Chapter 1690 - 1517: Female-Dominated 21

Primarily, Dong Xinxian’s status was too low. For the main husband of a wealthy family, either it was for political alliance or he could manage the household. Dong Xinxian couldn’t do either; his configuration clearly showed he was made to be minor, not major.

During this period, Dong Xinxian did try testing a few wealthy women who were chasing him closely. However, none wished to marry him, and he wasn’t willing to be a minor husband.

But if it were Qi Gongshuangshuang, Dong Xinxian was confident in getting Qi Guanshuangshuang to marry him as her main husband.

Now, without the pressure from Fang Miaozhen, he might as well thoroughly spend his days with Qi Gongshuangshuang since Qi Guanshuangshuang didn’t know he had been bought by Fang Miaozhen to thwart her using beauty tactics.

Moreover, Dong Xinxian truly didn’t want to continue running the noodle shop. It was too exhausting; he had been pampered since he remembered, never having suffered such hardship, and he truly could not bear it.

Meeting Qi Gongshuangshuang, Dong Xinxian felt like his luck had come. Based on the info Fang Miaozhen gave him, this Qi Gongshuangshuang was a lustful and brainless, rather simple person.

As long as he followed Fang Miaozhen’s previously taught method, he could certainly catch Qi Gongshuangshuang. According to Fang Miaozhen, Dong Xinxian felt Qi Gongshuangshuang was surely impressed by him.

Following Qi Guanshuangshuang’s actions, if she didn’t come to his noodle shop the next day, she would certainly appear there on the third day.

Because when he saw Qi Guanshuangshuang through the kitchen curtain gap, he found an excuse of being too busy and personally took a plate out to circle in front of her.

Once Qi Gongshuangshuang saw his face, given her lustful nature, she couldn’t possibly remain unmoved. Once Qi Gongshuangshuang came once, Dong Xinxian was confident in holding her in the palm of his hand.

Unfortunately, Dong Xinxian miscalculated. He waited seven consecutive days, but Qi Guanshuangshuang didn’t show as much as a shadow, evidently having put his little noodle shop behind her.

This was the price of outdated information; the news Dong Xinxian received were those Fang Miaozhen fed him, while all he heard about Fang Family was its bankruptcy.

But why the Fang Family went bankrupt, Dong Xinxian knew nothing of Fang Miaozhen being countered by Qi Guanshuangshuang and losing a million taels of silver.

Dong Xinxian still treated the present Qi Gongshuangshuang using the old ways, which surely wouldn’t work, while Qi Gongshuangshuang had long forgotten Dong Xinxian.

Qi Gongshuangshuang was now busy with accounting, indeed, pulled by several old Shopkeepers to audit the books together, because as the Family Head, she must have a grasp of the accounting of her shops.

After Qi Guanshuangshuang finished settling the accounts and handling various matters of the Capital City, a month had passed, and the weather turned cold.

Especially in the Capital City, much colder than Yun City, Qi Guanshuangshuang early on had the dragon furnace lit, and frankly, the dragon furnace was pretty warm, not inferior to modern heating at all.

The ancients’ wisdom was truly amazing, they built the dragon furnace under the surface bricks within the house, constructing a windingly staggered smoke passage with adobe bricks.

Outside the house, there’s a big pit connected for lighting a fire. After lighting, hot air enters through the smoke passage into the ground indoors for warming and dispelling cold, making it both warm and clean.

With heat beneath the feet and no matter how cold outside, the indoors remain warm as spring, but building the dragon furnace is laborious and consumes a significant amount of firewood, very few poor families build them, it’s a privilege of the wealthy.

With the dragon furnace, the house was warm, the outside was cold, Qi Gongshuangshuang soon decided to stay indoors throughout winter, not going out.

Fortunately, Qi Gongshuangshuang had already sorted the shop accounts and other matters earlier, so the subsequent work could be done without leaving the house.

After Qi Gongshuangshuang stayed home for over half a year, unexpectedly, she saw Dong Xinxian, whom she thought would never cross paths with again, in her mansion.

The other party was dressed in a servant’s outfit, following behind Lanting, holding a tray to serve her tea.

Qi Gongshuangshuang trusted Mei Lan Zhu Ju, the four servants, a lot, having delegated many matters for them to handle during this period.

Mei Xin, being skilled in medicine, Qi Gongshuangshuang entrusted him with the health issues of all the servants in the mansion.

Mei Xin had a great talent for medicine; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been valued by Qi Guanshuangshuang’s mother, and Qi Guanshuangshuang planned to cultivate him into a renowned doctor, to not waste his talent.

Lanting was skilled in accounting, and merely managing the expenditures and income of those around her was too wasteful, thus Qi Guanshuangshuang had been committed to cultivating Lanting as a head steward specialized in auditing.

As for Zhu Jun, he was good at martial arts, his daily work involved practicing, teaching martial arts to the mansion’s staff, and ensuring Qi Gongshuangshuang’s safety.

Ju Xin was the busiest, entirely cultivated by Qi Gongshuangshuang as a Store Manager, intending to let Ju Xin manage male business ventures in the future.

Most importantly, Qi Gongshuangshuang had already chosen marital families for Mei Lan Zhu Ju, with Mei Xin marrying a wandering bell doctor, whose medical skills were commendable.

The two met while Mei Xin was out purchasing herbs when he unexpectedly encountered a patient with a sudden illness, beginning their acquaintance from Mei Xin treating the patient.

Afterwards, every time Mei Xin went out, they incidentally met, and through continued meetings, the two came together. Regarding Ju Xin, he got together with Qi Guanshuangshuang’s butler Zhou Bing.

Ju Xin and Zhou Bing were practically childhood friends, though Qi Guanshuangshuang hadn’t thought of the four servants Mei Lan Zhu Ju getting married initially.

At that time, despite Zhou Bing’s intentions, he didn’t dare compete with Qi Gongshuangshuang for her people. Now, with Qi Gongshuangshuang expressing the need to find matches for the four servants around her, Zhou Bing immediately sought Ju Xin’s opinion to ask for Ju Xin’s hand.

Mei Xin’s bell doctor married him, considered marrying into the family, directly moving into Qi Guan Mansion, Ju Xin and Zhou Bing also stayed in the mansion serving Qi Gongshuangshuang.

Zhu Jun and Lanting were married to sons of old Store Managers from the Qi Guan Family, destined to leave the mansion in the future.

Even though Mei Xin and Ju Xin wouldn’t leave the mansion, Qi Guanshuangshuang didn’t want them to continue serving her close by, to prevent possible dissatisfaction from their wives, affecting marital feelings.

This meant that Qi Gongshuangshuang no longer had anyone serving directly beside her, initially declaring she would just find two women to serve her, yet Mei Lan Zhu Ju wouldn’t agree.

According to the four servants, women are careless and can’t care well, it’s necessary to train some servants to continue caring for Qi Gongshuangshuang.

Thus, the four Mei Lan Zhu Ju remained busy searching for successors, scrutinizing each servant within the mansion, and examining many people outside.

After much effort, they’ve chosen over ten satisfactory ones, training them personally, determined to train another set of four Mei Lan Zhu Ju.

And today, Lanting brought Dong Xinxian to brew tea for Qi Gongshuangshuang, in fact letting Qi Gongshuangshuang see the handpicked successor. In other words, Lanting had selected Dong Xinxian as his successor.

Qi Guanshuangshuang was bewildered, how did Dong Xinxian enter Qi Guan Mansion and catch Lanting’s eye, why didn’t she know?