Chapter 91: Lively
Miss Yan sold ten more copies of the Thirty-Six Stratagems 《》, and she said excitedly:
“Your Highness, although not many are sold now, more and more people are inquiring about this book.”
“I estimate that by the Mid-Autumn Festival, the entire Yandi will be talking about it, and the book will definitely sell extremely well then.”
Jinsui praised with a smile, “Thanks to Miss Yan’s hard work in promoting it, I will never forget your assistance.”
The little girl’s face turned red again. Jinsui wondered if she should keep her distance from her.
Or perhaps she shouldn’t smile at her? Was this considered ‘flirting’?
Miss Yan lowered her head and said:
“If Your Highness wants to thank someone, thank my Eldest Brother. He teaches at the clan school, and many students eagerly attend his lectures. However, they heard the book is extremely expensive, so the students can only copy it themselves.”
Miss Yan thought of another matter and said with barely concealed joy, “The Rouge Workshop is completed, and Eldest Brother said I will manage it from now on.”
It seemed Yan Jiu truly doted on his sister. He was afraid Miss Yan would be too heartbroken by her ‘love affair’ and gave her something to do to distract her.
It was rare for gentry families to let unmarried daughters manage affairs, unless the workshop was to be her dowry, and she would only visit a few times a year.
Jinsui suddenly realized that this meant she would be in direct contact with Miss Yan from now on? That was too dangerous!
The young girl was young and naive. What if her love-struck state intensified, leading her to think, ‘Even if he is a eunuch, I don’t mind, I want to marry him’? That would be disastrous.
She quickly called out to Han Xing, “From now on, you will be responsible for the Rouge Workshop’s affairs, and you will liaise with Miss Yan.”
Han Xing was stunned and said helplessly, “Your Highness, you want me to manage rouge and powder?”
Jinsui smiled, “What are you managing? You don’t understand rouge and powder. Just listen to Miss Yan for everything.
You, on the other hand, will be responsible for running errands and collecting dividends. That’s a hen that lays golden eggs! From now on, the military funds for our Black Feather Camp will rely on the Rouge Workshop.”
Han Xing then accepted the task and looked at Miss Yan, cupping his hands, “Thank you, Miss Yan.”
Seeing his sister constantly talking with Prince Li, Yan Shiyi ran over with his bowl in a rather ungraceful manner, tasting every stir-fried dish as it came out of the wok.
Even so, he couldn’t keep quiet and said sarcastically:
“What are you two talking about? The food is getting cold.”
Jinsui rolled her eyes. A brother-obsessed and sister-obsessed man!
Miss Yan was also speechless. Her second brother’s attitude only made it seem like he was reminding others that she was still infatuated with Prince Li.
She glared at her second brother and then said, “We were talking about the Rouge Workshop. We’re done now.”
Yan Shiyi suddenly became excited, handed his bowl to a nearby bodyguard, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, and widened his round eyes even further:
“Speaking of the Rouge Workshop, Your Highness, I also want to partner with you in a business.”
Jinsui crossed her arms and smiled, “What does Turtle Young Master want to do? Sell salt?”
Yan Shiyi jumped up again:
“I told you to just call me Shiyi! It’s similar to selling salt. Your stir-fry dishes, if made in a restaurant, would be packed!”
“How about we partner to open a restaurant in Yanzhou City?”
Jinsui leaned her head back, “Yanzhou City does not welcome this King.”
“You don’t need to show your face. You just need to be responsible for training the cooks. Oh, and isn’t your Tuntian Camp reclaiming land and growing vegetables? That can be used for the restaurant. I’ll give you three percent of the profits, how about it?”
Jinsui shook her head, “Five percent.”
“Hiss, why are you so greedy? You’re just providing a cook.”
“The secret to delicious stir-fry is the sauce, which I will personally make. Five percent profit, or we don’t do it. Anyway, I wasn’t planning on opening a restaurant.”
Of course, she had thought about it, but she had envisioned opening one when she eventually returned to being Ling JinSui.
The sauce she mentioned was actually just simple soy sauce. This era had no soy sauce, only fermented bean paste, which could be used for stews but not for stir-fries.
Besides soy sauce, she had also made an improved version of cooking wine: yellow wine steeped with grains, the juice extracted through a linen cloth, clarified with osmanthus flowers. It was fragrant and removed any fishy smell when used in stir-fries.
Yan Shiyi gritted his teeth. Just then, a new dish was served, tomato stir-fried with eggs. There were only a few tomatoes, and they were only for the main guests’ tables.
Seeing everyone else at the table reaching for their chopsticks, waiting to grab this dish, Yan Shiyi, who loved tomato fish balls, was not about to miss out!
He quickly grabbed a bowl from a bodyguard and scooped up more than half a bowl of the dish, then came back to continue negotiating with Jinsui.
Because he was so fast, no one reacted at first.
By the time he got the dish and returned, Miss Yan had already covered her face in shame and walked away, pretending not to know him.
It was too embarrassing!
You are a young master of the Yan family, acting as if you don’t get enough to eat at home!
Miss Yan went to the Cheng family to see the bride, while Yan Shiyi was still pestering Jinsui. Jinsui couldn’t take it anymore:
“Five percent profit. If you agree, we’ll cooperate. If not, then forget it. I also need to attend the banquet. Goodbye.”
Yan Shiyi swallowed the last piece of tomato and stomped his foot, “Five percent it is, I’ll do it!”
“Let’s agree on this first, this dish must be included! It’s too delicious, I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without getting tired of it.”
Jinsui chuckled inwardly. This King truly had excellent fortune! Money was lining up to be delivered without her having to do much.
After she took her seat, Cheng Yu and the soldiers all came to toast her. She was prepared; she had sprinkled some wine on her clothes, and the wine she drank had already been replaced with plain boiled water.
Wei Assistant Secretary, who usually didn’t drink at all, was the first to get drunk.
Jinsui saw him still covering half his face after getting drunk and felt a pang of guilt. She had promised to find an opportunity to fix his teeth when they first met, but she had kept delaying it until now!
She asked Hei Hu to take Wei Assistant Secretary to her residence to rest. Seeing Hei Hu looking enviously at Cheng Yu, she asked with a smile:
“Do you want to get married too?”
Hei Hu nodded vigorously. Jinsui thought he was thinking of the round-faced Miss Bai, but then she heard him say:
“That red outfit looks so good! When I get married, I want to get one too!”
Jinsui: …
After several rounds of drinks, she left for home because the soldiers below wouldn’t feel at ease with her present.
As expected, once she left, the sounds of laughter and joy at the wedding banquet grew louder.
She first went to the kitchen and asked the cook to prepare tomato and egg stir-fry, stir-fried oilseed rape with garlic, stir-fried pork with celery, pan-fried kidney fish, and stewed chicken soup with mushrooms. Several small dishes were sent to the back residence.
Chen Yunniang and Miss Yan hadn’t eaten yet!
Upon returning home, she saw Wei Assistant Secretary sleeping soundly in the guest room and decided to give him a big surprise: to pull out his rotten teeth while he was drunk.
After administering anesthesia, he slept even more soundly. She took out tools from the laboratory and easily extracted two rotten teeth.
She then made two gold teeth for him with gold. The entire process took less than an hour. The toothache that had plagued Wei Assistant Secretary for years was cured, and he even got two gold teeth for free.
The next morning, Jinsui was not woken by the crowing of roosters, but by Wei Assistant Secretary’s exclamation.
He was already panicked to find himself sleeping in the Prince’s guest room. Then, upon accidentally discovering that his tooth no longer hurt, he looked in the mirror and saw that his two black, rotten teeth had been replaced by gold teeth.
How could he not be startled!
“Your Highness, there are truly immortals! I stayed here overnight, and an immortal replaced my rotten teeth with gold ones!”
Congratulations to Cheng Assistant Secretary on his wedding, requesting monthly tickets.
