Hehehehe~ See you in three days~ Chapter Twenty
Mr. Du pondered for a long time before sighing, "You're right, I was just being narrow-minded."
Yan Shujin said, "Sir, you just haven't lived in such a place."
Mr. Du asked, "How do you deal with thugs and hooligans?"
Yan Shujin smiled, her lips pursed. During her time back in Beijing, she had not only become much fairer but also gained some weight. She was already good-looking, but now she was even more beautiful: "Just beat her half to death and throw her at the door."
Yan Qiyu nodded: "My sister said it's unnecessary to beat him to death. If you beat him half to death and leave him at the door, people will be even more scared."
Mr. Du opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Finally, he asked, "What does it look like to be beaten half to death?"
Yan Qiyu said calmly, "If someone climbs over my wall in the middle of the night, just tie them up and sever their Achilles tendons."
It was Yan Qiyu who handed the knife to Yan Shujin: "My sister learned hunting from someone, and she's very good at it."
Mr. Du paused for a moment, then said, "Your sister did the right thing."
Killing someone outright isn't as frightening as it is. In that kind of environment, someone whose Achilles tendon has been severed has no ability to retaliate and is doomed to die.
Mr. Du, however, did not think Yan Shujin had done anything wrong. If Yan Shujin had not learned martial arts from the hunter and could not have subdued the thief who climbed over the wall, his whole family would probably be in trouble. If it was just for money, that would be better, but if... Mr. Du did not dare to think about what kind of fate Yan Shujin and the others would have suffered.
Yan Qiyu said, "Since then, no one has been hanging around my door saying anything unpleasant. My sister is amazing."
Yan Shujin pinched her younger brother's cheek.
Yan Qiyu smiled and moved closer to Yan Shujin, then started pointing outside and chattering away. At this moment, Yan Qiyu was nothing like the well-behaved person she was in the manor.
Yan Shujin was not impatient; she told her younger brother what she knew and asked Mr. Du what she didn't know.
Mr. Du narrowed his eyes. Yan Zhili not only missed the days when these two children needed their father the most, but also missed the most important period of their growth. In Yan Qiyu's heart, his sister probably held a higher position than his father.
Even when Yan Zhili is around, Yan Qiyu respects and likes his father, but only when Yan Shujin is Yan Qiyu a real child.
Horse-drawn carriages are not allowed in the market, but there are designated areas outside for them to park. After paying a fee, someone will take care of them, and the driver can wait there.
Mr. Du led the siblings off the carriage and said, "The capital is roughly divided into four areas. The eastern part of the city is mostly inhabited by wealthy families, so the markets here sell a wider variety of goods, but they are also slightly more expensive."
Yan Shujin said, "Is it because the rent for shops here is expensive?"
“Yes,” Mr. Du said. “Besides that, there are morning and evening markets. I’ll show you both when I have time.”
Yan Shujin and Yan Qiyu readily agreed.
Yan Qiyu said, "Although my sister and I have never set up a stall, we have sold things made by our grandmother and mother together."
Mr. Du asked, "How much does it cost?"
“When my sister comes home from the Prince’s mansion, we take baskets and go to sell them,” Yan Qiyu said. “Sometimes, people from the Prince’s mansion would ask my sister to buy things for them. My sister is really capable.”
Seeing that Mr. Du was interested, Yan Shujin said, "I wrote down everything they need and went to buy it together. Since I was buying a lot, I asked someone to give me a discount. However, I sold it to them at the original shop price, and they still had to give me some delivery fee. In addition, I also bought some scraps of cloth so that my grandmother and mother could make some small things. I took them to the Prince's Mansion to sell to other people. It's only because Madam Wang is kind-hearted that she turns a blind eye so I can make some money."
Mr. Du, thinking about Yan Shujin's abilities at such a young age, couldn't help but ask, "Don't they want you to lower the price?"
"Yes, I do." Yan Shujin's eyes crinkled as she thought back to those days and found them amusing. "But I always brought some food that my mother made from home and would occasionally give some to them, so they wouldn't mind. Sometimes they would even give me some of the candied fruit they bought. Other than that, I would just be careful about what they wanted to buy."
Yan Qiyu said, "Sister, let's buy some candied fruit later."
Back then, Yan Shujin would save up candied fruits and the like, and bring them home to share with the others. Actually, some of them didn't taste as good as when they were first bought after being stored for a long time, but they were still especially delicious to Yan Qiyu. His grandmother and mother were reluctant to eat them and let the two of them eat them, but his sister would only eat a bite or two at most and save them for him, saying that he didn't lack these things while serving Madam Wang.
Yan Shujin said, "Okay, I'll send some to Grandma and Auntie later."
Mr. Du did not say that the palace had enough of these things; he was just listening to the siblings discussing what they wanted to buy.
After the two of them had made their decision, Yan Shujin asked, "Sir, you said Dongcheng is wealthy, what other places are there?"
“The western part of the city is inhabited by officials, prominent families, and imperial relatives,” Mr. Du said. “However, some officials can only live in the eastern or southern parts of the city, depending on their family’s wealth. It is rare for anyone to sell a house in the western part of the city.”
Yan Shujin said, "When we get back, could you draw a rough map of the area for me?"
Mr. Du said, "Yes, your father has a complete map of the capital."
Yan Shujin wrote it down and asked, "Anything else? East, west, south, north, the master mentioned things."
Mr. Du continued, "The east is rich, the west is noble, the south is poor, and the north is lowly."
Yan Shujin pressed further, "How did it form? It couldn't have been like this from the beginning, could it?"
"Because the Grand Canal runs along the east side of the capital, merchants and warehouses are concentrated in this area, making it relatively wealthy," Mr. Du explained. "Furthermore, in the previous dynasty, scholars looked down on merchants, and those high-ranking officials gathered and lived in the western part of the imperial city, which was furthest from the east, in order to make it easier for them to be summoned by the emperor. The south was mostly inhabited by ordinary people, so it was relatively poor. The north was inhabited by laborers, and there were also many... brothels and pleasure houses, so it was said that the north was lowly."
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