The Eldest Daughter Returns: Imperial Uncle, I'm Pregnant!

Chapter 236 Li Qianyu Came to Find Us

"Young lady, there's no need to be embarrassed. Are you planning to sell yourself or your art?"

"Madam, you've misunderstood. I'm a respectable woman from a respectable family, and I'm here today for legitimate business."

Gu Hanjiao, looking displeased, took out a stack of blueprints, unfolded them, and handed them to Yin Ping.

Yin Ping looked down and her expression immediately turned serious. A sense of surprise welled up in her heart. She had only suspected it before, but now she was completely certain. However, the girl in front of her did not seem to realize the environment she was in. Did she really think it was like in the novel?

After reading through everything, she smiled, piled the papers together, and pushed them back.

"Young lady, you are truly... ingenious. May I ask, did you make all of these yourself?"

Gu Hanjiao proudly raised her chin, "Of course! I guarantee that I'm the only one in the entire Daqing who knows how to make this, and there's only one of these! So, boss lady, aren't you tempted?"

Yin Ping nodded and said, "The clothing and jewelry designs here are really ingenious, especially the clothing. It can be said that it was tailor-made for the girls here. After all, what respectable woman would wear such clothes?"

Gu Hanjiao felt that the other party was implying something about her, but she had no evidence.

Ever since returning from that palace banquet, Gu Hanjiao has been plotting something. Now that she's no longer a rich heiress, she needs more money to protect herself. The worst part is that Gu Ziming has taken back all the dowry he promised her, all to supplement the family income.

Although Gu Ziming has not been dismissed from his post, his position is almost the same as that of a dismissed official. He dares not make any rash moves now, because the emperor has not made any definitive statements. If the emperor remembers him one day, it is not impossible for him to be reinstated.

Furthermore, Gu Ziming had told Gu Hanjiao not to rush, as he still had many trump cards up his sleeve, which is why Gu Hanjiao was so confident in front of Xiao Yuheng.

She thought about it for a long time. Modern costumes were not suitable for the current dynasty. If she really wanted to create them, they would only be suitable for the women in brothels. If they were in brothels, she could also make some modern clothes for them. After all, it was all about attracting attention, so the bolder the design, the more popular it would be.

This is why she drew up the blueprints overnight and came to find Boss Yin.

"Then this deal..." Gu Hanjiao looked determined to win the deal and prepared to negotiate the price with Boss Yin.

To everyone's surprise, Boss Yin yawned, pointed to the blueprints, and said, "Let's leave it here for now and think about it."

"No, these blueprints are all unique and absolutely cannot be taken away by you. Showing them to you has already shown my sincerity."

"Oh, never mind then," Yin Ping replied nonchalantly. She then raised her voice and shouted outside, "Xiao Wu, you bastard, where did you take the tea I asked you to deliver?!"

"Boss lady, it's not my fault. The customers came at the worst time. We don't open in the morning, so I had to wake them up to boil water. After that, I had to chop wood, fetch water, wash pots, light the fire, and start the stove. I couldn't skip any of the steps."

Xiao Wu replied with a long face.

If Gu Hanjiao still couldn't understand that this meant she was being kicked out, then she would be incredibly ungrateful. However, she still didn't want to give up such a good business opportunity. You should know that the brothel in the capital was the largest, frequented by high-ranking officials and nobles.

"Don't be in such a hurry, ma'am. Don't you want to hear my quote, or how much you can earn?"

"Heh, little girl, although I like money, I'm not short of it. Your business was indeed doing well, but you've come at the wrong time."

What do you mean by "not the right time"?

Yin Ping was unwilling to say more. She got up, put her coat on, and walked out, saying, "Since the tea will take some time to prepare, let's see the guest out. Miss Gu, it would be better if you went back to your residence for tea."

Gu Hanjiao was stunned. She hadn't expected that the proprietress would recognize her. By the time she realized what had happened, the proprietress had already disappeared.

"How...did she recognize me?"

Xiao Wu, who was listening nearby, curled his lip and said in a very disdainful tone, "There's no one in this capital city that our boss lady doesn't know."

Xiao Wu saw that the other person was also a beauty and couldn't bear to criticize her face, so he thought for a moment and used what he thought was the gentlest language.

"Young lady, you'd better leave quickly. This isn't how you do business here. Besides, our boss is always grumpy in the morning, otherwise we wouldn't be closed in the morning and only open in the afternoon. Everyone knows that, so no one would choose to come to our boss in the morning. You've really come at the wrong time."

Gu Hanjiao was speechless. Could this really be a reason to be unwilling to spend money?

"No, aren't brothels open at night? Isn't it normal for them to be closed in the morning?"

"That's someone else's place. Are we in the Red Lily Alley just an ordinary brothel? We have people who sell their bodies and perform here. It doesn't have to be at night. During the day, we can talk about poetry and songs. It's obvious that you don't know anything about our Red Lily Alley. During the day, our Red Lily Alley is a place frequently visited by literati and scholars."

Aren't all brothels the same? They're just places that sell their bodies, so why pretend to be so high and mighty? Gu Hanjiao was full of disdain, and Xiao Wu could see it. Xiao Wu immediately became less friendly.

"Miss, please come in quickly, or I'll start to doubt the purpose of your visit today."

Seeing that even a shop assistant was treating her like a prostitute, Gu Hanjiao felt it was an insult. She pulled up her hood and left.

However, she believed that the surprise in the landlady's eyes when she saw her design was genuine. She knew that the landlady would regret driving her away today, but that was fine too, because the price would be different then.

Gu Hanjiao finally got out of the house, and she went to the clothing stores in the city again. However, she naturally didn't like the stores with more affordable prices. The styles were too ordinary and the fabrics were just so-so. In the end, she went to Caiyige.

When Gu Hanjiao came out of the Caiyi Pavilion, she still hadn't found anything. It wasn't that the clothes inside were bad, but that the ones she liked were all too expensive for her to afford.

Gu Hanjiao glared fiercely at the facade of Caiyi Pavilion, suppressing her anger. These snobbish people, she would make them suffer after she married the Third Prince.

Gu Han left in a huff, intending to go and complain to the Third Prince that evening. Just then, Gu Qingwan, who was in the carriage, saw her.

She knew Gu Hanjiao had been wanting to start a business lately, but doing business wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight. However, her ideas were quite good. If she and the Third Prince were on the same page, perhaps the Third Prince would send someone to help her with the business. What a pity...

Unfortunately, although the Third Prince's maternal family was a royal merchant family, and the Third Prince was not short of money, he still looked down on the Yu family, who were royal merchants, and felt that it was a stain on his identity.

I really don't understand how there are people in this world who can't stand money.

"Qingwan, where are we going next?" Yanran asked.

"How about we go horse racing? Wouldn't this weather be perfect for it?" Princess Qinghe suggested.

Gu Qingwan thought for a moment, "Horse racing is nice, but we haven't prepared anything for today, so it wouldn't be good to go like this. How about we invite some ladies to join us another day? How about we go shopping first?"

"What a disappointment. Shopping isn't so bad, but I just want to try out the whip you gave me. That would be really impressive."

“Princess, you look impressive no matter what you use, so let’s listen to Qingwan. I want to go to the Treasure Pavilion to look at jewelry. I heard they’ve got a new batch of designs.”

No girl doesn't love dressing up, and Princess Qinghe is no exception. "Alright, let's go take a look. If we find anything nice, we'll buy it. Later, we'll go to the Caiyi Pavilion to see if there are any nice riding outfits. The three of us can get a similar set."

"Hehe, doesn't that mean we're wearing the same clothes?"

"What do you know? This is called matching outfits, which are those that look similar but have differences upon closer inspection."

Princess Qinghe's words made Gu Qingwan's eyes light up; it really was a good idea.

Even close sisters wouldn't wear clothes of the same color to avoid wearing the same thing. And major clothing stores wouldn't produce many of the same item. But there are still some close friends like them who just like to use the same things.

I can tell the shopkeeper about this idea later.

"Princess, don't feel disappointed. My mother has a dowry estate in the suburbs of the capital, nestled against the mountains and by the water. There's even a hot spring there. In a few days, the three of us will go to that estate. I imagine the fruits in the mountains behind the estate will be ripe by now."

"There are hot springs and forests? Can we go hunting then?" Princess Qinghe asked excitedly.

"Hunting? I wonder if there are any game that the princess likes. There probably aren't any large wild beasts, just some small animals. After all, that mountain was chosen by my maternal grandmother, who later had it carefully patrolled, and now it's guarded. I don't think there are any aggressive prey."

Meng Yanran breathed a sigh of relief. "Amitabha, Princess, you were too bold. Fortunately, there was no danger. But I'm still looking forward to it. I can ask Ruhua to cook some delicious wild game for us."

Qinghe looked at Meng Yanran with some disdain, "You really are a glutton. All you do all day is eat. You ate all the snacks we brought. You ate the most this morning, and you were the one who said you were full. I don't know where you got the stomach to stuff all this stuff in."

"Qinghe, you're just jealous of me, okay? Being able to eat is a blessing, don't you know that? Qingwan, don't you agree?"

"That's right, Princess."

Qinghe stared at Gu Qingwan for a while, and Gu Qingwan asked somewhat uncomfortably, "What's wrong, Princess? Is there something on my face?"

Princess Qinghe shook her head and said, "Don't keep calling me Princess. Look at you, you call her Yanran. You all know my name."

Gu Qingwan's eyes widened as she said, "That...that's different, you're a princess."

"You don't treat me like a friend! I even considered you a confidant."

“No, Princess… alright, Qinghe, I just feel that calling you by your name is somewhat disrespectful to the royal family.”

Princess Qinghe thought for a moment and said, "What you said makes some sense. Then you can call me Qinghe just like Yanran. Look, your name has the character 'Qing' in it, and so do mine. Aren't we very destined for each other?"

Meng Yanran pouted, "Yes, yes, you two are destined to be together, but I'm just an outsider. Oh dear, only good food can soothe my wounded heart."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Hearty laughter echoed from the carriage, where the friendship between the young women took root. Even many years later, when the sisters were separated and no longer living together, they would still smile when they thought of it. This beautiful memory should be a treasure for a lifetime.

"It's here, it's here."

The three of them soon arrived at Duobaoge, which was Gu Qingwan's own property. They came to browse around and check out the shop. Sure enough, the shopkeeper saw Gu Qingwan and immediately came forward to greet her personally.

"What would you ladies like? You can have some tea in the private room upstairs, and I'll have someone bring it up."

"Then bring us the flower catalog from the shop. We don't need to bother the other shopkeepers; we'll just browse around ourselves."

"Alright, alright, I'll have someone prepare it right away."

Meng Yanran pulled Princess Qinghe along, looking around excitedly, while Gu Qingwan followed behind, seemingly not very interested.

"You two go ahead and look at it. I'll wait for you in the private room."

Princess Qinghe nodded, her eyes never leaving the jewelry inside.

Just as Gu Qingwan was about to leave, she heard someone calling her from behind.

"Miss Gu, what a coincidence."

Gu Qingwan turned around and saw Li Qianyu calling her with her maid. Gu Qingwan was a little curious. She and Li Qianyu had no interaction. Why was Li Qianyu calling her?

Gu Qingwan nodded in response, "Is Miss Li also here to choose jewelry?"

"Yes, I'm getting married soon, and I don't think I'll have many more opportunities to go out and have fun, so I'm taking this opportunity to shop around and buy myself some things I like as part of my dowry."

"Since we haven't congratulated Miss Li on her wedding yet, we won't disturb her enjoyment any longer."

"Miss Gu!"

"What's wrong?" Gu Qingwan asked, frowning.

"I haven't yet congratulated you and the King of Chu on your happy occasion..."

"Thank you, then we'll celebrate together." With that, Gu Qingwan lifted her skirt and prepared to go upstairs.

"Miss Gu..."

Gu Qingwan turned to look at Li Qianyu and saw that she seemed hesitant to speak.

"You have something to say to me?"

Li Qianyu hesitated for a moment before nodding, "I wonder if it's convenient for Miss Gu?"

"Come up with me."

Gu Qingwan left first, and Li Qianyu instructed her maid to pack up the items she had chosen, pay the bill, and wait for her at the door. Then she followed Gu Qingwan upstairs.

There were only the two of them in the private room. The waiter brought the tea and quietly left, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

Gu Qingwan took a few sips of tea without any hurry. "I wonder what business Miss Li has with me?"