Married to a Villainous Minister - Chapter 172

The woman beamed with joy upon hearing the compliment. “Such a sweet-talking young lady. My umbrella at home is quite old. I’ll pick out another one.”

Yu Fuling smiled happily and held the umbrellas as the woman made her selection. She picked one with red plum blossoms painted on it and handed over forty copper coins from her pouch.

“I want one too, this one with the red peonies,” said a girl nearby, pointing to the paper umbrella with peonies in Yu Jiao’s arms. Yu Jiao held out the umbrella for her, but the girl didn’t take it right away. “I’ll go get money from home first.”

She turned and went into her family’s courtyard. Before long, she returned with twenty coins, paid for the umbrella, and then took it.

With the remaining umbrellas in hand, Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling continued hawking their wares through the alleys. In less than half an hour, only two umbrellas remained.

As they walked back down Nahuai Street, calling out their sales pitch, the voice caught the attention of Shen Yu, who was lounging in a private room of a roadside restaurant. He felt the shout was familiar and walked to the window to look down at the street.

There, he saw Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling walking across the stone pavement with umbrellas in their arms. Shen Yu narrowed his starry eyes and watched them for a while, then said to his servant in the room, “Go call those two umbrella sellers up here.”

“You want to buy an umbrella, young master? Don’t we already have some?” the servant, Dayong, leaned by the window to peek outside. All he saw were the backs of the two girls.

Shen Yu frowned. Yu Jiao was already walking away. “Stop talking and go!”

Dayong didn’t dare say more. He dashed out of the room and ran downstairs to catch up to the umbrella sellers.

Shen Yu leaned lazily on the window frame, resting his chin on one hand while grabbing a bunch of grapes from the table with the other and popping them into his mouth, keeping his eyes on the street below.

Outside the restaurant, Dayong quickened his pace to catch up to the two girls and called out to their backs, “Ladies, please wait! My young master wants to buy an umbrella!”

Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling stopped and turned around at the sound of the voice.

“Oh! Miss Yu, it’s you?” Dayong was surprised to recognize her.

Yu Jiao remembered him, Shen Yu’s servant from Huichun Hall, and her expression cooled slightly as she thought of the trouble the Shen household had stirred with the Zhang family. “You want to buy an umbrella? Twenty copper coins each.”

Dayong chuckled and inwardly suspected his young master had recognized Miss Yu and deliberately sent him. “My young master wishes to buy one. Please, follow me upstairs.”

Yu Fuling remembered Shen Yu’s rude behavior from before and looked hesitantly to Yu Jiao. “Should we go?”

Yu Jiao raised her gaze to the second floor, locking eyes with Shen Yu. He was momentarily surprised, then spat out a grape skin and gave her a dashing smile.

Yu Jiao’s almond-shaped eyes remained calm as she looked away and lowered her lashes. “Since he’s a paying customer, it wouldn’t hurt to go up.”

Dayong bowed and gestured for them to follow. “This way, Miss Yu.”

On the second floor, Dayong pushed open the private room’s door and announced, “Young master, Miss Yu is here.”

As he was about to close the door behind them, Yu Jiao quickly said, “It’s not proper for a woman to be alone with a man. Leave the door open.”

Dayong hesitated and looked toward his master.

Shen Yu ignored him, instead giving Yu Jiao a once-over with a smile tugging at his lips. “Miss Yu, why are you selling umbrellas now? If times are hard, you could always come work at Huichun Hall.”

Yu Jiao caught the mockery in his tone. She gently ran her fingers over the umbrella in her arms and asked, “Young Master Shen, are you buying or not? If not, don’t waste our time.”

Shen Yu scoffed and glanced at her, unimpressed. “Selling umbrellas counts as a business? Let me see one.”

Yu Fuling tugged at Yu Jiao’s sleeve, clearly unhappy with Shen Yu’s arrogant tone and reluctant to sell to him.

But Yu Jiao smiled lightly and handed the umbrella to Dayong. “The frame is crafted from twenty-year-old bamboo, strong and durable. The surface is hand-painted by a Xiucai scholar. Two hundred copper coins each. I’m sure Young Master Shen knows quality when he sees it.”

As Shen Yu took the umbrella from Dayong, he raised a brow and smiled. “No need to butter me up. I grew up in business circles. Flattery won’t work on me.”

He opened the umbrella and glanced at it casually. “The painting’s nice, but it’s a shame it’s on such a rough product. I’ll give one hundred at most, for the artwork.”

Though he had spent time at his family’s shop, items like paper umbrellas were usually prepared by servants, so he truly didn’t know the price and instinctively lowballed.

Dayong hesitated to speak. Normal paper umbrellas cost over thirty copper coins, and with the scholar’s original artwork, Miss Yu’s price seemed more than overpriced.

Yu Fuling’s face lit up with joy. An umbrella worth twenty copper coins was now fetching one hundred copper coins, a profit equal to selling five.

Yu Jiao remained calm. “Seems Young Master Shen doesn’t recognize good craftsmanship. I’ll look for another buyer.”

She moved to pack up the umbrellas.

Shen Yu hadn’t really wanted to buy them in the first place, but seeing she was serious about leaving, he grabbed the umbrella and declared boldly, “What’s two measly umbrellas? Fine, two hundred it is, I’ll take both.”

Yu Jiao turned back and placed the other umbrella from Yu Fuling onto the table. She extended her hand briskly. “That’ll be four hundred copper coins in total.”

Shen Yu sneered at her money-minded manner and said to Dayong, “Just four hundred copper coins. Pay her.”

Dayong pulled four strings of coins from his pouch and handed them to Yu Jiao. “Miss Yu, here you go.”

Yu Jiao accepted the money and prepared to leave when Shen Yu called out, “Don’t rush off. My treat. Order whatever you’d like.”

Uncertain of Shen Yu’s intentions, Yu Jiao politely declined. “No need for Young Master Shen to spend on us. My family is waiting, we’ll take our leave.”

“I heard the Zhang family blocked your three brothers from getting on the scholar list?” Shen Yu stepped forward and blocked her path.

Yu Jiao’s almond eyes narrowed, a cold glint in them. Her tone carried a trace of mockery. “Isn’t that thanks to you, Young Master Shen?”

Shen Yu smiled. For some reason, he really liked seeing her this cold and indifferent. “Don’t be mad. If the Zhangs are obstructing your brothers’ futures, I’ll take care of it. Why didn’t you come to me?”

Ever since his engagement to the Zhang family was broken, Shen Yu had been keeping tabs on their actions. He was well aware of the Zhang patriarch’s suppression of Yu Jiao’s brothers at the county academy. These past days, he’d gone to Huichun Hall often, hoping she would seek him out for help.

But she never came.

Yu Jiao gave him a surprised look. “Young Master Shen, you talk as if we’re on friendly terms.”