Chapter 41: Without Comparison, There Is No Contrast
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Liang Yunqing had thought it was something serious. She gave Steward Yang an amused look.
“Isn’t this perfectly normal? If your business is doing well, mine will suffer, so naturally someone will try to imitate you. That’s a good thing for the Joyful Guest Tower. Without comparison, how would anyone know the difference?”
“Do you mean the Joyful Guest Tower doesn’t need to stop them?”
Seeing Steward Yang frown, Liang Yunqing stopped walking. Her careless expression vanished, replaced by a serious one.
“Stop them? The Joyful Guest Tower may be able to stop every restaurant in this county from imitating its dishes, but can it stop the entire country? If the dishes are good enough, imitation is the very best kind of publicity for the Joyful Guest Tower.
“They can use the same ingredients and give the dishes the same names, but if they still can’t make them taste as good as those at the Joyful Guest Tower, customers will have something to compare. They’ll understand even more clearly where to spend their money. Steward Yang, isn’t that a good thing?”
Steward Yang was completely stunned, his mind filled with question marks.
Was Liang Yunqing truly just a village girl from North Slope Village? He could not imagine how such intelligence and insight could exist in a peasant girl.
“I have learned much from you.”
He clasped his hands and bowed deeply to her.
Liang Yunqing immediately reached out and stopped him, then continued through the crowd with a cheerful smile.
After receiving her fifty taels in payment, she left the Joyful Guest Tower with her parents. She was also carrying an extra food box.
Liang Mingxue glanced at the new food box, his tone somewhat cold.
“Did that proprietor Xia give you this?”
Liang Yunqing did not notice his tone. She simply lifted the box and answered with a smile.
“Yes. There seem to be pastries inside. We can take them home and eat them together.”
“Qing’er, where is that proprietor Xia from? Where does he live? How many people are there in his family?”
Madam Chu finally asked the questions awkwardly.
Liang Yunqing stared at her. How would she know any of that?
“Mother, I don’t know. Besides, why would he tell me such things?”
Madam Chu’s face filled with guilt. If only she had told her daughter more about marriage and courtship, her daughter would not have been deceived so thoroughly now.
She placed a hand on Liang Yunqing’s head and said earnestly, “Mother is worried about you, Qing’er. Although our family is poor, we still mustn’t…”
“Mother, what are you talking about? What is there to worry about? I was very careful when I signed the contract.”
Liang Yunqing thought her parents were acting strangely. Ever since they had left the Joyful Guest Tower, they had been asking question after question about Proprietor Xia.
Still, perhaps they were merely afraid she would be cheated in business.
Seeing that she was impervious to every hint, Liang Yunqing’s parents could do nothing but sigh helplessly. The sight of that exquisite food box only made them more irritated.
Liang Yunqing paid them no mind. After stopping people along the way to ask for directions, she finally found out where the county academy was.
By the time the three of them arrived, it was already afternoon. The county academy was essentially a large school enclosed by brick walls. At the entrance stood a set of brown double doors.
A young servant stood outside.
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Liang Yunqing told her parents to wait at the tea stall outside, then carried the bundle from the bamboo basket and walked over.
“Who are you?”
The servant blocked her path.
Liang Yunqing opened the bundle, revealing the brand-new clothes inside.
“Little brother, I’ve come to deliver clothes to my cousin.”
“You’re here to freeload, aren’t you? There are plenty of people like you. Do you really think you can enter and latch on to some licentiate?”
The servant’s face was filled with contempt and disgust.
Liang Yunqing was not angry in the slightest. She merely smiled at him.
“I said I came to deliver clothes to my cousin. If you suspect I have ulterior motives, simply call him out to collect them. How could a proper county academy employ someone as foolish as you to guard the gate?”
As she spoke, her face took on an equally disdainful expression.
“You! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. You’re trying to seduce one of the licentiates inside!”
The servant shouted at her furiously.
Liang Yunqing rubbed her forehead helplessly. She had just concluded a business deal and was in an excellent mood. She truly did not want to get angry.
“I came to deliver clothes. You call him out to collect them. How exactly does such a simple matter have anything to do with seduction?”
“Hah! You just want a licentiate to take a fancy to you. Then, once he comes first in the examinations, you can become the wife of an official!”
“Pfft—hahahaha!”
Liang Yunqing slapped her thigh and burst into laughter. She nearly laughed herself to tears. Trembling, she pointed toward the entrance.
“They’re going to come first in the examinations? Hahaha… Why don’t you let me take the exam instead? And I’m supposed to become an official’s wife? Hahaha…”
The servant’s face darkened. Before he could say anything more, the door behind him was pulled open.
An elderly man with a long white beard emerged, a scroll of books in his hand. He fixed the servant with a stern look.
“You have damaged a woman’s reputation and spoken such vile words. My academy has no place for you. Leave.”
The servant’s face flushed crimson, but he did not dare lose his temper with the old man. Gritting his teeth, he turned and left.
The old man stroked his beard, then looked at Liang Yunqing.
“Girl, why were you humiliating my student at the gate?”
Since the old man had just driven away the unreasonable servant, Liang Yunqing felt a measure of respect for him.
Then she heard him call those scholars his students and immediately realized that she might have beaten up his grandson.
“Ah… I only came to deliver clothes to Liang Youcai. I meant nothing else.”
“You’re Youcai’s younger sister?”
The old man’s expression grew strange. He studied Liang Yunqing carefully. She was thin and frail, with delicate features. How had she managed to beat his good-for-nothing grandson into such a state?
“Yeah. I only came to deliver the clothes. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving now.”
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Liang Yunqing had clearly encountered the victim’s family. Feeling guilty, she placed the clothes on the ground and tried to slip away.
Unexpectedly, she had taken only a few steps when the old man called after her.
“Was it you who beat my useless grandson?”
Well, there was no escaping now. If only she had known, she would never have agreed to deliver clothes for Li Pinghua. She had practically delivered herself straight to their door.
Liang Yunqing turned around awkwardly.
“I suppose so, but there was a bit of a misunderstanding.”
The old man laughed heartily and stroked his grizzled beard.
“Well done! I was wondering why his temperament had suddenly changed. He has actually begun studying!”
“What? You’re not going to make me apologize and pay compensation?”
Liang Yunqing looked at him in disbelief.
The old man waved his hand with a smile. Ever since he had seen several of his students return with swollen and bruised faces that day, he had originally intended to demand to know who had beaten them. Yet none of them would say a word. Instead, they had begun studying diligently.
Liang Youcai, in particular, had seemed like an entirely different person after returning home. He no longer shirked and cheated his way through things, but studied diligently every night until late.
The other students had also stopped going out to drink and have fun. Whenever the old man taught, every one of them sat properly at their desks.
It was only after repeatedly pressing his grandson that he finally learned the culprit had been someone from the Liang family.
“Girl, you did well. Those good-for-nothings have all started striving to improve themselves,” the old man said.
Then he seemed to remember something and asked with a frown, “ ‘In life, one should be a hero among men; in death, one should be a hero among ghosts.’ Did you write that poem?”
Liang Yunqing scratched her head and dared not answer.
The old man pressed on. “What is the next line?”
How could Liang Yunqing possibly recite the next line? The final line referred to Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu did not belong to this era!
“My learning is shallow. I merely happened to say that one line. I really can’t think of the next.”
“Oh…”
The old man looked disappointed. It was a pity that such a magnificent verse had not been completed.
“Right, Elder, these are the clothes my family sent for Youcai. Please give them to him.”
The old man was still immersed in his disappointment. Her words interrupted his thoughts, but he did not take offense. He simply reached out and accepted the bundle.
He was just about to say that the siblings could meet and speak for a while when a figure came running wildly from inside the gate.
“Are you Miss Liang?”
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