Chapter 206: What Happened?

Manager Liu secretly sighed in relief. He had thought First-class Pavilion had secured an exclusive deal for the chili peppers, but it turned out they hadn’t. That made things much simpler.

Still, for the next few months, he would have to stand by and watch as First-class Pavilion raked in a fortune.

Manager Liu stood up and cupped his hands in a salute. "Mr. Gu, my restaurant is busy, so I won’t stay any longer. But when you have a new crop of these chili peppers, you must let me know first."

Gu Zhang chuckled, "Of course, of course. When the time comes, I’ll have my kid send you a message."

After seeing Manager Liu off, Gu Zhang returned to the backyard, humming a little tune.

Mrs. Chen asked with a smile, "What is it? You look so happy. Did something good happen?"

Gu Zhang grinned. "It’s great news! The manager of Drunken Immortal Tower came to buy our chili peppers. I figure that as time goes on, more people will learn about them, and our customer base will just keep growing."

"We won’t have to worry about selling our peppers."

Mrs. Chen chided playfully, "You were still worried about that? I knew all along we wouldn’t have trouble selling them. Young Master Zhu isn’t a fool. Would he have spent so much silver if the peppers weren’t any good?"

Gu Zhang performed a deep bow. "My wife, you are brilliant."

Mrs. Chen smiled, pursing her lips. "I don’t know where you’ve learned to be such a smooth-talker lately."

During dinner, Gu Zhang brought something up with Mrs. Chen. "The New Year has passed. It’s time we sent this year’s silver and grain to my mother."

Mrs. Chen "mm-hmed" in agreement. "Should we send coarse grain or fine grain?"

Gu Zhang paused. In previous years, they had always sent coarse grain. But now that his own family was eating white rice and fine flour with every meal, it felt wrong to send his mother coarse grain.

After a moment of thought, he said, "How about this? We’ll just give her two taels of silver. That way, she can buy whatever she wants to eat."

Mrs. Chen nodded. That was a good idea; it would prevent gossip.

After dinner, Gu Zhang beckoned to Gu Fei. "Come on, take a trip with your father to the other estate."

Gu Fei had nothing else to do, so she happily trotted along with her father.

Once they arrived at the estate, Gu Zhang went to the main house to give the silver to the old madam, while Gu Fei slipped into her aunt’s house.

Her aunt’s family was in the middle of making ginger candy.

With no other source of income, the family had to find any way they could to earn money.

When Gu Fei entered, she saw a long iron nail hammered into one of the room’s pillars. Her older cousin, Yougen, was pulling candy.

He would fling the mass of sugar syrup onto the nail, letting it catch, then pull it long. He’d fling it back up, let it catch again, and pull it long once more, repeating the motion over and over.

Gu Fei could see the sugar had already been pulled until it turned white, and the room was filled with a thick, sweet fragrance.

Her aunt, who was sprinkling flour onto a wooden board, turned and smiled at Gu Fei. "Little Fei, you’ve come at the perfect time. The candy is almost ready. In a moment, Auntie will cut a few pieces for you to try."

"This warm, soft candy is much tastier than what they sell in the shops."

So, Gu Fei obediently waited for her candy.

Once the candy was fully pulled, her older cousin placed it on the board and rolled it into a thin rope. Her aunt grabbed a pair of oiled scissors and, cutting at a diagonal, produced one piece of ginger candy after another.

Ju Hua handed a piece to Gu Fei. Gu Fei popped it into her mouth. The soft candy was still warm and a little sticky as she chewed.

Chewing on her own ginger candy, Ju Hua said proudly, "Lately, Big Brother and I have been going into the city every morning to sell candy. We can make several dozen cash coins a day!"

"Ju Hua, you’re so capable," Gu Fei praised with a beaming smile.

Ju Hua blushed. "Not at all. You’re the one who’s truly capable."

As they were speaking, a woman’s shrill voice suddenly pierced the air from outside. "You shameless thing! What do you think you’re doing?"

To Gu Fei, it sounded like Ms. Qian’s voice. ’What’s going on?’