The next morning, Gu An'an's home was greeted by an uninvited guest.
When Zhao Qianqian heard that Gu An'an had returned, she rushed over to report.
"You're finally back! If you hadn't come back, I would have come looking for you myself."
Gu An'an laughed, "Okay, then I'll take you with me next time."
She was just saying it casually, but Zhao Qianqian was very excited. "That's great! I'll definitely go with you. Anping County is such a small place, it's really boring."
This little devil is so impulsive, Gu An'an wouldn't dare take anyone out with her.
She brushed it off, saying, "I need to go to the county government office."
"No need to go. Magistrate Du isn't at the yamen; he's gone to the pig farm."
"Really? Then I'll go take a look over there."
Zhao Qianqian disliked the smelly pig farm and didn't want to go there, so she went to play with Jiang Mingzhu instead.
During Gu An'an's absence, the two young girls became best friends, something Gu An'an hadn't expected.
However, Jiang Mingzhu is always sensible and won't be bullied.
Gu An'an left her house and went straight to the pig farm. Unfortunately, she arrived just as Magistrate Du was lying on the ground, covered in filth and looking embarrassed.
"Madam Gu, you're back. I'll tell you after I'm done with my work."
There was a little trouble at the pigsty just now. Magistrate Du came to handle it, and he did manage to fix it, but he himself smelled terrible.
He changed his clothes and used the incense and candles from the incense burner at home to fumigate the area before he felt better.
However, this was just her own feeling, and Gu An'an kindly didn't point it out. "Is there a problem here?"
"It's nothing, just a child accidentally fell into the pigsty. Luckily, they found him in time and nothing serious happened."
"How did a child end up in the pigsty?"
Magistrate Du sighed. "I'll handle this matter, don't worry. You just got back and came to see me, is there something you need?"
Gu An'an didn't delve into the details of what the other party said, but instead brought up the matter of Man Niang, "She helped me, so I naturally can't treat her unfairly. I think she's always been good at handling things, and our puppet workshop is the kind that's made for the public, so we really need someone like her to manage it. I wonder what Magistrate Du thinks?"
It's not uncommon for someone who works in the entertainment industry to be in charge of a shop; Lin Zixing is a prime example of this.
Now, Gu An'an's actions are not considered excessive.
But it was indeed bold, after all, she was not Lin Zixing, and did not have the status of the sixth young master of the Lin family.
Magistrate Du rallied himself and said, "Alright, I still trust your judgment in people. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to handle everything if you were always the one doing all the work."
Gu An'an smiled and said, "Then thank you very much for your consideration, Lord Du."
It's not that she's too busy, it's just that Jiang Mingyi will be taking the imperial examination next year, and Gu An'an's energy will inevitably be focused on this child, so she's afraid she won't be able to take care of him properly.
It's better to hire someone to do this; she's in control behind the scenes.
After chatting with Magistrate Du for a few more minutes, Gu An'an left.
Just then, Master Liang came over, greeted him, and then stepped back a few paces as he entered.
"What's wrong? Did you see a ghost?"
Master Liang shook his head repeatedly, "I didn't see any ghosts, I was just bothered by your smell, sir. What's with that smell?"
It smells incredibly pungent.
"Is it that smelly? I didn't see Madam Gu say anything." He sniffed it, his expression also unpleasant.
Taking the opportunity, Master Liang added insult to injury, "They didn't say anything because it was inconvenient for them to say. Sir, you should go take a bath. You look like you just came out of a pigsty."
Feeling slighted, Magistrate Du muttered, "He just came out of the pigsty."
...
Gu An'an went to the shop intending to talk to Liu Jiuniang, but she didn't expect that Manniang and Mei Niang were also there when she arrived.
Manniang was talking about the dishes she had eaten. The three women were quite harmonious at the moment, and it seemed that Gu An'an didn't need to say anything more.
We're all pitiful people, so why would we make things difficult for each other?
Gu An'an didn't bring it up again. After discussing a few recipes with them, she went to check out the puppet shop next door.
The puppet shop has been completely rearranged, but it's still a bit small.
If the puppet shop business grows too big, this space won't be enough.
Let's just make do for now.
Gu An'an brought back a lot of cotton cloth suitable for making dolls from Songjiang Prefecture. In addition, the cotton is now in season, and the doll workshop has already started operating.
On the third day after arriving in Anping County, Mei Niang met with Su Xiaomei, Su San Niang's disciple.
The young disciples naturally dared not act presumptuously in front of their "master uncle." With Mei Niang, who was skilled in Suzhou embroidery, Gu An'an designed several cloth dolls overnight and asked Mei Niang to make a sample first.
However, she wasn't in a hurry to decide what kind of job to do.
Zhao Qianqian was specially invited.
"If you ask me, I'd choose this one."
Gu An'an's first batch was quite simple, mainly pandas and little yellow chicks, followed by little roosters and monkeys.
She was in charge of mixing the colors, while Mei Niang led Su Xiaomei and the other women who stayed behind to do embroidery. They sewed the dyed cloth together, stuffed it with cotton, and made cloth dolls.
Using Mei Niang's skills here was somewhat of a waste, but no one expected that Zhao Qianqian would choose not the giant panda, but Gu An'an's ugly little yellow chick from before.
"This little yellow chick is a bit ugly, but its ugliness has a certain cuteness to it."
Zhao Qianqian thought for a moment, "Yes, it's ugly but cute. Look at this big Afu doll, it's not that pretty, but it's very popular."
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