However, considering Lou Xingchen’s position in her family, even if she thought with her toes Su Tang would know that if this matter was found out then there was no way the consequences would be light. Thus, the only way was to be careful and make sure there were no accidents.
Once this important matter was settled, Luo Xingchen breathed a sigh of relief and seemed to relax a bit. A moment later, she sat down again and started a new topic: “I brought you the money for the soap we’ve bought from you until now this time. Since it’s going to be the new year soon, I figured you would probably need more money on your side.”
As she spoke, she rapped on the table until one of her men stuck his head in to see what was going on and gave him a gestured command. The man nodded, disappeared outside, and then soon returned with a small chest. After sending the man away again, Luo Xingchen opened the chest to reveal some sparkling pieces of gold.
“I’ve brought thirty-three taels of gold this time, which is equivalent to 330 taels of silver. I’ll pass it to you for the time being, and I’ll settle the rest of your payment at the end of the first quarter of next year in accordance with the contract.”
It actually wasn’t normal to settle accounts before the end of the year like this, but Luo Xingchen had specially asked the people in the treasury to calculate the payment and bring it out so she could send it to Su Tang with this timing. After all, Luo Xingchen knew that Su Tang didn’t have much money on hand and, because she hadn’t shared the soap recipe with anyone, she was still buying all of the raw materials for the soap herself. Considering how much soap she was outputting, Luo Xingchen felt that her friend must be spending a lot of money no matter how cheap the raw materials were.
Thus, since Luo Xingchen was coming over this time anyway, she decided to do what she could to lighten Su Tang’s burden within her means.
For her part, Su Tang was actually really relieved to see this gold. It was a fact that she really had too much to do and not enough money to do it with, otherwise, she would never have had to borrow money from Song Yi. Now that Luo Xingchen had given her some of the payment in advance it really did serve to lighten her burden.
“Not bad, you’re so sensible!” Su Tang briefly counted through and saw that there were thrity gold ingots worth ten silver taels each along with thirty silver ingots. All added up, they were worth exactly 330 taels. Seeing that there was no problem, Su Tang closed the chest and pushed it aside.
Hearing Su Tang’s praise, Luo Xingchen’s eyes flashed and she said: “Since I’m sensible, can you reward your poor bed warmer now? For instance, grilled fish! Tang, my Tang, I’ve hardly been able to eat ever since I left, you know? I’ve been dreaming about your grilled fish the whole time!”
Seeing her expectant expression, Su Tang laughed and waved her off: “I earned this money by selling soap. On top of that, for a so-called bed warmer, you haven’t even warmed my bed, so what reward do you want?”
“Then I’ll warm your bed right now, Tang! I’m so good-looking, so beautiful, so sensible, do you really have the heart to starve me?” Luo Xingchen continued to pester Su Tang undaunted.
Seeing her friend acting like a rogue, Su Tang was about to retort again. However, just as she opened her mouth, the door suddenly opened and Yu Caihe appeared. Having happened to hear a bunch of words about ‘warming the bed’ her eyes were round.
Of course, when Su Tang and Luo Xingchen were talking they knew it was just a joke between them, but when an outsider like Yu Caihe stumbled into the conversation she could only see a little girl unexpectedly saying such a thing to the handsome teenager. Yu Caihe, as someone who had been married before, knew exactly what ‘warming the bed’ meant, so she could only feel shocked to find that the young miss from her family was actually so powerful! To think she would find such a wealthy and good-looking teenager to warm the bed.
For a moment, she was so shocked that she just froze at the door. But she soon regained herself and noticed that Su Tang and Luo Xingchen had turned to look over at her. Under their eyes, Yu Caihe stood there awkwardly, not knowing whether she should keep going in or if she should quietly leave.
“What are you doing standing there? Is the milk tea ready?” When Su Tang saw Yu Caihe standing at the door with a dumbfounded expression, she realized that the woman must have overheard their conversation just now. She sighed in her heart. At least she was very strict in warning her servants not to spread matters to outsiders, or else who knew how far this rumor might spread? Thinking till here, Su Tang sent Luo Xingchen an annoyed glare.
Luo Xingchen smiled helplessly. She didn’t mean to, ah. She told her people not to let anyone disturb them, right? Who could have expected that Yu Caihe would suddenly stumble in while there were joking around?
At Su Tang’s prompt, Yu Caihe hurriedly brought over the milk tea and said, “This servant came over to send this freshly brewed milk tea to the young miss and Young Master Luo.”
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