Zhu Lie stared at the account book in Ye Yunting's hand with a heart-wrenching expression, looking very eager.
Ye Yunting felt a little hot while holding the account book.
He glanced at Li Fengqi, a little unsure if he meant what he said, or if he was just using him as a shield to repel Zhu Lie.
"It's useless to keep all the money in the palace and not lend it out. Let me borrow the sum…" Zhu Lie still refused to give up. This was a hundred thousand taels of silver. If you don't want to give it all, how about sharing some of the sum? If that's still no good, lend some out to be used first.
The Governor's Mansion was so poor, how could the prince favor one over the other?
Li Fengqi sneered and saw through his little thoughts. "If I lend it to you, can you still pay it back? In the past years, there was no record of any debits in my private treasury. Have you ever paid anything back?"
The Governor's Mansion was not always so poor. Occasionally, it had a surplus of funds, but Zhu Lie never replenished Li Fengqi's private treasury.
In the past, it was fine since there was no one in the palace. Now, he had a family, and he naturally had to take care of his family.
As soon as he heard that Li Fengqi was going bring up old accounts, Zhu Lie's longing eyes suddenly froze. He rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "Aren't the Governor's Mansion and the Prince's Palace considered all one family? Why do things need to be calculated so clearly?"
In the past few years, Zhu Lie had been managing the affairs of the Governor's Mansion, and the most common thing he did was to renege on debts. His face had been tempered with time, and he said this with no guilt.
Had Li Fengqi's legs and feet already been healed, he would have kicked him directly.
"I think you're itching for something." Li Fengqi sneered.
Zhu Lie stepped back while tugging on Wu Geng, trying to find an ally. "I have no choice, right? It costs money to raise soldiers."
Wu Geng, who was standing next to him, silently slapped his hand away, ignored his angry and accusing gaze, and stood behind Li Fengqi.
He felt that Zhu Lie was not in his right mind to actually say that Wangye was in debt in front of Wangfei.
Wasn't he making the prince lose face?!
He'd be lucky if he didn't get beaten up.
Zhu Lie, who was alone and unable to get any money in the end, was afraid of being beaten by Li Fengqi, so he reluctantly slipped away.
Ye Yunting looked amused, but also worried. "The Northern Border is so short of money. Does Wangye really not care?"
The hundred thousand taels of gold and silver in this account book were obtained for free.
Li Fengqi raised his eyes and looked at him with a smile in his eyes. "If you give it to Zhu Lie, the palace's books will be emptied out. Besides, he can also get funds from somewhere else, it's just easier to get it from me. I spoiled him." He slowly said, "It's not like how it was before, after all. Now, I'm a man with a family. There's a large family to support."
Ye Yunting's ears felt warm again when he heard him say "I'm a man with a family". He touched the account book in his sleeve and murmured, "The house's daily expenses aren't usually large…"
Moreover, the entire palace only had three masters, so how could he use the term "large family" for them?
Li Fengqi clicked his tongue. "No matter the size of the expenses, your accounts shouldn't run out of money." He patted Ye Yunting's arm and warned, "The account book and the warehouse key will be handed over to the Young Master for management. If they continue to be left with Zhu Lie, I'm afraid they will be emptied out in a few days." He also nodded at Wu Geng again: "Wu Geng also worked with the old steward of the palace before, so you can ask him to help you."
Wu Geng nodded when he heard the words. "If there is anything that Wang Fei wants to do, just give the command."
The two of them were singing in unison, and Ye Yunting couldn't push back anymore. He could only agree to it, and collected the account books and warehouse keys in a daze.
…
After the two of them inspected the treasury, they went their separate ways to their own businesses.
Li Fengqi still had to deal with official duties, so he went to the study with Wu Geng. Ye Yunting returned to the main room with the account book and keys. Although it was a bit abrupt for Li Fengqi to suddenly hand over the palace's accounts to him, since he agreed, he naturally had to live up to Li Fengqi's trust.
Ye Yunting carefully looked through the accounts. Ji Lian was waiting beside him, staring speechlessly at the numbers on the accounts. "So much silver and farmland. Will the Young Master take care of all these in the future?"
He had never seen so much silver in his life!
What prosperity!
His staring eyes were like bronze bells on his round, chubby face. Ye Yunting was amused by him. "Handing the management over to me doesn't mean that everything belongs to me."
Ji Lian scratched his head and muttered in confusion. "But I think in the past, the Madame was in charge of the accounts in the Duke's mansion, so she could take whatever she wanted."
In his opinion, when Prince Yong'an handed over the palace's accounts and warehouse keys to his young master, it meant that he gave the young master the command of the family estate.
Since he was in charge of the household accounts, he could naturally use the money as he liked!
They had money!
Ji Lian was beaming with joy.
Ye Yunting wanted to explain some things to him, but then realized that what he said seemed to make some sense. If they were an ordinary couple, being the main wife of the household and managing the accounts naturally meant being in charge of the household. But his situation with Li Fengqi was different. They might be husband and wife in name, but in fact they were just cooperating for the time being. Li Fengqi handed over the account books to him only because there was no one in charge of the accounts in the house, so it was just a temporarily hand-over to him, right?
He was thinking this, and somehow thought of Li Fengqi's words: "It's not like how it was before, after all. Now, I'm a man with a family."
He had a family and a home, and this family seemed to refer to Ye Yunting… But reason told Ye Yunting not to think too much about this.
This was probably just a casual remark of Li Fengqi's that he didn't think too much on.
He shook his head to get rid of those overly-ambiguous thoughts and solemnly warned Ji Lian, "Things here are too complicated. Just remember, I'm only temporarily taking care of the accounts. These silver coins belong to the royal family and have nothing to do with us.”
Ji Lian let out a disappointed "Oh", like a piece of dough that had been flattened and shrunk.
Ye Yunting smiled again. "We don't have anything to spend money on. It doesn't make any difference whether we have money or not."
They didn't have to worry about food and clothing in the palace now, so having so much money wasn't useful.
"How is that the same?" Ji Lian muttered in a low tone. "You can have money and not spend it. Just looking at it makes you happy."
He still remembered how the young master had to scrimp and save for a long time even to buy ink and paper.
How much fine ink, papers and inkstones could be bought with one hundred thousand taels of silver?!
Ji Lian was so greedy.
Ye Yunting laughed when he saw his expression, rolled up the account book and knocked him on the head with it. "Okay, stop thinking about it. It's not yours or mine, after all."
Ji Lian deflated, groaned and went to eat snacks.
*
Ye Yunting went through the accounts, and then it was time for dinner. Coincidentally, Li Fengqi had also finished handling his official duties. The two of them had dinner together and went to see the wolf king.
The wolf king had been temporarily placed in a vacant courtyard, and two or three live chickens and clean water had been put in the iron cage.
When Ye Yunting and the others went there, they saw only scattered chicken feathers left in the animal cage. The wolf king was lying in the corner, licking his wounds. Seeing the two people approaching, he stopped and looked up, then lowered his head and continued licking again.
——The wolf king ate all three chickens cleanly, licking everything clean without wasting even a drop of blood.
"This wolf king is quite tenacious. He regained his energy so quickly." Li Fengqi looked at it and couldn't help but marvel.
Ye Yunting nodded in agreement. "From the way it looks, it will only need another ten and a half days. When its injuries heal, let's send it to the mountains and release it."
Li Fengqi didn't agree or object, only saying, "Let's keep it first."
Ye Yunting called for someone to replenish the wolf king's food and water. Then, seeing that the sky was getting dark, he pushed Li Fengqi around twice to digest, and then they went back to the main room to sleep together.
After the two bathed in succession, they changed into clean middle layers and prepared to sleep.
These days, it was customary for the two of them to sleep in the same bed. However, for some reason today, Ye Yunting felt awkward again as he lied down in the inside part of the bed.
As he held the heater in his arms, he thought that what happened during the day was still causing him trouble. He closed his eyes and forced himself not to think about what happened in the sedan.
But the more he didn't want to think about it, the more uncontrollably those memories came to his mind.
He turned over several times in annoyance, unable to calm down and fall asleep.
Li Fengqi, who was next to him, saw him tossing and turning. The corners of his lips curved, and he said, "Young Master, you can't sleep? Why don't you talk to me?"
Ye Yunting's body gave a start and he slowly turned around. "What does Wangye want to talk about?"
"Talk to me about how to arrange the banquet?" Li Fengqi turned sideways to him, and the distance between the two of them narrowed. "The date has been set and the guests have been invited. It's time for the banquet preparations."
Hearing him talking about business, Ye Yunting felt relieved and said, "I have already placed the orders. The subordinates are already making preparations for purchasing."
"That's not what I'm talking about." Li Fengqi stared at his profile, his tone serious and unhurried. "Most officials will be present on the day of the banquet. Some of them want to establish a relationship with me, and some of them are here to probe if I'm telling lies… Others just wanted to see my tricks."
His expression was very grave. "In the eyes of some people, the powerful Yong'an-Wang is no longer as he used to be. He was even given a male Wangfei. He must be full of resentment and humiliation. There must be no peace in this palace.…”
Ye Yunting was stunned for a moment after hearing this. "Why does Wangye care about the opinions of others?"
"It's not that I care about what others think." Li Fengqi said leisurely. "I just don't like to be misunderstood. So I need the Young Master to cooperate with me."
Ye Yunting blinked slowly. "What kind of cooperation do you mean?"
"When the time comes, the Young Master will know." Li Fengqi smiled at him, his brows relaxing, giving him a rare warm look.
Ye Yunting's eyelids twitched, and his heart followed suit. He arched his body, hugged the heater to his chest, said "Oh", and added, "Understood."
Seeing his agreement, Li Fengqi added, "If the Young Master has nothing to do tomorrow, accompany me on a trip out of the house. Let's go to bed early tonight." After saying that, he smoothly tucked the corner of the quilt around Ye Yunting, then closed his eyes, facing him.
Ye Yunting stared at his handsome features for a moment, pursed his lips, and shrank his entire body into the quilt.
Sleep.
He forced himself to stop thinking so wildly and closed his eyes forcefully.
===Author's Notes===
Tingting: Something doesn’t seem right about me either 0.0
77 (smirking): What’s wrong? Let me help you feel better.=. =
——————
===Translator's Notes===
Ye Yunting be like, "He gave me the control over the household funds and accounts like a husband would to his main wife, but surely this means nothing, right? :D"
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Waiting for the wedding scene~~
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