Wine-scented Beauty

Chapter 118: Conception

Chapter 118: Idea

Lu Yu rested his chin on his hand, looking at her with his long, slender fingers framing his face, appearing quite relaxed. Ji Meiqing, preoccupied with her thoughts, didn't notice this scene.

I counted on my fingers and still didn't know how much it was.

Lu Yu, who was watching from the other side, couldn't stand it any longer and spoke up to remind them, "There's a restaurant called Dragon and Phoenix in the city. Would you like to go and have a look?"

"Dragon and Phoenix Pavilion?" She snapped out of her reverie, repeated the question, and asked, "Is that alright?"

"I don't know if it's possible, but I heard business there isn't very good. We can give it a try."

"Then I'll listen to you." She laughed, her eyes almost curving into crescent shapes. After laughing for a while, she stopped, looking at Lu Yu with a troubled expression, "I have one more thing..."

"what's up?"

“I want to send my younger brother to school. After all, he’s already so old, and all the other children his age are already in school… Only he…”

"Listen to my wife."

Ji Meiqing laughed again. She didn't care about the title, but her heart skipped a beat when he said it.

Ji Meiqing immediately relayed the news to Ji Tianci, who was so startled he almost fell off his chair.

"Sister, I don't want to study, I don't want to go to school..." Ji Tianci looked at her pitifully, still clutching her sleeve.

Ji Meiqing asked patiently, "Why?"

"The Master and everyone else are bad."

"Who told you that?" she pressed.

"That's what Aunt Liu said."

Ji Meiqing was taken aback. Liu Shi… how was she being linked to this again? She looked at Ji Tianci and asked again, “Are you sure?”

“My aunt told me that if I went to school, not only would the teacher bully me, but other people would also look down on me because I was born out of wedlock.”

Her face turned cold, and she said angrily, "You have to go to school whether you like it or not. I want to see who dares to bully you."

Ji Tianci stared blankly at her, forgetting to wipe the tears from his face. Ji Meiqing softened again, looked at the tears on his face, and gently wiped them away for him.

"Good boy, if you listen to me, I'll make you something delicious. If you don't listen... from now on it'll just be vegetables and radishes, you can choose."

"..."

Under Ji Meiqing's coercion and enticement, Ji Tianci finally gave in. She rubbed his head and said softly, "Good boy, I'll give you something delicious to eat tonight."

"……Um."

The room was tidied up, and Ji Meiqing went back to her room to change into men's clothing and disguise herself as a man. Lu Yu did the same, changing into other clothes.

For safety reasons, one pretended to be a spoiled rich kid, and the other pretended to be a gang leader. The two used aliases and then left the room together.

Grandma Mei was used to it, but Ji Tianci was still a little puzzled.

They swaggered out onto the street.

Lu Yu led her to the Dragon and Phoenix Pavilion with a smile. As he said, on this crowded street, their house was the only one that was deserted.

Ji Meiqing glanced at it and then squeezed through the crowd to go inside.

"You two are..."

"We'd like to meet your boss."

The waiter glanced at them a few times, then smiled and said, "Please wait a moment," before disappearing without a trace.

Ji Meiqing and he strolled around the area for a while before finding a place to sit down.

The owner of Longfeng Restaurant arrived quickly. Upon seeing the two of them, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "You two aren't here to eat?"

"No. There are some things I'd like to discuss with the boss. I was wondering if you have the time."

"Please come upstairs." He glanced at the waiter beside him, signaling him to clean up, and then led them upstairs together.

The doors and windows on the second floor were all closed, making it somewhat dark. The two followed the boss side by side and then followed him into a private room.

"Please take a seat."

Ji Meiqing sat down and couldn't help but look around the room.

"You two are..."

"We want to buy this restaurant, I wonder if you would agree?" She got straight to the point, which surprised the two men.

After hearing this, the boss chuckled and said, "I thought you had something else on your mind, but it turns out it's just this..."

"I wonder if the boss agrees?"

"Yes, yes, of course I agree. How could I not agree to something so good?" His quick agreement made the two of them hesitate.

The shopkeeper asked with a smile, "So, how much silver would you like to pay?"

"Um... if the number you're looking for is within our acceptable range, then it's fine."

The conversation was thrown back at him again, and the boss thought for a moment and then held up one finger.

"Ten thousand?"

“Hmm… ten thousand taels of silver,” he said.

Ji Meiqing and Lu Yu exchanged a glance, but the effect of their shared understanding didn't seem to be as good as they had imagined.

"Is this within your acceptable range?" Lu Yu asked.

This time he was more direct, "Ten thousand taels or eight thousand five hundred taels. This price is already very favorable. I spent more than this amount to build this place back then."

"How about nine thousand? Let's round it up and make a friend."

"Whatever." He didn't seem to care about this place; his manner of speaking, tone of voice, and eyes were all lazy.

Ji Meiqing took out a stack of papers from her bag and counted them carefully. She was stunned to see how much money she had.

"You...did you rob a bank?" He looked at the silver notes in her hand in surprise.

Ji Meiqing was counting the bills and had no time to pay attention to him. After a while, she took out ten more bills and looked at the shop owner. Instead of giving them to him, she said, "Give me the contract for this restaurant first. We'll exchange money for goods."

"Wait a minute." He pursed his lips and left the room. Ji Meiqing took the opportunity to put all the money in Lu Yu's pocket, then looked towards the door.

The door was kicked open with a "bang," and he placed a yellowed contract on the table. Ji Meiqing looked at it, and after confirming that there were no problems, she prepared a copy of the agreement.

He took it and looked at it, but couldn't figure out what it was.

“If we sign the contract, this restaurant will be mine. If you stay, you can help me manage it.”

"If I were capable, do you think this building would be in this state now?" He gave a bitter laugh, his face showing helplessness.

This is really... she didn't know what to say.

The two parties quickly signed the contract, and Ji Meiqing waited for it to dry before carefully putting it away.

"I don't know your names yet. My name is Ye Qiu."

"Ji Qing and Lu Li."

"Ji Qing? From the Ji family?" He didn't know why he connected the two, but Ji Meiqing felt a little horrified.

Ye Qiu waved his hand in front of her face, then asked inexplicably, "What's wrong with you?"

"No..." She chuckled dryly and looked at Lu Yu.