Chapter 282 - Chapter 282: Chapter 278: Didn’t Win_1

Chapter 282: Chapter 278: Didn’t Win_1

Translator: 549690339

The spectators watching “ahh-ed” and “ohh-ed”, taking in the sight, and finally, someone bought five magnolias, saying they wanted to sew them into their sachet bags.

Five flowers equal one hundred coins, but the fragrance of these magnolias is robust and should last a long time.

As a result, people gradually started buying magnolias, and soon half of the basket full of magnolias had been sold.

With an increasing number of customers, peonies and chrysanthemums also started to sell.

Melons and apples were also purchased, with ten being sold for one coin at a time.

Yingbao was extremely busy at this moment.

To prevent anyone from taking things without paying, Jiang Sanlang stood on a stool, keeping a close eye on everyone.

Indeed, he saw someone secretly tuck two large apples into their wide sleeves trying to slip away.

“Hey! Pay before leaving!” Jiang Sanlang jumped off the stool and grabbed the person, coldly saying, “Or you can put the items down!”

Seeing Jiang Sanlang towering above them, the person knew they couldn’t win in a fight and grudgingly took the apples out of their sleeves and tossed them back into the basket.

As Yingbao saw the number of people around her booth increase, she felt a bit overwhelmed and hurriedly said to her father, “Dad, let’s move the goods behind the counter.”

Having a counter as a barrier should make things much safer.

Jiang Sanlang also felt that it was unreliable to have a market stall outside. So they moved all the goods back to the store’s counter, leaving only a few samples on the counter.

As a result, the number of onlookers decreased, but not the number of actual customers.

Indeed, having a market stall was not suitable for her, Yingbao lamented.

By noon, a large basket of apples and a large basket of melons were all sold out, and only a few flowers were left.

Yingbao peeked at the cash box, it was filled to the brim.

She wondered how her second cousin was doing, she needed to go see.

But before going, she had to bring some apples and flowers from the store, to take home in the afternoon.

“Dad, I’m going to check on my second cousin,” Yingbao said to Jiang Sanlang.

Jiang Sanlang nodded, “Take Dahei with you when you go out.” His second nephew was selling at another street market. A turn from here, and he would be in sight.

“Okay,” Yingbao cheerfully ran from the shop’s back door into the backyard, brought out a basket of grapes, two baskets of apples, a basket of melons, and a large basket of flowers from the house.

The house now lacked nothing but these items.

Then, with Xiaohei in tow, she excitedly went to find her second cousin.

When Yingbao arrived at the marketplace, she saw a ruffian extorting Jiang Quan.

“Damn it! You dare to cheat me! Either compensate me five taels of silver, or give me that silver bracelet!”

It turned out that the ruffian had played an archery game with ten coins and only hit a small porcelain figure, which annoyed him. Thus, he grabbed Jiang Quan and tried to extort the silver bracelet prize from him.

Jiang Quan naturally disagreed. He had purchased the engraved silver bracelet embedded with gems for four taels of silver. It was used to attract customers, and he couldn’t just give it to anyone. However, this ruffian looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

Yingbao, however, remembered. This man was Zhang Jia’s concubine’s another brother.

She wasn’t sure if they were related by blood, but this man had once been involved in beating Aunty Jiang Yunniang and often frequented the brothel Tile House with Zhang Jia.

Soon, Jiang Quan and this man began to argue, and unexpectedly, he punched Jiang Quan in the eye.

Jiang Quan was furious and immediately tussled with him.

The ruffian was fierce in the brawl despite his small stature. Jiang Quan was no match for him and was soon pinned to the ground and brutally attacked.

Seeing this, Yingbao dropped the dog leash in her hands, patting Xiaohei.

Xiaohei swiftly darted out and bit into the ruffian’s buttock.

“Ow…” the ruffian screamed in pain. He turned his head to see a big dog lunging at him and got so frightened that he stumbled and scampered away.

Jiang Quan wiped his face, feeling a sharp pain in his right eye.

Yingbao peeled his eyelid back for him, seeing it was just a superficial injury and nothing serious, she handed him a medicinal pill and said, “It’s getting late, hurry up and pack up your stall and go home.”

They still had to travel over a hundred miles to get home in time for the New Year’s Eve dinner.

Jiang Quan was quite dejected.

Because his betting business wasn’t exactly flourishing. Although people came to play, he didn’t make much money.

He initially wanted to prove that he could also make a fortune on his own, but reality turned out to be far from his expectations.

After packing up his things and placing them on the carriage, he hitched up the horse and prepared to return to the shed.

By now, Aunty Jiang Yunniang had also packed up her things and was standing at the entrance of the shed with her children, talking to Jiang Sanlang.

“Sanlang, can we hitch a ride on your carriage?” She had become utterly disillusioned with her husband and had no intention of spending New Year with him and his concubine. All she wanted was to return home with her children and her younger brother.

Jiang Sanlang nodded,”We should be able to fit you all. Are you ready? We’ll leave in a little while.”

The horse in the shed was large and strong. It was fed with feed prepared by his daughter and had a lot of strength. It often pulled fully loaded goods back and forth between the county town and the countryside without any problem.

Now it was just a matter of transporting a few more people, it shouldn’t be a problem.

“Dad! We’re back.” Yingbao jumped down from the carriage, followed by Xiaohei.

Seeing that his daughter and nephew had returned, Jiang Sanlang quickly shut the door and locked up the shed.

As they were tidying up, he couldn’t help but notice that his second nephew had a black eye. He frowned, “Did you get into a fight?”

“Uh-huh.” Not wanting to elaborate, Jiang Quan mumbled and rushed to help his little cousin move the apples.

Zhang Yuying also came to help, and with Jiang Quan, they moved everything that needed to be taken back home onto the carriage.

Hong Xiao looked in surprise at the baskets of fruit, unable to resist salivating.

Yingbao handed her a large apple and another one to Zhang Xiaolang.

Jiang Yunniang took the apple, pulled the copper hairpin from her head, and cut a deep slice into it. She broke it in half, giving one half to her daughter Hong Xiao and the other to Zhang Xiaolang.

Everyone, including the dog, squeezed onto the carriage, and Jiang Sanlang went to check the doors and windows one last time. Then, he locked up the house, posted a protective charm on the door, and locked the front gate. Only then did he climb onto the cart and start the journey home.

At first, Jiang Quan was silent, but once the carriage left the county town, he perked up and began to talk non-stop about his betting business with his little cousin and aunt.

“Although it doesn’t make a lot of money in the short term, it does provide huge returns, hehe! If I keep it up, it would definitely make a lot of money.” Betting was similar to gambling, and the house always reaped the benefits, so Jiang Quan made this assertion.

Jiang Yunniang said: “Don’t do it. There’s a family in our alley that secretly ran a betting business. They got reported and all the men in the family were arrested by the government. They haven’t been released yet.”

The Imperial Court strictly forbids gambling. Once discovered, people are either fined or sent to jail. There’s no leniency.

Even so, some people still secretly open gambling dens in hidden places to profit from them.

Yingbao gave her second cousin a scornful look: “Can’t you make money doing business with your eldest cousin?”

Jiang Quan scratched his head, not daring to speak up.

Indeed, he made a lot of money in business with his older cousin. Just this year alone, he made over a thousand taels.

His little cousin earned the most. A few days ago when they were calculating the accounts, she alone had made over four thousand taels. Discounting the few hundred taels spent on building a house and buying furniture, she took away over three thousand taels of silver.

Next was his elder brother.

Jiang Cheng continued to plant a lot of Golden Ear this year, so he earned a lot more than his younger brother, getting over two thousand taels of silver.

Jiang Quan was not envious of his older brother or his little cousin, but having become a rich man so suddenly, he felt a bit overconfident, feeling as though he could succeed at anything.

So he thought he’d try and test his own abilities, to see if he too, could earn a lot.

As a result, not only did he not make much money, but he also got into a fight.

The key point was, he didn’t even win.