Professional Ethics of a Concubine

On the other side, after the palace banquet, Xie Jin, Crown Princess Ye Qingzhi, and their three children returned to the East Palace to continue staying up together to celebrate the New Year.

Xie Niankang also spent the New Year in the Eastern Palace. He usually stayed in the Eastern Palace and did not go back to the Pingnan Marquis Mansion.

Although he had inherited the title and became a young marquis, he did not consider himself the master of the mansion at all and only went back to show his face during the holidays.

The fun of staying up all night long lies in chatting with close people, playing games, telling jokes, playing pranks on each other, etc.

However, this year's New Year's Eve celebration at the East Palace is a little different.

There were no funny jokes, just the clacking sound of abacus beads.

It was Mingyan who was calculating.

The others sat around and watched her pair of white and tender little hands slide quickly on the abacus.

After staring at it for a while, I felt my eyes were going to get blurry.

The Crown Princess looked at her daughter with eyes bright and shining, full of pride, admiration, and even respect.

She was an idiot with account books and felt a headache every time she looked at them. Later, she felt better, but still hated looking at them and always asked the accountant to give her the final summary sheet.

But her daughter is a genius!

This abacus calculation is better than that of an accountant who has worked for decades.

The Crown Princess really couldn’t understand how she calculated it so quickly!

It’s great that my daughter didn’t take after her. Instead, she should have inherited your intelligence and talent.

Mingyu's mouth was slightly open, and her eyes were wide open. She looked a little silly because she was so shocked.

It was the first time he saw his sister using an abacus, and she was so good at it that it completely refreshed his knowledge.

Xie Niankang frowned slightly, with a serious face and a somewhat empty look in his eyes, as if he was thinking about something very important.

Ye Qingzhi also expressed her admiration for Mingyan's ability to calculate.

In fact, Mingyan is not only good at abacus, but also at many other things. She is very good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. This is just one of them.

Ye Qingzhi thought secretly in her heart that compared with Mingyan, Mingyan was indeed smarter.

Of course, Mingyu is not bad either, she is also a smart and good child, but compared with her sister, she seems a little ordinary.

It wasn’t obvious before, because Mingyan mainly studied some special courses for girls.

Things like embroidery, accounting, and housekeeping, and of course, there are also music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

However, since returning from the Western Regions, Mingyan told the prince her thoughts, and the prince allowed her to go to Wenhua Palace to study with him.

She was raised completely like a boy.

Then, Mingyan's intelligence came to the fore, and the teachers in Wenhua Palace all praised her highly, saying that she was much smarter than all the other princes.

Mingyan learns knowledge quickly and can apply it to other situations.

Because Mingyan already had a foundation in reading, after studying for half a year, he has become quite good at writing policy papers and articles.

Previously, when the conversation came to the issue of disaster relief expenses, the prince said that during this period of time, more than a dozen abacuses in the Ministry of Revenue had been broken, and those officials in the Ministry of Revenue had their arms tired from calculating accounts and using abacus every day.

There were not enough officials in the Ministry of Revenue, so a lot of accountants were hired to help with the accounting.

When Mingyan heard this, she smiled and said she would perform an abacus show for them, and everyone naturally agreed.

After all, there is nothing new in performing any of the arts, such as music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Of course, they are looking forward to the children's performances no matter what they perform.

Then there was this scene.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, Mingyan closed the shop account book at hand, moved the last bead, and said a number with a smile, which happened to be the total sales volume recorded.

"Wow! Awesome! Sister, you are so awesome. How did you practice this? I want to learn it too." Mingyu was the first to applaud and asked with shining eyes.

Mingyu was shocked, and when something is shocking, he will want to learn it. Mingyu also has abacus classes, but he used to think that he just needed to learn it casually, but now he wants to learn it seriously.

"Practice makes perfect. You'll get this way after practicing many times." Mingyan smiled and flicked his little forehead.

"But I haven't seen you using an abacus." Mingyu rubbed his forehead and said in confusion.

"You hang out with Xie Niankang every day, and you only see me a few times a day. You can't even see my plans." Ming Yan glanced at Xie Niankang with a stern face and said unhappily.

Xie Niankang,

He didn't say anything and didn't do anything, so how can this be linked to him?

"Haha, Mingyan's move is really amazing." Ye Qingzhi smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

"Thank you for the compliment, mother." Ming Yan smiled brightly at Ye Qingzhi, looking pretty and cute.

The Crown Princess praised her again and again with a smile on her face, and her pride was overflowing in her words.

Mingyan couldn't help but look at her father. She was looking forward to getting his recognition and praise.

"Well, very good." The prince smiled and nodded, and said to her, "How about I give you a task after the New Year?"

"What is the mission?" Mingyan asked expectantly.

"You go to the Ministry of Revenue as a censor, supervise their accounting and check their accounts, and give them a shock." The prince said with a smile.

"It would save them from being so proud and arrogant, thinking they are so great and that being an official in the Ministry of Revenue is a big deal, when in fact, they are no better than a ten-year-old child."

Ming Yan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he asked calmly, "Father, are you suppressing officials as well?"

"That's right, let them learn from their mistakes and become braver." The prince nodded seriously.

Ye Qingzhi complained about the prince in her heart, not knowing whether he wanted to show off his child or he had become so cruel that he even spared no child laborers!

The Crown Princess was shocked when she heard the Crown Prince's words. She asked hesitantly,

"Let Mingyan go to the Ministry of Revenue? And give her an official position? Isn't this a bad influence?"

"She is a princess, and she is capable and can control those officials. There is nothing wrong with that. It will only make those old men submit."

The prince spoke.

Ye Qingzhi continued to complain in her heart, is she convinced? I guess she was holding her breath, which could make those stubborn old men in the Ministry of Households bleed.

"Qingzhi, do you have any objections?" The prince turned his head to look at her, and saw that she rolled her eyes, so he immediately called her out.

The Crown Princess also looked at Ye Qingzhi, with a hint of help in her eyes. She felt that it was not appropriate to let Mingyan go to the Ministry of Revenue, and she hoped that Qingzhi could make the Crown Prince change his mind.

"Your Highness, I don't have any objections. I think your idea is a great one. It can kill two birds with one stone."

Ye Qingzhi spoke calmly.

"Oh? Tell me, what sculptures are there?" Xie Jin handed her an orange and asked her to talk about it.

Ye Qingzhi pushed the orange back, mainly because she was too lazy to peel it herself, and then said,

"First of all, our Mingyan is so smart and capable, she is the golden phoenix of our family, of course I can't help but want to show off.

Letting Mingyan go to the Ministry of Revenue to show her skills would make Mingyan famous and let the world know how smart she is.

The child prodigies praised in the world nowadays are all boys, but our Mingyan is no less than any boy..."

Ming Yan's face turned red after being praised. She waved her hands in embarrassment and said, "My concubine, my father didn't mean that."

"Yeah, that's right. I did have that idea." But Xie Jin said from the side, peeling the orange and handing it to Ye Qingzhi, saying with a smile, "This is a prize for you."

"Thank you for the reward, Your Highness." Ye Qingzhi also took it with a smile, broke it in half and gave it to Mingyan, then raised her eyebrows at her with a smile.

"Did you hear that? Your father admitted it himself. He just has the mentality of an old father and wants to show off how great his daughter is."

Mingyan took the orange, her face turned even redder because she was embarrassed, but her eyes were sparkling and full of energy.

There could be no better recognition and compliment than this.

The Crown Princess couldn't help but smile. She felt warm in her heart and most of her worries disappeared.

Her daughter is so outstanding, and as a mother, she also wants people to know about it!

Qingzhi's words really touched her heart. Knowing that the prince had the same idea, she felt more at ease.

"Secondly, there are several officials in the Ministry of Revenue, all of whom are old ministers from Emperor Gaozu's time. They always like to take advantage of their seniority and suppress the younger generation in the Ministry of Revenue, making many people in the Ministry of Revenue dare not speak out.

If the emperor or His Royal Highness personally stepped in to suppress this matter and directly asked them to resign or transfer, it would again make these old ministers feel disheartened and become obsessed with it.

If something goes wrong and someone dies, the public opinion will be bad.

However, our Mingyan is a child, and she is indeed very capable. If the two of them had a dispute, everyone would stand on Mingyan's side and blame the other party:

You say you are an old man, but you are not as good as a ten-year-old girl, and you are still angry. Where is your dignity?

If they resigned because of this, everyone would be happy. If they didn’t resign, they would probably become more honest.”

Xie Jin looked at Ye Qingzhi and nodded with a smile. Qingzhi was his confidant and understood him very well.

Upon hearing this, Ming Yan couldn't help but nodded, thinking to herself, this is what they call using someone's force to counter attack them, a roundabout way of taking action?

"This also has many other benefits. For example, it can supervise the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and make them do their work well. It can also set an example for other women and further increase women's recognition..."

Ye Qingzhi continued, not forgetting to flatter the prince at the end.

"So, our Highness is as wise and brave as ever. Whatever he does, he always thinks everything through and kills multiple birds with one stone."

"Wow! Father is awesome! Sister is awesome too, and so is mother!"

Although Mingyu felt a little dizzy after listening to what was said later, because he was still young and didn't understand people's hearts well, he was very supportive and immediately praised everyone, clapping his hands until they turned red.

Xie Niankang and the Crown Princess also followed suit and clapped.

Ye Qingzhi, the prince and Mingyan looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.

At this time, the gong of midnight sounded, and the sound of temple bells could be heard faintly in the distance, heralding the new year.

"Happy New Year!"

Ye Qingzhi and the others smiled at each other.

In the new year, I hope things will get better and better, and they should get better and better.