"Hmph, mischievous brat, you're very good!" Seeing the little fox flattering herself in such an exaggerated manner, Song Yi couldn't help but snort and cut in.

Su Tang smiled playfully and replied, "Thank you for your praise!"

Song Yi really didn't know how to handle this Su Tang. She was like a little fox, cunning and elusive, and she always seemed to be angering him or thinking about new ways to anger him. However, at the same time, when she had been away the past few days Song Yi had felt his meals were somehow tasteless.

And now that she was back, she was still just as mischievous as before and continued to make Song Yi just as speechless! He grumped, "I wasn't praising you."

"But I know that master was praising me in his heart. Don't worry, I understand. This is the tacit understanding between master and disciple, tacit understanding!" Su Tang ignored Song Yi's objection and pushed through a random explanation with a wink.

Listening to her spout nonsense in a serious tone, Song Yi's face began to turn red again and he snorted: "Anyway, you'll need to make up for the past few days. There are even more things you can study!"

"Ah, master, but I'm already so miserable!" Su Tang cried out and prepared to begin her pitiful act, her eyes turning red and teary.

Amidst all this noise, Pengmo opened the door and entered with a tray of refreshments. Pengmo couldn't help but grin when he saw how the study had become so lively again. Sure enough, having the young miss around immediately caused his master to become much more energetic.

Song Yi watched as the thick skinned Su Tang started to act pitiful again and his beard began to twitch. He stood up and pointed at the girl while sputtering: "You… you…"

At any rate, whether she was really pitiful or just acting, it was impossible for Su Tang to add even more things to her studies. She looked up at Song Yi, her big eyes red, and said, "I really am already so miserable, ah!"

In the end, Song Yi couldn't bear to do anything to Su Tang, so he could only swallow down his temper and earnestly begin Su Tang's studies for the day. At the same time, Su Tang also knew she couldn't anger her master too much. After all, he was already old, so it wouldn't be good for his health if she were to anger him to the point that his blood and qi were roused.

Thus, with that thought in mind, Su Tang decided to take her studies very seriously today. However, because of that, Song Yi couldn't find any chances to clean up this little fox, so he felt even angrier in his heart!

After that, Su Tang's regular routine was officially restored. Every morning she would go to the kitchen of the cafe to prepare the day's dessert making materials and then supervise while Baohe and Pu Wei made the cakes and toffee together.

Later in the day, the regular deliveries of milk and other baking ingredients that Su Tang had set up would arrive. Of course, Baohe and Pu Wei were able to see that the baking materials that were delivered seemed to be the same as the baking materials that would appear inexplicably in the kitchen each morning but, as Su Tang's servants, they knew not to ask or say anything. However, after seeing this scene a few times, they began to understand why Su Tang had so strictly emphasized for them to never speak of what they saw inside her household to outsiders.

Of the two, Baohe was younger and Pu Wei was a little older, but they worked together smoothly. Before long they were able to run the Dessert Cafe with no issues at all and Su Tang was finally completely liberated. On normal days, the two were able to earn around 800 copper coins, and if it were busy they would see around 1000 copper coins, or a whole tael of silver.

Although she had invested a lot of money during the early stages, these profits really made Su Tang feel happy and at ease every day. Having a steady flow of money around really made her feel joyful and beautiful.

Before long the Dessert Cafe had already been open for ten days and there was only half a month left before the Spring Festival. But then, on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Su Tang got up early as usual to lead Baohe and Pu Wei over to the cafe, she unexpectedly heard someone knocking at the door after they arrived. Su Tang was surprised to hear that a visitor had arrived so early in the morning, but after a moment, she just sent Pu Wei to see who it was.

When Pu Wei went over and opened the door, she saw a group of people standing around outside the door. At the head of the group was a handsome young man dressed in a red robe under a black cloak. Pu Wei looked at the man, and the man looked at Pu Wei, in both of their eyes there was an expression of surprise. Eventually, the man unconsciously blurted: "Who are you?"

Pu Wei stared up at the newcomer uncertainly. That was the question she wanted to ask!

But just then Su Tang, who had heard the voice at the door, came over and asked, "What are you doing here?"

After all, the person outside the door was no one else but Luo Xingchen!

When she heard Su Tang's voice, Luo Xingchen looked over with a smile. She briefly turned back to tell her entourage to unload the carriage and then walked forward while saying: "Miss Su!"

Luo Xingchen folded her hands into a formal salute and greeted Su Tang solemnly. Seeing Luo Xingchen pretending to be a serious young master like this, Su Tang was a bit stunned. But her mind flashed and she quickly realized that it was probably because of all the outsiders around.

Having realized that, Su Tang also saluted back and said in an equally solemn way, "Second Young Master Luo."

Of course, for Zhang Cuilan and Baohe, who had seen how Luo Xingchen usually behaved in front of their young miss before, this scene seemed strange. However, they didn't dare to say anything. After all, the ruthless way Luo Xingchen had dealt with the traitor in his entourage last time was still firmly engraved in their minds.

They were just servants. Only by not asking anything, not seeing anything, not hearing anything, and especially not saying anything about their masters could they avoid causing troubles for themselves. But they didn't mind it. After all, their current lives were good to the point that they would have never dared to even imagine it before, so they definitely wouldn't make any foolish mistakes like asking unnecessary questions which might cause them to give up such good lives.

After raising her head from her salute, Su Tang saw Luo Xingchen winking down at her, so she smiled and stretched out her hand in a welcoming gesture, "Please, come inside!"

Luo Xingchen nodded and agreed and then stepped into the main room of the cafe with Su Tang half a step behind her. Then Su Tang turned around and ordered, "Baohe, Pu Wei, go ahead and open the shop. Ms. He, make some fresh milk tea and bring it up later. Ms. Lan, brew two cups of honey hawthorn tea."

With Su Tang's orders, the several people all dispersed to handle their own tasks. When Baohe and Pu Wei went out to open up the shop, they saw the group of people from before were all unloading the carriage outside diligently while one of them headed inside to ask Zhang Cuilan where they could put the things.

"Why are you here now? Didn't you say that there would be an audit at the end of the year keeping you busy?" After Su Tang and Luo Xingchen were behind closed doors, they both sat down and Su Tang asked.

Luo Xingchen heard her question and smiled sarcastically. "My old man got wind of the sauce business I discussed with you earlier this year and stuck his hand into things. He directly handed all of my inventory over to Luo Xinghe for him to handle. But whatever, it's fine. Anyway, the new year is almost here and it's almost time for our Luo family to settle your payment, so I decided to come a little earlier to send you some new year gifts and your money, and also to lay low for a while."

As Luo Xingchen talked about this, her tone was indifferent, as if it were all expected. After all, the current head of the Luo family only had two sons, and if either one of them were too capable he would begin to feel worried. Back then he had brought Luo Xingchen into the family business because she had shown off her ability, but he was always worried that she might amass too much power.

After all, while Luo Xingchen was indeed talented and able to secure great benefits for the family, in the end, her father had always been more concerned that one of his sons might seize power from him than he was about the good of the Luo family. That was why he had been pitting them against each other and using them to contain one another for all these years.

Of course, normally this wasn't the sort of thing Luo Xingchen would say to an outsider, but she and Su Tang had no secrets between them anyway. Su Tang already knew her family was a mess. On top of that, Luo Xingchen didn't have any female friends or relatives at home she could talk to, so she was always feeling suffocated from bottling all of her problems inside. After all, her sisters were all already married, and if they ever came back they would only want to talk about the concubines that were annoying them at home or discuss about who was giving birth these days, so it wasn't like she could confide in them.

Those sisters of hers probably wouldn't understand Luo Xingchen's problems at all and, in the first place, they didn't even know she was a girl and all regarded her as their younger brother, so it was pointless to think about from the start. Back then, her mother had always been deathly afraid someone might discover that Luo Xingchen was a girl so she had raised her in a very solitary way, which meant that Luo Xingchen's sisters weren't very close to her anyway.

Nowadays even if any of them came to find Luo Xingchen it was usually because they needed her help. And if they happened to coincidentally find themselves in a situation where they had to talk to each other they basically wouldn't talk much because they didn't really know what to say.

Of course, Luo Xingchen had tried confiding in her mother before, but whenever her mother heard about her problems she would just cry and try to persuade her to be more considerate of her father and so on.

After a few times of this, Luo Xingchen wasn't interested in discussing things were her mother anymore. Clearly, her mother only cared about her husband. After all, the woman had even raised her as a boy for so long just to please him and maintain her status.

Enduring all of this by herself for so long was part of the reason Luo Xingchen had developed a reputation for her terrible temper. However, now that she had met Su Tang, she finally had someone else she could confide in.

"Tsk tsk, isn't this just human nature!" Su Tang had long known about Luo Xingchen's family circumstances, but hearing that they really dared to treat her friend that way she couldn't help but let out some sarcastic words.

What family bonds? What father-son affection? Once money was involved, all of those beautiful ideals would fly away. Human nature, ah, did it really have to be so ugly, so pragmatic?

Luo Xingchen smiled along wryly, "En, it's human nature!"

Truth be told, as the years went by she would sometimes tell herself that she was already used to it. That she had been doing this for so long that she had even forgotten she was a woman but, occasionally, she had to admit she was very tired. At the end of the day, she was also a regular person. She had truly worked hard on behalf of her family to establish this connection with Su Tang and bring back an excellent opportunity for cooperation and development.

But what was her reward? Her father feared her. Her mother didn't understand her, and was even more afraid than her father. Her mother would praise her for working so hard, but she also spent every day in fear, not knowing what the future would hold. After all, the more Luo Xingchen stood out, the higher chance that she would be found out. And what then? Would her mother be divorced?

All these things weighed heavily on Luo Xingchen. She was a normal person, so she would get tired too. But whenever she came to visit Su Tang, although the furnishings around weren't lavish, she at least had a friend she could see eye to eye with and relax in front of.

Facing hardships was, of course, difficult, but when she came here she at least felt that there was one other person who understood her, one person who she could freely express her emotions in front of with having to be constantly guarded.

"It seems you can't stay long this time, right?" Su Tang asked.

Thinking about it, the Spring Festival was only half a month away. Luo Xingchen was undoubtedly very busy, so Su Tang estimated she wouldn't be able to stay very long before she needed to leave again to handle her matters. As for the matters regarding the Luo family, Su Tang didn't feel there was a need to say things too clearly. After all, the two of them already had a certain understanding.

However, after hearing that question, Luo Xingchen glared over at Su Tang and muttered: "Tang, I've just arrived, but you already want to kick me out?"

But before Su Tang could reply to the playful question, Zhang Cuilan arrived with the freshly brewed honey hawthorn tea and set it on the table in front of them. Then she asked, "One of the little brothers from the Luo family asked me where to put all the things Master Luo brought along?"

When Luo Xingchen heard mention of the things she had brought, she hurriedly said to Su Tang, "These are all New Years' gifts I'm sending to you."

As she spoke, she pulled a list of all the items she had brought along out of her sleeve and handed it over to Su Tang. Su Tang wasn't polite and directly received the list. Then she handed it over to Zhang Cuilan and said, "Collect everything and have them bring them over to the shop."

Although the cafe's courtyard wasn't huge, there were still a few empty rooms where things could be stored.

Having received Su Tang's answer, Zhang Cuilan neatly saluted and then went to tell the servants from the Luo family who had just started unloading the goods to quickly pack them back up. All the hustle and bustle also drew the curious Su Nuo out of his room, and he followed Zhang Cuilan over to take a look.

When Luo Xingchen heard this, she made a gesture and sent her two followers outside so she could have a proper conversation, and then said: "Wait, shop? What shop? Have you opened a shop?"

Su Tang nodded, "En, that's right. When are you planning to leave? I'll make you some cakes and toffee that day to take back with you as a return gift. After all, these goods, they're all from you, right?"

Su Tang didn't believe for a second that the Luo family, who had only just decided to begin cooperating with her, would especially send her some New Years' gifts. It was unlikely that they would take her so seriously. Instead, these gifts were all probably given to her by Luo Xingchen personally.

And, indeed, when she glanced at the gift list just now she had seen that the name signed at the bottom was 'Luo Xingchen', so she felt her guess was right. But, from the start, she had believed more in her cooperation with Luo Xingchen than her cooperation with the Luo family. It had always been a cooperation between the two of them before anything else.

Luo Xingchen slowly took a sip of her tea. The honey hawthorn tea brewed with water from the space was the perfect mixture of sour and sweet and, as it touched her tongue, Luo Xingchen suddenly felt a bit more spirited and she nodded along.

"En, it's us who are doing business here. What does it have to do with them?" Sure enough, Luo Xingchen confirmed it after nodding.

"Good." Su Tang nodded back with a smile.

The two of them hadn't seen each other for over a month but as they sat down to chat there was no strangeness or awkwardness between them. After laughing together for a moment, Luo Xingchen suddenly spoke solemnly, "This time I came here because I wanted to talk to you about something serious."

Su Tang took a sip of her tea and looked over, "Eh?"

Luo Xingchen sat up straight and said: "I'm planning to start growing the chili and tomatoes starting from the beginning of next spring. I've already amassed a few plots of farmland in my hands these days for this purpose, can I temporarily leave them with you and then use them to grow the tomatoes and chili peppers when the time is suitable?"

Su Tang had actually expected that Luo Xingchen's reasons for visiting her wouldn't be as simple as just passing her New Years' gifts. After all, considering how close to the New Year they were, Luo Xingchen would definitely have to rush back after this. To run back and forth like this in such a hurry, there was no way it was because Su Tang was just that charming, right?

However, this wasn't one of the reasons she had guessed Luo Xingchen might have come to find her for. Su Tang looked over in surprise for a moment before asking slowly, "What is the relationship between these plots of land and the Luo family?"

"Do you have to be so suspicious? I at least have my ways of getting a bit of farmland, okay? Actually, I'm not sure what kind of trouble Luo Xinghe is in, but he's been selling many plots of land at a low price recently. I've been having my people buy the land up but I thought it would be better to avoid anything unexpected from happening by putting them with you temporarily…"

"So you want me to help you?" Su Tang's eyes narrowed, and then she continued mischievously, "What's in it for me?"

Luo Xingchen's phoenix eyes widened marginally in surprise, clearly having not expected this answer. Su Tang met her gaze calmly and said, "In business, we talk about business. Or did you want me to help you for nothing?"

Friendship was friendship but business was business. Clearly, after her recent experiences, Luo Xingchen could no longer fully trust the Luo family. Plus, after getting acquainted with Su Tang, she had begun to seriously think about trying to leave a way out for herself.

Thus, with those thoughts in mind, when she happened to see Luo Xinghe selling farmland she felt it was a good time and decided to buy the land up. However, she was worried that Luo Xinghe might play some tricks, so she felt it would be safer to put the land in Su Tang's name. Of course, Luo Xingchen knew that this path was also risky because once all of the documents had been settled with the Yamen, all of the land would really be Su Tang's.

After her name had been stamped on the deeds, if Su Tang decided that she wanted to keep the land for herself and cut Luo Xingchen out entirely then there would be nothing she could do about it.

However, Lou Xingchen wasn't too worried about this. After all, Su Tang already had hold of her biggest weakness, so if she really wanted to take something from Luo Xingchen then Luo Xingchen could only hand it over. If things deteriorated to that point then she would have no other choice but to comply with Su Tang's whims.

Luo Xingchen thus felt that Su Tang was the safest person to trust the land with precisely because of the relationship they had. Plus, she believed that Su Tang wouldn't want to cheat her in such a way anyway. She felt Su Tang had a rare and noble character, even if other people only saw her as an ordinary peasant girl.

But after talking to Su Tang, Luo Xingchen was reminded of a simple fact: business was business! Thus, if she wanted Su Tang to help her, she would have no choice but to shed a little blood.

"You can use this farmland to create your 'brand' products. I'll provide the land and the people, while you will be responsible for management, raw materials, and so on. From there we can share and talk in detail!" In fact, what Luo Xingchen was after wasn't just Su Tang's help in the small matter of whose name to put the land under, rather, she was targeting that 'brand' that Su Tang had mentioned before.

She was confident that there were probably many other secrets still in Su Tang's belly and, no matter how many benefits the Luo family might get from working with her, ultimately they would just be paving the way for Su Tang's success. Thus, because of her confidence in Su Tang, Luo Xingchen wanted to establish a solid cooperative relationship with her as soon as possible.

After hearing Luo Xingchen's offer, Su Tang looked up into the teenager's eyes and saw that they were staring into her own with a firm sense of certainty. Luo Xingchen continued: "Tang, work with me and be my way out!"

Eventually, Su Tang snorted and said: "Ninety percent!"

In fact, Su Tang also felt that cooperating with Luo Xingchen was a good idea. However, that was with Luo Xingchen, not with the Luo family. From what she could see of the internal situation at the Luo family, Su Tang didn't feel very optimistic about their development, despite the fact that they were currently the largest merchants in the north.

After all, the business world was always a place filled with rapid changes, so for a Luo family that had no wise leader at the helm, who could say what would happen to them in the future?

Of course, Su Tang still wanted to make use of the market channels that the Luo family currently had, but when it came to the Luo family itself, she had no intentions to combine her interests too deeply with theirs. After all, she wanted to avoid being dragged down by them.

But compared with the Luo family, Su Tang was much more optimistic about Luo Xingchen the individual. Her optimism didn't stem just from the fact that she had such a firm handle on her, though that was also a reason, rather it mostly stemmed from the fact that she believed in Luo Xingchen's business vision and ability.

Su Tang liked to make money, but she didn't like to stand out in front and make a target of herself. Right now Luo Xingchen was a 'man', so it was much more convenient for her to go out and do business, thus Su Tang felt that the two of them could be good business partners.

Last time when Su Tang had given Luo Xingchen a few hints to get her to think more about the future, this was more or less the result she was hoping for. Therefore it was within Su Tang's expectations that Luo Xingchen might come to her door and offer to cooperate on her own initiative like this.

They were both smart people, and Luo Xingchen also understood that this was the result Su Tang wanted to see. So, after deciding for herself, she had come to find Su Tang to show her stance.

However, when she heard Su Tang's terms, Luo Xingchen directly jumped up and cried, "Su Tang, are you scamming me?"

Su Tang gently set down her tea cup, looked up at Luo Xingxing, and blinked 'innocently', "I'm being very fair!"

"Ninety? How about fifty-fifty? Forty-sixty at most!" Seeing Su Tang's 'innocent' expression, Luo Xingchen shivered and said, "Also, don't look at me like that, it's scary!"

Su Tang was also feeling goosebumps from wearing this expression, ah. It was good for scaring others, but it also scared herself!

"Fine, I'll stop!" Su Tang grumbled.

Luo Xingchen nodded "Good!"

With this, they reached an agreement, and Su Tang stopped making trouble. She said calmly, "Forty-sixty? Don't be ridiculous, what kind of beautiful dream is that? Even if in a beautiful dream, it would be at most twenty-eighty! You're giving me some random land, while I have to manage all the details, but you still want to take forty percent? What kind of sweet dreams are you seeing while awake?"

Luo Xingchen also began to argue according to reason, "First of all, I'm not having beautiful dreams, I'm just a beautiful person!" She felt this was an important point she had to emphasize. That done, she continued, "Also, what 'random land'? Aren't I providing five plots of land and also the people to work them? I'm giving so much, don't you feel ashamed to only give me twenty percent?"

Su Tang retorted, "What kind of people can you give me? Can they even be used? Your people are all Luo family people, I can't dare to use them, right? Why would I feel ashamed to give you twenty percent? By giving you more than ten percent, isn't that already showing my sincerity as a friend? Besides, you are not as beautiful as I am."

In fact, that was the most important point for Su Tang. Su Tang really only had one rule, and that was to only work with people who she could trust. People like her, who had deadly secrets, did not have the qualifications to take random risks. And this was undoubtedly a risk because, after all, Luo Xingchen had gotten this land from Luo Xinghe.

She said that something had gone wrong for Luo Xinghe, which caused him to have to sell the land cheaply, but was that true? Or was there something else? Thus, taking this land from Luo Xingchen definitely represented taking a risk.

Luo Xingchen was made speechless by Su Tang, but after a moment she rallied: "Well, I'm at least providing the land! What about thirty-seventy? That should be alright! After eating all the meat, you should at least let me have some soup, right? Aren't I already very pitiful? If you don't help me out here I'll soon have no choice but to become a beggar in the streets. Do you have the heart to see me reduced to such a pitiful state?"

"En, I have the heart! If that happens, this young miss will pay for you to come and warm her bed!"

"En, I have the heart! If that happens, this young miss will pay for you to come and warm her bed!"

When Su Tang saw Luo Xingchen pretending to be pitiful, she reached over and pinched her chin in a domineering manner before saying that line.

Luo Xingchen's eyes went round with surprise and she sputtered: "Tang, I didn't realize that you were such a person! Anyway, this lowly slave will have no choice but to be your person in the future, so at least make it thirty-seventy! Thirty-seventy!"

Luo Xingchen didn't act modest or flinch away in shyness at all when Su Tang grabbed her, she just unscrupulously left her chin in Su Tang's hand and continued to negotiate.

Of course, Su Tang was also just joking from the start. After all, if Luo Xingchen hadn't taken out this land at this juncture then many of her current ideas would have taken even longer to realize, so she was actually feeling grateful. And, from the beginning, thirty-seventy was the split she had decided on.

As for why, it was because Luo Xingchen, as the second young master of the Luo family who had yet to inherit anything, was not allowed to own private property outside the family according to the law. Thus, she needed Su Tang to come forward and take charge of this land on her behalf, both managing the land and also setting up the production lines. With that being the case, it really wasn't possible for Luo Xingchen to receive a majority of the shares.

However, giving her that 30% was also very important. After all, for the moment Su Tang was still relying on this little mole to make use of the Luo family's market channels to publicize her brand! And, as the saying went, you had to feed the donkey for it to pull the plow!

"Well, for the sake of you warming my bed, I can agree. But I am the seven and you are the three." Su Tang finally pinched her cheek with a smile and relented.

Hearing her agreement, Luo Xingchen quickly moved forward to hug Su Tang while exclaiming, "Tang, my Tang, I always knew you treat me the best."

Su Tang sighed inside. Why was it that all the people she was meeting recently were all so touchy-feely?

"These are the deeds for the plots of land, I'll transfer them to you tomorrow." Once she finished hugging, Luo Xingchen took the deeds out of her sleeve and handed them over to Su Tang.

Su Tang received the deeds and briefly looked them over. After a moment, she shook her head and said, "These plots aren't very good for our purposes. Instead, find someone to sell them for silver and pass the money to me. I'll use the money to buy a few plots that are near Qingyuan County, that way I can personally keep an eye on things."

Luo Xingchen had taken out the deeds for five plots of land, but there were some issues. Of the problems Su Tang noticed, the most obvious that the five plots were in five different counties. Although she wasn't very familiar with the geography here, she knew that these five counties couldn't be very close. Therefore, these plots of land definitely wouldn't be easy to manage properly. On top of that, Su Tang always had a nagging feeling that anything they got from Luo Xinghe's hands couldn't be simple.

After all, although Su Tang and Luo Xingchen had communicated with each other and established a cooperation between her and the Luo family, Su Tang knew that Luo Xinghe and the head of the Luo family were both destined to stand on the opposite side from her. Of course, Su Tang had no plans to fight either of those people directly for the time being, but it was something she always kept in mind.

So by using this method she could at least ensure that all of the land she and Luo Xingchen would be using could be near Qingyuan County, which would make it much simpler for Su Tang to manage. After all, she was still in her mourning period, so it wasn't too convenient for her to go too far. Also, in this remote Qingyuan County, she happened to know Lu Wan'er. Although their relationship was only to the extent of acquaintances, it may become useful at a critical moment.

At the very least, knowing Lu Wan'er meant she had a tenuous connection of the Deputy County Magistrate, which might be useful if something were to happen. Thus, at least within Qingyuan County, Su Tang could be said to have a few connections, which might help her avoid any tricks Luo Xinghe might try to play.

When Luo Xingchen heard Su Tang's suggestion, she quickly nodded and said, "Alright, then I'll have my people make some moves in the next few days. They should be able to send you the money after the new year."

Luo Xingchen understood that instead of just managing these plots of land directly, Su Tang obviously wanted to use a more cautious method. Of course, since it was their joint business, she agreed that a little more caution was probably better.

"Be careful with who you use." Su Tang reminded her.

Luo Xingchen nodded grimly. "Don't worry, I know."

After the betrayal last time she now handled these sorts of matters much more carefully. In addition, the matter this time was much more important than the one from last time, which made her that much more cautious. After all, if something went wrong here, let alone trying to fight for the position of the family head, she might end up directly evicted from the Luo family.

Such a risky business, even if Su Tang didn't warn her, of course, she would be very careful.

Su Tang saw she understood and didn't say anymore. This kind of thing, so long as it was done carefully there would be no problems, but if they were even a bit careless there would definitely be issues. After all, Su Tang had been learning from Song Yi recently so she was a bit more familiar with the laws of the Qihuang Kingdom these days.

For instance, if a child who hadn't separated from their family yet was found to own private land, it was a crime. And if they were found out, the consequences could be big or small.

However, considering Lou Xingchen's position in her family, even if she thought with her toes Su Tang would know that if this matter was found out then there was no way the consequences would be light. Thus, the only way was to be careful and make sure there were no accidents.

Once this important matter was settled, Luo Xingchen breathed a sigh of relief and seemed to relax a bit. A moment later, she sat down again and started a new topic: "I brought you the money for the soap we've bought from you until now this time. Since it's going to be the new year soon, I figured you would probably need more money on your side."

As she spoke, she rapped on the table until one of her men stuck his head in to see what was going on and gave him a gestured command. The man nodded, disappeared outside, and then soon returned with a small chest. After sending the man away again, Luo Xingchen opened the chest to reveal some sparkling pieces of gold.

"I've brought thirty-three taels of gold this time, which is equivalent to 330 taels of silver. I'll pass it to you for the time being, and I'll settle the rest of your payment at the end of the first quarter of next year in accordance with the contract."

It actually wasn't normal to settle accounts before the end of the year like this, but Luo Xingchen had specially asked the people in the treasury to calculate the payment and bring it out so she could send it to Su Tang with this timing. After all, Luo Xingchen knew that Su Tang didn't have much money on hand and, because she hadn't shared the soap recipe with anyone, she was still buying all of the raw materials for the soap herself. Considering how much soap she was outputting, Luo Xingchen felt that her friend must be spending a lot of money no matter how cheap the raw materials were.

Thus, since Luo Xingchen was coming over this time anyway, she decided to do what she could to lighten Su Tang's burden within her means.

For her part, Su Tang was actually really relieved to see this gold. It was a fact that she really had too much to do and not enough money to do it with, otherwise, she would never have had to borrow money from Song Yi. Now that Luo Xingchen had given her some of the payment in advance it really did serve to lighten her burden.

"Not bad, you're so sensible!" Su Tang briefly counted through and saw that there were thrity gold ingots worth ten silver taels each along with thirty silver ingots. All added up, they were worth exactly 330 taels. Seeing that there was no problem, Su Tang closed the chest and pushed it aside.

Hearing Su Tang's praise, Luo Xingchen's eyes flashed and she said: "Since I'm sensible, can you reward your poor bed warmer now? For instance, grilled fish! Tang, my Tang, I've hardly been able to eat ever since I left, you know? I've been dreaming about your grilled fish the whole time!"

Seeing her expectant expression, Su Tang laughed and waved her off: "I earned this money by selling soap. On top of that, for a so-called bed warmer, you haven't even warmed my bed, so what reward do you want?"

"Then I'll warm your bed right now, Tang! I'm so good-looking, so beautiful, so sensible, do you really have the heart to starve me?" Luo Xingchen continued to pester Su Tang undaunted.

Seeing her friend acting like a rogue, Su Tang was about to retort again. However, just as she opened her mouth, the door suddenly opened and Yu Caihe appeared. Having happened to hear a bunch of words about 'warming the bed' her eyes were round.

Of course, when Su Tang and Luo Xingchen were talking they knew it was just a joke between them, but when an outsider like Yu Caihe stumbled into the conversation she could only see a little girl unexpectedly saying such a thing to the handsome teenager. Yu Caihe, as someone who had been married before, knew exactly what 'warming the bed' meant, so she could only feel shocked to find that the young miss from her family was actually so powerful! To think she would find such a wealthy and good-looking teenager to warm the bed.

For a moment, she was so shocked that she just froze at the door. But she soon regained herself and noticed that Su Tang and Luo Xingchen had turned to look over at her. Under their eyes, Yu Caihe stood there awkwardly, not knowing whether she should keep going in or if she should quietly leave.

"What are you doing standing there? Is the milk tea ready?" When Su Tang saw Yu Caihe standing at the door with a dumbfounded expression, she realized that the woman must have overheard their conversation just now. She sighed in her heart. At least she was very strict in warning her servants not to spread matters to outsiders, or else who knew how far this rumor might spread? Thinking till here, Su Tang sent Luo Xingchen an annoyed glare.

Luo Xingchen smiled helplessly. She didn't mean to, ah. She told her people not to let anyone disturb them, right? Who could have expected that Yu Caihe would suddenly stumble in while there were joking around?

At Su Tang's prompt, Yu Caihe hurriedly brought over the milk tea and said, "This servant came over to send this freshly brewed milk tea to the young miss and Young Master Luo."

"Anyway, go have a look at the Dessert Cafe and see if they've finished making any cupcakes and toffee yet, if they have, bring some over so Young Master Luo can have a taste." After being reminded by the milk tea Yu Caihe brought over, Su Tang sent her over to bring some desserts as well.

Hearing her instructions, Yu Caihe quickly agreed and then went out.

Luo Xingchen picked up her teacup and took a sip of the milk tea curiously. The fragrant and smooth taste on her tongue immediately lifted her spirits and she exclaimed: "Tang, this milk tea that you've made is really delicious. The milk tea I've tasted from those herdsmen in the northwest can't compare at all."

Milk tea was something completely new to most people in Qinghe town, but it was different for Luo Xingchen. After all, the Luo family was the biggest group of businessmen in the north so, as the Second Young Master of the Luo family, she had often made trips all over the north.

And she had even been to a certain place in the northwest before and seen that the herdsmen there could also make milk tea. However, the milk tea made by those herdsmen was different from Su Tang's milk tea, with a much inferior taste.

Of course, that was largely because Su Tang's milk tea was something produced by space. At present, her space had reached level 17. Unfortunately, the pace at which the space leveled up these days had slowed considerably and it was obvious that as it reached higher levels it became harder to upgrade. However, Su Tang also felt that the quality and taste of the things produced in the space had greatly improved in exchange. And by now Su Tang had unlocked another two plots of land, for a total of eight plots that were constantly working hard to upgrade the space by continually growing crops.

"Heh, this isn't much. As it happens I have some new products in mind, so I'll let you taste some really delicious food this afternoon." Su Tang said. Of course, milk tea wasn't something unique to her even in this era, so she wasn't surprised that Luo Xingchen had tried it before. She even deliberately changed the topic by mentioning 'delicious food'.

And when she heard the words 'delicious food', Luo Xingchen's eyes really lit up. "Grilled fish! Tang, my Tang, please make some grilled fish for this pitiful me! I really want to eat grilled fish."

Hearing that this foodie had become addicted after eating her fish twice, Su Tang was speechless "Say, Second Young Master Luo, exactly where am I supposed to find fish for you at this time of year?"

Although there were plenty of fish in the warehouse of the space, she couldn't take them out in the middle of winter! This Luo Xingchen wanted to eat her grilled fish so bad, but there needed to be fish to eat first, right?

"You can get some, right? I know you have your ways. Anyway, your grilled fish is so delicious that I've been thinking about it for a long time. Please make it for me again." Luo Xingchen looked at Su Tang with a pitiful expression.

Su Tang felt helpless. "You know, if you ever offend me, it will be too easy for me to poison you, you foodie!"

But seeing her pitiful expression, Su Tang eventually relented, "Whatever, I'll think of something regarding the fish. But I'm really going to cook something delicious this afternoon. Come with me to the Dessert Cafe first."

After all, by now the Dessert Cafe already had an oven set up and the kitchen was fully functional. Even the furniture had been sent over, so Su Tang had been seriously thinking of moving over there completely these days. If Luo Xingchen had come over a little later she might not have been able to find Su Tang at this little rented courtyard at all anymore!

"Dessert Cafe, is that your shop?" Luo Xingchen had heard Su Tang mention this Dessert Cafe several times now, but there had been other things to discuss so she hadn't asked. But now she finally remembered to ask.

"En, I bought a shop and opened a cafe. I was planning to move over there soon, but now here you are." Su Tang said.

"Well doesn't that mean I came right on time?" Luo Xingchen joked. At the same time, she was curious about what Su Tang's shop was like and eagerly followed her out of the courtyard.

All of Su Tang's people had already been sent out so there currently anyone around but the members of Luo Xingchen's entourage. After leading everyone out, Su Tang closed the door and then chatted with Luo Xingchen as she led the way to the Dessert Cafe.

Because Luo Xingchen's people were around, the two stopped joking around the way they did in private. After all, in front of Su Tang's servants, Luo Xingchen felt like she could relax a little bit, but it wasn't the same in front of her own people. That was because Su Tang's people had all been hand-picked by Su Tang herself and they had no relation to the Luo family at all, so there was pretty much zero chance that they would betray her, which was a reassuring feeling. Her own people were different. No matter how loyal they seemed, they had connections to the Luo family.

And these days Luo Xingchen could no longer fully believe in these people from the Luo family. Her secret was just too important, so she always had to be careful.

The two people chatted and laugh as they walked along the street. The sun was bright overhead but the weather was mild so they didn't bother with a carriage. However, neither of them knew that the scene of them walking and laughing together was seen by a certain pair of gloomy eyes.

Eventually, Su Tang and Luo Xingchen arrived at the Dessert Cafe. However, it was currently around the time when the students were on their lunch breaks so the front entrance was very crowded, which caused them to go around and use the back door instead.

"Only female customers are allowed to dine-in? Haha, what a strange idea. How did you think that up?" As they chatted on the road, Luo Xingchen was surprised to hear Su Tang explain how her shop was only open to female customers. She didn't know why Su Tang would think of an idea like that.

Before they entered the courtyard itself, Luo Xingchen dismissed her followers and sent them to find an inn to stay at, then she followed Su Tang inside. Hearing her question, Su Tang smiled and replied, "I'm just afraid of trouble. The Qinghe Town Academy is right next to the shop I bought, so there are always groups of young students around. If I opened my doors to them, wouldn't there be all sorts of trouble? Even if not, it would be very noisy at least."

"Do you get many female guests?" Luo Xingchen asked curiously. In fact, this was the first time she had seen a shop that was picky about its customers.

After all, people opened shops to make money, right? If only one group could come in, that meant you would have to reject other groups of customers, so most businessmen would guess that such an operation wouldn't be profitable at all. Luo Xingchen was more or less the same, so she was curious whether Su Tang could still make money like this or, rather, could she even get guests?

"En, we're not doing too bad. Not many people came at first, but by now there will basically be two or three waves of people a day." Su Tang hadn't really thought much about the profitability of the inner part of the cafe. From the start, she made the choice to only accept female guests mostly because doing otherwise would make the shop too noisy for her tastes, and also because she saw it could make things a little easier for the women who shopped nearby. After all, she was also a girl, so she had a vague idea that she wanted to provide this small convenience for other girls.

However, she hadn't expected that her cafe would actually become really popular this way. These days the weather was still cold, but it was warm in her cafe. Many people would come to the area to do their shopping and then come to her cafe to take a rest and have some desserts. Of course, the key draw was the fact that her desserts were all so delicious. Thus, like that, she slowly accumulated a group of regular customers.

Lu Wan'er also introduced a few people to come over, but she herself had never come again, only sending Qing Ju over to buy cakes from time to time. From Qing Ju, Su Tang heard that Lu Wan'er had apparently caught a cold after she went back that day, so she dared not leave home for now.

Luo Xingchen followed Su Tang inside and carefully looked around the courtyard. Knowing that Su Tang had bought this place, she couldn't help but murmur, "It isn't very big."

"Well, I'm still in my mourning period." Su Tang rolled her eyes. This Second Young Master Luo was at least from a wealthy family so, naturally, this place seemed a bit small in her eyes.

However, Su Tang felt fine with her purchase. On the one hand, she couldn't have afforded a better one at the time and, on the other hand, it also wasn't appropriate for her to buy a big house when she was in her mourning period and abstaining from meat anyway.

Luo Xingchen just nodded and then quickly changed the topic: "But what's with your idea exactly? To only allow female guests in, doesn't it drive away a lot of guests? I'm sure you didn't make such a rule for nothing and there must be some concept behind it, but what exactly is it?"

They were both businesswomen, so Luo Xingchen definitely didn't believe that Su Tang had created this rule just because of a bit of noise. She had known Su Tang for some time already, and if she knew one thing it was that Su Tang would never eat loses for no reason. The girl's mind for making money was no worse than her own, so things couldn't be so simple.

"Why don't you guess? Guess it right and I'll cook something delicious for you." Facing this question, Su Tang just blinked innocently and told her to guess.

In fact, the truth was Su Tang had truly made the rule mainly to keep the shop clean and not noisy, however, it was also true that she was testing the market. And it wasn't that her shop only served female customers, rather, it was that only female customers could sit inside. Male customers were still completely free to order food and take it away with them.

She was just curious what kind of market power the women in this era had. After all, in the modern era, 'women' as a group were regarded as a prime target for marketers and one of the easiest targets to make money off of.

She was a fashion designer, so her career path had always been targeted at women. Thus, if she found that the women in this era had sufficient purchasing power, didn't that mean that she could start designing clothes, jewelry, and so on? If it could also be a profitable business then, of course, she wouldn't let it go.

The high-end market had always been Su Tang's ultimate target. After all, even in the cooperation she discussed with Luo Xingchen before, she included her plans to create a brand, which was her best way to target the high-end market.

After all, the things produced by her space were all unusual, so she certainly couldn't just take them out and sell them like common goods, right? If you took a seed from her space and planted it outside, the resulting plant would be different from a plant made with a normal seed. Of course, the orange cat had assured her that the conditions inside the space were the most perfect to produce plants with the best state, the best taste, and the best weight.

Therefore, the 'best seed' that was produced by such a plant would definitely be better than any other seed of the same kind and would have distinctions in taste from regular seeds, which meant that it could be sold as a high-end product.

The same was true of her Dessert Bar. For instance, if she added her grilled fish which used her new condiments to the menu it would definitely sell well. After all, even though every town had many shops that sold grilled fish, some of them would be full of business while others would have no guests at all.

In the final analysis, the success of a food business depended on taste. However, since Su Tang wanted to sell her condiments outside, she knew she definitely couldn't underestimate the wisdom of ancient people. She was confident that once her condiments were on the market it would only be a matter of time before someone replicated her grilled fish.

After all, grilling fish wasn't something difficult or arcane. Thus, in order to gain a foothold in the market, her grilled fish could only depend on its excellent taste. And if she was using the best fish with the best seasoning then, of course, the best taste would be produced and, naturally, the price would have to be high.

The things from inside the space couldn't be sold cheaply. Especially if she took a certain orange Divine Beast's attitude into consideration. He would be very unhappy if she looked down on his wondrous space by selling the things inside for pennies.

Of course, Su Tang more or less had the same thoughts. Good things were supposed to be expensive from the start, and she wasn't desperate to the point that she had to exchange the apples and radishes produced by the space for just a small handful of copper coins anymore.

Su Tang didn't do things randomly. Put simply, when she made a move, there was definitely a purpose and plan behind it. From this, it could be seen that Luo Xingchen still knew Su Tang very well. After all, she really had opened this Dessert Cafe with a plan in mind. That plan was to explore both the purchasing power of women and the potential of the high-end market.

After all, if she could exploit the high-end market in Qinghe Town, then it went without saying that she could do so in other places as well. Forget the small Qinghe Town or Qinghe County, she could go even further and develop in even larger places in the future.

And that was why she had set the prices in her Dessert Cafe so high. Of course, originally, she hadn't held out much hope for the high prices. She had mostly expected that because the things were so expensive there probably wouldn't be many people willing to buy them.

However, unexpectedly, that wasn't the case. Even when her half-off promotion had ended, her sales barely saw a dip.

Su Tang even felt that she had to be a bit grateful to the emperor for maintaining a country where the peasants were so prosperous that they could even eat at a cafe like hers. Although many people were living difficult lives, she still saw some ordinary people every day who just wanted to taste the delicious desserts she was selling.

Although these kinds of families may only be able to afford to eat at her cafe once a month, they were still willing to come and pay to do so.

Even before she came along these people would buy sweets and cakes from time to time to celebrate birthdays for the elders in their families or other similar celebrations, and now that Su Tang's new cafe had come along they didn't mind spending a little more to make their big events a bit better.

All this to say that Su Tang had successfully explored the market and found that it was even stronger than she had expected. Although it was true that most people were still poor and that there wasn't much development in the mid or high-end markets, she just felt that meant there was a lot of untapped potential.

However, as to Luo Xingchen's question, Su Tang had no intentions to explain directly. She would just let her friend figure it out herself.