CH 35

Bonus chapter for Chelle. Thank you for the birthday greeting!

Qiao Yuan woke up with a sore mouth. He looked at Yu Dameng, who was still sleeping soundly, and kicked him in anger. “My mouth is hurting so much, and you’re still sleeping! Wake up!”

Yu Dameng was pinched awake by him and hurriedly went to look at his mouth, which was still red and moist, indicating that there was no serious injury.

Qiao Yuan saw his worried and nervous look, and he wasn’t so angry anymore, and snuggled into his arms and whimpered, “I don’t want to move, you help me get dressed.”

Yu Dameng willingly served him, and helped him get dressed and wash up.

After eating, they went back to the shop, and Qiao Yuan started to make flower buns, and also checked the progress of Ming Xu and Ming Chen’s practice. Ming Chen was doing better, and had even learned the Ming Xu’s style. Overall, Ming Xu was also not bad, and more practice would make him even better. Qiao Yuan then taught them each a new style.

Before noon, the shop had just opened. The young master from yesterday came, and eagerly said, “I’m in a hurry to see it, so I came early.”

Qiao Yuan simply led him to the private room upstairs, and instructed Ming Chen to serve him all kinds of pastries from the shop, as well as a pot of milk tea and a pot of hawthorn juice.

The milk tea was warm, with both the fragrance of tea and the sweetness of milk without being too cloying. The hawthorn juice was sour and sweet, which is very appetizing and suits the young master’s taste. He was satisfied, and smiled and said, “My name is Chu Li, Chu of Chu State, Li of dawn.”

Qiao Yuan couldn’t help but laugh, and also briefly introduced himself.

Chu Li was not restrained and told him to go ahead and do his work first.

After he left, he invited the attendant next to him to sit down, and the two of them started to eat right away.

Chu Li loved the soft and fluffy egg cake, which was fragrant and tender, and muttered, “I’ll take some back for Ah Yin later, he also likes sweets.”

As he was talking, he suddenly remembered that bastard Pei You who had been lecturing him about wasting money every day since he returned from his trip to the northwest. He thought for a moment and then asked the young attendant, “Do you think this shop could make money if it were opened in Sheng Jing?”

The attendant answered, “In my opinion, it should be possible, especially the flower buns that day at the Laike House. If we were in Sheng Jing, we could sell it for a thousand taels and it wouldn’t be a problem. As for these small pastries, if we raise the price slightly and focus on selling in large quantities with small profits, we can still make a profit. The average households in Sheng Jing are much wealthier than here, and they can all afford to buy and consume these pastries.”

The more Chu Li thought about it, the more he felt it made sense. If he could earn some money, that bastard Pei You wouldn’t dare to bully him anymore! If he wanted to borrow money in the future when he returned to the capital, he would have to beg him. However, he didn’t know much about business, so it wouldn’t be good to bring it up rashly. He decided to ask Pei Yin for advice when he returned.

After listening to his explanation of the cause and effect, Pei Yin joked with him with a smile: “Even our Ninth Prince is concerned about money now.”

Chu Li was angry, “It’s all your brother’s fault! During the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, I only made a few more clothes, and he complained that I was wasting money and said that I didn’t understand the hardships of the common people!”

As he spoke, he became disheartened, “But I was born to be of noble birth and high status.”

Pei Yin comforted him, “Ah You is just stubborn, and doesn’t spare anyone with his words. Maybe he saw too much of the people’s suffering in the northwest, and couldn’t stand the luxury and extravagance of Sheng Jing.”

Chu Li was indignant, “Then why did he still praise other people’s clothes as good-looking?”

Seeing his appearance, Pei Yin couldn’t help but laugh. These two had been close since childhood, but they always quarreled when they were together. Even if they said they weren’t close, they still cared about each other. The other day, Pei You had asked him in a letter, whether Chu Li was still angry or not.

Pei Yin then turned to the main topic and said, “Regarding the matter of Yu Qiao Ji that you mentioned, I was also interested before and was planning to observe for a while longer to see what else Brother Qiao could do. Now that you have brought it up, we can prepare some gifts and visit him when he is not busy.”

“Everything is up to you!” Chu Li became carefree again.

On the other side, Qian Yun also came to Yu Qiao Ji with the birthday banquet design he had drawn, with huge dark circles under his eyes.

Qiao Yuan was a bit surprised, “You finished drawing so fast?”

“The designs you asked for were not hard to draw. After the Laike House thing, I had already drawn a lot of designs.”

Qiao Yuan flipped through them carefully, and the designs were very practical, and he happily paid him the silver.

Qian Yun took the one and a half taels of silver he got, and felt that his hard work all night was not in vain!

With the pattern in hand, Qiao Yuan began to train others. The initial plan was for everyone to learn how to shape gourds and ingots. Lin Cuifen and Li Xiumei would also learn how to shape lucky bags, and they would be responsible for making lucky bag flower cakes, which were slightly more complex than the other two shapes.

On this day, the steward of the Lu family came to visit again. He was immediately impressed by the various samples that Qiao Yuan made and, after being introduced to a catalog, he became even more certain about the matter and began to inquire about the price.

“This layered structure is priced the same as the Laike House, at one hundred taels. There are a total of twenty steps and scenes, each costing three taels. The ones for gifts are ten wen each.”

The Lu family is in the shipping business and can be considered wealthy and powerful. The steward of the Lu family didn’t even bat an eye at spending this money and immediately nodded, saying, “We want two thousand of the ones for gifting.”

This added up to a total of one hundred and eighty taels. After signing the contract and settling the deposit, Qiao Yuan received ninety taels and was in a great mood. “Steward Lu, you can rest assured, we at Yu Qiao Ji will definitely handle this matter well!”

Steward Lu chuckled as he stroked his beard and said, “I wonder if there are still meat floss cakes in the shop. I heard that strong tea with floss cakes is now popular in town.”

This was all thanks to the hard work of Boss Zhu, the manager of Yuhuchun, who promoted it well. He had a good taste, and the tea aroma neutralized the sweetness of the bean paste in the meat floss cakes. These days, the meat floss cakes were snatched up as soon as they came out of the oven and were put on the shelves. If it weren’t for the shop being short of staff, Qiao Yuan would have wanted to increase the daily production.

However, the current hunger marketing method of limiting daily sales to one hundred seemed to be quite good. When there were enough staff, he would develop new varieties.

“Steward Lu, please tell me how many you want, and I will have someone deliver them to your mansion tomorrow.” Qiao Yuan said apologetically.

Steward Lu smiled and shook his head, “There is no need for that. The shop is busy with various matters, and there’s no need to trouble Boss Qiao. I will send a servant to pick them up tomorrow. The madam and young miss of the mansion have a sweet tooth, while the master and young master prefer savory flavors. We need sixty pieces of pastry for each type, and ten jin for everything else.”

Qiao Yuan was happy. He liked this kind of pre-ordered business the most, and politely sent Steward Lu away.

“Boss, what good thing happened? You look so happy.” After getting along for a few days, Ming Chen was no longer afraid of Qiao Yuan. He knew that as long as he worked hard and diligently, the boss was actually nice, and he never looked down on them or spoke rudely.

“A big business!” Qiao Yuan exclaimed happily. “You guys will have a lot of work to do!”

Ming Chen said, “Not afraid!”

Ming Xu also hurriedly showed his loyalty. “I… I’m not afraid either!”

Qiao Yuan briefly told them about Lu family’s order for pastries tomorrow, and then said, “Work hard for a few more days, and it will be better when we hire more people for the shop.”

The time-consuming part of making egg cakes was on Meng Bei’s side, and it would not take long for Ming Chen to bake them. And now Ming Chen also knew how to make meat floss cakes, with his help, they would have more than enough for tomorrow.

It was just that Ming Xu and Ming Chen had to get up early every day, and Qiao Yuan felt a bit embarrassed. “Tomorrow afternoon, when the shop is not busy, you can go to the clothing shop we went to last time and buy two more cotton clothes. It’s getting colder and colder.”

Ming Xu and Ming Chen thanked the boss with a smile. They would have cotton clothes to wear this winter!

They heard that the well in the old house had already dug out water, and they just needed to continue digging deeper and reinforcing it. To avoid the excessive enthusiasm of the villagers, Qiao Yuan and Yu Dameng went home after finishing their work, and didn’t go to join the crowd there, but went straight back to their small home.

Yu Laoda was also with them on their way back so they couldn’t act intimately.

At this moment, as soon as they got home, Qiao Yuan locked the door and pulled Yu Dameng back to the bedroom to look at the silver.

Yu Dameng felt embarrassed as he also took out the dividend from the iron shop for the past ten months that his father had just given him. “Father said I can’t spend all the money that my husband earns all year round. He left thirty taels of silver in the account, and the iron shop will settle the accounts every month. This is the money for the past ten months, a total of thirty-seven taels and five qian, all here.”

Qiao Yuan had been busy making money and hadn’t thought about this. In this wicked feudal society, as a ger who was someone’s husband, if he was stronger than the man of the house, it would make the man lose face.

But he didn’t indulge men’s bad temper. He immediately pushed Yu Dameng to sit on the stool, sat on top of him, and questioned him, “I ask you, I earn more money than you. Do you feel uncomfortable? Do you feel like you have no face?”

Yu Dameng held onto Qiao Yuan’s waist and grinned, saying, “How could it be? My husband is very powerful!” He paused and added, “But sometimes I see you so tired, I feel like I’m useless.”

“Don’t say that!” Qiao Yuan covered Yu Dameng’s mouth, “How can you be useless? If you’re not by my side, what’s the point of me making money? What’s the point of me living here?”

This time Yu Dameng covered his mouth, “Don’t say that.”

Qiao Yuan bit his finger and said, “I do these things, not just for money. It’s because I like it, do you understand? I’m happy when I have something to do. I don’t want to be like other gers, staying at home all day and not going out.”

“I understand, just like how my older brother likes to read, I also like to make iron tools.”

“And-” Qiao Yuan’s tone changed as he grabbed Yu Dameng’s ear, warning him that he would be punished if he dared to object. “I will earn more and more money in the future. Don’t you want to be with me? Don’t you want me to be your husband? Hm?”

Yu Dameng became anxious and quickly said, “I do, I don’t mean that!”

Qiao Yuan shook his head and said, “I understand, but you need to have more confidence in yourself. You are very capable, with a skill that can earn you a living. You have served in the military, fought in wars, protected your country, and you can read.”

“In my heart, no one can compare to you!” Qiao Yuan added.

Nothing he said before could compare to Qiao Yuan’s last sentence, and Yu Dameng’s smile almost reached his ears.

After hesitating for a moment, he blushed and lowered his head, biting his little husband’s mouth.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you want to show your support, you can buy me a coffee. It would make my day! For every five coffees I get, I will release a bonus chapter.