Jiang Huai finally lay in his mother's arms and soon fell into a deep sleep.
Jiao's mother went to the kitchen and brought out a bowl of warm ginseng soup, handing it to Jiang Shan.
"You went out to sea? Your sworn brother has been waiting for you for so long, and you didn't even tell Mother you were leaving. How rude!"
Jiang Shan sensed the dissatisfaction and worry in Jiao's mother's words. While drinking his soup, he casually said, "It's not good to always trouble my sworn brother with our family's affairs. After all, he is an official, and we are merchants."
Jiao's mother glanced at Jiang Shan, then turned her gaze to Jiang Huai, pulling the blanket up for him. "It's good that you think this way, then I can rest assured."
In just two short sentences, the mother and daughter seemed to have reached some kind of tacit agreement.
Fu Qiyuan saw Jiangshan again after a full five days.
He left the office early, and as soon as he arrived at the shop, he saw Jiangshan.
While busy with his work, Jiang Shan nodded and greeted Fu Qiyuan, "You're here!"
Fu Qiyuan watched her bustling about without blinking, and finally, when she had a moment to spare, he grabbed her sleeve and asked, "Where have you been these past few days?"
His tone carried a faint displeasure, a hint of inexplicable grievance, and an underlying unease and anxiety that even Fu Qiyuan himself was unaware of.
"Brother, I'm a businessman. You won't get any business just by sitting in the house and waiting!" Jiang Shan subtly pulled back his sleeve, his words revealing no sign of anything amiss.
Fu Qiyuan pursed his lips. "Every time I come here, you're not there, and I don't know where you've gone. I'm very worried about you."
Jiang Shan glanced at him with a half-smile, "You, the dignified county magistrate, have nothing better to do in the yamen? Don't you need to put any more effort into the construction, development, and public security of Guyang County? Have you investigated all the cases that needed to be investigated? You have your official duties to handle, and I have my business to manage. Don't waste your time on those unimportant things."
Fu Qiyuan's heart clenched for a moment. He watched as Jiang Shan turned to leave, like a butterfly about to take flight, and instinctively grabbed her hand.
"Shan'er, listen to me, I've already... those arsonists."
Jiang Shan gently pushed his hand away, his dark eyes meeting his gaze, his voice extremely faint and soft: "Is that so? That's good."
Fu Qiyuan stared blankly at the hand that Jiang Shan had pushed away, watching her figure walk away into the distance, feeling as if a piece of his heart was empty.
The largest restaurant in Zongyang County.
A quacking sound, like that of a male duck, came from a luxuriously decorated VIP room and continued intermittently for quite some time.
"Gah... Hahaha... Ga...!" The young man lying on the golden nanmu chair exaggeratedly clutched his stomach, a series of strange laughs constantly escaping his lips, which he couldn't stop even by trying to cover them up.
The attendant beside him looked distressed and said helplessly, "Sir, please give us an answer! How should we arrange things in Yuzhou? Who should take over? Should Juxian Manor step in?"
The man finally stopped laughing, wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingertips, and said with lingering satisfaction, "This girl is just exactly what I want! She's managed to make such a small private kitchen so amazing. Look at her, look for yourself, it's not much different from the biggest restaurant in Juxianzhuang!"
The attendant, head drooping, couldn't help but mutter a small remark: "Look how happy you are. Why don't you just make her the third manager of Juxian Manor?"
The man glanced at his attendant and snorted, "Don't be upset about what I'm saying. Don't think that just because she's a woman she can't do great things. Let me tell you this: if she wanted to, she could easily become the head manager of Juxian Manor! It's just that people might not be interested!"
This was the first time the attendant had heard his master speak so highly of a woman. He said somewhat indignantly, "Gu Xian Town is just a tiny place, it can only be this much! Yu Zhou is different, it's full of high-ranking officials and nobles, how would a country girl know how powerful those nobles are!"
The man clicked his tongue. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance. I'll make a bet with you: if she can open a branch of Jiang's Private Kitchen in Chongqing and make more profit than Juxianzhuang in a year, you'll be running errands for her from now on. Don't hang around in front of me!"
The attendant's eyes widened in disbelief as he asked, "Master, you probably don't know this, but that girl now calls me Fifth Brother! Is it really meaningful for you to have her challenge me to a duel?"
The man chuckled and pointed vaguely at his follower, "Zheng Wu, Zheng Wu, if you hadn't stayed in Yuzhou long enough, you might not have had the chance to witness that girl's methods of amassing wealth! Learn from her, Yuzhou is where she'll truly shine. Support her, and she won't let you down in the future!"
Zheng Wu came out of the top-class room and slowly walked out of the restaurant.
He glanced back at the restaurant's signboard, his lips twitching downwards. He thought to himself, "No matter how much trouble that girl causes, she shouldn't be able to swallow up the empire that we brothers have worked so hard to build over most of our lives, right?"
The young man in the top-tier room lazily held a glass of wine, smelled it, took a small sip, and suddenly snapped his fingers.
"Someone, take a few bottles of this Western liquor to Guyang County, so our county magistrate and Manager Jiang can have a taste!"
At the same moment, on the busiest street in Yuzhou City, an old man and a child walked leisurely, hands behind their backs, with the same pace, the same frequency, and the same eight-step backward movement, stopping and starting.
"Wow, it's so big! So beautiful! So grand!" Jiao Sanlang's large, dark eyes reflected the rows of shops, his mouth agape for a long time.
Mr. Xunmei stroked his beard and patted Sanlang's head affectionately, saying, "This is the longest street in Yuzhou City, called Changjie (Long Street). The street we just walked on is called Huajie (Flower Street), and there is another street behind it called Tianjie (Heavenly Street). These three streets are the most prosperous streets in Yuzhou City. You can easily rent a shop here for five thousand taels of silver!"
Saburo's eyes widened in surprise as he held out a hand to look at it. "Five, five thousand taels...!"
Five thousand taels! I'm afraid even if my sister sold everything she owned, she still couldn't scrape together that much money!
Saburo looked up at a three-story restaurant next to him with a bright yet melancholic gaze, and pointed with one finger, "How much would a shop like that cost?"
The voice that asked the question was noticeably unsteady.
"Twenty thousand taels!"
"Twenty...thousands...!"
Saburo shoved his finger into his mouth and held it there, as if the finger wasn't pointing at a restaurant, but at something that would bite.
"Teacher, it's too expensive, we can't afford it. Let's look at another place!" Sanlang lowered his head, feeling extremely frustrated.
Mr. Xunmei chuckled and said nothing, continuing to walk forward with his hands behind his back.
"Come on, let me take you to see the Heavenly Street, there's something even more magnificent there!"
Jiao Sanlang bit his lip, looked up at his teacher silently, and thought to himself, "Teacher is too unreliable. He said he would rent the best shop, but does he even think about whether my sister can afford it?"
But he still couldn't help turning back every few steps; he's really extravagant!
(Author's note: The following maps are all by Saburo, and the content is also very important. I hope you readers will leave comments if you like them!)
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