"Young Master, is it ready?"

"Young chieftain, is that enough?"

"Young chieftain, the sun will be up soon if we don't leave!"

Hanhan stood in the room, staring at Jing Zhe who was sitting in front of the bronze mirror gesturing, his head full of question marks.

Jing Zhe was most satisfied with the appearance of the body he had transmigrated into. In his time, he would definitely be a handsome young man. Even here, everyone who saw him would ask, "Whose handsome young man is this?"

Of course, this excludes the roughnecks on Mount Mang.

They're ugly to begin with, and they don't even have the eye to appreciate beauty. For example, they're standing right now on the door frame, looking utterly hopeless.

Are you envious of my looks?

"I am not."

"Tch, you're probably just jealous because I'm good-looking, aren't you?"

"I don't."

"What are you afraid of? Just say it! Anyway, I'll laugh at you whether you say it or not, so you might as well say it so I can laugh more openly."

"..."

He remained silent, perhaps wondering how Jing Zhe, a mere scholar, could be so shameless.

Since transmigrating, Jing Zhe has never really explored a city, so this first time is naturally something he needs to take seriously.

It's necessary to dress up nicely; that's called a sense of ritual.

He used water to tidy up his disheveled sideburns, then stood up from beside the bronze mirror with satisfaction, pointed in front of him and asked, "Silly boy, you guys probably don't look in the mirror very often, do you?"

His round, chubby face was fair with a rosy glow; the answer was obvious.

"Look, you must all be disgusted with your own appearance and don't even dare to look in the mirror. You're only envious when you see me looking in the mirror, right?"

"Don't talk nonsense," Hanhan said discontentedly. "What's a grown man doing looking in the mirror all the time? A real man would rather use his strength to do more work!"

Jing Zhe glanced at him. "This must be what that fat guy and his gang of ugly people said, right?"

He shook his head and puffed out his chest, looking very proud.

"That's what the chieftain said!"

"..."

Lu Li was indeed clever. She knew that these guys were ugly and looking in the mirror would only affect their mood, so she said these things to encourage them to work more in the fields and increase their harvest.

Impressive! Even Jing Zhe admits his inferiority!

Without further ado, he finished a bowl of thin porridge and hurried down the mountain, enjoying the gentle breeze and morning dew.

...

Mangshan is adjacent to Yongzhou, only a dozen miles away. They didn't even need to ride horses; it only took them half an hour to enter the city.

Yongzhou is not large. Within the entire Anguo territory, there are at least eighty or a hundred small towns of this size. Compared to a bustling capital like Jingzhou, it is far inferior.

But this did not dampen Jing Zhe's cheerful mood in the slightest.

Although Yongzhou is small, its streets are wide and crowded with pedestrians. There are vendors on both sides of the road, and their calls can be heard all the time.

Once in town, Jing Zhe was like a wild horse, looking around and asking questions. When he saw something new, he even encouraged Hanhan to buy it.

How could the simpleton dare to agree?

Pulling him aside, she whispered, "Young Master, didn't you come here to make money? Why are you spending it before you've even earned any?"

"Only those who know how to spend money can make money, understand?"

He shook his head, "I don't understand, and I don't have any money."

"No money? You're kidding me!"

Jing Zhe was very dissatisfied with Hanhan's attitude and retorted, "Did I not see the money my sister gave you before we went down the mountain? What, you want to keep it all for yourself?"

"I don't."

Honest as ever, when he heard Jing Zhe say that he had pocketed the silver, he immediately lost his composure. "The chieftain did give me the silver, but she instructed me that it was for food and lodging in the city!"

The meaning was clear: you could ask him for money for meals and lodging, but as for buying random things, sorry, no.

"How much did the eldest sister give in total?"

"One tael."

"Only one ounce?"

Jing Zhe exclaimed, "Isn't that incredibly stingy?"

“That’s not much. There’s been no income from the mountain for several months. We were planning to rob that corrupt official a few days ago, but he took a detour into the city, so we probably won’t be able to rob him anymore. The chieftain doesn’t have much silver left.”

"All right."

What Hanhan said was true. The living expenses of more than 200 people on the mountain were only four or five taels a month. Lu Li was being generous by giving them one tael. If they wanted to earn money, they had to rely on themselves!

Jing Zhe walked forward, no longer in the mood for shopping and having fun, and started thinking about what to do next.

In fact, he has many ways to make money.

For example, strong liquor.

According to Jing Zhe, most of the wine in this era was cloudy. Even the strong liquor that other nomadic neighboring countries presented to the court was only about 30 degrees, which was far inferior to the real strong liquor with an alcohol content of 50 or 60 degrees or more.

Making spirits is not difficult; you just need to make the right equipment and distill the spirits.

Moreover, the high-concentration spirits produced through distillation can not only fetch a good price, but can also be used to process other products, such as flavorings and toilet water.

The method is not difficult. Jing Zhe had read about it in a book before. It simply involves adding various flower petals and extracting volatile oils with alcohol.

These things sound simple, but the main reason Jing Zhe doesn't use them is because of money.

Wine was never cheap, no matter the dynasty.

After all, grain is limited, while brewing wine requires a lot of grain and time, so it would be strange if it were cheap.

Jing Zhe had no money on him, and his little follower Hanhan only had one or two taels of silver. How much turbid wine could they buy with that?

The main problem is that it's easy to make a sum of money, but difficult to make a continuous stream of money. Distilling and purifying spirits consumes too much turbid liquor. Even if you can make money at the beginning, where will you get so much liquor later?

After much deliberation, Jing Zhe decided to abandon the idea.

...

"Selling melons! Selling melons!"

"Sweet and cool watermelon!"

"Eat one to cool off in the heat, and two to get through the winter!"

As we were walking, a loud shout came from ahead.

As the sun rose higher and Jing Zhe had been walking for half a day, he was also very thirsty. Hearing that there were watermelons for sale, he immediately perked up.

"Hey, let's go buy a watermelon!"

"We have melons on our mountain!"

"Then go up the mountain and pick one for me now?"

"..."

He clutched his pocket, looking somewhat hesitant.

"If you're too lazy to climb the mountain, then what are you dawdling about? Besides, isn't this money meant for food and lodging?"

"yes…"

After Jing Zhe said that, Hanhan really couldn't find a reason to refuse, after all, being a gossip is something else entirely...

After taking two steps forward, Jing Zhe realized that the melon seller wasn't one of those street vendors, but rather had a separate storefront with a small table outside. On the table sat a sliced ​​red-fleshed watermelon, which looked incredibly tempting under the blazing sunlight.

Strangely, despite the large storefront, very few people bought watermelons. Many people lingered in front of the store for a moment, whispered their opinions, and then left.

The waiter at the door didn't seem to care. He took a bite of the watermelon and spat out the black seeds along with his words.

"Pah, you poor wretch!"

————