The actions of You Ran House were very quick.
Just after finishing the discussion of continued cooperation, Xiao Er Ge was already rushing with a carriage to the workshop to transport sausage.
Seeing Jiang Sheng who hadn't gone far, he kindly asked, "Do you want a ride for a stretch?"
Jiang Sheng waved her hand to refuse. While riding in a carriage was effortless, she rarely slipped out, hoping to secretly eat a few bites before heading back.
What was she hoping to secretly eat?
Of course it was the tempting and alluring candied haws.
She couldn't go to Jiuzhen Store to eat them, because her brothers would find out.
Jiang Sheng didn't understand at all. Her milk teeth had already fallen out, her new teeth were dense and neat, yet her brothers still wouldn't let her eat a few more candied haws.
It must be because they didn't understand the deliciousness of candied haws.
The outside was crispy sweet candy coating, the inside was sweet and sour delicious hawthorn. Even though candied haws in the capital sold for fifteen wen each, Jiang Sheng hardened her heart, stamped her feet, gritted her teeth, and bought one anyway.
Really expensive, but really tasty too.
The young girl turned her back to the vendor. As soon as she got it in her hands she couldn't wait to open her mouth. She had just bitten half of one when the light in front of her was blocked.
She blankly lifted her head to see a familiar person, like she had seen him somewhere before.
"You are...you are..." That person also scratched his head to think, "I remember now, you are Brother Xu's younger sister. I saw you at the entrance of Jiuzhen Store."
Jiang Sheng also remembered, this was her oldest brother's friend, the young master of the Zhao family who had purchased a full fifty packages of pastries on Jiuzhen Store's opening day.
She was a little worried that this person would spread the news to her oldest brother and reveal that she was secretly eating candy out here.
But Zhao Yuan laughed merrily, and even asked, "Why are you out here alone eating candied haws? Don't tell me it's a secret?"
Jiang Sheng's expression instantly darkened, her eyes filled with anger.
"It can't be true, can it? Then I'll have to tell Brother Xu that you're secretly eating candied haws without giving him any." Zhao Yuan's face was filled with teasing, "You have to be more careful, you know."
As he spoke, he playfully turned around and raced off.
Jiang Sheng couldn't catch up to him, and she also knew this person was just teasing her. She could only angrily spit out two hawthorn seeds at his retreating figure.
Turning around, she sped up her candied haws eating speed, as if destroying evidence.
At the same time she also quickened her pace home.
She didn't know if it was her imagination, but Jiang Sheng always felt someone was watching her from behind. But when she carefully looked back, there was nothing there.
In actuality, in a place unknown to her, Old Lady Jiang with silver hair stood on the third floor of You Ran House's elegant room, closely observing the girl's every move.
It wasn't until her figure completely disappeared that she softly sighed, "This child, there's not one bit resemblance to a young lady. If she really is...she will undoubtedly need more teaching in the future."
At the same time.
Jiang Sheng finally got rid of that lingering feeling of being watched. She finished eating the last bite of candied haws, threw the wooden stick into the corner, and raced back home in one go.
The gate of the small courtyard looked the same as when she had left it, half open.
Through the gap one could see her four brothers all busily working on their tasks.
Her oldest brother's troubles had been completely resolved. His entire being had returned to calm composure as he energetically wrote at the table, preparing for the examinations.
Her second oldest brother hugged a drawing, writing and sketching. His mouth was murmuring, as if he was about to embark on another long journey.
Her fourth brother carefully held a piece of stone, gingerly scraping at the powder on top of it, barely even breathing.
Her fifth brother was leisurely, holding an anthology in his hand, occasionally letting out a laugh.
When Jiang Sheng looked closely, wasn't that anthology her own? Her own handwritten commentary was still on it, the emotions described were very accurate, it was just that her handwriting was a bit ugly.
Her oldest brother had said her writing was like a snake that got into ink.
Her second brother had also said her writing closely resembled the shit of the black dog at the village entrance.
She didn't expect that today even her fifth brother was starting to mock her.
The more Jiang Sheng thought about it, the more embarrassed she got. She pushed open the half-closed door and anxiously shouted, "Stop looking, stop looking! That's a young lady's book, how could you all read it?"
She reached out to snatch it back, hiding it with difficulty behind her back.
"Oh, our little lady has returned home." Chang Yan laughed lightly, his eyebrows slightly raised. "Where did our little lady go? You were gone for a full hour."
Her oldest brother was still writing. Her second oldest brother was still painting. Her fourth brother's gaze had not left the rock. But they all simultaneously pricked up their ears, waiting for an answer.
"I went to You Ran House," the little girl thought of her feat and grew so proud that she even forgot her embarrassment. "Through my desperate efforts to persuade them, I finally got the owners of You Ran House to agree to continue cooperating with us!"
Zheng Ruqian rather curiously set down his writing brush, not saying anything.
Chang Yan held in his laughter. "You just went to You Ran House?"
"Yes...yes of course." Jiang Sheng would absolutely not admit that she had also secretly eaten a candied haw.
As if seeing through her thoughts, Chang Yan slowly asked, "You didn't secretly eat anything?"
When he spoke like this, Jiang Sheng almost jumped up.
She racked her brains to recall - based on the speed from before, there was no way Zhao Yuan could have arrived before her. Her four brothers also hadn't left home, there was no way they knew she ate the candied haw.
"No, no I didn't secretly eat anything." After deliberating back and forth, she chose to bluff her way through this.
This time, even Wen Zhiyun who had been wholeheartedly focused could not hold back his laughter. He got up and washed his hands clean.
Xu Mo, Zheng Ruqian, they all followed along laughing.
Laughing until Jiang Sheng felt panicked in her heart.
"What...what are you all laughing about?" She mumbled, hesitating on whether or not she should tell the truth.
She didn't know when Wen Zhiyun had walked over to stand in front of her. He took out a pure white handkerchief and gently wiped the corners of her mouth clean.
Only when the handkerchief covered in sugar crystals was spread out before her did Jiang Sheng know that she had forgotten to wipe her mouth after eating the candied haws.
No wonder her brothers were all giggling.
No wonder her fifth brother was so certain.
The embarrassment that Jiang Sheng had just rid herself of came back again. Her round little face had practically turned pink. She didn't even care about the anthology that had dropped onto the ground as she tucked her tail between her legs and fled back to her room.
She hid away until the sky grew dark.
Zhang Xianglian finished selling all of her pastries for the day, and brought back Jiuzhen Store's accounts before going to prepare dinner. Only then did Jiang Sheng apprehensively appear in the great hall again.
Her brothers had already been seated at the dinner table, some with eyes closed relaxing, others diligently researching.
What Zheng Ruqian held in his hands were the financial records for Jiuzhen Store's entire three months since opening.
Since the initial opening there was buy one get one free so the records looked quite good. Afterwards when prices were restored, income decreased. Then a new buy one get one free deal was introduced and business could only be considered decent.
It wasn't until the low-margin high-volume sales tactics implemented on New Year's Day Ten, plus the wildly popular candied chestnuts, that Jiuzhen Store's profits completely flourished.
Jiang San cleverly brought over an abacus.
As Zheng Ruqian calculated the numbers, his fingers nimbly danced across the abacus beads so quickly it made one dizzy to watch.
When Jiang Sheng came over, he had just finished calculating the net profits for these three months.
"After deducting the monthly wages for two aunties, rental fees, and cost of raw ingredients, the net profit for three months is, just so, exactly 1,300 ounces of silver."
