Chapter 101: Settling In
Less than one incense stick’s time, Feng Chaoyang arrived at the dance hall doorway with his little buddies.
It was too late today, so Zhou Wangshu handed them over to Chen Buyu for arrangement, telling him to discuss the specifics tomorrow and first arrange a place for them to stay.
At this time, the lantern festival had already ended, and it was deep into the night. Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu did not linger too long at the dance hall and soon returned to the backyard of Peach Blossom Workshop to rest.
Early the next morning, when Zhou Wangshu headed to the academy, Su Yaoguang had not yet gotten up. By the time she woke, the others had already arranged the shop’s matters. Seeing her exhausted appearance, they nudged each other, wanting to ask something but hesitant, their eyes burning with flames of curiosity.
“Daughter, how was your fun with Wangshu last night?” Zhang Zhaodi asked.
Su Yaoguang said while gnawing on a steamed bun, “Very good!”
“Was the lantern festival fun?”
“Fun.” Su Yaoguang said, touching the corner of her mouth and sucking in a breath of cold air, “Oh no, I ate too miscellaneous last night and got a blister in my mouth.”
Jiang Jing leaned over: “Open your mouth, let me see.”
Su Yaoguang took a sip of clear water, opened her mouth, and let Jiang Jing check.
Seeing that Su Yaoguang was no different from usual, Zhang Zhaodi muttered, “What exactly was I expecting? Even if these two little ones get married, what’s the difference from not being married?”
“Don’t worry, Wangshu is still a bit too young. It’ll be fine in a couple of years,” Zhang Pandi said. “I think that child Wangshu is quite honest.”
“He’s studying now, but if he passes the exam for an official position in two years, he might look down on our Yaoguang. To be honest, I’d rather his schoolwork be a bit worse and he not aim for an official position,” Zhang Zhaodi said in a lowered voice. “Otherwise, after raising him for so long, finding out he’s an ungrateful person would just waste time and money, right?”
“Cousin is great too! If he’s really that kind of person, it means he doesn’t deserve cousin,” Jia Chunni said unconvinced. “Cousin deserves the best man in the world.”
“Chunni is right,” Zhang Yingdi agreed.
Zhang Zhaodi felt a bit better inside.
There weren’t many customers today, so Su Yaoguang took Jiang Jing and her two aunts to the backyard to continue making the next batch of skincare products. If Jia Chunni couldn’t manage, Zhang Zhaodi would come over to say so, and then they would go to the front yard to help greet customers.
“The shop opposite has been rented out. Look at that huge commotion, who knows what shop it’ll be.”
Su Yaoguang paused her busy movements. She looked up at Zhang Zhaodi and said, “Mom, inquire if it’s Jiang Yihuan and Zhong Lanhua who rented the shop opposite.”
“Them? Why do you suspect it’s them?”
“I saw Jiang Yihuan and Xiao Ci yesterday and overheard their conversation. It seemed like they were talking about doing business,” Su Yaoguang said. “Based on my understanding of that mother-daughter pair, they’ll definitely try every means to cause us trouble. This is just my guess, but inquiring first is always safe, to avoid being passive everywhere.”
“Alright, I’ll go inquire right away.”
After a while, Zhang Zhaodi returned and said, “I found out. It’s not those two wicked women. The one renting the house is an out-of-towner, also a woman.”
“What shop does the opposite plan to open?”
“Didn’t find that out,” Zhang Zhaodi said. “The real estate agency only knows it’s an out-of-town woman renting the house, and they don’t even know what she’ll use it for.”
“We still need to pay attention to the situation opposite these few days,” Su Yaoguang said. “After all, it’s right across the street. If they’re hard to get along with, it will still affect our business.”
At the academy, Zhou Wangshu applied to the headmaster to live at home every day. The headmaster was initially troubled, but seeing Chen Buyu and Zhong Chushan also apply, he could only approve.
The headmaster knew that allowing only the three of them to go home would cause dissatisfaction among others, so he changed the rules, allowing those who lived nearby to also return home.
Xiao Yanci unusually did not step forward to stop it.
The Jiang family was about to start business soon, and once they had a place to live in the city, he would inevitably have to go back often to see Jiang Yihuan. Therefore, he would ‘reluctantly’ cooperate with them.
“You say you have other arrangements for those ten people?” Chen Buyu was surprised. “Brother Zhou, those ten beggars are all young. You said to arrange them to run errands at our dance hall—I think that’s no problem. Our dance hall has over a hundred people up and down, and we still often lack hands. Raising a few more young servants to run errands is completely fine. But if you want to arrange them separately, what can you do?”
“You just need to know they are my people. For now, keep them at your place. Once I arrange things here, I’ll take them away, so you must guarantee their safety.”
“If they were ten little girls, I couldn’t guarantee it—I still can’t twist my dad’s arm. But they are ten young servants; I can make that call.”
“If you can’t decide here, hand them to me to arrange. Our gambling house also lacks manpower; raising ten little beggars is more than enough,” Zhong Chushan said lazily with a grass stem in his mouth.
“Your gambling house’s business is too monotonous right now. I have some ideas here—want to hear them?” Zhou Wangshu said.
Zhong Chushan spat out the grass stem from his mouth and looked at him eagerly: “Brother, tell me quick, how to do it?”
Zhou Wangshu being the mysterious Zi Zhan Young Master was not hidden from him. He knew this newly befriended brother had helped Chen Buyu earn quite a bit of silver, giving Chen Buyu more say in front of his dad. His dad knew Zi Zhan Young Master was brought by Chen Buyu and now looked at him differently, not beating him recently.
As one of the famous second-generation rich dual swordsmen in the city, Zhong Chushan was also an incompetent young master who couldn’t study, constantly despised by his dad. His dad was about to bring back the illegitimate son he kept outside as a prospective heir. No matter how tough his mouth was, he couldn’t withstand his mom crying all day and bitterly begging him to strive, not to hand over his inheritance rights.
“I used to be a reckless one too, playing all over the land south and north of the Yangtze, a regular at gambling houses. I’ve seen plenty of gambling setups—outer regions’, capital city’s, great desert and northern frontier’s—all can be taught to you.”
“Brother, you must teach me well.”
“I want a cut,” Zhou Wangshu looked at him. “Close brothers settle accounts clearly—what’s in it for me?”
“Of course, I’m not one to take advantage of a brother.”
Xiao Yanci and a few classmate friends walked past from ahead. One of them saw the three and said sarcastically, “In today’s zither lesson, these three played worse than dogs barking. No good at literature, no good at the six arts of a gentleman. Zhong Chushan and Chen Buyu have some stinky money at home; that Zhou Wangshu is a son-in-law who lives with the wife’s family—how does he have the nerve to spend his wife’s family’s silver here idling away the days?”
“Brother Xiao, the teacher said your zither skill is somewhat similar to Zi Zhan Young Master’s. Could it be that you are Zi Zhan Young Master?” That person looked at Xiao Yanci with admiring eyes.
Xiao Yanci denied, “I’ve also heard that Zi Zhan Young Master’s zither sound. This person’s zither skill is indeed superb; without twenty or thirty years of dedicated study of the zither, there’s no way to reach that level.”
When Zi Zhan Young Master was playing, he and a few other classmates were in the dormitory room. A casual inquiry made it clear he wasn’t, and he wouldn’t falsely claim that identity.
Besides, a zither player was just a lowly person—what was there to impersonate? He disdained such things.
