Transmigrated as the Villainess, She Made the General Blush - Chapter 37

The Guards waiting to be chosen stood in neat rows in the courtyard, looking like cabbages at a market, waiting for Xiao Wangshu to make her selection.

The Guards prepared by Fang Qin’er for her daughter had certainly been screened in advance; these were people she could trust to entrust to Xiao Wangshu.

Xiao Wangshu didn’t need to check their backgrounds and was fairly quick in her selection, picking out four who were more alert, and another four who were sturdier in build.

After selecting these eight, she stopped and turned to Fang Qin’er.

Seeing that she was done, Fang Qin’er put down her teacup and, with Matron Du’s support, rose gracefully to her feet.

“Just these?”

Fang Qin’er asked. When Xiao Wangshu nodded, she instructed Cang Dong to fetch the eight indenture contracts for them.

After personally handing the eight contracts, each stamped with a red handprint, to Xiao Wangshu, Fang Qin’er looked at the eight Guards and spoke calmly-

“From today, you eight belong to the Fourth Miss. You should all remember the rules for being a Guard, so I needn’t say more. If anything happens to the Fourth Miss, you’ll return with your heads to atone.”

The eight shivered inwardly, cupped their fists, and bowed in unison: “Yes!”

Xiao Wangshu flipped through the eight contracts at the side, memorizing the names written on them.

After Fang Qin’er finished speaking, she handed the contracts to Shuxia for safekeeping, and instructed Yichun to take the eight to her courtyard to begin their duties.

She herself stayed with Fang Qin’er, chatting for quite a while before returning.

…

Within the Chancellor’s Mansion, the addition of eight new Guards didn’t affect Xiao Wangshu’s life much; her courtyard was simply livelier with more people around.

Only when she left the Chancellor’s Mansion did she truly feel the impact of these eight.

Among all the young ladies of official families in the Capital, she was probably the only one who went out with such a grand escort of Guards.

The sense of intimidation was enough to turn heads everywhere.

Even though Xiao Wangshu only brought four Guards with her today, not all eight as last time, they still drew plenty of attention as they walked down the street.

Those in the know said she was going to inspect the renovations at Brocade Gate; those who didn’t know thought she was off to make trouble at someone’s door.

—

“Fourth Miss Xiao, you’ve finally arrived.”

As soon as Xiao Wangshu entered, a craftsman greeted her with blueprints in hand, explaining, “Fourth Miss, you specifically requested that this cabinet for storing valuable jewelry be made with thin panels of golden nanmu wood. But Shopkeeper Xiao wants us to use regular beech wood, with just a gold lacquer on the outside.”

High-quality golden nanmu is expensive; the thin panels for just this small cabinet could buy all the wooden furnishings in this room.

But when used in furniture, it truly creates an effect like golden silk.

She didn’t ask for all the shop’s furniture to be made from it, but even a single cabinet glowing with gold would be eye-catching.

“And for this counter, Fourth Miss, you wanted a zitan wood surface, but Shopkeeper Xiao said regular rosewood would do. We common folk don’t know who to listen to, so we came to ask you first,” the craftsman continued.

In truth, shop furnishings see a lot of traffic and inevitable scuffs, so the materials used are usually inferior to those in private residences.

First, because there’s no need for such high quality, and second, it saves a lot of money.

Of course, they preferred demanding owners like Xiao Wangshu-better materials and higher prices meant more profit for them.

As for Shopkeeper Xiao, he was far too stingy with the materials.

Though he privately promised them that if they followed his instructions, he’d give them ten taels of silver after the job was done.

But what could ten taels buy?

If they followed Xiao Wangshu’s specifications, they’d earn far more than ten taels.

Given that, there was no need to risk their reputation-or even jail time-just to cut corners with an old servant and slight the young lady of the Chancellor’s Mansion.
Moreover, after communicating these past few days, they all felt that although Fourth Miss Xiao had never said whether she understood the trade, every request she made was extremely shrewd, and every arrangement was exceptionally clever.

On the contrary, that Shopkeeper Xiao, who didn’t know much, always liked to point fingers from the side, coming up with crooked ideas and acting as if he was doing everyone a favor, which made people dislike him.

Although they were originally craftsmen recruited by Shopkeeper Xiao, and this job was given to them by him, they dared not treat Fourth Miss Xiao as a fool and try to deceive her like Shopkeeper Xiao did.

“Were these requirements really proposed by Shopkeeper Xiao?”

Xiao Wangshu countered with a question, then after thinking for a moment, she candidly said, “Does he think the several thousand taels of silver in his hands are too little? Why would he make such demands of you?”

“Several thousand taels?!” The craftsman exclaimed directly.

Heavens!

To count silver in thousands of taels-how much must that be!

Xiao Wangshu seemed unaffected by his shock, raised her hand to rub her brow, and said-

“Enough, make a list for me to look over, write the prices clearly. I’ll go to Shopkeeper Xiao to verify the expenses. Shopkeeper Xiao is getting on in years; don’t let him make a mistake and miss out on your wages.”

Hearing this, the craftsman could hardly stand still and hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, this humble one will go make the list right away. Thank you, Fourth Miss, for checking it thoroughly.”

Xiao Wangshu waved her hand at him, instructing, “Go ahead, just follow my requirements. There’s no need to change what we’ve already agreed upon.”

“Yes.” The craftsman bowed and withdrew.

After he left, Yichun quietly complained in Xiao Wangshu’s ear, “Miss, look at that Shopkeeper Xiao, daring to change your plans at will. The older he gets, the less he knows how to behave!”

Shuxia nodded in agreement, “He really has overstepped.”

But when did Miss ever give Shopkeeper Xiao several thousand taels of silver? Wasn’t it two hundred taels?

And she even assigned two Guards to keep an eye on the silver in Shopkeeper Xiao’s hands.

If Miss reported such a high budget, wouldn’t these craftsmen be tempted to raise their prices as well, leading to conflict?

Shuxia was a bit puzzled, but didn’t ask more at this moment.

Behind them, among the four Guards, the burliest, Li Ta, spoke up directly, “Could Shopkeeper Xiao be embezzling Miss’s silver?”

Beside him, Li Jun quickly elbowed him twice, “Don’t say things without evidence in front of Miss!”

They had only been serving Miss for a few days, and Shopkeeper Xiao was an old servant brought from the Maternal Family by Madam. Didn’t his foolish brother know who held more weight in status?

Yichun and Shuxia had served Miss since childhood and dared to speak up, but what right did they have to join in?

After his brother’s reminder, and seeing the unreadable expression on Xiao Wangshu’s face, Li Ta quickly lowered his head and said, “This subordinate was reckless and shouldn’t have spoken carelessly!”

Xiao Wangshu reminded them in a calm tone, “It’s fine to speak frankly among ourselves, but don’t be so quick-tongued in front of outsiders. When there are many people, hold your words in for a bit; if it’s not urgent, don’t say it in public.”

Li Ta was indeed a bit rash, but everything has its pros and cons. Straightforward people have less scheming and calculation, which makes her feel more at ease using them.

As for Li Ta’s younger brother, Li Jun, he had some cleverness and knew how to read the room. Subordinates like these were relatively easy to manage.

In any case, there was no major fault, so she would keep them for now.

“Thank you for your guidance, Miss.” Li Ta cupped his fists, bowed, and expressed his thanks.

At this moment, another handsome Guard beside them asked, “Then, Miss, should we send someone to remind Shopkeeper Xiao?”

Xiao Wangshu looked at him and asked in return, “Remind him of what?”

Zhang Guanye replied, “Just remind him to follow Miss’s instructions and not make decisions on his own, so he doesn’t directly order the craftsmen to make changes again.”