“What do you think?” I asked Shuye when he arrived for a visit two days later.

“How did you manage this?” He stared at the new house in shock, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

“I told you, it’s my bloodline inheritance.” Why was he so surprised? He hadn’t questioned me much when the cottage went up overnight.

“Please don’t give me a look as though this is something that’s perfectly normal,” said Shuye. He shook his head and tentatively approached the large wooden gates intricately carved with fierce dragons and leaping carp. I’d personally chosen the design myself.

[The Dragon Gate Wooden Carving:

Carved by a master, the design depicts carp swimming upstream against the river's current and leaping over a waterfall into the legendary Dragon Gate. Those brave and strong enough to make the jump are transformed. The next panel shows that the successful fish have become mighty Dragons. The artwork serves as a metaphor for uplifting oneself through hard work and perseverance.]

Ever since I had come to this world, I had been dreaming of a dragon, so I thought that this was appropriate.

“Welcome to the Flower and Jade Pavilion!” I said as I flung the gate open.

Beyond the gate was a curtain wall that was placed there for privacy. Shuye once again shook his head at me.

“What is this?” He asked, pointing at the bas-relief on the wall. Violet flowers had been cut on the stone so that they stood out slightly against the flat surface.

“It’s a decoration. What’s wrong? Do you think the gem dust is too much?” Perhaps I’d gone overboard by coloring the flowers with ground amethyst and the leaves with jade dust.

Shuye sighed. “You might as well do what you want, since no one would believe it anyway.”

“I’m beginning to think this might have been a bad idea…” I said. “Should I put down another cottage instead?”

“There’s no point in that when everyone will be shocked anyway,” he said.

“Shocked?”

“Violet, you do realize that most people can’t create a house overnight, right?” he said.

“But I told you, I don’t create things. I just use the stuff that my ancestors left for me,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter. The fact that you could get the house ready in two days would unsettle anyone.”

“Should I worry?” I couldn’t quite understand what he was saying. I mean, okay, so it was definitely unusual for someone to build a house the way that I did, but Shuye seemed relatively calm about it.

“Not now, since you have Prince Baiyu as your patron. No one will question you because you’re under his protection,” he said.

Great. That must be why the System had given me that quest.

“Then I won’t worry about it!” I said.

“Do you ever?” Shuye followed me to the outer courtyard, past the empty southern rooms that were normally reserved for servants. I planned to use them for storage.

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The courtyard was just a simple open space paved with white stone tiles. The eastern side was reserved for the apprentices’ bedrooms, while on the western side was a large commercial kitchen and workrooms.

The bedrooms and workrooms were currently empty, but the kitchen was already full of the best appliances that I could get from the cash shop including ovens, stoves, a dishwasher, sink, garbage disposal, fridge, and freezer. On a shelf were the usual pots, pans, utensils, as well as salt and pepper.

Furniture and items for the house, although bound to me, could be used by other people, since they were intended for both the owner of the house and guests, but I had to set permissions for each item individually, either [Everyone], [Restricted], or [Private].

[Everyone] meant that anyone could use that item while [Restricted] allowed me to manually set who could use the item. [Private] meant only I could use it. However, the fact that they were bound to me meant I couldn’t sell or give away any of the items. They had to stay inside the house.

“These are all very strange looking,” said Shuye as he peered inside the kitchen that was full of gleaming white appliances.

“These are magic devices!” I explained the function of each item, but Shuye only kept on shaking his head, so much so that I was afraid he was going to get dizzy.

“I see you’ve gone all out,” was all he said when I finished speaking.

Then I showed him the reception room on the northern side of the courtyard. This was a formal space reserved for greeting guests and important meetings. On the opposite side of the door was a wooden couch backed by an elegant folding screen with eight painted panels depicting the Eight Immortals. Hardwood armchairs and tables were placed off to the sides, along with delicate side tables, and the walls were decorated with calligraphy scrolls.

“You see, I can also restrain myself,” I said as I gestured at the dignified and sophisticated interior of the meeting hall.

“Ah.” Shuye only made a noncommittal sound as we walked through the hallway to the inner courtyard.

I flung my arms wide open and said, “And this is why the house is called ‘Flower and Jade Pavilion!’ Isn’t it amazing?”

At the center of the inner courtyard was an enormous tree with a trunk and branches made of green jade. The leaves were carved white jade, and the flowers were made of amethysts and gold.

Shuye’s reaction was disappointingly lukewarm. “It’s nice.”

“Nice?! Really?”

“No.” He shook his head and the expression on his face spoke volumes. “It’s a bad idea to place a priceless treasure in your courtyard.”

“You don’t like it? I knew it, it’s too much…” I hugged the tree and kissed its trunk while mentally saying my goodbyes. When I had first seen this item in the Cash Shop, I hadn’t been able to resist, even though I knew it was outrageously lavish and incredibly out of place inside the house. This was the sort of declaration that one might find in a royal palace, not on a farm. “Fine, I’ll remove it.”

“That would be for the best,” said Shuye.

After I sent the Jade Treasure Tree back to the Cash Shop, I showed him the rooms in the inner courtyard that were reserved for the senior members of the family that were living in the house.

“This is where I plan to house the chef and his family. Maybe the butler or housekeeper, too, if I can get one of those later,” I said.

There were three buildings on the north, east, and west sides which could be divided into several rooms. They were currently empty since I didn’t know how many people would be living here.

“What about you?” Shuye asked.

“Oh, I’ll live in my cottage as usual,” I said. “I love my privacy and I don’t want to live with a bunch of other people.”

“That’s fine, but you should definitely reserve the main house for yourself. Even if you don’t plan to sleep there, it’s important that you maintain the hierarchy inside the house,” he said.

“That seems like a waste of space, but I get what you mean. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have an extra bedroom here for me. I’d love more storage space for my personal items,” I said.

I placed some armchairs in the inner courtyard for us to sit on, and he gave me some advice about how I should organize the staff and my apprentices. With the caliber of chef that I wanted to hire, it was unlikely that he or she would arrive alone, according to Shuye, which meant that I needed to provide living quarters for his assistants and family.

“Should I furnish their rooms?”

“The chef and his family will undoubtedly bring their furniture and personal belongings, but the orphans will have nothing.”

“That makes sense.”

We chatted a little and Shuye tried to persuade me to change my dragon gate design to that of a white tiger. I promised him I’d think about it before ushering him out of the house, purposely neglecting to show him the building in the back courtyard.

I didn’t want him to see my extremely decadent secret.