Benefiting the Family

Zhao Ruxi scratched her head and asked, "How did Lord Zhang negotiate with the Emperor? How much of a share does the Emperor want?"

"Sixty percent," Wu Zong said with a grave expression.

Of course it has to be heavy. The Emperor takes 60%, the Master and Lord Zhang each take 10%, the three brothers each take half a percent, leaving half a percent for Zhao Ruxi.

Zhao Ruxi rolled her eyes. "You just praised me for being smart, do you think I'd believe your nonsense? With Master around, would the Emperor dare to take so many shares? Wouldn't he be asking for trouble?"

"So, how many percent do you guess?" Wu Zong asked with great interest.

Zhao Ruxi answered without hesitation, "Twenty percent."

Wu Zong gave a thumbs up, genuinely admiring him. "Truly a genius!"

He pulled out a silver note and a piece of paper with accounting records from his pocket. "Hey, these are the silver notes for the Emperor and Lord Zhang's investment, and these are for Master, Eldest Brother, and Second Brother. I'll get them all for you."

Kang Shilin and Wu Huaisi both contributed their investment funds, so Xiao Ge and Zhang Changshen naturally wouldn't refuse, lest they leave themselves a pretext for the censors to impeach them.

Zhao Ruxi glanced at the paper and noticed that the Emperor had given six thousand taels, while everyone else had given three thousand taels.

"Senior brothers, you only have half a share, so just give me 1,500 taels." Zhao Ruxi said, about to return some of the silver notes to Wu Zong.

Wu Zong glared at her. "Even if it's three thousand taels, it's clearly a gift to us. Are we going to take advantage of you like this? If you return it, our eldest and second eldest brothers will definitely not invest."

Zhao Ruxi had no choice but to give up.

Before the Emperor invested, Zhao Ruxi had made conservative estimates about this business. She only intended to make a quick buck. Whether she could sustain this business in the long term depended on the greed of the princes and whether they would try to take advantage of her.

Those who have old grudges against her, like the Crown Prince, can't get involved in her business, so they might have to sabotage her instead.

In short, without the emperor as her backer, it would be difficult for her business to grow and last. She could only make a quick buck in the short term.

But it's different when the emperor invests.

Surely the court officials and powerful families couldn't possibly disrespect the emperor? So, what was originally expected to sell a thousand in the capital now looks like two thousand. There are many wealthy merchants in Jiangnan, so they can easily absorb one or two thousand there, not to mention other prefectures and counties.

The Emperor has given her six thousand taels of silver, and she will be able to give him at least tens of thousands of taels in return; the same goes for her master and fellow disciples.

With such a high rate of return and no risk involved, she has no reason to feel embarrassed about accepting their principal now.

She lowered her voice and said, "Senior brother, you've helped me a lot. I don't have much to repay you with. When it's time to share the profits, I'll have someone send you ten percent. You can't refuse. This is something only the two of us siblings know about; we won't tell Master, our eldest brother, or our second brother."

Wu Zong wanted to decline, but seeing Zhao Ruxi's sincere eyes, he swallowed his words of refusal.

His junior sister's actions showed that in her heart, he, her third senior brother, was different, closer than her eldest and second senior brothers. He had no need to refuse and hurt his junior sister's feelings.

He nodded and said, "Alright, I'll accept this kindness. But I'll tell my master."

Since his junior sister had a conscience, he naturally had to put in a good word for her in front of their master.

The two siblings discussed some more details before Wu Zong left.

Zhao Ruxi glanced at the sky, then looked at Qingfeng: "Are you ready?"

"Alright, young lady," Qingfeng said, "It's all in the carriage."

"Alright, let's go back to the capital then." Zhao Ruxi stood up.

Upon returning to the capital, Zhao Ruxi said to the old lady, Lady Zhu, and the others, "I brought some new food; please try it in a bit."

"What new food?" Zhao Jingtai asked hurriedly.

"You'll find out soon enough," Zhao Ruxi said, keeping everyone in suspense.

Everyone could only wait, filled with curiosity.

There was originally a small kitchen in the old lady's courtyard. Now that there are fewer people in the main house, and they all eat together, and the weather is cold in winter, Lady Zhu dismissed the people from the main kitchen and transferred the remaining people to the small kitchen to cook.

Everyone in the kitchen was waiting for Zhao Ruxi to return so they could serve dinner. As soon as she entered the main gate, someone hurried back to the kitchen to let her know.

Therefore, not long after Zhao Ruxi sat down, the dishes began to be served one after another.

Once all the dishes were served, the cook also brought out the Dianjiang had brought over, after blanching and warming them as requested.

"Hey, it looks pretty good," Lady Zhu, looking at the contents of the bowl.

The rice noodles are snow-white, the braised pork is reddish-brown, the scallions are bright green, and the soybeans, peanuts, pickled cowpeas, and dried radish are sprinkled on top, making it look very appealing.

Most importantly, this stuff has a wonderfully fragrant aroma that really whets the appetite.

"It tastes better if you mix it well," Zhao Ruxi demonstrated.

Zhao Jingtai was very curious, but he also knew the rules. As soon as the old lady started eating, he couldn't wait to stir the food and quickly picked up a piece and put it in his mouth.

"It's delicious," he mumbled.

Although the Earl of Suiping's Residence no longer has a rule against speaking while eating, it still does not allow people to speak with food in their mouths.

Lady Zhu glared at her son before asking Zhao Ruxi, "Did you buy this food from outside?"

The rule of wealthy and powerful families is that they rarely eat food prepared outside.

Firstly, people complain that the food prepared by the business owner is of poor quality due to inferior ingredients; secondly, they worry about hygiene; and thirdly, they fear that someone might poison the food.

Zhao Ruxi was aware of this. So even if there were any new or interesting foods available outside, she would usually just ask the cook to try making them, rather than buying them for her family.

"This is something I had the chef research and develop. I also bought six small shops in the capital, intending to sell this kind of food," Zhao Ruxi said.

Everyone was taken aback.

Lady Zhu asked, "Why did you decide to do this?"

Zhao Ruxi then explained in detail why she did this and how she planned to open the rice noodle shop.

She said to Lady Zhu, "Mother, it's a pity that the grain from our estate is being sold off like this. Why don't you have them make dried rice noodles and open a shop?"

As she spoke, she took out two pre-written recipes and handed one to the old lady and the other to Lady Zhu. Then, she smiled at the old lady and said, "Grandmother, your dowry estate can also be done this way."

Lady Zhu and her mother-in-law exchanged a glance, then carefully put away the prescription. "It's kind of you to have such a filial heart."

The dowry estates of the Earl of Suiping's Residence and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are now located in the surrounding counties. Opening a rice noodle shop there wouldn't conflict with Zhao Ruxi's shop in the capital.

"However, the county has a small population, and the rice noodle shops don't consume much dried rice noodles each day. Your farm produces several times more grain than mine, so you'll definitely have more dried rice noodles than you can use."

"You can sell dried rice noodles in grain shops just like regular noodles. They taste good and are convenient; just like noodles, you can cook them in soup and eat them. It's very convenient and should be very popular. We'll set a uniform price. Unless someone else copies this, there will be no competitors."

Lady Zhu nodded. "Alright. You have a good head for business. I'll definitely trust you."