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Chapter 150.1 – Two Elders and Opening a Business

March 1^st, 28^th year of Chong Ming, Main Street, West District, Jun Zi City

The sound of firecrackers, cymbals, and drums were deafening. Today was the grand opening day of the An Family Restaurant*. This restaurant was twice the size of the restaurant in An Yuan County. It immediately attracted the attention of many people, who all stopped to watch. A small number of them were literati who came from the teahouse on the other side of the street.

[*T/N: the restaurant doesn’t have a special name, it’s literally called 安家酒楼 “An Family Restaurant”]

Most literati loved to drink tea. Some of them actually liked drinking tea, while some of them drank tea to show off their elegance.

The sound of firecrackers attracted these people’s attention and many poked their heads out of the window to look. When they saw the restaurant’s name plaque, sincere admiration burst from the bottom of their hearts.

“Good calligraphy, such good calligraphy!”

An octogenarian who looked very old and wrinkly admired the four characters on the plaque. The calligraphy was lively and strong like dancing phoenixes and soaring dragons. He couldn’t help exclaiming out loud, “good,” and he looked like he could barely contain his excitement.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

Another elderly man also echoed in praise: “It is indeed good handwriting. This is the most imposing and sharpest handwriting I have ever seen. The person who wrote these four words must not be a simple person. It would be great if I could meet him!”

The people around who heard the conversation between the two couldn’t help looking at each other.

The two old men were regular customers of the teahouse across the street, and there was no one around who did not know of them, but that was not the reason why everyone knew them.

The old man who spoke second was Pang Zhong. He was the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, which was one of the six departments of Da Ya. He was a literati himself, and he had quite a reputation. He was good at calligraphy and had made great achievements in this area.

As for the first old man, his name was Wan Xi Chuan. He had grizzled hair and looked very old on the outside, as if he was eighty years old, but in actuality he was only in his sixties. He was not a government official, but he was also a master in the literature world and was at the rank of a great master.

To be able to get a compliment from the two of them, this person must have some real skills.

A trace of jealousy appeared in many people’s hearts.

They knew the identities of the two old men from the very beginning, and many people wanted to curry favor with them, but the two old men didn’t like sycophantic people.

In their view, one must have the arrogance of a literati in their writing to be considered a literati, and this arrogance was not necessarily reflected in their character, rather, the most important thing was the issue of principles and integrity.

Support the translator. Read this on: vmnovels.com

In order to have these two elders view them favorably, some literati would frequently go to the teahouse and stay there for some time.

Some people would find out in advance when the two elders would go to the teahouse, and then they would perform a good deed in front of them, such as helping the old, weak, female, or young, and some would pretend to compose a poem on the spot as soon as they spot the elders, etc. It was like a show of the Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing his own special talent*.

[*T/N: idiom for “to show off the best of one’s abilities”]

But the two old men have lived through many years, so how could they fail to see through these people’s tricks? Up till now no one has been able to catch the eyes of the two old men.

Although everyone was frustrated, they were not discouraged.

As long as they could get one compliment from these two elders, then they would rapidly go up in the world. For this bright future, they were willing to even destroy their own image.

[T/N: Sounds counter intuitive to me…]

But now, the goal they worked so hard for was easily achieved by a person they had never met. Jealousy rushed up in their hearts.

Seeing that the two old men had got up and went downstairs, everyone followed suit. They also wanted to meet the person who wrote the plaque for the An Family Restaurant. They just wanted to find a little psychological balance; maybe that person was ugly.

A group of noisy people came to the restaurant, and when they walked in, everyone’s eyes lit up.

It’s not that they have never been to the predecessor of this restaurant before. During the opening of the Zhuo Family Teahouse, many people here have patronized the teahouse, and the number of times they came here was not low. This included the two elders, who were also regular customers of the teahouse. But later, the husband and wife pair used high quality tea to attract the two elders, and the rest of the literati followed. This then led to the Zhuo Family Teahouse going bankrupt.

Translations by Vanilla Muse. Read on vmnovels [dot] com

However, the interior of the current restaurant was completely different from what they have seen before. The decoration was more exquisite and luxurious. The waiters and shopkeeper were all in uniformed clothing. All the tables and chairs have been replaced with new ones. It looked more upscale than the teahouse. What was even more surprising was that there were rows of flowers and plants in every corner of the restaurant. Greenery dotted the interior of the restaurant, giving the place a fresh and clean flavor.

There was also a large furniture screen inside the restaurant. On the front of the screen was a landscape painting, which depicted the land of Da Ya. Judging from the painting, the artist’s painting skills were also very high, but what everyone cared about was the characters written on the back of the painting. This was clearly the same lively and strong calligraphy as the one on the restaurant’s plaque.

Appreciating the handwriting at close range, everyone was even more shocked.

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The Big Landlord

Chapter 153.3
Chapter 153.2
Chapter 153.1
Chapter 152.2
Chapter 152.1
Chapter 151.3
Chapter 151.2
Chapter 151.1
Chapter 150.2

Didn’t Love You Enough

Chapter 116
Chapter 115
Chapter 114
Chapter 113
Chapter 112
Chapter 111
Chapter 110
Chapter 109

This Alpha’s Pheromones Are Exploding

Chapter 139
Chapter 138
Chapter 137
Chapter 136
Chapter 135
Chapter 134
Chapter 133
Chapter 132
Chapter 131

Male Lead 2 and Male Lead 3 Happy Ending!

Chapter 115
Chapter 114
Chapter 113
Chapter 112
Chapter 111
Chapter 110
Chapter 109
Chapter 108
Chapter 107
Chapter 106

Let Me Shoulder this Blame!

Chapter 174
Chapter 173
Chapter 172
Chapter 171
Chapter 170
Chapter 169
Chapter 168
Chapter 167
Chapter 166

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Chapter 149.3 – Beef Jerky

At Prince Fu’s Mansion, Chef Wang and Zhou Lan Han’s wife experimented for many days and finally figured out how to make the tastiest beef jerky.

Speaking of Zhou Lao Han’s wife, rumor has it that the reason why her food was so delicious was because it had something to do with a secret recipe passed down from her family’s ancestors.

Zhou Lao Han’s wife was called Jiang Yu. The ancestors from her maternal family once opened a restaurant. Rumor has it that business was booming and they even opened up a dozen restaurants. But later, they offended some big shot, and then the Jiang family began to decline. Fortunately, the unique secret recipe of the Jiang family has been handed down.

The so-called unique secret recipe was originally only passed down to males and not to females, but in Jiang Yu’s generation, she was the only descendant left in the Jiang family.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

Jiang Yu’s father didn’t want the unique secret recipe to be lost, so he passed it down to Jiang Yu, but there was one condition. If she got married in the future and gave birth to a son, then the son must be surnamed Jiang, and she must pass the recipe down to him. Only in this way was she allowed to use the secret recipe herself.

Fortunately, Jiang Yu gave birth to two sons.

Zhou Lao Han has always felt bad for Jiang Yu for marrying a [poor] man like him, so when he learned about her father’s condition, he agreed without hesitation. He was the oldest child in the Zhou family, and all the elders in his family have already passed away, so there was no one to object to his decision.

It was all thanks to Jiang Yu’s secret recipe that the An family’s restaurant was able to flourish.

When they experimented with making beef jerky this time, Jiang Yu added her secret recipe again. The resulting taste was much better than what was already being sold in the markets. Once they determined the best method of making tasty beef jerky, they started marinating beef jerky in large quantities. As for pork jerky, they only made a small portion of that.

The process for making beef jerky was not complicated and it did not take a lot of time.

However, there was simply too much raw meat to work with. It was impossible for Chef Wang and Jiang Yu to do it alone. So in the end, they hired some people and gave them hands-on instructions. Only the last step in the process – the flavoring of the jerky – was completed by the two of them.

The first completed batch of special beef jerky was sent to Prince Fu’s Mansion. Every servant at the mansion got a catty of beef jerky. They were so excited that they almost started snatching at the beef jerky.

Support the translator. Read this on: vmnovels.com

Beef itself was already a bit on the expensive side. Occasionally eating fresh beef was still affordable, but doing it everyday was impossible. Therefore the special beef jerky was even more expensive. Its market price could each forty copper coins per catty, with the most expensive kind reaching sixty copper coins. It was so expensive that most people could not afford to buy it.

The beef jerky distributed to the servants in Prince Fu’s Mansion was not only good in quality but also very tasty.

Some people were even more delighted to find that their catty of beef jerky contained many flavors. There was five-spice beef jerky, mala beef jerky, etc. If they didn’t like spicy flavors, they could replace it with non-spicy ones.

One of the servants made a rough calculation and determined that this one catty of beef jerky would be worth more than fifty copper coins on the market.

They already knew that the wangfei was very generous. During the Lunar New Year, the wangfei gave the servants many new years gifts and about five to ten taels of silver. Many servants were very grateful and they cherished this job even more.

Five days later, An Zi Ran sent most of the marinated beef jerky to Chang Province.

They were building a large-scale construction projection in Chang Province. The workers composed of local migrant workers and some of Fu Wu Tian’s soldiers. There were parts of the project that they did not want outsiders to know about (so they had to handled those parts themselves). Also, the soldiers have a bigger appetite than the migrant workers and An Zi Ran considered them his people too. He was never stingy towards people he considered his own.

Translations by Vanilla Muse. Read on vmnovels [dot] com

The beef jerky was expensive, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford to spend this money. Not to mention, once the project in Chang Province was complete and large amounts of cotton came pouring in, he would get even more money in return.

After another half a month, the An Family Restaurant finally opened.

The refurbished restaurant looked much better than before, especially the entrance of the restaurant.

First impressions were very important. In order to attract customers, An Zi Ran had people repair the threshold. Fu Wu Tian himself also nominated the plaque. His handwriting was majestic and discerning. Everyone could tell that the person who wrote it has profound skills. Literati who loved calligraphy would one hundred percent be attracted just by looking at it.

While they were busy serving customers on this side, the couple in the teahouse on the other side wanted to vomit blood. After waiting for more than twenty days, their competitors actually opened a restaurant?

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Chapter 149.2 – Beef Jerky

Fu Yuan Jian caught a glimpse of the silent Luo Yang who was standing beside him, and suddenly said, “Luo Yang, in your opinion, what should we do about this matter?”

When he heard his name, Luo Yang glanced furtively over at Jiang Sheng. The other man clearly did not look happy. He suddenly had the thought that he should be glad that Jiang Sheng took his place, otherwise the one being scolded like a dog today would be him.

“Replying to wangye, before we thought that the one behind Tian Long Gambling House must be an outsider, someone who came from outside the capital, but this person is obviously very familiar with the workings of Jun Zi City. After all, we can be considered the regional boss of Jun Zi City, so it makes no sense that we can’t find a single clue despite investigating for so long. Therefore, this subordinate thinks that perhaps our outset was incorrect, and that this person has probably been living in Jun Zi City all along.”

Fu Yuan Jian thought that what Luo Yang said made sense and he prompted, “Go on.”

Luo Yang said, “We’ve tried to cause trouble for Tian Long Gambling House several times, but each time they averted disaster. Does wangye recall that when we went to look for trouble with that engraving workshop guy surnamed Li, Gong Yun and his men came to intervene in the matter?”

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

“Of course I remember. At that time we even suspected that it was related to the Yu family, so we sent people to shadow and investigate the Yu family, but it turned out to not be them. That’s why we suspected that someone had used the Yu family to deal with us, thus leading us on a wild goose chase.”

“Yes, but after thinking about it for a while, this subordinate realized that Yu Bo Fei is a smart person. If we can come to certain conclusions, then he must be able to come to the same conclusions.”

Fu Yuan Jian’s eyes lit up. “You mean it is very likely that Yu Bo Fei made use of our habitual thinking patterns to lead us into thinking that it cannot be him?”

“Precisely so.” Luo Yang paused and then he said, “But that is just this subordinate’s conjecture. Whether it is truly the Yu family has yet to be verified, but this subordinate can be certain of one thing and that is the true mastermind is very likely to be a member of the imperial family.”

Fu Yuan Jian narrowed his eyes, “Very well, I will leave this matter to you.”

Hearing these words, Jiang Sheng lowered his head again.

Luo Yang glanced at him, and the corner of his mouth twitched, “Wangye, it is better to leave this matter to Jiang Sheng, he is better at this than me.”

Support the translator. Read this on: vmnovels.com

Jiang Sheng looked up at him in astonishment.

Fu Yuan Jian pondered for a moment, “Alright then.”

It took Jiang Sheng a while to process the situation. “This subordinate accepts [the order].”

Seeing that the wangye’s expression had softened a lot, Luo Yang paused for a moment and then spoke up again, “Wangye, there is one more thing.”

Fu Yuan Jian was indeed in a better mood, “What’s the matter?”

Luo Yang said, “Bao Hua Gambling house is the most profitable business under wangye’s name, but ever since Tian Long Gambling house came into the picture, the gambling house’s revenue has decreased a lot. We’ve tried to imitate Tian Long Gambling House, but wangye should also be able to tell that no matter how hard we try, the gambling house will never go back to how it was before.”

Fu Yuan Jian knew what Luo Yang wanted to say. How could he not understand the reality of the situation? He was determined to make it big, but then he stumbled on this matter. He has persisted until now, so he was unwilling to give up. He just didn’t want to admit that he lost.

“Wangye, you must make a decision when it is time to decide.”

[T/N: He’s saying cut your losses.]

Luo Yang thought Fu Yuan Jian still couldn’t figure it out.

“All right,” Fu Yuan Jian waved his hand impatiently, “No need to say any more, I understand what you are saying, and I have my own discretion in this matter.”

Luo Yang sighed in his heart. He was afraid that the wangye would be too competitive and would not stop until he crashed. He had a premonition that even if they found out who was behind Tian Long Gambling House, they would not be able to do anything to that person.

Translations by Vanilla Muse. Read on vmnovels [dot] com

“Wangye, there is also the matter with the Zhuo family. The matter that the Zhuo family’s eldest son spoke about five days ago, do we have to give a reply?”

Fu Yuan Jian thought for a while, “The Zhuo family seems to be fighting quite hard recently.”

Luo Yang replied, “Elder Zhuo is old after all, so he is unable to attend to multiple things at once. In the past two months, this subordinate has heard that Elder Zhuo plans to delegate power to his children, but he has too many descendants and they’re all very ambitious, so there are many people vying for the position of patriarch. This subordinate heard that Elder Zhuo gave them a difficult mission a month ago. He’s making them all start up a business, and the one who does the best according to him would gain his recognition.”

“According to him?” Fu Yuan Jian laughed mockingly. “So in the end, if that person is not his favorite son or grandson then he cannot get Elder Zhuo’s approval. If Elder Zhuo does not like a certain descendant, then he can just say he didn’t do well and reject him.”

Elder Zhuo was playing a game of words, and not a contest of ability. A truly smart person would be able to tell right away.

“Wait for two days and let’s see.”

“Understood, wangye.”

……

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