GTB Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Guidance from an Expert

Chapter 13: Guidance from an Expert

The Ji Residence

Ji Shutíng was leisurely sitting on a recliner in the courtyard, holding a teacup, watching the head steward lecture the newly purchased servants.

Suddenly, a man with a cold and stern face and sharp features walked in.

Startled, Ji Shutíng’s hand trembled, nearly dropping her teacup. She immediately sat up straight, stammering, “Brother… Brother, why are you back so early today?”

She truly hadn’t expected her brother, who was usually so busy, to be off duty so early and to visit her courtyard.

Ji Huaizhou saw his younger sister’s nervous and flustered appearance. He glanced at the five people standing in a row before him and asked the head steward, “Head Steward Yuan, were these servants just bought?”

“Yes,” the head steward replied, inwardly lamenting. He only learned that Miss was planning to open a shop when she dragged him to the servant market. He wasn’t an accomplice!

“It seems the household doesn’t lack servants. Why buy them?”

“This…” The head steward cast a helpless look at Ji Shutíng before continuing, “They were bought by Miss to work at the shop she’s opening.”

Ji Huaizhou turned and coldly looked at Ji Shutíng. “Is your allowance not enough?”

Although he asked a question, his tone was clearly accusatory, foreshadowing a storm.

Ji Shutíng sighed inwardly but put on a flattering smile. “No, no, I’m just trying to save you some money! You’re at that age where you need to get married.”

Ji Huaizhou snorted, his expression darkening. “Do I need to rely on the little money you save to get a wife?”

“Jiuchu…”

Just as Ji Shutíng didn’t know how to respond, she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure appearing at the courtyard entrance. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately cried out and went to greet her.

Jiang Jiuchu, having just stepped into the courtyard gate, paused, looking at Ji Shutíng rushing towards her with such fiery enthusiasm, a look of confusion on her face.

She thought to herself, “I’ve never seen Shutíng so enthusiastic before, like we’ve been separated for ages. Could it be that Shutíng has something extremely happy to share with me?”

However, when she entered the courtyard and saw Ji Huaizhou, who was partially hidden by a row of servants, she suddenly had a bad feeling. But looking at Ji Shutíng’s happy appearance as she pulled her along, she relaxed again.

Ji Shutíng pulled the puzzled Jiang Jiuchu and quickly approached her brother. “Brother, Jiuchu asked me to open this shop with her. I’ve already agreed, so wouldn’t it be bad to back out now?”

“What?” Jiang Jiuchu, upon hearing this, looked at Ji Shutíng in disbelief. After a moment of stunned silence, she realized why Ji Shutíng was being so enthusiastic. She was a scapegoat delivered right to their doorstep.

“Sigh! I really should have consulted the almanac before going out today.” She helplessly smiled at Ji Huaizhou, feeling like she had corrupted someone else’s sister.

“Commander Ji, hello. I was the one who asked Shutíng to partner with me in opening the shop, but please rest assured, we won’t be showing our faces in public. We’ll just be brainstorming ideas behind the scenes and letting the servants handle everything. Um… if you’re not comfortable with it, then I’ll have Shutíng withdraw.”

Ji Shutíng looked at Jiang Jiuchu with resentment. Did she really have to say that last sentence? Wasn’t that just handing her brother a ladder to climb down? She was brimming with ambition! Was she about to be extinguished?

Ji Huaizhou looked at Jiang Jiuchu, who had reluctantly stepped forward, and his sister, who lacked all moral principles. He found it somewhat amusing.

After thinking for a moment, he turned to the head steward and asked, “Have the backgrounds of these servants been thoroughly investigated?”

The old head steward immediately replied, “Everything has been checked, Young Master, rest assured.”

“Hmm,” Ji Huaizhou responded, then looked at Ji Shutíng and Jiang Jiuchu. “If that’s the case, then go ahead and open it. Just remember, don’t handle anything yourselves. Find the head steward or me.”

After he finished speaking, seeing the two of them nod, he felt it wasn’t appropriate to keep standing there, so he lifted his foot and left the courtyard.

“Someone sold me out really quickly!”

“Hey! I had no choice! At worst, if you get caught in the future, blame it all on me. Anyway, my brother already knows.”

“Fine,” Jiang Jiuchu nodded, then her gaze fell on a small boy who looked to be a few years old standing nearby. She asked, puzzled, “Why is there a child?”

Upon hearing this, Ji Shutíng quickly explained, “This little one…”

She pointed to the middle-aged man holding the child’s hand. “He’s his son. It was a buy-one-get-one-free deal. We couldn’t just let a father and son be separated, right?”

“He used to be in business before, but later, because a distant relative committed a crime, he was implicated and became a servant. He knows a thing or two about business.”

Jiang Jiuchu nodded. She saw the boy clinging tightly to the middle-aged man’s leg, his small face filled with fear, as if worried that someone would separate them at any moment.

The middle-aged man also understood from the previous conversation that this girl who had arrived later was also their buyer. He was worried that his young son would be disliked, so he quickly knelt down and said:

“Miss, my son is very obedient and will definitely not cause you any trouble. You don’t need to give him much food either, just one portion is enough, and I’ll share it with him.”

The little boy started to cry softly because of the middle-aged man’s actions. He knew that usually at this time, someone would want to separate him from his father.

Jiang Jiuchu was startled by this sudden kneeling. After hearing the man’s words, she felt a pang of sadness in her heart. “Please get up quickly! Your son is very cute, no one dislikes him.”

As she spoke, she went forward and touched the little boy’s somewhat dirty hair, gently saying, “Don’t cry, I won’t let you and your father be separated, um… you’ll have endless pastries in the future.”

The middle-aged man thanked her and stood up, inwardly breathing a heavy sigh of relief. He had misjudged her. The girl’s eyes were clear and bright, and her expression towards them was clearly one of pity. It seemed he had been overly frightened these past few days.

“That’s right! I’ll have a whole shop full of pastries for you to eat as much as you want. Don’t cry, or there won’t be any left to eat.”

Ji Shutíng walked over, looking at the little boy with a threatening expression, thinking, “Is our Jiuchu that scary? Look how frightened these father and son are.”

Seeing that the little boy had stopped crying, she briefly introduced the remaining three girls and one man.

Among them, two of the girls knew how to make pastries. One was sallow and plain-looking and had been sold off by her family.

The other, a pretty girl, was disliked by the lady of the house and falsely accused of being a seductress and sold off.

After listening, Jiang Jiuchu instructed Ji Shutíng to have someone lead the two girls who knew how to make pastries to the kitchen.

After all, making food also depended on talent. Some people could make delicious food with ease, while others couldn’t make the best flavor no matter how much they learned.

She took out the business strategies she had copied and handed them to the middle-aged man. “Since you’ve been in business before, what do you think of this business plan? Do you have any suggestions?”

The middle-aged man took it and read it carefully. After a moment, he replied, “Miss, this business strategy is excellent. If operated in this way, the business will surely be booming. I… this servant has no suggestions for the time being.”

He was a little uneasy, worried that the girl would think he was flattering her, but this business strategy was indeed novel in its thinking and far-sighted. He really couldn’t think of anything to suggest or add at the moment.

Jiang Jiuchu nodded, took the planning list, and thought, “This is the way of doing business that Brother Fu taught me. If this person rejects it outright, then I really wouldn’t dare let him be the shopkeeper.”

Ji Shutíng suspiciously took the strategy list from Jiang Jiuchu’s hand, thinking, “Could this person be flattering them? How could he have no suggestions at all?”

But after she finished reading, she exclaimed, “Jiuchu, you’re simply a genius! Where did you get so many ideas?”

“I’m not a genius. I was guided by an expert.”

Hearing Jiang Jiuchu say this, Ji Shutíng suddenly became interested and pulled her to sit aside.

“Tell me quickly, which expert guided you? Aren’t I the only person you know well in Kyoto? How is it that you know this person one moment and that person the next? Oh right, and that handsome young man who rented our shop, when did you meet him? How come I don’t know anything about it?”