Translator – Xiao He Lian
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Chapter 74.1
As dusk fell, the rapid sound of horse hooves suddenly stopped.
“Master, we’re here.” Yang Zong said in a low voice.
The man leaning against the edge of the carriage slowly opened his eyes, then got off the carriage as if nothing had happened and walked into the gate of the Duke of Zhenguo’s Mansion.
It was already dark, when Lu Yan entered the bathroom. Amid the hot air, veins bulged on the man’s forehead, and his eyes were full of anger and frustration. The silence was mixed with his increasingly heavy breathing.
Sui Yu’s words suddenly rang in his ears – “As the saying goes, Clothes are better when new, friends are better when old. Now that her childhood sweetheart is back, are you panicking?”
He suddenly sneered. He had worked so hard to get her father back to the court, but what about her?
Crying to another man?
Why? Are you overjoyed to reunite after a long separation?
After turning off the lights, the man was gnashing his teeth secretly. After all, he was the one who spoiled her.
The next morning, the mist dissipated and the sun rose.
After Lu Yan finished his breakfast, he put down his chopsticks, stood up, and whispered to Yang Zong, “Did you receive a letter?”
Yang Zong swallowed his saliva, wiped his sweat and said: “I haven’t received it yet.” God knows, Yang Zong’s neck became numb from looking at the sky these two days, but he couldn’t see a single white pigeon.
Hearing this, Lu Yan’s lips curled up into a smile.
Great, Just great!
Lu Yan picked up the black hat and strode out. Yang Zong rubbed his face with his hands at the gloomy figure.
——
The 17th year of Yuanqing, the first day of June, West Market of Chang’an.
Shen Zhen opened the door of Baixiang Pavilion early in the morning.
Summer is the best time for selling items such as powder and cosmetics. Due to time constraints, Shen Zhen only mixed more than 30 bottles of powder and opened the store.
Qingxi fiddled with the furnishings while saying, “Miss, the cabinets on the left are still empty, but do you want to use the stock in the warehouse to display them?”
Shen Zhen shook his head. “No, the scented powder in the warehouse is a bit old and the smell is not as strong as before. I plan to grow some flowers here to sell.”
“flowers?”
“Yes, when I was in Yangzhou, I found that flowers are very popular nowadays, and the profit is very high. A magnolia can be sold for three thousand coins if it is slightly trimmed. I calculated that if I sell peonies in Chang’an City, I might be able to sell them for five thousand coins.”
Qingxi smiled and said, “I didn’t expect that the Miss also has a talent for business.”
Shen Zhen held her chin and sighed.
If it weren’t for the eight thousand copper coins last year that almost forced to sign a contract to sell herself, she wouldn’t be thinking about making money every day now.
Speaking of which, ever since Shen Zhen refused the “Hongmen Banquet1(The Hongmen Feast is a Chinese idiom that originated from a historical allusion. It comes from Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian: The Biography of Xiang Yu in the Western Han Dynasty. This idiom refers to an invitation to a banquet with ill intentions, and is a metaphor for a banquet that intends to harm the guests)“, she has been feeling uneasy, and her right eyelid has been twitching for two days.
She raised her hand and pressed her eyes..
Qingxi asked: “Miss, what’s wrong with your eyes?”
“My right eyelid keeps twitching. I always feel like something bad is about to happen.”
Qingxi immediately said, “Miss, words spoken out loud are always effective for good but not for bad, so don’t speak recklessly!”
However, before Qingxi’s words fell to the ground, Shen Zhen saw Sun Mi walking in with two old women and two maids. She looked around and casually said, “I heard that the things you have here are exquisite, so I came here specially to take a look.”
Shen Zhen stood up and said softly, “I wonder which one A’mi likes?” Before the incident at Yunyang Marquis’ Mansion, Shen Zhen always called her Second Miss Sun in a very polite manner, but Sun Mi felt that it was not close enough and forced Shen Zhen to call her A’mi.
Sun Mi’s father was only a fifth-rank counselor in the past, which was obviously inferior to Shen Zhen, the daughter of a marquis. So the closer Shen Zhen treated her, the more those noble ladies would displease Sun Mi.
But within a year, Sun Mi became the daughter of a third-rank minister of industry, while Shen Zhen became the daughter of a criminal. With her identity changed, hearing her call A’Mi will inevitably pricked her ears
Sun Mi smiled, thinking that Shen Zhen was trying to get close to her on purpose, so she took some more powder and rouge from the cabinet, “It’s rare for me to come out, I want all of these, you can calculate how much they are in total.”
Shen Zhen lowered his head, fiddled with the abacus and said, “Ten copper coins.”
Sun Mi’s eyes flinched, “Ten copper coins? Shen Zhen, I came here to help your business out of kindness, are you trying to rob me?”
“A’Mi, you have a unique vision. The ones in your hand happen to be the incense sticks I have made with the most exquisite ingredients. Naturally… they are more expensive than the others.” Shen Zhen’s tone of voice was extremely sincere.
Sun Mi took a deep breath, said “OK”, and then said to the momo beside her while gritting her teeth: “Give her the money.”
The old woman glared and threw copper coins at Shen Zhen.
Sun Mi left angrily, but Qingxi laughed, “Miss is great! You were quick on your feet and managed to sell it at twice the amount and sold it to Miss Sun Er.”
Shen Zhen stood there in a daze, with a serious look on her face. After a long while, she said, “This second young lady of the Sun family is not new to the city, nor is it her first time going out on the streets. She knows exactly how much these things are worth. They are worth less than two copper coins but I deliberately sold them to her for ten. Everyone knows that the price is high, so why did she still buy them?”
After hearing this, Qingxi suddenly had an epiphany and asked hurriedly, “Could it be that she has a reason to buy it?”
Shen Zhen nodded and said slowly: “Although I can’t guess the reason, I know that with Sun Mi’s personality, she definitely didn’t come here today to give me money.”
Now, Qingxi’s face looked unhappy too.
After a long silence, Shen Zhen said slowly, “Let’s record all the perfume powders in the cabinet. From now on, whenever someone comes to buy perfume powders from Baixiang Pavilion, let them try them out and sign before leaving.”
“Miss, do you mean that the second daughter of the Sun family is going to tamper with the perfume powder?”
“This is just my guess…”
Just then she suddenly remembered that once upon a time someone had suddenly rushed into her Baixiang Pavilion with a group of yamen servants and three doctors, insisting that there was something wrong with her fragrance…..
——
Xu Mansion.
Xu Lianyi, the fourth daughter of the Xu family, was drinking tea and playing chess with Xu Yiqing at this time.
A maid bowed and said, “Fourth Miss, Seventh Miss, the spies came back and said that the second young lady of the Sun family just went to the Baixiang Pavilion in the West Market.”
Xu Lianyi shook the teacup and said, “Isn’t what that silly girl did a little too obvious? If she really causes trouble, it will not end well. Qing’er, why don’t you give her some advice?”
“Sun Mi is not stupid.” Xu Yiqing said with a smile.
“What do you mean?”
Xu Yiqing said: “Sun Xu, the Junior Magistrate of Jingzhao Prefecture, is her second brother.”
“I actually forgot about this, but I remember that their two families were not close.” Xu Lianyi said.
“No matter how close they are or not, they are all surnamed Sun. They still have to give each other some face.”
Xu Lianyi asked: “What if the Eastern Palace is protecting her?”
T/N – Wish y’all a merry Christmas!
