Chapter 101
Gu Xinxin will be seventeen after the Chinese New Year.
Gu Daniu was reluctant to give up the lucrative profits from the fish farm—because Gu Xinxin had played a trick on him when signing the contract, signing it in her own name and with her own fingerprints. Therefore, once Gu Xinxin married, the fish farm's profits would follow her. Therefore, Gu Daniu deliberately set the wedding date for the end of the following year.
Of course, one has to make it sound more reasonable on the surface, for example, Gu Xiangrong is young and can't bear to let Gu Xinxin get married, and Mrs. Gu at home is old and can't bear to let her granddaughter get married.
Gu Xinxin had only come to Cheng Shansong to resolve the tax issue of not getting married by the age of 18, so she didn't really care about the wedding date. Furthermore, Cheng Shansong also wanted to settle the family division first.
Although my uncle and aunt were a little afraid of Gu Xinxin's fate, they were reluctant to give up the profits brought by Gu Xinxin. Therefore, the idea of dividing the family was like a roller coaster, sometimes going up very high and sometimes going down very hard.
In the autumn of the sixth year of Daqing, when Gu Xinxin was seventeen years old.
There were two things: one was that Cheng Shansong was going to the capital to take part in the imperial examination, and the other was that Gu Xiangrong was taking part in the county examination in the county town.
Gu Xiangrong's results came out quickly, and we got the exact news in September - Gu Xiangrong passed the exam and became a Tongsheng from then on. Gu Wenshu did not pass the exam. He was young and his desire to study was not that strong.
It was only because he and Gu Xiangrong were the only two brothers in the Gu family, so he had to follow whatever Gu Xiangrong did, which was how he got the opportunity to study. Because he didn't have a strong desire to study, he didn't get good grades in the exams.
No matter how sad and upset Gu Chen was, or how she beat and scolded Gu Wenshu, that was none of Gu Xinxin's business - she wished that Gu Chen, Gu Wenshu and Gu Qiuhe would become separated, so that they would have no one to rely on when they were old.
She was only concentrating on preparing things for the New Year, because this winter would be her last year at the Gu family, and she would marry Cheng Shansong in March of the following year.
Yes, the wedding was set for March of the following year. Gu Xinxin's birthday was in August, so they had to get married before that. Coincidentally, Cheng Shansong had also received news from the capital that he had passed the imperial examination. If they could get married in March, it would be a double blessing.
The Cheng family believed that Gu Xinxin was born with good fortune. Although Dean Cheng felt helpless towards his brother and parents at home, he was indeed a kind person. The Cheng family had done their best to arrange the marriage. The betrothal gifts that Gu Daniu specifically requested were all provided. Two wild geese were two wild geese. Although they were domesticated, they were much better than wild ducks.
The remaining money was used to buy cloth or jewelry, anyway, things that were convenient for Gu Xinxin to take back.
Gu Daniu had also promised before that these betrothal gifts would be brought back to Gu Xinxin.
In addition, the Gu family did make a lot of money this year, so there was really no need for Gu Daniu to cause any trouble over the five hundred taels.
The wedding was a grand affair, and the whole town enjoyed the wedding candy distributed by Gu Xinxin and Cheng Shansong - this was a new product made by Gu Xinxin. She had saved some sugarcane bamboo joints to plant two years ago, and harvested them all last year. She also added some that she asked Mr. Chen to buy from the south, and made them all into rock candy.
Because it was to be distributed to the townspeople, it wasn't purified too much, so the color was slightly yellow. But for the townspeople, this kind of... free stuff was delicious.
So this marriage became the talk of the town.
After the wedding, Cheng Shansong was going to take Gu Xinxin to the provincial capital. Since they were newlyweds, Dean Cheng and his wife did not stop them, and Cheng Shansong had to continue his studies in the provincial capital.
The Cheng family didn't have much money left, but Gu Xinxin was rich. She had bought a small courtyard house in the city, spending all the money she had earned in the past two years. Of course, Gu Xinxin's name had to be written on the land deed, as it was her dowry.
Cheng Shansong was studying, and Gu Xinxin was not idle either. She had wanted to open a new workshop for a long time, and now was the perfect time.
The workshop at the Gu family made small fried dough twists and the like, but she planned to start with drinks in her new shop.
What drinks are available? Milk tea, iced black tea, green tea, rock sugar and pear tea, etc.
Each one was a novelty to these ancient people.
Drink iced black tea when it's hot, and milk tea when it's cold. Sweet drinks are always very attractive to people. Even if there are not many fresh fruits, it doesn't matter. In addition to fruit tea, she still has many drink recipes.
Anyway, there is a large area of sugarcane being grown in Xiaokaner Village now, and honey is sold on the market. She has the secret recipe in her hand, and she can make as many drinks as she wants and earn as much money as she wants.
A year later, her beverage shop opened four chain stores in the capital city, named Under the Pine Tree.
Two years later, her beverage shop began to offer new products—all kinds of candy. There were milk candies, fruit candies, lollipops, and even sesame candies. Sugarcane cultivation was expanding, and the surrounding villages, seeing that Xiaokaner Village could make money from growing sugarcane, followed suit.
They were all from the same village. Gu Xinxin couldn't just say she wanted the ones from her own village but not the ones from other villages, right? She would take whatever came to her door anyway, and everyone had the same purchase price.
If all else fails, she can still make rock sugar and sell it in the south.
However, the current planting ability is not so strong that Gu Xinxin cannot digest the sugarcane.
Tea is liked by adults, both men and women, while candy is liked by children. No matter what kind of candy it is, it costs one copper coin per piece, and many children will buy it with copper coins every day.
Of course, Gu Xinxin wouldn't do business at a loss. If she had more capital, she'd make the candies smaller, and if she had less capital, she'd make them bigger. Anyway, just like a snack shop, the low prices were just advertising.
In the third year, Cheng Shansong traveled to the capital to take part in the Spring Imperial Examination. Gu Xinxin packed her bags and followed him—even though she had no need to go, since she had never been before. How could she truly call herself a time traveler if she didn't visit the capital to broaden her horizons and gain new insights?
By the way, open her beverage shop in the capital.
Mr. Chen's father was promoted and became an official in Beijing, so she and Mr. Chen could continue to cooperate - Mr. Chen had been jealous of her beverage shop for several years, but for the sake of Cheng Shansong, he never said anything.
Of course, any other people who wanted to covet the drink recipe were also sent away by Master Chen. After all, the profits of the fish restaurant were there, and it was only right to protect the partners.
Now that they can finally cooperate, Mr. Chen is very happy, so he generously increased the profit sharing of Gu Xinxin and her husband. The couple will get 60% and Mr. Chen will get 40%. After all, the capital is the Chen family's territory.
Furthermore, the capital city was full of powerful people, and even the various shops were interconnected. If Gu Xinxin's shop wanted to remain stable in the capital, it would need a backer. This 40% could be considered as protection money from Gu Xinxin.
Cheng Shansong's spring examination went smoothly and he passed it in one go. He then took part in the palace examination. Of course, he didn't immediately become the top scorer or the third place winner as in the storybooks, but he was still one of the top ten.
He was then exiled. Because Gu Xinxin wanted to go to the south, Cheng Shansong got a job in the south with the help of the Chen family. For the time being, he could only start as a county magistrate.
But because Gu Xinxin has the ability to make snacks, she adapts to local conditions and makes seafood near the sea, such as spicy kelp and five-spice squid shreds. She can think of how to make anything edible.
Therefore, the more he serves as a county magistrate, the more convenient it will be for Gu Xinxin to display his abilities.
She opened a workshop wherever she went, and moved with Cheng Shansong every three years. In total, she changed places three times in nine years and left behind three snack workshops.
Because these snack workshops can provide employment opportunities for the local area and promote local economic development, Cheng Shansong was soon promoted to a fourth-rank prefect and was transferred to another place to take up his post.
After this, Gu Xinxin followed him back to the capital - twelve years have passed, and the two have two children, a boy and a girl.
After giving birth to two children, Gu Xinxin didn't want to have any more. She was afraid of death. She had finally been given a second chance at life, and she was living a prosperous life. How could she let herself die again just because of giving birth?
She didn't want to have a child, but Cheng Shansong didn't force her. He knew from the beginning that Gu Xinxin was not an ordinary woman. Besides, the Cheng family was not short of children. His younger brother alone had three sons.
Furthermore, Cheng Shansong also felt that compared to the children, Gu Xinxin was obviously more important to him.
He married Gu Xinxin at first because of admiration, and then after getting along with each other, he fell in love with her. After falling in love, their companionship was a spiritual connection.
He also didn't want to lose Gu Xinxin.
So, having children is really nothing. If you have one, it’s fate. If you don’t have one… it’s not forced. Besides, it’s not that you don’t have one. You have two, a son and a daughter.
His son was just like him, smart and steady. His daughter was just like Gu Xinxin, smart, generous and lively. It would be a little unreasonable for him to still be greedy.
After arriving in the capital, Gu Xinxin bought a three-story house. She had quite a bit of money. Although she had kept the snack shop, she still received dividends every year. Furthermore, she opened a beverage shop wherever she went. Fish restaurants and beverage shops were now spread all over the country. If she said she had no money... no one would believe her.
You must buy the house you like, a three-story house that is neither too big nor too small, just right.
If the child grows up and is about to get married, then we can change to a bigger one.
After buying a house, you have to buy some property. No matter when, houses and land are very important properties. Gu Xinxin is also an ordinary person, so what she wants to buy are shops, houses and farms.
Since she has two children, she buys double of everything so that it will be convenient for them to share it in the future. She has always been impartial.
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