I trade in both worlds

The waiter still introduced with a smile: "Sir, the five-spice cake uses several expensive medicinal materials, including ginseng, poria cocos, and white atractylodes. In addition, the five-spice cake has the effect of strengthening the spleen, nourishing the stomach and replenishing qi."

"How many pieces are there in a pound?"

"Four cakes per pound." The waiter thought for a moment and continued, "You can cut them into small pieces when you go back."

Xu Ziqing nodded and looked at Xu Xu: "Shall we buy a pound and try it?"

"Sure." Xu Xu pointed at the mung bean cake and osmanthus cake and said, "Buy one pound of each of these two."

"Okay." The waiter smiled and started wrapping the cakes with wax paper.

After wrapping it, he took out two more pieces of cake and wrapped them up: "This is the Danai cake that our chef has just made. You can go back and try it. If it tastes good, come back for more."

The waiter tied the wrapped cake with a rope and handed it to her: "This is a cake made with nai plums, and it contains walnuts, pine nuts, melon seeds, etc."

Xu Ziqing arrived with the cakes and thanked them. Then he and Xu Xu left the cake shop and went outside the city gate to take a bus.

Fengjie had been busy all day. After settling the store's accounts for today, she returned to her room tiredly, sat at the dressing table, picked up the comb and began to comb her hair.

She glanced at the set of lip balm that Xu Xu had given her. She put down the comb, picked up the jar and looked at it. She then opened the mirror she had bought from Xu Ziqing and stared at herself in the mirror in a daze.

When she came back to her senses, she didn't know how much time had passed. After sighing deeply, she got up to wash up.

Soaking in the bathtub, Sister Feng looked ahead with lifeless eyes. Thinking of Xu Ziqing, she frowned unconsciously. She had to think carefully about who to send the lip balm to the capital.

After tossing and turning all night, he sat on the edge of the bed for a while in the morning. Finally, he gritted his teeth, packed a few sets of clothes, took some cotton and cotton cloth, needle and thread, took a sample of lip balm, and took the driver to the capital.

It takes one and a half days to get from Guoyue County to Youzhou, and another four days to get from Youzhou to the capital.

Along the way, Fengjie cut the cotton cloth into rectangular pieces three fingers wide, imitating the shape of cosmetic cotton pads, and began to make her own cosmetic cotton pads.

It was not until the evening of the sixth day that Fengjie set foot in the capital. She went to an inn near Liu's mansion and asked for two medium-sized rooms.

Hua asked the waiter to help deliver a letter to the boss's chief steward Liu. After Fengjie finished washing up, she sat in the hall with the coachman to have dinner.

Fengjie’s boss is Liu Yuan, a well-known official and businessman in Beijing, who is also the president of Youzhou Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

The status of officials and businessmen in the Dayun Dynasty was relatively high, and businessmen received more social respect and legal protection.

The imperial court implemented a policy of emphasizing agriculture rather than suppressing commerce, encouraged the development of commerce, and merchants occupied an important position in the social economy.

At the same time, the Dayun Dynasty implemented a government-run economic policy, and many profitable industries were monopolized by the state, thus forming a huge official-business group, and Liu Yuan was a figure who could be ranked in the top five among the officials and businessmen. ?

Moreover, the Dayun Dynasty provided more protection and support to merchants through organizations such as guilds and merchant groups.

In addition, the imperial court also contracted workshops and shops to private industrialists and businessmen to operate, which promoted the development of industry and commerce.

Liu Yuan's grandfather lost his father at a young age, and his widowed mother raised him by working as a laundryman.

When he was twelve years old, he used the 100 cents that his family had saved for several years to buy melon seeds, and then sold them in a teahouse. In this way, he slowly accumulated start-up capital.

When he was fifteen, he started working as a peddler from door to door. At the age of twenty, he opened a grocery store. By the time Liu Yuan's father came of age, the Liu family had become one of the largest families in Youzhou.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Within a few years, the world began to fall into chaos and wars broke out everywhere. Liu Yuan's grandfather decisively sold his property, exchanged the money for gold, and took his family to a village far away from the town to escape the war.

When Prince of Jin started the rebellion, Liu Yuan's grandfather donated two-thirds of his family property. After donating the property, he continued to farm in the countryside with his family. After the establishment of the Xin Dynasty, Prince of Jin proclaimed himself emperor.

In order to thank Liu Yuan's grandfather, the new emperor made Liu Yuan an official businessman and gave him land and shops.

With the support of the imperial court and Liu Yuan's business ability, he gradually built up his business to his current position.

Although Liu Yuan's ancestral home was Youzhou, his household registration was moved to the capital after the establishment of the Xin Dynasty. He also bought a piece of land in the suburbs of the capital as a family cemetery, and his grandparents were buried in the suburbs of the capital.

Fengjie's parents-in-law were relatives of Liu Yuan within the fifth degree of mourning. After her husband passed away, her parents-in-law promised to prepare a generous dowry and find her a good family.

But she couldn't bear to leave her child behind. Besides, the family a widow could find to marry would be similar to hers. She didn't want to leave her own child behind to take care of someone else's child.

After his son started school, the family's income was only enough to cover daily expenses, but it was far from enough to support a scholar. Even with the subsidies from Fengjie and her mother-in-law, they could only barely make ends meet.

Finally, there was no other choice but for her parents-in-law to ask Liu Yuan for help, who arranged for her to go to Guoyue County to manage Jinxiu Pavilion, and to go home to see her children once a month during the rest period.

Before we finished our meal, the waiter came back and said, "Sir, Chief Steward Liu has gone to the farm and will not be back for another four or five days. The Liu family said that if you are in a hurry, you can go directly to Chief Steward Liu."

Fengjie nodded and thanked the waiter.

The next morning, Fengjie carried a bag and went to the steamed bun shop to have breakfast. She also took two meat buns to go and came to the corner gate of the residence of the imperial merchant Liu Yuan.

The corner door was half open, and at the door there was a white-haired old man sitting on the threshold, eating a fried cake and daydreaming.

Noticing someone standing at the door, the white-haired old man looked up.

Sister Feng looked at him with a smile on her face: "Uncle He."

When Uncle He saw Sister Feng, he immediately stood up, squinted his eyes and patted his pants, "Hey, Xiaofeng is here, have you had breakfast?"

"Eat it." Sister Feng handed him the bun wrapped in oil paper and said, "I brought you some buns. Eat them while they're hot."

"Kid, why are you spending money recklessly again?" Uncle He said as he reached out to take the bun.

Sister Feng smiled and said, "They are just two buns, not worth much."

Uncle He brought Sister Feng to the small hut next to them where they kept watch at night: "Come, come, come in and sit down."

Sister Feng declined politely, "Thank you, Uncle He. I won't go in. I have something to ask Manager Xiao Liu. Please let Uncle He know for me."

"Okay." Uncle He brought out a bamboo chair and said, "Then you sit here for a while and help me watch the door. I'll go find someone to inform them."

He took the bamboo cushion and placed it on the porch: "Okay, thank you for your help."

Uncle He said as he walked away, "Well, don't be polite. Please sit down first. I'll be back soon."

After he left, Sister Feng took over Uncle He's place and sat on the doorstep, staring at the alley in a daze, no one knew what she was thinking about.

Uncle He came back after a while: "Xiao Feng, Manager Xiao Liu is busy, so I asked you to go to the side hall in the front yard and wait for him."

"Okay, I'll go over there now. Uncle He, you go ahead and do your work." After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the side hall.