Chapter 180 - 180:  178: There are all kinds of birds when the forest is big.

The bookstore business was doing quite well – perhaps due to the foundation left by Nan Tianzong or perhaps due to the presence of Miss Gan Miaoruo. The business seemed to be doing even better than when Nan Tianzong was around.

Whenever Gan Miaoruo visited, she didn’t come alone. She would always bring one or two servants with her, bringing along different kinds of exquisite snacks.

The cleaning job gradually shifted over to these two servants. The exquisite snacks gradually took control over everyone’s stomachs and also gathered Gan Miaoruo, Di Xuan, and Di Ying together in jest and laughter. Whenever Liu Sisi was busy, Gan Miaoruo would take on the role of an older sister, teaching the two children instead.

Excluding costs, the bookstore could make about one to two taels of silver on less profitable days, and up to five to ten taels of silver on more profitable days.

The most profitable days were usually on Market Days, while earnings decreased in the cold season.

She also discovered that the customers who truly came to the bookstore to buy calligraphy tools were from wealthy families who often bought many items at once. These days brought about a surge in her income.

Another wealthy family visited today and bought quite a lot of items. Liu Sisi was carefully calculating her earnings.

Meanwhile, Gan Miaoruo, practicing her studies, put down her brush in dissatisfaction: “What kind of broken brush is this! It doesn’t listen to me at all, Di Xuan must’ve mesmerized it. Otherwise, why wouldn’t it obey me?”

Gan Miaoruo had strong learning abilities, able to deduce one from the other. However, her intelligence was also her greatest weakness, making her impatient. For instance, writing characters required her to sit quietly and practice each stroke. This was almost unbearable for her.

“Didn’t you say that the brush in your hand wasn’t good enough? How come you just exchanged it with me, and yet you’re again saying it doesn’t work?”

Di Xuan patiently set down his brush, took the character that Gan Miaoruo was practicing, and wrote it neatly: “You need to write each and every stroke carefully in order for the characters to be written well. My mother said, you need to practice strokes first to build a good foundation.”

Di Xuan’s handwriting was exceptionally good. Even though he hadn’t developed his writing style, his characters stood out in Gan Miaoruo’s pile of characters like a crane standing among chickens.

“Di Xuan! Did you do this on purpose?”

Gan Miaoruo was so angry, her cheeks puffed out, she stood there glaring and stamping: “Look at you, you ruined my homework again!”

Indeed, she’d have to rewrite this assignment!

“Di Xuan, you’ll pay for this!”

Gan Miaoruo vehemently waved her fists.

Di Xuan also felt quite embarrassed, “Sister Ruo Ruo, I didn’t do it on purpose…”

“I don’t care, I don’t care! I want compensation; you have to compensate me!” As she spoke, she rushed over trying to snatch the exercise di Xuan held in his hand.

Looking at the two of them fooling around, Liu Sisi couldn’t help but shake her head.

This kind of scene had happened almost every day for the past few days. From initial anxiety to her present calmness, it took some understanding.

Although Gan Miaoruo appeared dominant, she was simply a rambunctious girl who lacked parental affection. Once you understood her temperament, she was relatively easy to handle.

“Brother, Sister Ruo Ruo, stop fooling around. Come and see, does the flower YingEr drew look like a real one?”

The playfulness of the two was interrupted by YingEr’s shout.

Liu Sisi was anxious in her heart. Quite a few days had passed, and Ye Lei still hadn’t returned. Could he really have encountered some problems?

The nightmare of that day resurfaced in her mind. Every passing day was unbearably difficult.

Di Ruoning came to the Di Residence twice more, but the main entrance remained closed with nobody at home. She had no choice but to return in disappointment.

It was Old Man Li who was tarnishing Liu Sisi’s reputation everywhere.

One time, when she caught him red-handed, he ran faster than a rabbit, not at all hampered by his limp.

She was furious but was utterly helpless against such a shameless person.

Seeing that the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, Liu Sisi planned to make mooncakes herself.

The grain in their home was not plentiful, so she took a bull-cart to town and bought back the ingredients for the mooncakes early.

Not long after, Guihua also came over, bringing along the mooncake molds as well.

Liu Sisi first ground the red bean paste, meat filling, rock sugar, sunflower seeds, white gourd candy, sesame, peanuts…everything was prepared. She didn’t intend to make that many types of mooncakes, planning only to make red bean, five nuts, char siu, and lotus seed mooncakes based on her situation.

Because Guihua’s family always made their own mooncakes and had ready-made molds on hand, the two of them worked quickly. They were able to make thirty of each type of mooncake in just one morning.

Liu Sisi did some calculations. Half for her and Guihua, a few for the large group in the old house, and one serving each for the Land Officer, the Gan family, and Brother Nan. After tallying the count, not many mooncakes would really remain for her own consumption.

The mooncakes she made herself were noticeably larger than the ones Liu Sisi had eaten in the past, by a whole lot.

“Sisi, have you heard? Old Man Li really found a family willing to do surrogacy.”

In her hands, she was kneading mooncakes while gossiping.

“Oh? He really found one? That… can’t be possible, right? Who are they?” Liu Sisi was somewhat surprised.

Guihua nodded, her face beaming with amusement.

“I heard it’s one Dong Family from the north mountain. The man with the surname Dong lost an arm in an accident years ago, so he has no ability to farm. His wife supports the entire family. Three years after their marriage, she has already given birth to three sons. Seeing that this woman is good-looking and fertile, Elderly Mr. Di even suggested letting this woman live in the Upper Village until she gave birth to the child and sent her back.”

“It really is a big world with all kinds of people…” Liu Sisi sighed, asking casually.

“Actually, this kind of thing wasn’t unusual years ago.”

Guihua lifted her head to glance at Liu Sisi, leaning in to whisper, “The late Emperor was excessively licentious in his early years, and beautiful women, regardless of whether they were married or not, were taken to the palace. Even the Emperor’s minions followed suit, causing a sharp decrease in the number of women of appropriate age in civilian life. We, who live in a remote, mountainous area, were lucky to have avoided this catastrophe. In the towns near the county, only one out of ten households had women. So surrogacy was quietly carried out both openly and covertly.”

“What? You mean… there are a lot of situations like this?” Liu Sisi widened her eyes in shock. This was too much to accept.

“People were forced into this. Some did it to carry on their line; others did it because of their inability to shoulder the heavy taxes. Fortunately, the current Emperor explicitly prohibited this behavior after his ascension to the throne, with fines for those who were discovered. As long as no one exposed the situation, the government was happy to turn a blind eye.”

Guihua also sighed regretfully.

“I see, oppressive governance is to blame… By the way, what’s the name of the wife of the man surnamed Dong?” Liu Sisi shook her head and sighed before asking.

Guihua immediately showed interest, “Ha! You won’t believe it, but because this type of situation has become so rare, I specially asked. This woman also has the last name Liu, and her name is Liu Zhi’er.”

Clatter!

The mooncake mold in Liu Sisi’s hand fell to the ground, her face deathly pale.

“You said… this woman’s name is what? Liu Zhi’er, are you sure you didn’t remember it wrong?”

——

The recent plot is transitioning, so there is a bit more expository text, but by this point, most of it has been introduced. The following parts have already lifted the curtain, and I hope you all will enjoy it! Tiger greeting everyone! Whining whining whining….