In the days that followed, Shen Xiling began to keep herself busy.

She had many things to learn, the first being how to read accounts.

The account books brought back from the shop were more than half a person’s height. Some entries were quite recent, while others were years old. The recent transcriptions were relatively clear, but those from long ago were much more blurred and quite laborious to read.

The several maids had always known their miss was a diligent person. When she studied with Master Wang at the Qi family, she would rise early and sleep late. At the time, they thought their miss was forced to study hard because of the master’s fierce ruler, never expecting that without such pressure, she would still push herself to work hard—even harder than before.

Such a thick stack of accounts covering several years—she actually finished reading them in just seven or eight days. While reading, she also organized and transcribed, extracting month by month the costs of purchasing raw materials, monthly wages for workers, and various other miscellaneous expenses. By the time she finished reading the accounts, she had written out another book herself.

She would rise very early each day to read accounts and read until very late before sleeping. At first, Shuipei and the others thought that once their miss’s novelty wore off, she would rest. Who would have thought that not only did she not settle down, but later showed signs of becoming even more unstoppable? The several maids took turns advising her to rest, and Shen Xiling would gently agree to everything, but she continued to burn the midnight oil, leaving the maids at a loss for words.

After Shen Xiling finished reading the accounts, she invited Manager Ding to Fenghe Garden.

Manager Ding was very surprised to hear she had finished reading the accounts so quickly. Seeing that she had also organized a new set of accounts herself, he was even more astonished. Taking over the itemized list she had compiled, he saw it was detailed and thorough, clearly the result of genuine effort.

Manager Ding had previously received instructions from Second Young Master Qi to find a shop for this Miss Fang to manage. As a servant, he naturally couldn’t ask about the reasons and simply followed orders. A few days ago, when he met Miss Fang in person and saw she was a half-grown girl with a delicate, weak appearance, he naturally assumed she was taking over the shop merely as a plaything. He never expected her to seriously spend effort reading the accounts so thoroughly.

Worldly matters have always followed cause and effect. Shen Xiling planted the seed of diligence and naturally reaped the fruit of Manager Ding’s regard. Seeing her so earnest, he was happy to guide her, smiling as he explained: “It’s good that Miss has put in the effort. But regarding reading accounts, the common saying has always been unreliable. ‘Reading accounts, reading accounts’—many people think ‘reading’ is enough, but to truly understand what’s hidden in these accounts, one must personally go out, ask around, and verify everything.”

He was rotund and cheerful, smiling like a Maitreya Buddha. He stroked his small mustache and said to the puzzled-looking Shen Xiling: “For instance, the accounts say how much silver was paid to silkworm raisers, and how much was spent replacing spinning tools. You can’t see anything just by looking. To determine truth from falsehood, you must personally inquire about prices in the silkworm market and for wooden tools, find the workers who handled the transactions and question them thoroughly, then compare and verify—only then can you see some of the inside story.”

Hearing this, Shen Xiling’s eyes lit up, feeling very enlightened.

Indeed, to run this cloth shop well, she couldn’t confine herself within the shop. She should become familiar with all parties who had business dealings with the cloth shop—only then could she truly enter the trade.

She again felt she had many things to do. After thanking and seeing off Manager Ding, she began a new wave of busyness.

Shen Xiling began going out frequently.

This naturally required advance notice to Second Young Master Qi. Fortunately, he wasn’t strict with her in this regard, allowing her to come and go freely, only requiring that she not return late. He set a curfew at the eleventh double-hour and simply transferred Liuzi to her courtyard as a servant to drive her carriage.

Liuzi was naturally delighted. Being transferred from the gatehouse to Woyu Courtyard not only made his work much more leisurely, but his monthly wages also became more generous. He felt his proactive effort to curry favor with Miss Fang a few days ago had been truly wise, and secretly sighed that he truly had fate with this miss. He hoped this miss’s days would get better and better so he could rise with the tide.

Shen Xiling had no such miscellaneous thoughts, focusing wholeheartedly on her cloth shop.

Under Manager Ding’s guidance, she began to familiarize herself with many businesses related to the cloth shop—such as mulberry and hemp cultivation, silk production, and even the white cotton that had only recently emerged and wasn’t yet fashionable. She also made an effort to deal with merchants engaged in these trades. Great Liang’s customs were open and didn’t taboo women in commerce, but she was too young and inevitably faced contempt when dealing with others. Shen Xiling felt she needn’t create unnecessary trouble for herself by being stubborn, so she had Liuzi represent her in negotiations.

Liuzi was clever and spoke pleasantly, handling this task very well. Often he would represent Shen Xiling in meetings with those merchants, then return to report the information gathered and negotiation results to Shen Xiling. After receiving Shen Xiling’s arrangements and instructions, he would go out again to negotiate with people, repeating the cycle.

After this double-act continued for some time, Shen Xiling deeply felt that Manager Ding’s previous guidance had been very sound.

The cloth shop’s account books were clear and beautiful. She had carefully examined them multiple times and hadn’t discovered any problems. But after personally making the rounds this past month or so, she gradually began to see some things.

For instance, the account books recorded spinning tool replacements every three years, but after visiting many shops selling spinning tools herself, she knew that even ordinary quality tools could last at least five full years. The two-year difference, when converted to silver, represented a considerable expense. Another example was the timing of purchasing raw materials, which also had particular considerations. Merchants in business always pursued profit, naturally buying cheap and selling dear, but this cloth shop always bought silk and hemp without following seasonal patterns. Though the time difference was only a few months, the resulting monetary difference was significant, and accumulated over years, the disparity was enormous.

Shen Xiling had Liuzi secretly investigate and learned that the cloth shop’s purchasing was basically all personally handled by Manager Lu, not delegated to others. This naturally led her to suspect that this manager had made some manipulations in the accounts.

She had noticed this, but hadn’t yet decided how to handle it. She also felt that besides Manager Lu’s issues, the problem of excess inventory in the shop urgently needed resolution, giving her a feeling of countless tangled threads.

After much consideration, she felt she shouldn’t act rashly, so she postponed the matter, deciding to carefully deliberate before making decisions.

Time gradually passed, and the season had already moved from spring to summer.

The lotus flowers in Fenghe Garden began quietly growing, showing the charming sight of small lotus buds just emerging. This villa was originally built with distinction, and now in early summer, with dragonflies skimming the small pools and pink lotuses fragrant for miles, it appeared even more elegant, like a fairy dwelling in a painting, with considerable leisurely charm.

Unfortunately, the master of this place had not been in particularly bright spirits recently.

Ever since Qi Ying learned the full story of that day from his grandmother and understood the young girl’s hazy feelings, he had been determined to distance himself from her somewhat. He had originally worried about how to manage the boundaries of this distancing, but before he could distance himself from Shen Xiling, the young girl had begun distancing herself from him first.

Qi Ying didn’t initially notice the signs, assuming she was busy with cloth shop matters and naturally had less free time to cling to him—nothing unusual about that. But later he discovered that when the young girl encountered difficulties at the cloth shop, her first thought was to consult Manager Ding, never thinking to come ask him.

This could be explained—after all, he wasn’t from a merchant background, and Manager Ding was more experienced in business matters. Her not coming to him for help was understandable.

But though it was understandable, someone as perceptive as Second Young Master Qi naturally still noticed something amiss. For instance, this young girl who had been very attached to him had now not gotten up at the same time as him for quite a while, nor dined with him for quite a while. As for the egg custard that he used to enjoy from time to time, it had been absent from his table for quite some time now.

And then there was the studying. The young girl had previously enjoyed running to Wangshi, sometimes taking a book, sometimes coming to his side to ask questions. Even when she truly had nothing to do, she liked staying by his side, secretly watching him with those beautiful eyes. But now? He had even had Qing Zhu set up a small desk for her, yet she had fled. For over a month now, she hadn’t even entered Wangshi’s door.

What made Second Young Master Qi feel even more wrong were those indescribable things. For instance, the way she looked at him—in the past, there had always been a bit of petulance and hazy attachment, but now it was perfectly proper, completely respectful in manner. Of course, he wasn’t saying there was anything wrong with this, but it was just awkward, extremely awkward.

Qi Ying endured for some time, but this awkward feeling didn’t subside and instead seemed to intensify.

He had originally planned to let things be and not make an issue of it with the young girl. But then one day, as he was about to leave Fenghe Garden on business, he happened to encounter Shen Xiling coming toward him. In the past, the young girl would have brightened upon seeing him, then nestled up to his side like a little sparrow. But that day, not only did she not approach, she even pretended not to see him. The moment they made eye contact, she stiffly turned to speak to the maid beside her, and as soon as she rounded the corner, she ran off.

At this point, Second Young Master Qi finally began to feel something was wrong and thought he should have a heart-to-heart talk with the young girl to resolve this problem once and for all. Even if it couldn’t be resolved, he should at least understand why the young girl’s attitude had changed so quickly. Once he identified the problem, they could naturally return to normal.

With this resolve, Second Young Master Qi specifically made time to call Shen Xiling before him, planning to show concern for her recent studies and incidentally ask about her business. But after barely saying a few words, he was rendered speechless by the young girl’s increasingly proper and respectful demeanor.

She remained gentle and obedient, answering whatever was asked, but somehow made that awkward feeling in his heart even stronger.

Even with Second Young Master Qi’s excellent composure, he was quite frustrated by the young girl. He felt that if he said two more words to her, he wouldn’t be able to eat dinner that night, so he quickly dismissed her.

Though she had left, this stifling feeling still lingered in Second Young Master Qi’s heart, making him secretly sigh and feel that his previous assessment had indeed been correct. This young girl was truly like a cat—when clinging to you, she was completely charming and adorable, but upon seeing other interesting playthings, she would immediately curl up her tail and run off, no longer showing any trace of her former clingy behavior.

For a moment, he didn’t know how to characterize Shen Xiling’s current behavior—whether he should say she was heartless, or that she had reached a rebellious age. He found it quite troubling and even somewhat melancholy.

Author’s Note: Men’s hearts are truly like needles at the bottom of the sea. Didn’t you originally have plans to distance yourself from her? So why are you worried now that she’s run off on her own, you black chicken and Spanish mackerel?