Even in such a small, old house, it still cost a full 800 taels.

He spent over a month choosing a shop, which was neither too big nor too small. The location was decent, but the price was outrageously high, costing him almost half of his family's savings. After opening the shop with great confidence, he has been busy until now, and the shop has only earned eighty taels of silver, which is less than what he could earn in Shuangqiao Town. The competition is fierce, with too many competitors here.

To get his son into that academy, he spent a hundred taels of silver to pull strings.

The family only had 300 taels of silver left.

He intended to use the silver to buy some rare goods, to enhance the shop's reputation, and to compete with his peers, but his wife secretly gave 200 taels to her brother-in-law.

It was said that the brother-in-law owed gambling debts to the gambling den, and if he didn't pay, his hands would be cut off.

What could he do? The remaining 100 taels were to be saved for his son's future imperial examinations, and he couldn't buy any more goods.

He thought that if he could just hold on for two more years and wait for his son to pass the imperial examination, he could move back to Shuangqiao Town and things would be better for his family. But his brother-in-law started causing trouble again.

He got a girl in the village pregnant, and her father is going to the yamen to sue him.

They said if he didn't give 20 taels of silver as a bride price, he would be thrown in jail.

His mother-in-law naturally went to his wife to complain, saying that his wife was making a fuss about him every night and he hadn't had a good night's sleep. In order to get some peace and quiet, Deng Qiuzhi had no choice but to give her another 20 taels of silver.

Because of this, the couple started sleeping in separate rooms.

Before things had even settled down for long, his damned brother-in-law got into trouble again.

They even broke the leg of the village head's only son. The village head said he would send him to jail if he didn't receive fifty taels of silver.

Although his wife's family lived in a village outside the city, they had helped him a lot when his shop was doing well, so he wasn't short of money. Deng Qiuzhi refused to compromise any longer and made a stern statement that he wouldn't give up a single copper coin.

And so, his mother-in-law refused to leave his house.

Deng Qiuzhi was disheartened and even wanted a divorce.

Anyway, my daughter has been married for several years, and my son is often at school and rarely comes back.

He secretly made up his mind that if his wife forced him to compromise again this time, he would divorce her, sell the shop and return to Shuangqiao Town, and leave the house to her.

Although the shops and farmland in Shuangqiao Town have been sold, the ancestral home remains. Why not go back home, use the money from selling the shops to buy a piece of land, and honestly become a landlord?

It's better for my son if we stop being a merchant.

Since his parents passed away, the family shop's business has been getting worse and worse. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't make money, he wouldn't have come to Jiangnan County.

Why......

I should have stayed in Shuangqiao Town back then.

Deng Qiuzhi deeply regretted his actions.

"Manager Yan, thank you for your kind offer, but... I wonder what your purchase price is for the pastries, and if you have any minimum order amount?"

He only had 80 taels of silver left, including money for his son's imperial examinations.

Even if we use all of it to buy more goods, it probably won't be enough.

An unexpected opportunity rekindled Deng Qiuzhi's desire to go into business. Why could his father make money, but he couldn't?

I refuse to believe this nonsense.

Deng Qiuzhi was prepared to give it his all; if he failed again, he would immediately set off for his hometown.

“My shop has some new products. We can sell a new type of biscuit and cake, but we can’t deliver the cakes. You can only order them. I’ll send someone over to make them, but of course they’ll be expensive. We’ll talk about that later. Here’s what we’ll do: flower cakes, peach shortbread, and biscuits. We’ll sell these three for now. Just use the name Yan’s Pastry Shop and add a line of small print under the signboard that says ‘Jiangnan County Branch.’ Each item will cost half a tael of silver. That’s the price I’ll give you.”

Yan Xia held up three fingers.

"I'll charge you three strings of cash per bag. The oven in my shop has been renovated, and one batch can now produce the equivalent of two batches before. Let me give you a sneak peek: my shop sells over a hundred bags of biscuits a day! For your first order, you can order fifty bags of each of these three types and see how they sell before increasing the quantity."

Deng Qiuzhi's eyes widened.

More than a hundred bags, each bag containing half an ounce of silver.

With the addition of flower cakes and peach shortbread, Manager Yan could earn over a hundred taels a day.

Oh my god.

That's more than three thousand taels a month, so wouldn't that be tens of thousands of taels a year?

It's been a long time since I've seen Manager Yan; he's surprisingly quite wealthy.

"Thank you very much, Manager Yan. Thank you so much."

Deng Qiuzhi stood up and bowed deeply to Yan Xia, his eyes filled with tears. He understood that Manager Yan was deliberately praising him. Otherwise, why would she think of him as the first person to cooperate with? He was from Jiangnan County and had naturally heard people here mention Yan's Pastry Shop. If he opened a branch here, he would probably sell more than Manager Yan.

He made a net profit of two strings of cash from a bag that cost three strings of cash.

Even if we only sell 100 bags a day.

That's 20 taels! That's 600 taels of silver a month, much more than his father earned when he was alive.

Deng Qiuzhi was extremely excited, and his breathing became rapid.

"Shopkeeper Yan, I've bought a shop here. The location is pretty good, in the middle of the street, surrounded by food stalls, and it's always busy. I've done some minor renovations to the shop. Would you like to come with me and see if there's anything that needs changing?"

"Okay, let's go now."

After saying this, the three of them walked out of the main room and prepared to go to the street.

Wax Plum didn't interrupt at all.

He stayed close to Yan Xia.

"Where are you going? Who is this? I demand an explanation! How dare you treat me like this!"

Before the three of them could even leave the courtyard, Deng Qiuzhi's mother-in-law closed the gate and stood guard to the side, preventing them from leaving. There was also a woman standing next to her, who looked to be about the same age as Yan Xia.

However, the fine lines around her eyes are quite noticeable.

She was alright looking, with high cheekbones, slender eyes, and light eyebrows. She looked at least three-tenths like Deng Qiuzhi's mother-in-law. If it weren't for her relatively straight nose, oval face, and slightly fair skin, which balanced out her appearance, she would probably be quite unsightly.

"She's Manager Yan, the owner of Yan's Pastry Shop, who bought my land! Have you forgotten? You love her peach shortbread the most. Tell your mother to get out of the way and go home. Don't block my business. I'll say it one last time: you don't have a single penny! This little brat should go to jail to learn his lesson. He causes trouble every day, and when he gets into trouble, he knows to come to me to clean up his mess. I'm not his father! Get lost!"

Deng Qiuzhi has always been a good-tempered person.

This was the first time Wang Shufang had ever seen her husband get angry in all the years she had been married into the family.

I was momentarily stunned.

Deng Qiuzhi pulled his mother-in-law away, preparing to leave with Yan Xia, but before he could even touch her, his mother-in-law, Wang Chenshi, collapsed to the ground.

She slapped her thigh and cried out.

They were cursing and singing opera at the same time, as if someone in their family had died.

Deng Qiuzhi's face gradually darkened.

He married Wang Shufang because his father and Wang Shufang's father were old friends, and the two were like brothers who grew up together. However, the Wang family moved to Jiangnan County because of livelihood issues.