After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Seeing Ji Wanwan's confident demeanor, Old Madam Lu knew that further words would be of no use, so she handed her the storeroom key.

Ji Wanwan was very excited, as if she had grasped the lifeline of the entire Marquis's mansion, and couldn't wait to take stock of the valuables. The moment the storeroom door opened, Ji Wanwan was dumbfounded. The huge storeroom only contained a dozen or so old wooden boxes, which was far from what she had imagined.

She tugged at Lu Huai's sleeve and asked uncertainly, "Brother Huai, is this the warehouse? Did Mother give us the wrong key?"

"There's no mistake, this is our Marquis's manor's storeroom." Old Madam Lu sighed.

The title of Marquis of Pingnan was something the old Marquis picked up on the battlefield. He was originally an illiterate cook, and on his way to escape the battlefield, he encountered the seriously wounded founding emperor. Feeling sorry for him, he carried him to a thatched hut at the foot of the mountain.

The Lu family came from humble origins, and even if they were granted a title in the capital, they would still be unable to enter the circles of those aristocratic families.

The old Marquis had the foresight to arrange for his son, Lu Huai's father, to marry a woman from the Cui family. The Cui family was a scholarly family; their ancestors had produced a top scholar in the imperial examinations. Cui's father was a teacher at the official academy. A son raised by the Cui family's daughter, even if he didn't bring honor to the Lu family, would at least allow the Lu family to absorb some of its scholarly traditions.

Little did they know that Miss Cui would elope, and by a twist of fate, Old Madam Lu would marry into the family.

The die was cast, and the old Marquis had no choice but to place his hopes on his grandson, instructing his son to find a high-born granddaughter-in-law for the Lu family no matter what.

The Lu family racked their brains to get Lu Huai to marry Xie Chaoyun, who came from a prestigious family.

Xie Chaoyun's mother was the daughter of a Grand Tutor, skilled in both literature and martial arts, and also knowledgeable in medicine. Her father was the emperor's study companion and a renowned Pillar of State General. Her eldest brother was a wealthy merchant, the richest man in the land. Her second brother was exceptionally intelligent from a young age, becoming the youngest top scholar in the Northern Liang Dynasty, and before the age of twenty, he was appointed to the Ministry of Personnel, a highly valued and trusted minister of the emperor. Xie Chaoyun was shrewd and resourceful, possessing considerable talent in business. With the support of the Xie family, their Marquis's mansion had achieved its current prosperity.

"So, all the expenses of this Marquis's mansion are paid by Xie Chaoyun himself?" Ji Wanwan's heart trembled as she gripped the key tightly. "This Marquis's mansion is just an empty shell without Xie Chaoyun?"

Madam Lu was displeased and glared at her.

"Do you think being the mistress of a marquis's mansion is easy? That just anyone can be one?"

Ji Wanwan's limbs were cold, and all the color had drained from her face.

Old Madam Lu was subtly implying to her that she was unworthy of being the mistress of the Marquis's mansion, and that she should give up her delusions. The key hurt her hand, but she endured the pain. Ji Wanwan had a sense of shame; she couldn't let this old woman and Xie Chaoyun laugh at her.

Taking a deep breath, she curtsied to Old Madam Lu: "Mother, rest assured, Wanwan keeps her word. Even without that dowry, even without the support of her maternal family, Wanwan can still help Brother Huai uphold the Marquis's mansion. Xie Chaoyun relies on the Xie family, on Father and Brother, while Wanwan relies on her own abilities."

Madam Lu wanted to advise Ji Wanwan to stop, but she didn't know how to bring it up. Her son's heart was with Ji Wanwan, and if she was not careful, he would be blamed. After thinking it over, she decided to wait until Ji Wanwan hit a wall before trying to persuade her.

Undeterred, Ji Wanwan took a stack of account books back to her room. After looking at them for less than half an hour, she developed a splitting headache and asked her maid to summon the steward and all the managers of the mansion.

I should have kept quiet, because once I asked, I almost vomited blood.

Lu Huai's salary was 150 taels of silver per month, and with various subsidies, it was no more than 180 taels. If this 180 taels of silver were in an ordinary family, it would be enough to last two or three years, but this was a marquis's mansion, where the servants alone received 200 taels of silver per month.

In addition to these, there are the household chores, food, drink, and daily necessities, as well as Lu Huai's various social interactions and engagements in officialdom.

Roughly estimated, the monthly expenses are at least 1,500 taels.

With a tenfold difference, how is she supposed to raise that much money? Even with the estates owned by the Marquis's family, it's still not enough to make ends meet.

“The shops… I remember all the shops under the Marquis’s name are profitable.” Ji Wanwan flipped through the account books in disarray. “I knew Xie Chaoyun was dishonest. Did she hide those account books? Does the Marquis’s mansion’s expenses all depend on those shops?”

The butler glanced at Ji Wanwan and said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, "Madam did not hide those account books; rather, those account books were not in Madam's possession at all."

Ji Wanwan picked up an account book and threw it at the housekeeper: "If it's not in her hands, it's in mine?"

Seeing that Ji Wanwan hadn't moved, the housekeeper remembered that the account books were indeed in her hands, and she had given them to her younger brother, Ji Yaozu.

He gently rubbed his forehead and slowly sat down: "Go, send someone to fetch my younger brother Ji Yaozu, as well as the shopkeepers. I need to know how those shops are doing now."

The housekeeper hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke when Ji Wanwan urged him again: "Your younger brother, Ji Yaozu, has been detained by the people from Yongsheng Gambling House. This was just delivered by the gambling house's employees this morning. We haven't had time to tell the old lady and the madam yet."

Gambling debts, all gambling debts, totaling ten thousand taels of silver.

The IOU had a fingerprint on it, but it wasn't ink; it was blood.

Ji Wanwan felt a chill run down her spine and stared at the butler, asking, "Is this also my brother's?"

The butler nodded: "The people at Yong Sheng Casino said that if you don't pay back the money, they'll cut off one of your brother's hands."

Ji Wanwan trembled with anger: "Do they even know who my younger brother is?"

The steward shook his head: "They only know that his surname is Ji, and that he is a rogue who spends his days hanging out in gambling dens. If you hadn't returned to the capital with the Marquis, and if he hadn't told the people in the gambling dens that you and your child were staying temporarily at our Marquis's residence, these debt receipts would not have been delivered to our residence."

Ji Wanwan wanted to assert her status, but what status did she have? The matriarch of the Marquis's mansion was Xie Chaoyun, and the well-known Madam Lu Huai was also Xie Chaoyun. She was merely a distant relative who was staying at the Marquis's mansion with her two children.

With a wry smile, Ji Wanwan swept all the account books on the table to the ground and said weakly, "Have someone go to the shop to get the money. We must get Yaozu back no matter what."

The butler stood still.

Ji Wanwan's eyes reddened: "What a servant you think you can't be ordered around? Open your dog eyes and see clearly, I, Ji Wanwan, am the head of this Marquis's mansion from this day forward. If you still want to stay in the Marquis's mansion, you'd better get out of here obediently."

The steward rubbed his nose indifferently and kindly reminded him, "It's not that I don't want to go to the shops to get money, but there's no money left to take. The Marquis entrusted the shops to the young lady to manage, and she probably hasn't even asked a single question. Those shops were squandered by your younger brother long ago."

Ji Wanwan's vision went black, and she said in a trembling voice, "You mean those shops are gone?"

The steward, with his hands in his pockets, said, "It's all gone. It's all been squandered. If the land deed hadn't still been with the Marquis, we probably wouldn't even have the shop anymore."

Ji Wanwan didn't believe it and led people to investigate. The jewelry shops, cosmetics shops, and even the most popular pawnshop were all closed. On the other hand, all the shops under Xie Chaoyun's name were thriving.

Ji Wanwan gritted her teeth and went to the gambling den, but was stopped at the outside by the clerk. Only after learning that she was from the Ji family did they roll their eyes and let her in. Several months had passed, and Ji Yaozu hadn't lost weight, but he had been beaten black and blue by the people in the gambling den, and was almost unrecognizable.

"Sister, sister, save me! They're about to beat me to death!"