Blissful Days After Widowhood

by Usui Takumii

not mine, word drain.

7. 101 to 120

In a blink of an eye, the second child of the Wen family had become the second master of who just had money in his eyes.

So the old man believed that the environment could shape a person's character.

After the seeing ceremony, it was time for the test.

Because Wu'an was only over five years old, Eldest Master Wen let him memorize something first.

That was Wu'an's strength, so he slowly started reciting-

"In the beginning of human beings, nature was inherently good…"

"Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang…" (these are surnames in the original text)

"The sky and the earth were yellow, the universe was prehistoric…"

Wu'an memorized the three books one by one in a clear childish voice. Eldest Master Wen said a few words from the back, and Wu'an answered correctly.

Eldest Master Wen nodded and said, "It's true. I heard that you didn't have a teacher yet, but just learned from the scholar who lives near you."

Wu'an looked at Gu Yin, but she did not speak, patted him on the shoulder encouragingly, and let him speak for himself.

Wu'an plucked up his courage and said, "I have never got a teacher, but Brother Qingchuan had read 'Thousand Characters' to me several times and taught me to recognize it, so I have learned it all."

"Is it possible to memorize it only after hearing it and recognizing it a few times? Then I have a copy of "Children Enlightenment Qionglin" here. Come, come to me, and I will read it for you."

After reading each word one by one for some time, Eldest Master Wen moistened his throat with hot tea. He really wanted to read it a second time, but Wu'an had already opened his mouth and recited it, "The beginning of chaos, the beginning of the universe, the light and clear air floated up to be the sky, and the heavy and turbid air condensed down to the earth…"

"Cough cough, is this possible?" Eldest Master Wen whispered to the old man.

The old man was also surprised, but he didn't show it on his face. He gave him a sideways look and whispered, "I told you that the child from her family must be smart."

Eldest Master Wen sat up straight again. After a long while, when Wu'an had memorized the words correctly, he nodded slightly and praised, "Not bad." Then he asked, "Can you write it too?"

"I can."

The brush, ink, paper and inkstone were all there, so Eldest Master Wen asked Wu'an to write it on the spot.

Wu'an used a charcoal pen to write and play at home. When he touched the brush for the first time, he was inevitably a little flustered.

Seeing his sister-in-law's encouraging and gentle eyes again, he let out a long breath, first recalling Xu Qingchuan's gesture of holding the brush, then dipped the pen in ink and wrote on the blank rice paper.

The first time he picked up a writing brush, the characters that he had never practiced became more crooked.

Fortunately, he was careful and proper, and there was no ink stain on the white paper.

As early as when he was holding the brush, the old man and Old Master Wen knew that the child had never touched a brush before – he didn't know how to use it.

So in that case, it was not easy for him to write the words clearly.

Afterward, Eldest Master Wen pointed out how to hold it to him, and he immediately understood it. When he started writing again, his handwriting became a lot neater. Although it was still not good, it was not like the previous one. The two were as if written by two different people.. But he wrote it all at once!

The father and son looked at each other and both had a good impression of Wu'an.

Eldest Master Wen said that he passed the test, but the old man asked him a question, "In the first cup of water, after adding a drop of ink, the whole cup becomes muddy. A cup of dirty water would not become clear if you add a clean drop of water. If you had a drop of water, what would you do?"

Afraid that the child would not understand, Old Master Wen showed him on the spot with two teacups, one filled with water and one with ink.

That question was alluding to officialdom, but since it was a test for Wu'an, Gu Yin didn't say much.

Wu'an said, "Clear water and muddy water are both water. Since I can't change it, then I will make a drop in clear water, so as not to be spoiled by muddy water."

Wu'an's own face turned red after speaking. In fact, he understood that the old grandfather in front of him was using water to test him, but he only vaguely touched the edge. In fact, he didn't know what he was asking, so he felt that he did not answer well.

The old man squinted and recalled that he was asked that question when he was a child. At that time, his inflexible nature had already been revealed. He said that a drop of water could not clean the muddy water, so he would not put a drop of water, but a handful of water. Day after day, year after year, one day, he would be the one who would control whether the glass of water would be cloudy.

Later, he did so, and after three dynasties, he persevered.

Looking back, he found that from beginning to end, no matter how capable he was, he was just a cup of water, and he couldn't argue with the person who held the cup. It was ridiculous.

On the contrary, it was Wu'an answer, which was eloquent and comprehensible, and also contained a broad-mindedness that was neither happy with things nor sad about himself.

In fact, there was no so-called correct answer to that question, but the old man and the eldest master got to know Wu'an better.

So Eldest Master Wen nodded and said, "He is indeed a good boy. Come to study with me in the mansion tomorrow. Would you like to?"

Wu'an was naturally willing. In fact, he also liked reading a lot. Although he still knew a little bit about it, that kind of love was unclear.

He nodded hastily, "Yes!"

The apprenticeship ceremony was set for the second day.

The old man smiled and watched Gu Yin lead the two children out.

Eldest Master Wen couldn't help but say, "Why are you happier than me?"

The old man refused to reveal his thoughts, but said sternly, "Ain't I happy for you since you got a good student? We should also make plans for the future. We both see evil in the present, and as long as he is in power, we would have nothing to do with it. It's possible to recover our reputation one day. Although Wen Lang's aptitude is better than yours, there is no one to help him. It would be difficult for him to become an official. He needs help."

Speaking of that, Eldest Master Wen also bowed and saluted, "Father you are far-sighted, I would live up to your expectations and raise this child well."

After Gu Yin and the two kids left Wen's house, Wu'an was jumping up and down. Even though he had repeatedly emphasized that he was an uncle and could no longer be called Xiao Wu'an, Gu Yin still couldn't help laughing, "Xiao Wu'an, why are you so happy?"

Wu'an blushed and smiled.

Gu Yin listened carefully, only to hear him muttering to himself, "The water is muddy… pour it all out! One cup is not good…for a cup!"

Listen to that, it was crazy!

Gu Yin couldn't help rubbing his little head.

When they returned to Jinyi Alley, Mrs. Wang had already stretched her neck and waited at the entrance of the alley.

"How was it? Did Wu'an pass the exam?" Mrs. Wang's voice trembled.

Gu Yin patted Wu'an lightly, and Wu'an said by himself, "Passed! Master asked me to come to study with him tomorrow."

"Oh my God!" Mrs. Wang couldn't help shouting, then quickly covered her mouth and pushed the three back home together.

For the apprenticeship ceremony, there were six things to prepare such as dried meat, longan, lotus seeds, etc. Fortunately, Chef Xu only gave Gu Yin a copy of it two days ago.

When Gu Yin left Wen's house, she asked him where he bought those things.

Dried meat, which was good, was still expensive.

But Chef Xu had the idea of taking her as his master before the Chinese New Year. So he specially made some more during the Chinese New Year, half of which was given to Gu Yin, and half of which he kept for himself to eat slowly. He immediately said that he would go back and ask his little apprentice to send it to Gu Yin's house.

After Mrs. Wang calmed down, she went with Gu Yin to buy other things. In the evening, Chef Xu's little apprentice brought dried meat over, and everything was ready.

Seeing how busy she was, Mrs. Xu couldn't help but inquire.

During the Chinese New Year, Gu Yin gave her the hairpin, and she wore it for the entire New Year's period. Whenever anyone asked, she took the initiative to say that it was her daughter-in-law's filial piety.

But at that time, she knew that she could not announce it. When Mrs. Xu asked, she lowered her voice and told her that Wu'an had been accepted as a student by the eldest master of the Wen family. He was going to do the apprenticeship the day after.

Mrs. Xu didn't know the specific background of the Wen family, but only knew that the old man had asked Gu Yin to hand over two books to her son, but her son said it was precious and he was not good enough to keep it. He read it carefully first, copied it down, and then returned the original books.

"Weren't you going to let him learn from Master Wu? There are two days before he recruits students. Don't do that to save money. If it's not enough, let's make it together. "

Mrs. Wang smiled and waved, "It's not like that, this Wen family… It's the kind of family we heard in the play before! That old man was upset when he saw that kind of play and quarreled with people!"

Mrs. Xu was shocked and took a breath of cold air, and then Mrs. Wang went to work.

Mrs. Xu went back to the house, and Xu Qingchuan came back not long after, with a smile on his face. He entered the house and said, "I met Aunt Wu when I was coming back, she told me about Wu'an, and told me that I don't have to take him to Master Wu's place the day after tomorrow. This kid is very talented, I didn't expect him to have better luck. He will definitely do something in the future!"

Seeing how her son was sincerely happy for Wu'an, Mrs Xu sighed.

Xu Qingchuan asked her what was going on, and she hesitantly said, "Son, you said that Wu'an is smart, but you are not worse than him. We two met Old Master Wen on the same day, why…"

Why not you?

Xu Qingchuan smiled disapprovingly and said, "Mother, why do you think so? Everyone has their own fate, and I already have a master. Even if they are more powerful, should I change my master again? What kind of person will I become?"

"Oh, you are right, but I'm just…"

Xu Qingchuan warmly comforted, "When the old man was in the town, he also studied with a Juren Master. You can see that he has become an important minister of three dynasties. If it wasn't for him who had a disagreement with the Emperor and asked to resign, his status would have not been lost. It was impossible to even shake it. It can be seen that famous teachers are important, but what happens in the future depends on the students themselves."

After Mrs. Xu was coaxed by him, she got up and went back to the house to get her private money, and said, "Then I am going to the next door again. The master from Hanlin is willing to accept students. His pay must be higher than Master Wu. I don't know if they have enough money."

In the middle of the night, Gu Yin got up to make steamed buns and porridge. When it was dawn, Mrs. Wang went to set up the stall first, while she took Wu'an to Wen's house.

Both Wu'an and Gu Ye rushed to help her carry things, and only asked her to carry a bag of dried longan.

When the group arrived at Wen's house, Old Master Wen and Eldest Master Wen were waiting for them in the study room.

The apprenticeship ceremony started. Eldest Master Wen drank a cup of tea that Wu'an offered, led him to worship the portrait of the most holy master, and held a brush-opening ceremony. A simple apprenticeship ceremony was completed.

After the ceremony was completed, Gu Yin took out another small bundle made of red silk and put it together with the ceremony.

Eldest Master Wen naturally didn't care about these customs, it was just a passing scene. Therefore, he also noticed that there were too many rituals for apprenticeships.

The old man watched the whole process with a smile, and after he sent off the newly promoted master and disciple, the old man watched Gu Yin leave, the smile on his face stagnated, and he hurriedly stopped her, "The matter of the child's schooling had been settled, so let's talk about the store. Now you can rent my store."

Gu Yin said, "I'm afraid that the five taels of silver are gone now. Apart from some cash left in the stall, my family has to earn money for food and clothing."

The old man said strangely, "Didn't I save fifteen taels for your family?"

"Yeah, the fifteen taels that were originally prepared for Master Wu are saved. But for a noble Hanlin scholar like the eldest master, although our family has a weak background, we must present a more generous offering. So I just put all the twenty-two tael into the ceremony and fee."

The old man was stunned, "When did I tell you that my oldest son wants money from your family? If it's really for money, he wouldn't have taken Wu'an, he would have taken the children of those wealthy businessmen."

"I didn't mean that. The eldest master naturally doesn't care about these common things, but it is our family's attitude to give or not. Wu'an stays at your house for a day, lunch and drinks are all on you. Even with the child's expenses, we have to give some. My ability is limited, otherwise, as for the elder master, naturally I shouldn't just do this."

The old man closed his mouth. He was embarrassed to ask the eldest son to return the money, and he was also embarrassed to say that Gu Yin's heart of respecting his eldest son was wrong.

But the development of the matter was too different from what he thought.

The Wu family got a great teacher, and the eldest son got a smart and well-behaved student, but he didn't get anything!

It was so embarrassing!

Gu Yin actually knew what the old man thought.

Mrs. Xu came to the house with private money and asked if she wanted help. Although it was a big event for a child to study, it was not right to borrow money for the child to study. So Gu Yin did not borrow her money, but only discussed with Mrs. Wang that she should give the twenty taels to Eldest Master Wen first, and then wait for the family situation to improve and increase it year by year.

"Don't be unhappy, I know you are reluctant to part with me. Otherwise, I would send Wu'an over every day, and then I would cook you a meal before going back to open the stall, okay?"

Mr. Wen snorted, "I really don't need to eat, let's go."

He stood up and took his hat, looking like he was about to go out.

Gu Yin strangely asked him where he was going.

The old man said angrily with his hands behind his back, "Where else can I go? Of course, I am going to your small stall to eat. I can't detain you here for a meal, and then let you go to the stall. I can just go to see how your little stall is set up."

Gu Yin hurriedly led Gu Ye to follow, "Hey, I also have fish and meat wonton, vegetable buns and meat buns, and of course the preserved egg and lean meat porridge that you like to eat. You can eat it today. Whatever you want to eat tomorrow, tell me, I will cook it for you alone."

"Who said I'm going to come every day?" The old man didn't look back, walked to the gate of Wen's house, then said, "I don't like fish, I want to eat shrimp wontons."

Gu Yin was in a hurry, and the three of them walked to the pier.

On the pier where people came and went, the stall front was crowded with people. Mrs. Wang stood, holding a large iron spoon for scooping porridge in one hand and akimbo in the other, "You haven't heard of it, right? That's the food that Old Master Wen was full of praise after eating! That is, my daughter-in-law has a good heart, and we are selling this good porridge to everyone for two silver!"

Although everyone had never seen Old Master Wen, after a few months, everyone knew that he was back in town. During the Chinese New Year, all the people wanted to see him.

So when they heard that even Old Master Wen was full of praise, the number of people who paid for the porridge with preserved black eggs suddenly increased.

Of course, there were people who didn't believe it and said, "What kind of person is Old Master Wen? An important minister of the three dynasties, teacher of two Emperors. Can he still like the food made by your daughter-in-law? Be careful, don't bite your tongue!"

Everyone burst into laughter, Mrs. Wang blushed and stubbed her neck, "I am talking nonsense? Old Master Wen might not be able to put down this food, so he is chasing after my…"

"How can someone like Old Master Wen come to a place like ours? You, wicked mother-in-law, are funny!"

Mrs. Wang was going to fight again, and looked up to see Gu Yin behind the crowd, and also the old man following her.

Her face suddenly turned from red to white, and she almost fell off the bench in fright.

That bench was as high as a person's calf, and it could be a big fall.

Gu Yin quickly pushed aside the crowd to help, but Mrs. Wang steadied herself.

After stabilizing her figure, she suddenly lost her arrogance, and shouted to the crowd watching the excitement, "Buy it if you want to buy. If you don't, then leave. Don't stand here to watch the liveliness."

Everyone saw that there was no liveliness to watch. Those who wanted to buy porridge naturally paid for it, and those who didn't want to buy, scattered. Gu Yin also returned to her stall.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were still the same as before, one sold buns and porridge, the other sold wontons, while Gu Ye took Wu'an's place and helped.

After being busy for almost an hour, she could finally catch her breath.

Mrs. Wang stretched her neck and looked around. When she didn't see Old Master Wen, she exhaled a long breath, then lowered her voice, "Why did Old Master Wen come with you?"

Gu Yin said helplessly, "The old man didn't have breakfast. I told him that I would stay at Wen's house and make it for him before coming back. But he didn't want to delay my work, so he just came here."

"Then…then he heard it all?" Mrs. Wang murmured, and the aura she had when she just stood on the bench was not there.

Gu Yin said with her eyes: What do you think?

When the old man just heard her words, he immediately took two steps to the side, pretending that he didn't come with her and didn't know her.

The people behind them all dispersed, and the old man also followed the crowd. She didn't know if he got really angry.

"Why did you say those things? He also wants to save his dignity."

Mrs. Wang regretted it, she said in a low voice, "When people saw that black preserved egg in the porridge, someone shouted that we sold spoiled things to them. I got angry. However, I just wanted to say that this was praised by Mr. Wen. Naturally, it would not be a spoiled thing. Afterward, I rushed and went all out. Do you think the old man would not let our Wu'an go to his house to study?"

Seeing her grimacing face and the appearance like the sky was falling, Gu Yin comforted her, "The old man is very understanding, I will apologize on your behalf later, and it should be all right. I don't think he will turn his anger on Wu'an."

Halfway through the morning market, Lao Liutou, came over to exchange a few words with Gu Yin, and then noticed Gu Ye next to her, "This little guy is so good-looking, why haven't I seen him before?"

Gu Ye was whiter and fatter than before, wearing a brown jacket, a pair of black thin cotton trousers, a black belt tied around his waist, and a chubby little belly stretched out in a lively manner.

The frostbite on his face scabbed off after rubbing the medicine for a month, and the white and tender cheeks were no longer sunken like before. When he smiled, two shallow dimples appeared, which made him look cute and sweet. Of course, the most special thing was the pair of black eyes, big and bright, full of aura.

Anyone who saw him like that couldn't imagine that he was a dirty wild child two months ago.

Gu Yin patted him and asked softly, "Do you remember how I taught you at home?"

Gu Ye nodded, and walked to Lao Liutou with his short legs without hesitation. He knelt down and kowtowed to him to say New Year's greetings, "Grandpa Liu, wish you a good year!"

He had practiced that several times at home, so he didn't stammer at all.

"Okay!" Lao Liutou laughed. He started to open the money box and said, "I'll give you the New Year's money, buy something to eat for yourself."

Gu Ye pursed his lips and smiled. His eyes were curved and his dimples were shallow.

It happened that Aunt Ge came over. Seeing his appearance, she couldn't help laughing, "My dear, where did the little Fuwa (good luck doll) come from? He's more lovable than the one in the New Year's painting. Whose child is this?"

That time without Gu Yin's teaching, Gu Ye bowed down to Aunt Ge again and called out in a clear voice.

"Hey!" Aunt Ge grinned, and hurriedly pulled him up and touched his head, "I didn't bring any money here, wait, I'll go back and make it up for you right away."

Seeing Gu Yin smiling from ear to ear, Aunt Ge smiled and patted her, "Why haven't I seen such a baby in your family for two months? It's enough to hand over the New Year's greetings, why let the child kneel down?"

Gu Yin smiled and said, "You and Uncle Liu should be respected by him. Haven't the two of you figured out who this kid is?"

After she said that, Lao Liutou and Aunt Ge looked at Gu Ye from head to toe again, and then they recognised him.

"Oh child, it's you!" Aunt Ge's eyes were red.

The child suddenly disappeared in winter. They asked Officer Caotou to help them to find him, but there was no result. Everyone was worried, especially Lao Liutou and Aunt Ge, who were the first to feed the child. They were more worried about him than Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang as they had known him for longer..

"Good boy, really good boy!" Lao Liutou also wiped his eyes with his sleeves.

Gu Ye generously accepted their compliments.

Aunt Ge came back and gave him the New Year's money.

Gu Ye took it unceremoniously, turned his head to look at Gu Yin's eyes again, and only took a copper coin, and refused to take the rest.

"Oh, he's like a different person. If I was walking on the road, I would definitely not recognize him." Aunt Ge took Gu Yin's hand and patted it, "You taught him well. "

Aunt Ge knew that it was not easy for Gu Yin's family. She was scared that Mrs. Wang, who was really difficult to get along with, would not be able to tolerate this child.

"Don't worry, my mother really likes him."

While they were talking, Gu Ye had already entered the stall with two copper coins, and showed them to Mrs. Wang as if he were offering treasures.

He hadn't forgotten to give the New Year's money to Mrs. Wang.

"I don't want it, You buy candy and eat it yourself," Mrs. Wang was putting steamed buns for people, so she pushed the cub out again with her elbow.

Gu Ye ran up to Gu Yin again and asked her with a smile, "Mother, can I go buy candy?"

"Go, do you know the way back?"

He nodded hastily, and then ran away.

After watching the whole process, Aunt Ge finally felt relieved, and then said to Gu Yin, "If you encounter any difficulties in the future, just tell me."

Gu Yin thanked her for her kindness, and after the two talked for a while, Aunt Ge went back.

Not long after, Gu Ye came back with two strings of candied haws.

He had already eaten one bunch, and he handed the other one to Gu Yin first, and then to Mrs. Wang. Naturally, neither of them would eat it, so he asked Mrs. Wang to help him put it aside. Seeing that Mrs. Wang had kept the candied haws aside, he went to Gu Yin's side again.

Gu Yin took him for a walk on the pier, and asked him to pay tribute to other families who had helped him.

Anyone who recognises that child was surprised to see him again. First, they praised him in a different way, and then praised Gu Yin who adopted him with all kinds of good words.

Gu Yin blushed when she heard it, but Gu Ye always acted candidly – he thought everyone was right. He was so good, so likable, and his mother was indeed beautiful and kind, like a fairy. It was a pity that they didn't have much to say, otherwise they must say something nicer to praise his mother.

After meeting everyone, Gu Ye's small purse had ten more coins. He counted back and forth many times, and his eyes became small crescents as he smiled.

When he returned home in the afternoon, Mrs. Wang looked at him holding a small purse, and said with a smile, "Look at the appearance of this little money fan, I'm afraid no one would believe it if you say he isn't your child!"

Gu Yin was counting the copper coins she earned that day with a smile. When she heard the words, she immediately touched her face and said, "Really?"

Mrs. Wang laughed for a while and asked her how her income was that day.

Before the Chinese New Year, they could earn about 30 silver a day. That day, it was replaced with preserved egg and lean meat porridge. Although preserved eggs and lean meat were put, they would not be put in a large pot of porridge and soup, mainly to enhance the taste. The profit head was a little thicker, so it stood to reason that they should earn more.

But unfortunately, the preserved eggs were not well sold, and many people felt just as unacceptable as Mrs. Wang at the beginning, so the total profit was similar to before.

But Gu Yin was not flustered. The launch of new products was a process of upgrading. If she could sell that much on the first day, the business would definitely get better in the future.

Mrs. Wang heard her do the calculation, but unfortunately said, "Your porridge is really delicious, I have never eaten porridge with this flavor in my life. I would have bought it for not to mention two silver, even three or five. The people here are not very knowledgeable. Seeing that the appearance was not good, they hesitated for one more silver… If only we had a store."

The level of guests entertained by the store was different from that of the people on the wharf, so the acceptance rate would naturally be higher.

And Gu Yin's craftsmanship was recognized by the old man, Mrs. Wang felt more that she should not be exposed to the wind and the sun on the pier.

Especially when her daughter-in-law's skin was really tender. The frostbite she got in winter had finally disappeared. The sun was good, but her face was red after sunbathing in the middle of the morning, and she didn't know how to get through it in summer.

"If I had known, I would have let Wu'an start studying a year later. The twenty taels were enough for a good store in wharf."

"It's a good thing to be able to study under Eldest Master Wen. What else do you want to do, mother?" Gu Yin put the copper coins into the money box, "It's okay, let's make at least three taels a month, and we will be frugal and spend less, so opening a store will only a matter of half a year."

Later, Mrs. Wang went out to buy ingredients and wanted to let Gu Yin rest, but she thought of her promise to make fresh shrimp wontons for the old man the next day, so she went along.

Unfortunately, at the market, there were only freshly caught river shrimps on the market.

In the early spring, the river shrimps were not only expensive, but also small in size. There was still a big gap between the full-bodied shrimps that Gu Yin thought.

Gu Yin bought half a catty, thinking that it would take a lot of work to make shrimp wontons that satisfied the old man.

After thinking about it all the way until Mrs. Wang finished buying other things, Gu Yin went to buy a pound of pork hind legs without any fat and a small bag of sweet potato flour.

She was going to make Yani Shrimp Wonton.

The so-called Yanpi was a thin slice made of mashed meat and sweet potato flour, also known as Yanpi meat. (skin/wrapper)

She needed to beat the pork into a puree. Once it started, it couldn't be stopped. Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang took turns beating for a full hour.

And how much sweet potato flour was added was also very particular. If one didn't master the proportion a little, the meat skin would not be formed.

However, Gu Yin's hand was more accurate than the food scale. After a while, the mashed meat and sweet potato flour were mixed into a pink dough.

After making the dough, she rolled it in a thin skin with a rolling pin, and cut it into the shape of wonton skins with a kitchen knife. Only twenty wonton skins were made with a pound of pork.

Because it took too much time to beat the mashed meat, when Wu'an returned, they were rolling the wonton wrappers.

He carried a small bag that Mrs. Wang sewed, and returned home happily.

Mrs. Wang said strangely, "Why did you come back by yourself? Didn't I tell you to wait for me to pick you up?"

"It's not very far. It's the same distance between the wheat field and our house when I was in the village. My sister-in-law has taken me there twice, and I recognize the way," Wu'an smiled and poured himself a bowl of water. After drinking, he added, "Besides, mother and sister-in-law have been working very hard in the stall every day. It's too troublesome to pick me up and drop me off. I'm not a child anymore."

He was an introvert, and he rarely said so much in one breath even at home.

Even Gu Yin couldn't help but be surprised, "Our Wu'an is really incredible, he has only read a book for a day and is already like little adults!"

Wu'an blushed at her praise, scratched his head and stopped speaking.

When it was getting dark, Gu Ye, who was playing wildly outside, came back.

Mrs. Wang habitually took a cloth towel and cleaned him from head to toe.

Gu Ye obediently let her finish, and then pulled Mrs. Wang to ask for the candied haws before. At first, she refused to give it, only saying, "We will eat the evening meal soon, and you will not be able to eat if your stomach is full."

But in the end, she was defeated by Gu Ye's eager begging and gave in.

The candied haws had been put aside for a long time, and the outermost sugar coating had melted and re-condensed, which looked very unsightly.

But in the child's eyes, it was nothing unsightly. So when Gu Ye happily brought the candied haws to Wu'an, his eyes also lit up.

"I'll give you a bite," Gu Ye said, swallowing.

Wu'an happily ate one, and asked him to take another bite. The two of them took one bite and alternatively ate the whole one.

"I was surprised before when this little brat asked to keep it aside. He specially reserved it for Wu'an!" Mrs. Wang smiled and went to share that new story with Gu Yin, but saw that she was going back to the room to rest for a while.

Gu Yin was so tired that she fell asleep with her clothes on.

In a few hours, she was going to get up again, so Mrs. Wang didn't call her, only helped her lose her hair and covered her with a quilt.

Gu Yin slept until the middle of the night, and when she got up, she realized that her arms were so sore that they didn't feel like her own.

She hissed in pain, then adjusted the quilt for the two children, and went out of the house to bathe.

Mrs. Wang was already waiting for her outside the room, "I heard your hiss when you got up. Do your arms hurt badly?"

When mashing the meat, Mrs. Wang originally told her that she would do it, but Gu Yin said that it looked simple, but in fact, they had to follow the texture of the meat and flour to be considered a success, so during the hour, most of the time, Gu Yin did it herself.

After speaking, Mrs. Wang went to press the pressure points for Gu Yin. She was already very restrained in her strength, and after using 30% of her strength, Gu Yin still took a deep breath to endure the pain.

Mrs. Wang quickly withdrew her hand, frowning distressingly.

"It's alright, it's just that I haven't done much work in the past two months, so I'm not used to it. It'll be fine in two days."

Seeing that she had finished washing up, Mrs. Wang immediately went to make stuffing and buns, and hurried to help, while rebuking her, "I said something wrong yesterday, otherwise you wouldn't have to spend so much time just to apologize to the old man. "

"It really has nothing to do with you. The old man had taken care of me for the past two months, and he has found a teacher for Wu'an. Even if there was no such thing as yesterday, it is what I should do."

After being busy until dawn, Aunt Ge came to pick up the buns, and Wu'an and Gu Ye got up one after another.

Wu'an carried his bag on his own to go to Wen's house, and Gu Ye followed them to set up a stall at the pier.

Gu Yin thought that Old Master Wen would probably not come that day. After the morning market was over, she would have to bring them to Wen's house in person.

Unexpectedly, before the morning market started, Old Master Wen arrived first.

"A bowl of fresh shrimp wontons," the old man was not polite, he sat down at the low table and started ordering.

The skin was the Yanpi that she made the previous night, and the stuffing was prepared in the morning— she peeled off the shrimp meat, picked out the shrimp skin, smashed into a puree, and was beaten with the back of a knife for more than a quarter of an hour. She added sugar and pepper, and stirred it to form shiny shrimp paste; added cold water, pork filling, beat in eggs and stir vigorously. Finally, the shrimp paste and pork were mixed and stirred into meat filling, and then put into the thin Yanpi skin to make dumpling.

After the Yanpi wontons were cooked, Gu Yin sent them to the old man first, and then another person came to the stall. She then turned around to make meat wontons.

The yanpi was pink, and when cooked, the color of the powdered meat filling shone brightly. Just looking at it was different and appetizing.

One bite, the fragrance of pork and the freshness of shrimp burst on the tip of the tongue, coupled with the fresh and sweet Yanpi with a particularly special taste, the layers were clear but natural, and Old Master Wen narrowed his eyes.

Every bite was the ultimate enjoyment.

The other wonton eater next to him came later than the old man, but ate faster than him. He was dawdling and enjoying his meal. When he saw that the wontons in the old man's bowl were also different from what they ate, he could not help asking Gu Yin, " Little lady, is this something new?"

Without waiting for Gu Yin to speak, Mrs. Wang hurriedly said, "No, no, this old gentleman is an acquaintance of ours, and this is the only one, not for sale."

It was impossible to sell those wontons that troubled her daughter-in-law for any amount of money.

Everyone took another look at the old man who was still cherishing every bite of wontons. Although he didn't know the difference between the wontons, he still felt that the ones in the old man's bowl were definitely better than ordinary ones.

He couldn't eat these different wontons, so why not try the little lady's new porridge?

Thinking like that, the person who wasn't full after a bowl of wontons called out another bowl of porridge.

In addition to the repeat customers who ate the preserved egg and lean meat porridge the day before, the porridge sold on that day was much better than the day before.

But when Old Master Wen saw that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were so busy, he didn't talk to Gu Yin after eating the wontons, but got up and summoned the accompanying servant and whispered a few words to him.

Soon after, the servant brought back a small chair and a fishing rod.

The old man sat in the open space beside the stall and caught fish.

Originally, it was just to pass the time, but he didn't expect the gain. There were many people doing food business on that pier, and they just dumped food residues into the canal without paying attention. The fish in the canal ate the scraps there every day, and they came back there after a winter of starvation.

The bait was bitten in less than a quarter of an hour.

By the time Gu Yin finished her business in the morning, the bucked in the old man's hand was full of fishes.

Although these prickly and small river fish were not worth much, the old man had a great time catching them.

After Gu Yin finished her work, she saw that the old man had a smile on his face, so she took the initiative to talk to him, "Aren't you angry?"

The old man turned his head and glanced at the servant, and the servant stood up and gave Gu Yin his chair to sit.

Gu Yin sat down next to the old man and listened to the old man, "I'm angry? Why would I be angry?"

After he finished speaking, he thought of the delicious bowl of Yanpi wontons that morning, and he said, "Okay, I'm a little angry."

Old Master Wen had a good face, but anyone who knew him a little knew.

Gu Yin first apologized for what Mrs. Wang did, and explained the whole story. The old man didn't bother any more, and said, "Actually, your mother-in-law is right. I was full of praise for that porridge. Let her continue to promote it like this. Sell a little more, and you'll earn enough money to open a store sooner." After speaking, he did not forget to lower his voice and exhort, "But don't say I came here chasing you for a bowl of porridge!"

"I won't!" Gu Yin laughed, "You are the most illustrious person in our town. If I let people know that you appear on this pier, they will block it. For my own business, I won't let my mother mention that."

In the same way, the words that came out of Gu Yin's mouth made him happy.

Afterward, she went back and conveyed the words to Mrs. Wang who immediately began to shout, "The preserved egg and lean meat porridge that Old Master Wen personally praised, only two silver per bowl and eat the same thing as Old Master Wen!"

Not to mention, Old Master Wen had a very strong celebrity effect in that town, when such a shout was out, everyone who heard it would stop.

Of course, some people asked Mrs. Wang why she had stopped talking after mentioning it the previous day.

Mrs. Wang's propaganda was "in accordance with the decree" now, and she said confidently, "Yes, I said it yesterday. But my daughter-in-law is a low-key person. She thinks that everyone would know how delicious it is after eating it. She was still afraid of causing Old Master Wen trouble, so she went to ask him for instructions, and the man himself agreed with me."

The other party sneered and said, "What kind of person is Old Master Wen, can you tell him such trivial matters? Besides, as you said, your daughter-in-law is no longer working in Wen's house, so why should she go to Wen's house? And why should she meet the old man? You, a wicked mother-in-law, are really exaggerating."

"That is, even if your daughter-in-law really did work in Wen's house during the New Year, if, as you said, she was appreciated by the old man, why would you go back here to set up a stall? That's the Wen family! Is the appreciation fake? She actually was dismissed, right?"

Mrs. Wang couldn't say that the little old man sitting next to them fishing was Old Master Wen and her daughter-in-law had just asked him. Also, she couldn't say that her daughter-in-law just wanted to do her own business and didn't want to work for others– she was afraid others would think that the old man couldn't even stop a cook, and he would be embarrassed again.

So she said, "How can I make up this sh*t? It's no secret that my daughter-in-law went to work at Wen's house. The young shopkeeper of Daxing and Chef Xu of Wen's house all know about it. As for not continuing it later, then originally, during the Chinese New Year, large families are busy entertaining guests, and they recruit short-term workers. Won't they come back when the period is up?"

She showed no signs of timidity, and even if they were skeptical, they couldn't help but believe it.

With that effect, the porridge that day was quickly sold out.

When the morning market was completely over, Mrs. Wang looked at the empty porridge bucket with an unstoppable smile on her face.

The old man next to her had also finished catching the fish. Seeing her like that, he put away the fishing rod and asked, "Did they get sold out?"

That was the first time Mrs. Wang had spoken to the old man after the stage, and she was still a little frightened – otherwise, she would not have asked Gu Yin to help her apologize. She did not dare to come forward.

But the old man really had nothing to say about her family, so she dared to answer, "Thanks to you, I used your name to promote it today, and it was all sold out in one breath! It's all thanks to your eloquent words!"

Mr. Wen raised his chin proudly, "How much more did you earn than yesterday?"

Mrs. Wang wanted to flatter the old man, so she deliberately said a little more, and said loudly, "A bit less than fifty!"

The old man: …

What a living signboard worth fifty silver!

(Living signboard = grandpa!)

Old Master Wen's living signboard was still more effective than everyone expected.

On that day, they did not earn the fifty silver that Mrs. Wang said, but only thirty silver more.

But the business was getting better later. After all, the taste of preserved eggs was unacceptable at first, but more people would fall in love with it after eating it. Otherwise, that porridge would not be so popular in modern times. That thing was only available in Gu Yin's stall at the moment and one couldn't eat it anywhere else.

In the end, it was people's herd mentality. Just like many internet celebrities in later generations would hire people to line up, once the crowd's herd mentality was aroused, they would naturally come.

Later, they didn't know who started it; that preserved egg and lean meat porridge was renamed "Old Master Wen's porridge".

Once that name was established, there was an endless stream of people buying porridge every day, not only the coolies and merchants on the wharf, but also other people in the town, and even the wealthy merchants in the town. People came in line with a food box.

Gu Yin's porridge sold faster. Often people would line up before dawn, and it would be sold out in less than an hour. Then more porridge was made, but it could only be sold until noon at most, and it was still in short supply.

In the beginning, they earned thirty silver a day, then forty silver, fifty silver…

At the end of February, Gu Yin checked the account and made more than seven taels that month, which was more than the previous two months.

The whole family was very happy. Of course, Gu Yin was the happiest one. People around told her to open a store and sell it there. In fact, who could be more urgent than her when it came to that? But it was really overwhelming for the time being.

After selling for another month, the store could be considered to be settled.

The old man became addicted to fishing on the pier that month. At dawn, he went to the "VIP seat" reserved for him by Gu Yin for a meal, and then moved a chair to sit on the side and started fishing.

He could catch a bucket every day, and at the beginning he brought it back and asked Chef Xu to clean it up.

But his craftsmanship was really average, and the fish was not that good. It had a somewhat fishy smell when he cooked it.

The family frowned when they saw the fish. Old Master Wen couldn't eat it himself, so he just fished it every day. When he caught it, he would give it away for free, and if no one wanted it, he would dump it all back into the river.

He fished all morning, and when he returned in the afternoon, he would ask Mrs. Wang how much money she made that day. Mrs. Wang was able to talk to the old man every day during that period.

Therefore, the old man's heart was also clear about Gu Yin's income.

One day, just after Gu Yin finished her account, someone knocked on the door.

Mrs. Wang opened the door and saw that it was Old Master Wen who was led by Wen Peifeng.

"Why did you come here specially?" Mrs. Wang smiled and welcomed the two of them in.

Gu Yin heard the voice and went out of the main room, and heard the old man mutter, "This alley is really hard to find, and I have come here thanks to Peifeng, otherwise I really can't find it."

Seeing Gu Yin coming out, he waved to her mysteriously, "Come with me, I'll take you to see something good."

Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang followed the old man out of the house.

He asked for two carriages, one for him and Wen Peifeng, and the other for Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang.

The two carriages drove for about two quarters of an hour and came to a wide street intersection.

The carriage stopped, and the group got off one after another.

"What do you think of this place?" Mr. Wen asked Gu Yin, pointing to the empty store on the street.

That was really an excellent store at the entrance of the market. It was L-shaped at the intersection of two streets, and the flow of people on both streets was not small.

It was said to be one store, but it was actually as big as two stores.

After speaking, the old man led them in to see.

The store was brightly lit and had a reasonable layout. What was even more rare was that large items such as tables, chairs, benches and counters were complete.

And the surprising back kitchen was not smaller than the Wen family's large kitchen, and the counters, sinks, and cabinets were also readily available.

At the back was the backyard. There was a separate small yard, a few large water tanks were placed in the courtyard, and there was a place for chopping wood.

There were also several bedrooms, which could be used for daily living.

Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin watched all the way, and the more they looked, the more they liked it.

Old Master Wen had been observing Gu Yin's reaction. After taking her to see it, he asked her, "What do you think? This is the store I told you about before, and the market is said to be excellent. I didn't lie to you, right?"

Gu Yin nodded hurriedly, this store was simply the best she could think of at this stage, it could be called a "dream store".

That month, the business at the small stall was booming. When she was free in the afternoon, she had already turned around near the dock. No matter the location, size, or market entrance, the shops there could not compare with the shop in front of her. And the most important thing was that the area around the wharf was mixed with fish and dragons. If it was opened there, the guests they received were still not very wealthy. It was still hard money to make food and sell it to them.

"It's really an excellent shop!" Gu Yin cherished every inch of the shop.

The old man raised his eyebrows at Wen Peifeng, and he immediately took out a deed.

The deed was handed to Gu Yin, and it stated that the rent for the shop was twenty-two taels a year. The deposit was not counted, and it could be paid quarterly.

One season's rent was exactly what Gu Yin could afford now.

Old Master Wen even brought the ink and ink, and urged Gu Yin to sign it.

Gu Yin said, "I can't sign."

"Didn't you say you're satisfied? Do you think the rent is too expensive? I'll…"

Gu Yin quickly shook her head and said, "It's not too expensive, it's too cheap. I'm here for the first time, but I'm not a child who doesn't know how things work. The rent of shops around here is definitely not what you said."

Just as he was talking, Mrs. Wang came over from outside.

Just now, the old man was only looking at Gu Yin, but he didn't notice when Mrs. Wang went out.

After she came in, she said, "I went to the neighborhood and asked. The smallest shop on this street has a rent of more than twenty taels. There is a shop at the end of the street that is about the same size as this one. The market is not as good as this one. It costs forty taels a year! And they all say that they have never heard of any rent that could be paid on a quarterly basis, and at least one year's rent was required. If it is more popular, the rent lease would start from three years."

After listening, Gu Yin explained to Old Master Wen, "Look, you said this shop is only rented for twenty-five taels a year. Considering our relationship, it's 20% cheaper, and you will just rent it out for twenty-two taels. It's already taking advantage of you. But this shop has to be rented for fifty-two taels. So you just cut the rent in half, and even let me pay it quarterly… This is not suitable. "

"Why do you care about the rent of other shops?! This shop belongs to me. Is it not me who has the final say on the rent?"

Gu Yin still didn't respond, and Old Master Wen walked away angrily with his hands behind his back.

She hurriedly followed, and gently persuaded, "Don't be angry, I didn't mean to not accept your kindness. I really can't take advantage of you like that. Let's rent at 80% of the market price, and I'll save it soon enough. What do you want to eat in the morning tomorrow?"

The old man didn't expect her to suddenly turn to eating. He said subconsciously, "The fish soup Chef Xu makes is so fishy."

Gu Yin smiled and said, "Then I will make it for you tomorrow morning, and it won't have the slightest smell."

Old Master Wen snorted again, climbed into the carriage, and before leaving, did not forget to instruct Wen Peifeng to send Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang back to Jinyi Alley.

Mrs. Wang reluctantly glanced at the shop again, and got into the carriage with Gu Yin.

Wen Peifeng sat with the driver, and the carriage drove again.

Returning to Jinyi Alley, Wen Peifeng hesitated to stop Gu Yin.

"Little lady, let me say something. The old man really likes you. He said to the eldest master a while ago that he was still young, and he should work hard with his wife to have a granddaughter like you."

Thinking of Old Master Wen covering his face with his sleeves, Wen Peifeng also had a little smile in his eyes, "Although I didn't go to the pier with the old man, the relationship between people is always based on sincerity. I think that you also have a lot of heart for the old man. That shop was a little bit of the old man's affection for you. As for the rent price, it is really nothing to the old man. "

Gu Yin smiled and said, "Young shopkeeper, you are right, dozens of taels are really nothing to the old man, but to me, it is really a lot of money. And you also said that the relationship between people should be based on sincerity. It is because the old man and I have a good relationship and get along well, so I can't take advantage of him. What is the result of such a utilitarian relationship? The old man would definitely not like such a 'granddaughter'."

When Wen Peifeng met her star-like eyes, he lowered his eyes slightly to avoid them, and then said, "You are more transparent than me. But I think you and Mrs. Wang liked that shop very much, if you miss it… "

"I really like it." Gu Yin smiled freely, "But if I miss it, I will accept fate."

Wen Peifeng was able to take the initiative to say that because he obviously regarded her as a friend. Gu Yin also accepted his kindness and waved, "Go back quickly, it will be dark in a while, and it may rain at night. Remember to help persuade the old man when you go back. Tell him not to be angry with me, I will prepare the fish soup in the morning and wait for him!"

Wen Peifeng pursed his lips, smiled, and agreed.

…

When Gu Yin returned home, Wu'an had already returned. Mrs. Wang took out the account book written by Gu Yin, money box as well as her own private money to see how much cash was there.

Wu'an studied with Eldest Master Wen for a month, not only learning the language, but also some arithmetic.

After the little guy did the math, he figured out that they had about twelve taels in total at home.

Mrs. Wang sighed dejectedly, "According to the market price, the place rent is fifty taels, and the old man would give us 20% cheaper, that's forty taels. One quarter of it is ten taels, which is barely enough. Sigh, but to buy things for the new store, we have to prepare another seven or eight taels."

"It's okay, mother." Gu Yin said in a soft voice, "Our business is going great now, seven or eight taels is a month's work."

Mrs. Wang looked at her worriedly, "You used to be busy all morning, but now because of the large number of customers, you wake up an hour earlier to cook porridge every day, and then close the stall an hour later. Can you handle it for another month?"

Gu Yin tilted her head and said, "Mother, you forgot that I'm a money fan. Why would I feel it's hard work when I have money to earn? Don't underestimate my money fanaticism!"

Mrs. Wang was coaxed by her, and her face relaxed. She got up and pushed her out, "Quickly wash up and take a rest, I will fall asleep in a few hours."

The next day, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law got up as usual. Aunt Ge came to pick up the steamed buns at dawn. Seeing the shadows under Gu Yin's eyes, she also felt distressed, "Your porridge is selling well now, it's better to just make porridge. Forget the buns."

"It's okay, it's what the two of us agreed on, and we both signed the contract. Now that there are fewer buns to make, it doesn't take much effort." Gu Yin smiled and handed the combined number of buns to Aunt Ge, " If my aunt really cares about me, go back and bring me the oil cakes from your stall. I want to eat the ones that you fry!"

It was refreshing to work with Gu Yin. Such an upright person. She didn't turn her face away because her family's business was booming, and she didn't play emotional cards because of it. The more Aunt Ge knew her, the more she liked her, and whispered, "Looking at how thin you got recently, how can the light fried oil cakes be enough? I will cut some meat today, and tomorrow I will let my husband make some meatballs for you."

Gu Yin responded with a smile.

After everything was ready, Mrs. Wang and Aunt Ge went to the pier to set up a stall. Gu Yin stayed at home and made fish soup for the old man.

The fish dish smelled fishy easily when it got cold, so one had to count the time to start making it.

The stall was overcrowded as usual, and a queue had already formed before the stall was set up.

Mrs. Wang opened the stall, and bowls of hot, fragrant preserved egg and lean meat porridge began to be sold.

But not long after the sale, something went wrong.

A skinny man took a mouthful of porridge and spat it out, "Bah! It's really unpalatable!"

He had already caused the people in line to back away without realizing it, and when he threw the porridge bowl, the people next to him backed away even further.

Mrs. Wang came out from the back of the stall with a sullen face, "If it is bad, I can refund you two coins. But you just smashed my bowl, you owe me three coins. Give me another coin, thank you."

Although her expression was fierce, her attitude was completely decent and polite.

Because the business had become more popular day by day, Gu Yin had expressed her thoughts to Mrs. Wang saying that she used to only do business on the dock, and she had also provoked a jerk like Ge Dalong. Since people from other places were coming there, sooner or later that kind of thing would happen.

If it was in the past, it would lead to a fight, and Officer Caotou would preside over justice.

But that moment was different. Once she stopped, she would lose business for a long time.

As soon as Mrs. Wang heard that she would earn less money, she paid attention to it at the time, guaranteeing that she would be calm when faced with such a thing.

So she didn't get angry at that time, just calmly said to refund the money.

The other party didn't seem to have expected the notorious evil mother-in-law to be so easy going. After a moment of stunned silence, he said, "Your porridge is so unpalatable, why do you want my money?"

Mrs. Wang glanced at him, and said calmly, "I said that the two coins for buying porridge would be returned to you, and you have to pay for the shattered bowl. Forget it, my daughter-in-law said that business is about being gentle and earning money. I won't bother with you for a coin. You don't think it tastes good, and you dropped the bowl, so leave quickly, don't hinder the other people in line behind you."

When she said that, the people in the queue behind him also spoke up and said, "That's right, what are you doing sitting there after you've bought it? If it's not delicious, just eat it elsewhere, we're still waiting to buy it!"

"It's just that this is 'Old Master Wen's porridge', and it's not just us who think it's delicious… Can your tongue be better than Old Master Wen?"

When the man heard someone say Old Master Wen, he spat, "This porridge has been on sale for a month. If Old Master Wen really likes it, why haven't I heard of the Wen family coming? Don't wave a banner as if it were a tiger skin (m. to borrow sb's prestige)!"

Mrs. Wang frowned irritably, but she couldn't say that the old man who fished next to her stall every day was Old Master Wen.

Seeing that she was silent, the man got louder, "Everyone, have you ever seen the old man or the Wen family here?! This black-hearted person just thinks that Old Master Wen has a generous temperament and is indifferent to the world, so she deliberately used him as a signboard! Maybe Old Master Wen knows but is too lazy to care about such a black-hearted woman!"

Just as he was talking, Old Master Wen came.

He didn't bring the servant that day, but brought Chef Xu. He heard that Gu Yin was going to make fish soup and wanted to learn from her.

Chef Xu held a fishing rod in one hand, a fishing bucket and a small bench in the other.

Seeing that the stall was crowded with people, he praised, "Master's craftsmanship is really worthwhile, even if she set up a stall on the wharf, she could attract such a crowd. I don't know if they are busy or not."

The old man understood what he meant, gave him a sidelong glance, took his things, put them in the usual place, and started fishing on his own.

"Then you go fishing first. I'll go take a look."

Chef Xu smiled and pushed aside the crowd.

He happened to meet the lean man who caused trouble.

"Whoever said there was no one from Wen's house,I am from Wen's house!"

Chef Xu stood beside Mrs. Wang like a mountain, and his momentum immediately overwhelmed the other party.

The man took a half step back and said, "How do you prove it?"

Chef Xu laughed angrily and said, "Why? Do I have to find the yamen to write a document to prove that I am me?"

The man stepped back half a step, his eyes moved around for a while, and he couldn't think of what to say. Chef Xu held his back collar and lifted the person out of the crowd like a chicken, "Come on, I'll take you outside to ask if there are any people who know me, Chef Xu. If it doesn't work, I'll take you to the door of Wen's house and let you ask the concierge and servants."

When the other party heard it, he immediately twisted his body and tried to run away.

Chef Xu didn't want to brawl with him either, so when he saw him running away, he went back to the stall to help Mrs. Wang.

After more than a quarter of an hour, Gu Yin came over after making the fish soup.

After the fresh grass carp was opened, she removed the main bone and belly, marinated the fish with salt for a while, then fried it in the oil pan until it turned golden on both sides, and then removed the fish and mixed it with cornstarch.

She put the fish bones in the pot and fried them until fragrant, added water, simmered on high heat for a quarter of an hour, removed the fish bones after simmering, put in the previously disassembled fish meat, and then added shredded cucumber, vermicelli, shredded spring bamboo shoots, shredded fresh mushrooms, then put oil, and seasoning.

In the last step, she beat an egg, put cornstarch in the egg, and poured it into the pot.

When out of the pot, she sprinkled a handful of chopped green onion, and a fresh fish soup with full color and fragrance was ready.

The small casserole filled with fresh fish soup was brought to the old man. The color of the fish soup was as white as milk, and fresh and smooth, and the aftertaste was endless.

Chef Xu helped Mrs. Wang sell porridge, and immediately came.

The old man saw that he wished he could stick his eyeballs in the casserole, and finally kept some aside for him.

Chef Xu got his permission, took a bite, and said, "Master's fish soup is really not fishy! Hey, can you teach me?"

The two hadn't met for a month. It was rare for him to follow the old man. Gu Yin was naturally not stingy, and immediately told him the steps.

Chef Xu nodded repeatedly, memorizing every word in his mind, and then helped her back to the stall to sell porridge.

After being busy until halfway through the morning market, Gu Yin asked Chef Xu in a low voice, "It's been a long time since you came out, what about your work?"

Chef Xu said, "No, I came out with the old man. And today, the second master accompanied his wife back to her parents' house, and the second and third young masters also followed. I came out with the old man, so no one would say anything."

Gu Yin didn't ask anymore.

But on that day, Chef Xu had to be there, because after the thin man, there came several more provocative customers.

They couldn't compete in talking with Gu Yin, and on martial arts, they couldn't compete with Chef Xu and the Mrs. Wang. So no matter how they acted like monsters, Gu Yin assigned a person to deal with it, and let the other two to continue the business.

In particular, Chef Xu revealed his identity as a master chef of the Wen family, and respectfully addressed Gu Yin as "Master", which made it more convincing, and no one dared to say that Gu Yin was waving a tiger's skin as a banner and spreading false propaganda.

After being busy until late in the afternoon, the old man took the fishing rod and Chef Xu back to Wen's house, while Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang closed the stall as usual.

And after they all left the pier, the people who were provocative and attacking jumped out from all corners and gathered in one place. The head of the group was the man with the sharp tongue who came first to make trouble.

Several people murmured for a while, and the man gave them all the money, and then dispersed.

The man glanced bitterly at the location of Gu Yin's stall, left the pier and walked around the path, and finally walked into the back door of the Wang family's old house.

A middle-aged woman was waiting at the back door of the old house. After opening the door for the man, she asked him how it went.

The man said, "It's not as simple as you said. That wicked mother-in-law didn't take drastic measures, and the fat cook of the Wen family helped. My brothers haven't been able to interfere with their business."

The woman frowned and said, "Were you afraid of getting caught, so you gave in easily?"

"What are you saying, Mama? Since us brothers have received money, we have done our jobs well. Although the yamens are powerful, at most they would arrest us for a few days in prison. Are we still afraid of jail? It's true. It's hard to deal with the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. But we have done everything we could, you see the hard earned money…"

The woman heard that he didn't complete the errand, and didn't want to give money, but that matter could not be publicized, so she had to pay the money according to the amount agreed before.

When the rascal was sent away, the woman closed the back door and hurried to the main house.

In the main room of the Wang family's old house, Wang Dafu and Mrs. Zhao, Wang Dagui and Mrs. Zou were all waiting to hear the news.

When the mama came to report that things did not develop as they expected, several people's faces showed disappointment.

Mrs. Zhao couldn't hold back the most, and began to swear.

She scolded Mrs. Wang, Gu Yin and Wu'an, saying that the older Mrs. Wang became, the more cunning, and that Gu Yin looked young, but she was full of bad intentions. She deserved to be a widow at her age, and finally said that Wu'an had a short-lived appearance, and he would not live as long as his father and brother.

The more Mrs. Zhao scolded, the more unpleasant it sounded. Wang Dafu couldn't listen to it anymore. He slapped the table and scolded her, "You really want to take our ancestors of Mrs. Wang with you and scold them together, don't you? Besides, what's the use of scolding people now?"

Mrs. Zhao didn't dare to fight back when she was scolded by him. She only lowered her voice and said, "I'm not in a hurry! It's fine for Wang Baoyun to come back, and go to the wharf where the poor gather to seek a living, and it's irrelevant for us. But why did she have contact with the Wen family? Our family finally went through to have a good relationship with Second Master Wen. We want to send the children to Wen's house to study, if we let her get in the way…"

Wang Dafu sighed.

Wang Dagui and Mrs. Zou, who had not said a word from the beginning to the end, looked at each other, and Mrs. Zou said, "Brother-in-law, sister-in-law, listen to me, now is not the time to think about the children. It's time to worry about whether Wang Baoyun (Mrs. Wang) would find out what happened back then. After all, she had already joined our town, so there is no guarantee that she will not be told…"

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of several people froze.

Within two years after Mrs. Wang's marriage, the second oldest of Wang family dispelled his anger toward his precious daughter. It was only because of his face and he was provoked by Mrs. Zou, that he didn't let his daughter go home.

Later, when he heard that Mrs. Wang had given birth to a big fat boy, the grudges in the second old man's heart were completely gone, so he immediately wrote a letter saying that when the child gets older, Mrs. Wang should bring him back to show them.

Batou Village was a long way from Hanshan Town, and it took more than ten days to walk fast. If she bought a newborn baby, it would take at least a month.

Mrs. Wang originally thought that she would have to wait for Wu Qingyi to be at least one year old before he could endure the exhaustion. She did not expect that Wu Qingyi's physique was different from ordinary people when he was a child, and when he was six months old, he was as strong as one year old child. Moreover, since birth, he had never had the headache and brain fever that children often had.

When he was half a year old, Mrs. Wang sent a letter to her family, saying that she was coming back with her son.

The second oldest of the Wang family was so happy that he ordered the North House, which had been swept all year round, to be cleaned up, and to make a pure gold longevity lock the size of a child's palm for Wu Qingyi. He was also worried that running back and forth would be bad for the child, so he decided to go to the next county to pray in a famous temple.

But the temple was built on the outskirts of Yuanshan County, and the second old man unfortunately encountered a mountain bandit. Those mountain bandits didn't just rob, they tied him and asked for ransom.

When the brothers of the Wang family brought him back with the ransom, the second old man still held his breath, but he had a lot of anger.

He meant to divide the family's property into three parts, one for each of the three.

The eldest son and the second son were not happy when they heard it.

In the past, what they were most worried about was the second old man being too partial to Mrs. Wang, for fear that when Mrs. Wang gets married, a lot of family property would be given as a dowry. When the second old man proposed to let Mrs. Wang recruit Father Wu into their family, they were so anxious that they didn't sleep for a few nights.

Fortunately, the second old man's plan didn't work out, and Mrs. Wang just married someone without any dowry. The two houses thought that Mrs. Wang's entire property belonged to them.

They didn't expect to take a big circle, and in the end, she would get a third of the property.

But the second old man was about to be out of breath at that moment, and they swore to heaven that they would do as he ordered.

In the end, in the sound of the second old man asking the brothers to take good care of their sister, the eldest brother and the second brother with their wives watched him die.

Because of the urgency of what happened at that time, they didn't even have the time to ask for a doctor, let alone notify the elder. So they were the only people who witnessed the second old man's will.

Later, when the two families came together, they simply concealed the matter of the will.

It was not until the end of the funeral, they were scrambling to divide the family property. They even made Mrs. Wang cancel her visit.

Mrs. Zou thought of a plan, arranged for a Taoist to go to Batou Village and give Wu Qingyi the fate of a death star. It was as if she wanted to put the death of the second old man on him, and put an end to Mrs. Wang's idea of returning to her parents' house.

However, Mrs. Wang was indeed stronger, and had not been in contact with her parents since then.

Later, they heard that there was a flood in Batou Village, and they thought that there would be no more troubles, so they were prepared to collect Mrs. Wang's body, but they heard that she was returning to Hanshan Town with her daughter-in-law and young son.

Because of that, the people were in a hurry at the time, so before Mrs. Wang came back, Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou rushed to deceive her the next morning.

But that matter was disturbed by Gu Yin, and Mrs. Wang also took out the family letter that the second old man wrote to her back then.

At that time, they were really facing the enemy, and fortunately, it was written early. At that time, it was only said that the north house was cleaned up and left to her, so that she could come back to live at any time. It was estimated that the second old man meant to wait for her to bring Wu Qingyi back, and then personally tell her about the division of the family property.

They were relieved to only give out a few dozen taels of silver.

After sending off Mrs. Wang, they asked people to inquire again. Knowing that Mrs. Wang had moved to Jinyi Alley to seek a living on the pier; they did not take it to heart. Although Hanshan Town was small, it was divided into different classes. In the Wang family's eyes that piece belonged to the untouchables, and it was no match for their own family.

It was different now, because at that time the second old man passed away and there were no witnesses, but when he went to pray, he asked an old friend from Yuanshan County to go with him, and he was also robbed together. It was very possible that the second old man talked to him about the family things.

Although after the death of the second old man, the two brothers did not communicate with the other side, but Mrs. Wang's daughter-in-law had made such a big business through her name. Even the customers who were not from the town were able to find them. In case they encountered that old friend who knew it, they dared not think deeply!

Just when the few people were at a loss, Wang Dagui said, "At that time, I said that after she leaves the house, I will find a few strong men… they are not difficult to deal with, so there will be no current dilemma. But big brother got soft-hearted. You didn't agree at the time."

Wang Dafu knew that he was wrong, but he still said, "After she was given dozens of taels from our family, she moved to Jinyi Alley. Who dares to be presumptuous there? Officer Caotou is living there, if he was asked to investigate us, I don't know how much trouble it would cause. Let's talk about the present, is it useful to talk about what happened in the past?"

A sarcastic smile appeared on Wang Dagui's face. Earlier, he said that they should hire someone to do the murder, but his elder brother disagreed. He was afraid, and only dared to hire a few rogues to make small troubles. But they didn't think that Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin, who were used to be unknown, and would have died that way, had shown up in front of Old Master Wen, so they couldn't use force.

That was his eldest brother. He had no brains and no guts, he was indecisive and would never achieve great things. But because of his status as the eldest son, he had been suppressed for a lifetime, and even more of that part was taken away when the property was divided.

There was still a united front. Wang Dagui put away that smile and said sternly, "Then I still have a way now, I just don't know if my elder brother agrees or not."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his voice, repeated his plan, and said, "I have already inquired about this matter. As long as the eldest brother agrees, it can be done in two days. And as you said, Jinyi Alley and piers are places where the hood is closed. Other methods may leave clues, but my method would not cause trouble. All in all, as long as the business of the little girl is ruined, they can't stay in the town."

Looking for the rogues ahead to make trouble, Wang Dafu and Mrs. Zhao couldn't come up with any other ideas. After a while, Wang Dafu said, "Okay, just do as you said."

Wang Dagui raised his eyes again and looked at Mrs. Zhu, and both of them had a faint glint in their eyes.

After closing the stall that day, Gu Yin felt something was wrong in the morning.

It was normal to say that there were one or two difficult customers occasionally, but there were five or six in the morning, which was very much like an organized and premeditated disturbance.

She discussed with Mrs. Wang who went to Officer Caotou, and asked him to pay more attention to the movements of her stall when he was patrolling.

Officer Caotou also agreed, and asked Mrs. Wang along the way, "I heard that you were looking for a master for Xiao Ye."

Speaking of that, Mrs. Wang sighed – Gu Ye, that kid really got the right name, he was so wild.

Before, he and Wu'an were tied together with a rope every day. He walked with Wu'an, who was a little bit more shy, and he knew he had to go home before dark.

But since Wu'an went to Wen's house to study, Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang had to work, and it was not convenient for him to be tied to their hands.

Gu Ye followed them to the wharf every day to help them out. At first, he replaced Wu'an and helped with dishes and tables. But then there were more customers buying porridge. Gu Yin was afraid that the customers would push him or trample him, and she was also afraid that the full porridge bowl would burn him, so she let him play by himself.

It didn't matter if he played, that little brat was like a mud bull into the sea when he started playing. He would disappear in the blink of an eye, and didn't go home until he was about to go to sleep.

When he came home in the night, Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang would say a few words to him.

He smiled, let them talk and listened honestly. After they finished speaking, he poured tea for Gu Yin, smoothed Mrs. Wang's back, and washed himself clean.

As the old saying goes, you shall not slap a person in the face when he is smiling at you. Who could harden their hearts when facing him like that?

In a month's time, this little guy turned tanned again.

In addition, the new spring shirt that Gu Yin made for him was also a dark color that was resistant to dirt. At night, he was like before, and when he hid in the corner, he seemed to be invisible. They really couldn't find him.

Later in the family, they invited an old doctor for him. The old doctor said that he was much stronger than before, and it was also good for him to get more sun and activities.

As soon as these words came out, Gu Ye's cheering became even more powerful every day.

His clothes were changed every day, and every day when Mrs. Wang washed his clothes, the mud could be washed out. It was unbelievable how much mud there was.

It was not a problem to let the child be so wild. He could only use basic short sentences in daily conversations. He looked like four years old, as his figure had grown a little, but he was only three years old. He was too young to start studying.

Gu Yin asked people if there were any masters of martial arts who were accepting apprentices – not only would it consume Gu Ye's vigorous energy, but it was better than letting him play wildly outside.

It was a pity that there were not many people in the town who practiced martial arts, and the only few people who opened martial arts halls didn't recruit such little beanies.

Therefore, after searching for several days, there was no progress for that matter.

When Officer Caotou said that, Mrs. Wang sighed and said, "This child is running around outside all day, and whenever his mother and I think about him not coming back till late, we get restless."

Officer Caotou said, "Although the child is adopted by your family now, the public office still has the responsibility to take care of him. My apprentice and I are taking shifts to rest every other day. Just let him follow us all morning. We will take turns to teach him some Kung Fu, teach him in the morning, and you can take him back when you close the stall at noon."

"Won't that bother you too much?"

"Of course not. We will spend half a day practicing martial arts when we are off work."

Mrs. Wang quickly thanked him in surprise, and told Gu Yin when she got home.

As a transmigrator, Gu Yin didn't believe at first that people in that era could really fly over the eaves and go to the sea like in the martial arts novels. Kung Fu was of course a treasure of China, but she thought it should be like modern times to strengthen the body. Of course, after practicing it, one would be better than ordinary people, but it was definitely not the level described in the novels.

So when one day on the pier, Gu Yin saw Officer Caotou rise into the air and jump several meters to chase the thief, she was so shocked that her jaw almost dropped.

Later, she asked only to know that it was precisely because of Officer Caotou's solid martial arts that he suppressed those thieves, that the people of Hanshan Town could live and work in peace and contentment.

So when Officer Caotou was willing to train Gu Ye, Gu Yin naturally agreed.

Mrs. Wang thought more than her, and lowered her voice and laughed, "I heard that his apprentice practiced martial arts from him when he was a child, and he became a fast police officer at the fourteen or fifteen year age, and he was promoted to a police head when he was less than twenty years old. Now although there were only two classes of officers in a yamen, there are only two officers. But when our boy grows up, the officers will retire and he may be at the age to handle the cases."

"Mother thinks too far." Gu Yin glanced at her helplessly, "How old is our kid? How can he go out and handle a case? It's good to learn martial arts when he takes a break."

It didn't matter if both of them agreed, they had to discuss it with Gu Ye.

When he went home again in the dark, Gu Yin told him the matter in detail and asked him what he wanted.

Unexpectedly, the child was very happy to learn martial arts at first, but when he heard that he was following Officer Caotou, he was not happy.

Why was he not happy?

Gu Ye hurriedly explained, "He… chased me, I ran."

Afraid that his mother could not understand the situation at that time, he swayed back and forth with his two small arms between them, indicating that he was running very fast at that time.

"Then, swoosh… he flew, I can't run."

He really couldn't express his thoughts, so he was so anxious.

Gu Yin watched him talk and act again, and smiled, "Tell me slowly, word by word, what about later?"

"Later I wanted to jump into the river, and he stopped chasing me."

Gu Yin had heard Aunt Ge and Lao Liutou mention that in the past, saying that at that time, the child was sleeping alone at the pier, and Officer Caotou wanted to take him to a welfare home but he was too slippery. He was afraid of him getting hurt. He didn't dare to grab him, he just wanted to tire him to the point of exhaustion. Unexpectedly, the child was so stubborn that he almost jumped into the river when he ran out of energy.

Because of that, the people on the pier were helpless when they saw Officer Caotou, and no one dared to arrest him and let him wander there. It wasn't until Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang went to set up a stall that the child had a home, and a name Gu Ye.

"Silly boy, why did you want to jump into the river?" Gu Yin pointed at him, and explained that Officer Caotou was going to take him to a place where he could eat and drink, so he chased him.

Gu Ye nodded suddenly, and said, "I'm afraid of the ones who wear that shirt."

Gu Yin also understood.

The world outside Hanshan Town was indeed very chaotic, the Emperor was incompetent, the officials were corrupt, and even the small government officers who catched theives followed bad people for greed.

It was also because of their good luck that they found a paradise like Hanshan Town in the troubled world.

"Not everyone who wears that uniform is bad. You think about it, he can fly like you said. If he wanted to arrest you, wouldn't it be easy? He was just afraid of hurting you."

Gu Ye wondered, "Isn't it… I run fast?"

Mrs. Wang couldn't help laughing next to him, and said, "You were forced to jump into the river? How can you be faster than him?!"

Gu Ye scratched the back of his head and smiled embarrassedly.

"After learning Kung Fu, you can fly like that. You want that, don't you?"

Gu Ye's eyes suddenly lit up, he nodded hastily and said, "I learn to fly!"

So Gu Ye's decision to go to learn martial arts was settled.

The next day, Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang went to the wharf to set up the stall on a daily basis.

When they set off, Officer Caotou, who was next door, was already punching in the yard. Gu Ye was sent over to learn from him.

That day, Gu Yin expected that someone would come to provoke again. Although she was still a little uneasy in her heart, it was a good thing to be calm.

After closing the stall in the afternoon, she put her things at home and hurried to see Gu Ye next door.

The child was in a horse stance in the yard, and Officer Caotou was beside him.

Two figures, one big and one small, stood in one place, half-squatting with the same stride, with the same hands clenched around their waists.

Gu Yin was frightened, and asked hesitantly, "You won't be in horse stance from the time we set out to set up a stall at dawn, right?"

Officer Caotou was sweating profusely, breathing heavily.

Gu Ye's face was also flushed, but he smiled and said, "He said to do it together."

Officer Caotou let out a long breath and said, "I said it."

At first, he was afraid that the child would find it difficult to practice, so he said to accompany him to the horse stance.

He thought that for such a child, at most a stick of incense would be amazing, so Officer Caotou didn't set a time limit. He didn't expect that this child would be in horse stance for a whole morning.

"Xiao Ye, come home for lunch soon!" Seeing that Officer Caotou legs were shaking, Gu Yin really couldn't bear it.

Gu Ye obediently put away the stance, stood up, and reluctantly waved at Officer Caotou, "Let's play together in the afternoon."

Officer Caotou, who was calm in the face of danger, was obviously staggered when he heard that.

"What afternoon? You woke up with me in the middle of the night, so sleep with me at home in the afternoon after lunch," Gu Yin dragged him away, not forgetting to nod as an apology to Officer Caotou, who was beating his legs.

When they got home, Mrs. Wang made a simple lunch and asked Gu Ye how things went.

Gu Ye said inarticulately while eating, "It was fun!"

After she sent Gu Ye to take a nap in the room first, Gu Yin said, "Don't ask, mother, I regret sending Xiao Ye to learn martial arts," then she described the "tragic situation".

Mrs. Wang waved her hand and said, "This is just unnecessary worry. Can the child compete with Officer Caotou? Officer Caotou is an expert in Kung Fu and does martial arts at home every day!"

Gu Yin was helpless, "No matter how powerful Officer Caotou is, he is not young anymore. He is about your age."

"The physique of martial arts practitioners is not something we can speculate. On the other hand, our Xiao Ye, who has not even started to learn, has been holding a horse stance all morning. Aren't his two calves sore?"

The two went into the room while talking, Gu Ye had already fallen asleep on the kang.

He fell asleep until midnight, when Gu Yin got up, he also got up.

Gu Yin asked him if his legs hurt.

He tilted his head, expressing doubts, as if he was saying it was okay, what was the mother asking about?

Then he simply responded with practical actions, squatting and kicking in the room.

He was fine.

Wu'an rubbed his eyes and sat up when he heard the sound, and asked in a sleepy voice, "Xiao Ye, you were asleep when I came back yesterday. Mother and sister-in-law said you went to learn martial arts with Officer Caotou. Are you tired?"

Gu Ye immediately smiled and said, "It's not tiring, it's fun!"

Wu'an felt jealous, "That's great, can I go with you when I'm on a break?"

Gu Yin immediately said, "No, I advise you not to go."

It was still early, so Gu Yin asked Wu'an to go to sleep and took Gu Ye out of the house to wash.

Before opening the stall, Gu Yin warned, "Today, you can't do horse stance all morning, okay? It's not good for your health."

Mainly because of the poor health of Officer Caotou.

Gu Ye nodded in agreement, seeming to understand.

At the same time, Officer Caotou, who put on brocade to serve and prepared his saber to go out on duty, told his apprentice, "Don't take that child to practice horse stance, find something else."

Li Zhaotou said strangely, "Doesn't the practice of martial arts start with horse stance, when you took me back then, didn't you let me do it for an hour?"

Officer Caotou coughed lightly, "Anyway, it is a process of laying the foundation, and it is not limited to this form. You can think of other things."

His master had more experience with apprentices than he did, so Li Zhaotou didn't ask any more questions. He just held his head and thought about it. He didn't notice that his master's walking posture was a little strange.

When Gu Ye happily knocked on the door, Li Zhuotou opened it and looked at this short small bean. For a while, he didn't know what else he could take him to practice except horse stance.

With Gu Ye's eyes full of anticipation, Li Zhaotou said, "Otherwise, I'll take you for a run, okay? Yes, running and practicing Qi will be very helpful for future cultivation! I will accompany you to run!"

…

When Gu Yin and Mrs Wang arrived at the pier that day, they found that a new stall was suddenly set up in the open space next to them.

Their stall was already the worst on the pier, so there was no one on the other side.

It was not surprising that there was one more stall, but the strange thing was that the things in that shop, whether it was the low tables and stools, stall box, and even thick porcelain sea bowls, were all the same as their own.

Looking closer, that family was also a ferocious mother-in-law with a daughter-in-law.

And that daughter-in-law was someone that Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin knew—it was the neighbor who wanted to learn how to cook from Gu Yin before. She was at Mrs. Xu's house on New Year's Eve and talked badly about Mrs. Wang, so Mrs. Xu had to drive her out.

They didn't know the woman's surname, they just heard the neighbors call her Feng Cheng.

"What are you doing here? Why are you copying us?" Mrs. Wang recognized her, quit the work in hand, and immediately went to question.

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family sneered and said, "You can set up a stall by paying money at the pier, why can't I? Besides, my mother-in-law and I are doing business together. Is this copying you? All the world's mother-in-laws and daughters-in-law's stalls are copying you?"

Mrs. Wang rolled up her sleeves and said, "You're making excuses. I'm not talking about your mother-in-law and daughter-in-law setting up a stall together, just what these things are…"

"That's even funnier, these are things I bought off the shelf at the carpenter."

Mrs. Wang really couldn't argue with that. At the beginning, she used these things because she was in a hurry when she decided to set up a stall, so she bought ready-made ones. Later, the family was a little richer, and they could have replaced them, but one thing was that all those things were used smoothly, and the other was thinking that in a few months, they would shift to open a shop, so she did not waste money anymore.

But she didn't realize that this was a loophole, and this Feng family's daughter-in-law took advantage of it.

The queue began to start at the stall, and Mrs. Wang turned around to see that Gu Yin was busy, so she didn't care about arguing with her, and turned around to help.

"There's something wrong!" Mrs. Wang looked at the bustling scene in front of her stall, while the stall next to her looked deserted and scolded in a low voice, "It would close in two days!"

Gu Yin didn't answer her. The people that day didn't come back after making trouble for a day. She was always a little uneasy. The Feng family's daughter-in-law got the exact same things and theme as their own. She came obviously prepared.

Gu Yun was thinking so, when suddenly there were many people on the pier, and they went to the next stall to line up as if they were organized.

There were long queues in front of the two stalls, and the old woman next to the Feng family's daughter-in-law also began to shout loudly like Mrs. Wang, "Old Master Wen's porridge, a bowl of porridge for a coin! Big meat buns for two coins, and vegetable wonton for three coins!"

Even the food they sell was the same as them, and it was much cheaper.

Could Mrs. Wang bear it?

Immediately, she put the long-handled spoon in her hand and shouted, "Feng family, what do you mean? It's okay if you sell buns, where did you get Old Master Wen's porridge?"

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family said, "Who stipulated that this 'Old Master Wen's porridge' can only be sold by your family? Besides, in this world there is not only Old Master Wen from Hanshan Town. There is also an old man surnamed Wen in the same village as my parents. So what's wrong with it?"

That was simply rhetoric. The Feng family's daughter-in-law didn't say enough, and she stood up specially, facing Mrs. Wang with her arms on her hips. The appearance made Mrs. Wang almost move her hands.

Gu Yin held Mrs. Wang, and she turned around and saw that the people who were lining up in front of her stall were already urging them to start selling quickly, so she had to go back to do business first.

The customers who had tasted Gu Yin's craftsmanship before knew that their family was authentic, and naturally they would not queue at the Feng family's daughter-in-law's stall.

But there were people from other places who came to patronize it under the nickname "Old Master Wen's Porridge".

When they first arrived, they saw the two stalls next to each other as if they belonged to the same family, so they reached the end of the line and started lining up to the other stall.

If they were lucky, they would naturally buy authentic ones from Gu Yin.

With some luck, they bought a copycat.

After buying the porridge from the Feng family's daughter-in-law's stall, the other party tasted it and immediately shouted, "Didn't you say that this Old Master Wen's porridge contains dark preserved eggs with a special taste? It's clearly a salted egg and lean meat porridge! And it's not just this porridge, this bun is so salty, is this a stall trying to kill us with salt? It's really unpalatable!"

The preserved egg was a product that had not yet been found in that era, and it was made by Gu Yin herself. Others naturally couldn't imitate it, so they sold salted egg lean meat porridge.

The two stalls were next to each other, and Mrs. Wang immediately said, "Their family is fake! Our family is the real one!"

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family did not change her face and said, "My family only said it is 'Old Master Wen's porridge', and we didn't say that it is preserved egg porridge with lean meat, just salted eggs. Otherwise, why only charge a coin?"

The man finally got in line, and took another look at the long dragon like line in front of Mrs. Wang's stall. Naturally, he didn't want to. He wanted to fight with the Feng family's daughter-in-law. Unexpectedly, the two men who spontaneously queued up at her stall began to talk.

"You didn't suffer from a big bowl of salted egg porridge and meat porridge for a coin!"

"That's right, if you want a more expensive one, go there to buy the two coins one. Don't get in our way."

That man was not a native, so he could only go down and recognize these tall and powerful local men.

The man left the Feng family's stall and said to Mrs. Wang, "I just got in the wrong line, but I have to go back in a line. It's not easy to come all the way. Can you sell me another bowl?"

If it was another time, Mrs. Wang would naturally sell it to him.

But she hadn't answered yet, and the other customers in front of the stall had their opinions.

"It's your fault that you lined up in the wrong line, why do you join our line?"

"That's right, I came here from other places, and I'm patiently lining up here!"

The man had to admit that he was unlucky and left.

That morning, such events happened several times. At first, Mrs. Wang said that she would wait for Old Master Wen to come over to testify for her family, but unfortunately he didn't come. His servant said that Old Master Wen had been in too much river wind these days, which caused headaches. The master did not allow him to go out. It would take a few days for the old man to be completely healed before he could come back.

When it was almost noon, the porridge on Gu Yin's side was almost sold out, so it was time to close the stall.

There was still a lot of porridge left at the Feng family's side, and that wasn't enough. The daughter-in-law's husband, the one named Feng Cheng, came over with two more porridge buckets to restock.

Mrs. Wang, who was full of anger, had already rubbed her back molars and wanted to beat someone. Gu Yin persuaded her, and then asked her to go to the yamen. Thinking of it, Mrs. Wang suppressed her anger, and she immediately went to invite someone over.

Officer Caotou naturally knew that Gu Yin's porridge was the authentic one, and after hearing Mrs. Wang's explanation, he immediately brought people to see it.

Feng Cheng and his old lady hid aside when they saw Officer Caotou like a mouse seeing a cat.

Although the daughter-in-law of the Feng family was also afraid, she still managed to defend herself, "Officer Caotou, our family sells steamed bun porridge soup in the town every day. You can ask about it. As for the 'Old Master Wen's porridge', it's just a name. No one said that it can only be sold by her family!"

Officer Caotou didn't talk to her about those things, he just said, "Old Master Wen's porridge is indeed a name, but we all know in our town that it is talking about preserved egg and lean meat porridge. If you can make something exactly the same, you can use the name as you wish. If you can't do it, you shouldn't call it that."

"Quanshan Town also has a well-respected Old Master Wen. He likes my salted egg lean meat porridge very much. My porridge can be called 'Quanshan Town Old Master Wen's Porridge', right?"

Officer Caotou had already seen the difficulties of the family, but the laws of the dynasty did not clearly stipulate these, so he could only nod, "That's okay."

The Feng family's daughter-in-law gave Mrs. Wang a proud look, and then asked her mother-in-law to shout by the new name.

Afterward, Officer Caotou went on patrol, and the last bit of porridge on Gu Yin's stall was sold out.

But they all knew that as soon as they left, more people would definitely be deceived, especially when the vast majority of the people lining up in front of the Feng family's daughter-in-law's stall were their own people. Although their names were different, no local could be deceived easily.

Naturally, Mrs. Wang would not sit idly by. She asked Gu Yin to go back to rest, while she stayed on the pier and explained to others that the other shop was a fake.

Gu Yin went to the next door to take a look. Li Zhaotou and Gu Ye were not at home, so she went to the other side of the next door and asked Mrs. Xu to lend her the books of imperial laws.

Mrs. Xu had some books, and she lent them to her without hesitation.

After simply flipping through the law books, she learned that there was no registered trademark in that era, and naturally it was impossible to sue someone for infringement and counterfeiting.

Gu Yin also began to analyze the day's events.

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family was obviously there for her own family, with inferior methods. She was unable to imitate the porridge she made, but she set up a stall with her family, and took advantage of the laws of the era to create a similar one to her. She also hired people to line up, creating the illusion of a booming business to deceive customers from other places.

The Feng family lived in Jinyi Alley, and their life was not as good as theirs, otherwise, they would have not poured out all kinds of jealousy when they couldn't learn the craft from her before. If such a family had such ideas and means, it was long overdue to make a fortune and get rid of poverty. And there were three people in the family, and the only one who knew how to cook was the daughter-in-law. Later, her man brought freshly boiled porridge over. Naturally, she didn't make it herself, but someone else gave it.

Therefore, there must be someone behind her, and the Feng family was just a puppet pushed out by the people behind her. She couldn't sue for infringement and counterfeiting, but if she could find out who was behind it, she could sue someone for maliciously disrupting the market.

Not long after, Mrs. Wang came back from outside, with a smile on her face, she said, "People from other places also know that we only work half-day, so no foreign customers came after noon. Plus I said a few words by the side. Except for the few of their own family members who took turns queuing next door, they failed to make a sale all afternoon!"

Seeing Gu Yin's frowning and pondering appearance, Mrs Wang said, "Don't worry, although I was busy with you in the morning, I was actually careful. They sold five bowls of porridge and three or four steamed buns in the morning. They would lose so much money in one day, it would definitely not last!"

Even Mrs. Wang noticed it, and Gu Yin naturally knew it.

Gu Yin got up and poured a bowl of water for Mrs. Wang, "Have you ever thought that maybe they're not thinking about making money."

Mrs. Wang almost choked on drinking water, "If it's not for making money, what's all that for?"

"What if they just want to ruin our reputation? Today it was only their family, right next to us. We can share our efforts and explain to customers while doing business. If one day they open another stall, or even two, three, more than a dozen stalls, and dozens or hundreds of people are hired to line up… There are only two of us, even if you count the two children, Wu'an and Gu Ye, there are only four people in our family. Can you explain it clearly? I am afraid that our reputation will also be affected by them. Then the few people who were in the wrong line today, if people ask them, wouldn't they be embarrassed to say that they have been deceived? They may directly say that our porridge is bad."

Mrs. Wang said nonchalantly, "No way, our business is not so good, why would anyone do this?"

That was the key point that Gu Yin couldn't figure out. The business of her family had been good during that time, but it was far from being so good that it would make people worry.

"But what you said is right, business is all about word of mouth. We can't let them fool around and risk our name…" Mrs. Wang stood up as she spoke, and hurriedly wandered around the room, "Do you want us to do it or not? Hire some people to help us debunk rumors? I don't know how much it would cost to hire people a day. We are going to open a shop next month, but something went wrong at such a critical time!"

Gu Yin thought for a while and said, "Don't worry, mother, it didn't reach to the level I mentioned right now. We don't need to ask people to refute the rumors, I have a way. Let's make a sign. I thought that there was no need to make a sign on the small stall, but now we have to do it."

Mrs. Wang naturally listened to her. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went to the shop to make a signboard, and they made a plaque that said "Authentic Hanshan Town's Old Wen's Porridge" and a few cards with the same content, but a smaller size. The big signs were naturally going to be hung on the stall, and the small cards would be placed in the back of the queue to prevent the wrong queues from happening again because the queues were too long.

Because it was going to be used the next day, Gu Yin paid a lot of money and had someone do it on the spot.

By the time they got the signboard and went home, it was almost dusk.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had just returned to the entrance of the alley, and met Wu'an who was returning home. Li Zhutou and Gu Ye also returned.

Gu Ye jumped in front of him, while Li Zhutou followed behind, panting and staggering.

As soon as Gu Ye saw Gu Yin, he went up to help her with the things in her hand.

Gu Yin took a handkerchief to wipe his sweat, and whispered, "Where did you go?"

Mrs. Wang smiled and said, "Li Zhutou took him with him, so of course he went to learn martial arts, right?"

Li Zhutou gasped and smiled awkwardly. After all, he was a young man. He breathed out and said, "I went running with Xiao Ye."

Mrs. Wang couldn't laugh after hearing that. She also knew that Gu Ye could run, and said in surprise, "Why did you run with him? How long have you been running?"

Speaking of it, Li Zhutou's face froze, "Morning… we've been running since this morning."

"Oh!" Mrs. Wang immediately went home and put things away, and then came out to support Li Zhutou, "Our Xiao Ye is used to being wild outside every day, but he didn't come home on time, so I went to ask your master. He practiced martial arts. You kid too, why are you so sincerely accompanying him? Have you eaten at noon?"

Li Zhutou shook his head, and while he was talking, Mrs. Wang took him in the house.

He wanted to refuse, but he didn't feel anything before, but when he stopped, his legs seemed to be filled with lead, and his stomach was growling.

Gu Yin also put things away, called Gu Ye to her, and whispered helplessly, "They are taking you to practice martial arts, not to let you run around! How can you make people run after you all day?"

Gu Ye put away his smile and explained seriously, "He said he is taking me to run, so I ran."

Li Zhutou drank a bowl of hot tea poured by Mrs. Wang, and explained embarrassedly, "Don't blame him, it's true that I said from the beginning that I will run with him until he can't run anymore."

But he didn't expect that this little guy could spend a whole day running without getting tired.

What made it even more difficult for him to accept was that he had been practicing with his master for more than ten years. Although he could not be as light as a swallow and walk over walls as his master, he was still much faster than ordinary people. With a solid foundation in Kung Fu and long legs, he could cover three or five steps of Gu Ye in one step. So he thought that he could naturally accompany him easily.

But Gu Ye knew the terrain of Hanshan Town better than him. With his small and agile body, he knew how to walk and drill in the narrow alleys that ordinary people couldn't enter, or even dog holes.

He had lost him several times, but every time he didn't know where to run, Gu Ye would suddenly appear from the corner and wave at him, motioning him to follow.

Li Zhutou was embarrassed to say that, and only said, "If one doesn't advance in martial arts, it's better to retreat. I'm really fine, I was just practicing."

Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin were really sorry, they kept him for dinner, and Mrs. Wang opened the door for him in person, and sent Li Zhutou, who was staggering, back.

"What a little ancestor." Gu Yin reluctantly looked at Gu Ye who was happy, "Let people say something good about you."

Gu Ye smiled ingratiatingly, and then helped Wu'an to clean up the tableware.

Several people went to bathe and sleep. Wu'an had a day's class, and fell asleep with the pillow.

However, Gu Ye was rolling on the kang excitedly, and it was because they slept on a big kang, so she really couldn't stand his movement.

"Go to sleep." Gu Yin slapped his little butt, "I am telling you again seriously, you are not allowed to compete with them tomorrow, and you are not allowed to run around the town with them. Do you understand? "

As soon as these words came out, Gu Ye suddenly became honest, lying in her arms and said pitifully, "I like to run, it's uncomfortable if I don't run."

Gu Yin asked him how comfortable it was.

He couldn't tell, so he said, "I just like it. I used to run every day, and I can run very well!"

Indeed, he could run very well. In the town, apart from Officer Caotou, who was very skilled in martial arts, there was no match for him. Even Li Zhutou could not catch up with him for a whole day.

Before he was adopted by Gu Yin, he was always running.

Gu Yin hugged him, patted him, and asked after a long while, "Will you please do me a favor?"

"Don't say 'please'!" Gu Ye lay beside her ear, "Mother, hurry up!"

As soon as it was dawn, the Feng family's daughter-in-law got up. Instead of getting up and doing work, she dressed up and went elsewhere.

Just out of the alley, the Feng family's daughter-in-law couldn't help shivering when the cold wind blew in the spring morning.

Out of the corner of the eye, she saw a dark shadow, and the woman hurriedly turned to look at it.

There was no one behind her. She muttered and scolded the wild cats that were around in spring, and walked away quickly.

All the way to the back alley of Full Moon Hall, Chef Zhao was already waiting for her.

Seeing her coming, Chef Zhao complained, "Didn't I tell you to come earlier? Today, our Manager Zhou will be back. Unlike yesterday, I can't give you things at any time!"

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family did not dare to reply when she was scolded, and smiled in a pleasing way, "Isn't this an errand that your boss wants?! How does the manager matter? Wouldn't you be the manager of Full Moon Hall in the future?"

Chef Zhao was flattered by her, so he finally stopped cursing, and said, "It is indeed ordered by the boss, but we can't let the surnamed Zhou know about it right now. Well, in short, don't worry about it, run this errand well in the future. If your family uses the waste from our restaurant, you don't have to pay any money, and it will be given to you for free in the future. Let's benefit each other!"

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family was in a hurry and brought up two heavy porridge buckets.

Chef Zhao saw how hard it was for her, but he didn't help. He just asked, "Where's your man? Why didn't he come to help you?"

Feng Cheng was tired and lazy. The previous day, he helped her to carry porridge, but he cried out that his arm hurt and wanted to rest at home.

But the family couldn't count on him in the past, and the Feng family's daughter-in-law was used to it.

"Then I'll go first, and I must finish the errand you gave me."

When it was dawn, the daughter-in-law of the Feng family went to set up the stall, and Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang came first. Their stall was still full of customers, and there was a long queue.

In front of the Feng family's stall, there were still only the people they hired.

At the back, Gu Yin had put up a sign, and then put up a sign along the line of people, and so there were fewer people who were misled.

As the morning passed, all the food of the Feng family was given to the people who were hired to line up.

At noon, Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang closed the stall. In the afternoon, there were fewer customers. According to statistics, only three out-of-town customers were deceived in one day.

The old lady of Feng's family couldn't bear it anymore, and she scolded before closing the stall, "What are you doing? We sell well elsewhere, so why do we have to come to the pier to enter the muddy water? It's okay to have the same thing. But you only made up a similar name, and can't make the food the same! How much money do you think we will lose today?"

The food at their own stall, even the rent at the wharf, and the money for hiring people to line up were all paid by others.

But the daughter-in-law of the Feng family knew that her man and her mother-in-law were unreliable, and she didn't give them the bottom line before, she only said that she was hired by someone.

She lowered her voice and said, "Mother, why do you care about the business? We'll get a day's worth of money, and we don't need to care about profit and loss."

That old lady Feng knew it before, but when she saw that the stall next to her was making a lot of money, could she not be moved?

"I don't care, that money is what we should receive, and we must earn another share in business. You can find a way yourself!"

After speaking, Madam Feng took Feng Cheng away and left the stall to her daughter-in-law to clean up.

The Feng family's daughter-in-law kept thinking, but she could only secretly send a message to Chef Zhao again. She didn't say that her mother-in-law wanted to earn another share of money, but only said that Gu Yin had made that kind of trick, and she couldn't deceive people.

The next day, the Feng family also had the signboard and insert, which read "Authentic Quanshan Town's Old Master Wen's Porridge".

On the third day, a new stall was opened next to the Feng family, selling steamed buns and salted egg lean meat porridge.

On the fourth day, there were two more stalls at the wharf called "Authentic Quanshan Town's Old Master Wen's Porridge" and "Authentic Taohua Town's Old Master Wen's Porridge".

Now, as soon as one arrived at the pier, they could see all kinds of big signs, small cards, and every stall was full of people.

Customers from other places didn't know the real stall and they asked people to find it. Of course, normal people pointed out that the Hanshan Town one was authentic. But there were also a lot of people who asked those hired ones, some stupid people really believed it, some smart people didn't believe it. They just felt that there was a lot of confusion there, so they didn't go into that muddy water.

Gu Yin's business was not actually affected, but as she had guessed before, the bad thing was word of mouth. She and Mrs. Wang inquired about that from the merchants who were running the boat, and they said that there were several shops in Hanshan Town that were known to sell "Old Master Wen's Porridge". It was easy for outsiders to be confused and many were fooled to buy extremely unpalatable meals. So although the reputation of this porridge was getting better, it didn't have a steady stream of new customers like it used to.

After closing the stall that day, Mrs. Wang said with a bitter face, "You were right, this is really wrong. Obviously they can't make a lot of money, but they keep copying us, just to ruin our reputation! Child, you thought of this long ago, did you think of a way to deal with it?"

Gu Yin patted Mrs. Wang's hand, and said, "The method didn't exist before, but it does exist now. Mother, go to bed early today, and I'll show you the fun tomorrow morning."

In the early morning of the next day, Li Zhutou was soundly asleep. When he was half asleep, he suddenly noticed another very shallow breathing sound in the room.

Out of instinct, he immediately sat up.

When he saw that it was Gu Ye who was standing beside the bed, he relaxed and said with a smile, "You kid, I am indeed taking you with me to practice today, but I won't go so early!"

Gu Ye smiled and waved at him.

Li Zhutou had no choice but to get up, get dressed and follow him out.

Two people, one big and one small, went out of Jinyi Alley. Gu Ye took him to the back alley of Full Moon Hall, and hid in a small shack. He put a rotten straw mat on top of his own head.

"What's this for?" Li Zhutou asked in a low voice.

Gu Ye didn't answer, he just put his short fingers to his lips to silence him.

Not long after, the Feng family's daughter-in-law and several other stall owners from the wharf came over one after another.

After the crowd gathered, Chef Zhao opened the back door and distributed the freshly cooked porridge to everyone.

"Be alert! It's been a few days, how many bowls of porridge have you sold? Do you still want to get paid?"

The others were silent, and the daughter-in-law of the Feng family, who was most familiar with Chef Zhao, said with an apologetic smile, "Don't be angry, although we sell less porridge, isn't this also causing a lot of trouble for the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?! We are doing as you ordered!"

"Ha!" Gu Ye lifted the rotten straw mat covering his head and jumped out of the shack.

Several people were startled by his "ha", and they were relieved at the same time when they saw that it was a child who was not taller than an adult's waist.

"You child, why are you making trouble?" Chef Zhao scolded and came to drive him away.

When he saw Li Zhutou who followed Gu Ye out of the shack, his expression changed immediately.

Li Zhutou came out in a hurry, without shackles, but with a saber.

He pressed the scabbard and said, "The law does not stipulate that the name of a certain food can only be used by the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Wu family, but you organized and planned deliberately to disrupt the market maliciously, which can be criminalized. Now tell me, do you want to go back to the yamen with me and go to the jail?"

The daughter-in-law of the Feng family and several other street vendors were ordinary people. When they heard it, they immediately turned pale and began to beg for mercy.

Chef Zhao was also afraid, but there was someone behind him, so he insisted, "Li Zhutou, the guilt of disrupting the market is only a few dozen tael fines, why should you take us all to yamen? I would hand over the fine to you!"

It was at this time that Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang came out.

They arrived earlier than Gu Ye and Li Zhutou, but they were afraid that Chef Zhao and others would find out, so they hid.

Gu Yin smiled and said, "Who said we are only suing you for disrupting the market? I am suing you for selling kitchen waste to customers!"

Chef Zhao's face turned pale again, "You have nothing to say…"

Gu Yin said without hesitation, "Your food is made so salty, and the salt is not free. Someone just told me a 'trick' for the food business. They said that the stale food waste should be put aside with more seasonings, and the customers would naturally not eat it."

Her eyes first fell on the pale-faced daughter-in-law of the Feng family, and then on the porridge buckets next to her, "Why don't you invite someone to test it? After the test, find someone to check and see. Looking at how many disputes the Feng Cheng family have had in business over the years, there should be records in the yamen, right?"

The book of laws states: All food that stinks is poisonous. The stale meat is poisonous, and if there is any excess, it should be quickly burned, and those who violate the law would be beaten ninety times with a heavy stick.

In other words, if the food was not fresh, it was considered poison. If it was found that their food was poisonous, no matter if someone ate it or not, the people would be beaten starting from a minimum of ninety times. The torture sticks in the yamen were as thick as an adult's forearm, and with thirty down, they could tear people's skin to pieces and kill them.

Li Zhutou escorted the group to the yamen.

The county magistrate had already got up and was handling official business. After seeing Li Zhutou bringing people over and asking about the ins and outs of the matter, he did not rush to go to the court for interrogation, but asked people to escort Chef Zhao and others down first, and then let them go and invite the famous cook in town.

Not long after, several restaurant chefs, including Manager Zhou, came.

The county magistrate didn't say anything, just asked them to help identify whether some of the food was spoiled.

Chef Zhao gave each of the Feng family's daughter-in-law and others two porridge buckets, one with salted egg and lean meat porridge, and the other with buns stacked in two layers. Several chefs were brought up in turn to taste and distinguish.

As the saying went, people who didn't have a good tongue couldn't be a good cook. Everyone's face changed after they tasted it. They directly said that these things were obviously about to get spoiled. One could only deceive ordinary people. It had been really hot recently in the spring, and they could all smell the peculiar scent. If it was put out till the afternoon, it would be completely spoiled.

Several chefs signed their own judgment testimony, and Manager Zhou was the last one, and the one with the heaviest face.

After tasting the meat filling in the meat bun, he discovered that the seasoning after removing the salt was his own.

Thinking back to the past few days, the owner Wang Dafu sent him to the countryside to buy ingredients. It was not his job as the shopkeeper, but he was working for others, so he had to obey orders.

When he came back, he found that Chef Zhao was sneaky every day, so he asked him. He said that it was something the owner told him to do, so he didn't ask.

He guessed that the owner was about to replace him, but he didn't expect them to do such a thing.

The others left after giving their testimony, but Manager Zhou didn't leave.

Seeing that he had probably guessed something, the county magistrate simply asked him if he had noticed anything unusual about Chef Zhao in the restaurant these days.

Selling spoiled food was a serious crime, especially if these things fell into the yamen's hands, but no one who was awake would try to help conceal it.

What was more, Manager Zhou didn't even think about helping to hide it, so he told everything that happened.

The county magistrate asked someone to drag Chef Zhao up.

Even if it was a fact that he was still able to suppress his fear and argue when he confronted Li Zhutou before. But when he was brought to yamen, he was already scared, and he directly sold Wang Dafu and Mrs. Zhao.

That time, the witnesses and materials were all available, and the county magistrate immediately asked people to lock them.

Different from inviting several restaurant chefs to come over before, that time Officer Caotou led the team, and the group was wearing shackles.

It was rare to see such a thing in the town, and the people along the way followed to watch the excitement.

When Officer Caotou and others went to the Wang family's old house to take Wang Dafu and Mrs. Zhao, the people watching the excitement were about to squeeze the yamen into an explosion.

"Quiet!" The county magistrate patted the hammer and shouted in a deep voice, and then began the interrogation.

Wang Dafu and Mrs. Zhao no longer had their usual prestige, and knelt in front of the hall and shivered.

They were not very powerful people. When they saw the porridge bucket and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the court, they already knew that it was someone who was arrested.

The couple arranged for them to make trouble and confessed to using the name "Old Master Wen's Porridge" on purpose.

Wang Dafu's lips twitched as he said, "Master, this old man has already pleaded guilty. According to the crime, I would be fined dozens of taels, and I will pay the fine."

The county magistrate said with a sullen face, "This is just the first crime. If it was just such a small crime, I would not let Officer Caotou lead someone to handcuff you. Your price is that you are selling spoiled food!"

Wang Dafu called out that he was wronged, but Mrs. Zhao's face became paler than paper.

When the county magistrate saw it, he first asked Wang Dafu to be taken away to ask Mrs. Zhao alone.

Upon questioning, it turned out that Mrs. Zhao knew and acquiesced to that matter. Full Moon Hall had a great business, and they had many leftovers left by the customers every day.

Chef Zhao sold it again after processing it.

However, even the county magistrate did not expect that this matter would involve such a wide range. In addition to the Feng family's daughter-in-law, there were other people who bought kitchen waste from Full Moon Hall.

It had been half a day since the case started, and it could not be finished that day.

The county magistrate gave Mrs. Zhao and Chef Zhao one day to recall who bought the kitchen waste. At the same time, he also gave time for Officer Caotou and the others to arrest them. He also had to seal up Full Moon Hall first, and threw the rest of the food inside. The second trial was set in five days.

After the county magistrate withdrew from the hall, the people who were watching the excitement dispersed.

Gu Yin could be said to be happy in her heart, but when she saw Mrs. Wang's face was not very good, she didn't show it, and only held her hand and walked out slowly.