Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Shen Xuan had a dream, in which he...
Shen Xuan had a dream, in which he returned to the day when Lin Ye was first discovered by Wang Xiaolian.
The village chief said that since the two of them were getting married, they should have a formal wedding night.
So under the watchful eyes of a group of villagers, the two were sent into a room with red candles lit and a wedding character pasted on it.
"Lin Ye." Chen Xuan and Xue Fenglin sat facing each other on the bed wearing only their underwear. Seeing the other party looking at him with burning eyes, he said with a bit of blush: "In fact, we only need to act for them, we don't have to really..."
Before he finished speaking, Xue Fenglin's handsome face suddenly enlarged in front of him, and then his lips fell on Shen Xuan's lips.
Shen Xuan shuddered, his body trembled, and he couldn't help but sigh softly.
As soon as her lips opened, someone penetrated her straight away, and then her entire neck, body, and legs felt as comfortable as if they were falling into soft feathers, until her last consciousness fell into a blank whiteness...
"Hiss——" Shen Xuan froze, opened his eyes and suddenly looked down at his legs.
He didn't know when he got into bed last night, and his underwear was torn off.
The chest and hem were wide open, and there was a fresh stain on the fabric between the legs.
Shen Xuan covered his face in annoyance, wondering how dare he blaspheme Lin Ye like this!
Although this was a dream, Shen Xuan felt particularly guilty when he thought about having to face the other person in a while...
He quickly got up, changed his clothes, and threw the dirty clothes to the well to wash.
After the clothes were dried, Shen Xuan breathed a sigh of relief.
He drank too much last night and seemed to have blacked out while eating. I don’t know what happened afterwards!
Shen Xuan came to the kitchen and saw that the pile of things on the table last night had been cleared away, even the bowls used for ancestor worship had been cleared away. Only the chrysanthemums on the cupboard were left inserted in the cup, which looked no different from usual.
I shouldn't have done anything inappropriate after I blacked out last night, right? Shen Xuan was a little confused.
He shook his head, forgot about the embarrassing dream, scooped rice and cooked porridge for breakfast.
After a while, the porridge was almost cooked, and Shen Xuan cut some pickles. Then he went to Xue Fenglin's house and knocked on the door to ask him to get up and eat.
Xue Fenglin came out from inside, also wearing new clothes.
After seeing Shen Xuan, he was no different from usual. He asked good morning and then sat down to eat.
Shen Xuan was relieved to see that he looked normal. I thought to myself that it was okay and it seemed that I didn’t make a fool of myself last night.
After the two of them finished breakfast together, Shen Xuan was just about to clean up the dishes. Xue Fenglin held him down from behind, then leaned against Shen Xuan's back and picked up the dishes on the table.
Shen Xuan's back stiffened, and he felt that Xue Fenglin's action was too intimate, as if he was going to hug him in his arms!
Although he and Xue Fenglin had lived together for some time before, they had always treated each other with respect and maintained a subtle distance.
This time, he didn't know what happened, but the distance between him and Xue Fenglin seemed to disappear as he moved, and they became much closer...
Shen Xuan's face flushed and his heart beat violently, but before he could react, Xue Fenglin had already quickly packed up his bowl and left.
It's really hard to make any judgment in just a few seconds.
Could it be that I had such a dream and was overthinking it? Shen Xuan struggled for a long time, and finally couldn't help but think with some guilt.
I glanced at Xue Fenglin out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was washing dishes with an expressionless face and his back was straight.
Looking at the other person's serious look, Shen Xuan felt that he must have thought too much.
Chen Xuan got up and returned to his room. He didn't have to write a petition today, so he had a rare moment of free time.
He stopped thinking about random things and started to think about what he should do after today.
Shen Xuan was an unmarried man and could not take the imperial examinations, so it was difficult for him to find a job.
It was easier for him to support himself by doing some small business.
In fact, Shen Xuan observed this when he was buying a memorial on Koi Street a few days ago.
He found that because Jinli Street was close to the academy, the gatherings on the street were particularly lively. Writing supplies and novels also sold well.
In addition, the business of some snacks and tea drinks is also very good. Because there are many distinguished guests on Koi Street, the snacks here are more expensive and more exquisite than those in other places.
Take melon seeds for example. Unlike the original fried melon seeds at Chengnan Wharf, the melon seeds at Koi Street are fried with tea leaves. There are various flavors including Biluochun melon seeds, Longjing melon seeds, almond melon seeds, etc., and the prices are two or three times higher than those in the south of the city.
A pound of roasted melon seeds at the South City Wharf costs only 20 wen, while a pound of Biluochun fragrant melon seeds at Jinli Street costs 60 wen.
Despite this, Chen Xuan also saw many guests in the elegant gathering sending servants to buy melon seeds every day, and they would buy five kilograms at a time.
After all, the tea fee for the Guiyun Tower gathering is one or two taels of silver per person, yet they still come every day. To these men of letters, the mere three hundred wen of melon seeds meant nothing at all.
Shen Xuan thought of a lot of good street snacks sold in the modern world, such as fried chicken strips, grilled skewers, sizzling tofu, oden, etc.
In fact, as long as it is not popular in the Jin Dynasty, any of them will taste good, and it will definitely be very attractive if sold on Koi Street.
However, after further careful study, Shen Xuan discovered that these things would encounter great problems when setting up stalls. After thinking about it, I realized that I couldn’t sell a single one, and I couldn’t help feeling helpless.
For example, there are no refrigerators now, and in such hot weather, how to keep the food fresh is a big problem!
There are also some snacks that require high heat. They can be made on the stove, but it is not convenient to do so at a roadside stall.
Dajin doesn't have a gas stove, so you can't set up a stall while chopping wood, right?
After thinking for a long time, Shen Xuan finally decided on the most convenient and safe project, opening a tea stall.
This project doesn't require much effort. One person can easily make and sell it, and there's no need to worry about it going bad in hot weather and making people sick. You just need to find a shop nearby to rent well water.
It sounds simple to run a tea stall, but if you want to make money, you must have your own characteristics.
On Koi Street, every larger restaurant sells tea. Even at the roadside wonton stall, you can buy a bowl of plain water for two cents.
In addition, Shen Xuan has a strong competitor on Koi Street.
Next to the steamed bun shop there is a tea stall selling sour plum soup, and its business is particularly good. During the days when Chen Xuan went to write the petition, this stall could sell more than a dozen bowls of sour plum soup in just one stick of incense.
Sometimes, guests at the gathering would crave the sweet and sour taste and would ask the waiter to bring the teapot to make some sour plum soup for them.
The tea Shen Xuan wanted to make this time was citrus lemon tea.
However, due to the lack of modern tools, this lemon tea cannot be made in the same way as it is today.
Chen Xuan planned to make the tea paste at home first, then seal it in a jar and take it over to make tea.
Although the taste of this method is not as fresh as modern hand-beaten lemon tea, there is no need to worry about the tea deteriorating. It can also protect the recipe to the greatest extent and there is no need to worry about others stealing it.
After thinking it over, Shen Xuan began to prepare the things needed for setting up a stall. First of all, you need a stall.
You can set up stalls anywhere on both sides of Koi Street, but the son of the prefect of Lezhou will occasionally come to cause trouble, so you just need to deal with them.
There are three types of stalls on the street today. One type has a fixed shed with a stove, tables, chairs and benches, and occupies a larger area.
Most of these stalls sell wontons, noodles and the like. They rent well water and firewood from surrounding shops and are located in fixed locations every day.
In addition to this type, there is also a simple mobile stall that can be set up with a bamboo table and a few bamboo poles.
Some of these stalls sell silk flower handkerchiefs, while others sell a variety of snacks. Every morning, the stall owners would carry their goods on their backs and set up the stalls on the street. The location was usually not fixed. The sacrificial paper stall that Chen Xuan had partnered with before was one of these.
The last type is the peddler who walks around the streets carrying a basket or a backpack. Most of them sell small items like candied haws and tea eggs.
Some of them are nearby residents who set up stalls to supplement their family income, and some are servants of wealthy families who come out secretly to earn some money.
Because the things they sell are simple, there is no need to set up a special stall. Usually, people stop coming after just selling for a day or two, so the business is not that stable.
However, Shen Xuan was not going to use any of these three stalls on Koi Street this time.
Because he lived far away, it was inconvenient for him to commute from Yunshui Village to Jinli Street every day. In order to make it easier to set up a stall, Shen Xuan decided to order a stall vehicle.
Anyway, he had already bought a mule, and it was convenient to let the mule pull the stall cart back and forth every day.
After thinking it over, Shen Xuan went out and headed towards Carpenter Yang's house in the village.
Carpenter Yang's home is at the east end of the village, a little far from where he lives. As he walked along the ridge of the field, Shen Xuan heard the villagers still discussing Zhong Ge'er's family.
"I heard that the Zhong family's brother hasn't been found yet. It's very likely that he can't be found."
"It would be fine if he was kidnapped by a kidnapper, but I'm afraid he would run into the mountains and be taken away by some wild beast."
"Alas, the marriage had already been discussed, and it was said that the marriage would take place in the second half of the year. Now, the family can't afford to send someone, and they are reluctant to spend the betrothal gift, so they say they want to marry their daughter off."
"Isn't Xiaomei Zhong only fourteen? She's going to marry that thirty-two-year-old widower?"
"Isn't it? The Zhong family wants to use the bride price to marry their youngest son. Apart from that old widower, who else in the village can afford the five taels of silver for the bride price?"
Shen Xuan was shocked when he heard this, and felt a little sympathetic that Zhong Ge'er and Zhong Xiaomei had met such parents.
Although Wang Xiaolian had such a bad temper, Nanny Wang still felt sorry for him, so she gave him three acres of land as a dowry. The parents of Zhong Ge'er and Zhong Xiaomei are simply murderous ghosts who will not stop until they have squeezed them dry.
Shen Xuan soon arrived at Carpenter Yang's house and described his needs to him.
Carpenter Yang has spent his entire life making things for the villagers in Yunshui Village, and he only knows how to use a few axes. After listening to Shen Xuan for a long time, he still didn't understand what was going on, and soon he became impatient.
"I've never heard of a stall cart before." Carpenter Yang said arrogantly, "How can you be so fanciful as a boy? You're still thinking about going out to do business? Is business that easy to do?"
“If you still don’t understand, bring the carbon stick and I’ll draw a picture for you.” Shen Xuan said to him patiently. All carpenters know how to use carbon strips to make drawings, and Carpenter Yang has these tools at home.
"What are you drawing? I'm a carpenter, don't I know more than a brother like you?" When Carpenter Yang heard Shen Xuan say that he didn't understand, he got annoyed and directly kicked Shen Xuan out.
"You are just making up this street stall cart. It can't be made at all. You should just stay at home and give birth to a baby for your husband. Don't think about anything unrealistic." Carpenter Yang said to Shen Xuan in front of a group of villagers.
"What? Shen Xuan is going to set up a stall?"
"He's a guy, and he's setting up a stall? Is that true?"
Before long, the news spread like wildfire, and the entire Yunshui Village knew that Shen Xuan was going out to set up a stall.
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