Today is Grandmother's seventh day after passing.
The weather is very cold.
But the sunshine is also bright.
Jiang Wan needs to go to the manor to pack up some things and bid a final farewell to Grandmother.
Aunt had wanted to come as well.
But Grandmother's death seemed to have hit Aunt very hard, and she fell ill.
As it happens, Jiang Wan didn't want Aunt to accompany her anyway.
She actually had some things hidden in this residence that she didn't want to bring to the Seventh Prince's manor, but she wouldn't be coming here again in the future, so she needed to come pack them up.
With her mother-in-law ill, the heir Chu Xi was staying home to fulfill his filial duties and didn't come out.
It was probably also to avoid suspicion, after all, the old Lady Jiang was still a convicted criminal. If he came for the seventh-day memorial, it might displease Princess Huiyun unnecessarily.
In any case, all of the Seventh Prince's family members had cleared out.
Which was just as well.
Jiang Wan actually didn't want anyone to accompany her.
Returning to this place, she hadn't expected that in just a few short days, everything would be so different.
Grandmother had spent most of her time in her rooms here at the manor, rarely setting foot in the courtyard.
Jiang Wan, with her two lifetimes of memories, had very deep feelings for Grandmother.
Grandmother had always been good to her, planning for her benefit until her dying day.
After paying her respects, Jiang Wan had the servants pack up. She wouldn't be coming back here again.
This place was too close to the Jiang family's second branch. She actually lived in constant fear here.
The servants would come later to move the larger items.
She was just here to pack up some valuable possessions.
A crafty hare has three burrows - when Jiang Wan came to the capital, she had also arranged several properties for herself, each with quite a few valuable items.
This manor only held a small portion of them.
After experiencing a period of hardship as the mistress of Ming County, Jiang Wan had come to recognize the importance of money.
Before, she had never cared about such things, and hadn't even imagined that one day she would quibble over small profits.
Considering whether a fabric worth ten taels or one worth a hundred taels was better - she had never thought about such questions before.
Once a person has experienced lack, they become desperately concerned with it.
Some newly rich families, when educating their daughters, go to the other extreme - raising their girls in luxury, cultivating personalities that spend money like water and indulge in extravagance, as if this were the true mark of an aristocratic lady.
Jiang Wan had originally been a noble lady with a solid foundation, not worrying about money but also somewhat aware of its function. However, after experiencing poverty, she had gained a touch of worldliness. No longer floating above it all, she now cared about money too.
So she came in person to pack up the valuable jewelry.
After finishing, she took a carriage back.
In reality, she was going to one of her other residences.
Due to various considerations, plus the Seventh Prince's desire to avoid suspicion, the guards around her now were all ones she had recruited herself.
Since arriving in the capital, Jiang Wan hadn't been idle.
She had recruited some guards, all people she remembered as being quite capable, though of course not all of them - such people were hard to come by.
She had built up her reputation, gathered resources and connections, starting from nothing.
It was actually quite impressive already, the limit of what a young woman could achieve.
Jiang Wan had been keeping a low profile lately, traveling in very modest carriages, but unexpectedly on the road someone tried to stop her carriage.
In ancient times, stopping a carriage was like using your body to block someone's Land Rover or BMW in modern times. The results were the same.
At worst, you'd be run over and killed. At best, you'd be cursed as insane or reported to the authorities and arrested.
People who stopped carriages all had a bit of a death-wish quality about them.
It turned out to be Lu Jiuzhang, the disappeared Minister Lu's youngest son.
His family members had all been sentenced, their household confiscated, yet he had somehow luckily kept his life. His whereabouts had been unknown, but unexpectedly, he appeared in front of Immortal Liu's carriage.
When Jiang Wan saw who it was, disheveled and in a wretched state, she almost didn't recognize him.
This person before her was the youngest son of the immensely powerful Minister Lu.
Previously, whenever she saw him, he had been ignorant of the ways of the world and human suffering, generous to the point of not valuing money, lively and naive.
Jiang Wan had quite liked this kind of youth, with his naive foolishness, generosity, pleasant way of speaking, and good looks.
There were no ugly people in wealthy families, especially among the youngest children. Minister Lu's concubine must have been quite beautiful, so how could the child she bore be lacking?
His genes had been thoroughly improved.
It was a pity he hadn't inherited Minister Lu's brains.
But then again, even Minister Lu couldn't protect himself in the end, so it's hard to say about life's circumstances.
Seeing the wretched young man, Jiang Wan had her maid give him a hundred taels of silver.
After all, he had fallen on hard times.
It was pitiful to see.
When Lu Jiuzhang saw the hundred taels of silver, tears sprang to his eyes.
During this time, he had tasted all the coldness and warmth the world had to offer.
The families who used to enthusiastically invite him to visit, welcoming him with open arms, now closed their doors and windows to him. A dog could enter, but he could not.
Even the servants he had casually given who knows how much silver to in the past, now that he had fallen on hard times, were unwilling to help him with even a mouthful of food.
Not to mention his fair-weather friends, who avoided him like the plague.
Fearing to be tainted by association with his troubles.
He had always been generous - whatever his friends wanted, all they had to do was ask and he would give it to them.
Now that he had fallen on hard times, he couldn't even get a bowl of hot soup from his friends.
Immortal Liu was different from them. She actually gave him a hundred taels of silver.
In the past, he would have thrown such a sum on the ground, not even a dog would want it.
Because the gifts he casually gave to Immortal Liu were never worth less than several thousand taels.
But having fallen from grace and tasted the bitterness of life, he understood now. At a time like this, for someone to give you a hundred taels, it couldn't be said they were lacking in human feeling.
He accepted the hundred taels of silver and knelt before the carriage, wanting to thank Immortal Liu in person.
In the bustling street, with people coming and going.
In the past, the young man's legs were like pine trees, unbending and unbreakable.
Now the young man easily knelt down, kneeling before the girl he admired.
