May 29, 2017, Sunny
East City Lvliu Lane, in front of Shen Garden, three young men dressed as servants were timidly looking at that Zao Hong wooden door.
The tallest, Li Peng, asked softly: "Brother Li, do we really need to…"
Li Li gritted his teeth: "The task Madam assigned us, there's no room for excuses!"
Li Peng said: "Madam instructed Brother Ping to…"
Li Li angrily said: "Brother Ping should be just reaching the east city gate now, why don't you go call him over?!"
Li Peng immediately fell silent.
Li Yuan then asked: "Why was Brother Ping punished to run laps again?"
Li Li said: "He failed the family's routine assessment. The instructor set a target for him to master the Mist Wind Step by the end of this month, but he tripped himself up at the last step…"
Li Peng asked curiously: "How could that happen… I remember Brother Ping mastered the Mist Wind Step already."
"Yeah, he did by mid-month, but ever since he took a turn in the Illusion Technique Array, he's been having constant nightmares, later suddenly couldn't remember many things, and the mansion doctor diagnosed him with intermittent amnesia."
Li Peng sighed: "Brother Ping's really having a hard time."
Li Li said: "Compared to Brother Ping, we're the ones truly suffering. If I had to choose, I'd rather run laps than carry out this errand."
Li Peng asked curiously: "Brother Li, why are you so scared? We came under Madam's orders, Miss, for all this time has not been valued much in the family. As long as we talk about family duty, she shouldn't overdo it, right?"
Li Yuan said: "That's not right, the Miss's influence index has soared to 37.7 in the last half month, higher than us three and Brother Ping combined, clearly she's not that disregarded anymore."
Li Li cursed: "Did you forget about that night, don't you think she wasn't over the top then? Do you want to wet your pants again?!"
As he spoke, Li Li's legs couldn't help but go weak.
Li Peng said: "No, no way, it's daytime now, even if there really are ghosts, they wouldn't dare show up openly, right?"
Li Li trembled and said: "Who said I'm afraid of ghosts, I'm afraid of Miss Qingming. You have no idea about the family routine assessment a few days ago, Miss Qingming somehow broke the Wind Barrier, she's now an unambiguous Wind-Rising Realm cultivator."
Li Yuan added: "And according to the people from the Outer Sect, she has mastered the Windchasing Sword and even developed the incredible Celestial Flying Sword. Even the always strict Instructor Li Zhiyuan gave her an A-rating, it's unimaginable what an astonishing flair that sword must have!"
Hearing this, Li Peng also became afraid: "Then us three coming here, aren't we just sending ourselves to our deaths?"
Li Li stammered: "The family's kindness to us is as heavy as a mountain, we ought to be willing to go through fire and water."
While the three were discussing, the Zao Hong door suddenly opened by itself, and behind it, Li Qingming asked with impatience: "You three idiots, what are you mumbling about at my door?!"
The trio almost instinctively scrambled and fled, Li Li stumbled after a few steps and almost cried out in fear right there. Li Peng, righteous and gallant, lowered his head and used his sleeve to block his view, pretending not to see Li Qingming at the door, while helping Li Li up and carrying him on his shoulder as they made a fast escape.
Li Qingming looked at this foolish trio both annoyed and amused, then recalled half a month ago when the three came to say they were going to demolish Shen Garden, how mortified she was then, and now she could easily make them retreat without a fight, what a world of difference.
Of course, all of this was thanks to…
At this thought, Li Qingming suddenly noticed a note on the ground, probably inadvertently dropped by those idiots during their hasty retreat. She picked it up and couldn't help but laugh; it was a rent collection notice from the family!
Ha, Lu Xin that wicked woman probably still thinks she can pressure me with five thousand taels of silver? Little did she know I'm now a noble daughter worth hundreds of thousands of taels, haha!
In her triumph, she suddenly heard Wang Jiu's voice in her mind.
"By the way, the billing from the business building arrived just now."
Li Qingming waved her hand: "Then pay it."
"We're out of money now, you know."
"What!?" Li Qingming jumped three feet high, "No money? Hundreds of thousands of silver taels!"
Wang Jiu then briefly listed out the bills from the past week and summarized: "Food expenses, two thousand one hundred taels."
Li Qingming blushed: "That was for the two of us! Don't you like Manfu Ji's sweet cakes?"
Wang Jiu continued: "Clothing expenses, five thousand nine hundred taels."
"What's wrong with a girl buying clothes?! I haven't bought any new clothes for a year!"
"Fashion book expenses, six hundred seventy taels."
"I, I'm still young and should be studying hard, what's wrong with reading more? Besides, there are encyclopedias I bought for you to get familiar with the new world!"
"You mean that second-hand encyclopedia set you bought for 2 taels of silver?"
"But the content is still comprehensive! Those 2 taels were extremely well spent!"
"Furthermore, cosmetics cost fifteen thousand taels."
"…Women all love beauty, you wouldn't want your ride to look worse than others, would you?"
"Then there are the immortal cultivation materials, totaling three hundred and ninety thousand silver coins."
"Immortal cultivation is the main career, so spending money on it is entirely expected. Three hundred and ninety thousand... wait, how did it become so much? I remember my recent cultivation expenses only included a few hundred silver coins for the decoction fees when practicing the Immovable Tyrant Body."
Wang Jiu said, "Decoction fees are listed separately, totaling three hundred and seventy-seven silver coins. Cultivation materials are mainly what I used to rebuild Sword World, including..."
"Oh my goodness, the bulk of it is all spent by you!" Li Qingming exclaimed, gritting her teeth, "And you've spent it all on me?!"
"You said I could spend it freely."
"I didn't say you could just casually spend tens of thousands! What do we do now? We can't even afford the rent!"
"I think, given the current situation, pawning is a very reasonable choice."
"Yes, quickly sell a few pieces of those useless materials you bought and pay the rent first."
Wang Jiu said, "I've used up all my materials, and the Demon-slaying Blade in Sword World is only half completed... If we try to pawn something to raise rent money, we'll have to pick from your pile of little skirts."
"No one touches my skirts!" Li Qingming immediately took on a protective stance like a mother hen, glaring at Wang Jiu.
Wang Jiu thought for a moment, "Then there's nothing to pawn; we'll have to go a different route."
"What are you planning to do?"
"Borrow money from Li Jinglun."
"Absolutely not!" Li Qingming declared righteously, "I've said before that my principle is to never use the enemy's money! The tens of thousands of silver coins before can be considered spoils of war, but borrowing money from the enemy now is just ridiculous!"
Wang Jiu said, "Advance on spoils of war."
"Alright, safe travels to you."
—
"Oh, you're here to borrow money?"
Li Jinglun looked a bit surprised at the colorful little figure in front of him.
"Faced with some difficulty? Tell me, how much do you need? If it's just a few thousand spirit stones, I can manage."
Wang Jiu wrote on a note, "I don't need that much, just five thousand silver coins will do."
Li Jinglun frowned, "Want silver coins again? That kind of mortal wealth, I don't have much in stock. If you need spirit stones, it's easier... That previous tens of thousands were all my current cash. Though I can exchange some at the bank, the exchange rate lately is... Hold on, let me find a friend to help out."
After speaking, he returned to the study and wrote a letter, using real-time communication.
Meanwhile, in Li Family Mansion, Lu Xin received Li Jinglun's message: "Sister-in-law, need some help, do you have five thousand in cash to lend for a turnover? That mysterious newcomer skilled in arithmetic mentioned earlier came to borrow money, and I'm out of cash here."
Lu Xin couldn't help but laugh, "This is happening, a bestselling author without cash... Li Ping, bring some cash over."
Moments later, Li Ping ran over quickly with a silver note, and Lu Xin took it and used Flying Sword Communication to send it over directly.
After sending the flying sword, Lu Xin considered whether to personally cook some snacks for her husband tonight, then suddenly remembered sending some inept fellows to Shen Garden this morning to collect rent, uncertain about the outcome.
"This..." Li Ping broke into a sweat, those three fools didn't even step inside the gate and fled in panic, even losing the collection slip, it was utterly embarrassing! If it weren't for just finishing a lap and feeling like a dead dog, he'd definitely pin those three idiots to the ground!
"Not going well? Ha, I knew that girl wouldn't come up with the money," Lu Xin wasn't surprised at all by this outcome, "Even though that girl recently broke through the Wind Barrier by luck, she's still just a newcomer in the Immortal Realm with no clue about this world; growing up in Li Family Mansion, she thinks money falls from the sky, how could she understand the difficulty of earning money? But..."
Lu Xin turned and asked Li Ping: "Is earning money really difficult? I see Thirteen easily acquiring thousands upon thousands of spirit stones..."
Li Ping looked up at the curious, youthful-looking mistress, feeling overwhelmed with unspoken emotions.
"Madam, earning money... varies from person to person."
"Well, in your opinion, can Qingming earn money?"
Li Ping said, "While I believe Miss will achieve great success later on, at least for now she doesn't seem to have much ability to earn money, otherwise the past two years wouldn't have been so bleak."
"Then, she likely can't come up with five thousand silver coins?"
"At least not in the short term, it seems."
Lu Xin nodded, "Good... I hope this financial crisis makes her truly realize the importance of family, and not think just because she's broken the Wind Barrier, she can be completely independent; she can't even prepare the first requirement for cultivation: wealth, companions, methods, and land."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a cargo flying sword floated in through the window, carrying a letter.
The letter was written in Li Qingming's elegant yet heroic handwriting.
"If you think five thousand silver coins can kill me, you're sorely mistaken. Take your filthy money."
Attached beneath the letter was a silver note that looked familiar no matter how you viewed it.
"... This truly is my money!"