Meng Anzhi walked around the shop twice, delight hidden in her eyes. "Auntie, I heard Mother say only wealthy households can afford to buy shops.
"Are we a wealthy household now?"
Jin Shanyao pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped the dust from her face. "Not quite. Look how big Master Zhao's household is, and even he doesn't dare call it a wealthy household."
Meng Anzhi tilted her face up and let Jin Shanyao wipe it.
"Auntie, Master Zhao said a gentleman mustn't fight. If someone insults us in the future, should we still hit them?"
Jin Shanyao burst out laughing. "We won't be gentlemen. Gentlemen are destined to take a beating."
Meng Anzhi thought that made sense. Who would stand there like a fool and listen while someone insulted them? "But you still said Master was right."
Jin Shanyao tucked the handkerchief into her waistband. "Some things we only need to know for ourselves. There's no need to argue with someone over who's right and who's wrong."
She never did things that took effort and earned her no thanks.
The woman hired to clean the shop soon returned with her whole family, young and old, carrying buckets and rags.
Jin Shanyao stepped aside to let them through. "The shop is rather dirty. Thank you for your hard work."
The woman smiled brightly. "Dirty is good! If it weren't dirty, I'd be embarrassed to take your tael of silver."
Jin Shanyao laughed at that. "I can't be bothered with housework. Once it's cleaned this time, I don't know how long it'll stay that way."
The woman was straightforward. "Oh, you've got enough money to buy a shop. Why not buy a couple of servants to clean it?" The man beside her tugged at her sleeve.
The woman immediately realized she had spoken out of turn. She smiled and stopped making conversation, putting her head down to work instead.
Jin Shanyao set a stool outside the shop and planted her cloth banner beside the stone pedestal at the door.
Before long, someone came over to have their pulse checked. "Doctor Jin, why have you moved your stall?"
Jin Shanyao pointed behind her. "I bought a shop. From now on, everyone can come inside to have their pulses checked."
Everyone offered congratulations. They hadn't expected this young lady to be so rich. She treated patients and prescribed medicine for free, so where did she get her money?
The three patients were soon seen. Meng Anzhi organized the day's cases and copied the prescriptions she had written into a booklet. By the time it grew late, the shop had been cleaned.
Jin Shanyao handed the woman a tael of silver, and the woman nearly wept with joy. She didn't earn a single copper cleaning her own home, and her mother-in-law was always complaining that she hadn't cleaned it well enough.
Yet she had actually been paid to clean Jin Shanyao's shop.
"Miss, if you ever need someone to clean again, please come to me." Before she had finished speaking, her mother-in-law snatched the silver from her hand. The woman's expression changed, and she hurriedly said goodbye before turning to chase after her.
They could faintly hear her mother-in-law scolding her. "You fool! If you remind her to buy servants, will she still hire you to clean her shop? How did our family end up marrying someone so thoughtless?"
Jin Shanyao paid them no mind. She wandered around the shop twice. The windows were bright and the furnishings spotless, without a speck of dust, as clean as if Spiritual Power had swept through it.
The county town was unlike the countryside, with more people and prying eyes. She couldn't use Spiritual Power to clean the place; if anyone saw her, she wouldn't be able to explain it. But she couldn't bring herself to clean every day, either.
"Anzhi, let's buy a couple of servants."
Meng Anzhi was shocked. They had just spent three hundred taels on the shop and another tael to have it cleaned, and now they were going to buy servants too. Was Auntie living as if there were no tomorrow?
Jin Shanyao silently lifted her chin and closed the mouth that had fallen open in shock. "The shop is so big, and the two of us have to tell fortunes, see patients, gather herbs in the mountains, and prepare medicinal ingredients. Who's going to clean?"
Meng Anzhi scratched her head. "Let Anci do it."
Jin Shanyao laughed. "You'd have a four-year-old little bean clean a place this big? You really are his own sister."
Meng Anzhi nodded earnestly. "I am his own sister. We look very much alike." Both children took after their mother, with delicate, pretty features and chubby little faces. At a glance, they looked like twins.
Jin Shanyao's eyes curved with laughter. "You might have the heart to make him do it, but I certainly don't! Your time is precious. How could you waste it on housework?"
With that, she took Meng Anzhi by the hand and led her outside. "Come on, let's go pick up your own little brother from school."
The shop was close to the academy. Jin Shanyao left the ox cart in the back courtyard and walked there with Meng Anzhi. When the Shi Household's servants saw Jin Shanyao approach, they instinctively shrank back into the crowd. The young lady looked thin and frail, but she struck viciously.
Besides, their master had instructed them not to cause trouble for the time being. If they offended Green Mountain Academy, he would make them pay dearly.
The academy gates opened, and a crowd of little beans of all heights came chattering and tumbling down the steps like soybeans spilling out.
Meng Anci had his little shoulder bag on his back, and his eyes searched among the carts and horses. Where was the ox cart? Where was Black Grand Marshal? He could always spot them at a glance before, so why weren't they there today?
"Anci, Anci, over here..."
Meng Anci's eyes lit up when he saw the two of them. He ran over and said happily, "Sis, why did you walk here?"
Meng Anzhi pulled the flipped-up hem of his clothes from his waistband and smoothed out the wrinkles. Smiling, she said, "Auntie bought a shop in the county town. The ox cart is parked there."
"Ah, how big is the shop? Where is it? Take me to see it!" Meng Anci bounced excitedly on his feet, took Meng Anzhi's hand in one of his and Jin Shanyao's in the other, and headed off.
Jin Shanyao smiled. "It's only two shops away from Qin Baitang's. We'll take you to see it after we eat."
At Top Scholar Tower.
Meng Anci sat on a chair with his feet braced against the crossbar, his head tilted as he looked at the wooden menu on the wall. "Auntie, I want braised lion's head meatballs."
Meng Anzhi said, "I want red-braised pork ribs."
After writing down their order, the waiter looked at Jin Shanyao. She smiled and said, "I'll have a plate of stir-fried mushrooms."
"Certainly. Please wait a moment," the waiter said with a smile before walking away.
The three of them had three dishes. By the time they finished eating, it was dark.
Jin Shanyao brought the two children back to the shop. Carrying a lantern, Meng Anci peered curiously this way and that, overjoyed.
Now that they had a shop, Auntie and his sister wouldn't have to crouch outside treating patients. They wouldn't have to worry about wind or rain, and most importantly, he could come back to see them at noon.
There was no furniture in the shop, so no one could live there yet. Jin Shanyao hitched up the ox cart and returned to Little River Village.
"Auntie, why did you put my name on the property deed?" Meng Anzhi had thought about it all day but still couldn't understand.
Jin Shanyao smiled. "Anci has a house and land, so of course Anzhi should have some too."
Meng Anzhi froze.
Girls her age in the village were already doing half an adult's share of the work at home. Their families would never pay for their schooling, because that was a privilege reserved for boys. Nor would they give girls a share of the family property, because they would marry out.
The world seemed to favor men at every turn, while women could only spend their days circling the stove.
Bearing and raising children and serving their parents-in-law seemed to be a woman's duty.
Meng Anzhi couldn't say whether she was fortunate or unfortunate. In any case, she was living a life others wouldn't even dare imagine.
Meng Anci was shocked to hear that the shop was in Meng Anzhi's name. He knew Jin Shanyao wasn't really their aunt; their mother had only entrusted them to her on her deathbed.
She had given away such a valuable shop just like that. No, he had to study hard and provide for Auntie in her old age.
He must never do anything to wrong her.
After they got home, the mountain civet chased the two children around for half an hour. At last, drenched in sweat, they took their clothes and went to bathe.
Afraid the children would catch a chill, Jin Shanyao made a point of covering the room with a layer of Spiritual Power. She herself squatted in the courtyard, gathering the autumn vegetables.