News of An You’s defeat reached the capital. The old madame directly fainted and the general’s residence started becoming disturbed again. The atmosphere was filled with suffocating anxiousness and despair.
Meanwhile, An Lingyun was in trouble as well. Because she had spent extravagantly with Princess Mingzhu before, there was barely any money left on the account book. There wasn’t even enough to maintain the basic operations of the general’s residence.
Everything that Princess Mingzhu took a liking to were exquisite and expensive,a and both An Lingyun and Princess Mingzhu were people who didn’t have any concept of money. Whenever they encountered something they liked, they’d just buy, buy, and buy.
They spent money like it was water.
Originally, the old madame wanted to take out her personal savings to make up for this, but Ning Shu didn’t allow it and directly had the number of servants serving in the general’s residence be decreased.
Ning Shu had An Lingyun choose which servants would leave the residence.
All of the servants knelt in front of An Lingyun and begged her not to sell them.
An Lingyun had never experienced anything before. Every single servant was crying desperately and kneeling in front of her. It was an extremely pitiful sight.
An Lingyun looked towards Ning Shu and asked hesitantly, “Mother, are we really going to sell them?”
Ning Shu said mildly, “Yes, because the general’s residence can no longer afford to keep them. Your father’s salary isn’t very high and the income from the store is only enough to pay the residence’s wages. You’ve already been managing the residence for so long, could it be that you didn’t notice that?”
An Lingyun said, “Most of those things were bought for Princess Mingzhu.”
“I know, but back then, the one paying was you.” Ning Shu then said, “Pick the people. These servants can’t serve in the general’s residence anymore, but they’ll be able to go to a different residence and serve a new master.”
An Lingyun struggled with the decision. She had never had to go through anything and was so scared that she started crying. She looked towards Ning Shu for help, but Ning Shu only shook her head at her.
In the end, An Lingyun finally chose a couple servants and sold them to the procuress. An Lingyun accepted the silver the procuress gave her. They were tiny little pieces of silver.
The servants that were sold immediately revealed expressions of resentment towards An Lingyun. If it weren’t because of their status, they probably would’ve already started cursing at An Lingyun.
An Lingyun never thought that the servants who were usually very respectful towards her and always calling her second miss would actually look at her in such a frightening way like they wanted to eat her alive.
An Lingyun took a step back fearfully. Ning Shu pulled her behind her and had the procuress take the servants away.
“Mother,” said An Lingyun, feeling wronged.
Ning Shu said, “Don’t be scared. From now on, our residence will have to start decreasing our expenses. Lingyun, you have to learn to do all of these things.”
“I understand.” An Lingyun felt inexplicably smothered.
After that, Ning Shu, the old madame, and An Lingyun started discussing how to decrease their expenses. The old madame canceled the bird’s nest drink she had every day, Ning Shu also canceled the bird’s nest drink she had once every two days. With this, quite a lot of money was saved.
An Lingyun bit her lips, then said, “There’s a lot of things in Princess Mingzhu’s courtyard. How about we sell all the things in her courtyard?”
Ning Shu smiled as she looked towards An Lingyun. An Lingyun had finally started learning how to be calculating.
“No need to touch them. Princess Mingzhu will be coming back,” said Ning Shu in a confident tone.
The old madame’s facial color immediately worsened.