The implication being, there is no need to go over and make a formal visit.

Shen Yao: ……

Heh

Shen Yao gave a light laugh, her whole face blooming like a flower opening.

Looks like this stepmother of hers is also quite interesting; she herself has been back for several months, and besides the first and fifteenth, she truly hasn't seen this person much.

Mm, since she doesn't want excessive entanglement with herself, then let it be.

"Bring the things over; since Mother's side is busy with affairs, I won't add further disturbance here."

Anyway, the two of them are merely a plastic face relationship; whether they meet or not, the influence is not great.

Chunhua, hearing Shen Yao's words, relaxed in her heart; good, good, she almost thought her own young lady would be dissatisfied.

Turning around, she brought a purple sandalwood box locked with a copper ingot before Shen Yao's eyes; Chunhua retreated several steps, ensuring she could not see clearly the contents of the box before stopping.

Shen Yao, looking at Chunhua's tacit understanding behavior, thought in her heart this person is truly not bad; as a slave she is also sufficiently clever and quick-witted, but just likes to consider herself too much; compared to those loyal-to-the-death slaves, she is very unlikable.

The two of them, master and servant, stand on opposite interests in this aspect, so Chunhua's exit and Shen Yao finding another is an inevitable matter.

Without overthinking Chunhua's matter, Shen Yao picked up the exquisite key at her side, with a click opened the copper lock, and took out the things laid flat inside.

Mm, banknotes, two picture albums, other than that there wasn't much else.

The banknotes came in large and small denominations, totaling exactly five thousand taels.

It was private money for a proper legitimate daughter's marriage; after all, they were the Shen family, a small gate small household, and a concubine-born daughter going out would only have three thousand taels. Shen Yao could both prepare a decent dowry and have a thousand taels of banknotes on her person—the Shen family indeed treated her well.

As for the remaining two picture albums, they were Spring Palace Pictures unique to this era.

After all, entering the palace was to serve the Emperor; Shen Yao's body was still that of an innocent maiden, and receiving Spring Palace Pictures from a legitimate daughter before marriage was a normal operation.

If Shen Yao's birth mother were still alive, this would be the time for her birth mother to appear and teach her, opening her mouth to instruct her on how to serve a man.

Casually flipping through two pages, Shen Yao once again put the things away and locked them up.

It was not that she felt shy; it was entirely because she was now pressed for time and had no time to look.

Besides, she could claim to be experienced in a hundred battles, yet this Spring Palace Picture was still painted too reservedly and was not pleasing to look at.

"Take it to the Inner Room and place it beside the package; bring it along together tomorrow when entering the palace."

After Shen Yao finished speaking, she herself stood up and walked out of the room.

"Young Lady, the kitchen has prepared the Morning Meal; would you like to dine now?"

Chunhua came to Shen Yao's side, her gaze sweeping to the servant carrying a food box not far from the doorway.

Shen Yao raised her hand to shield her eyes, carefully feeling the sunlight falling on her body, "Mm, set out the meal."

Chunyu nodded, "Yes, Slave Understands."

The meal in the food box was quickly laid out; Shen Yao washed her hands with the copper basin, then sat down and ate a Morning Meal complete in color, fragrance, and taste.

Sigh

One had to say, perhaps because she was about to enter the palace, these days her treatment in the Shen Mansion was indeed good.

Whether it was eating, drinking, or daily use, it far exceeded the treatment a legitimate daughter should have.

Tsk, could this be the so-called Death Row Meal?

The people of the Shen Family were indeed interesting.

Rubbing her wrist, watching Chunyu clear the table, Shen Yao pondered that she still had to continue making transactions with the system this afternoon if she had time; nowadays the Great Jing Dynasty's Imperial Palace was complex, and she wanted to peacefully give birth to offspring and successfully raise them, which would absolutely not be cheap.

"Young Lady, Chunxue from Lady Lao's side has come, bringing a group of maidservants behind her."

Chunyu quietly said a sentence to Shen Yao, then helped Shen Yao up, and the two, mistress and servant, came to the doorway.

Chunxue had already led the people to line up and stand in the Small Courtyard; seeing Shen Yao come out, she smiled especially warmly, "Shen Family Eldest Daughter, these maidservants were all carefully selected by Lady Lao for you; please, Shen Family Eldest Daughter, look them over."

Hearing this, Shen Yao first smiled and thanked her grandmother for her kindness, while she herself let Chunyu support her, slowly coming before the Wedding Guests.

"Miss Chunxue, these were all selected by grandmother?"

After walking around in a circle, Shen Yao nodded with satisfaction in her heart; judging by outward appearance alone, Ji Shi had put in considerable effort.

These women all had proper features but were not beautiful; even if they later entered the Imperial Harem, they would not have any capital for her to play a hand of backstabbing.

After all, power and influence move hearts; after entering the palace and witnessing the glory and wealth within, who could guarantee that the current peaceful state of mind would not change?

Shen Yao did not dislike people who considered her, but she did not like people who schemed against her.

Chunxue bowed her body, with a respectful expression on her face, "All have been seen by Lady Lao."

The potential meaning in the words was that these people were all usable, and one need not worry that they would be spies or agents from some household.

Hearing this, Shen Yao made an 'en' sound and nodded, then herself asked a few questions, and pointed to people to answer.

Until everyone had spoken once, Shen Yao finally selected a woman named Qiu Yue to come out.

"Just her."

Qiu Yue, upon hearing this, hurriedly stepped forward and knelt to kowtow in thanks.

The others not selected were somewhat disappointed, but fortunately all restrained their emotions and did not let loose in front of Shen Yao.

Seeing that Shen Yao had decided on a person, Chunxue hurriedly smiled and handed the wooden box that Lady Lao had entrusted to her to Shen Yao, while she herself took the remaining few people and left.

"Chunhua, first take Qiu Yue to get accustomed; if there is anything, come find me."

Shen Yao held the Purple Sandalwood Box in her hand, which was smaller by a circle than before, paid no attention to the two people beside her, and herself turned around and entered the room.

Sitting beside the Eight Immortals Table, Shen Yao opened the wooden box; as expected, inside were still some banknotes.

Besides the banknotes, there were also several beautiful Jade Pendants and several beautiful Gemstone Hairpins.

Shen Yao took the things out and counted them carefully; she suddenly discovered that when a woman married, the private funds prepared by her natal family were truly not a little.

Eight thousand taels of banknotes and several Jade Pendants and Gemstone Hairpins worth a city.

Hiss

This Cheap Grandmother of hers was truly wealthy.