Kun Zang returned to the servants courtyard and saw her husband and son playing. Seeing her returned,Kun Shi asked with some concerns: " How was it?"
"Let's talk about it inside the house", said Kun Shi . After all, their courtyard were connected. What if they talked about outside and someone heard them? Although she could buy some snacks and go to the county town to do business, others could also buy snacks and go to the county town to do business, so she couldn't let others heard them.
Kun Shi nodded: " Yeah".
When the couple entered the house,KunZang told them all about the snack and her son's education. " What do you think? Madam said the annual stipend is two taels of silver. I think we can afford it, so let Daying go".
Kun Shi naturally hoped that his son would have a bright future. He said, " Okay, let Daying and Cheng brother the private school together in the morning and let them practice martial arts together in the afternoon. Cheng brother is Qin Fang biological brother, so it would be nice for Daying to have him as a playmates. If Daying is a good student, he will definitely continue to support him. If not, he can learn martial arts well. When the Master have a son in the future, they can let Daying be his body guards.
Qin Fang had no idea that Kun Shib had already thought about it so late and even thought about his son.
Kun Zang smiled and said, " You have made all the arrangements for your son's future"
Kun Shi said: " Your excellency is only twenty-one years old and already in the seventh-rank captain. There's no captain so young in our barracks. Your excellency has a bright future ahead of him. You and i will naturally think of our son."
Kun Zang always listen to her husban, so when he said this, she naturally listen.
Main courtyard
While eating, Qin Siya couldn't help asking, " Sister in law, my third brother is going to the private school tomorrow, what about me?". Sure remembered that if she remembered a word , she would be rewarded.
Yang Haiyan picked up piece of scrambled eggs with chopsticks and just put it in her mouth when she heard her say this. She swallowed the eggs and said: " Starting tomorrow, you will study half an hour in the morning, learn arithmetic of half an hour and learn needlework offer half an hour in the afternoon. The rest of the time is yours".
Girls do not have to take imperial examination unlike modern girls who have to take middle school entrance examination and college entrance examination. For Qin Siya, studying is just about meaning to read, increasing knowledge and understanding more principles. Therefore, studying for half an hour, which is less than an hour,a day is enough.
Qin Siya: " If i remember all the characters, will there be any rewards?"
After hearing this, Qin Fang couldn't help but friend: " Your sister in law has to give you money for your studies?" Why does this girl think so beautifully?
Qin Siya was a little afraid of her eldest brother. When she heard her brother say this with a cold face, she shrank her neck.
Yang Haiyan said: " I promised Siya that if she memorized ten words everyday,I would give her a penny as a reward". She wouldn't memorized many words everyday, so just taught her ten words everyday to took her time.
Qin Fang heard this and felt bad. Why hasn't he received any rewards when he was studying? His wife used to care about him the most and even loved him the most, but now it seemed trashy Shoucheng and Siya were more important than him. Qin Fang felt that bringing his younger siblings here was mistake.
Yang Haiyan didn't know her husband had a problem with overthinking. Seeing him frowning in thought, scaring Siya , she picked up a piece of meat for him with her serving chopsticks and said, " There's a plenty of sugar in the braised pork. Don't you like sweet food?"
There is no ordinary person who doesn't like sweet food. Because their family are poor and they rarely have the opportunity to eat Candy. Qin Fang is no exception.
Seeing his wife picked up some meat for him, Qin Fang didn't know what to think and just open his mouth.
Yang Haiyan ".." ? . She thought about it and decided to forget about it. He was only 21 years old and still a big boy. As her sister who was almost 30 years old, she didn't bother with him and put the meat to his mouth. " Don't bite the chopsticks".
Qin Fang :"Yeah"
After lunch, Yang Haiyan called Qin Sita to the study room and said, " Siya, this is the hundred family surname that your elder brother read when he was in school. Starting tomorrow, you will learn to recognize the character in the book. Now I'm giving it to you".
Qin Siya was about to take the book when Qin Fang, who came in, quickly caught it.
Yang Haiyan was surprise: " Didn't you go take a nap?"
Qin Fang put the book back to its place and said seriously,"She needs to study, so I'll buy her another one. This is the book you bought for me, so I can't give it to her."
He had been on guard. He had heard the girl want to study during dinner, and he hadn't seen her buy her a book in the study this morning, so he had guessed it. How could this be? It had to be impossible.
Yang Haiyan was speechless, but still took out some money and gave it to Qin Shoucheng: "Shoucheng, you and Si Ya go to the study and buy a book for Si Ya."
Qin Shoucheng: "Yes."
After the two siblings left, Yang Haiyan rolled her eyes at Qin Fang and said, "You're trying to snatch a book from me. That's your sister."
Qin Fang said, "That's the book you gave me. How can you give it to someone else?"
Yang Haiyan found that she couldn't refute it.
Qin Fang was very satisfied: "I'm going to take a nap."
Yang Haiyan had nothing to do, so she accompanied him to take a nap. Maybe it was spring sleepiness, she felt a little tired.
"Madam..." She was just about to take a nap when Aunt Fan came over. "Madam, the Kunshi family came to see you."
Yang Haiyan was a step slower: "Is it about the order of dim sum?"
Aunt Fan: "Yes, she wanted two kilograms of small cakes and two kilograms of small cookies. She even went to the pastry shop and bought her son a variety of pastries to try. She thinks small cakes and small cookies are more suitable for business in the county town."
Yang Haiyan knew, of course, that it was cheap and long-lasting. "Just keep a record of it."
The next day
Qin Fang brought his private guards into the mountains again.
Today was the first day of the market, and Yang Haiyan planned not to take her servants with her to"buy" some things.
Coincidentally, today was also Qin Siya's first day learning to read, so she entrusted Qin Siya to the literate Nanny Lian, so that she could "buy" seeds .
"Haiyan..." Mrs. Lu came to Qianfu's house early in the morning to call for her.
Yang Haiyan rushed out: "Coming." She was carrying a basket.
Mrs. Lu looked behind her and asked, "Are you going alone today?"
Yang Haiyan: "Yes, I thought they might want to buy something, so I gave them a day off."
That's true, except for Aunt Lian, everyone else had a day off.
The town market wasn't as lively as Yang Haiyan had imagined. The market wasn't big, and the people weren't wealthy. The peddlers, with their good goods, would hide them until early April and sell them at the county market. Because the county market was large, the people who went there were wealthy, and the peddlers were there to make money. They would bring goods from elsewhere to Qiguo to sell, then exchange them for money, buy things from Qiguo, and take them elsewhere.
"Peddlers" was one way of saying it, and "caravan" was another.
Some caravans were groups, known as caravans, traveling between nations and tribes, becoming quite famous. Others were individual merchants, formed by several individuals who traveled together to form sworn brothers. However, each merchant earned their own money, and the sworn brotherhood was simply a way to strengthen their own ranks and provide mutual support along the way.
At first, Yang Haiyan was a little disappointed with the vendors. Although she had prepared various seeds to "buy," she was still curious about what the vendors had to offer. But as she and Mrs. Lu walked along, she didn't see anything particularly unusual.
It wasn't until she saw the stalls of a large group of vendors and saw what was on display that her eyes widened. "So much jade and pearls!" It was insane!
If Yang Haiyan didn't know much about these things, she would have thought they were fake, but as she knew a little bit about them, she knew that the jade and pearls were real. At least the pieces she picked up to look at were real.
However, these caravans are shrewd. When only a tiny bit of jade is visible in a jade stone, its quality remains unknown. This is what's known as... gambling on jade. But it's even more tempting than gambling on jade. Laymen don't understand gambling on jade, like Yang Haiyan, and they absolutely can't tell whether a stone contains jade.
However, these jade stones, with a tiny bit of jade showing through, attract buyers. As long as the visible area is good jade, there are still many gamblers.
Mrs. Lu saw Yang Haiyan stop and said, "Haiyan, do you want to buy jade?"
Yang Haiyan said: "I am not interested in jade, but l am interested in pearls."
Mrs. Lu said, "I heard that there are people out there who specialize in raising pearls. It is said that pearls are not valuable in the places where they are raised.
But if they are brought to our Qi Country to sell, the price of the pearls will be high."
Yang Haiyan thought this was perfectly normal.
Wasn't this the production chain sales track? She said to Sister Lu, "Sister-in-law, I want to see some pearls. Why don't you go and look at what you want first? I'll come back to you later."
Mrs. Lu: "Okay."
Seeing Yang Haiyan staring at the pearl, the traveling merchant enthusiastically introduced it:
"Madam, do you like this pearl?"
The flower beads are light pink and look very gentle.
Yang Haiyan asked: "How much does this cost?"
Merchant: "The price varies depending on the size. If you buy a lot, the price can be negotiated."
Yang Haiyan took a quick look and saw several varieties of pearls, including pure pink flower pearls, pure white South Sea pearls, and even the Queen pearls, which had a hue like the warm sun. Of course, she didn't know what they were called in this era; these were modern names. She chose the light pink flower pearls, about 8mm in size.
"I want five of these." She then selected the 1cm Queen pearls. "I want four of these." She also chose the 1cm South Sea white pearls. "I want four of these.
Please let me know the price for each." No woman can resist the allure of pearls.