Chapter 3 The Way We Came From

The 29th year of the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Hong.

When Baodaizhai opened, I helped out at the shop.

Business is good, but it hasn't achieved the results I wanted.

As night fell, I stood at the doorway, gazing towards the city center.

Wu Xubai told me that the Prince of Yan would hold a grand banquet on the 29th of each year, which would be accompanied by dance and music, and would be attended by all the beautiful and famous actors and actresses from Yan.

Fireworks burst forth against the snowy backdrop, dazzling and colorful.

I'm waiting for him to come back.

He told me to wait for him at the shop.

A horse-drawn carriage arrived against the backdrop of fireworks and stopped in front of the shop.

The maidservant alighted from the carriage and hurried into the shop, shouting, "Give me a set of the rouge and face powder that Young Master Wu used today!"

"There's actually a rouge in this world that can turn a young master into a beautiful woman; wouldn't any woman who uses it become a celestial being!"

More and more people flocked into the shop.

Some came on horseback, while others ran, panting heavily.

Customers came in droves.

Baodaizhai became a sensation, spreading throughout Yicheng overnight.

But he didn't return home all night.

I waited for him in the small hut of the gatekeeper's house. The gatekeeper lit a basin of charcoal for me, which he himself was reluctant to light.

He said, "This was a gift from the Sixth Young Master to this old servant."

"He was a good boy, God was just unfair to him."

I was choked by the charcoal smoke and my eyes welled up with tears.

Suddenly I really want to take him to the modern world for a while.

*

"Go to the ancestral hall and administer family punishment!"

A furious shout jolted me out of my dazed waiting.

I suddenly stood up, but fell to the ground due to dizziness.

The doorman scooped up a handful of snow and rubbed it on my face to refresh me.

He sighed and told me how to get to the ancestral hall.

When I arrived at the ancestral hall, he was naked and being tortured on a bench.

"Disgraceful beast! How dare you dress up as a woman and flaunt your beauty at the Prince of Yan's banquet! You have ruined the reputation of the Wu family!"

Wu's father's curses were scathing, his brothers looked at him with mockery, and even his servants were curious about the state of his lower body.

This is not just corporal punishment, but a trampling of the soul!

I rushed over, but the kind manager grabbed me and said, "Don't go, you'll get implicated!"

What the hell is this connection?!

I shouted, "It was my idea! It was my idea that seduce you, young master, to strive for excellence! It was my idea that told you not to lose heart!"

"It's all my fault! I'm the one who led you astray, young master!"

"Come and beat the slave! Beat the slave!"

"Don't hit him, please don't hit him!"

My tears blurred my vision, and I was unaware of the way the people around me were looking at me.

All I know is that if someone can pick up his shattered dignity...

That person must be me.

The butler released my restraints, and I ran towards him while undressing myself.

I pushed the executioner away, covered his lower body with my clothes, and threw myself on top of him.

The executioner raised the board high again, and the thick, wide board, carrying a force that my small body could not withstand, pressed down on me.

So this is what happens when you defy fate.

I closed my eyes and shouted in my heart:

If you've got the guts, don't let me live. If you do, I'll definitely take you down!

*

Fate seemed to falter at my shout, and Wu's father's voice rang out: "Stop."

The steward just now came up and pulled me aside, and a servant brought him clothes.

We listened to the instructions and admitted our mistakes.

Then we were sent back to our own yard.

He lay on the tatami mat, his face propped up with a pillow, showing no sign of distress, but instead asked me with a smile, "How's business?"

I felt like I was seeing myself.

She sheds tears when no one is around, but when she meets her parents' gaze, she puts on a smile.

We all want to give our last bit of energy to the people we care about.

A bittersweet feeling welled up inside me, and I raised my hand, wanting to pull the upward curve of his lips downward.

He took my hand, wiped the tears on my face, and brought it to my lips.

Is it sweet?

"sweet."

He wiped away my tears with his fingertips and tasted them on his own lips.

"Ugh~ It's so salty, ptooey ptooey ptooey!"

I laughed, and then I cried.

He said I was extremely ugly.

*

Fate has received a sacrifice and has temporarily ceased its oppression of us.

In just one month, we used innovative makeup techniques, sales skills, and unique lipstick shades to quickly propel Baodaizhai to the top of the low-end market in Yandi.

We made money!

If the success of Baodaizhai was due to the accumulation of quantitative changes at each stage to the extreme, which triggered a qualitative change.

Xianyan Pavilion, which targets high-end consumers, represents a bottom-up fashion trend that rapidly fills the void in the high-end market.

In April, we used the customer's deposit, the mortgage payment from two shops, and the silver from the sale of that silver jewelry shop to buy a small two-story shop on the most bustling street in Yicheng.

This time, we'll focus on purchasing power.

They set a threshold for people to enter the store.

This shop aims to allow women of varying spending power to deeply feel the superiority of their own consumer class when they come to the store.

Everything in the store, including the flowers on display, amplifies the differences in consumer class.

It makes you feel superior to those outside the door as soon as you step through the door.

At the same time, it makes you desire higher-level consumption that is right in front of you.

I call it an ancient luxury goods store.

It breaks away from the current trend of using gold, silver, and jade to create luxury, elevating luxury to a spiritual level.

We named this shop Xianbaozhai.

The threshold for entry is spending over 500 taels of silver at either Xianyan Pavilion or Baodaizhai.

The threshold for going upstairs is spending 50,000 taels of silver on the first floor of Xianbaozhai.

The Fairy Pavilion and the Baodai Studio marked a division of social classes in that era.

Xianbaozhai has no class of the times, only a consumer class.

The difference between wearing a gold hairpin and wearing a gold hairpin bought on the second floor of Xianbaozhai, after the concept of luxury is established, immediately reveals who is noble and who is lowly.

"The lip rouge from Xianbaozhai makes you look superior."

*

As with the previous two stores, I was still in charge of the front end, from product selection and staff training to new product promotion.

Wu Xubai was in charge of the back-end supply and other matters.

Our motto is to do every step perfectly, and leave the rest to fate.

Perfecting each step is the result of accumulating quantitative changes.

Qualitative change is inevitable.

In June, the first month of operation for Xianbaozhai, the profit was rounded up to 6,969 taels of silver.

In a social context where one tael of silver could buy twenty shi (a unit of dry measure) of coarse grains to fill one's stomach.

Six thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine taels of silver is roughly equivalent to four million six hundred thousand in modern terms.

It is undoubtedly a huge sum.

Three-thirds of them belong to me.

Ha ha ha ha!

Money makes the world go round!

I now have something to rely on to pull my parents and sister out of this mess!

*

When the women of Yicheng are willing to pay the price for the phrase "superior to others".

When the noble ladies of Yicheng felt insecure if they didn't have a single item from Xianbaozhai on them when they went out.

As a new concept of nobility began to sweep across the entire Yan region, centered around Yicheng.

I spent money to hire a security escort agency and thugs, and returned to Li Family Village in a grand procession.

I must take them with me on this trip.

"Two hundred taels, not a penny less!" The old hag's face was contorted with rage as she greedily stared at the golden bell on my hairpin.

I dressed up especially for today, returning home in glory.

I just want to let those who care about me know that I'm doing well.

"Two hundred taels?" I looked at the old woman with a smile.

"Yes, two hundred taels!"

I can spend two hundred taels, but why would I spend two hundred taels on that old hag?

It's better to share happiness than to enjoy it alone.

“Fine, I’m willing to give the clan two hundred taels of silver and relinquish the land under my father’s name in exchange for my parents leaving this place with me. From now on, the clan shall not make things difficult for my parents.”

Before I could even utter a threat, the clansmen surrounded the old woman, saying that the Li family's ancestral graves were emitting auspicious smoke, having such a capable granddaughter. They also advised the old woman to stop, saying that it would be bad for both sides if I brought people to tear things apart.

Don't you like to use your clan to oppress our family?

Then let them taste the bitterness of having their prey snatched away by their own clan.

I used interests to divide them.

Watch as the old woman gets her comeuppance.

The old hag, taking advantage of her status as an elder, demanded ten taels of silver as a monthly filial piety gift, otherwise she would have asked me to leave one of my older sisters to take care of my parents.

"Five taels, or you two can come to Yicheng with our family, and our whole family will take care of you."

The old woman dared not come with me alone.

The clan accepted two hundred taels of silver but didn't support her, so she swallowed her anger in resentment.

I paid six months' worth of filial piety money in advance, which amounted to thirty taels, and finally pulled my family out of the mire.

On the day we left the village, I remember my second sister didn't want to ride in the carriage; she ran very fast in front of it.

Her ill-fitting, patchwork-like clothes fluttered in the warm summer breeze.

The mother stuck her head out of the carriage and told her to slow down.

She, who had been cautious and apprehensive at home, broke into a bright smile and ran while looking back.

"Third Sister, you're amazing! You're a goddess! You must be an all-powerful goddess!"

Her smile was so bright, like the pomegranate tree in the corner of the backyard of Xianbaozhai, passionate and full of life.

My second sister was nine years old that year.

Year after year, until her defeat at Hezhou, she listened to me without question, firmly believing that I was an omnipotent deity reincarnated.

*

Now I can use the money in my name to take my family far away, live in anonymity, completely get rid of the entanglement of Li Family Village, and start another chapter without the oppression of elders and clans.

But there is also a boy in Yicheng whose fate is intertwined with his own.

Everything seemed to be predestined.

He sacrificed his own kindness, and in the end, I must sacrifice myself to repay it.

Returning to Yicheng in autumn, everything is desolate; besides the yellow of the harvest, there is also the decay of withered leaves.

"A lowly slave doesn't deserve a 30% cut of the profits? Sixth Brother, since you're so generous, why not give the Immortal Treasure Pavilion to our eldest brother?"

The day I returned, I happened to see Wu Xubai being blocked in the garden by the eldest son of the Wu family.

The young man had somehow donned the guise of a dissolute playboy. With a smirk and a glance from his fox-like eyes, he possessed a perfect blend of masculine and feminine beauty, making even the blooming jasmine beside him pale in comparison.

"Big brother traded his status as the eldest son of the Wu family for it?"

His once sharp edges are now beginning to reveal their true potential.

Businessmen make huge profits.

In those days, a shop with an annual revenue of two thousand taels was considered to be passing grade, but Xianbaozhai was undoubtedly a super perfect shop.

Sons who cannot inherit the family business can be used to make money.

After Xianbaozhai succeeded, Wu's father changed his insults towards Wu Xubai from "beast" to "that good-for-nothing".

"If I give you the status of the eldest son, can you carry on the family line and continue the Wu family's wealth?"

"No way!"

Perhaps it was his nonchalant and indifferent attitude that angered the eldest son of the Wu family.

The eldest son of the Wu family grabbed him by the collar.

"You piece of trash who can only be slept with by men, a homosexual who is neither male nor female, how dare you speak to me with such an attitude!"

"Let me tell you, as long as you are a son of a concubine, you are destined to be my stepping stone!"

"Xianbaozhai is only temporarily in your hands; don't treat it as your own!"

"Furthermore, you little brat, what accounts are you keeping for my Wu slaves! Set the accounts right now!"

The only response Wu's eldest son received was a fearless yet perfunctory smile: "Okay, okay, big brother, I understand~"

Enraged, Wu's eldest son shoved him aside and stormed off.

"I'd rather not even touch your clothes! You're disgusting to dress as a woman and make money off women!"

I bowed and greeted this inhuman, cruel, greedy, and shameless disgusting person as he departed.

But this disgusting person stopped right in front of me.

“Little thing, if you want to protect that lowly illegitimate son, then help me get a hen that lays golden eggs.”

My heart suddenly turned cold.

The reason he knew that Wu Xubai would give him 30% of the profits was because Wu was mainly in the money lending business.

Our silver is all stored in Wu's Tongbao Money Shop, and it's normal for him, as the young master, to know this.

The only people who knew I was giving advice at the front of the shop were the two shopkeepers of Baodaizhai and Xianyan Pavilion.

Those two managers were promoted from among our employees.

We're holding their indentures...

Unbeknownst to us, the clutches of fate had already crept up our spines.

I was just about to play dumb and brush off this disgusting person.

The disgusting person was suddenly pushed by a force and staggered to one side.

Wu Xubai pulled me behind him.

Therefore, they missed the palpable killing intent on Wu Xubai's face.

I could smell that he had changed his scent.

The once clear and clean scent of tea and water lily has been infused with a mature woody aroma.

During my absence, his core seems to have become stronger again.

The eldest son of the Wu family eventually turned and left.

*

A small thing eventually snowballed into a bigger problem.

Instead of crushing me, it slammed me into a swamp that was even more terrifying than mud.

There are still ten months left before Wu Xubai gives me, full of hope and longing, to Xiao Cong.

Two days later, in the evening, I, along with the two shopkeepers, knelt behind Wu Xubai.

Wu Xubai was kneeling in front of us.

Sitting in front of him was Wu's eldest son, and Wu's father, who held the main seat and controlled all life in the Wu family.

The indenture we hold in our hands is a joke.

The two shopkeepers revealed everything they should and shouldn't have said.

The room was completely quiet.

I'm waiting for difficulties to appear in my life in a concrete form.

Just like a math problem.

You need to read the question carefully before you can come up with a solution.

But this question wasn't for me.

The two shopkeepers and I were asked to leave.

I was taken to a place far outside the courtyard, where I could not hear any sound from inside the house.

By the time he emerged, the cold moonlight was already casting a faint shadow beneath him.

He was holding a flowerpot in his arms, a mixture of soil and flower branches.

Why are you holding it?

He walked quietly beside me.

I knew that Wu's father must have given him a difficult problem.

He didn't seem to want to talk.

I changed the subject for a moment: "Let me carry you."

"I'll carry it myself. I was planning to bring it back for you to see. It's a very pretty green cloud plant."

After a pause, he suddenly said again:

"It's because I'm incapable of protecting it."

I could tell his voice was damp.

I ran up to him and blocked his way.

His eyes welled up with tears, which gleamed pitifully in the moonlight.

I know he's facing difficulties. I'm not afraid of difficulties!

"Tell me what happened, and we'll solve it together!"

He suddenly lowered his eyebrows, and his gaze, seemingly piercing through a pool of clear water about to overflow, was long and tinged with a faint sadness.

He said, "Didn't I tell you not to come back after you picked up your parents and sister?"

Why did you come back?