The Hot Commodity

All right, all right, all right.

"I only came to sit for a while." Second Concubine lowered her head. It was hard to tell whether she was playing up her misery or truly miserable. "After my parents passed away one after another, my clansmen coveted the family estate and watched us like tigers stalking their prey. My younger brother, who is three years younger than me, and I had only each other to depend on. To keep the clansmen in check, I racked my brains to enter the residence and serve the marquis and madam..."

Wasn't that a fox borrowing a tiger's might?

"Did that work?" Gu Wanning asked.

Second Concubine nodded. "It did before. Except, except when word went around that something had happened to the marquis, they started stirring... Now I'm worried that the marquis won't think much of me after he comes back, and when they find out, they'll start scheming again and set their sights on the family property."

Gu Wanning thought for a moment, then said, "You've seen the relationship between the marquis and me. I'm afraid I can't promise you anything..."

"Madam, I only wanted, only wanted you to put me a little further up the list when you make the arrangements..."

Gu Wanning understood instantly.

So she could make money off the "duty roster" she managed?

If even this little bit of authority could be turned into money, then although she hadn't originally planned to put herself on the roster, she was starting to waver.

What if she put herself on it, then let the highest bidder have her slot?

She really was a little genius.

"All right." Gu Wanning agreed without hesitation. "I'll put you down for five days first, but if the marquis doesn't come to you on any of those days, you can't blame me."

There would be no refunds whatsoever.

"Thank you, madam, thank you!" Second Concubine left after thanking her profusely.

Gu Wanning looked at the banknotes on the table, still feeling as though she were dreaming.

That worked too?

Then why was she still growing corn?!

Couldn't she just auction off the right to spend the night with Xu Weibei?

Besides the limited resources in the residence, she could also expand her business outside. Whether a family wanted to send their daughter in or a woman had money of her own and wanted to sleep with Xu Weibei, as long as the price was high enough, just watch how hard she worked!

Chapter 11: The Hot Commodity

"Marquis, I've already sent someone to investigate what exactly happened."

Gao Lan hardly dared look at his marquis's expression.

He had his suspicions, but he didn't dare voice them.

At the moment, however, Xu Weibei was no longer as angry as he had been outside. He tapped his fingers on the tabletop, a mocking, knowing sneer on his lips. "She did it on purpose."

He thought this was Gu Wanning's way of showing him who was boss.

"That can't be, can it?" Gao Lan said. "You're madam's sky. I think she might really have been short of money, so she really did pawn those tonics. It's just that Second Concubine... wanted to curry favor with madam, so she gave her a hand."

Although he hadn't yet worked out exactly how she had done it, Gao Lan thought this was the most likely explanation.

Second Concubine was the Cheng Yaojin who had come charging out halfway, or the marquis would already have gotten madam firmly under his thumb.

"Is that so?" Xu Weibei didn't believe it. "If she wanted to curry favor, shouldn't she have come to me? Why go to Gu Wanning?"

"Well, marquis, you might be just a tiny bit off the mark there..."

Gao Lan thought that although the marquis had lost his parents when he was young, he had seen how loving they were, and there hadn't been a mess of other women in the residence either.

When it came to the struggles between women, the marquis didn't understand them as well as he did.

After all, his scumbag father had accomplished nothing, yet had kept plenty of women and squandered the family fortune.

"The concubines spend more time with madam... They have to win her favor if they want to have a good life."

"Winning my favor isn't important?"

"It is." Gao Lan hurried to give Xu Weibei a "lesson." "It would be best if they could win your favor, but how would they dare hope for that? If they can't win your favor, the next best thing is to live comfortably in the residence, and for that they all have to watch madam's expression."

Gao Lan thought, Weren't all the hardships the concubines suffered before caused by madam?

Who wouldn't learn to behave after being suppressed day in and day out?

Second Concubine was clearly a sensible one.

Xu Weibei thought, Women are nothing but trouble!

He had no time to think about that now. The army was expected to return to the capital tonight—he had come back ahead of it yesterday—and he still had to go.

That was also his excuse for dragging his feet and refusing to visit the Gu family today.

He really didn't want to deal with the Gu family.

After that he would have to attend court every day, so he would put it off one day at a time.

Thinking of his vexing father-in-law, Xu Weibei was irritated and restless.

He was fighting at the front, where he needed provisions and supplies, and silver to pay the troops and boost morale, yet what happened?

His father-in-law stayed in the rear, blah blah blah, cutting military expenditure.

Although the chopping blade hadn't fallen on his head, it had stirred up plenty of talk and affected the army's morale.

So if he didn't punch the old man when they met, he would already be showing him the utmost consideration, and he was supposed to pay his respects too?

Just thinking about it made him feel aggrieved.

"Have them keep investigating this matter. Make sure you get to the bottom of it."

Xu Weibei refused to believe he couldn't figure out the handful of women in his own residence!

Meanwhile, after her meal, Gu Wanning lay comfortably on a couch. Beside her, ice piled high in a carved ice basin slowly melted, keeping the entire room pleasantly cool.

"Madam, I delivered the banknotes to the steward. These are the banknotes and loose silver he gave back as change." Er Ya came in from outside, her face covered in sweat.

"All right. Sit down and rest, quickly. Have some watermelon."

"Okay, thank you, madam." Er Ya happily picked out a small piece of chilled watermelon from the ice basin.

Biting into that icy-cold watermelon on such a hot day was indescribably refreshing.

"There are benefits to the marquis coming back," Er Ya said indistinctly as she munched on the watermelon. "Now that he's back, we have ice to use and watermelon to eat..."

These were all expensive things. Ordinarily, unless the Grand Princess bestowed them, the residence certainly wouldn't buy them.

Now that the marquis had returned, all sorts of things had been purchased.

She was sharing in his good fortune too.

"Oh, right, madam." Er Ya had finished all the flesh but was still slowly gnawing on the rind, wishing she could eat that too. "The marquis brought back so, so many things this time..."