Volume 1 Chapter 2

  Back in her room, Xia Ting sat on the couch and thought carefully.

  Before long, Wan Yu followed a middle-aged man in his fifties, dressed as a butler, into the room. Guan Bo bowed to Xia Tingying as soon as he entered the door, "Miss, you asked for me."

  Xia Ting raised her eyes and looked over, Guan Bo was the family slave of her maternal grandfather, who had followed her maternal grandfather for most of his life. He was a loyal and capable person. After her maternal grandfather's death, he helped her mother take care of the old mansion left by her maternal grandfather, as well as several courtyards and a few acres of farmland.

  "Guang Bo, I have a few things for you to take care of," Xia Ting said calmly, holding her tea cup.

  "Miss, just give your orders."

  "Go and find out which shops in the city are for sale, how big their storefronts are, where they're located, and what the prices are. After you've got all the information, draw me a detailed map and write down all the details."

  "Those shops with poor business and mismanagement should also be taken into consideration."

  Guan Bohui's heart skipped a beat, what is Miss doing? He originally thought that Miss was going to ask about this month's harvest in the manor.

  "Also, go find a few more large estates, it's okay if they're in remote locations." The several estates left by her grandfather were not very large and did not meet her requirements.

  Guan Bo listened and hesitated before speaking, "Miss said, the old slave has remembered everything, but... doesn't know what Miss wants to ask these for?"

  Xia Ting smiled slightly "You'll know soon enough, don't tell Mother about this for now."

  Guan Bo is indeed an old generation person, and he still has some insight. Moreover, the lady can't take charge of things. The current Zhuangzi's property and other things have already been handed over to Miss for management. Seeing this, she became very aware and stopped asking questions, nodded her head, "The old slave knows, these days will be handled properly."

  Xia Ting lightly sipped her tea and then spoke again "I still need some reliable manpower, so I'll trouble Guan Bo to carefully select a few."

  Guan Bo responded with a "yes", bowed and then went out to attend to his duties.

  Xia Tingjing lay down on the couch, her hands propping up her head as she thought: Now that I'm already fourteen years old, it's time to plan for my future.

  Since she had come to ancient times and possessed modern advanced ideas, she thought for a long time before deciding to go into business.

  Although the cheap father sends silver every month, it's not much.

  All these years, if she hadn't managed the farm and fields left by her maternal grandfather, thinking of ways to grow more profitable fruits and vegetables. With just the few dozen taels of silver he sent every month, how could they have lived such a prosperous life as a family of three?

  He may still have feelings for his mother now, and he also remembers her in his heart. But it's hard to guarantee that one day he won't fall in love with another woman and forget about the three of them completely.

  After some thought, that cheap father is completely unreliable. For the sake of her mother and brother, she must hold onto capital, otherwise she would be bullied.

  Xia Ting carefully calculated again, over the years, relying on the income from the farm and fields, she had saved a lot of silver. Previously, because she was too young, she couldn't go out to do business.

  However, she didn't idle around and set aside a small piece of land in the backyard to cultivate hybrid rice based on her memories from past lives. No matter which era it was, food was extremely important, and this hybrid rice would definitely bring her huge profits. This was also why she asked Guan Bo to find large tracts of farmland.

  Xia Ting concentrated in her heart for a moment and carefully filtered out all the profitable businesses.

  Guan Bo's efficiency was very high, and in just a few days, he had investigated all the large and small shops in Yixing City, carefully drawing those that were intended for sale or poorly managed on paper, and one by one noting their situation.

  At this time, Xia Ting was sitting upright in the house, looking at the drawings made by Guan Bo. While looking, he asked about the situation of several shops in detail and finally decided to buy two shops that he liked and a wine shop first.

  He then asked about Guan Bo's Zhuangzi, and Guan Bo replied, "This old slave has seen several Zhuangzi, one of which meets the young lady's requirements. It is a bit far away and costs 2,000 taels."

  Xia Ting furrowed her brow and thought for a moment. If she bought the villa, her silver reserves might be strained. It seemed that she could only put it off for now and wait until the shops and wine house made a profit before considering it again. "In that case, let's not rush into buying the villa just yet. Wait a bit longer. You go and buy these two shops and this wine house later, try to negotiate the price as low as possible. And have you found all the people I asked for?"

  Guan Bo nodded immediately after hearing this and said, "I've found them all. They're the reliable house slaves who used to follow the old master. Honest and diligent, they've been working on the estate all these years. Since Miss wants to use people, I've called them all back."

  Xia Ting nodded and responded with a sound, then carefully instructed the things to be prepared next, and took out several formulas written in the past few days and handed them over to Guan Bo. The formulas were for making rouge, snowflake cream and soap respectively.

  Miss, rest assured that I will find a reliable person to handle this and the formula will not be leaked.

  Xia Ting nodded in satisfaction, "For each formula, you are only allowed to tell the person who is mixing it half of it. The remaining half will be mixed by yourself. Hurry up and bring some finished products for me to try." Then he ordered Wan Yu to take out 5,000 taels of silver, Wan Yu immediately opened the box, took a stack of silver bills from inside and handed them over to Guan Bo.

  Guan Bo received the silver ticket, secretly shocked in his heart: he didn't expect that Miss would have such a large sum of money. Previously, he wasn't very confident about what Miss was going to do, but now with both the formula and the silver, it seemed that Miss must have made thorough preparations. Thinking of this, he dared not slack off, and hastily took the silver ticket to make arrangements.

  It's now the hottest days of summer, the weather is extremely hot, and the sun is so scorching that it's almost unbearable.

  Xia Ting was lazily reclining in a deck chair under the shade of a tree, and after drinking several bowls of iced sour plum soup, she finally felt some coolness in this sweltering summer.

  She was surrounded by three little maids, all of whom were intently embroidering something with needles and threads, while Xia Ting occasionally pointed out a few words to them.

  These little girls are Wan Yu, Ling Er and Qian Xiang. Ling Er and Qian Xiang are both Guan Bo's granddaughters, 12 or 13 years old, very clever and lovely.

  Xia Ting is teaching them how to make sachets and pouches, because she has signed a contract with the brocade workshop, which requires her to supply dozens of sachets every month, but it's impossible for her to do everything by herself.

  Xia Ting thought of finding a few loyal and reliable women who were good at needlework to teach them, so that she wouldn't have to do everything herself.

  Wan Yu found out and brought Ling'er and Qian Xiang along, saying that they were good at needlework and were also Guan Bo's granddaughters, so they could be trusted.

  Xia Ting thought about it carefully and also felt that it made sense, so she let the two of them, along with Wan Yu, follow her to learn how to make sachets.

  This needlework is indeed a compulsory course for ancient girls, she only demonstrated once, and Wan Yu and the others could all do it with ease. Xia Tingjing looked at the embroidered sachets they made with praise, very good. It's just that in ancient times, it was either embroidering flowers or birds, too lacking in originality. This needs to be cultivated well.

  Just as Xia Ting was dozing off on the chaise longue, Xia Ziyun, dressed in a cyan robe, came bounding from afar with two young servants following behind. Upon arriving at Xia Ting's side, a pair of soft and fluffy little hands kept waving, "Sister, don't sleep, get up quickly!"

  Hearing her brother's call, Xia Ting could only reluctantly open her eyes to see his flushed face from running and helplessly took out a handkerchief to wipe his face saying "Look at you all sweaty, why are you back so early today?"

  Digression

  If there are any typos, feel free to correct them