4 Getting Married For The Dowry Sounds Great When You’re So Poor You Can Only Afford Half The City.

Bai Jingfei was stunned. Pikachu use thunder bolt kind of stunned.

Going from a tall gorgeous beauty to a loli is a shock not many can take. Especially not prideful geniuses like Bai Jingfei.

The girl in the mirror was pretty short. 1.5 m at max. A whole 20 cm deduction. She had long silky hair and a flat bust. When Bai Jingfei had hoped to become shorter this was not what she had meant.

At least she was very pretty. Like a porcelain doll with dark eyes and silky hair. Her skin was sickly pale but Bai Jingfei knew that could be fixed.

Of course this body was neither old nor ugly.

The old maid took a glance at Bai Jingfei and realized the princess hadn't recognized herself.

"How old am I?" asked Bai Jingfei.

Realizing she was shocked by her height the maid rambled, "Princess you turned 16 last year, your height well… You were born prematurely and you have been sick all these years, you'll grow taller when you get healthier!"

The maid did her utmost to reassure Bai Jingfei but failed.

Bai Jingfei knew she was stuck in a short body.

'From beauty to shorty, how the tables have turned. I want to go home…' she thought.

With a glance filled with pity directed at Bai 'Pikachu-ed' Jingfei she started talking about the body Bai Jingfei occupied. Just the information Bai Jingfei needed.

"Princess, that painting of yours, it was commissioned by the most famous artist in the kingdom just last year when you had briefly regained consciousness, do you remember?" she said

She met Bai Jingfei's clueless eyes and almost teared up.

"Princess, you said you wanted something for Prime Minister Bai to remember you by… Even when you were weak and helpless you cared about your father the most!"

Bai Jingfei could feel the love the soul that inhabited this body once had. She immediately felt some pity on the original Bai Jingfei. A loving family but the inability to stay with them.

Well she was Bai Jingfei now.

She could only take care of the old man. She'd never had a father but she could definitely do it, it'd be a unique learning experience for her.

"What about my mother? Tell me about her please?" requested Bai Jingfei.

Bai Jingfei had had a pretty terrible mother in her past life. Her mother was an unemployed druggie who lived off of Bai Jingfei's father's life insurance. And occasionally she gave Bai Jingfei enough to survive, off of the life insurance of course. Then at the age of 10 her mother's kidney failed and she was orphaned.

Bai Jingfei was hoping this mother was as loving as her new father. And if she came from a rich family that'd be a bonus.

"Your mother died after childbirth, princess. She was a wonderful woman. The emperor loved her dearly too. She was his only full sister after all."

Bazinga!

Another rich relative.

Bai Jingfei was already counting the cash in her head. A prime minister father and a princess mother, and the emperor as her uncle…

"So then my family must be very rich, wow!" giggled Bai 'blown away by rich connections' Jingfei, "How much money do we have?"

The maid laughed. To her Bai Jingfei's antics were what she had always hoped for. Childishness, laughter, joy.

"Enough to buy half the city I suppose?" said the maid.

Half the city?

Bai Jingfei suddenly realized she had been overestimating the family's wealth. Only half a city? Could that even be considered wealthy?

'Isn't the family poor then?' she thought 'Oh no, no wonder the curtains aren't Mulberry silk, only Cashmere... "

Bai Jingfei had never tried to buy a city and thus had mentally reduced the second richest family in the kingdom to being poor. Even though they were behind the royal family in wealth, Bai Jingfei's mother had brought along a sizeable portion of the treasury as dowry.

Plus the Bai family didn't have to run a country…

'I suppose I'll need to work here too, never a moment of peace in this life of mine.'

Bai 'Never Bought A City Before' Jingfei finally returned to her senses and nodded at the maid.

"What should I call you?" asked Bai Jingfei softly, rubbing her tiny bruised shoulder caused by her own destructiveness. After all she had to ask if she didn't want to throw herself off the bed again.

"You can call me Liu Mama, princess." said Liu Mama with a bow.

Bai Jingfei then attempted to head back to her bed, stumbling a little on the way as Liu Mama supported her. She sat down on the bed and Liu Mama headed out to give the princess her privacy.

Now it was Bai Jingfei's brainstorming, or more accurately, overthinking time. She sat thinking and overthinking, on how to make money. She had no clue of the financial situation of the kingdom and that was the first step in earning money.

Bai Jingfei had no choice but to do what she hated the most.

Study.

She first had to find a library. She plotted in her head on how to get her father to take her to one. Perhaps they had one in the house?

Probably not.

Considering how poor they were it was highly unlikely they had a library. Maybe a small one, but that would not do for her. She needed to do business analysis.

Like all geniuses she had a back up plan for if her business analysis did not work.

She remembered hearing something very intriguing once.

It was probably her druggie mother complaining about her father while spending his life insurance laxly. She had often complained about her finances despite Bai Jingfei never seeing her work even once in the past.

Her complaint was random but it mentioned something useful to her current situation.

It mentioned that one could get a lot of money from their dowry in ancient times.

Of course Bai Jingfei had no clue of how this worked but she had enough blind faith and not enough common sense, so went ahead and believed it.

"Getting married for the dowry sounds great when you're so poor you can only afford half the city" sighed Bai Jingfei.