Chapter 766 --766

Chapter 766: Chapter-766

If this were a theatrical opera, or one of those cheap transmigration novels the System was always blabbering about, this would be the exact moment the story faded to black and skipped forward three months. In a swift, satisfying montage, the shop would be built, the silver would be flowing like water, and Heena would be sitting on a throne of gold as a billionaire tycoon.

But real life was a grueling, painfully slow grind.

Even though Heena was ruthlessly determined to finish her mission and conquer this city, she was barely two percent of the way there. The reality of her situation was an incredibly frustrating bottleneck, entirely because of the physical vessel she inhabited.

The original Lu Heena had not been a brilliant scholar or a hidden genius. She was a sheltered, perfectly ordinary, somewhat naive noble daughter. Her brain simply wasn’t wired for high-speed, multi-threaded processing. Worse, integrating with this average mind had placed a massive, suffocating "limiter" on Heena’s own memories.

When she had confidently bluffed Madam Hua with her "proprietary cosmetic formulas," she wasn’t drawing on some vast, encyclopedic knowledge of ancient alchemy. She was literally just trying to desperately recall the ingredient labels she had read on the back of modern foundation bottles, or piecing together fragmented memories of random DIY makeup videos she had scrolled past in her past lives. She couldn’t just invent life-changing, world-breaking technology overnight because this body’s brain simply couldn’t hold or process the blueprints.

Furthermore, having the backing of the Crimson Lotus didn’t instantly solve her labor shortage.

Ren and Old Lady Lin were fiercely, stubbornly dedicated to their south-alley clinic. Every morning, like clockwork, the mother-and-son pair marched back to their dingy treatment room to see their regular slum patients, leaving Heena completely alone in the sprawling, two-story East Market apothecary.

Heena had managed to hire a few temporary day laborers to scrub the decades of grime, cobwebs, and rotting wood out of the building. The place was finally clean, but to actually run a production line, she needed to buy permanent, bound servants. Unfortunately, human capital in the capital city was shockingly expensive, and her two hundred taels of silver had to be strictly budgeted for raw materials, bulk alcohol, and medicinal herbs.

When Heena had complained about the lack of extra hands, Old Lady Lin had simply rolled her eyes.

"Just get married to a few strong men, or go buy some cheap concubines," the old woman had scoffed, entirely serious. "Why pay monthly wages when a husband works the mortar for free?"

Heena had stared at the old woman like she was completely insane. This matriarchal empire’s casual approach to acquiring husbands for free manual labor was a level of ruthless pragmatism even she found jarring.

Honestly, Heena was already losing her patience with Old Lady Lin. The clinic matriarch charged money for absolutely everything. If she could have figured out a way to charge Heena a copper coin for every breath of air she took inside the clinic, she would have. Just yesterday, the old woman had shamelessly scammed Heena out of two whole silver taels just for lightly dusting a medicine cabinet that the hired cleaners had already scrubbed spotless.

To make matters worse, the food situation was dire.

Heena had quickly discovered that Ren—the beautiful, brilliant, gentle physician—was an absolute disaster in the kitchen. His idea of a meal was boiling plain rice with medicinal roots until it tasted like damp earth. As for asking Old Lady Lin to cook? The woman would have slapped a five-copper service fee on a bowl of plain porridge.

With her mouth completely healed from the fever blisters, Heena was fiercely craving something rich, spicy, and heavily seasoned. If she wanted to eat anything edible, she was going to have to cook it herself.

So, two days after the alley negotiation, Heena threw on a simple, clean tunic, wrapped a dark cloak over her healing back, and stepped out into the bustling East Market to buy fresh ingredients and a few extra cosmetic supplies.

Neither Ren nor Old Lady Lin came with her. She didn’t ask, and they were too busy to offer.

Despite the terrifying rumor she had shouted to the entire district days ago, her relationship with Ren remained entirely stagnant. Neither of them had brought up the "He is my man" claim since the alley. Ren clearly had zero desire to be forced into a marriage, and Heena couldn’t care less about romance—she had a cosmetic monopoly to build. The rumor was a highly effective, mutually beneficial shield to keep predators away, and that was exactly where Heena intended to leave it.

She had absolutely no idea that this mundane, solo trip to the vegetable market would end with her walking back through her front door as a married woman.

The morning market was a chaotic, vibrant sea of noise. The atmosphere around her had subtly shifted. People in the East Market recognized her face now, but instead of the outright mockery or pity they had shown the cast-off Lu daughter a week ago, they simply gave her a respectful, slightly wary berth. In a city built on power, everyone knew the girl in the black cloak had the backing of the Crimson Lotus, so they left her alone to browse in peace.

Heena walked down the packed dirt aisles, acting completely normal as she inspected the stalls.

The market was divided into a messy patchwork of vendors. The wealthier merchants had raised wooden tables, but the vast majority of the farmers had simply laid out sheets of coarse burlap and woven mats directly on the ground, piling them high with fresh produce brought down from the mountain terraces and local gardens.

Heena carefully selected a heavy bundle of fresh green scallions, some fiery red peppers, and a basket of crisp mountain garlic.

But as she approached the wet market section, she ran into a completely unexpected wall.

Sitting in front of a loud, shouting fishmonger were a dozen wide, shallow wooden tubs filled with river water and live, splashing fish. Heena looked down at the silver-scaled creatures darting around the wooden barrels, her mouth watering at the thought of a spicy, braised fish stew.

She knew exactly what they tasted like. She recognized their shapes from her past lives.

But when she opened her mouth to point at one and negotiate a price, her brain completely blanked.

What the hell is that called here? Heena thought, her brow furrowing in deep frustration.

It was the original owner’s memory limiter acting up again. Because the noble Lu Heena had spent her entire life locked in a courtyard being served pre-boned, delicately plated meals, her brain had never learned the common, market-street names for raw ingredients. To the original owner, a fish was just "fish."

Standing in front of the wooden tubs, Heena stared intensely at a large, whiskered river dweller splashing near the edge, trying desperately to force her nerfed brain to supply the correct local word for catfish so she wouldn’t sound like a complete idiot when asking for the price.

Abandoning the fish dilemma for the moment, Heena shifted her attention back to the vegetable mats spread across the dirt.