The Little Lucky Girl

Along the way, he chattered to Ming Youyou about the accounts his family had settled last night.

"The cost of word sugar is more expensive than malt sugar. If you don't count the labor, one penny can buy about three pieces of sugar."

Thanks to Village Chief Guo's insomnia, Ming Youyou arrived at the county government office early and the county magistrate and his family had not yet had breakfast.

Now that we've caught up, let's go together.

Chef Zhang’s cooking skills are as good as ever, but unfortunately they are now far away from the sea and the seafood cannot be transported over, so they can’t have their favorite shrimp dumplings to eat.

Ming Youyou said to Magistrate Tao with some regret: "Why don't you build a road for me, sir?"

Magistrate Tao rolled his eyes at her and said, "Building a road from the mountain to the sea? Do you know how much it will cost? You really think highly of me."

"Our shop can make money, so we can repair some of the buildings as we earn." Ming Youyou had recently learned the story of Yugong moving the mountains. "If you can't finish the repairs, let your son continue."

Magistrate Tao laughed angrily, "In order to let you eat shrimp dumplings, I have to sacrifice my son to build the road for you."

Jokes aside, Magistrate Tao really imagined in his mind that if Dayu could travel from west to east without any obstacles... that scene would be very beautiful.

Seeing that her husband had been so preoccupied with his work that he had forgotten to eat, Mrs. Tao served him a bowl of porridge and said, "The shop has been renovated and will be ready for use in half a month."

Half a month... Ming Youyou's eyes lit up, "Is this the day when the Longxi caravan arrives?"

Magistrate Tao had already traveled around Dayu's territory in his mind, and now he was more determined to make money. "Yes, we will open the business as soon as the caravan enters the city."

When the time comes, we can dance the lions and set off firecrackers to make it as lively as possible, which will naturally attract the caravan members. How great is that.

Ming Youyou brought a box over and said, "Then I would like to congratulate you in advance on your grand opening."

"You are quite polite." Mrs. Tao took it with a smile, but the logo on the box looked very familiar.

Magistrate Tao also took a glance and asked in confusion, "Why does this look like something from my house?"

Ming Youyou just laughed. When County Magistrate Tao went to see them before, he brought a three-layer food box.

They thought the food box was quite sturdy, so they washed it and disassembled it into three boxes. There was nothing they could do about it, as they were poor.

The boxes were all recycled, and the county magistrate and his wife were curious about what the gifts were inside.

Could it be fruit picked from a tree, or flowers picked from the roadside? The two of them laughed in their hearts and opened the lid.

At first glance, why is it empty? After a closer look, I found a thin layer of yellow cubes on the bottom of the box.

Mrs. Tao picked up a piece and looked at it carefully. She was surprised and said, "Is this a candy? Why is there a word inside it?"

Magistrate Tao was also a little surprised. "It's a novel item. Where did you buy it?"

Ming Youyou was waiting with bright eyes. As soon as they asked the question, she couldn't wait to tell the story she had prepared all night.

Mrs. Tao was so happy to hear this that she stretched out her hand to pinch her little face and said, "No wonder you walked in sideways with your head tilted up today. But you are really amazing. You came up with this idea while playing with clay."

Magistrate Tao tasted a piece and nodded, saying, "There are words in the candy, and the words have meanings and are sweet. Both scholars and common people can appreciate it. Not bad, not bad."

Mrs. Tao looked at the word "happiness" on the candy and said, "Wouldn't it be better if we dyed it red?"

Magistrate Tao thought for a moment and said, "Yellow is like paper, and black is like ink. This combination is more elegant."

People in the world revere words, and written paper cannot be thrown away casually. It must be burned and buried in a clean place. This is called "respecting and cherishing paper with words on it." Mr. Tao sighed, "This candy is also very meaningful."

Mrs. Tao understood. She looked at Ming Youyou and asked, "Are you planning to sell it in our shop?"

Ming Youyou nodded excitedly, "I think it will be a big hit."

Mrs. Tao smiled and said, "What a coincidence, I thought so too."

After Ming Youyou and Mrs. Tao discussed the details, they jumped out of the door.

Village chief Guo knew that she was going to discuss business with the county magistrate's wife, so he didn't want to go anywhere and stayed at the door without leaving.

He squatted in a corner, and when he saw the child come out, he immediately waved to her, "Here."

Ming Youyou ran over and took something out of his pocket and gave it to him, "I've negotiated with Madam Tao, this is the deposit."

Village chief Guo took it subconsciously, and found that it was actually a shiny piece of silver. This thing must weigh at least ten taels.

He was so scared that he immediately put it in his arms, looked around and said, "Next time, don't take out money on the street. It would be bad if a thief spotted you."

He led the child to the oxcart and asked, "Did the magistrate's wife say how many candies she wanted?"

“Let’s make 10,000 first.”

Village chief Guo staggered and asked, "How much?" His voice was a little hoarse.

Village chief Guo had never counted more than ten thousand in his life, and he thought the number was too big.

Ming Youyou said happily: "Make 10,000 first and send them over. If they sell well, maybe we can make another 100,000."

“Can we sell all the products we make?”

"Not much, not much. Sell some to the caravan and take the rest to the capital. It may not be enough."

Village chief Guo had a clue in his mind. There were a lot of people in Beijing, and if each person paid one dollar, all the coins would be sold out. What's more, if someone had a happy event in their family, they would not have to spend dozens or hundreds of dollars on the coins.

“Will they all be made into the character for happiness?”

"No, we also need to say 'Congratulations on your prosperity' or 'Good luck and good fortune'. Anyway, we have to say all the nice words."

The village chief was happy, "That's good, you have to buy four pieces at a time, if you make a 'happiness as vast as the east sea, longevity as great as the south mountain', then it will cost eight pieces."

He thought about it and asked, "Girl, do you think this business can last long?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Tao said there is a future, so there will be no problem."

Village chief Guo just smoked his pipe silently all the way without saying anything else.

After returning to the village, he sent Ming Youyou off and immediately drove the ox cart to look for his uncle.

"If this business can really be done, my family won't be able to support it, but I can bring the villagers to do it together."

The uncle took the tobacco from the village chief and lit his pipe to smoke.

"Don't make this public yet. Find a few people with good character to spread the word. When the business is stable and your family really makes money, then tell everyone."

The village chief nodded and said, "Then we can plant soybeans and sesame seeds first. Besides, we don't know enough words yet."

"Then let the young ones learn first, and in the future the old ones will have to know five characters as well."

The uncle paused and added: "If he can't learn it, he won't get any share when the village distributes meat during the New Year."

At the clan uncle's order, the village immediately became lively. Ming Youyou didn't know that their small business of teaching people to read was about to start again. She was distributing the snacks she had taken from Madam Tao to Zheng Huan and the other two.

"I went to ask around, and the guy at the bookstore said Mr. Luo would be there tomorrow."

Zheng Huan nodded and said, "It just so happens that we have copied a few books, so let's go to the county town tomorrow."

The next morning it was a bit cloudy and the sun didn't come out. Ming Youyou insisted on memorizing several books before going out, so when they arrived at the county town it was already a bit late.

Without bothering to hand in the books first, they hurried to see if Mr. Luo was there.

The bookshop clerk knew their purpose, and seeing that the shopkeeper was not paying attention, he nodded in the direction of the mutton soup restaurant.