Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Qiao Jinniang smiled indifferently and said, “I sat here because of the special beauty of the withered lotus here.”
Lu Chen frowned and said, “You still need to be careful. Chang’an’s winter is colder than Lin’an’s. Now it’s late autumn, so you should wear more clothes.”
Qiao Jinniang said helplessly, “I’m not that delicate.”
Seeing this scene, Duchess Qin was quite puzzled. She hurriedly brought Qin Miaomiao forward and said, “Your Royal Highness, thank you for clarifying for Miaomiao. Otherwise, Miaomiao will have been greatly
wronged.”
Lu Chen said, “Don’t mention it. Earl Lin’an had a life-saving grace for me, so I helped your family for the sake of her biological daughter.”
Qiao Ruoyun hurriedly knelt down and thanked Lu Chen, and now everyone knew that the Crown Prince wasn’t interested in Qin Miaomiao at all!
It was funny that Duchess Qin treated Qiao Jinniang like that just now.
Duchess Qin was full of remorse, so she could only force a smile and ask Lu Chen to sit on the seat of honor.
Lu Chenyan said, “No need. I’ll just sit next to County Mistress.”
The other guests didn’t dare to sit anymore and left the table one after another.
As for Duchess Qin, she had to stand by and serve the Crown Prince and Qiao Jinniang.
Fulu smiled smugly at Qin Miaomiao, came over and said to the Crown Prince, “Imperial Cousin, when are you going to let Jinniang enter the East Palace? You know, some blind people think Jinniang is not worthy of
you!”
Lu Chen looked at Qiao Jinniang and said, “If she agrees, she can enter the East Palace tomorrow.”
Hearing it, everyone turned their eyes to Qiao Jinniang, and there was only one thought in their hearts. Is the Crown Prince joking?
The Crown Prince was waiting for Qiao Jinniang to agree to enter the East Palace?
And Qiao Jinniang refused?!
Everyone was full of doubts, guessing that perhaps Qiao Jinniang was dissatisfied with the position given by His Royal Highness? But she was the biological mother of the Imperial Grandson after all. As long as she
entered the East Palace, she would definitely live a very comfortable life.
Qiao Jinniang didn’t respond, but gracefully ate the dishes in front of her. She lost her appetite after just one bite. The chrysanthemum tofu was cold and had a beany smell.
So she just ate some cold dishes to be polite.
It wasn’t until Qiao Jinniang and Lu Chen left did everyone dare to discuss in twos and threes…
“It’s the first time I saw His Royal Highness, who was so handsome and unreachable, took such care of a woman!”
“The Crown Prince has never been so gentle and humble to a woman. Qiao Jinniang is so lucky! She was raised by commoners but she could still return to the Duke Mansion and now she can even be cared for by the
Crown Prince!”
“Didn’t you make fun of Qiao Jinniang in the racecourse that day? I told you not to do it. Now what are you going to do?!”
Those noble ladies remembered what happened at the racecourse, regretted the big mistake they made, and were now all thinking how to make amends.
It was said that Qiao Jinniang’s Myriad Taste would be opening tomorrow, so they decided to attend the opening ceremony tomorrow.
Early the next morning, Qiao Jinniang went to Myriad Taste. The band she hired had already started to play music, and at the doors of Myriad Taste, candies and pastries were distributed to passersby.
When the sign was hung, there were already quite a few familiar noble ladies around the door, and as soon as the firecrackers went off, people went in one after another.
When Qiao Jinniang saw Qiao Ruoyun coming over, she asked, “Sister, did you invite these people over?”
Qiao Ruoyun shook her head with a smile. “No, yesterday, His Royal Highness showed everyone how much he cared for you. And seeing how you are so favored by the Crown Prince, how dare these people not come to
flatter you?”
Qiao Jinniang had been worried that business might not be good. Now it seemed that she had worried in vain. There was not only a queue at the door of Tasty Pavilion, but there was also a long queue outside Myriad
Taste.
Fortunately, there were plenty of ingredients in Myriad Taste. Even if there were many customers, the ingredients were enough.
But there was a shortcoming for Myriad Taste. Next to Tasty Pavilion were silk shops, jewelry stores, bookstores and other shops. As for Myriad Taste, however, although there was a fair here, there were very few fancy
shops, and the noble ladies who came to Myriad Taste had no place to go shopping.
Moreover, there were many commoners at the fair, so noble ladies wouldn’t set foot in such a place.
Qiao Jinniang wanted to buy the shops on both sides, thinking that she could also open stores selling silk, jewelry, and rough here.
Although the jewelry in Chang’an’s jewelry stores was beautiful, she had to wait for a long time if she wanted to customize the jewelry she liked in those stores because they were too busy.
Besides, the masters in her jewelry shop in the South had mastered hard gold craftsmanship, which was not available in Chang’an yet.
During the lunch break, Qiao Jinniang went to the two shops next door and asked to buy the shops. The shopkeepers of those two shops knew Qiao Jinniang and saw that Qiao Jinniang was young, so they demanded an
exorbitant price.
Unexpectedly, Qiao Jinniang took out the silver note readily and asked them to go to the government with her and handle the procedures.
The two shopkeepers regretted that they didn’t demand an even higher price to rip Qiao Jinniang off more.
Qiao Jinniang believed in her own judgment. Now the noble ladies usually went to the street beside Tasty Pavilion for shopping, and very few of them came here.
But as Myriad Taste and her pastry shop opened, this street would surely prosper.
There was a fair nearby. Those foreign merchants would come here to trade if they wanted to bring the popular rouge and jewelry in Chang’an back to their hometowns.
So although the two shopkeepers demanded very high prices, it could save unnecessary trouble.
If they found their old shops’ business was booming in the future, they might be jealous and make trouble, which Qiao Jinniang wanted to avoid.
After Qiao Jinniang bought the shops, she wrote to Lin’an and asked if the masters were willing to come to Chang’an. If they weren’t, they could send their apprentices over.
It would take at least a month to get a reply. Thus, Qiao Jinniang simply found a few craftsmen first. She could not draw but she was good at carving. She carved the jewelry style she wanted with radish and gave it to
the craftsmen, ordering them to make it.
After she had been busy for more than half a month, the winter hunt was coming.
She didn’t realize it at all.
In late October, Chang’an began to snow.
It snowed in Lin’an sometimes too, but it wouldn’t snow so early and heavily in Lin’an. Nuomi went into Qiao Jinniang’s room holding a handful of white feather-like snow. “Miss, this is the first time I have seen such
heavy snow.”
Hongling chuckled. “The snow in Chang’an has always been this heavy. I just hope it will not be as cold as last year. By the way, Miss, there are rules for the use of charcoal fire in Chang’an.
In the past, the Duke could get the best Silver Filament Charcoal from the imperial palace, but now we can only buy ordinary charcoal, which will produce more smoke than Silver Filament Charcoal.
“Although we have an under-floor heating system, it’s getting colder. I am afraid that an under-floor heating system won’t be enough, and we may still have to use a charcoal brazier.”.
