Zhan Yue tried to escape, but Qiu Yan's sharp blade drew even closer.
He was extremely distressed, as all his possessions combined were worth less than two hundred taels of silver.
He Lin thought for a moment, then took out the token from his waist and cut it into pieces with a dagger.
Zhan Yue was dumbfounded. How could their master have come up with such a thing?
Qiu Yan was equally surprised. She watched He Lin's actions and tried to guess his identity.
This is a gold medal; how could an ordinary person have one?
He Lin kept one piece for himself and gave the rest to Qiu Yan.
"Is this enough gold?" He Lin asked.
"That's enough," Qiu Yan said, releasing Zhan Yue.
Just then, County Magistrate Zheng arrived at the scene.
As soon as he arrived, he asked Qiu Yan what had happened.
Qiu Yan simply stated that she was doing her business perfectly well, but was unjustly implicated by others.
County Magistrate Zheng wanted to approach He Lin to punish him, but Zhan Yue stopped him by brandishing her knife.
"I killed him."
Zhan Yue, who had killed countless people, was being questioned like this for the first time.
When did killing an assassin ever require the attention of the authorities?
Little did he know that the government officials thought he had killed ordinary civilians.
Having received an affirmative answer, County Commandant Zheng looked at the officers behind him and gave an order.
"take away!"
This was the first time he had ever encountered someone who confessed so readily.
Seeing the officers approach, Zhan Yue said coldly, "He's an assassin, he deserves to die!"
County Magistrate Zheng reiterated, "Take him away!" He needed to take the man back to investigate the case first.
"Wait a minute!" He Lin took a sip of tea before saying, "Call your magistrate over, I want to talk to him in person."
County Magistrate Zheng sneered, "What a big shot! You think you can see our County Magistrate?"
After saying that, he turned to the officer beside him and asked, "What are you all standing there for?"
Seeing the officials approach, Zhan Yue drew his sword, pointing it at Zheng, the county constable, in front of him. "If you don't want to die, get out of here!"
He also had to protect his master, so he naturally wouldn't go back with these officials to investigate the case.
Qiu Yan looked at Zhan Yue: "If you want to fight, go outside. If you damage even a little bit of our Xingyue Tower, you will pay double!"
Zhan Yue froze, then slipped out of the Star Moon Tower.
County Magistrate Zheng followed Zhan Yue's steps and quickly gave chase.
He Lin got up and left Xingyue Tower.
The Star Moon Pavilion has finally quieted down.
Qiu Yan couldn't understand the master and servant duo, and only hoped that they would never come to Xingyuelou to dine again.
Now, all the diners at Xingyuelou have left, leaving only our own people.
Song Jiao stopped playing the pipa and looked at the sheet music while thinking about where she should start teaching Qiu Ling'er.
With some free time, Qiu Yan and Zhou Zifang began instructing the workers to repair Xingyue Tower.
With everything ready, Zhou Zifang ran to Qiu Yan's side and asked, "Qiu Yan, what is the background of those two people, master and servant?"
Qiu Yan shook her head, "I don't know, but I guess they must come from an extraordinary background."
"Born into a distinguished family, yet so poor? To me, he seems more like a down-on-his-luck young master being hunted down by his enemies."
"That's possible." Qiu Yan didn't care who it was.
Qiu Yan saw her younger brother sitting quietly at the table downstairs, saying nothing. She pulled her younger sister up and went downstairs, taking a brush, ink, paper and inkstone and sitting opposite Qiu Xu.
She pushed the multiplication table she had written in front of her younger brother and sister, and also brought out an abacus, preparing to teach them arithmetic.
Qiu Xu looked at the papers on the table; the numbers there seemed quite strange.
Qiu Ling'er had the same question.
Before they could ask, Qiu Yan began to explain, "To make bookkeeping simple, I figured out how to do these numbers myself. As you know, I'm in business now, so I can't avoid doing the math."
Although Qiu Xu couldn't understand the numbers in front of him, he still said, "Sister is so smart."
Listening to the three talking, Zhou Zifang also came over to check Qiu Yan's arithmetic writing. He found it interesting and unconsciously learned it as well.
During this time, Qiu Dayu led Lu Jia and others back from elsewhere.
Seeing this, Qiu Yan asked Zhou Zifang to teach his younger siblings how to use an abacus, and Zhou Zifang gladly accepted.
By this time, the broken tables, chairs, and tableware in the restaurant had been removed, and new dining chairs had been replaced from the storeroom.
Qiu Dayu noticed that the once bustling restaurant had become deserted, which puzzled him greatly.
After asking him, he learned the whole story and shook his head.
He had seen plenty of fights and brawls, but this was the first time he had ever heard of a life-or-death struggle.
He said to Qiu Yan with relief, "Fortunately, quite a few people ordered food today."
After saying that, he placed a stack of menu pages in Qiu Yan's hand.
These were copied down in advance by Qiu Yan yesterday by Qiu Dayu and some literate workers, so that they could try out the new service she had come up with today.
Whenever a customer wants to order, they can simply check the name of the dish they want.
Since Qiu Dayu came to work at Xingyue Tower, Lin Shu has been teaching him to read at Qiu Yan's suggestion.
He only recognizes the names of the dishes at Xingyuelou Restaurant, and now he has memorized them all. Although his handwriting is not standard, he can still write them out in a crooked and messy way.
To Qiu Dayu's surprise, Lu Jia was literate and could write, and his writing was quite neat.
Lu Jia spent the morning trying it out and visited quite a few shops by himself.
At first, they would hold up the menu and let the guests mark it themselves.
Qiu Dayu always carried paper, pens, and other such items with him.
Later, when they ran out of paper, Qiu Dayu and Lu Jia began to write.
Now, if passersby want to order food, they will stop ordering as soon as they see the Star Moon Pavilion's carriage.
Nowadays, if diners see a Xingyuelou waiter running errands, they will approach him and announce the names of the dishes and the delivery time.
Apart from Lu Jia, the others are far inferior.
Like Qiu Dayu back then, they were illiterate and naturally couldn't write down the names of the dishes.
Looking at the menu, dates, and addresses written by Lu Jia, Qiu Yan was fairly satisfied with him.
She said to Qiu Dayu, "Let's continue this afternoon."
Qiu Yan thought it was time to train someone to manage Xingyue Tower, and she felt that her uncle was quite good at it.
Then she said to Lu Jia and the others, "I'll give you five days. If you do a good job within five days, I'll pay each of you one hundred coins, as if Manager Gao is paying for his actions. If you cheat or shirk your duties, you won't get a single coin."
When Lu Jia and the others heard that Qiu Yan would give them one hundred coins in five days, their faces lit up with joy.
Money earned through one's own hard work is more reliable than money earned through previous actions.
Lu Jia said, "Don't worry, young lady, we won't try to cheat or do anything wrong. But I'd like to ask, what are we going to do five days from now?"
Qiu Yan: "You will be free in five days."
After saying that, Qiu Yan asked Qiu Dayu to take these people to the backyard for a meal.
Lu Jia wanted to say something more, but seeing that Qiu Yan had already left, he wisely refrained from saying anything more.
In the afternoon, Qiu Yan and her younger siblings returned to their family's wonton shop.
As soon as she returned to the entrance, she saw Manager Gao appear at the door of their shop.
Noticing the anger on her younger brother's face, Qiu Yan grabbed his arm. "Ah Xu, I told you not to be impulsive."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
