Chapter 180: Chapter 180

Fu Qing ordered a hundred bottles of old baijiu and also bought one bottle each of the other wines recommended by Yu Xiaolian. He planned to take them back for their princely heir to try, to see if they were as good as Yu Xiaolian claimed.

Yu Xiaolian didn’t hold back and gave Fu Qing a good squeeze, knowing it was Jun Mobai who would foot the bill.

She knew that Jun Mobai had money.

After Fu Qing left, Little Tiger and Su Jingyue, carrying their school bags, returned from school. They ran into the general store, where Little Tiger began pulling out copper coins from his pocket, hand after hand.

Yu Xiaolian quickly asked Little Tiger where the copper coins came from.

Little Tiger proudly replied, "My classmates asked me to bring them some candy, Sister Xiaolian. Count them and see if it’s exactly one hundred and fifty copper coins?

I collected money from fifteen people, ten coins each, and promised to bring each of them three pieces of candy tomorrow."

Yu Xiaolian counted them one by one, "It is indeed one hundred and fifty coins, but our candy costs three coins a piece, so you should return one coin to each person."

Little Tiger waved his hand, "No need, no need. I told them that one coin was my delivery fee, and they all agreed."

Little Tiger mumbled as he started grabbing candies, three pieces per person, six for two, nine for three, twelve for four...

Little Su, how many for four people?

I’ve run out of fingers to count.

Su Jingyue rolled his eyes, "You should count forty-five pieces."

Little Tiger began counting ten by ten, lost track, and had to start over, making Yu Xiaolian furrow her brows as she watched from the side.

Little Tiger had some smarts, but not much.

Mathematics seemed to be Little Tiger’s weak point.

It seemed that the after-dinner study session needed to include Little Tiger and Su Jingyue; they should be taught to recite the multiplication table.

Su Jingyue looked up at Yu Xiaolian, "Sister Xiaolian, will my brother have no water to drink because of the drought in the Northern Land?"

Yu Xiaolian had reminded Su Jingchen and Zheng Yuanfeng about the severe drought in the Northern Land, which was large, and not all parts of the north were completely dry. However, in some severely affected areas, the few available water sources were monopolized by the government and wealthy local merchants.

They made the local victims queue up to buy water, with limited sales at expensive prices.

This also caused a severe population loss in the Northern Land, later leading to a sparse population.

Claiming to relieve disaster, yet monopolizing the only water sources in the disaster area for profit.

Yu Xiaolian patted Su Jingyue’s head, knowing the little guy didn’t say much, but he was actually missing his family and his brother.

"Your brother will be fine."

In the story, after Yao Shi left with the family money and children, Su Jingyue and Su Jingchen were left behind and followed a group of refugees, struggling toward Funan, hoping to seek refuge with their maternal grandparents. On the way, Su Jingyue contracted a cold, developed a high fever and convulsions, and eventually died untreated.

Even in such difficult circumstances, Su Jingchen made it through, so he should be fine now.

The most severely affected areas were around Yangcheng, and although Linzhou was north of Yangcheng, it should have been less affected by the disaster. However, Yu Xiaolian wondered if Su Jingchen was still at the county school in Linzhou.

After comforting Su Jingyue, Yu Xiaolian went to the tin shop next door and asked Zhang Zhihe to quickly make another batch of wine containers.

"A hundred?" Zhang Zhihe was shocked.

When Taotao Residence opened, he went there and strolled around. He knew their old baijiu packaged in tin containers was priced at five taels of silver per bottle.

But he said nothing at the time and returned after just taking a lap.

He thought to himself that the Yu Family must be crazy for money.

The outside liquor only sold for three hundred coins per jin, so who would be foolish enough to spend five taels of silver on this kind of wine?

Even the better-quality wine in major restaurants couldn’t sell for five taels of silver per pot.

During that time, Zhang Zhihe pretended to pass by the entrance of Taotao Residence every other day to sneak a peek at the old baijiu on the shelves.

Seeing that not a single bottle was missing, he knew the Yu Family was not good at business.

They didn’t understand the concept of small profits but quick returns, so what kind of business were they doing?

Flashy, over-packaged, and overpriced.

Just a few days after his complaints, Yu Xiaolian came over again to order wine containers.

And not just a few, but a hundred.

Zhang Zhihe was stunned.

There really were fools who bought it!

However, with Yu Xiaolian’s wine selling well, he also had silver to earn. At this moment, he hoped there would be more such fools.

When Yu Xiaolian was about to leave, Zhang Zhihe couldn’t help but ask, "Who’s that person with more money than sense?"

Yu Xiaolian replied it was the Princely Heir of Prince Huainan.

That... indeed has money.

At the same time, he finally understood that part of Taotao Residence’s offerings were not intended for small profits but quick returns. They were prepared for those who didn’t mind spending money.

So what if they didn’t sell a bottle a day? They might not open for three years but one opening earns them three years’ worth.

Alas, can’t compete with that.

However, using tin containers to package wine had saved his half-dead tin shop.

Zhang Zhihe was immediately moved, Princely Heir, do you know that you saved two shops?

No more words, I need to hurry and tell this good news to my father.

When Yu Xiaolian returned to her family’s general store, two handmaidens appeared, checked the signboard, and then entered together.

Seeing the handmaidens, Yu Xiaolian guessed they were maidservants of the ladies from the Women’s Virtue Academy across the street. Fu Zihan had mentioned that someone would visit in a couple of days, but she didn’t expect the ladies were so anxious and sent people over the same day.

On orders from their mistresses, the two handmaidens came to buy toiletries such as shampoo, body wash, essential oil soap, snow cream, lip balm, and eyebrow pencils, and they bought two sets of identical products.

After the two handmaidens, carrying their goods, just exited the door, they saw several more handmaidens rushing towards Taotao Residence.

In this way, under Fu Zihan’s vigorous promotion, Yu Xiaolian sold out all the toiletries on the shelves in one afternoon.

Some who didn’t manage to buy any were told by Yu Xiaolian to come back the next day.

Yu Xiaolian roughly calculated the money and found that just that afternoon, she earned over nine hundred taels of silver.

The reason it was only an approximate number was due to broken silver and copper coins, which she was too lazy to count.

Thanks to Fu Zihan, she earned a small profit, and Yu Xiaolian felt she couldn’t just remain silent without any gesture.

Reciprocity was something she understood.

But what should she give Fu Zihan?

She appeared to lack nothing, as she picked and bought everything she liked.

Finally, after much deliberation, Yu Xiaolian decided to give Fu Zihan something different—a bottle of nail polish.

For dinner, it was stew again, with Granny Sun making pork stewed with cabbage.

Yu Xiaolian added red oil pickled mustard, Lao Gan Ma stir-fry sauce, and oil-seeping salted duck eggs from the supermarket to the meal.

After the family finished dinner, Yu Xiaolian started teaching Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou again.

Both of them had made significant progress in arithmetic, as their calls for Yu Xiaolian’s help reduced notably throughout the day.

However, Yu Xiaolian still felt it necessary to teach Little Tiger, Su Jingchen, and the others the multiplication table.

Just because they could calculate, didn’t mean they were quick, just that they memorized the process through repetition.

Yu Xiaolian dared to bet, if she adjusted the braised meat price up by a few cents now, her father and her uncle would surely be confused again.

It was like Small Red plus Small Ming equals Small Gang, but if you asked Small Gang minus Small Ming, they’d be sorry, they wouldn’t know.

Yu Xiaolian found a large cardboard box that contained instant noodles in the supermarket, and then took out a thick black marker, assuming the role of a little teacher.

After neatly copying the multiplication table on the back of the cardboard box, Yu Xiaolian led them in reciting it over and over. This time even Madame Sun and Grandma Sun didn’t escape, they had to learn to recite it too.

The whole family, every single one.