Su Qingluan sneered in her heart: As expected, this kind of "roadside" fortune-telling stall is simply a scam with a simple hook and salty bait. It doesn't even have any technical skills. It starts asking for money after just three sentences.

The stalls here say that if you draw a bad fortune, you'll be told to "spend money to ward off disaster", but if you draw a good fortune, like hers, they'll say something like "Although this fortune is good, you'll definitely have to go through some hardships, otherwise blah blah".

It all comes down to one idea: ask for money, and ask for it with all your might.

Of course, even in this situation, the con man had a certain level of foresight. For example, today Su Qingluan came with Liu Yunniang. Su Qingluan deliberately dressed more "plainly"—the dress she wore was often used for rough work, and the sleeves and belt had signs of being worn open.

And Liu Yunniang, at Su Qingluan's instruction, wore a gauze skirt of very good quality.

This chiffon skirt is lake green in color. Although it is designed with narrow sleeves and a cinched waist to suit Liu Yunniang's active personality, it still gives her a touch of the heroic and chivalrous style.

As expected, when the man who was "straightforward" asked for the price, Liu Yunniang directly asked for two taels of silver, while Su Qingluan only asked for a string of coins.

In this area, "one string" and "one string" are both units of measurement for copper coins. "One string" is one thousand copper coins, which can be exchanged for one tael of silver, while "one string" is much less than one string, only one hundred coins.

However, one hundred wen is a considerable expense for an ordinary family. After all, many people who do odd jobs only earn about three strings of money a month.

However, when faced with the two people in front of him questioning why their prices were different, this "iron-clad judge" had a ready-made reason -

"This tall young lady only drew a good fortune. Of course, it would take more effort to change her fortune, so the fee would naturally be higher. However, this petite lady drew an excellent fortune. She just wants to be perfect, so naturally, the effort would be much less."

Su Qingluan thought that this man was quite eloquent and nodded calmly, "Would you please go with us to get the divination fee?"

The other party was stunned. Su Qingluan sighed and said, "Such a large sum of money is not a small amount for us. We really don't have that much on us."

Liu Yunniang also nodded: "Our two families live very close to each other. We came here because of our reputation. Are you afraid that we two little girls will deceive you?"

The fortune teller took a look at the two young ladies in front of him. One was tall and thin, but looked like a stick of firewood that would fall over if the wind blew; the other one looked younger and very pretty, but she seemed a little naive and only had a yearning for a "good marriage".

With an idea in mind, the "fortune teller" stood up, straightened his Taoist robe, took his cloth banner, turned around and followed Su Qingluan and Liu Yunniang.

The table this "ironmouthed" man used was a small table placed outside a nearby tea stall. He had simply borrowed one and moved it to the roadside. The tea stall owner saw him leaving and called out, "Hey, Huang Banxian, why are you closing up shop so early today?"

Huang Banxian stroked his beard seriously and said with a smile, "Today's three divinations are complete. I followed these two believers to collect the divination fee and then closed the stall!"

Su Qingluan and Liu Yunniang were walking in front, and when they heard this, they exchanged glances. They both clearly understood from each other's eyes: this old liar is still full of tricks.

Of course, many people who have been defrauded of their money by these street scammers are actually attracted to this kind of "pretentious" appearance.

Su Qingluan muttered in her heart: It is too difficult to select "extras", especially those who fit the image. If it were not for the fact that the person in front of her really fits the image of a "sage", she really would not want to deal with such a low-level liar and would just send him to the yamen and be done with it!

As they were muttering to each other, they had already arrived at a small courtyard with three entrances - it was Liu Yunniang's home.

Although it was broad daylight, the room was very quiet. However, the quietness was natural. There was no one in the yard at the moment, neither Mrs. Xi nor Liu Sheng was at home.

It was early summer, and while some people enjoyed offal soup year-round, sales were far lower than in autumn. So the Liu family decided to wait until autumn, when the weather cooled, to start selling offal soup and pancakes, and to make refreshing summer treats like Sushan.

However, this thing is very expensive. Although it is very popular, it is not easy to preserve - after all, there were no refrigerators or freezers in that era, so this kind of cold drink product had to be made and eaten immediately.

There were wealthy families in Lefeng County who owned large quantities of ice. The Xie Family Villa that Su Qingluan knew was a typical example.

Many wealthy local families would have people store ice on the ice surface in winter, but they could not use up all the ice in the summer. Sometimes they even had to throw away the entire ice in the autumn to make room for ice harvesting the following year.

The Liu couple saw this business opportunity.

Both of them are permanent residents of Lefeng County. Naturally, they know more about each family in Lefeng County than the Su family, an "outsider". So they naturally know which family has too much ice to use up, which family is too stingy to spend a penny, and which family is gentle and kind-hearted.

So Madam Xi and Liu Sheng, whose legs had recovered, went to those who could collect excess ice during the day to collect ice cubes, added various seasonal fruits to make ice products, and sold them to passers-by.

Those wealthy families sold ice to the Liu couple at a low price. This not only allowed them to get rid of their excess ice, but the servants who managed the ice could also earn a little income. Why not do it?

As for the Liu family, they had recently made quite a bit of money from this ice cream. Although it was hard work, they seemed to be enjoying it.

However, ice harvesting must be done after dark, otherwise it will melt more easily during the day. Therefore, the Liu couple have recently been staying in the servants' room of a wealthy family where they harvest ice, so as to avoid the hassle of harvesting ice day and night.

This is also one of the reasons why there was no one at the Liu family during the day, and Su Qingluan and Liu Yunniang felt at ease to bring "Huang Banxianer" to the Liu family - because no matter what happened in the house, no third person except the two of them would notice it.

Huang Banxianer was calm and composed all the way, still thinking about which restaurant he would go to after getting the money. However, as he stepped into the small courtyard and came to the front hall for receiving guests, this "Huang Banxianer" felt something was wrong.