Qiao Shuyi-So Annoying!

After seeing Liu Jinyu off, Qiao Shuyi turned and headed for the accounting office on the eastern side of the prince's residence.

The accounting office was overseen by a trusted aide of Qiao Nanyu's, and outsiders were not permitted to enter without permission.

Qiao Shuyi was different, however. She had been to the office more times than she could count-each time to draw silver for her expenses.

When the accountant saw her arrive, he hurried to his feet to greet her and asked with a beaming smile:

"Young lady, do you need to draw some silver? How much? I'll fetch it right away."

Qiao Shuyi waved a hand, sat down in a chair, and said lazily:

"I'm not drawing any silver. Bring me the account books from the past three years. I want to have a look."

The accountant was taken aback:

"Why does the young lady want to look at the account books?"

"My mother says I spend too much and wants me to have some idea of the figures. Just bring them over. Why so many questions?"

Qiao Shuyi's authority in the prince's residence had taken root when she was little, and those roots ran deep.

When she wanted to punish someone, she didn't care whose man he was.

So what if he was the prince's trusted aide?

As long as he displeased her, she would punish him whenever she pleased.

The accountant knew this little ancestor's temper well. He didn't dare say another word and quickly agreed.

He scurried into the back room and soon returned with a thick stack of account books, which he arranged neatly in front of her.

He stood respectfully at her side, his hands lowered, though inwardly he thought little of it.

After all, the eldest young lady had been ignorant and unlearned since childhood. She had even driven three schoolmasters away in anger.

Even if he gave her the books, she would most likely just flip through them for fun. What could she possibly make of them?

Sure enough, he stole a glance at her.

The young lady opened a book at random and swept her gaze over it, turning page after page as though she were flipping through a storybook.

The accountant relaxed and quietly withdrew to one side, where he went back to working his abacus.

Little did he know that Qiao Shuyi's reputation for being "ignorant and unlearned" was a misunderstanding from beginning to end.

She had been born with the mind of her previous life.

While other children were still learning to babble, she could already recite the Three Character Classic backward by heart; while other children were still learning characters and tracing their strokes, she had already quietly read through half a shelf of books in her father's study.

But she couldn't tell anyone that, so she could only pretend.

And so, at school, she could supply the next line whenever the master recited one, and she finished the work he assigned in moments. For the rest of the time, she could only look around, bored out of her mind.

The master assumed she was merely going through the motions, never realizing that she truly had nothing to do.

In time, word spread that "the Prince of Jin'an's legitimate daughter is ignorant and unlearned."

Liu Jinyu didn't like studying herself, so naturally she wouldn't make harsh demands of her daughter's learning.

As long as her daughter was happy, everything else was a small matter.

And so it was that Qiao Shuyi had become who she was today-

Everyone thought she knew only how to eat, drink, and have fun, spending money and throwing tantrums. They had no idea how much she had quietly learned over the years.

When it came to arithmetic, she never forgot what she had seen.

She had dabbled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Life in ancient times was dull, and learning was the only way to pass the time.

If she had known Qiao Nanyu was planning a rebellion, she should have studied military tactics and strategy. Those would have been more useful than these pastimes of wind, flowers, snow, and moonlight.

There was just one thing: she studied music one day, painting the next, and chess manuals the day after that. To outsiders, it looked as though she "fished for three days and dried her nets for two," trying her hand at everything but mastering nothing.

As time went on, that only further cemented her reputation for being ignorant and unlearned.

Qiao Shuyi couldn't be bothered to explain.

She was happy to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Now, as she turned the pages of the account books, her gaze was swift as lightning, picking out the large transactions for close inspection.

Others thought she was flipping through them at random for fun, but they didn't know she could read ten lines at a glance, taking in every one of those figures.

As she read, she began to see the pattern.

The prince's residence had two main sources of income:

The first was Qiao Nanyu's salary, tax revenue from his fief, and the military funds allocated to Jinzhou by the imperial court.

The second was the silver the Liu family had provided as dowry, along with the subsidies Liu Jinyu had received from her family over the years.

The expenditures, meanwhile, were clearly divided.

Most of Qiao Nanyu's silver went toward the residence's everyday expenses-repairing the buildings, buying furniture and utensils, and paying the servants' monthly wages. Another large portion was listed under "young lady's expenses."

Her food, clothing, and daily necessities, her jewelry and dresses, the silver she spent like flowing water-all of it was charged to Qiao Nanyu's account.

But where Liu Jinyu's silver went was far less clear.

"Purchases," "materials," "miscellaneous expenses," "various expenditures"-the same few terms appeared over and over. Sum after sum, from a few hundred taels to more than ten thousand, was transferred from Liu Jinyu's dowry silver into the residence's general accounts, then disappeared under those vague headings.

Qiao Shuyi closed the account book, a faint sneer curling her lips.

Qiao Nanyu's calculations truly were ingenious.

He spent his own silver openly-on the prince's residence and on her, his legitimate daughter.

Liu Jinyu's silver, meanwhile, he quietly diverted.

But Liu Jinyu didn't know.

Because Qiao Nanyu had told her that their daughter spent money like water, and that Qiao Shuyi had spent all her silver.

Liu Jinyu believed him.

Qiao Shuyi really did spend a great deal. Ever since she was little, she had bought whatever she wanted. Even mountains of gold and silver couldn't withstand spending like that.

Wasn't it only natural that the silver ran out quickly?

She thought she was supporting her daughter.

She had no idea she was supporting her husband's private soldiers.

Qiao Shuyi closed the account book and stood up:

"I've finished looking. I really have spent quite a lot. I'll be more frugal from now on."

The accountant nodded repeatedly. He didn't dare ask any more questions and merely saw her out with the utmost respect.

Qiao Shuyi walked alone along the path outside Jinglan Garden, her steps a little quicker than usual. The hem of her skirt brushed the flowers and plants beside the path, knocking a few petals loose.

She was troubled.

All that silver flowing in from the Liu family had gone to those places outside the city that couldn't bear the light of day.

But she couldn't tell her mother.

She knew her mother too well.

She was stubborn and clung to her own beliefs.

Qiao Nanyu had held her in the palm of his hand and pampered her for more than a decade, spoiling her until she had lost her wits.

In her eyes, Qiao Nanyu was her heaven.

If Qiao Shuyi ran to her now and said, "Mother, the man you love has been using you all along. He took all that silver to support private soldiers, and he's waiting to rebel-"

Would she believe her?

Before she could even finish, Liu Jinyu would probably cover her mouth and chide her for talking nonsense and maligning her own father.

Even if Qiao Shuyi threw the account books in her face and broke the evidence apart and ground it to pieces for her, she would still say:

"Your father must have his difficulties."

"We women don't understand men's affairs."

"Marry a chicken, follow the chicken; marry a dog, follow the dog. Even if he means to rebel... I can only follow him."

That was what she feared most.

It wasn't that she feared her mother wouldn't believe her, but that her mother would still choose to stand by Qiao Nanyu after believing her.

This world was too harsh on women.

From childhood, they were taught the three obediences and four virtues, taught to obey their husbands after marriage, taught to regard their husbands as their heaven.

Liu Jinyu was just like that.

She loved Qiao Nanyu.

In that love were genuine feelings and devotion, but also the belief drilled into her bones that she must remain faithful to one husband for life.

Even if one day Qiao Nanyu's crimes were proven, even if the entire Qiao family was executed, she would probably still think that it was fate, a calamity she was destined to suffer.

Then she would follow Qiao Nanyu to her death.

Qiao Shuyi leaned against a corridor pillar by the path and gazed at the clouds on the horizon, letting out a long breath.

So annoying!