The woman smiled happily and said, "The little girl is so sweet. The umbrella at home is old too. I will choose another one."
Yu Fuling looked very happy and held the umbrella, letting the woman choose. The woman picked out an oil-paper umbrella with a red plum blossom painted on it, counted out forty cents from her purse and handed it to Yu Fuling.
"I want one too, the one with red peony painted on it." The girl standing nearby pointed at the oil-paper umbrella with peony painted on it in Yu Jiao's arms.
Yu Jiao handed her the umbrella, but the girl didn't take it and said, "I'll go home to get the money first."
The girl turned around and went back to her yard. After a while, she took out twenty cents and returned, paying the money before taking the umbrella.
Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling held the remaining umbrellas and continued to walk from street to street shouting. In less than half an hour, only two umbrellas were left for sale.
The two were walking back from Nanhuai Street hawking their wares. In a private room of a restaurant facing the street, Chen Yu, who was leaning on a couch, heard shouting outside the window and thought it sounded familiar. He stood up and walked to the window, looking at the street downstairs.
Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling were walking on the bluestone slabs holding umbrellas. Chen Yu squinted her eyes and watched for a while, then said to the servant in the room, "Go and call up the two umbrella sellers."
"Master, do you want to buy an umbrella? But don't we already have umbrellas?" The servant Dayong went to the window and looked downstairs, only to see the backs of two women holding umbrellas.
Seeing that Yu Jiao was about to walk away, Shen Yu frowned and said, "Stop talking too much, hurry up!"
Dayong didn't dare to say anything more. He ran out of the private room and went downstairs to look for the two girls selling umbrellas.
Chen Yu lay on the window sill, one hand lazily supporting his cheek, with the other hand he took a bunch of grapes from the table, stuffed them into his mouth, and stared at what was happening downstairs.
Dayong came outside the restaurant and quickly chased after Yu Jiao and the others, shouting at their backs, "Ladies, please stay. My young master wants to buy an umbrella!"
Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling stopped when they heard the voice and turned to look at Dayong.
"Hey... Miss Yu, it's you!" Dayong didn't expect that the person selling the umbrella was Yu Jiao, and looked surprised.
Yu Jiao recognized him as the servant of the young master Shen from Huichun Hall. Thinking that the Zhang family's troubles were caused by the young master Shen, her expression became a little lighter. "You want to buy an umbrella? Twenty cents each."
Dayong smiled at Yu Jiao, thinking to himself that maybe his young master recognized that the person selling the umbrella was Miss Yu and deliberately asked him to go and call someone.
He smiled and said, "My young master wants to buy an umbrella. Please, two girls, come with me upstairs."
Yu Fuling still remembered the rude behavior of the young master of the Shen family last time. She looked at Yu Jiao and said hesitantly, "Shall we go?"
Yu Jiao raised her eyes and looked towards the second floor, her sight met Chen Yu's. Chen Yu was slightly stunned, spit out the grape skin in his mouth, and gave Yu Jiao a handsome smile.
Yu Jiao's almond-shaped eyes were calm. She looked away, lowered her eyelashes, and said, "Since you are a customer who wants to buy an umbrella, it's okay to go over there."
Dayong bowed and led the way, saying with a smile, "Miss Yu, this way please."
Arriving at the private room on the second floor, Dayong opened the door and walked in, saying to Chen Yu, "Master, Miss Yu is here."
Seeing Dayong was about to close the door of the private room, Yu Jiao stopped him and said, "It's not appropriate to be alone in a room with a man from outside. Just leave the door open."
Dayong paused and looked at his young master.
Chen Yu ignored him, looked Yu Jiao up and down, and said with a smile, "Miss Yu, why did you change your career to sell umbrellas? If you have a hard time, you can come to my Huichun Hall for consultation."
Yu Jiao heard the teasing in his words, rubbed the umbrella in her arms with her fingertips, and asked, "Mr. Shen, do you want to buy an umbrella? If not, don't delay our business."
Chen Yu sneered, glanced at Yu Jiao with a sad look in his eyes, and said with disdain, "Selling umbrellas is considered a business? Bring it here, let me take a look!"
Yu Fuling tugged at Yu Jiao's sleeve, and listening to Shen Yu's condescending tone, she really didn't want to sell the umbrella to him.
Yu Jiao smiled faintly, handed the umbrella in her arms to Dayong, and said, "The ribs of the umbrella are made of carefully selected 20-year-old green bamboo, which is strong and durable. The umbrella cover is carefully painted by the young scholar. It costs two coins per umbrella. Mr. Shen should know its value."
Chen Yu had just taken the umbrella from Dayong. After hearing what Yu Jiao said, he raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Don't flatter me with words. Young Master, I have been in the business world since I was a child. I won't be fooled by your words."
He opened the oil-paper umbrella and looked at it casually. "This painting is not bad, but it's a pity that it is painted on such a crude oil-paper umbrella. Considering the painting, it's worth at most one penny."
Although Chen Yu often hung out in the shop with his father, the servants in the mansion had prepared things like oil-paper umbrellas, so he really didn't know the price and instinctively lowered the price by half.
Dayong was hesitant to talk. An ordinary oil-paper umbrella could be bought for more than 30 cents, but Miss Yu's words were so sincere, and there was a painting on the umbrella by the young scholar, so it should be very valuable.
Yu Fuling showed a happy smile on her face. An umbrella that used to cost twenty cents was sold for a hundred cents in a blink of an eye, which was equivalent to selling five umbrellas.
Yu Jiao had a calm expression on her face, "It seems that Master Shen doesn't know much about goods. I'd better look for another customer."
As she said this, she was about to pack up her umbrella.
Chen Yu had no intention of buying an umbrella, but seeing that she seemed to really want to leave, he reached out and grabbed the oil-paper umbrella, saying proudly, "It's just two broken umbrellas, two cents is two cents, I want both of them, young master."
Yu Jiao turned around and placed the other umbrella in Yu Fuling's hand on the table, and stretched out her hand neatly, "Master Shen, a total of four coins."
Chen Yu looked down on her for being so calculative and greedy, and said to Dayong beside her with a curled lip, "It's just four coins, Dayong, give it to her."
Dayong took out four coins of silver from his pocket and handed them to Yu Jiao, "Miss Yu, please keep it."
Seeing Yu Jiao taking the money and about to leave, Chen Yu stopped her and said, "Don't leave in a hurry. It's my treat. Order whatever you want."
Yu Jiao was unsure of what Shen Yu was up to, so she declined, "Don't bother spending money, Mr. Shen. My family is still waiting, so I'll take my leave now."
"I heard that the Zhang family blocked the student list of your three brothers?" Chen Yu stood up and stopped Yu Jiao.
Yu Jiao narrowed her almond-shaped eyes slightly, with a cold light in her pupils, and said mockingly, "Isn't it all thanks to Master Shen?"
Chen Yu smiled. For some reason, he really liked seeing her cold and indifferent look. "Don't be angry. The Zhang family blocked the future of your three brothers. I helped you solve it. Why don't you come to me?"
Ever since he broke off the engagement with the Zhang family, Chen Yu had been secretly keeping an eye on the Zhang family's movements, so he was very clear about the fact that the Zhang family's master suppressed the three male tribute students from the Yu family at the county school. He had been running to Huichun Hall quite often in the past few days, just to wait for Yu Jiao to come and ask him for help.
But no one showed up.
Yu Jiao looked at Shen Yu in surprise and said, "Master Shen said this as if we have some kind of friendship."
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