The Lucky Heiress

Originally, this was a side room of the prefecture’s office, but now it has become the place where Wei Ruo and a group of female scholars and managers handle affairs.

The people working with Wei Ruo were capable managers and female accountants, chosen by Madam Yuan, the Seventh Prince, and the noble ladies of Taizhou prefecture, especially sent to assist Wei Ruo in coordinating disaster relief.

As relief efforts involve many people, money, and food supplies, it is necessary to arrange different refugees in different places, solve their housing and food problems, dispatch food and money, allocate supervision staff; there are many tasks to be done.

Madam Yuan and Madam Qin come here every day. Madam Qin is involved in the entire process, helping with the work, while Madam Yuan spends some time each day to accompany everyone and assist with any needs.

Wei Ruo first went to see Madam Yuan in the next room.

Seeing that Wei Ruo came later than the previous two days, Madam Yuan asked with concern, “Was there something wrong, or are you tired?”

“No problem. I was just delayed a bit because my mother asked me to bring my younger sister here before I left the house,” Wei Ruo explained.

Madam Yuan was aware of Wei Ruo’s relationship with her family, and knew about the incident where Wei Qingwan caused Wei Ruo to nearly fall into the water. So she knew that Wei Qingwan had no good intentions towards Wei Ruo.

Now that Madam Wei wants Wei Ruo to bring her sister here, her intentions are not hard to guess.

“Your mother probably wants your sister to earn a good reputation too, right?” Madam Yuan said.

In these few days, Wei Ruo had shown her abilities and insights to the noble ladies of Taizhou Prefecture, and everyone praised how Wei Ruo, the eldest daughter of the Wei family, was clever and talented. This led to her reputation as a brilliant woman spreading far and wide.

For large families, when choosing a wife, they value managerial skills and character in future matrons. Thus, someone like Wei Ruo is very popular. She believed that after this disaster relief, more people would want to have a marital alliance with the Wei family.

“If my sister performs well, it will be very favorable for both herself and the Wei family. In the short term, it adds to the Wei family’s achievements; in the long term, it is greatly beneficial for her marriage,” Wei Ruo said.

“If she’s good to you, that’s fine. But she has ill intentions towards you. Given my temperament, if someone provokes me first, I certainly won’t repay their ill-will with kindness,” Madam Yuan laughed.

“That’s why I had Qingyi take her to Huichung Pavilion. Please forgive me, Madam, for making arrangements without consulting you first,” Wei Ruo said. “Not a big deal, didn’t I say these courtyards are at your disposal during this period? You can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t affect your mood or our work progress,” Madam Yuan said.

“Thank you for your understanding, Madam,” Wei Ruo replied, directing the conversation back to the business at hand. “Madam, has the food inventory that was stored yesterday arrived yet?”

Just arrived,” Madam Yuan handed over the account book she received from the maid to Wei Ruo, and told her, “In just three days, the large granary of the prefecture’s office is already full.”

Wei Ruo took the inventory and started reading it. Then she saw a familiar name – Fan Chengxu.

“Is the owner of Zuixian Residence, Fan Chengxu, also involved? He even donated five thousand taels of silver and ten thousand shi of rice?”

“Yes, the Fan family is not a local gentry family in Taizhou Prefecture, but they have significant influence in the court. It’s just that this Fan Chengxu is different from ordinary gentry; he likes doing business. Although he was not invited to our meeting that day, it’s clear he’s interested in your idea of using labor as disaster relief and wants to have a piece of the pie.”

Madam Yuan thought Wei Ruo did not know Fan Chengxu, so she explained in detail.

“As long as he is willing to donate money and food, it doesn’t matter where he is from or whether he is a government official or a businessman, we welcome his assistance,” Wei Ruo said.

Wei Ruo admired Fan Chengxu’s business acumen in her heart, as he seemed unwilling to miss a moneymaking opportunity.

The Xiu family has sent food for the second time today,” Madam Yuan continued, “And according to Madam Xiu, they plan to transport more food here.”

“Where will they transport it from?” Wei Ruo asked.

Nowadays, there is a food shortage everywhere. It’s very difficult for ordinary people to buy food from other places.

“The Xiu family has been rooted in Taizhou prefecture since the generation of Old Master Xiu’s father. Their home is around Lin’an and they still have some properties and farmland there,” Madam Yuan explained.

After saying this, Madam Yuan couldn’t help but add, “Speaking of which, Old Master Xiu and the former Xiu Duke are of the same clan, both from the Xiu family in Lin’an.”

“Xiu Duke, you mean the recently exonerated Xiu Duke?” Wei Ruo asked.

“Exactly. If it weren’t for disasters cropping up everywhere, I believe that case would’ve been resolved by now.”

I heard that when the Duke Xiu’s household was seized, the involved individuals were also dealt with. So how come the Xiu family here in Taizhou Prefecture remained unaffected?” Wei Ruo asked.

“Firstly, there was some distance between them, even though they were both descendants of the Xiu family in Lin’an, they were very distant relations by blood; secondly, towards the end of the matter, the Emperor’s heart softened due to the Empress,” Madam Yuan said.

After speaking, Madam Yuan suddenly realised that she had steered the conversation off-topic.

“Look at me, talking too much and saying things I shouldn’t have. Once you’ve heard these things, keep them to yourself and don’t repeat them,” Madam Yuan warned Wei Ruo, “Especially in front of Madam Qin. One must never mention this.”

Wei Ruo nodded. She knew well which topics she could discuss and which she couldn’t casually chat about. She had no interest in nor desires to comment on royal affairs.

After discussing the list in detail with Madam Yuan, Wei Ruo returned to the next room and started consolidating the inventory of food collected so far together with the two female accountants, then began to assign people to transport the food. Starting from today, they would start sending food to several previously identified bases.

Since this time, the scope of reclamation was relatively large, so Wei Ruo had studied the geomancy map of Taizhou Prefecture a couple of days ago, selected the areas that needed to be reclaimed, and set the corresponding bases.

The areas that Wei Ruo currently intended to reclaim and improve were mainly sandy and saline-alkaline land, with the mountainous areas not considered for the time being due to their relatively complex conditions. Different mountains have different circumstances, and the cost of reclamation is higher than the other two.

For the reclamation of sandy and saline-alkaline lands, the plans remained the same as before: plant sweet potatoes in sandy lands and winter wheat in saline-alkaline lands after improvement.

Today, Wei Ruo’s main job is still to work with several female scholars at the prefecture’s office to coordinate and allocate resources. But starting tomorrow, Wei Ruo will need to go on-site for inspection, and then develop different improvement and reclamation plans according to different soil conditions..