After crossing the Lotus Beach safely, the boat moved forward for a few more hours, and finally arrived outside the city of Youdu in the evening.

There are four gates in Youdufu, east, west, north and south, and the ferry port that Zhao Siniang's family arrived at is the closest to the south gate. But it was useless to get closer, and they could only watch the city gate close in front of them to the sound of the twilight drums.

In fact, the days are long in summer, when half of the sky is dyed red by the sunset, and the sky is not dark, and there is still a long time before the sun goes down.

It's just that Youzhou is an important town of Yan, and its capital strictly follows the provisions of the "Great Yan Law", "At five o'clock, close the city gate; At five o'clock, the gates of the city will be opened." Instead of adjusting the time of opening and closing the city gate according to the dark and dawn as in Jinghai County, as is the case in Jinghai County.

Looks like we won't be able to enter the city tonight.

There are a few small restaurants scattered outside the south gate, but there is no inn.

Zhao Siniang's family had to choose a clean-looking restaurant for dinner, and planned to continue to go back to the boat for the night later.

After dinner, the family had just come out of the restaurant when they heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from the official road. The sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, but in a matter of moments, it passed in front of the family.

The horse runs fast, and the person riding on it must feel happy, but the dust raised by the horse's hooves makes the person walking below very unhappy.

Zhao Siniang, who had never seen the world, wanted to watch the scene of "Ten Thousand Horses Galloping", so she stood at the front of the group, but she ran into a gray nose.

This time, a good little beauty with bright eyes and bright teeth turned into a dirt bun that fell off scum in seconds.

Zhao Siniang couldn't bear it anymore, and said angrily: "No matter how fast you run, it's useless, and you can't enter the city anyway." ”

However, as soon as she finished speaking, she was surprised to find that the south gate of Youdu Mansion had been closed, and it was actually opened!

What about the said curfew? What about the good "Da Yan Law"?

At this moment, the man on the black horse in front of him glanced back, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

Ridicule, that's definitely a naked mockery!

Although it was dark at this time, it was a little far away. But Zhao Siniang could still feel the malicious ridicule of that person, and she glared back at him fiercely.

The corners of the man's mouth became more and more hooked, but he didn't pay any attention to Zhao Siniang, turned his head and galloped into the Youdu Mansion with his subordinates. The gates were closed again after they had gone.

"Those people are not a big deal, but they are from the Pingjiang Ming clan." The boatman who came over to eat together saw the little girl's annoyed face, and hurriedly opened his mouth to comfort her.

Akira Hirae? That's the family where Concubine Ming belongs!

The other people present didn't know what the "Pingjiang Ming Clan" was, but Jiang Helianzi had heard of this famous family.

The one who is now sitting on the dragon chair is able to usurp the throne successfully. It is inseparable from the great help of his original mother's family. It's just that he has always hidden well, and as soon as he ascended the throne, his despicable face was revealed. On the surface, he can be regarded as keeping his promise and giving the original queen of the Zhang family, but in private he let the little wife suppress the big wife. Among his little wives, the one who can do things the most is Ming. not only bullied Zhang's mother and son in the palace, but also stretched out her hand outside the palace, and a dignified Guogong Mansion was destroyed in her hands. It may be that one felt that Ming's knife was easy to use, so he raised her position to the concubine. Her family is also very much used.

If those people just now were really from the Pingjiang Ming clan, plus they could freely enter and leave the Youdu Mansion, they would not be idle people, and most of them would have great power. Is this still called "no big deal"?

She couldn't help but quietly look at the boatman, who was in his forties, his face was burnt yellow, and he was slightly hunchbacked, how inconspicuous he looked. It's just that you can recognize the nobles in Beijing at a glance, and you can say it so lightly......

I'm afraid this is not someone hired by Su Ji temporarily. It's "his" people......

Thinking of this, Jiang Helianzi immediately relaxed.

Although Zhao Siniang was a little annoyed, when she returned to the cabin, she found that the little ghost who called himself Jiang Ling had gotten out. also left an antidote as promised, and his mood suddenly improved.

Zhao Siniang was about to throw the black pill into her mouth, but she hesitated.

Or, let's find a Lang Zhong and eat it later? Anyway, he also said that the medicine is not a strong poison, and it will not hurt the body if you eat it. So it's okay to take this antidote in two days, right?

In fact, after getting along with that little ghost for a day, Zhao Siniang noticed that his nature was not bad, and he was even a good bully. She was a little skeptical that the food she had given her last night was poison.

It turns out that Zhao Siniang is probably not poisoned, and she didn't look too good when she woke up the next day, and led her family into the city in good spirits.

If you want to summarize the regional culture of Youdu Mansion in one sentence, it can be summarized as "the east is rich and the west is expensive, and the south is cheap and the north is poor".

It can be seen that the most difficult to buy permanent property in this city is the west of the city. There are basically powerful families there, and there are many royal mansions, and even money can't buy a house.

Of course, Zhao Siniang can't live in Chengxi, and her new home is in the east of the city.

Although the east of the city is different from the west of the city, there are not so many powerful people, but Zhao Siniang's family is an outsider, and it is quite difficult to buy a house in the east of the city, where the rich gather, of course, it is inseparable from Su Ji's help.

I have to say that Su Ji is very interesting, not only gave Zhao Siniang an excellent house, but also contracted the decoration work.

There are two houses that Zhao Siniang intends to live in, located in the most prosperous business circle in the south of the city, at the junction of two main streets. The two houses next to each other have three shops in front, three main rooms in the back, and two wings to the left and right.

At the crossroads, there are crowds of people and traffic. When Zhao Siniang's family stood here and saw the six street-facing shops lined up, they were all shocked.

"Fourth, Siniang, this, these six shops are all ours? It's ours, right? Zhao Sanniang asked with trembling lips.

"Well, there are six rooms in the front, and there are ten rooms in the back, a total of sixteen rooms, all of which are our family!" Zhao Siniang said proudly.

"This is a mansion, so many houses, how much do you have to do it? A ...... to make sugar" Zhao Yongzhong just mentioned the word "sugar", but Zhao Siniang stepped on it fiercely, and immediately swallowed back what he was going to say next.

At this time, Zhao Sanlang also remembered that his sister had instructed him not to mention the sugar recipe in front of people, so he hurriedly dragged his father to the shop.

It is said that the big mansion with six frontage shops is still on the most prosperous street in Fucheng, and even if the seller is in a hurry to get rid of it, the total value will never be less than three thousand taels. Zhao Siniang's family has also made a lot of money in the past six months. But it's definitely not enough to buy these houses.

So where does all this money come from?

The old way, the seller.

But this time, Zhao Siniang is no longer selling a small food recipe, she has a big one-sugar recipe. More precisely, it is a recipe for refining brown sugar into white sugar.

Regulars of Zhao's shop know it. The sweet tofu brain in the shop only sells for a penny a bowl, and it is in short supply every day, and it can be said that it is the best seller in Zhao's shop.

This is strange, is sweet tofu brain really more delicious than salty tofu brain? Also, there are many dishes in Zhao's shop. It doesn't taste worse than it, so why does everyone love it?

It turns out that the sugar here is different from later generations, and it can be regarded as a high-end seasoning. In particular, white sugar is sold for 100 wen a catty, and ordinary people are rarely willing to eat it except for the New Year's holidays.

And the topping used in Zhao Siniang's sweet tofu flower is white sugar water, which is still the thicker one. Such a precious good thing only costs a penny! In the eyes of the guests, what they bought is what they earned, and of course they rushed to buy it.

Only Zhao Siniang's family knows. They didn't lose money at all about this sweet tofu brain, and they still made a steady profit.

So the question is, how did Zhao Siniang's family reduce costs?

It relies on the technology of refining white sugar.

A pound of crude brown sugar is only twenty wen a catty, and Zhao Siniang's family bought a large amount, and the purchase price dropped to nineteen wen. After a simple refinement, the coarse brown sugar turns into a crystalline white sugar. In this process, the weight of sugar has not been reduced too much, and after conversion, the cost of a pound of white sugar is less than 30 yuan.

In this way, of course, Zhao Siniang's family will not lose money.

Some people may find it strange. The price difference between brown sugar and white sugar is so big, with this refining technology, Zhao Siniang's family can win everything, and it is not impossible to get rich overnight. It's good to hold the recipe in your hand. And why should you covet a small profit and give away this cornucopia?

In fact, Zhao Siniang also had the idea of opening a sugar factory, but she quickly vetoed it.

It is precisely because the profit is too large that it is easier to make people blush. The powerless and powerless family will definitely not be able to hold it, and it is still a trivial matter to lose it in the end. I'm afraid that it will cause trouble to the family.

Therefore, Zhao Siniang has been quietly carrying out small-batch production, and the white sugar produced is never sold to the outside world, only for use in her own shop.

However, Zhao Siniang, who prides herself on being cautious, often does things without regard for the end, and sugar making is a typical example.

She thought that once the door was closed, outsiders would not know what they were doing at home. But she didn't want to think about it, wouldn't her family use sweet tofu as a signature dish and sell it on the dock with great fanfare, so it wouldn't attract the attention of people with a heart?

Forget it to the layman, Su Ji's Zhou Zhangshi was the first to notice that something was wrong.

You must know that with the technical level of Yanguo, you can only produce inferior brown sugar. Since you can't even make a decent amount of brown sugar, of course you have to import all the sugar.

As the first commercial house in Youzhou, Su Ji has been engaged in import and export trade all year round, and importing white sugar is one of its businesses. It can be said that more than eighty percent of the white sugar in Youzhou comes from his family. There is only one grocery store in Changle Town that sells sugar, and it is from his house that the goods are purchased. In other words, the white sugar used in the area of Changle Town has passed through Su Ji's hands.

Zhou Zhangshi knew very well that white sugar was not selling well in Changle Town, and the grocery store would only buy goods once every few months, and each purchase would basically not exceed thirty catties. And Zhao Siniang's family's usage, I'm afraid that thirty catties per month is not enough.

In fact, in the first two months, Zhou was not suspicious. But in the third month, when the grocery store came to buy the goods, there was still no additional order for sugar, and he realized that something was wrong.

Where does that extra sugar come from?

So he was suspicious, and immediately called the owner of the grocery store to inquire, and found a surprising thing - Zhao Siniang's family has never bought brown sugar, never white sugar!

In other words, Zhao Siniang's family either took other ways to get sugar, or ...... Her family is able to make their own!

But if you can go other ways to get white sugar, then why not get brown sugar by the way? Why bother so much and buy another outside?

Zhou Zhangshi, who thought about it for a while, finally came to an astonishing conclusion: Zhao Siniang's family can use brown sugar to refine white sugar!

How significant the significance of refining white sugar is, Zhou Zhangshi, who has been in business for many years, is of course very clear. So, he immediately told the owner about this discovery.

The owner was shocked when he learned about it, and immediately ordered that he should exchange the recipe in Zhao Siniang's hand at all costs. If Zhao Siniang insisted on refusing, she would be persuaded to agree to the cooperation between the two. The share that should be given will not be given to her less, but on the bright side, the sugar mill must belong exclusively to Su Ji.

Zhou Zhangshi deeply felt that the owner's order was not so much a fancy to Zhao Siniang's prescription, but a kind of protection for Zhao Siniang. Not only this time, but also helped each other many times before, openly and secretly.

The owner's excessive care for Zhao Siniang has always made Zhou Zhangshi very incomprehensible.

It stands to reason that Zhao Siniang is only a teenager, and the owner went to the army for training more than ten years ago, and has never set foot in Jinghai, so it is impossible to know her at all, so why should she be taken care of everywhere?

Thinking about it, there is only one possibility to be entrusted.

However, outsiders don't know the inside story, and most of them think that Su Ji is an ordinary business house. But although Zhou Zhangshi, who has worked for Su Ji for many years, is not a confidant, he vaguely perceives that the Su family has a very deep background. In this case, who can hire the owner?

That's it, don't speculate on the master's heart, Zhou Zhangshi, who is determined to be loyal to the owner all his life, is full of doubts, but still meticulously carries out the task assigned by the owner.

At this time, Zhou Zhangshi heard that Zhao Siniang intended to move to Fucheng for development. He has been in business for many years, and he is very good at figuring out the minds of businessmen, and he knows that what Zhao Siniang needs most at this time is funds and shops. So, he openly told Zhao Siniang that he already knew that she could refine sugar, and then threw out a large sum of cash and multiple shops, just in exchange for the recipe in her hand.

Of course, this sudden bombshell news smashed Zhao Siniang a lot, and after sobering up, she decided to agree to Su Ji's request after thinking about it. Just before agreeing, she habitually repaid the price and asked if she could let her own family add a share to the sugar mill.

Zhao Siniang didn't think that Su Ji would agree, but to her surprise, Su Ji actually agreed very happily. And after changing to this way, the money given by Su Ji is not much less, although those shops have been reduced by two, but the remaining three are excellent shops.

Speaking of the three shops, in addition to the two on Wutong Street, there is also one in the south of the city, just two streets away, very close.

The shop is also the same as the front shop and the back house, but there is a big difference, there are three floors above and below. In addition, it was originally a high-end restaurant, which was extremely magnificently decorated, and its market value was by no means less than 5,000 taels.

Zhao Siniang, who didn't know anything, was very stupid and naïve to think that she must have accumulated great virtue in her previous life, so that she would have such a good fortune in this life. (To be continued.) )