Sixth Young Master happily accepted it, saying he would wear it carefully.
Sorting through Aunt Su's private belongings, Ruan Susu was unaware that her taste was being mocked by her personal maid; even if she knew, she would consider it a pride, not a shame.
To her, the important thing wasn't whether something was tacky but whether it was valuable.
Moreover, Susu didn't have time to worry about such things. After seeing Aunt's private collection, Susu couldn't help but marvel that although Duke Li was a scoundrel and a lousy father, he was indeed generous.
In Aunt Su's collection alone, there were silver notes totaling five thousand with five notes of a thousand taels each, two notes of five hundred each, and ten notes of a hundred each, along with some scattered notes of fifty and ten taels.
A full box of gold and silver ingots weighing about five to six hundred taels.
Two large boxes of jewelry, which even Susu, with little eye for such things, knew were treasures worth at least seven to eight thousand taels. The most precious set of eighteen full green jadeite pieces and a pair of top quality mutton fat jade bracelets, gifted by her scoundrel father in private, were alone worth at least ten to twenty thousand taels.
There were also five boxes of brocade, two cabinets of clothes, and two boxes of large and small cloaks.
No wonder successive emperors liked to confiscate assets; just one concubine's collection in the Duke Mansion had four to fifty thousand taels of silver, not to mention the private stores of each family member and the large public warehouses.
And Ruan Susu hadn't even counted the furnishings in the aunt's room, rumored to be all fine items taken by her scoundrel father from his private vault. A painting like Wu Daozi's "Southern Peak Map" alone was worth a fortune.
As for Thirteenth Lady herself, her monthly salary was collected together with Aunt Su's, with only a small box of lucky money and various gold and silver ingots given by elders during festivals.
Being young, she didn't need much in the way of jewelry and headgear. She had one box, mostly pearl flowers, small flower pins, and decorative forehead jewelry, with the most precious being a black pearl bracelet, each bead as big as a lotus seed, perfectly round and glossy.
Susu's idea was naturally to convert everything into silver notes, but the idea was utterly unrealistic.
In the end, Susu could only let Cui Jin go out under the pretense of visiting her aunt and exchange most of the gold and silver ingots for silver notes.
Though Cui Jin didn't understand why the young lady was doing this, given the young lady's rarely sensible decision, Cui Jin agreed, converting everything as instructed into small denomination notes totaling a thousand taels.
Afterwards, Susu started examining her belly band, belt, and sleeve pouch, also considering hidden pockets that could be tied to her thighs, given that ancient dresses had several layers underneath, including underpants and inner pants.
Ruan Susu gritted her teeth and sewed the five one-thousand-tael notes, wrapped in oil paper, into the belt she made for her brother, also making a sleeve pouch to hold five hundred taels in small notes and some scattered silver.
Then she stitched the remaining notes into the belly band itself inside her belly band.
She couldn't take large pieces of jewelry, so Susu only selected some light earrings, pearl bracelets, and that pair of mutton fat jade bracelets to place in the hidden pocket on her thigh, and sewed some loose gemstones and pearls into her belt, while a pouch in the sleeve contained some peanut-sized gold and silver ingots.
Susu realized that she had a knack for valuing money over her life; fortunately, the things weren't heavy and didn't impede her walking, nor could they be seen from the outside, finishing this took five days.
During a day off, her good brother Ruan Sixth Son first went to pay respects to his Legitimate Mother before immediately coming to visit his sister.
Susu brought her brother to Aunt's room, seeing the furnishings as they were when the aunt was there, yet everything had changed; both their eyes reddened, but they held back their tears.
Thinking about her brother, only twelve years old and about to be exiled to the Northwest, Susu felt more heartbroken. "I called you here today because I made you a belt and a sleeve pouch; as you grow older, you'll find them useful. There are silver notes in the belt's inner layer and some in the sleeve pouch. Keep them with you, and don't be frugal to the point of self-neglect."
Ruan Sixth Son initially wanted to refuse, but Ruan Susu, with red eyes and tears hanging, insisted, "This is what Aunt would have thought about for you; she's no longer here, so it's up to your sister to worry for you. Be cautious out there."
It was what Aunt Su often told her son. Ruan Sixth Son accepted the belt and sleeve pouch, saying, "I will carry these two things with me like the waist chain, and you must also take good care of yourself. If there's anything you want to eat or play with, just send someone to tell me, and I'll come to see you when I can."
The siblings did not know it would be many years before they saw each other again. And when Ruan Sixth Son, stranded in the Northwest, finally opened the belt his sister had sewn and found the five thousand tael notes, he broke down in tears; his sister had given him all of Aunt's private money.
It was with this silver that Ruan Sixth Son could bribe and save Ruan Family's few remaining sons, but that's a story for another time.
The closer it got to the day of the confiscation, the calmer and more composed Susu became, feeling the tight atmosphere within the Duke Mansion.
Adult men hardly returned home, and the women rarely went out. Even the Chongyang Festival ended briefly with just a meal among the five households.
Ruan Susu sorted out some not-so-delicate yet substantial gold jewelry and sold herself, giving it to Cui Jin, "Tomorrow, send it back to Aunt Hongzhi's house. Sister, accompany me for another year, then let Aunt Hongzhi take you back to find a good spouse."
Cui Jin blushed when a seven-year-old child talked about a good spouse, "You're so young, how do you know about good spouses? It's definitely because those little maids have been talking nonsense with you, wait till I tear their mouths." Susu quickly surrendered, coaxing for a long while before changing the subject.
After that, Susu desired beef jerky; in this era, cows couldn't be killed arbitrarily, but the Duke Mansion wouldn't care about such things. Just a word and the main kitchen would make a lot; Susu not only received some but also stored two pockets' worth wrapped in oil paper on her person.
The confiscation came suddenly yet as expected; before dawn, Susu woke up to screams.
Cui Jin had already been sent to rest for a day off at her aunt's house the previous afternoon, leaving Susu to wash her face and get dressed herself. She didn't choose anything too luxurious, opting for something plain and waiting until the flustered maids and women came rushing in. Susu was already perfectly composed.
"Miss, the courtyard is full of Imperial Guards, posted at every entrance, allowing no comings and goings." Although not as competent as Cui Jin, Cui Lu was still a first-class maid, albeit a bit anxious but not inexperienced.
Susu simply responded with one word: "Wait."