Lu Chen’s face turned slightly pale. “One tael of silver per month. After three years, it will be 36 taels of silver. This 50 taels of silver will take at least four years and two months.”

Qiao Jinniang smiled. “Alright, four years then.”

Lu Chen:”…”why did he dig a hole for himself to jump into?

Qiao Jinniang saw Lu Chen’s unwilling expression and said, “You should know that most of the waiters in the restaurants in Lin ‘an city only have a monthly salary of three taels of silver. If you go to Lin ‘an city to look for them, the monthly salary I’m giving you is already extremely high.”

Lu Chen gritted his teeth and said, “Four years it is.”

Qiao Jin looked at Lu Chen’s tender hands and took a look at his hands. “Your hands are even more tender than mine.”

Qiao Jin usually didn’t do any rough work, but she loved to learn cooking skills from her parents, so her hands were somewhat thick. Lu Chen’s hands were so tender that they were even softer than those of the embroidery girls.

“Your hands can’t do the work of a waiter, but your arithmetic is excellent. Why Don’t you help me settle the score?”

Lu Chen kept withdrawing his hands, and his pale face was a little red. “Okay, it’s a deal.”

Just as Qiao Jinniang had said, he had nowhere to go now. He vaguely remembered his own name, and only remembered that an extremely gentle girl would call him Chen ‘er, he also vaguely remembered his own birth characters.

Other than that, he knew everything else. He had not recovered from his illness and was penniless. He did not even understand the local dialect. It could be said that he could not move an inch.

..

Qiao Jinniang cooked a large table of medicinal food for her parents and brought it into the room.

When the family was having their meal, Qiao Jinniang said, “Father, mother, my marriage with that Little Langjun is not going to happen. Qiao ergou found that Little Langjun and exposed the fact that he is not a child’s son-in-law.”

Father Qiao sighed and said, “Forget it. It’s not Qiao Ergou’s fault. It’s good that we lied to him and exposed him. I’ll go and Beg matchmaker Wang to find you a better son-in-law.”

Mother Qiao said, “Why don’t We Sell Hundred Savory Restaurant? While we are still alive, we can give all the silver we have to the Jinniang as dowry.”.

Wouldn’t it be better for a scholar like the Jinniang to marry a scholar who took the imperial examinations? “Why would we need to hire a man who doesn’t know what he’s doing to make our Jinniang suffer?”

Qiao jinniang said, “Mother, the Hundred Savory restaurant has been your and father’s hard work for many years. You’ve been working hard for it for more than ten years and have fallen seriously ill. How can you sell it just like that? You absolutely can’t ruin your hard work!”

Mother Qiao sighed. “But Jinniang…”

Father Qiao said, “I’ll go and talk to that Little Langjun later.”

Lu Chen saw the meal that the housekeeper brought over. The Qiao family did not treat him harshly because he was unwilling to marry into the family. Hearing the coughing sounds coming from outside, Lu Chen walked out of the door and saw Father Qiao, who had a hunched back and an extremely pale face.

Father Qiao walked in and said to Lu Chen, “This Little Langjun, I was the one who made the decision to lie to you about being a child’s son-in-law. I really had no choice!

“My wife and I have a daughter, and our relatives are no longer able to inherit the family business. Before my wife and I died, they were already eyeing us covetously. We originally wanted to find a husband for the Jinniang, but it’s hard to find a husband these days

“Coincidentally, I saved you that day, so I lied to you. I truly think that your looks are good, and you’re a perfect match for my Jinniang.

“My Jin Niang’s looks and bearing are not inferior to those of the housekeeper’s daughters. She knows her words and is well-behaved and sensible. She is a good wife that is hard to find even with a lantern.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen said, “Benefactor, I will always remember the favor of your Qiao family for saving me. However, I, Lu Chen, am a man, so I absolutely can not marry into your family.”

Father Qiao sighed. “Alright, then you should take good care of your body.”

However, the next day, Lu Chen was driven out of the small courtyard by Qiao Jinniang and lived in the backyard of the restaurant. There was a woodshed next to it. Qiao Jinniang brought over many old debts. “Well, these are the debts you have to settle.”

“Do you still remember your name?”

Lu Chen nodded. “My name is Lu Chen.”

“Which Lu, which Chen?”Qiao Jinniang asked curiously.

Lu Chen picked up a brush and wrote his name on a piece of white paper.

Qiao Jinniang looked at it and said, “That’s strange. This Lu is the surname of the nation. There’s also the word ‘Chen’. When your parents gave you your name, weren’t they afraid that the royal family would know your name and Kill Your Head?

“Fortunately, the current emperor is a wise monarch. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to keep your pretty little head.”

Hearing the word ‘His Majesty’, Lu Chen felt that it was extremely familiar, but he couldn’t remember it. So, he focused on calculating the account book that Qiao Jinniang had brought over. He needed to pay off the medicine money as soon as possible and save some money so that he could leave this place.

Qiao Jinniang saw that Lu Chen almost didn’t use an abacus to calculate the accounts, so she asked curiously, “Why don’t you use an abacus?”

Lu Chen said, “Is this all that you need an abacus for?”

Qiao Jinniang was calculating the accounts by the side, and then she saw that Lu Chen actually wrote down the figures without missing a single cent, she smiled and said, “It seems that you are born to manage the accounts. Then I’ll leave these accounts to you. I’m going to go look for my husband.”

Lu Chen was focused on calculating the accounts. After Qiao Jinniang left, the faint scent of Jasmine from her body was still left in the room.

He remembered father Qiao’s sorrowful words. Qiao Jinniang was indeed a pitiful person.

Qiao Jinniang looked at the three men in a row and couldn’t help but sigh. She really didn’t understand where this matchmaker found these speechless men.

Back in the restaurant, Lu Chen came out with a stack of account books and said to Qiao jinniang, “The accounts have been calculated and recorded.”

Qiao Jinniang flipped through them and answered sadly, “Okay, you can leave them here. In the future, you can have dinner with the workers in the restaurant. You can also stay in the restaurant.”

Lu Chen saw Qiao Jinniang’s worried look and said, “Did I miscalculate the accounts?”

Qiao jinniang said, “It has nothing to do with you. I just saw a few disgusting men today. The first man who was over thirty years old entered Chang ‘an to take the exam for ten years and sold out his family’s land.”.

“He even said that he would be an official in the future. Marrying into the family is unfair to him. What’s wrong with his shifty eyes? “He even thought of selling the restaurant to accompany him to Chang ‘an to take the exam after getting married!”

Glutinous Rice said indignantly at the side, “If it wasn’t for the sake of the restaurant, miss could easily become an official’s wife. Why would she marry someone who took the exam for ten years?”

Lu Chen said, “As long as I didn’t miscalculate the account.”

Fennel said sternly, “Then how did Wang matchmaker introduce such a person to Master?”

Glutinous rice said indignantly, “That one is still considered good. The second one is called disgusting. He is as thin as a bamboo pole and has a ring of black at the moment. He was brought here by his mother. Even when he drank a cup of tea, his mother would take away the tea foam for him…”

Not only that, the people from the gambling house who were in the middle of the conversation came. It turned out that the man was originally from a wealthy family. After going to a brothel, he loved to play with women and Gamble. He owed a lot of money and wanted to marry into the Qiao family to pay off his debts.

“Miss and I are about to leave. He even said that if he didn’t owe a lot of money, he wouldn’t have agreed to marry into Miss’s family. It’s so infuriating!”

Qiao Jinniang sighed and said helplessly, “Sigh, why is it so difficult to find a man to marry into the family?”