Glory

"Since the young master arrived in Lin'an, he had my husband purchase furniture to furnish the eastern chamber and one room in the eastern wing. The eastern chamber is for the young master himself, while the room in the eastern wing is reserved for his cousin when he occasionally stays overnight."

"In addition, the young master had two rooms prepared in the guest quarters of the front courtyard, in case visitors need a place to rest. Apart from these rooms and the servants' quarters, all other rooms are empty and unfurnished."

Hearing this, Ye Yaming still inspected two of the three eastern wing rooms and instructed the servants to measure the dimensions of the empty one as well.

After finishing, she said to Zan'er, "Tomorrow, bring a few people to move the items used by Qi Gongzi from the eastern wing to the northern room of the front courtyard's guest quarters. Then relocate the young master's belongings to the eastern wing and arrange them exactly as they were."

"Yes."

Upon returning home, Ye Yaming reported the situation to Old Mrs. Ye and Yin Shi.

Old Mrs. Ye asked, "So which residence will your dowry furniture be for?"

According to the marriage customs of the Great Jin Dynasty, families of means would typically visit the groom's home in advance to take measurements, so they could have furniture crafted for their daughter as part of her dowry when she married.

When Ye Yaqing got married, the Ye family had also provided a full set of furniture for an entire room as part of her dowry.

Ye Yaming knew that the family had reserved some fine wood specifically for crafting dowry furniture for the girls in the household.

She said, "I'll have the craftsmen use the wood you've set aside for me to make furniture for this residence. As for the capital, we can simply buy a set there to serve as the dowry."

She naturally wouldn't be departing from this residence for her wedding. The Ye family would need to go to the capital ahead of time, either purchase or rent a house there, move the dowry into it, and she would depart from there on the wedding day.

Fine wood was inherently heavy, and transporting it as furniture from Lin'an would be extremely laborious. Moreover, since she wouldn't be staying in the capital for long, there was no real need to meticulously craft furniture and ship it there.

"Anyway, Lu Guanyi gave me silver. This set of furniture will be my dowry, so we'll use his silver to buy the set in the capital," Ye Yaming added.

Old Mrs. Ye couldn't help but swat Ye Yaming playfully, scolding with a laugh, "You little shrewd one. Zi Mo was generous enough to give you so much silver directly, and yet you're still calculating like this."

"We must be clear about this. After marriage, his silver will become mine, but what's mine remains mine. A woman must safeguard her dowry after marriage—isn't that the wisdom you passed down to me, dear elder?" Ye Yaming replied with a cheeky grin.

Some thoughts in her heart, she had shared with no one.

Perhaps it was because in her previous life, she had witnessed her parents' marriage and those of the so-called wealthy families around her—not one out of ten was happy. She had very little confidence in marriage.

When she had agreed to Lu Guanyi's proposal back then, it was with the idea of getting engaged first to overcome the current difficulties, thinking the marriage might fall through in two years anyway.

Even if it didn't, and Lu Guanyi still wanted to marry her, she intended to set clear boundaries with him before the wedding. If he crossed the line she drew, they would separate.

She never expected that Lu Guanyi would actually secure an imperial decree for the marriage.An imperial marriage cannot be easily dissolved, as doing so would be a slap in the emperor's face. If the emperor who bestowed the marriage dies, the couple remains bound for life, because the succeeding emperor would never disrespect his own father—that would be unfilial.

However, while divorce is impossible, separation is permissible.

Once Lu Guanyi intends to take a concubine, she plans to reside permanently in Lin'an and never return to the capital, leaving him and his concubine to live there. Unless major events occur, they need not meet.

If Lu Guanyi shows no wandering desires in the next two or three years, she might consider having one or two children with him. She would raise the children herself, keeping them by her side.

After all, it's no different from the modern elite marriage alliances, which suits her even better than a matrilocal marriage. Lu Guanyi has good intelligence and looks, so their children's genes wouldn't be poor; he also possesses wealth and status, ensuring the children wouldn't be looked down upon for having a father who lives with the bride's family or bullied for being merchants.

As for concubines, illegitimate children, and the like, she can ignore them as long as they don't flaunt themselves before her. If they dare to provoke her or her children, she'll crush them with a single blow. Should they annoy her excessively, and Lu Guanyi fails to control or even indulges them, she wouldn't mind making Lu Guanyi, the source of trouble, disappear to restore peace to her world.

In short, she is decorating Lu Guanyi's residence in Lin'an as her future home. And the funds for the decorations, naturally, come from Lu Guanyi.

Old Mrs. Ye had lightly tapped her earlier, but this time she delivered a firm smack: "You little rascal, with no sense of propriety, daring to tease your own grandmother!"

The three women discussed for a while, and as dinner time approached, Yin Shi returned to her own courtyard, while Ye Yaming stayed behind.

After having dinner with Ye Chongming and Old Mrs. Ye, Ye Yaming said to Ye Chongming, "Grandfather, before I marry, I'd like to audit all the family accounts. You know the Hundred Flavors Restaurant in the west of the city, right? It went bankrupt, but their accountant, Mr. Jiang, is quite capable. I plan to hire Mr. Jiang to help me review the accounts. What do you think?"

She added, "I know our family's Mr. Wen is skilled at accounting. But Mr. Wen has been our accountant for many years and is familiar with all the branch accountants. Usually, if there are minor issues in the branch account books, he might turn a blind eye and not bring them to your attention. Over time, people might think we're easy to fool. It would be better to hire an external accountant to check the books, which would also serve as a supervision for Mr. Wen."

For businesspeople, accounts are the most critical aspect. As the head of the household, Ye Yaming naturally needs to clarify the Ye family's accounts to have a clear understanding of all their assets.

In principle, when Ye Chongming announced her as the next family head, she should have audited the Ye family's accounts immediately.

She hadn't acted because the family was still under Ye Chongming's control. Although Ye Hongchang had relinquished his position as family head, no matter how broad-minded he was, he would inevitably feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Moreover, Ye Yaming's authority within the Ye family wasn't firmly established yet. If she were to audit the accounts, it would likely cause dissatisfaction among the Ye family's accountants, stewards, and housekeepers. To protect their own interests, they would surely sow discord before Ye Chongming, Ye Hongchang, and others. Even if Ye Chongming said nothing, he would feel uncomfortable, thinking she didn't respect him as her grandfather. As for Ye Hongchang, it went without saying.

Therefore, she had been biding her time.It had been nearly a year since Ye Chongming announced her as the successor family head. With the Emperor's bestowed marriage, she was soon to become the wife of the Xuanwu Marquis Household's heir and hold the fourth-rank Imperial Mandate. Not only did the servants of Ye Jia not dare to provoke her, but even Tao Shi no longer challenged her. At this point, her decision to audit the accounts was unlikely to provoke collective dissatisfaction among the housekeepers.