They even have a maid? What kind of family must that be?

That fragrance shop must be raking in an obscene amount of silver, right?

Just thinking about people showing up to borrow silver or gossiping behind their backs was enough to give one a headache.

And if it attracted the wrong kind of attention and brought thieves to their door, it would be infuriating.

Since it was the first day of their collaboration, Chen Wanqing didn’t prepare anything too complicated, simply giving Xu Suying a basket of dried huangqi.

"Same as usual, right? Just grind it into powder and sift it?"

Chen Wanqing nodded. "It needs to be sifted at least three times. I’m worried the mesh on Second Aunt’s sifter is too coarse, so Mother, take my small sifter over. Just remember, this stuff is delicate and valuable. Remind Second Aunt not to let her grandsons break it."

"You don’t need to worry about that. Your Second Aunt is very meticulous about these things." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Xu Suying went on, "See? This is the advantage of working with someone you know through and through. Otherwise, you’d take over a basket of this huangqi, and who knows how much they’d secretly pocket for themselves. Once it’s ground into a powder, you can’t tell the weight, and you’d just have to eat the loss. But we don’t have to worry about that when we give it to your Second Aunt..."

Time was tight, so Xu Suying stopped talking, gathered the things, and went to Second Aunt’s house.

She returned a short while later and went to the village entrance with Chen Wanqing, who had finished getting ready.

Dashan was already waiting for them. The mother and daughter climbed onto his ox-cart once again and set off for the county town.

It cost two copper coins each time. While it didn’t seem like much, it added up to a considerable expense over time.

The previous night, Xu Suying had gone over the family’s finances. They had a fair amount of silver saved up, but she wanted to buy a house with two courtyards, or perhaps an even larger one. That way, there would be a place for her son to live when he married, and for her daughter to stay when she came home to visit.

Houses in the county town weren’t outrageously expensive, but it was hard to find one that was close to both the county government office and the private school. And because it was a prime location, any house they did find wouldn’t be cheap.

They had inquired about prices before; a house like that cost around a hundred-odd taels of silver on the market. As long as it wasn’t a haunted house or too dilapidated to live in, the price was generally stable.

She had saved more than seventy taels over the past few years and had originally thought it would take at least half a year to make up the remaining thirty. But Mrs. Wang’s grand birthday banquet had given her an opportunity. Perhaps after the banquet was over, she would have enough silver.

’What a wonderful old lady,’ Xu Suying thought to herself. ’I hope she throws a huge birthday banquet every year from now on!’

’Her children and grandchildren are so successful, and she’s already past seventy—she’s living on borrowed time. She can’t afford to be so low-key in the future.’

’How could I find someone to drop a hint to the old lady? Get her to host a flower-viewing party every three days and a matchmaking banquet every five?’

’The logistics seem a bit challenging.’

’But no matter. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’

Xu Suying started scheming again. ’Chen Song will be finished with his work soon. We should have him drive us to the county town in the ox-cart from now on. Our old ox at home does nothing but eat grass, and I’ve noticed he’s put on a lot of weight lately.’

While Xu Suying was lost in her thoughts, someone started asking her questions. "Didn’t you just go to the county town yesterday? Why are you going again today? Even if you’re buying things for your daughter’s dowry, you don’t need to be running over there every single day."

"Well, we’ve got a shop to run, don’t we? Once you get a business going, you need someone there to tend to it, good or bad. If I stay at home all the time, the silver won’t just come find me. I feel calmer once the doors are open."

"That’s true. You have two scholars in your family. After Wanqing is married, you’ll have three. I can’t even bear to think about it. Just imagining the expense makes my heart flutter and I feel short of breath, like I’m about to pass out."

...

When the ox-cart arrived in the county town, they parted ways as usual.

Xu Suying went to Mrs. Ying’s ready-made clothing shop, while Chen Wanqing headed for Qingxiang House.

She hadn’t even reached the shop’s door, just the entrance to the alley, when she saw a huge, noisy crowd gathered in front of Qingxiang House.

Chen Wanqing jumped, startled. At first, she thought there had been an accident involving her products, but as she hurried closer, she realized the crowd wasn’t for Qingxiang House at all. They were all going to the umbrella shop next door.

A sea of bobbing heads pushed and shoved, creating a scene of extraordinary chaos.

Mrs. Zhu was decked out in red and green, her face caked in powder and rouge. She had even deliberately stuck a pink silk flower on her head.

No one knew what sort of look she was going for, but the getup was certainly eye-catching wherever she went. In fact, looking at it too long made your eyes hurt.

Mrs. Zhu’s short, stout figure darted back and forth through the crowd. She was trying to maintain order while yelling at the top of her lungs, "No need to rush! We have plenty of oil-paper umbrellas! It’s our grand appreciation sale today! Pay just two more copper coins, and we’ll give you a second one! You spend about the same as usual but get two umbrellas. It’s a huge bargain for you all!"