Chapter 18 Closing the stall, counting the money, and controlling costs isn't easy.

"Xie Jiuge'er is here! You don't want such a handsome and virtuous husband, but instead you've set your sights on that filthy beast with a thieving face and a wicked bone! You don't need to call me father anymore. I don't have a disgraceful whore like you! If your mother hadn't spoiled you so much, I wouldn't have had to wait until now to deal with you! Now we can't delay any longer. I'll beat this bastard's belly to death right now!"

There seemed to be several people in the room. A disheveled woman lay sprawled on the ground, her hands and feet pinned down, her head held captive. She struggled desperately, and for a moment broke free, crying out in a voice as if weeping blood, "Father, you always say that marriages are arranged by parents and matchmakers, but why has no one ever asked me if I wanted to marry? Why must I spend my whole life fulfilling the wishes of my family, my sisters, and your official reputation? I don't want to! I want to live like a human being, Father!"

"Unrepentant! People are born into this world and have no control over their own lives. You have enjoyed the benefits of your family's protection and the riches of life. Shouldn't you repay them? Your sisters grew up with you. Shouldn't you cherish and support your siblings? You only talk about your own selfish interests. Your character is so despicable. I wish I had never given birth to you! Beat him!"

Then someone raised a stick high and struck her hard on her already protruding belly.

Xie Qi, clinging to the wall, couldn't help but shout.

This loud shout caused all the candlelight to turn around, and then the door was pushed open by Cui Si Cao with a livid face. Xie Qi, not knowing where the courage came from, mustered up his courage and shouted loudly, "Uncle! You...I...I am willing to break off the engagement, and I will never say another word about what happened today. Please...please spare my cousin's life!"

Without even packing their belongings, they rode back to Bianjing day and night with Yanshu, enduring wind and rain along the way. When they entered the Xie family's gate, the two of them looked worse than beggars on the street, and the gatekeeper almost didn't recognize them.

After returning home, Xie Qi finally came to his senses, but he remained listless and unhappy to this day, his mind in turmoil.

Just then, a delicious aroma wafted through the wall, and the door boy suddenly appeared carrying a plate of flatbreads, swallowing hard as he said happily:

"Ninth Brother, the servant of Third Brother sent someone back with some pancakes. He said a new pancake beauty has come to Jinliang Bridge. She makes excellent pancakes and wants you to try some!"

"I'm not eating..." Xie Qi put down his book, glanced at Yan Shu outside the window who was staring at the cake with longing, and then changed his mind, "You guys share it."

"Thank you, Ninth Brother!" Yan Shu jumped three feet high and sat on the steps of the corridor with the boy on the door. Each of them ate one cake, and the two boys ate without looking up. The aroma of cakes filled the courtyard.

The aroma was enticing, and Xie Qi's nose twitched. But soon, the image of that night flashed before his eyes again: the moment his uncle heard his shouts and pushed open the door, the light burst out, illuminating a pool of bright red blood on the ground, which had spread like a puddle from under his cousin's dress.

Yan Shu was short and didn't see it much, but Xie Qi saw it clearly.

He lost his appetite again and felt nauseous.

Although he only met his cousin a few times, when he was a child, he stayed in Chenzhou for a while. At that time, he was not yet seven years old and there was no distinction between boys and girls. His cousin took him around to play. He watched countless temple fairs, markets and acrobatics in Chenzhou. In his memory, she must have been a very lively woman.

Judging from the few words her uncle spoke that night, she was probably pregnant, and her attempt to elope failed, so her uncle caught her and brought her back. Although she had faults such as not cherishing herself and being selfish, perhaps she shouldn't have been beaten to death so cruelly... But her uncle's punishment of her seemed to be for the sake of the reputation of the other daughters of the Cui family. He didn't know whether he should pity his cousin or despise her like his uncle.

My cousin's heart-wrenching cry, "It's all arranged by my parents and matchmakers, why has no one ever asked me if I'm willing to marry!" left him with an inexplicable sense of unease.

He sighed, stood up, and closed the window.

Only the carefree and oblivious Yan Shu and the door boy remained, having eaten their fill, and were sprawled on the gleaming floor of the veranda, marveling, "This pancake beauty truly lives up to her reputation!"

"No wonder Third Brother went to the trouble of sending it over!"

"Ninth Brother has no appetite, which is good for you and me, hehe."

Shen Miao, along with Ji Ge'er and Xiang Jie'er, returned to Yangliu East Alley, where they happened to run into Gu Tusu, who was pushing a cart out. He helped Shen Miao carry the table and scolded her for not waiting for him.

"They sold out quickly today, so I just carried them back myself." Shen Miao smiled faintly. "There's still a long way to go, and it wouldn't be right to keep you waiting every day. What kind of person would I be? Second Brother Gu, you should go back now."

Gu Tusu followed them to the back gate of the Shen family's residence. Shen Miao took the table, thanked them, and closed the door. Gu Tusu could only stop and silently look up at the newly built courtyard wall of the Shen family.

The new wall of the Shen family was different from the whitewashed walls of other families. In order to save money, it was built with stones and mortar, and no putty was used to plaster it. It looked simple and rustic, but it was much higher than the ordinary courtyard wall, and the top was full of sharp pieces of porcelain.

The gate was also very thick, with beautiful tree patterns on it, and it was painted with three layers of paint, making it shiny and glossy.

Just a few days ago, the Shen family home was a desolate ruin overgrown with weeds. Only four or five days after the eldest sister returned, it has already changed drastically.

I was worried that she, a young woman, wouldn't be able to support the family, but now it seems I was overthinking it.

Gu Tusu felt a little disappointed for some reason. He turned around and went home. As soon as he pushed open the courtyard gate, he met his mother's probing gaze. A blush appeared on his dark face, and he quickly said, "I went to help out at the front."

He then fled.

Aunt Gu frowned as she watched her son's flustered back. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only let out a sigh.

Back then, this silly boy took a liking to the eldest sister and wanted to marry her. He spent his days hanging around Shen's soup and pancake shop, and the two families had been friends for more than ten years. Naturally, Shen's parents tacitly approved of it.

But then Rong Dalang arrived. He was a handsome, pale-faced scholar who was well-educated and spoke and acted with propriety. He immediately captivated Sister Shen.

Although merchants have no worries about food and drink, scholars are different. They have a bright future ahead of them, so it doesn't matter if they are a little older. The Shen family is already doing well to marry a mere merchant's daughter. So the marriage was quickly arranged.

The following year, Sister Shen got married. Gu Tusu drank for three days and only dared to watch from afar at the wedding banquet.

Now she has returned alone, her reputation is ruined, but she is even more beautiful than before, and her son is now eagerly following her around. How can Aunt Gu not be worried?

Deep down, she still hoped that her son would find a suitable, respectable young woman to marry, settle down, inherit the tavern, and live a peaceful and stable life.

Aunt Gu sighed, but Shen Miao, along with Ji Ge'er and Xiang Jie'er, had bolted the door tightly and were counting their money under the covers—they were too busy today and hadn't had time to calculate how much money they had earned!

She spread out a towel, took two straw ropes, and poured the money from the earthenware jar onto the towel, counting the coins as she strung them together. She made fifty portions of pastry, gave one to the plump woman, and sold forty-nine portions in total.

Twenty-four of the items were "Family Reunion" pancakes priced at eight coins each, twelve were "Double Happiness" pancakes priced at seven coins each, and the remaining 14 items were divided into two categories: half were vegetarian pancakes priced at three coins each, and the other half were meat and vegetable pancakes priced at five coins each without eggs.

After thinking for a moment, Ji Ge'er quickly said, "We sold a total of 332 coins worth of cakes today!"

Xiangjie was in charge of threading the coins. After threading them one by one, she had only counted to fifty-eight when she asked, bewildered, "Brother, how come you can count so fast?"

Shen Miao looked at him in surprise: You're doing mental arithmetic right away?

Ji Ge'er felt a little embarrassed by his elder sister's gaze and scratched his head: "Back in my teacher's class, I learned unorthodox subjects like mathematics faster than the Four Books and Five Classics. The teacher always said that I was clever but didn't put my intelligence to good use. But I also thought that if I didn't pass the imperial examination, I would take the civil service exam and work as an accountant in the county government."

Shen Miao also felt a little regretful, but what she regretted was that if this child were in the future, he would definitely be a good candidate for studying science.

Look at her, she already has such a clear plan for her future at such a young age. When she was this age in her previous life, she didn't understand anything about the future and would only cry because she couldn't learn how to flip a wok!

“This isn’t considered neglecting your proper work. Others might not even have that kind of intelligence. Besides, I think it’s good that you think this way. There are top performers in every profession. Even if you don’t pass the imperial examinations, it’s okay. There are always other ways to make a living, right?” Shen Miao had heard that many scholars in Bianjing had committed suicide by jumping into the Bian River after failing the imperial examinations repeatedly, so she made it clear to Ji Ge’er in advance, “I never thought that scholars were necessarily more noble than merchants. I think that as long as people earn their living with their own hands, without stealing or robbing, they are all respectable.”

This was the first time Ji-ge'er had heard such words, and he nodded seriously: "I'll remember, elder sister."

Shen Miao continued her calculations: She made twenty-one roasted starch sausages in total, but before setting up her stall, she kept two for Ji Ge'er and Xiang Jie'er, and cut off another one for a taste test, so she only sold eighteen. Twelve were sold at four coins each, and the remaining six were sold at seven coins for two, totaling three portions. Therefore, the final amount was—

Shen Miao didn't speak, but glanced at Ji Ge'er first. Sure enough, Ji Ge'er blurted out without thinking, "Forty-eight coins plus twenty-one coins, the total income from the sausage is sixty-nine coins."

"I bought a lot of vegetables yesterday. I remember spending three coins on cucumbers and spring greens, eight coins per catty of raw pork, and sixteen coins on two catties. I also bought eight coins for chicken breast and fifty eggs, totaling forty-five coins. The oil was from frying the pork, so I won't count the cost. I'll say five coins for soy sauce, vinegar, salt, etc. I used half a bushel of coarse wheat flour for five coins, and seven coins for a catty of charcoal. So today's cost for setting up the stall is eighty-nine coins..."

If the stall rent of fifty coins is spread over each day, the cost is about two coins per day. Not counting her labor, this is her first time setting up a stall at the morning market, so the gross profit is three hundred and ten coins.

Even idlers loitering on the streets of Bianjing could earn a couple hundred coins a day running errands, so her earnings were meager. The sausages, requiring salt and flour for curing, had a thin profit margin, so she decided to stop making them. Furthermore, for long-term sustainability, she needed to find a cheaper source of meat and vegetables; otherwise, costs already accounted for a third of her income—it was simply too high!

In the restaurant business, there's a break-even point: the selling price must be at least three times the cost to avoid losses. Because the money earned today must cover the cost of future purchases, and if costs remain high, losses are inevitable in the long run.

Moreover, it is now late spring and the weather is getting warmer, so the price of charcoal has dropped considerably. In winter, a pound of charcoal would be equivalent to six bushels of rice, and the cost would likely rise again.

After careful consideration, Shen Miao immediately decided to adjust his future business model.

"Although it's not much, at least we made some money today. Now we can officially start earning money." Shen Miao hadn't avoided mentioning Ji Ge'er and Xiang Jie'er when calculating costs and profits. They also needed to know that earning money wasn't easy. If they had a concept of money at such a young age, they wouldn't become extravagant, lazy, and unambitious people in the future.

After Ji Ge'er and Shen Miao finished calculating together, he felt a little sour. His sister hadn't included the hard work he had put in all day, but he remembered it. Every single copper coin of the 310 coins they "earned" was stained with his sister's hard work and sweat.

Xiang Jie'er was completely bewildered by the calculations and didn't understand them at all. In the end, she was happy because Shen Miao was happy, and jumped up and exclaimed, "Xiang Jie'er's older sister is absolutely amazing!"

All of Ji Ge'er's worries were dispelled by Xiang Jie'er's bouncing, so he could only laugh helplessly along with her.

Shen Miao clapped her hands and stood up, smiling as she said, "I remember there should still be some cabbage, carrots, and spinach left at home, as well as a few eggs. Shall we make spinach dumplings today? Have you ever eaten green-skinned dumplings?"