The next day, Shen Yuan bought some medicinal herbs and seedlings in the city, and then she and Xiao Huzi got into the carriage together.
After two days of travel, the carriage finally entered Jian'an City before sunset.
Xiao Huzi reined in his horse, jumped off the carriage, unloaded everything from it, and then led the horse to the backyard, where he tied it up.
Shen Yuan bought a lot of things on her trip to Jinling City, and she brought gifts for Granny Liu, Tian Tian, and Madam Tian.
We gave Granny Liu a pair of tiger-skin knee pads. Granny Liu is old and her knees tend to hurt in the fall, so the knee pads helped a little.
I brought a ready-made outfit for Tian Tian: a coral-red jacket and skirt, with a white rabbit fur trim around the collar and cuffs.
Sweetie has been coming to the pharmacy for more than half a year. Her thin little face has become much rounder. Wearing this festive padded jacket and skirt, she looks like a New Year's picture doll and is especially cute.
Shen Yuan brought two bolts of cloth for Tian Shi: one was Tian Shi's favorite mountain green, and the other was the gray-blue that Xiao Hu Zi often wore.
When Madam Tian saw the two bolts of cloth, she refused to accept them no matter what she tried. In the end, Shen Yuan said that she didn't like the two colors and that there was no point in keeping the two bolts of cloth, so Madam Tian finally accepted them.
Shen Yuan went to Huajian Restaurant again.
Haitang saw her and asked, "Miss Chen, why did you take so long? Did the new shop go smoothly?"
Shen Yuan said, "I have already found a suitable location for the new shop of Huajian Restaurant. In a couple of days, I will take you to Jinling City to see the new shop."
In the past six months, Huajian Restaurant has hired four helpers.
So before they went to Jinling City to open a branch, they had already agreed that Haitang, Shuixian, and Chuntao would be the three of them to manage the new store.
Shen Yuan plans to bring the three of them with her next trip to Jinling.
After discussing the new restaurant with Haitang, Shen Yuan left the Flower Garden Restaurant.
She noticed that there were fewer people dining at the Flower Garden Restaurant today, and as she left, she couldn't help but ask, "Why isn't it full today?"
"Today is the last day of the autumn imperial examinations, and everyone in the city has gone to the examination hall, so there are fewer people coming to our South Street," Haitang explained.
Shen Yuan was taken aback: "The exams are over today? So fast?"
Haitang smiled and said, "Miss Chen, your trip to Jinling City and back took almost nine days! The exams had already started when you left, so it must be almost over by now!"
"I was so busy I forgot," Shen Yuan said, shaking her head and laughing.
After dinner, Tian was worried that the chickens and ducks she raised at home were eager to go home, so Shen Yuan lent the carriage to Xiao Huzi so that he could take Tian and half a cart of medicinal seedlings back to Chujia Village first.
After she has rested tomorrow, she will go to Chujia Village to explain to the villagers how to plant these medicinal seedlings.
After sending Tian out of the city, Shen Yuan returned to the pharmacy alone.
On her way back to the pharmacy, she kept feeling like someone was following her. But every time she turned around, she found nothing.
Shen Yuan frowned. Could it be her imagination?
She gripped the dagger in her hand and quickened her pace.
They returned to the pharmacy safely.
Seeing that nothing had happened, Shen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Unbeknownst to her, at the moment the pharmacy door closed, a figure emerged from the shadows of a stall not far from the pharmacy.
The figure was tall and thin, wearing a blue collar and white robe.
He lowered his eyes, looking at the sachet sewn from scraps of cloth in his hand, his eyes filled with tenderness.
In this exam, he didn't know if he was being targeted or if he was just really unlucky, but he ended up drawing the toilet number.
The examiner arranged for me to sit next to the toilet during the exam.
In August, the heat hadn't dissipated, and the toilet reeked of a terrible stench.
He almost vomited from the fumes when he first arrived.
He was so overwhelmed by the fumes that he felt dizzy and nauseous, and his eyes were watering so much that he could barely see the exam paper.
When he was on the verge of collapse from the stench, he suddenly remembered the sachet that Shen Yuan had given him. He hurriedly rummaged through his book box, took out the sachet, and sniffed it.
Unexpectedly, Shen Yuan's sachet really had a miraculous effect. After smelling the sachet, the nausea and discomfort in his stomach immediately disappeared.
He can finally focus on his exams.
During his time at the Imperial Examination Hall, whenever he could no longer bear the smell of the nearby toilets, he would place a sachet made by Shen Yuan on the tip of his nose.
I kept going like that until the exam was over.
Therefore, after leaving the examination hall, the first person Chu Yuning wanted to see was Shen Yuan.
He wanted to thank her.
This time, he was very grateful to Shen Yuan. If it weren't for her sachet, he probably wouldn't have been able to take the exam normally, and might even have given up halfway through.
If he abandons the exam, all his ten years of hard study will be in vain!
Therefore, Chu Yuning was very grateful to Shen Yuan, and in addition, she also developed a different kind of feeling for Shen Yuan.
The pharmacy was out of sachets that day, but Shen Yuan still made him a special one, a unique sachet that only he could have.
Shen Yuan must have anticipated this situation, or was afraid that he would encounter it, so she gave him the sachet to spare him the suffering of using the toilet.
She probably still has feelings for him!
Although there were many entanglements and misunderstandings between them, with so many years of friendship, how could Shen Yuan easily give up her feelings for him?
She must still have feelings for him!
Having confirmed this, Chu Yuning left the examination hall and went straight to Shen Yuan's pharmacy without going anywhere else.
He silently followed Shen Yuan, watching her see Tian Shi and Xiao Huzi off out of the city, and then followed her until she returned to the pharmacy.
He originally had a lot to say to Shen Yuan, but when he actually saw her, he didn't dare to appear in front of her easily.
He was afraid that things weren't as he thought, and that he was the only one deluding himself.
Chu Yuning's heart was filled with a myriad of emotions, leaving him depressed and with a sorrowful expression.
He kept his head down and didn't notice the several figures that suddenly appeared behind him.
Then a sharp shout rang out: "Scum! Take this!"
Chu Yuning suddenly came to his senses, and the sachet in his hand slipped and fell to the ground. He tried to pick it up, but was hit in the back by a blunt object. He groaned in pain and fell to his knees.
“Intentionally beating innocent civilians in the city is a crime punishable by imprisonment…” Chu Yuning turned her head angrily, but when she saw the people surrounding her, her face changed, and the words she was about to say got stuck in her throat, and she couldn’t utter a single word.
Haitang, along with the other six girls from Huajian Restaurant, carrying all sorts of tools such as rolling pins, shovels, etc., surrounded Chu Yuning.
"Go to jail?" Haitang sneered, poking Chu Yuning's face with a rolling pin, and said, "Let's see if the rest of us go to jail first, or if you, Chu Yuning, eat jail food first!"
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