Yi Shuihan almost smashed the wine jar in his hand onto Ouyang Xiuqi's forehead.

To make him come to his senses.

"You, who have seven concubines in your household, spend half the year at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, and spend thousands of dollars to hire the most beautiful courtesan, actually suspect that you are gay?"

Ouyang Xiuqi looked pained.

"I do have seven concubines, but I have never touched any of them."

I stayed at Baihualou simply because the wine and food there were delicious, and my mother wasn't nagging me.

As for hiring courtesans, that was something they asked me to do. If they encountered someone they didn't want to accompany, they would ask me to step in..."

Yi Shuihan found it hard to believe.

He had known Ouyang Xiuqi for so many years, and this was the first time he had ever known that Ouyang Xiuqi was so "pure and innocent".

"So your title of 'Number One Playboy in the Capital' is just an empty name?"

Ouyang Xiuqi nodded: "It's all an act."

"What are you trying to achieve by doing this?"

The Yi River is cold, and neither laughter nor tears are possible.

"Sigh, you know my mother is a strong-willed person. When my father was alive, she urged him to achieve great things every day. After my father died, she started urging me to do the same."

Like my father, I have no great ambitions and just want to live a simple life on my own little plot of land.

The more she urged me, the more annoyed I became, so I deliberately went against her, drinking and frequenting brothels.

So that she'll know I'm a hopeless case and won't make things difficult for me anymore.

"Your strategy doesn't seem to be very successful."

Yi Shuihan mocked.

“Yes.” Ouyang Xiuqi’s face was full of despair. “I’ve become the number one playboy in the capital, but she still won’t let me go.”

Yi Shuihan laughed loudly.

"Why don't you just give her a grandson?"

That's what she thinks!

Otherwise, they wouldn't have given me seven concubines.

"Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you. How can I force my son to do something I myself would not want to do?"

That's why Ouyang Xiuqi never touched those seven concubines.

Yi Shuihan felt sympathy and schadenfreude.

"So, in order to make your mother give up on you completely, you've decided to become a homosexual?"

"no!"

Ouyang Xiuqi covered his face.

I told Yi Shuihan about my recent experiences.

"When my mother saw that I refused to go to my aunt's room, she put medicine in my food, but I found out."

I feel like I can't stay in this house anymore.

He went to the dock, found a boat, and sailed south with the current, intending to escape to distant lands.

Unfortunately, they were unlucky; just a few days after setting sail, the ship struck a reef and sank.

You know I can't swim at all, and I don't know kung fu either.

He almost drowned after falling into the water.

A handsome young man pulled me out of the water and gave me a boost, which brought me back to life.

He was more of a playboy than I was, always flirting with women, and all the girls on the boat blushed when they saw him.

We're both quite sentimental people, so we get along really well.

They often talked by candlelight late into the night.

One time, while drinking and chatting, they got drunk and fell asleep on a couch.

The next day I woke up first, and looking at his sleeping face, my heart was beating very fast.

After that, I got very nervous every time he spoke to me.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to control myself if things continued like this, so I changed ships and returned to Beijing.

At this point, Ouyang Xiuqi grabbed a wine jar and took a big gulp.

"After I came back, I tried to forget that person, but the more I tried to forget, the clearer I remembered him. I've thought about going to see him several times. Do you think I'm hopeless?"

If it were half a month ago, Yi Shuihan might not have been able to understand Ouyang Xiuqi's feelings.

Having experienced a similar emotional turmoil himself, he patted Ouyang Xiuqi on the shoulder with deep feeling: "You're hopeless."

"Waaaaah—"

Ouyang Xiuqi burst into tears.

“The Ouyang family line is about to end, and my mother will hang herself.”

Yi Shuihan almost laughed.

They were also afraid of upsetting Ouyang Xiuqi.

Suppressing a laugh, she said, "Why don't you straighten it out while you still can?"

“I can’t straighten him out,” Ouyang Xiuqi shook his head. “He’s all I dream about now.”

After venting his pent-up feelings, he felt much better and had time to inquire about Yi Shuihan.

What brings you here?

Yi Shuihan opened his mouth.

I don't know how to describe it.

I fell in love with a wild horse, but she came with her own green grassland.

Never mind, I'd better not say anything more.

"It's nothing, it's just that it's been too long since we had a drink together, let's have a couple of drinks."

...

Xiao Qingyin led Ji Yunhua and the pharmaceutical master to the workshop.

Ji Yunhua looked around, somewhat dissatisfied.

"This workshop is much smaller than the one in Yizhou."

"There's no other way. Land in the capital is incredibly valuable. Even though this place isn't very big, it still costs several thousand taels of silver."

"Alright, I'll reluctantly accept that. Where's the shop?"

Xiao Qingyin then took her to the shop.

"This place is great, we're going to make a fortune."

"Cough cough."

Xiao Qingyin coughed twice, reminding her to look at the couplets on the door.

"I'd rather have medicine gathering dust on the shelves than have disease in the world."

If those who sell medicine are always thinking about getting rich, the world will descend into chaos.

Ji Yunhua read it aloud once and sighed.

"Very few people can think like that. Only a fool like you would sell a peerless medicine as if it were cabbage."

Xiao Qingyin uses only the best medicinal herbs to prepare her potions, resulting in the best efficacy, yet she sells them at the lowest price.

The pharmacies in Yizhou were doing incredibly well; even people from neighboring prefectures came to buy medicine. They earned less than the middlemen, simply because the prices were too low.

If they charged the same prices as the clinics, they would have made a fortune long ago.

It wouldn't be so extravagant as to buy a small courtyard of a few hundred square meters in Beijing to use as a workshop.

"Enough is enough. A person only sleeps in one bed and eats three meals a day in their entire life."

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