The moonlight tonight was rather good. This year's deep winter was a bit warmer than usual.
As the year drew to a close, the envoy from Dali arrived just around the time of the Lin Yuan Festival. In mid-January, it would be the lunar new year, and Yun Lan Street would once again be adorned with lanterns and decorations. If there was no wind that night, they could go explore the night market for the Spring Festival. She wondered if the Xinqiao River still had lights on.
Ji Jinmo hadn't thought about these things in a long time. He ate the food Nan Shiying placed in his bowl, thinking about taking her to the night market. He said, "The Lunar New Year is not far off. The manor will be lively then. Do you have any novel ways to celebrate the New Year?"
Nan Shiying seemed a bit lost in thought. This would be her first Spring Festival celebrated in Lin Yuan.
Ways to celebrate the New Year?
"Making dumplings and cooking yuanxiao?"
"Do your dumplings also contain copper coins?"
With the change of dynasties, she didn't know what the New Year's Eve activities were in Lin Yuan now.
Ji Jinmo nodded. "Yes, they do."
Nan Shiying didn't notice that the word "also" she had spoken actually revealed many issues. She was just thinking about the New Year. Ever since she ascended the throne, celebrating the New Year had lost its fun for her. It was merely sitting at banquets, surrounded by the few remaining imperial relatives, celebrating the year together.
The singing and dancing in the palace made her ears feel calloused. The aesthetic fatigue made her feel that there was no difference between a dancing girl and an ordinary palace maid.
It was the New Year celebrations a few centuries later that sparked her interest.
She asked many questions with a hint of curiosity.
After all, her memories of the New Year were always cold and lonely. Because Nan Shiying's fate was considered inauspicious, she never had a good New Year at the Nan manor.
She was not allowed to appear in any activities. Even on a day of family reunion and happiness like New Year's Eve, she could only huddle in her simple courtyard, eating food that Nanny Sun had bought for her with money saved from her own frugal living.
Even for New Year's Eve, she was still given leftovers.
Whenever she thought of those memories, Nan Shiying's mood would become somewhat irritable. Besides leaving her this physical form, the original owner had also packed all her memories and emotions and thrown them to her.
Thinking back to before, thinking of the Nan manor, Nan Shiying suddenly asked, "My lord, have people been sent to receive the shops that came with my dowry?"
Ji Jinmo paused while serving food, looking at her with a strange expression.
Nan Shiying blinked, not understanding his reaction. "What is it?"
Ji Jinmo smiled helplessly. "What respectable family would interfere with managing the shops brought by their wife as dowry? If people found out, they would be gossiped about!"
When a woman married into a husband's family, her dowry was kept in her private treasury, serving as a safeguard for her own financial resources. Apart from those unseemly scoundrels who coveted their wife's dowry, who else would interfere with their wife's dowry shops!
Nan Shiying blinked. She hadn't been married before and didn't quite understand.
Speaking of which, Ji Jinmo suddenly remembered something. He beckoned Thirteen and gave him an instruction. Thirteen nodded with a serious expression, his demeanor earnest and tense.
However, Nan Shiying felt that beneath his serious, earnest, and tense appearance, there seemed to be a hidden smile.
She couldn't figure it out!
Thirteen left quickly and returned even faster, carrying a rectangular wooden box as large as a food container.
Ji Jinmo did not take the box. Instead, he gestured for Thirteen to hand it directly to Nan Shiying. Nan Shiying took the box and opened it under Ji Jinmo's gaze.
The box was filled with property deeds, land titles, and shop documents.
Nan Shiying looked up at Ji Jinmo. Ji Jinmo said, "This box contains the deeds to all my properties, including several estates in the suburbs besides those in the capital. The account books for the shops are in the study. You..."
"No need. I won't look. Just keep it with you!" Nan Shiying refused three times.
Ji Jinmo's lips curved slightly. He hadn't asked Thirteen to bring the account books along, knowing she would be too lazy to look at them.
Nan Shiying felt the box in her hands was burning hot, eager to get rid of it. Now that it was handed to her, how could Ji Jinmo let her throw it back?
"Keep it with you for now."
"If you're too lazy to manage it, you can give it to Lu Wan."
Her refusal was blocked by Ji Jinmo before she could speak it. Nan Shiying had no choice but to nod. Wasn't she asking about her dowry shops? Why had it turned into Ji Jinmo entrusting his properties to her?
What was going on!
Nan Shiying got up and put the box away. Upon returning, she continued the previous topic. "So, the shops that came with my dowry are still being managed by servants from the Nan manor?"
"Where are the account books?"
Ji Jinmo rubbed his forehead. She was an expert in strategy and tactics, but when it came to matters of the inner court, she was rather clueless.
"Usually, shopkeepers reconcile their accounts at the end of the year. Go check your dowry chest; the account books from previous years should be inside. If not..." Ji Jinmo's voice turned cold. "Then we, as husband and wife, will have to go to the Nan manor and have a good talk with them."
Nan Shiying's eyes lit up. She was actually looking forward to the dowry chest not containing the account books. She called for Lu Wan. Lu Wan, without turning, went into the inner room, took a key from the dressing table, opened a cabinet, unlocked a drawer with the key, pulled out the account books and land and shop deeds, and handed them to Nan Shiying.
Nan Shiying looked at her.
Lu Wan said, "I organized your dowry into categories earlier. I found these deeds and account books. I thought these things shouldn't just be kept in the private treasury, so I took them out and locked them in the cabinet. If Your Highness hadn't asked today, I would have mentioned it to you in a few days. After all, it's almost the end of the year, and by my calculations, the shopkeepers should be coming to the manor to report their accounts."
Nan Shiying twitched her lips. These things were more troublesome than court affairs. She returned the account books to Lu Wan and said to her, "It's all yours now. You'll handle it."
Lu Wan accepted the order and locked these items, along with the property the master had given the princess, back into the drawer.
Then she bowed and took her leave.
As she was leaving, she said, "My lord, Your Highness, I have prepared the bathwater."
"Get lost!"
Nan Shiying felt that Lu Wan had definitely become too presumptuous. Ji Jinmo let out a laugh, earning him a glare from Nan Shiying.
"Eat quickly, and leave quickly after you're done!"
Nan Shiying pointed at the dishes on the table and unceremoniously issued an eviction notice.
Ji Jinmo completely ignored her, continuing to eat the dishes at a leisurely pace. For a late-night snack, the small kitchen had prepared some plum wine. It wasn't very strong and tasted excellent.
Nan Shiying picked up the wine cup and drank it down in one gulp.
This damned scoundrel!!