Red City, a place to settle down.
“Little sister, little sister, there’s something interesting happening in Hongcheng! I went out to buy roast duck and overheard people at the roast duck shop talking about a family in Hongcheng who had a dispute that went to court.”
It's a dispute between the wealthiest merchant in this Red City and a powerful family, supposedly over a gift of two thousand taels of silver.
Anle was nestled at her desk in the bedroom, pondering the next steps in the planning of the Jincheng Linghe Commercial District, when Anning came in carrying a plate of sliced roast duck and excitedly chattered away in Anle's ear.
Anle blinked, then looked up from her head which had been buried in the table. "A gift of two thousand taels of silver?"
"Yes, yes, normally there's nothing wrong with giving a gift. It shouldn't lead to a lawsuit. But the wealthy merchant family doesn't even acknowledge the gift they gave out."
Two thousand taels of silver is no small sum. To send a gift to someone's doorstep, accept it, and then deny it—that's a rather unethical thing to do.
This family has really gone completely shameless in what they did.
The person who gave the two thousand taels of silver as a gift originally wanted to marry the daughter of the man they were interested in. However, when they went to the man's house, they were met with a cold shoulder and were rejected with rather harsh words.
You've already accepted the gift, yet you still refuse it? Is that how a human being behaves?
If you ask me, these so-called aristocratic families are all two-faced, hypocritical and pretentious.
Seeing the two thousand taels of silver that someone offered as a gift, wouldn't they just be blinded by greed?
I heard that the two thousand taels of silver gift was for jewelry bought at the Jincheng Commercial Building. That jewelry was incredibly expensive! The Jincheng Commercial Building is such a rip-off!
Uh, is this a scam?
If she didn't cheat people, where would she get the money?
Besides, everything she has here is genuine and quite valuable.
Any product from the System Pastoral Garden is guaranteed to be of the highest quality.
Anle muttered something to himself, then coughed lightly, bringing the topic back to the aristocratic family and the richest merchant.
"Hey, I mean, the richest merchant family in Red City, you mean the He family, right?"
"Yes, yes, it's the He family. I didn't expect that you, who's always holed up in your room, would know about it."
Anle rolled her eyes.
"Of course I know. I am a businessman, after all. Although I stay at home most of the time, I am still someone who goes out often."
I've spent a lot of time wandering around that Jincheng Commercial Street area.
"Hey, that's true, little sister. I heard that the Jincheng government is planning to rent out some shops in Jincheng Commercial Street. You often go to Jincheng Commercial Street, do you want to rent a place there too?"
"The dessert shop over there hasn't even opened yet. It would be so great if we rented it and started our own business," Anning said, sighing involuntarily.
"Alright, stop thinking about it. The secret recipe has already been sold to the Jincheng government. We've rented that place, but we can't do business there anymore. We certainly can't open a dessert shop; we can only do other kinds of business."
An Ning asked curiously.
"Speaking of business over here, how's your jade business going, little sister? Didn't you say you were going into the jade business? You sold the secret formula to the Jincheng government, so the money you got should be enough to continue your jade business, right?"
I've heard that the jewelry business is incredibly lucrative right now, especially jade. It's worth a fortune. Even the gift that the richest man's son gave away was jade jewelry.
Anle paused, glanced at Anning, and narrowed her dark eyes. "Fourth Sister, are you very curious?"
An Ning scratched her head, a fawning smile on her face.
"Hehe, I've been staying in Hongcheng lately. Living in this city has broadened my horizons and I've seen a lot. I've noticed that jade jewelry and other precious stones are especially popular among the young ladies from wealthy families."
I was thinking, why don't we open a jade shop like this too?
Anyway, isn't it because of your contribution of the secret recipe that Jincheng is planning to rent a shop to one of our families? Why don't you pick a shop and we can use it for something? Staying at home is so boring!
And then there's Mom and my eldest sister. Look at how well they make clothes. I think they're quite good. We could use those to make clothes too.
"We'll also deal in jade and clothing—the kind of shops that appeal to young ladies. I think we should make money."
"I've noticed that you've been really good at business lately, Fourth Sister. Have you suddenly become a genius?"
"I'm just so bored. I see those young ladies from wealthy families hanging out together every day, shopping and having fun. They seem to be living such carefree and leisurely lives."
But besides my eldest sister and cousins, I don't know anyone here to hang out with. I just sit here all day doing nothing; it's so boring.
“You go out shopping, you go out to play, don’t you? You have money in your hands, it’s not like you’re short of money.”
"It's not about the money. I just want to have some fun. I don't have any friends around me. If I opened a shop, I could interact with those young ladies from wealthy families every day and have fun together."
"Back when our family ran a dessert shop in Jincheng, we could always get together and have fun. It was so lively back then, unlike now, it's so boring being alone."
Anle exclaimed "Ah!" and raised her hand to touch her temple. Suddenly, she realized that her fourth sister was at the age where she wanted to make friends. She had no relatives or friends in this Red City and didn't know anyone. Her fourth sister was getting bored and wanted to make friends.
Oh, the little boat of friendship.
Teenagers all want to have friends, I understand, she knows that!
"Fourth Sister, I do know a friend, a woman. Although she comes from a prestigious family, she's quite different from other young ladies from those families."
You have a very easygoing personality, so I think we should be able to get along.
"Then I'll invite her over to our house another day, you two can become friends, and then you can go shopping together."
An Ning's eyes lit up. She could make friends?
"Huh? Who is it? Little sister, you actually have friends here?"
Anle rested her chin on her hand and nodded.
"Ah, of course. You know her too, the girl who used to chase after my cousin Zhishu. We've been running into each other a lot lately and we've gotten quite familiar with each other. We're friends now. If you invite her over, she'll definitely be happy."
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