Xu Di went to take the provincial examination in early August. After the examination, he went home and slept for two days. Then came the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival was very lively in the manor.

Of the four aunts of the previous generation of the Marquis of Yongning, only Xu Shao married in the capital. The other three married quite far away. The farthest was Xu Ru, who married at the foot of Mount Tai. She was the second daughter of the Marquis of Yongning and Xu Qi's two daughters. One married in Tianjin and the other in the suburbs of Beijing. They all sent gifts to the mansion for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and they also prepared separate gifts for the old lady.

The children in the manor naturally knew how kind the old lady was, especially the married daughters. Before their marriages, the old lady would secretly slip them purses, instructing them to treat the silver notes inside as their own private funds and never let their husbands' families know. Because of this, the married daughters would often send people to deliver things to the old lady. Even when they had the opportunity to return to their parents' home, they would bring their children to visit the old lady.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, once Xu Di's provincial examination results are released, Zhang Zhaoci will take the three children back to Hexi. Xu Rao has been alone in Hexi for over a year, which is always worrying.

Zhang Zhaoci secretly told Xu Di, "If only we had a cell phone, we could video chat all the time and not miss each other even if we're apart for a long time. Now, we have to walk for transportation, rely on dogs for security, and shout for communication. If we write a letter, it can take ten days or half a month to arrive if it's far away, and a month if it's in a hutong. It's truly a slow life."

Xu Di helped the Ning, Zhou, Chen, and Yao families write a detailed plan, which they then showed to the shopkeepers. The shopkeepers found it feasible and it is now being implemented, with good results so far.

In reality, Xu Di simply wanted their shops to bring out some of their better products, adopting a boutique approach. They could buy bamboo woven boxes and baskets to store the goods. Also, for the provincial and imperial examinations, they could offer items specifically for the candidates, such as tea in smaller packages with auspicious phrases like "achieving the highest honors" or "passing the imperial examinations with top honors." They could also have pastry shops prepare suitable exam snacks and store them in baskets. Since most of the candidates for the provincial and imperial examinations were scholars who had traveled from afar, why would they bother preparing their own items when there were readily available products to sell?

The same applies to dried fruit shops and shops selling writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. The products must be both attractive and practical. Most importantly, they must be designed to bring good luck to those taking the exams. With that approach, how could you not sell your products?

As for the four small estates of the four families, Xu Di said he had to go and take a look first, to see what kind of soil was suitable for planting and what would be best to plant. Xu Di was currently thinking of making sweet potato vermicelli, so he would look at these four estates, preferably one with convenient access to water and also relatively secluded. He shouldn't think about anything else for now; making a fortune quietly was the most important thing. No matter who became emperor, even without any merit in supporting the emperor, as long as he had money in his hands, would he have to worry about not living a good life?

Xu Di felt he didn't have enough time. After returning from the exam and resting for a while, he took a few guards from the manor to the four estates two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. When they arrived, they found that the old lady had selected five estates that were relatively close to each other. These were all estates with infertile soil. The one his mother had drawn was near a small hill. There were also a few other estates among these five estates. Fortunately, there was a river nearby that flowed down from a nearby mountain and passed by these estates, forming a river.

Since he wanted to make vermicelli, it would be best if he owned the whole place. So Xu Di set his sights on those other people's estates. He bought the whole area, planted sweet potatoes, and then opened a vermicelli factory to make vermicelli and rice noodle sheets. With that, how could he not make money?

He acted on his idea immediately. It just so happened that the owners of these estates were not making much money each year because the soil was not fertile. Xu Di sent someone to inquire, and then sold the estates.

A few days after the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xu Di bought several estates. From then on, this area belonged to the Xu family. They fenced off the area, and after harvesting sweet potatoes in the fall, they stored them on the estates and started making rice noodles.

Thinking of stir-fried minced meat with vermicelli and chicken with rice noodles, Xu Di wished he could eat a bowl right now. And then he thought of those wide rice noodles, cooked thoroughly in hot pot broth, dipped in sesame sauce, they were so delicious.

Before buying these estates, Xu Di had told the old lady about his idea. The old lady said she would pay for the estates, but Xu Di refused and insisted on paying for them himself. He had already planned that his aunts and uncles would use their estates as shares. As for planting sweet potatoes and making rice noodles, he would find people to do it. The profits would be distributed at the end of the year according to a certain ratio. As for how to distribute the profits, a contract would be written in the presence of the old lady.

They invited all the aunts and uncles to the old lady's courtyard. Everyone sat down in the old lady's banquet area. There were writing brushes and ink on the kang table. The old lady smiled and watched them all sit down, saying, "I invited everyone here today because Di Ge'er has an idea that he wants to discuss with you all."

Ning knew that Xu Di had been running around selling goods these past few days, but since Xu Di was using a coachman sent by the Zhang family, Ning was too embarrassed to ask what Xu Di was doing. Today, being invited to the old lady's place, Ning felt that Xu Di must have found a way to manage the estate.

Xu Di said, “Aunties and aunts, I’ve been to the outskirts of the capital. The estates that the old lady asked you to manage are quite close by, and the soil isn’t very fertile. If you want to grow proper grains, the harvest probably won’t be very good. I’ve come up with a plan, and I’d like to share it with you. If you’re willing, I’ll do it; if not, we’ll think of another way.”

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