Chapter Eighty: Secret Formula

As dusk deepened and the flickering lamps along Yongping Ward came on one by one, Wu Li shot Wu Ning a look of great displeasure.

“In your eyes, the curfew in Fangzhou City is just decoration, isn’t it? You don’t come in broad daylight and insist on sneaking over here at night. Are you sick or something?”

“Cut the nonsense.” Wu Ning gave Old Eight Wu a kick.

“Go knock on the gate.”

“Damn it!” Old Eight Wu cursed. “I’ve turned into your errand boy and household slave!”

Still muttering, he trudged unwillingly to the Qin residence.

He knocked, delivered the message, then turned around and left without waiting to see whether anyone would come out.

Wu Ning, as always, waited at the soup stall by the street corner.

Why insist on coming at night?

Wasn’t that obvious?

Because he was blind.

...

After a while, Qin Miaoniang’s figure appeared before Wu Ning, just as expected. There was no formality between them; on the contrary, Qin Miaoniang was quite familiar with him.

As she sat down, she said, “How strange. Don’t the patrol soldiers ever catch you?”

Wu Ning gave an awkward laugh. “The patrol soldiers and I have one thing in common. We both have lousy eyesight.”

Qin Miaoniang lowered her head and giggled softly.

Then, in mock reproach, she said, “Brother Ning, you’re truly bold. If the patrol soldiers heard that, they’d drag you off for a beating.”

“...”

Old Eight Wu could not bear to listen any longer from outside the stall, and all his hair stood on end.

He thought to himself: if you like her that much, why not just drag her back and marry her? Why does every half-educated fool always love this kind of tender nonsense?

And Brother Ning? You’ve only been flirting a few times, and already it’s Brother Ning!

He instinctively looked up at the sky. A moonlit rendezvous, all that sweetness and tenderness... not for him, not for him at all...

He shouted toward Wu Ning, “Well then, I’m heading back first. You can go on being romantic on your own!”

Wu Ning: “...”

They were brothers, all right, but he was the one being called romantic?

The owner of the soup stall, meanwhile, gave Old Eight Wu a disdainful glance and thought: I’ve already listened to these two making sickeningly sweet conversation for more than two months, and I still didn’t turn tail and run like you did.

...

Once Wu Li had gone, Wu Ning could finally speak properly with Qin Miaoniang.

“The last time we met, I forgot to ask. Have you gone to see your father?”

“Yes.” Qin Miaoniang nodded. “I just went a couple of days ago to deliver bedding.”

“My father also told me that when the New Year comes, I should go to the residence of Vice Prefect Wu to offer thanks.”

“Uh.” Wu Ning looked momentarily stunned. “There’s no need to thank him, is there?”

Fourth Uncle still didn’t know about Qin Wenyuan.

“Right.” He did not want to dwell on the subject.

“Actually, I could find a way to get your father out of prison. He wouldn’t have to go to Yizhou.”

To Wu Ning’s surprise, Qin Miaoniang did not look pleased at all after hearing this. Instead, she waved her hands in haste.

“Lord Sun had already considered that. Most likely, he wanted to do us a favor because he saw Vice Prefect Wu rise to higher office, but my father refused.”

Qin Miaoniang lowered her head.

“You helped my family get through this crisis. We are already endlessly grateful. We cannot... we cannot keep causing trouble for you.”

Wu Ning could only smile wryly. “How is that trouble?”

If he wanted to get Qin Wenyuan out now, he didn’t need Fourth Uncle at all. After all, Taiping was still living at his house.

“Then it’s unnecessary too.” Qin Miaoniang curved her brows playfully.

“My father said that going to Yizhou isn’t suffering or anything. It’s actually a good chance to avoid Wang Hongyi, and he can also see what profitable business there might be in Yizhou.”

“All right then.”

Since she put it that way, Wu Ning said no more.

He changed the subject. “How’s the business? Is it going smoothly?”

Qin Miaoniang’s expression tightened.

“There are good parts and bad parts. It’s passable, I suppose...”

“Hm? What’s wrong?” Wu Ning sensed something off in her face. “Are you running into some difficulty? Maybe I can help.”

“It’s not really a difficulty.” As she spoke, Qin Miaoniang leaned lazily on the table.

“I just didn’t expect keeping this family afloat to be so exhausting.”

She gazed into the distance, as if remembering something.

“Father really did have it hard.”

“Take it slowly. You’ve only just begun, so of course there are many things to learn. It’ll get better in time.”

“Yes, that’s what I think too.”

Qin Miaoniang smiled faintly and said with a touch of pride, “The tavern is about to open. I’ve handled all of it myself.”

At that, Wu Ning frowned.

“Why are you opening a tavern?”

Hadn’t they just said they were going to avoid Wang Hongyi? Why were they going to throw themselves right into his line of fire?

As far as Wu Ning knew, Wang Hongyi’s main trade was taverns and inns. After what had happened before, Qin Family had best not make itself Wang Hongyi’s enemy at this time.

“Why not switch to something else? A tavern isn’t suitable.”

“Why not?” Qin Miaoniang was rather puzzled.

How would Wu Ning know how much effort and hardship this fledgling young woman had poured into this new tavern over the past few months?

“A tavern is steadier,” she said.

Then she looked around. Seeing no one nearby, she leaned toward Wu Ning and said in a sly whisper, “Brother Ning doesn’t know this, but we’re opening the tavern because my family has a secret recipe. It’s guaranteed profit.”

“A secret recipe?” Wu Ning thought, Why are this family so superstitious about secret recipes? First her father, and now this foolish girl too.

“What recipe?”

Hearing him ask, Qin Miaoniang scanned left and right again before leaning close to his ear and whispering, “My father bought a culinary secret formula at great cost just before the trouble began.”

“According to my father, with that formula, whether for soups, boiling, frying, or stewing, the flavor would be unmatched. It’s the perfect treasure for opening a tavern!”

“Unfortunately, before it could be used, that wicked Wang Hongyi showed up!”

Wu Ning: “...”

“And there’s more, there’s more...” Over the past few months, Qin Miaoniang had grown very close with Wu Ning, and they nearly spoke of everything. Mentioning her hidden secret now made her inexplicably excited.

“Later my father got another formula that’s even more powerful. It can make peerless delicacies without even needing a cook.”

Wu Ning: “...”

Qin Miaoniang patted the pouch at her waist, looking quite pleased with herself.

“The formula is on me. If we open the tavern, the Qin family will certainly rise again!”

Wu Ning would have stared at her as though he’d seen a ghost, if only he weren’t pretending to be blind.

After a long silence, he asked, “That secret recipe you mentioned... wouldn’t it be two pounds of pork bones, half a chicken, and two ounces of dried mushrooms simmered into a pot of soup?”

“Ah!” Qin Miaoniang gasped, staring at him as though she had seen a ghost. “Ho-how... how do you know?”

What else could he say? That was the very recipe I sold to your father! The money from selling that “secret formula” is still lying on the kang at my house. How else would I know?

“How about we choose something else?” Wu Ning said, half laughing, half crying. “Don’t you still have grain shops, cloth stores, and ready-made clothing shops at home? Which of them doesn’t make money? Why insist on butting heads with Wang Hongyi?”

As soon as Qin Miaoniang heard this, she seemed a little unhappy.

Wu Ning wasn’t merely telling her not to open a tavern; he was also dismissing all the work she had poured into it over these past months.

She lowered her head and pouted. “No. It’s almost time to open.”

Well, as a certain great lover, who had remained a lifelong bachelor, once said in later generations: courting is just like coaxing a child.

“Look, I’m only offering advice. Why are you upset?”

Qin Miaoniang would not have it. “You can’t even see, so how would you know whether I’m upset? I’m happy!”

“All right, all right.” Wu Ning straightened himself and decided to say the pleasant things.

“Your effort, little sister, I can see very clearly. Hasn’t the naturally lovely Miss Qin grown noticeably slimmer these past few months? You’ve probably worked yourself thin.”

“...”

Even the owner of the soup stall could not bear it anymore. This fellow was simply a lecher through and through, and he could say any kind of sickly sweet nonsense!

“Um, honored guests, please keep talking. I’ll step outside and stroll around for a bit...”

He even abandoned the stall itself. If he kept listening, he’d be heading straight for a pleasure house tonight.

But Qin Miaoniang did not find anything strange about it; she had heard Wu Ning say such things plenty of times already.

She raised a brow and said, “You can’t even see. How do you know I’ve grown thinner?”

“Er...” Wu Ning had a flash of inspiration. “Old Eight Wu told me! Even that simpleton said Miaoniang has been overworked lately and has lost quite a bit of weight.”

“Really?” Qin Miaoniang’s expression tightened.

“Really!” Wu Ning nodded. “Would Old Eight Wu lie to me?”

“No!” Qin Miaoniang said. “I really have gotten thinner?”

“Oh, oh...”

Damn it. Women. What kind of wiring did they have in their heads?

“Yes, yes, you’ve gotten thinner.”

“But a little thinner is good. It makes you even brighter and prettier.”

“Hehe.” Qin Miaoniang was delighted by his praise and teased him with a laugh, “You can’t even see. How do you know whether I’m pretty or not?”

Then her brows drew together again.

“But if I don’t do a tavern, what else can I do?”

“Grain and provisions shops work on thin margins and depend on volume. The money needed to stock grain is also large. Qin Family doesn’t have that much spare cash.”

Wu Ning was pleased. Had he persuaded her?

He thought to himself: as long as you don’t open a tavern, anything else is fine.

He hurriedly said, “If you ask me, cloth stores and ready-made clothing shops are both good businesses. Forget everything else—just the way Miaoniang carries herself standing there is like an advertisement.”

“When people see Miaoniang dressed so elegantly, wouldn’t they all run to your shop?”

“You’re always talking!” Qin Miaoniang scolded him aloud, but inwardly she was very pleased.

“But that won’t do. Cloth shops and clothing stores don’t make much money.”

Wu Ning frowned. “Why not?”

...

In truth, Wu Ning did not know this, but Qin Miaoniang had not failed to consider cloth shops, ready-made clothing, or grain businesses. In fact, she had thought of them before the tavern, since a tavern required decoration, hiring cooks, and careful consideration of location.

A cloth shop or grain shop was much simpler. Rent a storefront, and the goods and clerks were all ready at hand. One only needed to hang up the signboard to open for business.

In fact, two months earlier, when Qin Miaoniang had decided to shoulder the family burden, the first shop she planned to open was a cloth store.

But...

Qin Miaoniang frowned. “These days, the cloth business isn’t good. We’ve been losing money all along.”

“Oh?” Seeing her expression, Wu Ning finally understood where the “bad” in her earlier “good and bad” had come from.

He comforted her. “Losing money isn’t frightening. You just need to know where the loss is happening so you can find the root of the problem and fix it.”

Qin Miaoniang wore a bitter expression. “That’s exactly it—we don’t know the root of the problem, so...”

“On the surface, business seems fine every day. There are people coming and going, plenty of customers entering and leaving, and quite a few people buying cloth and having clothes made. But the accounts never show any surplus.”

“In just a little over a month, we’ve already lost dozens of strings of cash.”

That was also the main reason she was so eager for the tavern to open. If the cloth shop kept losing money like this without any income to offset it, Qin Family might not even last until Qin Wenyuan returned.

“Selling goods but not making money?”

Wu Ning thought, Girl, are you fooling me? How could such a thing happen?

“You checked the accounts, right?”

Wu Ning felt that either Qin Miaoniang was deceiving him, or someone was deceiving Qin Miaoniang. How could there be a business that sold goods yet never brought in money?

“I checked.” Qin Miaoniang nodded.

“At first I suspected the shop assistants might be pocketing things. But the books are spotless. Nothing at all shows up. I even kept watch in the cloth shop for several days myself, but I still couldn’t see anything suspicious.”

Fine, Wu Ning thought. Then let the professional handle it.

“Bring me the accounts tomorrow evening and let me take a look. Maybe I can find some problems.”

Any trick, once someone has made it, will leave traces in the accounts.

What Qin Miaoniang, as a woman of this age, could not see, Wu Ning, a professional accountant, could spot at a glance.

“You?” Qin Miaoniang was deeply doubtful. “Can Brother Ning even see them?”

“Heh.” Wu Ning gave a profound smile.

“It doesn’t matter if I can’t see. You read, I listen.”

He pointed to his ear.

“I won’t dare boast about anything else, but when it comes to numbers alone, your Brother Ning never forgets what he hears!”

...

Germany acted too realistically. Even a draw couldn’t stop those bastards from taking home the awards for best performance.

So I really wasn’t in the mood to update yesterday. Today, let’s count this as a combined chapter.

A few bandits even asked me to write some kind of football commentary...

What the hell are you talking about? I, Cangshan, work in the literary world, not the sports world. Let’s skip the commentary.

Still, let me offer you a word of advice: in the first round, the strong teams are conserving their energy so they can go farther. Don’t set your expectations too high.

An upset isn’t necessarily an upset; sometimes there’s an internal logic behind it.

In short, in the first round, anything can happen. Only when the second round begins do more interests, exchanges, qualification scenarios, and the like come into play. At that point, it may become a little easier to guess.