The abandoned concubine who transmigrated woke up shouting "Long live the widow!"

Lu Zijing glanced at Jingxue, then looked at An'an and said, "Don't worry about that, Miss! Senior Wang is my classmate and good friend. He's a very upright person and wouldn't do such a thing!"

"That's good! Headmaster Lu, let's go and complete the enrollment procedures first! I'll send the household registration documents over as soon as possible!" Jingxue said with a smile.

Lu Zijing nodded. Where was this woman from? And what she was saying was a bit strange!

Jingxue helped An'an with the enrollment procedures. She tried her best to let An'an interact with people. After paying the tuition, they received the uniform robe and book bag. Jingxue specially bought him an extra set of clothes so that he would have something to wear after washing them!

An'an was very excited and insisted on carrying her own schoolbag.

The academy's accountant told them that classes started at the beginning of Chenshi (7-9 AM) and ended at the end of Shenshi (3-5 PM).

Jingxue took An'an to a shop on West Street, bought him writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, and asked the shop assistant to take him home first.

Yesterday, Manager Peng went to the Wangfu store to say that the custom-made furniture had been delivered to the store! She also tried a beauty and manicure treatment, and Liu Sanhao's massage skills made her so comfortable that she took a nap before leaving!

When Jingxue entered the shop, Manager Peng was directing people to build a firewall. This was something Jingxue had told her to do yesterday, because it wouldn't be good if the room was too cold when customers came for beauty treatments.

The furniture we ordered is well made, and Jingxue is quite satisfied!

Finding a spare moment, Jingxue put all the cosmetics and nail polish she needed for her beauty and manicure in the back storeroom.

Jingxue has already equipped all the maids with makeup cases, which contain a full set of tools!

Just then, Manager Cai from the grain store called her from outside. Jingxue gave Manager Peng a few instructions before coming out.

"Young Miss, I have something to tell you!" Manager Cai bowed respectfully.

"Let's talk in the backyard of the grocery store!"

The two went to the backyard of the general store, found a room, and Jingxue sat down to rest for a while!

"Young Miss, many grain shops have put up signs saying they're sold out!"

"Why? To stockpile grain?" Jingxue asked, puzzled.

"Hoarding grain is one of the reasons. Another reason is that our grain prices are low, and very few people buy their grain. People would rather queue up at our store every day than buy from them. Therefore, those grain stores have a lot of complaints about us!"

"Is that because you set a low price?" The price of rice and flour in the mall is four coins per pound. Jingxue didn't know how much grain cost per pound in this era.

“This servant sold it at last year’s new grain price. New rice and flour are 15 wen per jin. Other grain stores are selling new rice for 20 or even 25 wen. There is one store that sells it at the same price as us, but the quality of their rice is not as good as ours!”

"So, what brings you here to see me?"

Manager Cai explained, "Miss, I wanted to ask if we have enough stock? If we do, I'm afraid that if we keep selling like this, those other shops will get desperate and do something rash. A few years ago, some grain shops were competing with each other and one of them hired people to burn down another grain shop, and people even died!"

"This servant was thinking, Miss, could you please send a few more people to the grain store? We need someone to keep watch tonight!"

"Oh! Go find Lixia and ask her to send you some helpers. If that's not enough, go buy a few people who know kung fu!" Jingxue thought Manager Cai's idea made sense.

"And Manager Cai, I'd like to introduce a few dishes to the grain store that can be served as both a side dish and a main course. How about in a couple of days? I need to find a suitable person to cook them on-site in the store. You can prepare a cooking stove at the store entrance!"

"Yes, Miss, then this servant will get back to work!" Manager Cai said, bowing and leaving.

Jingxue looked around the room. There were some cabbages and radishes neatly arranged against the wall. She took out several bags of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and eggplants from her spatial storage, packed a few of each, and went to the kitchen.

While cooking, Aunt He saw Jingxue, quickly wiped her hands with her apron, and bowed, saying, "Young Miss, you've arrived!"

"Aunt He, how many people eat at our shop now? What do they eat? Where do they stay at night?" Jingxue asked three questions in a row.

"Reporting to Miss, there are 11 people eating, including the four new waiters. They eat rice, noodles, cabbage, and the like from the estate. Occasionally, we need to buy meat and render oil. The four new waiters will live in the courtyard of the storeroom!"

"Oh! By the way, Manager Peng is running his own rouge shop again!" Aunt He added.

"Aunt He, I'll teach you how to cook a few dishes today, so you can cook them for everyone from now on!"

Aunt He smiled and said, "Really? That's wonderful! I will definitely learn from Miss carefully!"

Just then, Li Xia came in, carrying something wrapped in cloth. Jing Xue could tell from its shape that it was a weapon.

"Hey, Aunt He, peel this potato and wash the rest of the vegetables. I'll cook them in a bit. Come on! Lixia, let's go to that room to talk!" Jingxue pulled Lixia into the room they had just been in.

“Miss, I have three daggers made, one sword and one knife. The government doesn’t allow more than that! Originally, only two daggers could be made. One of the smaller ones was custom-made by someone else, but no one came to pick it up long after the deadline. The blacksmith couldn’t bear to melt it down and make another one, but I thought it was good, so I bought it!”

“Well done! Lixia, after lunch, we need to go to the shop again and buy a few more people! I see that Xiaoman really likes doing manicures, so I'll have her work at the shop. The work in the mansion needs to be done, and besides, with more people coming for beauty treatments in the future, those two girls won't be able to handle it all. So, I'm thinking of buying a few more people; I don't think Aunt He can manage here either!”

"Alright, Miss, I'll accompany you after dinner! I'll go check on them from the front; they seemed quite busy when I came in!"

"You go ahead! I'll go cook with Aunt He!"

Jingxue taught He Ma how to make eggplant stew with potatoes, cabbage stew with potatoes, and stir-fried potato shreds. She also taught her how to collect starch and how to eat sweet potatoes!

At noon, everyone took turns eating. Jingxue called Manager Peng over and told her that she could come and eat with them in the future. She also asked her to deliver lunch to the bricklayers who were building the firewall!

In the afternoon, Jingxue and Lixia stayed at the shop for a long time and bought six people: two kung fu-skilled workers for Manager Cai, two old women, and two girls. One of the old women, Wen, was a family member of the two girls.

The mother and her two children have been at the baby shop for some time now, but because they refuse to be separated, no one has been able to buy them.

Jingxue learned that the head of their household had been wounded on the battlefield and died less than two years after returning home, leaving the family with a lot of debt.

The harvests have been poor these past two years, and the family's crops have been decreasing. The two girls are not yet of marriageable age, so Granny Wen had no choice but to sell her house and her only three acres of meager land in the hope of paying off the debts.

However, she was still short of money. Granny Wen had no choice but to sell herself with her two children to finally pay off her debts.

The two girls are almost fifteen years old, and the younger one is only thirteen.

At first, Li Xia thought the two girls were a bit young, but her mistress said it didn't matter.