Jiang Sheng wanted to eat candied haws, even though she had just eaten some not long ago. But her eldest brother Xu Mo felt that eating too many candied haws would rot her teeth, so he forbid her from eating them frequently.
With no other choice, even though Jiang Miss had lots of money given to her by her third brother, she still listened to her eldest brother the most. She could only drool when seeing the candied haws.
If possible, she hoped the candied haws could be more sensible and fall into her mouth when she opened it.
Unfortunately, the candied haws were never that sensible.
The carriage sped by, and the red and juicy fruits just brushed past her. Jiang Sheng sucked in her drool and sat back in the carriage, only to find all five of her brothers staring at her meaningfully.
Oh my, that was five pairs of big eyes, all looking at her meaningfully. If Jiang Sheng was not so bold, she probably would have pissed her pants in fear.
Before she could angrily ask what they were doing, eldest brother Xu Mo spoke first, "Little Jiang Sheng, do you want to eat candied haws?"
Of course she wanted to, she dreamed about them all the time.
Jiang Sheng grinned widely, but the wariness cultivated since young made her quickly hide her smile and look at Xu Mo cautiously.
As the old saying goes, strange things happening means there must be a sinister plot. Big brother himself does not allow her to eat candied haws frequently, and now he brought up candied haws on his own initiative, he must be up to something fishy.
Another old saying goes, deal with the unexpected by staying the same.
So little Jiang Sheng pursed her lips and stared back at him with eyes as bright as candles.
For a moment, the six pairs of big eyes in the carriage engaged in a staring contest, no one blinking.
After a while, Zheng Ruqian could not take it anymore. He rubbed his temples and yelled, "What are you all doing, having a staring contest like turtles and green beans?"
Wen Zhiyun let out a light sigh, blinked his eyelids, feeling like tears were about to spill out.
Fang Heng and Chang Yan also lowered their heads, gently massaging their eyes.
Only Xu Mo kept staring steadily at Jiang Sheng. After a long while, he let out a sigh, "I feel this is not good, Jiang Sheng is too young after all."
After he spoke, he lowered his gaze.
Now Jiang Sheng was curious. She grabbed her heart and looked at Xu Mo, "What's wrong with big brother? Did something happen?"
Could it be he wanted to give her more money? That's fine, no matter how much he gave, she could hold it. She just needed to exchange it for silver notes.
Jiang Sheng was very pleased with herself and grinned widely.
But unexpectedly, Xu Mo shook his head again, "No, you can't do it."
Jiang Sheng's smile froze. She practically threw herself onto Xu Mo's lap, staring with wide eyes and said seriously, "That's not true, big brother. I can do it, I really can."
"Really?" Xu Mo still doubted.
"Really." Jiang Sheng nodded vigorously, "The other brothers are watching too. Jiang Sheng can do it."
The other brothers held in their laughter and said nothing.
Xu Mo rubbed his temples, and laughed softly, "Since this is the case, the mission to get close to Qiao Yuhe will be left to you. I'll have third brother and Jiang San and Jiang Si protect you. You just need to get her to willingly meet with us."
Qiao Yuhe was the new concubine from that outsider's family, she was also Sun Yu's third concubine.
This mission was not too difficult, with Fang Heng and Jiang Yi and Jiang Er protecting her, it was basically safe.
Although Jiang Sheng was surprised, she still agreed.
The only problem was her mischievous nature. If Xu Mo directly made the request, Jiang Sheng would certainly ask for dozens of strings of candied haws in exchange.
But too many candied haws really damaged the teeth. In order to protect his little sister's pearly whites, Xu Mo set a little trap, and little Jiang Sheng foolishly jumped right in.
Now things were taken care of, and he didn't have to buy candied haws either.
Xu Mo tidied his sleeves, calmly and gently returned to the small courtyard.
Leaving Jiang Sheng standing in place, racking her brains, feeling like something was not quite right.
Hmm, it seems like she lost something.
Luckily, the mission was not too difficult.
Qiao Yuhe was quite favored by Sun Yu. After entering the Sun residence, she successively gave birth to a son and daughter, although she could not compare to the official wife, she still lived quite well.
According to Jiang San's investigation, Qiao Yuhe most liked to visit the clothing stores in the city, and every time she went, she had to buy three to five sets before she was willing to leave.
And her favorite clothing store was called Yuzhen Store, and one set of clothes cost about ten taels of silver.
Ten taels of silver.
Jiang Sheng remembered that her first rough cotton jacket only cost a dozen pennies each, although it used the worst cotton padding, and the sewing was crooked, but it already made her so happy that she was unwilling to take it off.
She really didn't know what kind of clothes could be worth ten taels of silver per set.
As Jiang Sheng muttered to herself, she had Auntie Zhang pick some clothes for her.
Yuzhen Store was the biggest and most luxurious clothing store in Anshui Prefecture. Only rich families went in and out of there. Jiang Sheng wanted to coincidentally bump into Qiao Yuhe there, so she couldn't dress too shabbily.
But she only had so few clothes. They sorted through them again and again, but could not pick out a single good, presentable one.
Zhang Xianglian regretted, "I've been so busy making preserved meat these days, I forgot to make a couple sets of clothes for little Jiang Sheng."
But it was too late to make them now.
They could only reluctantly pick out a moon white cotton skirt, paired with a snow green cotton long jacket. Tie two little braids hanging past her ears, along with Jiang Sheng's round little face, at first glance she looked like a clean and lovable little girl.
When it came to accessories, Jiang Sheng was even more destitute. Forget gold and silver jewelry, she didn't even have a flower hair tie.
Auntie Zhang didn't have any either. She could only pin a little wild flower on Jiang Sheng, and said gently, "Our little Jiang Sheng is like a wild flower, lively and vibrant, no one can extinguish her."
The metaphor was great, Jiang Sheng happily nodded again and again.
When she finished dressing up and jumped in front of her brothers, the little girl even pulled at her skirt and spun around, "Do I look pretty?"
"Pretty." The brothers with no sense of aesthetics all nodded.
Only Wen Zhiyun's eyebrows knitted slightly, feeling his little sister's head was too plain.
"Then I'm going out now." After showing off, Jiang Sheng bounced and skipped outside.
Fang Heng put on a cone hat, and brought Jiang San and Jiang Si to follow far behind her, watching as she walked out of Hairpin Courtyard, watching as she approached Yuzhen Store.
The original plan of the brothers was to have Jiang Sheng wait at the entrance for Qiao Yuhe, either pretending to bump into her or asking her for help, to avoid other troubles appearing inside Yuzhen Store.
But plans could not keep up with changes. Jiang Sheng had just arrived when she saw Qiao Yuhe leading some servant girls into Yuzhen Store.
With no other choice, Jiang Sheng could only follow inside.
But she was stopped at the entrance.
The one blocking her way was a woman. Her brows and eyes looked rather kind. "Which family's servant girl? Do you have a reservation?"
Jiang Sheng was startled, only then realizing that because of her plain clothing, she had been mistaken for a servant girl here to fetch clothes.
She intended to smoothly make up an identity, but also afraid of being found out, so she obediently said, "I'm from the Jiang family."
Jiang Sheng, Jiang family, it matched seamlessly.
She was feeling pleased with herself, when the woman at the door heard it as "Jiang family", and quickly opened the door, "Miss, please come in."
She also loudly called out, "Third young miss from the Jiang family is here to fetch clothes."
