Concubine De glanced coldly at Xie Ping.

She didn’t have anyone drive Xie Ping out—that was her magnanimity as an imperial consort, but it didn’t mean she accepted Xie Ping as her daughter-in-law.

She pulled Secondary Consort Shi close to speak intimately, but that didn’t mean she liked Secondary Consort Shi either.

These two women—one schemed to obtain the position of princess consort, the other was a choice made out of helplessness. It would be strange if she liked either of them.

The Xie family called themselves humble and had no dowry, which was one thing.

The Shi family was even more ridiculous. That Madam Shi said she feared overshadowing the principal consort, so she prepared just that pitiful amount to match the Xie family.

She gave Secondary Consort Shi face merely to force the Shi family to produce the dowry that rightfully belonged to Secondary Consort Shi.

“A hot spring manor has opened in the suburbs of the capital. In a few days, you’ll accompany this palace to the manor to soak in the pools.” Concubine De said with a smile, “I’ve heard that the hot springs are extremely beneficial for women’s health. If you soak more often, conceiving a child for the Fourth Prince sooner would be proper.”

Secondary Consort Shi didn’t know whether to agree or refuse.

Xie Ping nearly ground her silver teeth to dust.

She, the principal consort, hadn’t even conceived a child yet—how dare Concubine De tell a mere secondary consort to get pregnant!

But she didn’t dare express her inner dissatisfaction and could only smile along.

By the time Concubine De brought Secondary Consort Shi to the hot spring manor, the manor had already become known to most people in the capital.

“I heard there’s a hot spring manor in the suburbs called something like Above the Chu Clouds—it’s even larger than the imperial bathing pools.”

“Larger than the imperial bathing pools? Then why wasn’t it presented as tribute to His Majesty?”

“That hot spring is a bit far from the capital. Even if it were presented to His Majesty, he’d probably rarely go there. Besides, I heard the person behind this hot spring manor is Prince Pingxi. As a father, His Majesty wouldn’t compete with his son for business, would he?”

“A hot spring manor opened by the imperial family is naturally for aristocratic families to enjoy. Where would common folk like us fit in? We can only watch the excitement.”

“Now you’re wrong there. A cousin of mine works as a servant at the manor. He told me long ago that the hot springs at Above the Chu Clouds are especially large, so they’ve been divided into two estates. One is exclusively for those noble families, while the other manor has been made into an enormous open-air hot spring pool. We common folk can enjoy it for just a few coins.”

“Is that true or false? Can common people actually soak in hot springs?”

“Of course it’s true. If you don’t believe it, let’s go take a look together.”

“…”

The idea of dividing it into two manors was proposed by Yun Chu.

Wealthy people could soak in hot springs, and naturally ordinary people with some spare money also wanted to come enjoy themselves.

Building special pools and courtyards for the wealthy offered strong privacy and higher prices.

For ordinary people, there was one large open-air bathing pool, only separated by gender. Though the price was cheap, it couldn’t withstand the sheer number of common people—over the course of a day, it still amounted to considerable income.

After the ice shop closed for the season, the Above the Chu Clouds hot spring manor opened.

Under the cooperation of Manager Cheng and Chen Defu, on the very first day of opening, the hot spring manor made a name for itself in the capital.

The private courtyards required advance reservations and were already booked through the end of the year, with deposits exceeding ten thousand taels of silver.

The ordinary bathing pools were cheap—even during the depths of winter, it only cost two hundred copper coins per person. Having just entered autumn, the price was naturally cheaper—eighty wen could get you in to experience what soaking in hot springs felt like. Therefore, throughout the entire day, people came and went endlessly at the hot spring manor’s entrance.

Though the two manors were only separated by a wall, both sides of the wall were planted with extensive peach blossoms, and the main gates opened in opposite directions, not interfering with each other.

Tingshuang brought the account books from the first half month of operations to the Xie residence, carefully explaining the manor’s situation during this period.

Yun Chu listened while nodding. With Manager Cheng’s swift and decisive management and Chen Bo’s meticulous attention to detail, everything at the hot spring manor was going well. Of course, the main reason was that the person behind this manor was Prince Pingxi. With Prince Pingxi, whose name alone made countless bandits tremble in fear, no one dared stir up any trouble.

“Madam, something happened the day before yesterday.” Tingshuang spoke, “Imperial Consort Yuan in the palace received the Empress’s grace to leave the palace. She specially brought people to the hot spring manor and, passing by Madam’s small courtyard, wanted to go in and look. Manager Cheng stopped her, and Imperial Consort Yuan raised her hand and slapped Manager Cheng across the face, then entered Madam’s courtyard and soaked in the hot spring pool…”

Yun Chu wasn’t the least bit surprised this had happened.

The small courtyard that belonged to her was different from all the other courtyards—exotic flowers and rare plants bloomed at the entrance, and the pool was inlaid with various colored stones.

Originally, the courtyard had been full of crabapple trees, but because she didn’t like crabapples, Prince Pingxi had people plant it full of orchids and jasmine instead.

Such a unique courtyard would naturally attract Imperial Consort Yuan’s attention.

Tingfeng exclaimed in shock: “Doesn’t Imperial Consort Yuan know that the person behind the manor is Prince Pingxi? How dare she trespass into a courtyard that clearly doesn’t receive guests?”

“Imperial Consort Yuan thought this courtyard was prepared by the prince for Concubine Yin. Imperial Consort Yuan considers herself of higher status than Concubine Yin and is the birth mother of the Sixth Prince—why would she care about Prince Pingxi?” Tingshuang spoke, “When Imperial Consort Yuan was soaking in the hot spring, Manager Cheng invited Prince Pingxi to the manor. Prince Pingxi brought two matrons with him, and the two matrons completely disregarded Imperial Consort Yuan’s dignity and hauled her out of the pool…”

Tingxue covered her mouth: “Prince Pingxi’s audacity is too great…”

Even Yun Chu was shocked.

Though Imperial Consort Yuan was no longer a favored consort in the inner palace, she was still one of the Four Consorts, one of His Majesty’s women, and had given birth to both a princess and a prince. Prince Pingxi’s action not only gave Imperial Consort Yuan no face, but also trampled His Majesty’s dignity underfoot.

However, so many days had passed and she hadn’t heard of anything happening in the inner palace. Presumably, Imperial Consort Yuan hadn’t made a big fuss about this matter. Or rather, it should be said that between Imperial Consort Yuan and Prince Pingxi, His Majesty chose Prince Pingxi, so naturally this matter was suppressed.

Yun Chu changed the subject: “Tingshuang, take these fifty thousand taels of silver to Chen Bo and have him commission people to build a large ship capable of ocean voyages.”

Tingshuang asked in surprise: “Is Madam planning to…?”

“Once the ship is built, I plan to do some overseas business.”

She couldn’t place all her hopes of earning silver on the hot spring manor alone. If some accident happened, then everything would be lost.

She remembered that in her previous life, some merchants went overseas and brought back many rare sea goods to sell in the capital—every one of them made a fortune.

Novel items from overseas were always the hottest commodities in the capital. Merchants without ships could only buy stock from traveling merchants, directly cutting profits in half. It was better to build her own ship, procure her own goods, and then transport them throughout the country.

Tingshuang nodded and went to carry out the order.

Yun Chu counted her savings. From selling ice, she had made a pure profit of two hundred thirty thousand taels of silver. Building the hot spring manor cost nearly twenty thousand, she gave fifty thousand to her father, took fifty thousand for shipbuilding, leaving one hundred ten thousand taels still in hand. This amount of money would be a huge sum for any family.

She moved the abacus beads and spoke: “Tingshuang, look around the capital to see if there are any quiet, elegant small courtyards with two or three sections. Buy one before winter and find skilled craftsmen to renovate it properly.”

Once the Xie family matters were settled, she would need a place to live.

Though returning to the Yun family was also possible—her elder brother and sister-in-law wouldn’t object—over time, it might give rise to some unnecessary troubles.

Tingshuang noted everything down one by one.

Just as they were talking, a servant came to report that the eldest young miss had returned.