Manbao ignored him and turned to ask Bai Shan, "Are you going too?"
Bai Shan nodded, "Yes, I heard there are lots of lotus flowers and pods for sale at the Guardian of the Nation Temple now, and the fresh lotus seeds are really tasty too."
Manbao imdiately said, "I’m going too!"
Instantly, she tossed the dical books and notes in her system out of her mind.
The group of three casually invited Liu Huan and Yin Huo standing nearby to join them.
Yin Huo nodded in agreent, and Liu Huan, who hadn’t been out for a while, was eager to go, so he nodded repeatedly too.
The three parties agreed on a ti to et and then parted at the palace gate, each heading ho first.
Manbao, carrying a basket, rushed back to the main courtyard, stuffed the three wooden jars she had brought out onto the multilevel shelf, and turned to run out, only to be caught by her fourth sister-in-law returning from garden work. She asked, "Why are you running out as soon as you get back?"
Manbao replied, "I’ve made plans with friends to go boating on the lake."
Ms. Fang glanced up at the sun.
It was still morning, but the sun was already getting hot. She knew it would only get harsher, so she looked at Manbao’s fair skin, unwilling to let her get tanned, and said, "Wear a straw hat. I’ve noticed that girls outside often wear hats with veils, which look nice and provide shade. You should buy one too."
However, they didn’t have one at ho at the mont, so Ms. Fang placed her frequently worn straw hat on Manbao’s head.
Manbao didn’t mind and wore the straw hat to find Bai Shan and Bai Erlang.
Bai Shan and Bai Erlang saw her and envied, "Do you have any more? We want one too."
Ms. Zheng stood aside: ...
She looked at her son’s jade-like face, then at the straw hat on Manbao’s head, opened her mouth, and weakly said, "If you don’t want to get sunburned, why go out at all?"
Bai Shan imdiately responded, "We’re not afraid of getting sunburned."
Ms. Zheng: ...
Though they said they weren’t afraid, they quickly ran to Zhou SiLang’s courtyard to find straw hats.
Ms. Fang really did have so, and she gave them two fairly new ones, smiling, "It’s sunnier here than in Luojiang County, and it rains less. Since we’ve been here, it has only rained twice during the sumr. When we asked the locals, they said it’s normal. So we bought a few more straw hats, thinking we could use them even while working in the courtyard."
Unexpectedly, Bai Shan and the others used them first before they had the chance.
Bai Shan and Bai Erlang were familiar with the straw hats and put them on and tied the strings themselves without help, even asking, "Where are Lixue and the others?"
"They went to the bookstore," Ms. Fang laughed, "The calligraphy they’ve been practicing has finally been recognized by the bookstore owner, so they took books from there to transcribe. They’re going to hand them over together today."
Though their family is now living in this big house, Bai Wulang hasn’t hidden the expenses from them, since it all cos from the public funds.
After Ms. Fang’s health improved, she discussed with Old Madam Liu and decided to cook in the courtyard themselves, and of course, Zhou Lixue and the others joined them.
After all, the house is big enough that when the courtyard door is closed, it’s like a separate household, no different from living in the countryside.
And Manbao lived freely; she returned ho every ten days for two days, and if she didn’t like Ms. Fang’s cooking, she would go eat with Bai Shan;
If she wanted Ms. Fang’s cooking, she stayed to eat there; no one compelled her.
Since they bought their own rice and vegetables and cooked for themselves, the Zhou family knew their approximate monthly expenses.
No matter how big of a house they lived in, aside from Manbao’s salary, the family’s only steady inco was from the restaurant.
As for Zhou SiLang, it was best not to count on him for now. No matter how much he earned, he would reinvest most of it, and since he traveled a lot, his earnings couldn’t easily be used by them.
The remaining portion was kept by Zhou Lijun, ant for saving for the family’s old ho and to be taken back to their parents the next ti they returned ho.
So Zhou Lixue and the others started earnestly practicing calligraphy too, becoming less temperantal, and could copy so simple books.
A single book didn’t earn much, but it was enough to cover their daily stationery expenses, saving Bai Wulang’s side another expense.
Even Ms. Fang and Ms. Lu collected horse manure in a corner of the garden to make fertilizer following the gardener’s thod, then planted vegetables in the open areas of their courtyard, as well as in the garden itself.
In the sumr, vegetables grow quickly; within a month, so vegetables didn’t need to be bought as they could self-sustain, attracting even Old Madam Liu’s interest in experiencing gardening for two days.
Speaking of earning money by transcribing books, Manbao then rembered, "Oh right, it’s the first day of June today. Shouldn’t I be collecting my salary?"
Bai Shan: "Isn’t the Ministry of Revenue on a break today too?"
Manbao calculated and was annoyed, "When I’m on break, they’re on break too, and when they’re working, I’m in the palace, so how am I supposed to collect my salary?"
Ms. Zheng, listening by the side, laughed and happily said, "What a silly child, collecting a salary doesn’t require you to go personally."
She had collected salaries for Bai Qi before, so she knew the process.
With a hint of nostalgia, she recalled, "You just need to make a trip to the Ministry of Revenue, submit a copy of your family’s invitation and your personal seal to them. After that, a family mber can go with the stamped invitation to collect your salary. You don’t need to go in person."
Only then did Manbao feel relieved, thinking for a mont before saying, "I’ll take a leave to go to the Ministry of Revenue on the third. I wonder if I need to make an appointnt in advance. I’ll have to tell Liu Huan later to pass a word to Minister Liu to wait for on that day."
Liu Huan didn’t expect he had this role, and looked blank when given this task.
But after being in a daze for a mont, he thought it wasn’t a big deal, so he nodded, "Alright, I’ll tell my grandfather. When do you plan to go to the Ministry of Revenue?"
Manbao thought for a mont and said, "Around Shen ti on the third; I should be back from Daming Palace by then, and I’ll take an hour off from the Chongwen Pavilion."
Bai Shan found the lotus seeds he wanted to buy, squatting and selecting while saying, "That’s not a hard task, just have your grandfather’s clerks wait a bit for you. How does this one look? Isn’t the seed pretty big?"
Manbao crouched down to look, taking the lotus pod Bai Shan handed her, squeezing so next to it, finding them quite plump, she nodded.
Bai Shan then asked the vendor, "How much for this?"
The vendor smiled, "Ten coins per stem."
Bai Shan said, "That’s expensive, four coins more than what we paid in Yizhou City."
The vendor proudly said, "Young master, this is the capital; things here are pricier than outside."
Bai Erlang picked out three after selecting, then handed them over to Bai Shan for the bill, "You promised to treat, rember?"
Bai Shan pulled out a string of coins from his wallet, not wanting to break it since it was exactly a hundred coins, and turned to ask Yin Huo and Liu Huan, "Do you guys want to pick one too?"
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