Chapter 377 - 377 377 Opening a Shop in the Capital (9)_1

Words : 995 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

377: Chapter 377 Opening a Shop in the Capital (9)_1 377: Chapter 377 Opening a Shop in the Capital (9)_1 When the children noticed the wounds on Lady Mei’s face and hands, they were heartbroken and each one wore an angry expression. However, being smart, the children deliberately avoided the topic so as not to upset their grandmother. They currently lacked the ability to contend with the Duke An’s Mansion, and seeking revenge for their grandmother was clearly beyond their abilities. However, the children had resolved that they would settle the score with Duke An’s Mansion sooner or later! ... Cai Wei’s family moved into the Duke An’s Mansion, and the Changchun Garden was a small courtyard, with only three small main rooms and two small side rooms on each side. Lady Mei lived in the room on the left of the main hall. Cai Fei, concerned about her grandmother and not comfortable with her sleeping alone, stayed with Lady Mei in the Eastern Room; the middle of the main hall was a living room, and the room on the right was also a bedroom, where Wen’er and Wu’er lived. Zhongqing and his wife lived in the two side rooms on the left, while Cai Wei resided in the side room on the right, occupying one room and leaving the other one for the two maids. Once settled, the siblings were constantly circling their grandmother, calling her affectionately. Lady Mei was filled with the joy of having her grandchildren around her, and her health, which had been deteriorating, marvelously improved under the care of the children. Wen’er and Wu’er joined the private school of the Duke’s Mansion. The teacher in the school was a respected old scholar who treated all his students equally, completely disregarding their family reputations. After sending his two sons there, Mu Zhongqing discussed with the teacher for a while and found out that he was a very knowledgeable scholar. Hence, he felt reassured leaving his two sons there and focussed his attention on assisting his daughter in planning to open their own shop! Originally, Mu Zhongqing planned to open a shop with Cao Jin, as they had agreed to do so earlier. However, the times have changed. Now, with a storefront in Mao’er Alley, they could run their own shop without any partnership. After discussing with his daughter, they decided it would be better to run their business independently. Therefore, Mu Zhongqing specially visited Cao Jin’s residence one day to explain why they could no longer partner up, and offered to provide free tech support if Cao Jin’s restaurant was interested in selling barbecue. Cao Jin’s initial intention to partner with Cai Wei was not for making money. He was already extremely wealthy and didn’t care about minor income from the restaurant. His intention to cooperate with Cai Wei was to bring the whole family to the Capital. Since they had now arrived and found a home in Duke An’s Mansion under his plan, he believed that his adoptive father, for his significant contributions to Duke An’s Mansion, would be able to redeem himself soon. When the Fourth Miss ran away many years ago, Duke An ordered all the servants in the mansion to pursue, promising redemption for whoever captured her. The allure of becoming a free man was irresistible for a servant! Despite being born as a servant and being able to secretly amass a fortune over the years, his adoptive father was still a slave without freedom and the opportunity to spend his silver. If he could redeem himself with this opportunity, he could live as a free man and enjoy the life of a wealthy master. He could also rightfully honor his adoptive father, making up for his deed of adopting him! Cao Jin readily agreed to Mu Zhongqing’s request, not holding a grudge against the Cai Wei’s family for not keeping their word. On the contrary, he proactively suggested that if there were any difficulties in running the tavern, they could look for him for help. After thanking Cao Jin, Mu Zhongqing felt more at ease and could now concentrate on opening his own shop. Opening a shop and doing business was intriguing and exciting for him, who had spent half his life in studying literature. He was full of anticipation for the future and felt confident in his daughter’s skills and abilities. Therefore, on matters of detailed arrangements for opening the shop, he completely followed his daughter’s opinions. For instance, the shop’s décor; while other shops exhibited traditional style hallways and windows, his daughter’s shop design was quite eccentric. She personally drew two unusual paintings on some fabric, framed them and hung them in the main hall on the first floor. These vivid and striking paintings seemed lifelike. He was unaware of the nature of these paintings until his daughter explained that these were “oil paintings”. These oil paintings were very beautiful and attracted much attention. They could definitely fetch a good price at the Si Bao Zhai, but she insisted that these paintings were used to attract customers and couldn’t be sold. Moreover, she also paid a great deal of attention to some small details of the shop, such as the chopstick holder. Even though a simple piece of bamboo or four thin wooden planks would suffice, she insisted on hiring a fine woodworker, providing him a design drawing and asking him to make it according to the design. Her chopstick holders were unusual. Some were shaped like pumpkins, with a hole on top to hold several pairs of chopsticks. Others were shaped like unclenched fists, with the center of the fist serving as a chopsticks holder. These bizarre designs were everywhere in their shop and left Mu Zhongqing and the craftsmen who came to remodel the shop flabbergasted. While these designs wouldn’t amount to anything in modern times, in the ancient era, they were astonishing innovations with no precedent nor follower!

Chapter 377 - 377 377 Opening a Shop in the Capital (9)_1

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