Wang Yan got up early in the morning and went to the carpenter's shop with Fatty Wang to pick up the plaque they had ordered a couple of days ago.

After retrieving it, they hung the sign outside the door so that people in the neighborhood could see that their family was now accepting guests.

A meal costs one tael of silver, which is obviously incomparable to what Bai Fan Lou offers, where one tael of silver only serves three dishes.

Wang Yan saw many of them buying a banquet costing one or two taels of silver during the Chinese New Year.

Then I ordered some cheap side dishes, spending about four or five hundred yuan.

Some shared a table with two or three other people; they were all businessmen from out of town.

Although Baifanlou serves two dishes and a soup, they have a wider variety of soup options.

Wang Yan and her family run a small shop; they can't compare to those well-known, established shops.

We can only refer to the size of the restaurants nearby that can accommodate guests.

One thing that's better about their place compared to Baifanlou and Renhelou is that Wang Yan and her family decided to keep the menu consistent. Their meal consists of six dishes, a soup, and a small dessert.

But these dishes are all fixed, and from now on, the banquets costing one or two taels of silver will all consist of these dishes.

The truth is, we're a small restaurant, and we're already on a low-profit, high-volume business model. If we keep changing the menu, it'll be a real headache.

Although the menu was supposed to be fixed, Wang Pangzi and Wang Yan spent several days researching the choices.

They carefully selected six dishes, a soup, and a snack.

Two cold dishes: one spicy radish slices and the other sesame tofu chicken skin.

Two hot dishes: boiled sliced ​​pork and silver-thread tripe.

Two fried dishes: one is fried chicken strips, and the other is shredded chicken skewers.

The soup was lily bulb sweet soup, and the dessert was homemade glutinous rice cake.

Glutinous rice cake is considered a staple food, and no sugar is added. If you don't want to eat glutinous rice cake, you can replace it with rice or steamed buns.

In terms of dish selection, half of the dishes contain chili peppers, and the other half are dishes from the current dynasty.

Wang Yan also put in a lot of effort to finalize these menus.

The reason these dishes were categorized as they are now is firstly to give Fatty Wang the opportunity to cook familiar dishes.

Secondly, it's to attract customers. No matter how good your chili peppers are, if you make them into spicy dishes, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a wide customer base.

The most surprising item was the fried chicken strips. It was Wang Yan who had a sudden inspiration when she and Fatty Wang went to buy chicken skin and saw that the stall was selling them disassembled into various parts.

Because some small restaurants in the city only use chicken for skewers.

Wang Yan had a flash of inspiration and thought of fried chicken strips.

This means that almost all the meat they need will be chicken, which significantly reduces costs compared to expensive lamb.

It is a powder made from many ingredients such as salt, sugar, pepper, orange peel powder, cardamom powder, angelica powder, clove powder, etc.

This recipe was prepared by Fatty Wang. He complained that Wang Yan only added salt and sugar, and the resulting flavor was not good.

Cut the chicken breast into even strips, add all the above ingredients to marinate, then add two egg whites, a little chicken oil, and half a bowl of cornstarch.

Pour in a bowl of scallion and ginger water, mix well, cover and seal, and marinate for half an hour.

Next, pour a bowl of starch into the wooden basin, dip the marinated chicken strips in it to coat them evenly, and then deep-fry them in a pot.

Once it's in the pot and has slightly set, use chopsticks to separate it and fry it for a little while longer until it's cooked through.

Crispy and delicious, tender on the inside and crispy on the outside, the family immediately decided to include this dish as one of the six dishes after trying it. Since shredded chicken was needed anyway, these dishes would go well together.

……………………………………………………

The menu is basically finalized; now we need to buy some other things.

Fatty Wang is going to buy two nicer tables and chairs.

Wang Ying went to the embroidery shop to deliver embroidery work and bought some handkerchiefs and other items as spares.

Wang Yan wanted to go to the pharmacy on Xilou Street to buy some chewing gum. Actually, she knew how to make these gums, but she didn't have the ingredients.

We need melons that won't be available for several months. Let's go buy some; they cost one qian (a unit of weight) per box.

Wang Yan bought three boxes, which were quite large and contained about fifty or sixty chewing gum pills. The price at this pharmacy was reasonable.

When Wang Yan returned with the box, she saw Gui Lan. Was that Gui Lan?

After her sister left, she visited Moyuan Courtyard less often and had little impression of the Third Young Mistress's maid.

I only know one person named Gui Xiang, and I have some impression of her; I can recognize her very accurately.

The person running was indeed Guilan, and she was running very fast. She even lost one of her hairpins. Wang Yan could tell from the direction that she was running out of the house behind the opera house street.

This surprised her greatly. What was going on?

But at this moment, you can't stop people to ask. You can tell they're in a hurry, otherwise they wouldn't have run away with their hairpins and not even bothered to pick them up.

An old woman called out to her, "Girl, your hairpin has fallen!"

"No, I don't want it!"

Guilan was indeed in a very urgent situation; Guixiang was about to be beaten to death by the Third Young Master!

What happened?

Didn't Guixiang go back to visit her family a couple of days ago? She was back for two days.

The young lady's words were also relayed to the madam (Jiang Shiyi). After hearing them, Jiang Shiyi sneered, "Since that's the case, let her go to the country estate if she wants to."

Jiang Shiyi was determined to teach her a lesson. This was no joke; once Gu Ting's family was kicked out, their living conditions would certainly be worse than when they were in the Marquis's mansion.

If the stepmother continues to withhold money from them, she'll be after the meager sums Xu Shaoqing has.

Actually, life isn't very good here on Xilou Street right now.

However, with the second wife in charge of the household, although the expenses were not as high as those of the Marquis's mansion, it was still quite comfortable.

But anyone who goes to the countryside knows that they're going to live a hard life.

Not to mention anything else, but after these people are driven away, Granny Lu will go with them and stay with them for a while.

During this period, Gu Ting and Gu Xiao will have to stay obediently in the house, which means they will be under house arrest.

At that time, we probably won't even be able to go to the small restaurants run by villagers at the village entrance, let alone have fun in the capital.

Gu Xiao was extremely frustrated. Now he couldn't go to Baifanlou to listen to operas, folk songs, read miscellaneous notes, or watch sumo wrestling performances.

Gu Ting was even more devastated; his emotions had been unstable ever since he was dismissed from office.

All those years of hard work and effort vanished in an instant.

If he weren't insane, he wouldn't have let Liu Xiang'er poison the Second Madam!

So he may look normal on the outside, but his inner spirit has long since collapsed.

He's got only one thought right now: whoever takes him down will be killed.

Of course, he wouldn't dare to go against the Emperor, but whoever leaked this information about him, whoever harmed him, would not have an easy time!

Look, Gui Xiang has returned from the Earl's mansion and is going to persuade Xu Shaoqing again.

She had no choice; Guixiang was constantly filled with anxiety.

Her sixth sense told her that if she really went to the countryside this time, she would definitely be in trouble.

She has a high level of sensitivity; otherwise, she wouldn't have become Xu Shaoqing's head maid.

At such a young age, she can handle all the affairs, and even Jiang Shiyi and Granny Lin are very at ease with her.

Half of Xu Shaoqing's businesses are in Guixiang's hands. Even Granny Lin thinks she's a good assistant.

That said, Gui Xiang was still scared, so she wanted to persuade Xu Shaoqing not to go if possible.

After all, the Earl had already relayed the message to the Marquis's residence, and the Marquis's residence, in order to quell the matter and appease the Earl's anger, was also trying to calm things down.

Not only did they agree to send the second master to the countryside, they also agreed to let Xu Shaoqing stay in the city.

What are the Anbo family up to? The old Marquis may not be unaware, but Gu Ting's matter has really blown up this time.

Although His Majesty did not find any concrete evidence, the amount of money was also not roughly known.

But this was a stain on the Marquis's mansion no matter what, and he had to put on a show. At this time, kicking out his son and grandson was a good way to do it.

At least to outsiders, his family still appears to have proper family rules and regulations.

But no one could have predicted that Xu Shaoqing would be so stubborn, knowing full well that life in the countryside was hard, she still insisted on going.

To be frank, she might not even be as good as the girls in the village when she went to the countryside.

At least they can still go out and wander around the fields every day.

To silence the gossip, the old Marquis specially sent Granny Lu to keep them confined to the mansion for the past few months!

But in Xu Shaoqing's eyes, this was a matter of sharing joys and sorrows.

Moreover, she felt very guilty towards Gu Ting because her parents had used dirty tricks to harm him.

But she didn't consider that if Gu Ting had worked hard properly and used legitimate means to transfer to the Imperial Academy, although it would have been difficult, it wasn't entirely impossible, was it?

And why would her father (Master Xu) set this trap for Gu Ting?

It's all because Gu Ting wanted to scheme against Xu Shao's older sister.

But no matter how you look at it, if Gu Ting himself doesn't have this dirty thought, no one can outmaneuver him.

Even if the Earl finds the nephew of the Imperial Academy Chancellor and diverts Gu Ting's attention to the Imperial Academy.

If Gu Ting had his own ideas, he wouldn't fall for this trick.

He never wanted to serve in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He tried to curry favor with the family of a Hanlin Academician, but to no avail.

When someone offered him an olive branch and coaxed him with a few words about working hard to get into the Imperial Academy, wouldn't he fall for it?

Moreover, Xu Shaoqing is also extremely hateful. Before getting married, she kept saying that she would not be a burden to her older sister. Gu Ting is not that kind of person.

However, even after she got married, she still wrote a letter to her eldest sister. But this was her own daughter, and both Master Xu and Jiang Shiyi resented her.

But how could he bear to push her into a fire pit?

They tried every possible way to suppress Gu Ting and prevent him from harming others.

At the same time, they tried to protect Xu Shaoqing from being implicated, but she didn't appreciate it.

How could a transaction with the Marquis's residence be something they would agree to just by saying a few words?

Moreover, the old Marquis was also unhappy about the idea of ​​making things difficult for Gu Ting.

This open visit to the Marquis's residence to warn them and protect Xu Shaoqing has essentially created a minor grudge with the Marquis's family.

They just need to keep a low profile right now and have no other way to vent their anger, so they're holding back.

But for Xu Shaoqing's sake, the two of them (from the Anbo Mansion) still exposed themselves.