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Yingbao was at a loss.

Marriage was for a woman’s parents to decide, how could an outsider interfere?

Moreover, Chuchu was not young. It was indeed time for her to be married.

“Why not try talking to my master?” Yingbao suggested to her.

In her view, Mrs. Wen was a highly respected elder woman here and was best suited to discuss this matter with Chuchu’s father.

“However, Chuchu, I think my master may at most help you postpone for half a year. After the autumn harvest, you will still have to return home with your father.” That was the truth.

Chuchu was already sixteen this year, and once the new year passed, she would be seventeen. Indeed, in the countryside, there were very few girls aged sixteen or seventeen who were not married yet.

Chuchu pulled a face, nodded, and immediately dragged Yingbao off in search of Mrs. Wen.

Mrs. Wen was quite open-minded. Seeing Chuchu’s determination, she agreed to help her this time.

When Chuchu happily ran off to help the nanny, Mrs. Wen pointed at Yingbao and scolded her, “You little minx, giving me trouble as soon as you get back. Come here and review the lessons you missed.”

“Yes.” Yingbao giggled and sat down to study with Wen Shu.

During the break, Wen Shu told Yingbao, “We’ll be heading back to Yuzhou in a few days.”

Yingbao frowned, “Why?”

Wen Shu lowered her voice, “My grandparents have asked me to come back.” She did not have the face to tell Yingbao that it was because she was already eleven years old, and she had to return home for the family introductions.

In fact, it wasn’t just Chuchu who had the trouble of marriage, she did too, so her mother agreed to help Chuchu this time.

But women were meant to be married. As much as she resisted, she had to compromise.

Yingbao had always known that a day would come when they would have to part. And that this parting might well be lifelong.

She went up and hugged Wen Shu, rested her cheek on her chest, speaking softly, “Remember me when you go back, and write to me often. Don’t be like last time when you disappeared without a trace.”

Wen Shu didn’t expect Yingbao to say this, and burst into laughter: “I thought you would be reluctant to let me leave.”

“Even if I don’t want you to go, you’ll still leave.” Yingbao sighed, “There’s no such thing as a perpetual feast in the world. Remembering you in my heart is enough.”

Wen Shu gently tugged at her hair, nodded, and said softly, “I’ll always be thinking of you, and I’ll write to you often. Yingbao, you must take care of yourself. If you ever have any difficulties, write to me. My family has a pharmacy in Prefecture City called Kang’an Pharmacy, and my father is currently practicing there.”

Yingbao nodded, “Okay, I understand.”

Wen Shu added, “Someone will be arranged from Yuzhou to come here. If you want to send a letter, you can give it to that person.”

“Hmm.”

A few days later, Chuchu’s father came to fetch Chuchu, as expected was sent away by Mrs. Wen, and he never came back thereafter.

After about ten days, Yanru had used up all the candy and managed to make more than a hundred pounds of apricot and peach preserves, as well as some pear preserves.

All these preserved fruits have been dried and packed into jars. Some were taken by Jiang Quan to the county town for sale.

However, the preserved fruit was not selling well, and the fresh fruit was more popular.

Jiang Quan and his elder brother, Jiang Cheng, picked the mature apricots and peaches during these days and transported them to the county town in a cart, setting up a fruit stall in front of Yingbao’s shop, and the business was booming.

In between, their uncle, Jiang San, also visited once, spending some money to get the house and the shop front repaired and let his nephew, Dacheng, look after it.

The money to repair the house was given by his little niece, over a hundred taels in total. It was an advance payment from Mrs. Wen for the gold earrings, which was finally depleted.

Seeing that the grapes and peppers were ripe, Yingbao decided to pick some and send them to Wu Daozi for tasting, taking her younger brother to visit the old gentleman at the same time.

The cart first stopped in front of the shop. Jiang Quan and his older brother who came along unloaded three baskets of grapes from the cart. Leaving one basket in the cart, they intended to give it to old Mr. Wu the next day.

Yingbao also filled a basket with some grapes and left it in the cart.

After that, Jiang San drove the cart first to their new house on Plum Blossom Lane. He wanted to tidy it up and check on how the carpenter’s progress was going.

Meanwhile, Yingbao led her little brother, Jiang Jie, around the shop to inspect.

The shop had been cleaned thoroughly with some new small bamboo baskets stacked inside.

The damaged areas of the house had been repaired, even the three thatched huts at the back were now fixed, but the interior was still empty, nothing to be seen.

Jiang Quan followed behind his little cousin, laughing: “From now on, I’ll be the store manager of this shop.”

Yingbao was serious, “Second brother, after you become the shopkeeper, you’ll become a merchant.”

“A merchant is a merchant.” Jiang Quan nonchalantly said.

Jiang Cheng gave his brother a look, “You being a merchant is fine, just don’t drag Yuanbao into it.”

“What do you mean?” Jiang Quan frowned, “I’m doing my business, how does it concern Yuanbao?”

Yingbao: “Because Mingfu said, if any family member becomes a merchant, then the whole family is considered as merchants.”

Jiang Quan scratched his head, and after a moment of silence, he suddenly said, “Then I’ll separate myself. I’ll be a family of my own, unrelated to anyone else.”

Jiang Cheng snorted, “How old are you? You’re not an adult yet, and you haven’t set up a family or business, how can you split the family?”

“That” Jiang Quan was at a loss for words.

Jiang Cheng continued, “I just turned into an adult this year.” He glanced at his little cousin, “So, I can be the manager of this shop.”

Jiang Quan was instantly angered, “No! I, I” He stuttered for a while but didn’t come up with a rebuttal.

Truly, since his older brother had come of age, if he proposed to separate the families to do business, their parents would definitely not object.

Jiang Jie, looking up at his older brothers, said, “Big Brother is not married yet.” Which meant he hadn’t set up a home or a business. Jiang Jie understood this.

Jiang Cheng pinched his little cousin’s cheek, and his lower voice contained a threat: “I won’t buy you a lamb skewer later!”

But Jiang Quan next to him laughed: “It doesn’t matter, Xiaojie, I will buy you one later.”

Yingbao was standing beside them –

At this time, two men dressed in black entered the shop.

“Huh? Are you selling western region grapes?” one of them, upon seeing the two buckets of purple grapes in the shop, picked a few to taste, his mouth full as he spoke: “Pretty good. How much per kilogram?”

Jiang Quan quickly ran over, “Fifty coins per kilogram. You’re the first customer today, so let me give you a discount. Let’s make it thirty-five coins per kilogram.”

This customer was a regular. He had bought fruit from him several times before.

The servant in black grimaced, picked a few more grapes and put them in his mouth, muttering, “Okay okay, thirty coins per kilogram. Give me ten kilograms.” Pulling out three hundred copper coins from his waist pouch.

Whilst complaining of making a loss, Jiang Quan weighed ten kilograms of grapes for him. Because there was nothing to package the fruit in, he gave away a small bamboo basket.

The person who came with the servant also weighed five kilograms, handed over one hundred and fifty coins, and took away a basket to put the grapes in without any courtesy.

After the two left, Jiang Quan put all the coins into a wooden box and grumbled, “Lost another ten coins.”

These bamboo baskets were all purchased from a peddler for five coins each, specifically for customers who bought a lot of fruit.

Yingbao: “That’s okay. It’s not a loss.”

Although selling grapes for thirty coins per kilogram wasn’t costly, it was not cheap either. The advantage was that these grapes were grown by them, hence, no cost was involved. If they were procured from a fruit store in the county town and resold, then it would be a loss.

At that moment, Yingbao felt that her second cousin might be better suited as an apprentice.