Chapter 1636 - 1631: Got a Bargain (Second Update)

"They won’t agree!" Mrs. Liu shook her head.

"Xiaxia won’t agree, and your Fourth Uncle won’t agree either!"

Her own man, her own daughter—what kind of decisions they’d make, could she really not know?

Even though the people of the Old Mu Family had done so many excessive things, they had never truly hated anyone.

The only one they resented was that damned Mrs. Jin who deserved a thousand cuts.

"Fourth Aunt, I’ve said everything I needed to say. What happens next is up to you! I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave first!" Mu Shuangshuang said.

"Shuangshuang, don’t go yet, stay for lunch..." Mrs. Liu looked at Mu Shuangshuang, trying to keep her.

"No need, I’ve arranged to meet a friend at noon to discuss the shop! As for Xiaxia, I’ll explain things to her myself next time!" Mu Shuangshuang said.

"All right then!" Although Mrs. Liu felt it was a pity, she still didn’t dare press too much.

She was afraid Mu Shuangshuang would start to dislike her.

Just as Mu Shuangshuang left, Mu Xiaxia came back carrying a bunch of food.

Maybe she’d run too fast, a fine sheen of sweat had formed on her face.

Seeing the house so empty and not spotting Mu Shuangshuang, she curiously asked Mrs. Liu, "Mom, where’s Sister Shuangshuang?"

"She left."

"She left?" The light in Mu Xiaxia’s eyes dimmed in an instant.

"Xiaxia, there’s something I want to ask you!" Mrs. Liu didn’t say much about Mu Shuangshuang, instead bringing up something else.

"Mm! Go ahead!" Mu Xiaxia nodded.

"If... I mean if, it’s not necessarily true!" Afraid her daughter might guess, Mrs. Liu still chose to start with a hypothetical.

"Mm! Go ahead!" Mu Xiaxia nodded.

"If I happened to pick up something belonging to the Old Mu Family—something very valuable and also very important to them—and if I were to sell it, would you blame me?" Mrs. Liu asked.

Mu Xiaxia froze for a moment, then shook her head. "No. But I don’t want you taking anything from the Old Mu Family. No matter what it is, I don’t want it."

What Mrs. Jin had done had hurt Mu Xiaxia far too deeply, and it had made her completely give up on the people of the Old Mu Family.

Let alone something valuable from them—even a single blade of grass, she wouldn’t take!

Besides, deep down she knew that up until now her parents still hoped her eldest uncle would help her find a good marriage.

But she would never accept that favor!

Even if that day really came, she’d rather not marry at all!

Mrs. Liu’s heart turned utterly cold.

Looking at her daughter, waves of bitterness washed through her.

...

...

As soon as Mu Shuangshuang arrived at the entrance of Jiu Si Xuan in the county, the shopkeeper personally came out.

Seeing her, he said with a squinting smile, "Girl, that barley tea you gave me is pretty good. I’ve tried it—it’s completely different from the tea I’ve drunk before, and I like it very much!"

"Then I’ll bring you some more next time!" Mu Shuangshuang said.

"Good! I’ll thank you in advance then, girl!"

The shopkeeper didn’t stand on ceremony with Mu Shuangshuang, and that made her feel very comfortable, no sense of distance.

She followed the shopkeeper up to a private room on the third floor; Zheng Zhi was already waiting for her.

Not only was he waiting, he had brought another man along.

"Shuangshuang, this is Manager Zhang. He has a cloth shop in the county marketplace, in a location just like the one you described—accessible from all sides and with heavy foot traffic.

However, his cloth shop isn’t very big, maybe only as large as the private room we’re in now, and the asking price isn’t low—two hundred and thirty taels is Manager Zhang’s minimum.

But he and I are friends, and he’s willing to let you have it for two hundred and ten taels!" Zheng Zhi said unhurriedly.

Two hundred and ten taels was less than the amount Mu Shuangshuang had imagined.

She was opening a dessert shop, not a restaurant, and it didn’t have to be a particularly large place.

As long as the foot traffic was heavy, even if the shop wasn’t big enough, she could still rake in money by the bowlful!

Just like modern milk tea businesses—so long as the location is right, even a tiny storefront can bring in frighteningly high profits every day!

What’s more, since Zheng Zhi said the location was good, it ought to be worth considering.

Without even thinking twice, Mu Shuangshuang took out a silver note for two hundred taels, plus ten taels in broken silver.

She set them directly on the table. "Manager Zhang, here’s the silver. Give me the land deed and house deed, then have the government register everything in the books. Once that’s done, this matter will be settled!"

As soon as the words left Mu Shuangshuang’s mouth, Boss Zhang’s face turned the color of pig liver.

Zheng Zhi burst out laughing with a "puchi."

"Manager Zhang, I’ve won. You have to sell that shop cheaply to this little girl now!" Zheng Zhi said.

"Hmph, you just got lucky, that’s all!" Manager Zhang’s face was full of anger. He glared at Zheng Zhi, clearly displeased with what he’d said.

"You two were gambling?" Mu Shuangshuang furrowed her brows.

"That’s right, Shuangshuang. The man in front of you is none other than Zhang Yi, a renowned cloth shop owner in Qianzhou Prefecture! All the fabric used in Red House comes from him!

I was just talking with him about buying one of his cloth shops. When he found out the person wanting to buy the shop was you, and heard from me that you used to live in the countryside,

he suggested we make a bet. He said that when it came to a large sum of money, you would definitely hesitate. I disagreed. So we agreed on stakes: if he won, I’d give him a ready-made clothing shop.

If he lost, he’d sell the shop I had my eye on to you at a discount. And in the end..."

"In the end I won?" Mu Shuangshuang asked with a smile.

"Exactly. I was actually a bit worried that at the crucial moment you’d be cautious, say you wanted to go inspect the shop’s size and location, or think it over and so on! Luckily, you didn’t even blink and slapped down two hundred and ten taels of silver just like that." Zheng Zhi could barely contain his joy.

To be honest, when he invited Zhang Yi over, he hadn’t really expected to be able to buy that cloth shop from him.

After all, the shop’s location was indeed excellent.

At least to Zhang Yi, that shop was one of the top few storefronts in the entire county.

Something money couldn’t buy!

This time, he’d truly scored!

Seeing how happy Zheng Zhi was, Mu Shuangshuang couldn’t help looking forward to her new shop all the more.

"Manager Zhang, don’t be mad. You’re running such a big business; you’re not the type to be petty!

Let’s just treat today as making a new friend. I can guarantee that having Shuangshuang as a friend will absolutely be worth it!" Zheng Zhi said.

After Zheng Zhi’s little speech, Zhang Yi began to reevaluate the girl standing before him.

The little lass looked quite decent, fair and clean.

And she didn’t seem like someone from a small, humble background—why hadn’t he taken a good look at her before bringing up that bet?

But what’s done is done. Like Zheng Zhi said, all he could do now was swallow his bitterness.

The loss was already there; if he kept acting stingy on top of that, it would really look bad.

"Fine then, since you’ve said so much, Zheng Zhi, I’ll treat this as making a friend. But I have a condition. I know this girl is from Qingshan Town.

I don’t know if she’s aware that there’s a cloth shop in Qingshan Town whose shopkeeper is also a young woman, named Chen Ru. She has quite a few good clothing design drafts.

If she can get those drafts into her hands, I don’t mind giving her that cloth shop for free!"