Chapter 27: The Plot Begins

  Here is the translation:

  The following is the main body of the article you provided, please enjoy!

  "Whoosh!"

  Wang Qifang turned the box full of jewels upside down, and thumb-sized round pearls rolled all over the kang. As a woman, no one can resist the temptation of jewelry, Wang Qifang thought she was an ordinary person, and naturally wouldn't be immune to it either.

  Put the empty box aside, Wang Qifang carefully picked up a pearl. The color of the pearl was very good, round and smooth, and it was quite different from the cultured pearls she had seen later. As her fingertips slid over the shiny surface, Wang Qifang felt a sense of satisfaction wash over her.

  Wow, this pearl is so big and has a good color, it should be worth a lot of money.

  Wait? This world has already deviated from the track of history, glass, lace and tomatoes have all been brought out by many predecessors who crossed over, so artificial pearl cultivation shouldn't be a difficult task either?!

  Wang Qifang remembered that before crossing over, she was still at the starting point chasing a Qing dynasty drama, where the male lead was reborn in Cao Cong's body and used artificial pearl cultivation to pay off the debts of the Cao family. Hmm, wouldn't there be someone in this world who understands freshwater aquaculture too?!

  After losing the glass bead, Wang Qifang couldn't help but question her own strengths. She fiddled with it for half a day, finally pinching the bead between her thumb and index finger, holding it up in front of Zhao's face, asking with a hint of embarrassment:

  "Grandma, isn't this very expensive?"

  "Hehe, of course it's worth the money!"

  From the moment Wang Qifang opened the treasure box, Zhao's tightly strung heart suddenly relaxed. When she saw the treasures in the box clearly, her mind was even more at ease - alas, Madam still loves and pities Seventh Girl, not forgetting to leave her daughter life-saving wealth before leaving.

  She casually picked one up from the kang and explained to Wang Qifang: "This is a treasure, Seventh Lady, don't think that this pearl is not precious, but like the mistress left you such good quality pearls are rarely seen. Well, just this small pearl, more can't be said, less can say it's worth three or four taels of silver!"

  One or two taels, she had laid out over a hundred in front of her, wouldn't that be three or four hundred taels of silver?! Besides pearls, there were also precious stones. Wang Qifang's scorching gaze shifted to the transparent red and blue gemstones, and she asked: "What about these gemstones?"

  "Hehe, this gem is even more valuable than pearls!" Zhao's aunt put down the pearl and followed Wang Qifang's gaze, picking up a bright red gemstone again, fondling it gently, saying: "These gems were brought back by those barbarians from the Western Regions. Ever since Empress Cixi designed a phoenix crown with rubies, rubies became one of the essential accessories for girls to wear on their wedding day. I remember when Madam was preparing the dowry for Seventh Lady, she collected many rubies. Later, after you married into the Zhao family, I even went to check again, but couldn't find any. I thought Zheng's wife had secretly taken them, but it turns out Madam had kept them all here!"

  "How much silver is it worth?"

  As the saying goes, when material civilization is guaranteed, people will pursue spiritual civilization. But at this moment, Wang Qifang was still struggling for survival, and compared to jewelry and gems, she still valued silver more.

  "Look at you, every word is worth money," Zhao Ayi heard Wang Qifang's words and didn't show any sign of suspicion that she knew nothing about it. Because in the past, Wang Qifang didn't care about these "vulgar things" at all, nor did she know the value of her treasured possessions, so many of her accessories were swindled away by some cunning slaves for a very low price.

  Otherwise, with the dowry from the royal family, it would be enough for a four-person household to indulge in delicacies and still have leftovers for a lifetime. How could it be like Seventh Lady's side, where selling off all her jewelry only supported them for four or five years? Moreover, every day was just vegetables and tofu, not even able to eat high-quality bird's nest.

  In Zhao's opinion, although Qiuniang vowed to strive for self-improvement, if Wang Qifang really showed off as if she knew everything and could calculate everything, it would only make Zhao suspicious.

  At the moment, Wang Qifang looked like she didn't understand anything, which was consistent with her usual behavior. Therefore, Zhao's mouth said slightly scolding words, but in her heart, there was no suspicion at all. She took over the empty box and carefully put away the gemstones and pearls one by one, saying: "The gemstone should be two or three times more valuable than the pearl. However, we are now in a remote place, and the gemstone can't even be sold for a good price. Anyway, we don't lack anything, so you'd better keep these things to add to Xiaoyan's dowry!"

  Is it twenty or thirty times? That's about ten taels of silver per gemstone?! Wang Qifang's attention was still on how much the treasure was worth and didn't quite catch what Zhao Ayi said.

  "By the way, Auntie, for a farm of this size like Qingyuan Manor, how much silver would it take to buy it?"

  "Huh? Farm?" Zhao's mother climbed onto the kang, picking out the beads from the gap and putting them back in the box. After hearing Wang Qifang's question, she sat on the kang with a puzzled expression and asked: "What's this, Seventh Lady, you want to buy a farm?"

  "That's right!" Wang Qifang nodded, and in fact, when she decided to stay, she had already planned to buy a house. It was just that at the time, there was no silver on hand, only plans but no power to realize them.

  Now, with a box of jewelry left by her mother, it should be enough to buy an estate.

  "We're living well here, aren't we?" Zhao's nurse obviously didn't understand, she thought of a possibility and carefully probed: "Qīniáng, the young master said it was to let you come to the villa to 'rest', if we leave the villa, Beijing will find out..."

  "Don't worry," Wang Qifang knew the old lady's unspoken words, and gently patted Zhao Ayi's hand, explaining: "I'm not being stubborn when I said to buy a villa to live outside. It's just that, Ayi, you also know my current situation is very special. If those petty people in the mansion find out, won't they think of ways to harm me?! Although Feng Tiezhu and his wife seem kind, as you said, one can only know their face but not their heart; they're not dead loyal slaves under my control, who knows whether they'll betray us for money..."

  Upon hearing this, Zhao's expression changed as she looked at Wang Qifang with a gaze of approval and nodded: "Seventh Lady has indeed made progress, what you said is right, how can one entrust their safety to an untrustworthy servant?! However, if we are to buy a villa, it cannot be too far from Qingyuan Mountain Villa, otherwise the young master will blame us!"

  "Well, Mother said that we should buy a house next to Qingyuan Mountain Villa. Yesterday when I went out, I took a look and found that there are many idle fields and barren mountains around here. Let's just buy one first, it can be a place for us to rest and recover!"

  "Alright, alright, after lunch I'll go check it out and we can try to settle down as soon as possible!"

  "This is the first," Wang Qifang raised her index finger and said with a calculating tone, "Secondly, when Nainai goes to investigate the village, she can also find a matchmaker to buy a few clever maids and servants. We will be staying in the village for some time, I don't want Nainai to work so hard!"

  "Buy people?" At this point, Zhao's mother was clearly stunned, and a bad premonition flashed through her mind. "Seventh Girl, you don't want to go back to the mansion, do you?" How can she still stay for a while? How long is this period of time? A month, a year or a lifetime?!

  Thinking of this, Zhao's face was filled with gloom. She suddenly thought that since she knew she was pregnant, Qiuniang had never mentioned sending a message to the Zhao family? Could it be that Qiuniang was hurt by her husband's ruthlessness and didn't want to go back?!

  "Of course not, Xiao Yao is still in the mansion, I certainly can't abandon her." Wang Qifang thought of the little figure in his dream, his eyes filled with tenderness, but his tone was exceptionally firm as he said: "But to go back, we must have a plan. I was driven out like a stray dog, and I absolutely cannot return in a humble and submissive manner!"