Lang Jiuchuan had long since planned to set up a room suited for cultivating her health, and the south side room was perfectly suited for it. Over these past few days, for reasons unknown, the household had been sending her all manner of vessels and furnishings — and Madam Shen had also delivered a fine gift, all of which could be selected from to decorate the study.

It was a place where she would spend a great deal of time, so the materials needed to be of the highest quality to draw out its full benefit.

Among Madam Shen’s gifts was a box of pearls and jade stones, and neatly stacked silver ingots amounting to a hundred taels — enough to make even Lang Jiuchuan click her tongue.

“I’d heard Jiangnan was wealthy, but this wealthy?”

Jiangche had its eye on a small golden hairpin and said, “Naturally it is. This is only the tip of the iceberg — there are things far more precious than this.”

Lang Jiuchuan sorted out several pieces of jade with good luster and felt their warm smoothness. “Earlier you said they wanted to seek out people from the Xuan Clan to solve the problem. If each request costs gifts this precious, just how much fine treasure must the Xuan Clan have accumulated?”

“Naturally a great deal — I’ve heard their storerooms are full of things gathering dust.” Jiangche said. “But people at that level of standing don’t care about worldly wealth. The price required to bring them out of seclusion is probably even steeper than what you asked for.”

Lang Jiuchuan fell quiet. She had saved Madam Shen’s life in exchange for ten years of her lifespan, and taken Shen Qinghe’s unyielding bone spirit. What might those Xuan Clan members ask for — and where were their limits?

“They’re certainly a colossal force to be reckoned with.” She turned the jade stone over in her fingers, her gaze unreadable.

“Young Miss.” Jian Lan called softly from the doorway. Seeing Lang Jiuchuan nod, she stepped inside. “Gu Nanny says the gift list from Madam Shen needs to be recorded in the household ledger. And as for the medicinal ingredients and the like — how would you like to handle them?”

“Handle?”

“Perhaps send a small portion to each branch of the family?” Jian Lan offered carefully. “You’ve only just returned to the household, and you haven’t formally paid your respects and introduced yourself to everyone.”

Lang Jiuchuan frowned. “We’re not even close to them — and I still have to send gifts?”

“It’s not that you absolutely must, but it is a matter of social courtesy. It would also demonstrate that the young miss is generous and gracious…”

Lang Jiuchuan smiled. “I’m not someone who cares for empty reputation, and I don’t care how others see me. Whatever they say about me behind my back — it doesn’t matter. So, no gifts.”

She paused, then said, “Send the Vitality Pills to the old mistress’s quarters. Also cut a piece of ginseng and select a few nourishing medicines to send along with it. And send the live deer over as well.”

Jian Lan blinked, then ventured, “And the Madam’s quarters… this servant is speaking out of turn!” She knelt.

Lang Jiuchuan withdrew her gaze and said, “The Madam holds herself above such things — she wouldn’t want anything from me. Wait, actually — there are two bottles of Vitality Pills. Give her one.”

Jian Lan brightened, barely managing to hold back a complimentary remark, when she heard Lang Jiuchuan add, “So that no one can claim her heart ailment was brought on by me — that it gets blamed on my head. Give her the pills to take, and don’t let anyone say I caused it.”

The smile froze on Jian Lan’s face.

Lang Jiuchuan then thought of how her recent outing had gone smoothly in part due to Lang Zhengping’s assistance and said, “I think the gift list included some kind of inkstone — pick it out and send it to First Uncle.”

It would serve as a thank-you gift for his bringing her to the Zhao household.

Lang Jiuchuan handed the box of silver to Jian Lan. “Record these in the accounts and use them to buy the things on my list. Oh, and I understand that when new servants join a courtyard, they’re supposed to be given a reward. Take from this — give one to each person. No need for them to come and kowtow in thanks. Just leave me alone in my daily life — that’s enough.”

Jian Lan stared blankly at the box of silver. Every piece was a silver ingot. She exclaimed, “Young Miss — each of these is five taels of silver! This servant’s wage as head maidservant is only one tael a month. You just opened your mouth and gave out five taels to each person — you spend money like flowing water. No — like a waterfall!”

Lang Jiuchuan tilted her head. “Is that a lot?”

“Some ordinary people cannot save five taels in an entire year. Young Miss, you grew up on a farm estate — you should understand that better than anyone.” Jian Lan was genuinely puzzled. Lang Jiuchuan’s grasp of the value of money seemed completely out of touch with reality. After all those years on the estate, shouldn’t she have a clearer sense of how common folk lived?

Lang Jiuchuan, unbothered, replied without a trace of embarrassment, “Then split them and give one tael each. You and Gu Nanny get two taels each. And make sure you keep an eye on her — don’t let her be too officious, or try to manage me. That won’t do.”

“This servant will use her judgment. But Young Miss — there are only two bottles of Vitality Pills, and you’ve sent both away. You have nothing left for yourself. With your constitution, you’re the one who needs them most.” Jian Lan’s expression was full of concern.

“I have my own methods,” Lang Jiuchuan said. “Go and get everything I asked for before — plus the new additions. Have them all ready.”

She handed Jian Lan a freshly written list, the ink barely dry.

Jian Lan took it, tucked the box under her arm, and went out. When she encountered Gu Nanny, the latter beckoned her over. “Well? How did it go?”

Jian Lan recounted Lang Jiuchuan’s words. She watched Gu Nanny’s face warm with relief upon hearing that the Vitality Pills had been sent to the old mistress and the Madam — then saw that same face go completely dark when she heard the accompanying remark. “Nanny,” Jian Lan said carefully, “though the young miss grew up on the estate, she is someone with her own clear calculations and set ways of thinking. In your daily guiding of her, you’ll want to tread carefully — she’s not someone who doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

Gu Nanny squinted sideways at her.

Jian Lan kept her expression neutral, held up the box, and said, “Young Miss has given out rewards. This servant needs to go take care of it.”

Gu Nanny watched her walk away and thought: whatever else one might say about the ninth young miss, she certainly won people’s hearts fast.

Once Jian Lan had gone, Lang Jiuchuan immediately spread out a sheet of yellow paper and opened up Madam Shen’s gift of the finest grade vermilion ink, then began drawing talismans.

Jiangche said, “Didn’t you say you were going to make a restorative medicine talisman? Don’t tell me this is it.”

“It’s not that simple. The paper used for a medicine talisman must first be soaked in medicinal ingredients. For now, I’m going to set up a geomantic spirit array in the study so that it concentrates spiritual energy — that way I can cultivate and restore my health in there, yes?” Lang Jiuchuan took out the Panguan Brush and settled her mind to draw.

Having helped the Shen household resolve a major crisis, she had gained merit and lifespan. Just last night she had absorbed a considerable amount of energy from the Lang Family ancestral shrine. Drawing a few Spiritual Gathering talismans now was, one might say, something she could do with ease — it would be an overstatement to call it any effort at all.

The Panguan Brush dipped into the vermilion ink and came down onto the yellow paper. Talisman lines flowed beneath the brush in a single unbroken movement, completed in one breath. When the brush tip lifted away, a faint golden light flashed — and the talisman sheet began to emit a faint thread of spiritual energy.

Jiangche watched from the side, its mind turning over and over with speculation about where this person had truly come from. To see her drawing talismans with such assured command — completed in one unbroken stroke — and producing not failed talismans but living spirit talismans, was extraordinarily rare in this world.

People from the Xuan Clan drew tolerable talismans. But if it came to a genuine comparison, Lang Jiuchuan would likely hold her own against them.

If the people of the Xuan Clan learned that such a formidable figure existed — would they choose to bring her into the fold, or eliminate her?

Just as she herself had said, the Xuan Clan had already become a towering colossus. Such a clan, more often than not, harbored the belief that those who are not of our kind must harbor different intentions. If she could not be won over, they would certainly move to remove her.

And the madwoman right before it — she was decidedly not the type to bow her head and live under another’s authority. Could she really end up going head-to-head with those great clans in the future?

One person courting the collective wrath of the powerful — somehow Jiangche found itself completely believing she was capable of it.

Jiangche flung the dangerous thought from its mind. Best not to dwell on it — the more it thought, the more plausible it seemed.

“Done!” Lang Jiuchuan put away the Panguan Brush and looked with delight at several talismans gleaming with golden light.

Before she could even reach for them, the sound of Jian Lan’s running footsteps came from outside the door, accompanied by a frantic cry: “Young Miss, Young Miss — something’s happened! The old mistress has fainted!”