18 The owner of a wealthy building
◎The small shop becomes a supplier for Biyuefang◎
"Surname Lou?" Yan Yunzhao raised his eyes slightly, waiting for the woman to continue.
"I am Granny Chen from the kitchen of Biyuefang. My main responsibilities are purchasing ingredients and hiring some clever kitchen helpers."
"Biyuefang is one of the seventeen types of restaurants, but unfortunately the previous owner was addicted to wine and women and mismanaged the business, so it has long since gone out of business, and many of the maids and servants have left."
“A new owner came last month. He was very generous and bought out Biyuefang and all the original staff. He also invested a thousand strings of cash, which turned around the dismal revenue of the shop. You've come at a good time, young lady. The new owner is young and promising, generous and good at recognizing talent. Maybe in the future you can become a major supplier of ingredients for Guiyuelou.”
Granny Chen had been in the neighborhood for many years and was quite shrewd. She subtly flattered Yan Yunzhao, steer the conversation toward the supply of ingredients, and painted a very attractive picture. However, this was exactly what Yan Yunzhao wanted to do.
She nodded slightly, a smile playing on her lips, and said politely, "I hope Granny Chen can introduce me to a job as a food supplier for Biyuefang. That would be a great honor."
Although the shop's revenue has skyrocketed compared to similar shops, the current situation is still far from Yan Yunzhao's expectations. Providing ingredients to Biyuefang not only brings in substantial income but also greatly benefits the shop's scale and brand awareness.
Grandma Chen smiled and nodded repeatedly. A short while later, the carriage came to a swaying stop.
A servant lifted the carriage curtain for the two of them and said respectfully, "Master Lou has just returned and is waiting for you, Granny Chen."
Granny Chen agreed, and she and Yan Yunzhao stepped off the carriage one after the other.
This is the side gate of Biyuefang, mainly the passageway for the servants inside. It's a small corner, but you can still see some of the prosperity of Biyuefang.
With its red walls and green tiles, Yan Yunzhao followed Granny Chen along the winding, secluded path.
The path was paved with dark pebbles, the courtyard was elegant and cleverly designed, and as you walked, you could see green pines and red flowers, with a different view at every step, which showed the wealth of the new owner.
Yan Yunzhao couldn't help but marvel, her gaze lingering between the garden scenery and the maids who smiled at her as they came and went. She wondered to herself: What would it be like to have such a place to sit in?
Before she could get enough of the sights, Granny Chen led her to a charming little building. The four corners of the building were adorned with eaves bells that jingled beautifully in the wind.
After the servants reported to the building owner, she followed Granny Chen into the building. There she saw a young man in a dark silk robe standing to the side, playing with a folding fan in his hand.
Seeing that the person had been brought, the young man turned around, his face beaming, and bowed to Yan Yunzhao with a fan in hand, saying, "Miss Yan."
I had assumed the new owner of Biyuefang would be a knowledgeable and steady person, but upon meeting him, I discovered he was a dashing and wealthy young man who looked to be no more than twenty years old and had an arrogant appearance.
Yan Yunzhao politely returned the greeting with a bow and took a seat in line with the building owner.
With a smile, Granny Chen stepped forward and bent down to introduce her, saying, "This Miss Yan is extremely skilled in cultivating soil and planting crops. The potatoes she grows are the best in the entire Lixi Town. Please take a look, Master Lou."
After saying this, the servant presented several potatoes to the shop owner for inspection.
"Yes, your servant has already sent me this news by fast horse."
He sat in the chair, one leg dangling idly over the other, picked up his teacup, scratched it, and casually blew on it.
"What does the owner of the building think?" Yan Yunzhao asked, seeing him sipping his tea without answering.
He paused, holding his teacup. "Uh, I don't know much about this. I'll just listen to Granny Chen. If Granny Chen says it's good, then it's good. Naturally, I'm willing to be friends with Miss Yan."
Yan Yunzhao smiled and nodded slightly, but inwardly he had some concerns.
The owner of this building doesn't seem to know much about business, entrusting important matters like ingredients entirely to Granny Chen. It's hard to say whether this is a good or bad thing. It seems that I know Granny Chen better than this owner.
Yan Yunzhao drank several more pots of tea with him, but seeing that he had no intention of discussing business matters, he took his leave without lingering.
Upon exiting the small building, the maids and servants who had been waiting outside were nowhere to be found. Yan Yunzhao didn't know the way and didn't know how to get out of the Biyuefang complex, which consisted of large gardens within smaller ones. After observing for a while, he could only wander around based on his intuition.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, just as Yan Yunzhao was exhausted and about to sit down to rest, she heard a conversation coming from not far away.
She was overjoyed, but just as she reached the corner of the small building, she heard someone coldly say, "I don't care what the clan says, I can't back down now. Let him kill if he wants to. I can tell the difference between the death of one person and the death of the whole clan."
"Are you crazy? That's..."
Realizing she might have inadvertently stumbled upon a conspiracy, Yan Yunzhao's heart pounded like thunder, the loud thumping so loud that she couldn't even hear what was said next.
She held her breath and took a few steps back, just like in countless melodramatic dramas: she stepped on a tree branch.
A crisp creaking sound came from beneath her feet. Yan Yunzhao was on the verge of tears. Her mind raced, and in desperation, she could only close her eyes and fall straight to the ground.
The two noticed the commotion and ran over to check, but there was no reaction for a long time.
Yan Yunzhao squinted open his tightly closed eyes a crack and saw the two people looking around suspiciously, completely unaware of him lying on the ground. He was stunned for a moment.
Excluding the possibility that the two are blind or have cataracts, how could someone as big as me lying here not see anything?
Unaware of the situation, Yan Yunzhao dared not make any rash moves and remained lying motionless on the ground, pretending to be dead.
The two people plotting were none other than the owner of the building and a man in black whose face could not be seen. They stood at the corner with strange expressions. Before long, a large crowd gathered there, all seemingly oblivious to Yan Yunzhao.
"Servants are not allowed in my quarters. Someone just broke in. Find him."
The landlord was nothing like the smug man he was inside; his face was gloomy and extremely frightening.
Upon receiving the order, everyone grabbed their swords and rushed off to search for suspicious individuals, unaware that the "culprit" was right before their eyes. Seeing the men's alarmed expressions, Yan Yunzhao was speechless: Could they really not see him?
She shifted her position, waiting until everyone was far away before slowly getting up. Yan Yunzhao pinched his cheek, puzzled, and asked, "What kind of strange cheat code is this?"
Without giving it much thought, she carefully made her way to a crooked old tree by the wall, climbed it up using both hands and feet, scaled the wall, and made a hasty escape.
Back at the shop, Jingming, Qingxi, and Shuyu all crowded around to ask how the day's talks went. Yan Yunzhao pursed his lips and waved his hand, then picked up the teapot on the table and drank half of it in one gulp.
“The owner of Biyuefang is a hypocrite who kills people. We should stay away from him to avoid getting into trouble. I’ve just stumbled upon some of his plot. I just hope that it won’t come back to me.”
Yan Yunzhao gulped down several mouthfuls of water before feeling slightly quenched his thirst. After putting down the teapot and closing the doors and windows tightly, he quietly recounted what had happened.
The three grass demons were terrified. They had never experienced anything like murder before, and just hearing about it was frightening.
Shuyu asked hesitantly, "Boss, what about the food supply... are we still going to continue providing it?"
Upon hearing this, Jingming and Qingxi both looked at Yan Yunzhao. She lowered her head and pondered for a moment. Personally, she did not want to make a deal with such a villain, but she had already promised the ingredients, and it was not good to go back on her word.
"Let's prepare for now. Take good care of the fields these days, and let the spiritual energy help the potatoes grow faster. When Granny Chen comes to urge you, give them to her and tell her they weren't sold before."
Potatoes are not delicate; they can grow very well if they are left to dry in the sun every day and watered occasionally. Yan Yunzhao was relieved to entrust them to the three grass spirits.
"Oh, right." Yan Yunzhao suddenly remembered the incident of her mysteriously disappearing earlier that day, and pulled the three people who were about to go back to their rooms to sleep.
She had been thinking about it all day and had a few guesses in her mind. She guessed that the effects of the Spirit-Gathering Grass on her true form had been restored.
“Look closely at me, have you noticed any changes?”
Yan Yunzhao took a deep breath, recalling the feeling of hiding in the corner at Biyue Tower earlier that day: First, he had to think to himself, "Please don't see me," "I'm not here, I'm not here," and second, he held his breath and tried to breathe as softly as possible, as if he were one with his surroundings...
She felt her aura calm down considerably, and when she heard the exclamation from the Three Grass Demons, she knew she had succeeded.
Yan Yunzhao opened her eyes, tiptoed to Jingming's side, and saw that Jingming was still staring nervously at the place where she had just disappeared. She raised her hand and patted her shoulder.
"Ah! Who! Who is it!" Jingming looked at Qingxi and Shuyu in horror, but the two of them looked at each other in a daze, which made Jingming even more uneasy and shrink his neck.
"Boss, you, you know I'm a coward, yet you still deliberately scared me." Jingming swallowed hard, then turned around and hugged Rongrong, who was dozing on the ground, tightly.
Yan Yunzhao almost couldn't hold back his laughter. Suddenly, he was seized by a playful impulse and blew out the candles in the room, plunging the small shop into darkness and silence.
Although Qingxi and Shuyu were bolder, they were timid and hesitant in the dark, not daring to move rashly.
"Boss, come out quickly, don't scare us."
Yan Yunzhao took a step forward following the sound, only to feel a chill on his back as a hand landed on his shoulder.
Based on the direction the sound came from, Jingming, Qingxi, and Shuyu should be in front of her at this moment, so who is the person behind her...?
"ah!"
"ah!!!"
Yan Yunzhao was startled and let out a cry. The three grass demons were also startled when they heard her voice, and they got goosebumps all over their bodies and shouted back.
"Who, who is it!"
A fifth person inexplicably appeared in the small shop. In the darkness, no one could see him clearly, but they could hear the person behind him seem to chuckle softly.
"Sizzle—"
A faint sound of wood being struck rang out, and a candle flame lit up the room, casting a soft glow on a pale face.
Yan Yunzhao felt a chill run down her spine and her scalp tingle. She stumbled back a few steps uncontrollably, her gaze flickering as she caught sight of a face behind the firelight. She stared intently:
Isn't this Lou Su?
The four breathed a sigh of relief and quickly lit all the candles in the room, restoring light to the small shop.
"When did you sneak back without anyone noticing?"
Lou Su smiled innocently and said, "It was just now when the lights were turned off."
The four of them, still shaken, patted their chests. It was clearly not the time to go to bed, but Shuyu pulled Jingming and Qingxi, who were quite perceptive, back to their own rooms, leaving the two of them downstairs alone.
The lights in the room were already on. Before Yan Yunzhao could ask anything, Lou Su took the initiative to explain the itinerary: "This trip took a bit longer, but the medical skills in Panlong Town are indeed excellent. I'm much better now."
Is this considered... filing a report?
Yan Yunzhao nodded, subtly saying, "That's good then. Do you know Lou Chengjing, the owner of Biyuefang?"
Lou Su remained calm upon hearing his name, but shifted his gaze away from Yan Yunzhao: "He's my cousin."
Cousin?
Originally, Yan Yunzhao thought it was just a coincidence that the two shared the same surname, but he was somewhat surprised: "Are you... very familiar with this cousin?"
Thinking about who Lou Chengjing was going to kill today, Yan Yunzhao felt a little scared. He was completely unaware that the person in front of him was his brother, and he didn't know where to begin.
"Not familiar with him," Lou Su said bluntly.
Hearing this answer, Yan Yunzhao felt slightly relieved and was about to ask another question when Lou Su interrupted her with a nonchalant voice:
"...I heard from Zhou Feng of the saltworks that you told Miss Cui that I am impotent?"
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