Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

After the messenger left, Zhang Haoran returned to his own courtyard. Before he even entered, he heard a commotion inside.

When others entered the courtyard, they saw a group of older women who were familiar with his mother gathered together, praising her.

"Sister-in-law Gao, open the box and let us see what good things the Emperor has bestowed upon us."

"I wouldn't dare! My hands aren't even washed yet. To open it so rashly would be disrespectful to the Emperor!" Lady Gao refused.

"Then go wash it now before you drive it," the man said again.

"I wouldn't dare," Gao Shi continued, "This was bestowed upon my son by the Emperor. Although I am his mother, I cannot touch it." It wasn't that she was stingy; anything bestowed by the Emperor was undoubtedly valuable. What if these people saw it and word got out, attracting thieves?

As she spoke, Madam Gao had already made her plans in mind: to use the gold bestowed upon her by the Emperor to buy a house in the capital. At least they couldn't live in their current place anymore; putting everything else aside, the hundred taels of gold were too conspicuous. What would happen to her and her child if it attracted thieves?

"Ladies and aunties, I have official business to attend to, so please disperse for today," Zhang Haoran said tactfully to the people gathered in the courtyard.

"..." As soon as he finished speaking, the chattering people fell silent. They were usually quite close to this mother and son, and Gao was also a talkative person. Because of this, they overlooked something.

That is, no matter how bad the conditions of this mother and daughter were, they were still officials, which was different from ordinary people like them.

After a moment of silence, and no one knew who started it, the entire courtyard was soon deserted.

Looking at the empty courtyard, Gao looked at her son with a somewhat bewildered expression.

"You didn't say anything, so why did they all run away? There weren't any dogs chasing them!"

"..." Zhang Haoran remained silent. His mother's words left him speechless.

"Mother, move the boxes inside. We need to take all these things with us. I'll ask when we're leaving after we're done packing. We'll need to rent two carriages then," Zhang Haoran said to Gao Shi, pointing to the boxes in the yard as he bolted the gate.

After the mother and daughter moved all the boxes into the house, Gao checked the courtyard gate again to make sure it was properly secured before going back into the house to lock it from the inside and then opening each of the boxes.

The first small box contained a hundred taels of gold bestowed by the Emperor, and ten gold ingots weighing ten taels each, arranged in two layers.

However, after Gao removed the partition on the first layer, he saw that there was another piece of paper lying on top of the gold on the second layer.

"Hao'er, why is there another piece of paper here?" Gao Shi was illiterate. She picked it up, opened it, glanced at it, and didn't recognize it, so she called to her son.

He took the paper from his mother and saw that it was a house deed. The house was located in Sancha Hutong next to Mao'er Hutong, a two-courtyard house.

After putting down the land deed, Zhang Haoran kowtowed three times earnestly in the direction of the palace.

"Hao'er, what are you doing?" Madam Gao was startled when she saw her son like this.

Zhang Haoran wiped his slightly moist eyes before speaking to Gao Shi.

"Mother, this is a house deed. It's located at the three-way intersection on Tengchun Street."

"Tengchun Street? My goodness! Houses there are incredibly expensive and hard to buy. This was bestowed upon you by the Emperor?" Madam Gao's hand trembled slightly as she held the deed. Having lived in the capital for so many years, she had never even dared to dream of owning a house on Tengchun Street. Let alone buying one, she couldn't even afford to rent one. And now, she actually held the deed to a house there.

"Mmm...Mmm...Mother, this is a gift from the Emperor." Zhang Haoran was grateful for the Emperor's favor. He was not only grateful to the Emperor, but also to Lord Shen. He knew that all of this was inseparable from Lord Shen's help. If it weren't for Lord Shen, the Emperor wouldn't have noticed him, an insignificant minor official.

After the initial excitement subsided, Zhang Haoran carefully folded the land deed and placed it back into Gao's hands.

"Mother, keep the land deed safe. We'll move there next year."

"Okay...okay...Mother will keep it safe." Madam Gao hurriedly found a small locked box. She folded the land deed and put it inside. Inside were the silver she had saved over the years. Ten gold ingots were too big to fit inside.

Then the mother and daughter looked at several other boxes. Two of them were full of antiques and calligraphy, another was a box of fabrics, and the last box contained two smaller boxes. One contained various jewelry, and the other contained all sorts of silver ingots, some weighing one qian (approximately 3.5 grams), some two qian, and the largest weighing five qian. They were shaped like plum blossoms, crabapple blossoms, writing brushes, ruyi scepters, and eight auspicious symbols, all exquisitely designed and beautiful.

“This is good. Last time I went to the Shen family for a banquet, I saw some ladies giving these to their servants as rewards. The maids were all very happy to receive them. Now that we are going back to our hometown for the New Year, we can use these as lucky money for the children of our relatives. They are much nicer than using loose silver.” After picking up a few and examining them carefully in her hand, Madam Gao also liked them very much.

"Mother, then you can keep them all and use them however you like."

Zhang Haoran felt that he finally had the ability to be filial to his mother. Seeing that his mother liked these silver ingots, he picked up the box and stuffed it all into his mother's arms.

"Alright, Mother will put it away first," Madam Gao said with a smile. She naturally wouldn't stand on ceremony with her son. Since he was unmarried, she was in charge of managing the household finances. Once the new bride entered the family, she wouldn't be so concerned about these things; she would hand them over when the time came.