Gu Yanxi raised an eyebrow – he was indeed straightforward.
When he went out, she had given him two hundred coins. Buying bamboo bowls cost one hundred and fifty coins.
Although he clearly had no money left, he remained composed when facing the remaining fifty coins and brought them all back to her.
Gu Yanxi only took forty coins, “The rest is your wages.”
She lifted the plate in her hand, “Come in and have something to eat, take a rest.”
Niu Qi stared at the ten copper coins in his palm, his eyes growing warm.
Miss Gu was truly too kind. Not only did she provide him with food and shelter, but now she was even paying him wages. He must work hard and not disappoint Uncle Gu and Miss Gu.
Niu Qi thought this to himself.
Gu Yanxi didn’t know that this single gesture had earned her a long-term ‘loyal dog’.
In the main hall.
The four of them sat around the table, with the Cold-Eaten Rabbit in the center being particularly eye-catching.
At Gu Yanxi’s signal to start eating, everyone eagerly picked up their chopsticks.
Gu Yu picked up a piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth, “So delicious! I’ve never eaten such tasty meat in my life, sis! How are you so talented! Wuwu~
I love this flavor so much, sizzling~ so numbing and spicy and satisfying! I want to eat Cold-Eaten Rabbit every day!”
Gu Yanxi: …It’s delicious, but why are you crying?
Zhao Shi tapped her son’s head with her chopsticks, “Dream on! This is for selling. Where would we get so much meat for you to eat?”
Seeing how much everyone loved the Cold-Eaten Rabbit made Gu Yanxi happy.
It seemed that selling Cold-Eaten Rabbit would be no problem. With Cold-Eaten Rabbit as her trump card, her Gu Family stall’s reputation would surely reach new heights.
After all, just selling cold potato noodles couldn’t command high prices. They could only rely on small profits and quick returns every day, which was tiring and didn’t bring in big money.
She needed to find time to develop more novel dishes, preferably more meat dishes to raise the prices. Then her dream of counting money while lying down wouldn’t be far away!
After finishing her meal, Gu Yanxi took the money pouch into her room to count the money.
The income from cold potato noodles was similar to previous days – five hundred portions sold. After deducting one tael of silver for costs, the net income was four taels. Today’s additional income came from over one hundred chicken feet sold. Excluding the free samples, the net income from chicken feet was two hundred and four coins.
Today’s total income was four taels and two hundred and four coins.
After deducting living expenses and money for her mother’s tonic medicine, she now had thirty-five taels in her pocket!
Gu Yanxi looked at the silver and showed a gratified smile, “These days of hard work haven’t been in vain.”
Everything was developing in a good direction, and their life would become more and more prosperous!
When Zhao Shi entered the room and saw her daughter smiling happily, she knew they had earned quite a lot.
She sat down beside her daughter and took her hand, “A’yan, you’ve earned quite a lot of money these days. If our family spends frugally, it’s completely enough. Why don’t you rest for a few days?”
Recently, the weather had been getting hotter. Even though she did nothing all day, she felt sticky and uncomfortable. Yet her children had to go out early and return late to run the stall.
They were the flesh of her flesh, still so young but having to support the family. It pained her heart terribly.
Gu Yanxi knew what her mother was thinking.
She took Zhao Shi’s hand instead and talked about her recent plans, “Mother, I’ve earned thirty-five taels of silver these days. I want to send A’Yu to Yunchang Academy.”
Zhao Shi’s heart skipped a beat.
She had thought her daughter was just earning money to improve their life, never expecting she would have such an astonishing idea.
Yunchang Academy is the third-ranked academy in Jingdu, where the teachers provide excellent instruction. Most of the students are already xiucai (scholars) preparing for the imperial examinations to become juren (provincial graduates).
Her son had only received basic literacy education as a child. After the family’s sudden misfortune, he had never touched books again.
Among such an outstanding group of people, she worried her son wouldn’t be able to keep up with the teachers’ instruction.
“Yanxi, I’ve spoiled Yu too much over the years. I’m afraid even if he goes to the academy, he won’t be able to learn properly. Let’s not waste this money.”
“Now that he goes to the market stall with you every day, he’s actually become much more settled. I don’t expect either of you to achieve great success – I just hope you can live peaceful lives.”
“Mother, let me show you something.”
Gu Yanxi had anticipated her mother’s concerns. She took out an account book and handed it to her mother. “Mother, look at this. Isn’t this account keeping beautifully done?”
Zhao Shi understood account books. She casually flipped through a few pages, her eyes growing brighter with each turn.
“Yanxi, did you keep these accounts? They’re both detailed and clear – you can see the daily income and expenses at a glance. How did you manage this?”
Gu Yanxi shook her head. “It wasn’t me. Yu kept these accounts.”
“Yu?” Zhao Shi couldn’t believe it. Her son knew how to keep accounts?
Gu Yanxi pointed to various parts of the account book. “I designed these formats and only taught him once. He’s been handling all the subsequent accounts himself – I just check them daily.”
“For all this time, Yu hasn’t made a single mistake in his accounting.”
“Mother, you can rest assured. I can see that Yu has talent for studying. I’ve been observing him these days – he’s just been influenced by bad company. If he goes to Yunchang Academy and spends more time with excellent people, he’ll keep getting better.”
Since they started running the market stall, her younger brother had stopped going out to fool around with his friends. He went to the stall with her every day and seemed to genuinely enjoy the work process.
She knew her brother wasn’t fundamentally bad – he had just lacked proper supervision and picked up some bad habits.
Moreover, he showed talent in mathematics and memorization – he could remember any text after reading it just once.
She believed that if her brother applied himself to studying, he might even earn an imperial examination degree someday, which would greatly improve the Gu family’s circumstances.
After all, in Da Shuo, scholars ranked highest in the social hierarchy of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants.
Zhao Shi still felt somewhat uneasy, frowning deeply. “But what about your business? Won’t it be affected?”
Gu Yanxi patted her mother’s hand reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Mother. I’ll only run street stalls from now on, not register as a merchant household. It won’t affect anything.”
Da Shuo had clear regulations: registered merchants couldn’t participate in imperial examinations.
Street vendors fell into the category of small-scale operations. Only those who bought shops had to register as merchant households. They still maintained their status as farming households, so they could normally participate in imperial examinations – they would just need to return to their county for the county-level exams, which was slightly more inconvenient.
Taohua Village belonged to Lingshan County under Jingdu’s jurisdiction, located in the southernmost part of the capital, requiring three days by carriage.
“Mother, I want to go to Yunchang Academy.”
Gu Yu had been listening outside the door for quite some time. Worried his mother wouldn’t agree, he quickly came out to state his position.
“If you go to the academy, will you listen to the teachers? Will you still sneak off to gambling houses?”
“I will definitely listen to the teachers!”
Gu Yu declared confidently.
As for gambling houses… he hadn’t wanted to go to that wretched place for a long time. He had only gone before because he had nothing better to do and those friends had tempted him.
“Really?”
“I swear!”
“Alright, since that’s the case, I won’t stop you, son. Just make sure you study well.”
Zhao Shi thought it would be a good thing if her son could study more.
Gu Yanxi made the final decision, “In that case, we shouldn’t delay. We’ll go to Yunchang Academy first thing tomorrow morning to find Academy Head Su.”