NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 37
Li Xin commented dryly, "On the Lantern Festival, you rescued Miss Wang. Did you tell her you wanted to be repaid with a thousand eight hundred taels of silver?"
"Lord Wang has already given his thanks," Li Xia replied. "The pearls from last time were his appreciation. This is too much."
"Miss Wang said that what her parents gave her is from them. This is her gratitude to you," Li Xin explained, opening the bag. Inside were ten silver notes, each worth a hundred taels of silver. In addition to the silver, the bag contained many gold pearls. By Li Xia's estimate, there were at least twenty of them. The gold and silver notes amounted to 1,500 taels.
"Miss Wang is truly generous," Li Xia accepted the gift, delighted to have an additional income. She had been wondering how to explain the silver to Auntie Mei. This was like receiving a pillow when she was worrying about where to lay her head. Li Xia decided she would look after Miss Wang from then on.
Following the principle of sharing one's gains, Li Xia gave all the gold pearls to Li Xin. Li Xin didn't take them, as she had no shortage of spending money. Apart from her monthly allowance, Mrs. Lu secretly gave her additional funds.
Li Xia tucked the bag into her pocket. Her money-loving expression made Li Xin laugh out loud.
"Sister, next time you see Miss Wang, please thank her on my behalf. Tell her that the debt of gratitude for saving my life has been repaid," Li Xia said, feeling that she had merely pulled Miss Wang out of danger and hadn't done anything extraordinary.
"It's better if you tell her yourself. Miss Wang is a good girl. You could become friends with her," Li Xin disagreed with Li Xia's habit of downplaying her actions whenever she went out. After spending time with her, Li Xin knew Li Xia was a good girl and hoped others would see her positive qualities.
Unfortunately, Li Xia had no intention of following Li Xin's advice. To her, such matters were tedious and uninteresting.
While Li Ming was basking in the glory of an imperial commendation, a group of mountain bandits had raided a caravan in his jurisdiction, which could seriously undermine his reputation in Liuzhou. After a day of investigation, their location was discovered. Li Ming decided to lead a group of constables to eliminate the bandits.
That night, Li Xia headed to the mountain. She discovered that the bandits had people patrolling and had set up several traps as warnings. Li Xia secretly disabled the traps and sprinkled some powdered drugs at the bandits' water source.
Li Xia entered the storeroom and filled two large bags. The previous day, she hadn't been able to take anything due to a lack of bags, so she had sewn two cloth bags during the day. She filled the bags with gold, silver, and jade, regretting that she had made the bags too small.
Carrying the two cloth bags, Li Xia returned to the Orchid Pavilion and stashed the gold, silver, and other valuables under her bed. Exhausted from using her abilities, she lay down to rest. In the early morning, Qiu Shui came to wake her up.
Seeing the sleepy Li Xia, Qiu Shui handed her a damp towel. "Miss, you didn't sleep well last night."
"Mmm, I had a dream," Li Xia took the towel and wiped her face to wake herself up.
"What dream?" Qiu Shui took the towel, rinsed it, wrung it out, and handed it back to Li Xia.
"I dreamed that I found two big bags of money and carried them back, but they were so heavy that it was exhausting," Li Xia recounted her dream, making Qiu Shui laugh. "That's a good dream!"
"I think so too," Li Xia said as she got out of bed and dressed.
Auntie Mei was waiting for Li Xia to have breakfast. On the table were millet porridge, steamed buns, and two small dishes of side dishes. Li Xia pouted, "Not this again?" She had grown tired of eating the same few dishes day after day.
Auntie Mei handed Li Xia a steamed bun without commenting on her remark. She didn't particularly enjoy eating the same dishes every day either.
After finishing her unsatisfying breakfast, Li Xia followed Auntie Mei to the Returning Swallow Pavilion. Mrs. Lu had just finished her meal, and the spring rolls, bird's nest soup, yellow rice cakes, and small dumplings left on the table were being cleared away. Li Xia felt like drooling as she looked at the delicious food but averted her gaze. She thought to herself that when she returned, she would ask Wu Auntie to make her some small dumplings – no, not small dumplings, as those didn't have meat. She wanted big dumplings instead.
Back in the Orchid Pavilion, Li Xia took out the gold and silver she had obtained. Confirming that they were unmarked and commonly circulated, she then took out the silver notes and placed them in a box, carrying it to Auntie Mei's room.
Auntie Mei looked at the box filled with silver notes, gold, and silver, which amounted to around five thousand taels in total.
"Where did you get so much money?" Auntie Mei asked sternly, worried that Li Xia had done something wrong.
"Auntie, you can use this silver without worry," Li Xia explained the story of rescuing Wang Lian. Of course, she couldn't mention the portion that came from the mountain bandits, even though it was a good deed to eliminate them.
"How could you accept money for saving someone? Return it quickly," Auntie Mei insisted that Li Xia return the money after learning the circumstances.
"Auntie, it's better for me to accept it. Accepting it means the matter is settled, and the Wang family no longer owes any favors. If I don't accept it, they may feel offended," Li Xia's reasoning made sense to Auntie Mei. Looking at the box in her hands, she suddenly realized, "No, wait, you didn't tell me about saving someone before. How many things have you been hiding from me?"
"Auntie, I'm a little tired. I'm going back to my room to rest," Li Xia said quickly and hurried out of the courtyard.
Auntie Mei took a few steps toward the door and called out, "Come back here!" But the more she called, the faster Li Xia walked away. Auntie Mei couldn't help but laugh in exasperation. This child really never let her have a moment's peace.
Back in her room, Li Xia called for Qiu Kui and handed her a silver ingot. "I want to eat big dumplings, and for breakfast, I want meat buns too." Qiu Kui took the silver to make the arrangements.
Li Xia looked at the remaining gold, silver, and jade. It would be easy to spend the gold and silver, but what should she do with the jade? She examined the jade pieces carefully, considering how they could be used.
As she was pondering, her eyes fell on the jade paperweight that Li Xin had given her – a jade rabbit. Li Xia loved the design and often held it in her hand. Suddenly, she had an idea for using the jade pieces.
Excited by her idea, Li Xia prepared to start carving but realized she didn't have any carving knives. Looking at her hands, she realized she didn't need knives; she could use her wind blades directly to practice carving. This way, she could also train her abilities, killing two birds with one stone.
Li Xia selected a small piece of jade and carefully considered what to carve. Once she had decided, she began carving, but on her first attempt, she couldn't control her strength and ended up cutting off half the jade.
After turning one piece of jade into powder, she finally managed to control her force. Taking a new piece of jade, she continued carving. From the jade obtained from the mountain bandits, Li Xia carved a rabbit, two jade bracelets, three jade hairpins, and a jade Buddha statue. She didn't waste the leftover fragments, either, instead carving them into jade beads to make a bracelet. However, since the jade's origin couldn't be disclosed, Li Xia stored the completed pieces in her jewelry box.
Qiu Kui brought in a plate of big dumplings. "Miss, the dumplings are ready. Please try them."
Li Xia got up, washed her hands, sat down, and picked up a spoon. She was about to take a bite when she paused and asked, "Did you send some to Auntie Mei?"
"Qiu Shui took them over."
Li Xia nodded and started eating the dumplings. There were twelve big dumplings in the bowl, with fillings like chive and egg, cabbage and meat, mixed vegetable, chive and meat, and even beef.