Jiang Yunzhu thought, maybe she didn't explain it to him clearly last time. Or maybe, in that situation last time, she didn't even change her clothes...
Thinking of this, she decided to have a good talk with him.
"Lord Shen, I have something to tell you." Jiang Yunzhu said.
She said it very seriously, and Shen Fengming also became serious.
"Some of my actions before may have caused you to misunderstand, but there is indeed a big gap between our social statuses, and I don't want to marry into a wealthy family, so in the future it's better for us to see each other less often." Jiang Yunzhu finally said it. While she felt relieved, she was also a little melancholy.
But there are some words and some things that really must be said and done.
This was not the first time she said this. Shen Fengming looked at her for a long time and said, "I know why you don't want to marry into a wealthy family. You want a simple and happy life, but I..." His parents were in a political marriage and they quarreled all the time since they were young. When he was a child, he even wondered why they gave birth to him.
When he grew up, the environment around him remained the same, so he would rather stay in the Zhenfu Division and investigate cases endlessly.
But, "I don't want to let go." He looked at Jiang Yunzhu and said.
He let go twice, and that was his limit.
Jiang Yunzhu was stunned.
"I said, I will try my best to give you the life you want. If you don't want to live in my house, we can live outside. If you don't want to see those people, you don't have to see them. Also, you don't have to worry about anyone bullying you. You can do whatever you want." He looked at Jiang Yunzhu and said word by word.
His eyes were as dark as the abyss, almost swallowing Jiang Yunzhu.
But she seemed to feel his determination, and what he said might be true.
He will protect her and not let anyone hurt her.
But, what if he was the one who hurt her? Jiang Yunzhu sighed. In fact, his words were very sincere. As a young master from a noble family, he was willing to live with her outside. If she didn't want to see those people, she didn't have to see them...
"What if I still can't get used to that kind of life and want to leave someday?" She suddenly wanted to ask this question. In fact, the situation in the dream scared her.
Shen Fengming looked at her and was silent for a long time, so long that Jiang Yunzhu thought he would not answer.
"Okay." He suddenly said. She gave him a chance, but if one day she was really wronged, felt unhappy, and wanted to leave, he would let her go again.
When he said this, his voice was hoarse and unpleasant, and it was obvious that this decision was difficult for him.
A spark of fire ignited in Jiang Yunzhu's heart, and then exploded.
He actually agreed to let her leave
"Are you telling the truth?" she asked.
Shen Fengming nodded solemnly. This was his promise to her.
"Do you really not mind my identity?" Jiang Yunzhu asked again.
This time Shen Fengming answered more easily, "I don't give up my identity because I have my responsibilities, my parents, my friends, my subordinates... It's not that I don't want to, otherwise I actually like living with you in Qishanju."
His sweet words, which were not really love words, made Jiang Yunzhu feel soft in her heart. She never thought that he would give up anything for her. As long as he treated her as an equal, it would be enough.
She knew that Shen Fengming was good to her. It wasn't that she had no feelings for him at all, otherwise, she wouldn't have let him touch her even if they had been drinking before.
Jiang Yunzhu's heart was in turmoil. After a while, she slowly said, "I don't want to get married yet."
"I can wait." Shen Fengming said.
Jiang Yunzhu blushed. What was he waiting for? "I don't want to interfere in your life," she said. His world was full of the rich and powerful. If she was contaminated by it, she would be like a lone boat in the sea, easily capsized.
What should she do then? Let him protect her? She didn't want to, and didn't like that feeling.
"Yes." Shen Fengming agreed. If she didn't want to, he would not let anyone disturb her.
"I want to do what I want to do." Jiang Yunzhu said again.
"Okay." Shen Fengming has always thought so.
Jiang Yunzhu was speechless. The dim candlelight fell on her face. She lowered her head slightly. Her thick eyelashes moved slightly, casting a faint shadow under her eyelids. It was quiet and beautiful.
Shen Fengming stood up, walked up to her, and looked down at her beautiful face. "So, Miss Jiang is willing to give me a chance?"
Jiang Yunzhu looked up and glared at him.
But I didn't know how moving her watery eyes were under the candlelight.
Shen Fengming just looked at her like that, his eyes burning.
The evening breeze makes people inexplicably restless.
Fortunately, footsteps were heard from next door at this time. Sixteen pulled He Ying to fetch water. After hesitating for such a long time, they could not delay any longer, so they came back with water.
"It's getting late, Lord Shen should go back." Jiang Yunzhu said quickly.
"You must call me Lord Shen." Shen Fengming frowned.
He didn't like it, but she quite liked the title, "Lord Shen?"
She called out this way on purpose, just to irritate him. When Shen Fengming noticed this, he was not angry at all, and was even inexplicably happy.
Jiang Yunzhu felt that she was quite childish.
"You should move to my villa." Shen Fengming still remembered this incident, "My villa is not far from the Pacification Office, and no one knows that it is my villa. If you live there, no one will suspect anything." Most importantly, it is very safe there.
Jiang Yunzhu thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. I'll go look for a shop tomorrow. Maybe I'll find one that's suitable. Then I'll decide and have a place to live."
Shen Fengming didn't want her to work so hard, but he also knew that this was what she wanted to do, so he didn't say anything.
The next morning, Gu Yanzhou and Xie Chen came to find Jiang Yunzhu, wanting to take her to see other famous attractions in the capital, but Jiang Yunzhu declined. She came to the capital to do business, so she decided to open a restaurant first.
Gu Yanzhou and Xie Chen understood and just asked her if she needed help. They just happened to have nothing to do.
"No need for now, thank you." Jiang Yunzhu said.
The two left, and Jiang Yunzhu took He Ying and Shiliu out.
In fact, she had thought about it in her dreams, if she were to open a restaurant in the capital, where would she open it? She had also carefully considered the matter on her way to the capital, so she came to Wenxianfang. She had a purpose.
Wenxianfang is located in the east of the capital. The layout of the capital is "rich in the east and noble in the west, poor in the south and lowly in the north", that is, the east city is mostly populated by wealthy families, while the west city is home to more court nobles, such as princes and marquises in the court. Most of them live here, so "poor in the south and lowly in the north" is easier to understand.
When opening a restaurant, you have to find the right customer group.
Jiang Yunzhu didn't want to open a big restaurant in the capital this time. The waters in the capital were too complicated. Maybe a shop or restaurant was owned by a royal relative. A shopkeeper Song could cause so many troubles. If she offended the wrong person, how could her restaurant last long
But her daughter didn't want to run a small restaurant. It wouldn't make any difference whether it opened one in Beijing or somewhere else.
So she decided to compromise and open a private restaurant.
Only a fixed number of guests are received every day, and what dishes to cook are all decided by her on the day.
There was no concept of private restaurants in this era, but in fact there were many private restaurants. The Xia Dynasty had a developed economy and many wealthy businessmen. Among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants were ranked last. This was not just a verbal statement. The court stipulated that only scholars could use five beams and five pillars when building a courtyard, and only 24 nails could be used on the gate at the entrance.
By analogy, the higher the status, the more beams and pillars you can use, the bigger the house you build, and the more nails you can use on the door.
For example, the main gate of the imperial palace has ninety-nine nails, representing the supreme imperial power.
Merchants are at the bottom and receive the worst treatment.
This brings up a problem: businessmen are the richest, but they cannot build houses that are too big or live in yards that are too nice. So what do they do
So they began to compete with each other in other areas. One of them was to keep beautiful concubines. Whichever family had beautiful concubines would let them come out to serve guests when they came to visit. If they could get praise from the guests, the host would feel proud.
Another example is a family with a famous chef. A famous chef usually has his own specialty, and because he only cooks in this family, slowly, this specialty becomes the family's private dish.
What this means is, if you want to eat this dish, you can only come to this restaurant.
For wealthy businessmen, there is nothing more satisfying than this.
Jiang Yunzhu had no intention of working as a cook in a rich family, but running this private restaurant made it possible.
There are many wealthy businessmen in the east of the city, which is also suitable for opening this kind of restaurant. In fact, there may be business in the west of the city, but Jiang Yunzhu doesn't want to offend those powerful people, so forget it.
She walked around the street, got a general idea of the situation there, and then found a government-run brothel and went in.