Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan 知否知否 应是绿肥红瘦

C177. The Household Chores for a Madam (5)

After the lunch, Minglan touched her poor skinny body, feeling that it was necessary for her to have a rest and gain some weight. That would also help improve her endurance on the bed, right? Then she rolled into her bed while yawning right away. While she was in a daze, she was still recalling the things she had seen and thought over these two days one after another.

The cost of living was super high in the capital. Ever since Hai shi had married into the Sheng family, there had been ten of the masters and madams, three concubines, four Tong Fangs, which meant a total of seventeen hosts in the family. And the number of the servants including the maids, the elder female servants, the male servants and the stewards added up to fifty eight. After Hai shi had started to deal with the family affairs, Minglan had often helped take care of Quange'er. Sometimes she had been able to overhear a few words about the household spending. The yearly spending including the social expenses for a big family like the Shengs was around four thousand ounces of silver. Wang shi kept to a strict budget and Hai shi always encouraged frugality. Therefore, the income of Sheng family had always been enough and to spare. Including the profits which were brought by the manors and the stores of the Sheng family and the Fenli (T/N: Fenli means for salary in ancient times) from Youyang, Sheng family could save lots of money every year for the dowry of the younger generation.

As for Minglan's new home, Gu Tingye, as a second class official, earned one hundred and fifty ounces of silvers and sixty one dan rice per year (T/N: dan is a unit of dry measure for grain). However, the rice which was presented to the officials had been stocked for many years. Even the servants in the Sheng family didn't eat that. So normally, the rice would be converted into silvers in the rice store. Since Gu Tingye had another identity as a military officer, he had an extra income from the military supply, which was two hundred and twenty ounces of silvers. In short, Gu Tingye was able to gain a total of five hundred ounces of silvers every year. According to the tradition, there would also be Ice Presents and Charcoal Presents. (T/N: Ice Presents and Charcoal Presents are the presents which are given by the officials in the low level.)

According to the estate book in Minglan's hand, Gu Tingye possessed two manors next to the Yan Mao River in the suburb, one of which called Black Mountain Manor and occupied more than eighty acres of farmland. The other manor called Ancient Stone Manor and occupied the farmland which covered an area of hundreds of acres. What's more, the emperor had granted Gu Tingye the land on half of the West Mountain in the capital as well as a manor with hot spring. The profits of all those estates could add up to five thousand ounces of silvers.

PS: no commercial properties had appeared on the estate book yet.

On that day when Minglan had asked Gu Tingye how much money in the mansion was she able to spend, Gu Tingye hadn't given her a precise number. But he had mentioned that not only had Minglan been able to dispose all those real estates as she had wanted, he had also put fifty thousand ounces of silvers in the counting house for Minglan to spend. Also, he had claimed that if those money was not enough, Minglan could ask for more from him anytime.

Minglan, an illegal daughter who had only had one and a half ounces of silver as her monthly spend, now was able to dispose such a huge amount of money. Suddenly she felt herself having leaned on a moneybag. Suddenly, she would like to ask for three bowls of cubilose porridge every day. She would eat one of them, watch at one of them and pour the last one of them at the same time.

With such a small population in Gu's mansion, Minglan didn't even know how to spend that much of money! She had to kept reminding herself that she only had the right to use the money instead of the right to own it. So under no circumstances could she squander the funds... Nevertheless, could she take a small sum as the, eh, management salary?