Jiang Yanyi was picking up the black pieces on the chessboard and putting them back into his chess basket. He asked casually, "What do you want to change it to?"
As soon as she looked up into Feng Shuo's deep eyes, she seemed to understand something and blushed as she said, "We agreed that you can't take advantage of me before I agree to your request!"
There was wind blowing in from the half-open window. Feng Shuo covered his lips and coughed a few times, then asked her, "When did I take advantage of you?"
When Jiang Yanyi heard him cough, he quickly got up and closed the window: "When did you open the window? The doctor said you should stay out of the wind..."
Seeing her anxious look, Feng Shuo smiled slightly in his deep eyes: "Do you care about me so much?"
"I don't care. I'm just worried that you'll die!" Jiang Yanyi said unhappily.
After closing the window, she returned to the futon and sat down again: "You can place bets again, but you can't use some weird bets."
Feng Shuo's eyes never left Jiang Yanyi, like a hungry wolf, looking at the piece of meat he had finally obtained, and how to eat it: "What do you mean by a weird bet? Does silver count?"
Jiang Yanyi choked and muttered, "Silver doesn't count."
Feng Shuo teased, "I thought you were going to say that I was taking advantage of you by winning your money."
Jiang Yanyi: “…”
This guy did it on purpose. I really want to smother him to death with a pot lid!
She continued to pick up the chess pieces and asked, "How much do we bet per game?"
Feng Shuo said calmly: "Let's play a small one, ten taels of silver per round."
Jiang Yanyi's hand trembled as he picked up the chess piece.
Ten taels of silver is considered a small bet? Her hot pot restaurant business is so prosperous, but she only makes about ten taels a day.
She complained: "You are 'Why don't you eat meat'!"
Feng Shuo raised his eyebrows: "Didn't you say you are good at Go? You won my money, so why don't you eat meat?"
Jiang Yanyi thought about it and it seemed to make sense, but she felt a little uneasy in her heart. She said, "We are just joking. We don't like gambling."
Feng Shuo squinted at her with his narrow eyes: "Then how much silver do you want per game?"
Jiang Yanyi stretched out a slender, white finger.
Feng Shuo frowned, picked up the teacup and drank some tea to moisten his throat: "One ounce is enough."
Jiang Yanyi smiled politely, "I mean one penny."
Feng Shuo hadn't even finished his tea when he heard this and started coughing: "Are you obsessed with money? This bet is like nothing, what's the point of it?"
Jiang Yanyi felt a little guilty, but he was also confident: "I'm just afraid that you will lose too badly!"
This was the first time Feng Shuo encountered someone who dared to openly challenge him. He wiped the water stains from his lips with the back of his hand: "I am not afraid of losing."
He has a good-looking appearance, and this action is incredibly seductive.
But Jiang Yanyi was frightened by his wild eyes and became more timid. Seeing that he didn't seem to have a handkerchief with him, he handed him his handkerchief in a flattering manner and negotiated with him: "How about... If you win a game, I will owe you a meal. If I win a game, you promise me one thing. It's just a small thing, and it's definitely not against the law or morality."
Feng Shuo took the handkerchief she handed over and covered his mouth with it: "Why can't you promise me one thing now that I have defeated you?"
There was a faint scent of camellia on the handkerchief, which was elegant and pleasant to the touch. After Feng Shuo had wiped it, he put the handkerchief directly into his sleeve.
"I won't take advantage of you. I just haven't figured out what I'll let you do if you lose."
Jiang Yanyi had just finished speaking when she saw him put the handkerchief away. Her face turned red. "That's my handkerchief."
Feng Shuo supported his head with one hand, playing with a white jade chess piece in his hand: "It belongs to me now."
Jiang Yanyi: “…”
When it comes to being thick-skinned, she is definitely not as shameless as someone else.
All right, she has more than one handkerchief anyway.
After cleaning up the chessboard, Jiang Yanyi said, "Then let's set the bet..."
"Who said it's settled?" Feng Shuo raised his narrow eyes and said, "No matter how you look at the bet you mentioned, it's going to be a loss for me."
Jiang Yanyi: "... Then what do you decide? We've already agreed that you are not allowed to place weird bets, and you are not allowed to take advantage of me!"
Feng Shuo said: "If I win, you have to promise me one thing. This is fair."
Jiang Yanyi was a little hesitant at first, but Feng Shuo said quietly, "Didn't you say that you are an excellent Go player?"
Jiang Yanyi: “…”
Although she knew it was a provocation, she still agreed: "Okay!"
If someone is not allowed to experience a beating, he will not know that there is a saying in this world: “There is always someone better than you”!
Jiang Yanyi took the black piece and placed it on the chessboard first: "There is no particular rule for Gobang. You can place the piece anywhere on the board. As long as five pieces of the same color are connected, you win."
Feng Shuo was unfamiliar with the first game and was defeated soon after.
Jiang Yanyi was finally able to feel proud of himself, and said with a smile: "Your Highness is a natural genius, and he is considered quite good among beginners."
Feng Shuo looked at her cocky look and said, "Thank you for your advice."
At the beginning of the second round, Jiang Yanyi was thinking about whether to put down the water appropriately to avoid hurting someone's self-esteem. However, after being blocked by someone after a few steps, she fell silent.
Feng Shuo spoke calmly, "One thing."
Jiang Yanyi felt as if she had suffered some kind of great humiliation. She stared at the chessboard for a long time, wishing she could stare two holes in it.
How could she lose! How could she lose
She rolled up her sleeves and said, "I was careless this time. Let's do it again!"
Feng Shuo's gaze lingered on her jade-white arms for a moment, then he quickly looked away and took a sip of tea calmly.
After a moment, the outcome of the chess game was decided, and he said quietly: "Two things."
"Come again!"
"Three things."
"Come again!"
…
"One hundred and one things."
Jiang Yanyi was depressed and put down the chess piece silently: "I won't come again."
She rested her chin on the chessboard, looking hopeless. Her hair, which had been neatly combed in the morning, had been tangled like a bird's nest.
Feng Shuo said: "You don't have to give in to me on purpose."
Jiang Yanyi: “…”
This guy definitely did it on purpose!
Feng Shuo looked at her calmly and said, "This king owes you one thing, and you owe this king one hundred and one things. Tell me first, what do you want this king to do?"
Jiang Yanyi's hands spun around, and he climbed up from the chessboard and said, "I want to make the one hundred and one things I owe you count for nothing."
Feng Shuo curled his lips and smiled, but that smile looked sinister no matter how you looked at it: "Are you dreaming?"
***
After Jiang Yanyi returned to the store from Feng Mansion, he never stopped sighing.
She sat at the counter checking the bills. Qiu Kui moved a small stool and sat next to her. While wiping the dishes with a clean cotton towel, he asked, "Why does Hua Hua keep sighing?"
"Hey," Jiang Yanyi turned the page of the account book in his hand, feeling hopeless, "I owe someone a lot of debt."
Qiu Kui's eyes widened: "Do you need to pay back a lot of silver?"
Jiang Yanyi held the brush, staring at the sky in silence: "It's harder to pay back than owing money."
Feng Shuo said that the one thing he owed her could only offset the one thing she owed him. Jiang Yanyi thought that even if she offset it, she still owed him a hundred things, so she might as well not offset it.
The first thing Feng Shuo asked her to do was to massage his shoulders for half an hour. He looked thin, but his shoulders were as stiff as a rock. Her hands were almost broken!
Jiang Yanyi couldn't help but start to reflect on herself. How much better it would have been if she had bet on silver from the beginning? Even if it was one tael of silver per round, she would only owe Feng Shuo one hundred taels of silver now...
Ah, one hundred taels of silver
No, no!
Jiang Yanyi changed his mind and reflected on himself, why did he want to die by playing chess with him...
If I hadn't played chess, this tragic day wouldn't have happened.
Jiang Yanyi complained to himself while flipping through the accounts.
When I looked at today's account, I suddenly realized that someone bought ten servings of roasted lamb at noon.
She had used up all the chili powder she had used when grilling meat a few days before opening the store. Now, if she wanted to make things spicy when grilling, she could only brush them with a layer of oil-splashed dogwood sauce. The only two things that tasted delicious without adding chili were garlic eggplant and garlic vermicelli.
As the two signature side dishes of the restaurant, some diners who are afraid of garlic would never order them, while others would come to eat at the hotpot for several days in a row just for these two dishes.
Although roasted lamb is favored by many dignitaries, its sales are not very good now because it lacks the aroma of chili peppers. Some dignitaries even said that the roasted lamb in the store is not as delicious as before.
Overnight, many people criticized the food in her restaurant, saying that the food didn't taste good and the ingredients were not fresh... There must be someone behind these comments.
But no matter what people say outside, the source of ingredients for Jiang Yanyi's store is from cooperation with several large households in Xizhou City. If someone says that the ingredients in her store are not good, Ma the butcher who sells mutton will be the first to protest with his butcher knife in hand.
If you want to use this method to destroy her store, you will probably have to offend the people who sell the ingredients to her first.
After all, Jiang Yanyi's hotpot restaurant is very famous, and the customers who come to eat there are all dignitaries. They feel proud when they say that Jiang Yanyi bought the ingredients from them, which invisibly raises the quality of the things they sell.
Jiang Yanyi introduces a few new dishes from time to time, so the business in the store is never slow.
Old customers often come to eat here, and they know whether the food tastes good or not. Reputation in the circle of power and influence is much more important than those rumors spread in the market.
After all, Jiang Yanyi's customer base is middle and upper-level people, not those people who secretly took some money from others and started talking nonsense without even stepping into her store.
Only occasionally, a wealthy merchant who came to the store because of its reputation would ask arrogantly, "People say that the food in your store is not delicious?" in order to show how impressive he is.
Whenever this happened, Jiang Yanyi would smile and say, "Sir, you will know whether it tastes good or not after you have tasted it. As for those rumors, our shop has never received those guests, so I don't know how they know it tastes bad."
There were many people who asked this kind of question. Sometimes, without Jiang Yanyi's intervention, Qiu Kui could directly reply: "People who say these things have never even stepped into the door of our store. How can they know whether the pot in our store is delicious?"
Any diner with a bit of common sense would know that this restaurant might have aroused the envy of other restaurants.
This was the first time Jiang Yanyi had seen someone buy ten servings of roasted lamb at once since he opened the shop. He was surprised and couldn't help but ask, "Qiu Kui, do you remember who the customer was who bought ten servings of roasted lamb?"
It was almost closing time and there were no customers. The accountant and two guards who came to help from Feng Mansion had also gone back. Aunt Guo was busy in the kitchen and definitely didn't know the appearance of the customer who ordered the food, so Jiang Yanyi had no choice but to ask Qiu Kui.
Qiu Kui gestured: "Three guys, with big beards on their faces, ordered a lot of meat, played finger-guessing games and drank."
Since the restaurant opened, most of the people who came to eat the hotpot were respectable people, so Qiu Kui was particularly impressed by the three savage-like diners.
Jiang Yanyi could imagine what the scene was like just by listening to her talk about a man with a big beard, playing finger-guessing games and drinking.
She stared at the account book for a while and found that they had settled the bill. She asked casually, "Did anyone cause any trouble when settling the bill?"
Qiu Kui shook his head: "No."
Jiang Yanyi was relieved to hear that he didn't look like a scoundrel, and thought he was just a free-spirited outlaw. She said, "We still have to recruit two waiters who know kung fu as soon as possible."
I'm lucky today. They're not causing trouble, and there happen to be two guards from Feng Mansion here.
But what if they happened to run into troublemakers someday? There were only three women in the store, so it was inevitable that others would think they were easy to bully.
Before closing the store, Jiang Yanyi checked every corner of the store as usual, making sure there was nothing wrong before closing the store.
The next day, she got up in the morning and made breakfast as usual, and Qiu Kui went to the front to open the shop.
The sauerkraut that Jiang Yanyi had made earlier had already fermented, and she planned to make some sauerkraut and shredded pork noodles.
Before I started kneading the dough, I heard Okra scream suddenly from outside.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Yanyi was startled and hurried to the shop outside.
Qiu Kui stood at the door, looking at something on the steps with a pale face.
The author has something to say: If nothing unexpected happens, the uncle will recognize the girl in the next chapter~
Trying hard to write the second update~