Flowers in full bloom

Hua Lei turned around, sat down at the table, and said hesitantly, "I don't know whether I should go look for him or not. To be honest, if it weren't for the drunken marriage proposal between my grandfather and Pei's grandfather, we would have nothing to do with Dingbei Marquis's Mansion, and maybe their family members didn't even know about this marriage proposal.

Even if their families knew, without a marriage certificate, they might not acknowledge it. These aristocratic families have very strict rules, so how could they be interested in a country girl like me? Therefore, it is unlikely that they would acknowledge the engagement.

If we go to their house, they will think we are trying to get married, and we will be looked down upon." Hua Lei paused, "If grandfather had not written a letter to ask grandfather Pei to take care of us, we would have just ignored it.

But before my grandfather passed away, he said he had written a letter to Pei's grandfather. This is a bit embarrassing. As the younger generation, we have come to Beijing, and we have to pay our respects to our elders. But if we really go to pay our respects, others may not know who we are. Moreover, we are in mourning now. If we don't get the other party's nod, it would not be appropriate to go directly to Dingbei Marquis' Mansion, which would be taboo.

But if we don't go to pay our respects, they will think we have no rules, which is a dead end. Also, Pei's grandfather is not in the capital now. He has been fighting in Mobei. I heard that he hasn't returned to the capital for two years. "Hua Lei scratched her hair in distress. "Xiao Yuan, what do you think?"

Xiao Yuan looked at Hua Lei and said softly, "Sister, do you want to get married?"

"What did you say? Who to marry?" Xiaoyuan was speechless.

"Of course it's Grandfather Pei's eldest grandson, Pei Rongjin."

"Xiaoyuan, I haven't even met you, so how can you talk about getting married? Besides, I'm only twelve years old now, twelve years old, and still in the mourning period. You ask me if I want to get married?" Hua Lei screamed.

"If the other person is a good person and agrees to the engagement, we can get engaged within a hundred days. You are twelve years old now, so wait until the three-year mourning period is over and you reach the age of marriage, then you can get married."

Hua Lei stared at Xiao Yuan in a daze, "Xiao Yuan, you are only seven years old now, right?" Ah, so children in ancient times matured so early? He is only seven years old, how can he think about getting married? This is not right. Hua Lei was mad.

"But no matter what, the Dingbei Marquis's Mansion is a good family in terms of family background. If my sister can really marry into the Marquis's Mansion, she will have someone to rely on for the rest of her life."

"Ah, what if that person is not a good person, who indulges in eating, drinking, gambling, whoring, and doing all kinds of evil, and who is fat and ugly? Do you think that's good?" "This... can't be?" Xiao Yuan hesitated.

"It's not that it's impossible, it's very possible. Think about it, these people have been living a life of luxury since childhood, they must have eaten very well, right? If there is a table full of delicious food, won't they eat more unconsciously? Will they become fat and big-eared if they eat too much?" Hua Lei said while gesturing with her hands.

"Also, they have no worries about food and clothing, and have nothing to do all day, so will they flirt with cats and dogs and do whatever they want?" Xiao Yuan was speechless, "Then why don't we go and take a look first?" "How to see?" "Send a visiting card..." "Oh, forget it, let's talk about it later." "But you also said that if we don't go, will they say we have no rules?"

"This..." Hua Lei was speechless. "Then let's wait a few days until we are settled here." Hua Lei said with a headache.

After thinking for a while, Hualei restrained her expression, put on a serious face and asked, "Xiaoyuan, do you want me to marry into the Marquis' Mansion so that you can have a shortcut in the future?"

"Sister," Xiao Yuan's voice suddenly rose, and she said angrily, "Why do you look down on me so much? I am doing this for your own good."

"Um, okay, I understand." Hua Lei softened her tone and whispered, "Xiao Yuan, whether we go to the Marquis' Mansion to pay a visit or not, you must know that we can only rely on ourselves. I don't want to use this joke marriage that my grandfather talked about to ask others, and I don't want to be bound by this joke marriage.

If we go to the Marquis's Mansion, we will only go to the old friend's house to pay respect to the elders. If we can get them to take care of us, that would be the best. If not, we can't force them to do so.

Don't even try to make the other party fulfill the engagement. If the other party is very good, he will not look down on me. If the other party is very bad, I am not willing to jump into the fire pit. Do you understand? So..." Hua Lei said with emphasis.

"If we go to the Marquis' Mansion, it will be simply to pay a visit to our elders, do you understand? Don't have any improper expectations. Otherwise, we will be the only ones who will be embarrassed." Xiaoyuan nodded and said, "Sister, I understand." Hualei touched Xiaoyuan's head and thought, this is really a difficult problem. No, this is a complete dead end.

Forget it, don't think about it anymore, let Uncle Fu go and find out about the situation of Dingbei Marquis's Mansion in a few days. Maybe because she got up early in the morning, Hua Lei quickly felt sleepy. She took care of Xiao Yuan and went back to her room to sleep.

The work that the bricklayer could have completed in two days took three days because they had to separate the small kitchen of the bun shop and build a stove. Three days later, the desks and bookcases that the bookstore had reserved were also delivered.

Everyone helped to tidy up the bookstore. Seeing the brand new bookstore, everyone was happy. They hung the wooden plaque "Hua Ji Bookstore" inscribed by Grandfather Hua from the old house in front of the store. Hua Lei looked at the wooden plaque and thought of the amiable and respectable old man, and couldn't help but burst into tears. The things in the bookstore were almost tidied up. Hua Lei picked a good day recently and opened the store. Ping An was still the shopkeeper, and Xiao Qun did odd jobs.

After the bookstore opened, the steamed buns shop also opened soon after. Hualei personally wrote a wooden plaque made by a professional master and hung it in front of the steamed buns shop.

Although the four words "Hua Ji Restaurant" are a little immature, they have already taken shape and it is obvious that they were learned from Hua Ji Bookstore.

The steamed buns sold at Huaji Restaurant include black flour buns at 1 wen each, mixed flour buns at 3 wen, white flour buns at 5 wen, and meat buns at 8 wen, vegetable buns at 6 wen, and red bean paste buns at 7 wen. The restaurant also sells wontons of different sizes, with either vegetarian or meat fillings. A small wonton has 15 pieces, with vegetarian fillings at 10 wen and meat fillings at 15 wen.

Each large wonton has 10 pieces, and the vegetarian filling is 20 wen, and the meat filling is 25 wen. The filling is different every day. Hualei writes each type and the unit price on a blackened wooden board, and the filling of the wonton is written on the board every day, which is hung on the eye-catching wall of the bun shop.

The steamed buns shop usually has Aunt Song, Aunt Fu and Aunt Luo working together to make the steamed buns and wontons early in the morning. After the business opens, Aunt Song steams the buns and makes the wontons, Xile collects money and takes orders, Xiaoxiao serves, Aunt Fu washes the used dishes in the back, and Aunt Luo is flexible and maneuverable.

Uncle Fu used a mule cart to pull three-color steamed buns and three-flavor dumplings, wrapped them in a torn quilt and took them to the market to sell.

Unexpectedly, the products sold unexpectedly well, and sometimes they even had to go back for more sales. When Aunt Fu saw this, she stopped washing the dishes and asked Aunt Luo to do it, while she followed Uncle Fu to help collect the money at the market.

Hualei's steamed bun shop originally wanted to serve breakfast only and close before noon. However, Aunt Fu and Aunt Song made more and more steamed buns and wontons every day, and customers came in from time to time, and gradually the business closed until noon.

From the initial chaos, often delivering the wrong items and giving the wrong change, to everyone cooperating well with each other and running in an orderly manner, it only took half a month for the business to be better than that of the bookstore, which Hua Lei had not expected.