Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 666 Family Matters
Pei Yuan was now certain that Jiao Xiaomeiren should also know what he had been busy with these days.

This made Pei Yuan increasingly uncomfortable.

He waved his hand, signaling the two women to leave, and then went to the back hall.

Even from a distance, one could see maids carrying account books back and forth in the back hall from time to time.

When they saw me, they hurriedly bowed.

Pei Yuan nodded casually, indicating that they should go about their own business.

Upon entering the hall, they saw Jiao Xiaomei diligently reviewing the account books, with a maid beside her using an abacus, while Bi Jun stood respectfully to the side, ready to answer Jiao Yan'er's questions at any time.

The other maids serving tea were the first to notice Pei Yuan enter and quickly greeted him.

Jiao Yan'er looked up and saw Pei Yuan, her face lighting up with joy. She put down the account book in her hand and asked Pei Yuan with a smile, "Have you finished your business, Master?"

Although Pei Yuan knew perfectly well what was going on, he vaguely replied, "Yes, I came back as soon as I finished my work."

Jiao Yan'er then asked with a smile, "Has the master eaten yet?"

Pei Yuan hummed in response, "I had lunch with Xiao Ying and the others, and drank a few cups with them."

Jiao Yan'er's eyes flickered slightly, but she quickly regained her composure and gestured to the maids to fetch tea for Pei Yuan to sober up.

Taking advantage of this moment, Bi Jun quickly paid his respects to Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan remembered something and looked at Bi Jun with a smile, "By the way, Bi Zhen was also here at noon. He's been in the capital on business these days, do you want to take some time to see him?"

Bi Jun's expression remained unchanged as he respectfully said, "This servant has nothing to do with Eunuch Bi anymore; I've long been a household slave in the Thousand Household's mansion."

Pei Yuan had no opinion on the matter, but he praised the man for taking the initiative, saying, "It's excellent that you think this way."

As he spoke, his gaze fell on the ledger that Jiao Yan'er was looking at.

Pei Yuan picked up the ledger, and sure enough, it recorded the bank's transactions over the past few days.

Pei Yuan glanced at the maidservant standing tremblingly to the side, calculating with an abacus, and asked Jiao Yan'er with some doubt, "Is she a member of the family? I've never seen her before?"

The maid's movements on the abacus were very skillful; women with such abilities were extremely rare in this era.

If Pei Yuan had such a maid in his household, he would surely remember her.

Jiao Yan'er instructed the maid, "You may leave now."

Seeing this, Bi Jun wisely gave the other maids a look, and they all followed the maid out of the room.

After everyone had left, Jiao Yan'er said to Pei Yuan, "Didn't you send a letter to my grandfather last time?"

Pei Yuan recalled this matter and asked with a smile, "Did Prime Minister Jiao resent my presumption?"

The two were referring to the joke they made last time about whether the person could still eat.

Pei Yuan naturally couldn't actually write it that way. He pondered it carefully for a long time and wrote it with genuine emotion.

The term "presumptuous" does not refer to the letter itself, but rather to the nature of the person's status.

Pei Yuan's decision to take the granddaughter of the former Grand Secretary as a concubine is truly presumptuous.

Jiao Yan'er tried not to think too much about Pei Yuan's words and replied softly, "Father delivered the letter personally, so he must have felt more at ease with him."

Although my grandfather did not reply, he did send some dowry and servants.

Pei Yuan understood. In other words, the maid who had skillfully manipulated the abacus earlier was sent from the Jiao family.

Thinking about it this way, Pei Yuan felt it made perfect sense.

Given Jiao Yan'er's background, she must have been raised according to the standards of the matriarch of the family.

Being able to manage household assets and reasonably arrange family expenses is also a very important aspect.

However, being able to understand the ledgers is one thing, but being too good at calculations can be a disadvantage.

Therefore, those tasks that required diligent practice and were too flashy were naturally shared by maids who had been trained since childhood.

Jiao Fang did not reply directly.

Clearly, they were dissatisfied with Jiao Yaner's final outcome.

However, the fact that Jiao Fang was able to send her dowry and servants revealed her struggle and helplessness.

Pei Yuan pursed his lips, unsure whether this was Jiao Fang's true attitude or just a pretentious act.

Pei Yuan changed the subject, looking at the account book in his hand, and asked, "Have the accounts been alright these past few days?"

As he spoke, he sat down in the chair and waved to Jiao Yan'er.

Jiao Yan'er glanced towards the door, and a maid who had been keeping an eye on the commotion inside quickly called the others to retreat to a safe distance.

Jiao Yan'er then stepped forward somewhat shyly and boldly sat in Pei Yuan's lap.

Pei Yuan didn't care that it was daytime. He slowly slid his large hand inside, waiting for Jiao Yan'er's reply.

Jiao Yan'er placed her hand on her chest, trying to stop Pei Yuan's mischief, and replied, "There's nothing wrong with the accounts. However, I noticed that these 'Quan' banks, besides buying up banknotes at high prices, are also buying them from other banks at slightly lower prices."

"I don't quite understand."

"If, sir, you feel the offered purchase price is too high, you can simply lower the price offered by Quanzi Bank. In the current market, even if we lower the price slightly, it will still be much higher than the purchase prices offered by other banks."

“Our own purchase price is ‘nine strings of cash for one coin’, while the purchase price from other money shops is ‘ten strings of cash for one coin’. I asked Bi Jun to go out and inquire, and those money shops are buying paper money from the public at a price between ‘thirteen strings of cash for one coin’ and ‘sixteen strings of cash for one coin’.”

“Those money shops hardly have to do anything to bring in dozens of taels of silver every day.”

"At the same time, although the prices offered by Quanzi Bank are very high, many of them are fake transactions, and the actual amount of precious paper money being bought is not that many."

"In that case, what's the point of our money shops going to all that trouble to prop up prices? Instead, we might as well buy those cheap banknotes ourselves, and wait until the market price of banknotes rises after they've been bought up before we prop up prices. Otherwise, wouldn't we just be letting other money shops benefit for nothing?"

Pei Yuan chuckled and said, "Let me kiss you a couple of times, then I'll talk to you about it." With that, he kissed Jiao Yan'er's cheek and began to make some rather unceremonious gestures with his hands.

Pei Yuan and Jiao Yan'er were both young and inexperienced, so there was no real constraint from traditional etiquette.

Now that they were in her own private quarters, even though it was broad daylight, Jiao Yan'er quickly gave in after a token resistance.

When the little beauty's eyes were alluring.

Pei Yuan suddenly remembered that he had been fooling around with Song Chunniang all night yesterday, and it seemed that he hadn't washed himself afterwards.

He was concerned that Jiao Yan'er was a meticulous person, and for a moment he found himself in a difficult situation.

Fortunately, Jiao Xiaomei was always the weaker party in front of Pei Yuan, so Pei Yuan could also change the subject at will, "Where were we?"

Fine beads of sweat clung to Jiao Yan'er's forehead, mingling with a few strands of her hair. She nestled in Pei Yuan's arms, her cheeks flushed from the warm, moist breath. Jiao Yan'er remained silent, her face pressed against Pei Yuan's chest.

Pei Yuan replied dryly, "My scheme regarding the precious paper money wasn't for that money, but rather..."

Just as Pei Yuan was about to continue speaking, Jiao Yan'er sat up straight in Pei Yuan's arms.

She met Pei Yuan's gaze for a moment, then said softly, "Do you want to take a shower?"

Pei Yuan felt a little guilty and subconsciously wanted to turn his head to smell it.

Jiao Yan'er stopped Pei Yuan's movement. She leaned forward, seemingly wanting to kiss Pei Yuan, but hesitated, her nose lightly touching Pei Yuan's face.

Pei Yuan couldn't resist wanting to chase after those warm, moist lips, but Jiao Yan'er chuckled and dodged him twice.

Whether it was because she couldn't let go of her resentment, Jiao Yan'er looked at Pei Yuan and said softly, "Go."

Pei Yuan quickly put Jiao Yan'er down, stood up, strode to the door, and shouted, "Someone, go and fetch me some hot water!"

The maids heard this from afar and quickly responded.

In fact, they had already started preparing hot water after they came out of the room.

Jiao Yan'er, this beautiful concubine, was so stunning that she almost caused the two bandit leaders of Bazhou Army, who had been robbing each other along the way, to turn against her.

Pei Yuan, the head of the family, was a young, vigorous, and strong man.

In the eyes of the maids and servants, with Commander Pei not returning home for so many days, the young mistress was likely to suffer today.

Therefore, these servants made some preparations well in advance.

After Pei Yuan gave the instructions, a servant quickly prepared a wooden bucket of hot water.

Pei Yuan was already somewhat concerned, and seeing that Jiao Yan'er had brought it up, he couldn't wash it too hastily.

After Jiao Yan'er got out of Pei Yuan's arms, she quickly regained her composure and began to carefully look at the remaining pages of the account book in her hand.

While waiting for Pei Yuan to bathe, she even called over the maid who was in charge of accounting to help her check a few accounts.

Pei Yuan, with his bear-like and tiger-like physique, was bathing naked to the side, while the abacus of the accounting maid made a somewhat chaotic sound.

After carefully washing himself and drying off, Pei Yuan strode over and scooped Jiao Yan'er, who was still holding the account book, into his arms.

Jiao Yan'er gasped softly, unsure whether to hold the ledger in her hand or put it down.

The chaotic clattering of the abacus suddenly ceased, and the maid who had been doing the accounting bowed with a flushed face and took her leave.

Even in Pei Yuan's arms, Jiao Yan'er still tried her best to appear composed, bowing slightly to the maid in response.

Looking at the young girl and her earnest manner, Pei Yuan couldn't help but tease her, "Yan'er is quite the busybody."

Jiao Yan'er gritted her teeth and lightly poked Pei Yuan with her fingernail, "Yeah, yeah."

Pei Yuan didn't say anything more and carried Jiao Xiaomei to the bed.

Last night, Pei Yuan first played a warm-up match with Bai Yujing, but before he could play for long, Han Qianhu called him out for drinks. Afterwards, he went to find Song Chunniang to fool around.

Although I made some sacrifices last night, I haven't been able to get close to women these past few days due to my busy schedule, and now I'm feeling quite aroused.

Jiao Xiaomei silently endured it.

When Pei Yuan finally let out a heavy breath and the two of them were entwined in each other, she asked somewhat casually, "Didn't you marry Commander Han yesterday? Why do you smell like Commander Song?"

Pei Yuan pretended to be confused and asked, "Is there?"

Jiao Yan'er rolled over and lay on top of Pei Yuan, saying half seriously, "I've seen Commander Han. She came to see you a few days ago, and she smelled of sandalwood from temples and Taoist monasteries."

"General Song originally had no body odor, but after she got married, she came over a few times with a pleasant perfume scent. It must be the daughter of that censor, right?"

Pei Yuan thought about it for a moment, and it seemed that there was nothing he couldn't talk about regarding his own little troubles.

Besides, they're all his women, so it's a family matter.

There's nothing shameful about it.

So he replied, "The last time you saw Commander Han was when she came to block the door, right?"

The time when Commander Han came to block the gate at Dengshikou was a consequence of the "Commander's Absence" mode. Pei Yuan took the opportunity to slip away while seeing off Xiao Ying and Li Shishi, and Commander Han became increasingly angry, so he came to block the gate.

Jiao Yan'er was the one who hosted him that time, and Pei Yuan hadn't had a chance to find out what the two talked about in private.

Seeing Jiao Yan'er staring intently at him, Pei Yuan said somewhat awkwardly, "There's nothing wrong with saying it. It's just that I played the bad guy, and she wouldn't accept it."

Jiao Yan'er listened, but did not press for details about who the villain was or what he refused to do.

When Commander Han came to her door last time, Jiao Yan'er probably already knew the reason.

She nestled in Pei Yuan's arms and asked softly, "So, you abandoned your bride on your wedding night and went off to fool around with that woman?"

“Uh.” Pei Yuan didn’t know how to respond. Jiao Yan’er’s focus was clearly on why it was Song Chunniang.

Pei Yuan hadn't thought about this question before, but now that Jiao Yan'er had asked him, he silently had an answer in his heart.

Perhaps it's because being with Song Chunniang wasn't so tiring.

The two walked together in a sorry state, both knowing the other was no good, with no further expectations, and without hesitation trusted each other.

Jiao Yan'er was Pei Yuan's caged bird; when she was being alluring, her beauty could rival even Han Qianhu's. However, in Pei Yuan's heart, Jiao Yan'er might be a wonderful choice for spending a night together, but not someone he could confide his weaknesses to.

Seeing that Jiao Yan'er was staring intently, waiting for the result.

Pei Yuan seemed to have come to terms with it. "It's not what you think. Commander Han didn't really like me, so he found another woman to replace her. I was furious at the time, and I was too ashamed to go home, so I had no choice but to go to her."

Jiao Yan'er was silent for a while before asking, "You came back today just like that? Where is your bride?"

Pei Yuan said, "I've returned to Nanjing."

Pei Yuan's tone was neither one of regret nor relief.

Pei Yuan assumed Jiao Yan'er was worried about her own status, so he comforted her, "Let her handle things at Chengqingfang. You can stay here and be your concubine. Let's keep to ourselves and not worry about things there."

Jiao Yan'er said softly, "Yan'er doesn't care about her status, and she won't make things difficult for the commander."

Hearing the sweet and gentle Jiao Xiaomei say this, even Pei Yuan, with his cold heart, couldn't help but feel a lot of pity.

Just as he was about to hug the little beauty and gently comfort her, he saw the little beauty, who had been enduring and conserving her energy, silently climb onto the horse herself.

Pei Yuan: "?"

(End of this chapter)