Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 113

Xia Heng opened her eyes beneath the warm covers and whimpered, unwilling to get up. She even performed an entire set of punches under the quilt.

But when she thought of everything she had to do today, she could only let out a long breath and sit up in resignation.

She had a busy day ahead. First, she needed to tidy her room. She had piled so many things inside that there was almost nowhere left to step.

Later, tailors from the Xiao Family’s clothing shop would come to take their measurements.

Aunt Xiao had given them plenty of fabric. Xia Heng and Chuqing had agreed to have an outfit made for every woman in the household, with the two of them paying the labor costs.

When Lunar New Year came, they could all wear the clothes out together. How neat and coordinated they would look!

Today was also review-and-examination day for the mathematics class she taught. Later, she had to question the “students” and proctor their tests.

After getting out of bed and folding her quilt, Xia Heng turned to survey the roomful of possessions with a gratified smile.

When she had truly first arrived a little over a month ago, her beginner’s equipment consisted of one bundle and twenty-five taels in broken silver.

Now her dowry filled an entire room and she possessed thirty thousand taels in silver.

Add the five-hundred-tael reward Cang Chuli had given her, and as for who the rich woman was—she would not say!

Better still, she had a stable job that included meals and lodging. This was probably what happiness felt like!

She folded the outfit belonging to Madam Wang that she had worn back from the banquet and placed it in her “spoils of war” cabinet.

Then she put away the jewelry Madam Xiao had given her yesterday in another cabinet.

Most of the dowry jewelry her mother had prepared was large and ornate, far too extravagant for everyday wear.

Madam Xiao’s pieces were small and exquisite, made mostly of silver or copper, with some set with tiny pearls and gemstones.

They were pretty without being too eye-catching. Xia Heng loved them!

Now that she had jewelry she could actually use, she had begun wanting a dressing table too. Besides, if she had hand cream already, could face cream be far behind?

Cang Chuli had not interfered with the thank-you gifts from the Xiao Family and let each of them take away and dispose of their share.

They had not moved the wine and alcohol into their rooms. After discussing the matter yesterday, they decided to ask Uncle Zhao whether he could take some alcohol when he transported New Year gifts to the Zhenbei Army in a few days. The stuff was expensive and worth hauling!

They would send some wine too and keep a few jars for themselves to drink at Lunar New Year.

Only the four women currently lived in this courtyard. Xia Heng opened the room opposite hers, which she had temporarily turned into storage, and stared at the floor packed with trunks.

They could not leave everything like this. She needed to ask Uncle Zhao where she could order shelving and ideally stack the trunks against the walls.

After sweeping both rooms and wiping down the table and chairs in her own, Xia Heng took out all the fabric they would need later and arranged it on the table.

Once everything was nearly ready and the others had still not arrived, she sat on a stool and began staring into space.

In reality, she had opened the Check-in System. After completing today’s check-in, she examined the points in the upper-right corner.

She now had 4,050 points. Favorability had truly helped her accumulate a great many.

The lotteries over the past two weeks had yielded only two guaranteed spring-loaded daggers. She stored them in the same compartment as the one she had left from before.

Before long, two tailors from the Xiao Family arrived, one man and one woman. The woman carried a wooden measuring ruler.

The young women gathered in Xia Heng’s room, chattering excitedly.

“We’re getting new clothes again! Ever since we came to the General’s Mansion, it feels as though we’re finally enjoying every good thing we missed before,” Zhao Siyan whispered to Zhao Die.

Delight filled Zhao Die’s eyes, and she could not suppress the upward curve of her lips.

What young woman did not want to look pretty? Better still, these new clothes were gifts from their sisters in the household!

Whenever the others obtained something good, they always thought of them. That affection was beyond price.

Xia Heng overheard and turned around jokingly.

“This is nothing! I’ll take you all soaring in the future!”

Chuqing heard and squeezed closer.

“Me too, me too! I’ll take everyone soaring too!”

The female tailor was measuring Qiulin. Her speech carried a slight southern accent.

“Oh my, every one of you young ladies is so pretty! Auntie will make all the outfits alike. When you go out together, won’t you look beautiful!”

Qiulin was quite unused to having someone fuss around her body.

After measuring all four women, the tailor looked at the fabric.

“Shall we use this pink? This pink is bright! It’ll look beautiful when it’s made up!”

Xia Heng nodded and handed the bolt to her.

“At least we won’t look like scallions this time!” Zhao Siyan said, remembering what Aunt Chen had once told her, and laughed.

“Hahaha! In the future, we’ll collect every color! When each of us opens her wardrobe, it’ll look like a rainbow!”

“I don’t want that…”

Qiulin imagined the colors Xia Heng described and could not help protesting.

Another peal of laughter filled the room.

The two tailors put away their rulers, paper, and brushes. Chuqing led them away to measure the Two Mos.

Deputy General Zhang, Zhao Fu, Little Wude, and the others had reportedly been waiting there for quite some time.

Xia Heng gathered her teaching materials and test papers and hurried to the communal kitchen.

Everyone had more or less completed the basic literacy course.

For this group of students, the remaining goal was consolidation. They had to complete daily homework and face Xia Heng’s various surprise quizzes in class.

The tests were corrected on the spot. Once they finished revising their mistakes, the accountants from the General’s Mansion and the military camp stayed behind to ask about problems in their account books.

Thank goodness the hotel where Xia Heng once worked had promoted “one specialty, multiple skills.” Otherwise, she might not have known the answers to some of their questions.

Only after resolving all these matters did Xia Heng’s teaching day finally end.

When she marked homework now, everyone’s accuracy was already very high. It was nothing like before, when a single arithmetic problem could make her half dead with rage.

But suffering never disappeared. It only moved elsewhere.

The teaching assistants responsible for new students did not have things nearly so easy.

At the Washing Workshop, Aunt Chen listened to the washerwomen recite the Multiplication Table Song and felt her own mind twisting into knots.

The veins in Zhao Siyan’s forehead throbbed as she listened.

Now she finally understood why Ah Heng had acted so strangely during that period—wailing like a ghost at midnight and becoming irritable by day.

Anyone who heard “nine times nine is eighty-three” would need a while to recover.

No. She had to remain calm. The present Aunt Yang was simply the Zhao Siyan of the past!

Calm. Breathe. Calm.

Similar scenes were unfolding elsewhere.

Even Uncle Zhao often limped after his son Zhao Fu, trying to beat him.

“I gave you that fine physique by trading away your brains, didn’t I? Count those chickens again! If you can’t work it out, you’re not eating today!”

Uncle Zhao stopped to catch his breath, cursing even as he rested.

Zhao Fu felt wronged. Why did he, a captain in the Personal Guard, have to endure such mortal suffering?

Then he glanced aside and spotted half of Wude’s round little head poking through the doorway, curved eyes smiling at him.

“Father! What about this brat? He isn’t much good at studying either. Why don’t you hit him?”

Uncle Zhao flew into a towering rage.

Bad grades were one thing. Now his son had even learned to sow discord?

“You’re comparing yourself to him? Have you no shame?

“How many more years have you lived than he has? Why don’t you compare yourself to a baby still in swaddling clothes? Stay right there! Stay there!”

Zhao Fu did not dare make his father run too far. What if the old man stumbled when he was not paying attention?

So after tiring him out a little, Zhao Fu squatted down and let his father beat and scold him.

Then he saw his mother stuff another piece of puffed-rice candy into Wude’s mouth.

“Mother! Stop giving him sweets! He’s so young—you’ll ruin his teeth!”

…

“Zhang Ergou! Come here and fight me! Today I’ll make you understand exactly why that half a man cannot leave the military camp to fight the Tujue!”

Mo Bai flung down his padded coat and charged outside like an exploding firecracker.

Mo Qing’s hand froze in midair as he tried to stop him. Seeing the two already grappling, he slowly withdrew it and looked back at his general.

“General…”

Cang Chuli was working through the mathematics review problems Mo Qing had brought him. Without lifting his eyes, he said, “Let them fight. The loser does one hundred push-ups, then comes back to continue studying.”

“Yes!”