The second wife lowered her head, but the fifth lady laughed and said: "Our old lady has prepared a lot of dowry for her cousin, more than 100 boxes, and this house is not big, I am afraid that it will be carried over first, and it will take up too much space." Again, this house is in the suburbs of Beijing, which is carried from Anyuan Bo's Mansion to the south gate, and then carried into the city, and carried to Linchuan Wangfu, it is too troublesome, it is better to carry it directly from Bofu to the palace, wouldn't it be troublesome. ”

"I don't know what kind of makeup the old lady has prepared for our girl?" Mama Du knew about the dowry, and Cai Wei was not easy to talk to a girl, but unfortunately Concubine Shen couldn't come here now, so she had to ask for her own girl.

Mrs. Tai ordered Mama Wang to bring over a small box, which was the camphor wooden box that Cai Wei had seen four years ago that contained her various house deeds, land deeds, and body deeds.

Mrs. Tai opened the box and handed it to Cai Wei and said, "The deeds of all the property in the dowry left to you by your father are here, as well as the dowry list I have here. Your grandmother kept them for you for four years, and in the future, you should keep them for your life, but don't give them to others, even if your mother-in-law and husband ask you for it, you can't give them lightly. ”

When the second wife saw Cai Wei take the box, she didn't look at it, so she handed it to Mama Du and asked her to keep it, and couldn't help but say: "Wei girl, although this box deed is collected by the old lady, it is foolproof, but you'd better read it again, let's hand it over clearly in person, so as not to ......"

When the second lady said this, she saw the old lady staring at her coldly, so she had to stop talking.

Mama Du wanted to take a look at these deeds, but at this time, when she got the words of the second wife, she was busy and smiled: "Mrs. Uncle is very right!" ”

He put the box on the several cases in Cai Wei's hand, took the dowry list in his hand, and said to Cai Wei: "Girl, I read the list, and I bother the girl to go through these deeds again, if there are any worms that eat holes and holes, I can take them and repair them in time." ”

In fact, this box is made of camphor wood, where is so easy to be eaten by insects, and most of these deeds are official deeds that can't be done hands and feet, so Cai Wei just took a cursory look and put it aside, but when he saw the land deed and house deed in Chang'an, he sighed so little in his heart, these two properties were specially added by his father after he and Zeng Yiding were married, and now they ......

Now that she and Zeng Yi have become strangers, she doesn't feel too much emotion here, but she took a closer look when she saw the bottom three deeds, because these three deeds are not the official deeds that have entered the official file, but the private deeds that are most likely to be manipulated.

Mrs. Luo saw Cai Wei holding the three private deeds and looked at them for a while, and couldn't help but be a little worried that she would be seen by this girl.

Seeing that she didn't look at it for a while, she still put the three deeds back, and said with a smile: "Not one is missing!" Thank you so much to my grandmother! ”

The old lady breathed a sigh of relief and secretly said that she was lucky. She took out another slip and said, "The dowry that your father entrusted us with for safekeeping, in addition to these, is 30,000 taels of silver." On that day, your father wrote to you, "Ten thousand taels of silver will be used for you to make a box of silver, and twenty thousand taels will be used to buy you jewelry, silk and satin clothing, and furniture and furnishings." ”

"This is the list of these things that your grandmother bought for you, according to what your father said, it took 20,000 taels of silver, but the prices in the capital soared a few years ago, and it was not as much as my grandmother thought before to buy things with 20,000 taels of silver. Oh, by the way, your father also sent the best antique porcelain worth five thousand taels of silver that day, all of which had been packed into boxes, tied with red silk, and carried directly from the palace to the palace when the time came. ”

Cai Wei knew that if she couldn't see the real thing, she couldn't see anything from this list alone, so she glanced at the long list a few times, then handed the list to Mama Du to keep, and then thanked Mrs. Tai, and waited for the old lady to explain to her the last item in her dowry, pressing the box of silver.

Mrs. Tai saw Cai Wei blinking her eyes and looking at herself, although this matter was really a bit embarrassing, but now that she had been forced to do this, she could only take out a purse from her sleeve and said, "What is contained here is your silver in the box." ”

Cai Wei took it with both hands, and felt that the purse was deflated, almost as if it didn't contain anything, and the silver ticket of 10,000 taels of silver would not only have a piece of paper, right?

Cai Wei was surprised, so she opened it and saw that there was really only a piece of paper inside, but it was not a silver ticket, but an IOU.

It reads, "Today, An Yuanbo Zhao Mansion owes his niece Miss Zhou Mansion a dowry of 9,000 taels of silver, which will be paid off within a year, and this is the basis!" ”

This, what does this mean, can an IOU be used as a box of silver now?

Before she could ask, Mrs. Tai had already preemptively complained about her suffering, "Wei girl, you have lived in our mansion for so many years, and you know that since you beat your second uncle, the situation in this uncle's mansion has been worse day by day. However, in the past few years, there have been natural disasters at every turn*, the harvest in the field is not good, the income in the house is not as good as before, and the prices of everything have skyrocketed, making life in the house really more and more difficult. Otherwise, when your eldest cousin-in-law was in charge of the family council, she would not have wronged you and your second aunt who lived in Qiutang Courtyard in order to save money. ”

"It's really because the life in the house has been too difficult in the past few years, and it has long been beyond its means, and in order to maintain the dignity of this mansion, many of the things that should be spent still have to be spent, so not only did the upper part of the food eat, but also pawned things and borrowed foreign debts as a last resort."

My grandmother thought that it would not be a matter to go on like this, and that she couldn't just sit back and eat nothing, so she wanted to open one or two more shops and make more money to supplement the family. I took out all the private savings of my family and wanted to set up a shop, because I chose the most prosperous area of the five door-facing houses, and the asking price was also high, and my thousands of taels of silver were really not enough, so I first embezzled your silver in the box, thinking that it was just for a temporary turnover, and when there was a surplus, I would immediately withdraw your silver. ”

"I don't want your grandmother to have a good shopkeeper, not only did she not have a surplus in the first year, but she also lost two thousand taels. Seeing that your wedding date was approaching, my grandmother really couldn't make up the 10,000 taels of silver, and she only scraped together 1,000 taels of silver, and the remaining 9,000 taels had to give you an IOU. ”

"Wei girl, you know that grandmother is the most decent in her life, and she will never be greedy for your orphan girl's dowry, but at the moment, she really can't make up any money, and her grandmother has to ask you for a favor with a shy face, you first accept this IOU, which is also clearly written, within a year, as long as my grandmother's shop makes money, I will definitely send you nine thousand taels of silver."

Mrs. Tai's words were really pitiful and helpless, but Mama Du heard the fire in her eyes, and felt that this old lady was not only excessive, but also too hypocritical.

Yes, when they first arrived at Anyuan Bofu, the situation in that house was not very good, but since the eldest young master Zhao Yijun married the young lady of the imperial merchant Sun family and became the eldest young grandmother, and the old lady asked her to take care of the house, the Bofu no longer worried about making ends meet. If it weren't for the dowry money of his daughter-in-law to support the family of Bofu, how could Sun Xiluan, a merchant girl, be so angry and show off her power in Bofu.

This old lady is really good at calculus, while using her granddaughter-in-law's dowry to supplement the family, she also has to be greedy for her own granddaughter's dowry silver, how short of money is this Anyuan Bofu?

I think who said it at the beginning, what did she say about the girl's annual income from these industries, she will save it for the girl, and then she will give the girl a dowry, and now the girl is really going to get married, not to mention that the silver of the income in recent years can not be seen, and even the silver in the box is gone.

Let's not say that I shouldn't have embezzled my own girl's dowry silver in the first place, but I embezzled it, I really had the heart to take it out again, and I was worried that I couldn't make up 10,000 taels of silver, why are you crying poor here? It can be seen that his heart is not sincere, and he just wants to take advantage of his own girl.

Seeing that Mama Du and her nurse stepped forward and wanted to speak, Cai Wei hurriedly gave them a look, and said first: "The old lady said this strictly, Cai Wei was taken in and raised by the Bo Mansion, this kind of great favor is to give this ten thousand taels of silver to the old lady is also made, why bother to make this IOU, the old lady please take it back." ”

Seeing Cai Wei handing the purse back, Mrs. Tai hurriedly refused: "No, no, in this way, isn't it equivalent to greedy for your dowry?" My Zhao family is also a well-known family in Beijing, how can I do such an unbearable thing and be poked in the back. ”

Mrs. Tai's words are sincere, she is also from a famous family, educated by everyone, the most important reputation is decent, and she really does not want to fall into the notoriety of coveting an orphan girl's dowry.

She was really forced to be helpless this time, so she had to give Cai Wei an IOU, if she could really get the silver, she would never let herself tell such a bunch of lies today, she had never been so embarrassed in her life, and said a few words that would definitely return the money to her, and hurriedly left.