The days kept passing by, and the internal competitions were still going on.
Gong Xiaohua was either on the road of training and losing weight these days, or on the road of teaching martial arts to others.
Ever since the department decided that all staff should start learning the Eight Slash Blade method, Gong Xiaohua had stopped her dungeon patrol work.
She began to teach the internal staff martial arts instead, and the department even subsidized her with 100 wen every day.
Gong Xiaohua fought really hard for it. She had no choice, as she was broke, and it would be embarrassing for her to ask her mom for money.
When she first proposed this requirement, Deputy Minister Lin was stunned seeing her righteous look.
Was there something wrong with his ears, or was he getting too old to keep up with youngsters' mindset?
Shouldn't young people try their best in front of their superiors and strive for promotion? How could they talk about getting paid?
Seeing her standing there with hopeful eyes, stubbornly refusing to leave, he was sure that she was indeed asking him for public expenses.
He said to her indignantly, "You little rascal, this is a task assigned by the department. It's your job. You should do it without pay."
Gong Xiaohua was not afraid of death. She responded seriously, "Sir, you can't put it that way. My job is in the dungeons, not teaching martial arts. If you don't agree, I don't have to teach it either. After all, the blade method is mine, and I have the right not to teach outsiders."
"Do you still want a promotion or not?"
"Of course I do. But what does that have to do with getting additional remuneration?"
Seeing her disobedient manner, Deputy Minister Lin was speechless with the words stuck in his throat.
Eventually he compromised and specially approved her request. She was indeed capable enough to earn that extra money.
These days, a wave of learning martial arts swept across the entire Ministry of Punishments.
As a result, there were hardly any spectators in the arena for the qualifying matches, except for some contestants and judges.
The preliminary rounds in Kyoto and the national finals to be held later were in the suburbs of Kyoto. People from all walks of life were allowed to watch there.
As the preliminaries were approaching, Kyoto slowly became lively.
Merchants and vendors were thinking about how to do some small business amidst the event.
The wives, young masters and young ladies of prestigious families also wanted to gather and socialize, under the pretext of the event.
In essence, most of them aimed to find someone for an arranged marriage or to pick a high-quality marriage partner.
As for the wealthy, they just wanted to make connections with dignitaries during the event.
Every year, tickets for watching the games here were always in short supply, regardless of the competition.
Without any doubt, Gong Xiaohua won herself a spot in the final selection of the qualifying matches within the Ministry of Punishments. But Dad Gong failed in the qualifying matches in the Ministry of Justice, which came as a surprise to Gong Xiaohua.
She thought Dad Gong would have some chance of winning a spot with his boxing skills, although not as good as the Eight Slash Blade method.
But he failed the literary exam where he only recognized those two characters, and knew nothing about military strategy. The referee eliminated him right there.
Ever since the marriage discussion between the Qin and Lin families was temporarily shelved last time, Lin Yueru learned from Qin Chuhan that it was Qin Chuyuan who took the initiative to reject it. Moreover, he seemed to have a close relationship with a woman, whom he defended strongly.
Upon hearing the news, she almost tore her handkerchief apart. She hated not being able to find that cheap woman seducing Qin Chuyuan and beat her to death on the spot.
Now that she knew Qin Chuyuan would participate in the wrestling competition preliminaries, she wanted to go and see what capabilities that cheap woman had to seduce Qin Chuyuan.
In terms of talent and beauty, she was one of the top young ladies from prestigious families in Kyoto. Many handsome boys admired her deeply.
Tomorrow would be the start of the preliminary round for the wrestling competition. Among the 10 people participating from the Ministry of Punishments, there was also Leader Yang.
Although he lost to Gong Xiaohua on the first day, he eventually won a spot through the challenge matches.
Today, all 10 of them were given a day off to rest and prepare.
These past two days had been busy at the Gong family, because someone came to learn their braised food.
Now they were busy making braised food every day, preparing to sell it at the wrestling competition.
The one who came to learn braised food from the Gong family was Gong Xiaohua’s cousin, Gong Dafu, a tall and thin young man with dark skin.
Ever since Uncle sent a letter last time, saying that the family had a delicious food recipe that could be sold for a small business, and asked if anyone was willing to come and learn it.
All the seniors at home dismissed it with disdain. Their own family could hardly feed themselves. Where would they get the extra money to run a business?
Even if they earned money from it, it would be fine; but if they lost money, what could they use to pay for the loss? So no one was willing to take such a risk.
When Gong Dafu heard about Uncle's letter from his dad, and looked at the dozen people in his big family, plus the one in his wife's belly, barely nine mouths in total, relying entirely on the yields from those few fields, if they were unfortunate enough to run into a bad harvest one day, the whole family would starve to death.
So he must seize this opportunity, just like Uncle did in the past, who was living so well now.
Therefore, he told his dad, mom and wife about his thoughts, but met with their strong opposition.
Not to mention where to get the capital to do business, it would take them seven to eight days just to get from their home to Kyoto. With no one to accompany him on the way, how could he go?
Left with no choice, Gong Dafu could only secretly take Uncle's letter from his grandfather, packed up some clothes and a small amount of millet, and set off for Kyoto by himself when everyone was sound asleep at midnight.
What he didn't know was that his wife saw his every move from when he got up to when he walked out the door.
But she didn't stop her husband, because she knew he was doing this largely for the sake of the child in her belly. If they didn't find a way out, what awaited them might be the death of their child.
It happened that Gong Dafu arrived at the Gong family three or four days before Gong Xiaohua's preliminaries.
It only took a short time to learn braised food once you grasped the recipes. On the second day after Gong Dafu arrived, Gong Xiaohua began to teach him.
When Gong Dafu first tasted the braised food made by Gong Xiaohua, he was stunned. Such delicious food, if sold outside, even a poor man like him would buy some for his family to taste, not to mention those wealthy people.
After that, he studied very hard. In less than two days, the taste of his braised food was comparable to Gong Xiaohua's cooking.
"Brother, I heard that during the preliminary and final rounds of the wrestling competition, many vendors would set up stalls outside the venue. Why don't you try selling braised food there those few days?" Gong Xiaohua suggested.
Gong Dafu had also thought about it, but he was strapped for cash. He really couldn't bring himself to ask Uncle for money, because not only did he come to learn from Uncle empty-handed, he was also eating and living at Uncle’s house for free. So it would be inappropriate for him to ask Uncle for money.
Dad Gong knew Gong Dafu's concerns. He said to Gong Dafu, "Dafu, listen to your sister. Take this opportunity to give it a try. I'll lend you the money first. You can pay me back after you earn money, whenever you can."
"That's right, Dafu. No need to stand on ceremony since we are family. I trust you to pay it back when you have money," Madam Gong added.
Hearing this, Gong Dafu immediately stood up from the table and paid his respects to Dad Gong and Madam Gong,
"Thank you, Uncle and Auntie, and sister too. I will pay you back as soon as I earn money."
"If the business goes well in the future, I will give Uncle and Auntie a portion of the profits every year, to repay your kindness."
Dad Gong was very pleased that his nephew had such good character. His efforts to help them had not been in vain.
