Chapter 486: Krypton Gold Palace Struggle System (21)

Sitting in the carriage of the mansion, Xie Yang tilted her head to glance at the food box Ming Cui was carrying, and the corners of her mouth twitched speechlessly.

She is a consort in the inner palace, yet she is so stingy with the return gift to her maiden family? Just fobbing them off with a box of pastries from the Imperial Kitchen?

She is quick enough to accept the Silver given by her maiden family, yet her return gift is so shabby?

It seems that once bound to a Krypton Gold System, it is much like having a gambling addiction—one cannot keep money in one's pockets, and one cannot even afford to give return gifts.

Actually, if she were truly short on Silver, Xie Ping could completely use the various pills she krypton-golds out to trade with other concubines to earn money.

She could sell Strong Body Pills to frail concubines in the inner palace; sell Slimming Pills to concubines with endocrine disorders who get fat even from drinking water; and sell Childbearing Pills to those concubines with relatively low conception rates.

If she worries about other concubines giving birth to princes and competing with her, then she can just krypton-gold a Daughter-bearing Pill.

The old Emperor is not short on money, and he can certainly afford to raise a few more daughters.

But there are definitely many women in the inner palace who cannot conceive a Dragon Fetus; if they could spend a little Silver to bear children for the Emperor, they would certainly be willing.

In this way, she could earn money, solve the difficult problems of those concubines, and take the opportunity to win over a group of little sisters on the same front—more connections mean more paths, killing many birds with one stone!

Then she would not have to keep reaching out to her maiden family for Silver to krypton-gold.

She could completely achieve self-sufficiency.

Main System: 【...】

The Host's unique train of thought is about to burn out its CPU.

Not to mention, if it were its Host who entered the palace with a Krypton Gold Palace Struggle System, she might really turn the inner palace into a trading market and develop every single one of the Emperor's concubines into a trading partner.

If the Emperor discovered it and dared to grumble, the Host might just krypton-gold a Puppet Pill for him and rule from behind the curtain.

【...】

Oh my, I cannot think about it anymore, the CPU has crashed!

Xie Yang thought that besides Xie Ping, who was addicted to krypton-gold, the only other gossip around her was the bad luck of her cousin Xie Huan from the second branch, whose marriage negotiations had hit a snag.

Unexpectedly, just a few days after she finished attending her own brother's wedding feast, a massive piece of gossip about a real and fake daughter exploded from the second branch:

The sixth young lady, Xie Shu, is actually not the biological daughter of the second mistress, but the granddaughter of the second mistress's wet nurse.

Back then, the wet nurse held a grudge against the second mistress, blaming her for not remembering their old ties, stripping her son and daughter-in-law of their managerial authority over a trivial matter, and driving her whole family out of the mansion. So, when the second mistress was in labor, she bribed the midwife, snuck into the delivery room, took away the second mistress's daughter, and left her own granddaughter behind.

Thus, for these eleven years, the wet nurse's granddaughter has been enjoying life in the mansion, while the real sixth young lady has been suffering under the wet nurse's torment in the countryside.

Now, how was it discovered?

Xie Yang, holding the first batch of sweet melons sent from her mother's dowry Farm, asked while gnawing on one.

The third mistress just assumed the child was curious, and since this matter was not exactly a secret, she told it to her daughter as a story.

It turned out that for the sake of Xie Huan's marriage, the second mistress went to a temple to offer incense. On the way, a torrential rain began to fall, and the carriage got stuck in the mud and could not move, so she had to get out to find a farmhouse to take shelter from the rain. During this shelter, she encountered Liu Sanya, who was digging wild vegetables in the rain—who was none other than the real sixth young lady.

Liu Sanya's pair of Taohua eyes were a dead ringer for the second master's.

The second mistress thought the master had been keeping a mistress outside and had even given birth to an illegitimate daughter the same age as Xie Shu. Furious, she had no mood to offer incense anymore; she ordered the matrons to grab Liu Sanya, and after the carriage was pulled out of the mud, she dragged her back to the mansion to confront the second master.

The second master was extremely wronged, so he sent people to investigate.

This investigation pulled up the radish and brought out the mud, uncovering the truth—

Liu Sanya was not born of any mistress! She was simply the second mistress's own biological daughter!

Xie Shu was the fake who had occupied the magpie's nest!

Xie Yang was so full from eating this piece of gossip that her stomach was bloated.

Oh my, there is just too much gossip in the Duke Mansion!

It seems life in the mansion will not be lonely after all!

Anyway, over the past two years, she has traveled almost the entire Great Ye Dynasty.

She filled six Cargo Flying Vehicles, each with a cargo hold three times the size of a shipping container, to the brim, and whatever could not fit, she brought home under the name of "Saintess of a Thousand Faces."

The third branch's private treasury has expanded again and again because of this, and yet it is still nearly full.

Even if they were to split the family right now, the third branch's life would not be bad.

Furthermore, this place is close to the imperial palace, so if the Task target has any issues, it will not delay her from rushing over to recycle the Sub-system.

Thus, Xie Yang happily decided to stay in the mansion for the time being to eat gossip and watch the fun.

"Little sister, are you counting ants?"

This day, Xie Jue, holding a sugar figurine, came hopping and skipping to find his little sister, who was squatting in a corner of the garden. He stuffed the sugar figurine into her hand and squatted down just like her.

"Eh? There are no ants?"

"Shh! Don't be noisy."

Xie Yang was listening to the second master and his wife arguing in the East Cross Courtyard.

After all, listening to the Main System's broadcast is not as satisfying as eating the gossip in person.

"Master! What kind of nonsense are you spouting! Sanya... no! Chan'er is our daughter! Xie... Sun Shu, that little wretch, is the granddaughter of that poisonous woman who deserves to be hacked into a thousand pieces! Every time I think about how I raised her like a treasure for ten years, while our own daughter was being tormented in every way by that poisonous woman, I wish I could make her experience the life Chan'er had in the past. How can you still want to keep such a wretch?"

"Stop calling her a wretch! Where is your decorum as the mistress of the second branch of the Duke Mansion? Although Shu'er is the granddaughter of that poisonous woman, she has grown up at our knees since she was a child, and she has been sensible and well-behaved from a young age. We cannot judge her just because her biological parents' family acted maliciously.

Besides, that family has already met their own retribution in prison; if we send her back, she will be all alone and helpless. The mansion is not short of a meal for her, so why not keep her by our side? Chan'er has just arrived and is still very unfamiliar with everything in the mansion; having a sister of the same age to help her out, isn't that a good thing?"

The second mistress was practically going to vomit blood from the second master's words.

If the adopted daughter had nothing to do with that family, she might have agreed with the master's proposal.

But the key is that she is the granddaughter of that poisonous woman, and the dirty blood of that family flows in her veins. Not implicating the innocent and merely sending her back to the Sun family's ancestral home was already out of consideration for the past ten years of raising her. How could the master actually want to keep this little wretch?

The couple held their own opinions, neither willing to yield.

In the end, it escalated to the Old Matriarch.

The Old Matriarch naturally hated the Sun family to death; the bloodline of the Duke Mansion had almost been confused.

She gave the second son a harsh scolding and was just about to make the decision to send Xie Shu back to the Sun family's ancestral home, when she heard the second master say:

"Mother, please calm your anger! I have my own considerations for keeping Shu'er. The young heir of the neighboring Xuanping Marquis Mansion is a childhood sweetheart of Shu'er, and he has promised Shu'er that he will come to propose marriage once she reaches her coming-of-age ceremony."

"Isn't that perfect! Once that little bitch is sent away, this marriage alliance will be our Chan'er's," the Second Madam interrupted.

The Second Master laughed in anger: "Do you think the Xuanping Marquis Mansion values our family background? That they'd be satisfied with whoever marries into it? The young heir values Shu'er herself!"

"That little bitch has a lowly background; I don't believe the Xuanping Marquis Mansion would still be willing to come and propose if they knew the inside story."

"That is precisely why we must keep her in the mansion and treat her just as we always have. Others will only praise our Zhenguo Duke Mansion for being clear about gratitude and grudges. When she marries into the Xuanping Marquis Mansion one day, wouldn't it be good for you and me to have an heir as a son-in-law? Furthermore, with this marriage connection, Chan'er will certainly be able to find an even better match."

"..."

Unlike the Zhenguo Duke Mansion, which had seen its status decline for two consecutive generations, the neighboring Xuanping Marquis Mansion had not only avoided such a decline but had grown increasingly prosperous as their younger generation passed the provincial examinations one after another and rose to high official positions.

The Old Matriarch, who prioritized the interests of the Zhenguo Duke Mansion above all else, was the first to be persuaded.

Although the Second Madam felt as uncomfortable as if she had swallowed a fly, she had to admit that having the Xuanping Marquis Mansion as an in-law was indeed beneficial and harmless to the second branch—she still had two legitimate sons who needed to sit for the imperial examinations.

Xie Yang finished eating the gossip about the second branch with great relish, clapped her little hands, and brushed off her skirt: "Sixth Brother, let's go!"

"Where to? I haven't even finished watching the ants move house yet!"

"..."