Chapter 09
The Father-Daughter Duo Who Insist on Being Ambitious (Page 1/2)**
“The money in Prince Duan’s manor belongs to me tooâwhy can’t I touch it?”
Ye Qiong’s alarm bells went off. “Father, do you have someone else outside?”
“I’m telling you, no matter how many illegitimate children you have out there, I’m the one who inherits Prince Duan’s manor in the end. I will never allow anyone to come and split my inheritance! Just give up that idea!”
Prince Duan looked at her in disbelief. “You’re already thinking about inheriting my estate?”
Ye Qiong shamelessly nodded.
“I’m going to inherit it sooner or later anyway.”
“I’m still alive, you ungrateful little wretch!”
Prince Duan was so furious he picked up the bowl on the table and was about to throw it.
Seeing this, Steward Wang rushed over and grabbed Prince Duan, struggling to speak. “Your Highness, you can’t throw thatâthis bowl is… quite expensive.”
The manor’s expenses had been too high over the past half month. They could not afford any more damage from these two ancestors.
Prince Duan looked at the bowl in his hand, somewhat incredulous.
“Can the manor not even afford bowls anymore?”
Steward Wang nodded, his gaze toward Prince Duan carrying a hint of reproach.
The prince had never managed the manor’s properties. All he did every day was eat, drink, and seek pleasure. There was no mistress of the house either.
If it weren’t for the Empress Dowager and His Majesty keeping an eye on things, the manor would have run out of money long ago.
And now they had Princess the spendthrift on top of that.
The more Steward Wang thought about it, the more his face drooped.
Seeing Steward Wang’s lifeless expression, Prince Duan felt as though the sky was falling.
“That ungrateful wretch… she didn’t pawn off Prince Duan’s manor, did she?”
“Not yet, but… at the rate Her Highness is spending, pawning the manor is only a matter of time.”
Upon hearing this, Prince Duan felt dazed.
He didn’t know whether to be angry at his daughter for being such a spendthrift or to lament how quickly the manor could be squandered.
“Don’t we still have quite a few properties?”
Steward Wang looked at Prince Duan with a pained expression. “Your Highness, have you forgotten? You previously had a cockfight with the Duke of England and lost all those valuable properties to him. Most of the properties still in the manor are operating at a loss. If it weren’t for Her Majesty the Empress Dowager and His Majesty subsidizing us all these years, our manor would have run out of money long ago.”
Ye Qiong, who had already sneaked all the way to the door, heard this and came charging back.
“Uncle Wang, you… what did you say?”
“My father, he… he… already squandered away all my inheritance?!”
Uncle Wang immediately covered his mouth.
“Princess, this old servant said nothing.”
Oh noâhe had originally come to mediate between the two masters, but now, because of that one sentence he’d just let slip, the conflict between father and daughter seemed about to escalate.
Prince Duan looked guilty. “What… what do you mean ‘your inheritance’? That’s mine…”
Ye Qiong looked at him with a mixture of frustration and disappointment. “Father, you’ve let me down! You… you just had the nerve to accuse me of being a spendthrift!”
She had originally thought she’d transmigrated into the life of an official’s daughter, with endless wealth and prosperity, and more money than she could spend in a lifetime.
Who would have thought her useless father, instead of being ambitious, had gambled away the family fortune?
Prince Duan glared at Uncle Wang, then argued back, “You’re the spendthrift! No matter how useless I am, at least I never played the fool and spent a fortune on a brothel nobody wanted!”
“You’re proud of gambling?!” Ye Qiong was so angry she jumped onto Prince Duan’s back, grabbing his ears as if ready to fight him to the death.
Prince Duan roared, “Get off me!”
Ye Qiong bared her teeth in fury. “No! You go and get back everything you gambled away, or I’ll fight you to the death!”
She had only been enjoying the luxurious life of an official’s daughter for half a month, and now she was being told the household was about to run out of money.
This was no different from killing her.
Prince Duan shook himself a few times but couldn’t throw his daughter off. He yelled in anger, “Who are you calling ‘me’?! I’m your father, you unfilial wretch!”
“Uncle Wang! Get this ungrateful wretch off me!”
Steward Wang, who had already retreated outside the door, turned and fled at the sound of his name.
Based on past experience, whenever these father and daughter fought, if he stepped in to mediate, the blame for all the squandering would inexplicably and inevitably fall on him, the steward.
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Seeing that no one was coming to intervene inside the room, Prince Duanâwho had thought of a hundred ways to discipline his daughterâcould only admit defeat.
“I promise you, I’ll win back all the properties I lost.”
Prince Duan felt like crying but had no tears. In just a few short sentences, the family spendthrift had suddenly become him.
Hearing this, Ye Qiong finally jumped off Prince Duan’s back.
With a look of deep anguish, she lectured him, “Father, you’ve let me down so much.”
“At your age, you have elders above and a child below. How can you spend every day just eating, being lazy, and loafing around? You need to be ambitious! You need to work hard! You need to earn money!”
Prince Duan looked at her in utter speechlessness. “Be ambitious like you? That would make the manor go bankrupt even faster.”
“Father, how can you think that? Don’t you have the heart to let your daughter suffer with you? Am I destined to live a life with neither a mother nor money?”
“Other princesses all have parents planning for their future. Only I, poor little me, have a father who doesn’t care and no mother to love me. In the future, I won’t even be able to afford nice clothesâI’ll be laughed to death by all the other princesses whenever I go out.”
Ye Qiong wiped her tears and sat down on the ground, wallowing in her sorrow.
“Little cabbage, yellow in the field~ Just born, lost my mother~ Following my father, days are cold~ Afraid my father will take a stepmother~ With a stepmother, more children will come~ Little brother eats meat, I drink the broth~ Pick up my bowl, tears streaming down~”
“Dear mother! Oh, my dear mother~~”
“That’s enoughâstop singing! I’ll find a way to make money.” Prince Duan held his forehead. He had no idea where this wretch had learned those lyrics, but they made his heart ache with every note.
Seeing that her old father had finally come to his senses about being ambitious, Ye Qiong was deeply gratified.
“Father, starting tomorrow, we’ll both work hard to make money.”
“You take the west side of the city, I’ll take the east. We’ll meet at the top!”
With that, Ye Qiong scrambled up from the ground and marched back to her own courtyard with great ambition.
Prince Duan watched his daughter, who had suddenly become as energetic as if injected with adrenaline, and felt a chill run down his spine.
“What’s gotten into her? Wasn’t she telling my imperial brother earlier today that she didn’t want to take on any duties? It’s been less than a day, and this wretch is acting like she’s possessed, ready to start ‘striving’?”
If this were someone else’s daughter, it would be a good thing. But his daughter was no ordinary person.
Steward Wang, who had chosen the perfect moment to return, overheard Prince Duan muttering as he entered and quickly offered comfort. “Perhaps Her Highness has finally come to her senses. Seeing that the manor’s finances are tight, she’s trying to find ways to earn money.”
Though he felt that the princess didn’t have a talent for making money, if the young mistress insisted on being ambitious, there was little he, as a servant, could do about it.
Mentioning this only made Prince Duan angry. He slammed the table. “Qiong’er is rightâwe need to find a way to make money!”
“That cunning old fox, the Duke of Englandâdoes he really think I can’t beat him?”
“Find me a sturdy, fierce, and powerful rooster immediately! Tomorrow morning, arrange a cockfight with that old fox, the Duke of England!”
“This time, I’ll get my revenge and win back everything I lost!”
Steward Wang stumbled at his words. “Your Highness, have you forgotten that His Majesty just assigned you a duty? You’re supposed to be patrolling the streets tomorrow!”
Heavens aboveâplease don’t let the prince think about cockfighting again.
If he kept gambling, the manor would change its surname to the Duke of England’s by tomorrow.
Prince Duan’s eyes burned with fierce determination, his voice resolute. “Don’t worryâI’ll win it all back with interest!”
Steward Wang reminded him again, trying to drive the thought of cockfighting out of the prince’s head.
“Your Highness, you have to report for duty tomorrow. His Majesty has people watching.”
“Then I’ll go after duty.” With that, Prince Duan gave the steward no room to argue and marched back to his own courtyard with equal ambition.
Steward Wang stood in the wind, utterly bewildered.
Where on earth did these two masters get their confidence from?
All he could do now was pray that the father and daughter were just having a momentary whimâand that by tomorrow morning, they’d be back to being the good, idle, lazy, pleasure-seeking masters they used to be.
