Chapter 141: Love pledged by the gods is not worth a few pieces of silver
At the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall, a small stall was set up with two tables and a pot.
Du Ruoling was shouting at the top of her lungs, "Don't miss it if you pass by. This is an exclusive secret recipe, the only one of its kind in the capital. Come and see it, come and see it!"
"Eating this slow-cooked soup is like being in heaven! If you miss this, you'll regret it for the whole year!"
"What are you selling?" A young man in a long gown and waving a folding fan stopped in front of the stall and looked at the steaming pot with curiosity.
Du Ruoling smiled and introduced enthusiastically, "Sir, this is my family's secret recipe for stewed meat. You can't get it anywhere else! It tastes amazing!"
The young man raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "Oh? That sounds interesting. How much is this bowl?"
Du Ruoling held up two fingers and said crisply, "Only two coins!"
The young man frowned slightly. Two cents of silver was indeed a bit expensive. If it was fresh food, it would be okay to try it.
As Du Ruoling opened the lid of the pot, hot steam carrying a strange smell spread out.
The young master's face suddenly turned ugly, and he blurted out with disgust: "Pig intestines?"
"Yes, this pig's intestine is the soul of our braised pork!" Du Ruoling was not affected by the young master's reaction at all. "This pig's intestine may look insignificant, but it takes a lot of care to prepare. Rub it repeatedly with flour and salt, and clean it inside and out. There is no peculiar smell at all..."
Du Ruoling picked up a piece of pig intestine with long chopsticks and waved it in front of the young man, "Look how tempting it is! I guarantee that after you take a bite, you will want a second bite..."
The young man's eyes were full of resistance, "No, no..."
He thought it was food he had never tasted before and wanted to try it, but it turned out to be this filthy thing.
Even the lower class people who cannot afford meat are unwilling to eat pig intestines.
She's still selling it for two taels of silver, so it's better to just rob her.
Pig intestines themselves are worthless and no one wants them in this era, but Du Ruoling used a lot of white flour and salt to remove the fishy smell of pig offal.
White flour alone costs ten cents a dou.
Naturally it will be more expensive...
The young man's face was filled with disgust. He turned around and walked away, muttering, "How disgusting! What bad luck!"
But before he took a few steps, Du Ruoling grabbed his sleeve.
"Sir, please don't leave yet. Try it first. If it doesn't taste good, you don't have to pay."
The young man was furious at the sudden pull. He shook his arms hard, trying to break free from Du Ruoling's hand, but found that she was holding it tightly.
"How can you be so shameless, woman? How can you be so shameless in public?"
Du Ruoling stomped her feet in anger. Not only did the customer run away, but she was also scolded. Turning around, she saw Gu Chengan, who was wiping the table with his head down, and she became even more furious.
"Didn't you see all the customers ran away? You don't even know how to help..."
Gu Cheng had expected this to happen. Although the food made by Du Ruoling tasted good, these literati and young masters would not eat it.
He was once one of these people...
Du Ruoling was determined to come and set up a stall, saying that the results would be announced today and there would be many people at the entrance of the Imperial Examination Hall, so she could take advantage of this wave of popularity to sell her braised pork.
Seeing that Gu Cheng'an remained silent, Du Ruoling kept muttering, "You still think you're a noble young master!"
Gu Chengyan stood not far away, watching this farce coldly.
He looked at Du Ruoling's ferocious appearance. Not only was this woman shameless, but she even dared to blame Gu Cheng'an.
His second brother was like a coward, not even saying a word of rebuttal.
Unable to contain himself any longer, he quickly stepped forward, his voice tinged with sarcasm and anger, "You're the second son of the Anyang Marquisate, yet you're actually groveling like a shill selling food? Gu Cheng'an, do you have any backbone left? You've almost brought shame upon our Marquisate!"
Du Ruoling was instantly furious when she heard this. She immediately put her hands on her hips and retorted without a shred of weakness, "We rely on our own hands to make money honestly. How can we be spineless? It's better than you being like a parasite, living a life of luxury in the Marquis' Mansion all day, just waiting to die!"
Gu Chengyan was choked by these words and his face turned red, "You..."
"What are you talking about?" Du Ruoling continued to be aggressive. "What are you so proud of? It's just that you passed the imperial examination. And you came in last. In our place, that's called a poor student, the last one in the class. What's there to be proud of?"
The words "last place" hit Gu Chengyan hard.
His face turned ashen in an instant, and he kicked over the table on the stall, and the pots and pans were scattered all over the floor.
Du Ruoling couldn't stand it anymore and started throwing a tantrum, "You have to compensate me for my stall, you have to compensate me for my money! Why did you smash my things?"
Gu Chengyan ignored Du Ruoling's crying. He looked at Gu Chengan coldly, with a hint of sarcasm and questioning in his tone.
"Is it worth it to break up with your family and give up the splendor and wealth of the Marquisate for a woman like this? Look at how miserable you are now. It's truly ridiculous!"
However, until Gu Chengyan turned around and left, Gu Chengan pursed his lips and said nothing.
Du Ruoling rushed to Gu Cheng'an and pounded on his chest with both hands. "You just watched me being bullied by your brother without saying a word. Are you still a man? How can you be so cowardly!"
Gu Chengan was getting impatient after being beaten. He grabbed Du Ruoling's wrist and shook it off with a hint of fatigue in his voice.
"Have you had enough of the fuss?"
"What am I making a fuss about? I'm just trying to make money," Du Ruoling retorted loudly, "Look at yourself. You can't carry anything on your shoulders or lift anything with your hands. You can't even support your family..."
This is not the first time such an argument has occurred.
Gu Cheng'an originally thought that Du Ruoling became so unreasonable because he broke the promise between them and married Lin Xingyao.
He naively thought that as long as he left the Marquis' Mansion and got rid of those constraints, their relationship would return to what it was before.
But reality slapped him hard in the face.
Apart from love, Du Ruoling's mind is filled with money.
The money he brought out from the Marquis' Mansion was originally enough for the two of them to live a stable life, and if they did some small business, they could make a decent living.
But at that time, Du Ruoling was clamoring in the yard every day for bird's nest and shark's fin to nourish her body. The two of them had no stable source of income, so if they continued to squander like this, they would naturally end up with nothing.
Du Ruoling kept asking him to prove his love for her in various ways, which made Gu Cheng'an feel extremely exhausted.
Gu Cheng'an raised his head and looked at the crowd around him, among whom were many of his friends with whom he used to spend his days drinking and partying.
He really felt embarrassed, so he grabbed Du Ruoling's arm and turned away.
"Alas, my stall..."
The two of them pulled each other all the way and gradually disappeared from everyone's sight.
Only the laughter of the crowd remained...
On the other side, inside Hongmeng Courtyard.
Chu Ruohan also learned the news that Gu Junze won the first place.
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