Chapter 178: Chapter 160, Circle_1

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“Speak up, why did you come back a day late? Did your younger sister ask you to stay another night?”

After chatting with Daohua and the others for a while, Li Xingchang let the household children take the three out to play, and once they left, he turned to Li Xingnian and asked.

Feigning mystery, Li Xingnian smiled and said, “Big brother, guess where we stayed last night?”

Li Xingchang glared at Li Xingnian irritably, “You’re not young anymore, stop kidding around, tell us now.”

Fan Family and Jian Family also looked at Li Xingnian curiously.

Li Xingnian coughed and cleared his throat, speaking with a hint of excitement, “Last night, we stayed at the Wuhua Mountain Royal Palace.”

“What?!”

All three, Li Xingchang included, were shocked, “Come on, tell us, what exactly happened?”

This time, Li Xingnian didn’t dawdle and told them about Daohua’s visit to Xiao Yeyang.

Hearing that Daohua and the others were quite close with the Little Prince, Li Xingchang’s expression turned somewhat wistful, “My little sister has finally come into her own.”

Li Xingnian nodded, “Indeed, as long as those three children are here, even if the brother-in-law doesn’t respect merchants in his heart, he’ll have to show some respect to my little sister.”

Fan Family and Jian Family exchanged glances and whispered, “In the end, a woman still needs to rely on her own children. When the children are successful, she can stand tall.”

As for men, what with multiple wives and concubines, chasing the new and despising the old, they are the least reliable.

Li Xingchang: “I really didn’t expect the Yan Family to have such an amazing stroke of luck.”

Li Xingnian: “We owe it all to that girl Daohua. If it weren’t for her, I suspect our brother-in-law would still be sitting in the County Magistrate’s position.”

Fan Family interjected, “Speaking of Daohua, she really doesn’t seem like she grew up in the countryside. Her manner and grace, I reckon she even outshines some of the high-born ladies.”

She truly hadn’t expected Daohua to be so stunningly beautiful, but even more surprising was her composed and poised demeanor. Fan Family had been previously worried that the Yan Family’s concubine daughter would upstage her.

Li Xingnian laughed, “Old Mistress Yan is quite fond of Daohua, even in the countryside, she raised her well.”

Jian Family smiled, “I think, it’s because the little sister has good fundamentals, that’s why she has such a clever daughter.”

Fan Family: “Quickly tell us, what was the Royal Palace like?”

Li Xingnian immediately described all he saw and experienced at the palace, in detail.

After speaking about the palace, Li Xingnian had a sip of tea and brought up another topic.

“By the way, when I was there, my little sister told me in private that Daohua has come up with some high-yield grain varieties, and the brother-in-law is trying them out. If successful, he’s going to be at the top of his performance.”

Li Xingchang’s expression brightened, “Really?” The higher the brother-in-law rises in office, the better for the Li Family.

Li Xingnian nodded, “It’s still in the experimental stage, but there’s a very good chance of success. The Yan Clan had already tried growing it.”

Li Xingchang got excited, “Improving grain production, that’s a great achievement! If this gets promoted, our brother-in-law might get a promotion too.”

Li Xingnian continued with a smile, “The little sister also said that since the watermelons sold so well last year, she saved some seeds for us to plant on our own estate.”

Li Xingchang’s expression lit up, “That’s great news. Last year’s watermelons were in such demand, we ran out when people were still looking for them. I felt we missed out. If we can grow them this year, we’re sure to make a good profit.”

Li Xingnian: “By the way, big brother, what do you think of the wine Daohua makes?”

Li Xingchang immediately said, “Of course it’s delicious, why? Did my little sister say something else?”

Li Xingnian shook his head, “Not the little sister, it was Daohua. She said she’ll sell us the wine recipe and asked if we were interested.”

At this, Li Xingchang, along with Fan Family and Jian Family, were taken aback.

It took a while before Li Xingchang laughed and scolded, “How old is that girl, and she’s already daring to do business on her own?”

Li Xingnian, recalling Daohua’s serious business discussion, couldn’t help but chuckle, “She said that she wants to buy an estate and is short on silver. The winemaking process is complex and requires professionals to manage, she can’t handle it all by herself.”

Fan Family asked curiously, “How much silver does she want?”

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Li Xingnian laughed again and said, “That girl told us to just decide on the amount, she believes uncle and auntie wouldn’t let her suffer a loss. Look at how she speaks, not a drop of water could leak through. I couldn’t help myself and just flicked her on the forehead.”

After laughing for a while, Li Xingchang then asked, “Does the younger sister and brother-in-law know about this?” The sale of the wine brewing recipe is a big deal.

In those days, whether it was brewing wine or compounding medicine, or even a simple recipe, whenever a recipe was involved, which family wouldn’t carefully treasure it and pass it down as a family heirloom generation after generation?

Li Xingnian: “Younger sister said this is Daohua’s own matter, she should make her own decisions. As for brother-in-law, he usually doesn’t get involved in these matters.”

After pondering for a while, Li Xingchang said, “Wine is a refined and valuable item; if it truly can be brewed, there’s no worry it won’t sell. This could work.” He smiled and added, “In a while, I will personally speak with Daohua about this business deal.”

Upon hearing this, the three people, including Li Xingnian, all laughed.

Fan Family sighed and said, “The annual gifts we’ve been sending to Daohua haven’t been wasted after all. We’ve showered her with affection, and this girl indeed knows gratitude, willing to support her uncle’s household.”

Jian Family followed with a smile, “Indeed.” Just from Daohua’s initiative to sell the wine recipe to the Li Family, one can see how close she feels to them.

Within the courtyard of the Li Family, Daohua was watching with a face full of amazement as her cousins, Li Zixuan and Li Zixin, performed.

Li Zixuan played the guzheng while Li Zixin danced, the two of them in perfect harmony.

The music was captivating, the dance exquisite, a truly pleasing spectacle.

Yan Wenkai was beside them, clapping his hands in praise continuously, and he said to Daohua, “Big sister, you should learn a little, too.”

Just as Daohua was about to nod, she heard Yan Wenxiu by her side saying, “Big sister doesn’t need to learn these things.”

Yan Wenkai and Daohua were taken aback for a moment, looking puzzled at their elder brother.

Yan Wenxiu didn’t explain, instead, he went over to talk to the brothers from the Li Family about something else.

“What does big brother mean by that?” Daohua was somewhat puzzled.

Yan Wenkai was also confused, scratching the back of his head, he uncertainly said, “Could it be because singing and dancing are meant to entertain and amuse the crowd, trivial in nature?”

Daohua’s expression turned to one of sudden realization.

Indeed, in ancient times, performing a dance in public wasn’t considered a particularly honorable act.

That made sense to her. She had attended several gatherings of young ladies before, where everyone would drink tea, admire flowers, compose poetry, and such, with no performances of talents like these.

Daohua glanced up at her two earnestly performing cousins on the stage and reflected that ancient social circles were indeed clearly demarcated, and from the gatherings of the young ladies, one could also perceive the lower status of merchants.

Yan Wenkai was still deep in thought, the more he considered it, the more he felt that performing dances for others’ entertainment didn’t seem appropriate, he wondered aloud, “If dancing publicly is not good, then why did our uncle and aunt still encourage my cousins to learn?”

Daohua sighed and said, “Because their social circle demands it.”

As long as the Li Family still engages with other merchants, they cannot avoid attending gatherings. If other merchant daughters are learning these skills and they don’t, they won’t be able to fit into that circle.

After thinking for a bit, Yan Wenkai realized that there indeed was truth to this.

Take their martial arts practice with the Little Prince, for example. If he and their third brother didn’t work hard and keep up with the Little Prince’s pace, failing to spar properly during exchange practices, they simply couldn’t expect to be in the same class as the Little Prince, even if they knew him first.

“If it’s not good to dance publicly, should we give our cousins a warning and ask them to stop?”

Daohua quickly shook her head and glanced around. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, she spoke in a low voice, “Absolutely not, Fourth Brother, do you think uncle and auntie don’t know? They know, yet they still chose to do it, so they must have their reasons and logic.”

“If we rashly bring it up, it would only irritate them and make them think we are looking down on them.” She knew only too well that her own mother always harbored doubts about her commercial background.

Having heard this, Yan Wenkai immediately nodded, indicating he wouldn’t speak of it.

“Cousin, what whispering are you and Fourth Brother doing, not watching our performance?” The voice of Li Zixin came over.

Yan Wenkai immediately blurted out, “We were saying how beautifully you dance!”

Hearing this, Li Zixin on stage raised her head proudly and said, “Every time I attend a banquet at another house, my dance and big sister’s music always win first place.”

Watching the two sisters shine with confidence on stage, Daohua smiled and clapped her hands.

Different circles, different pursuits, there’s no need to apply conventional judgments with worldly views.