The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 147 Tips

"I envy you, sister, for raising such outstanding children. I wonder what brother Yun will be like when he grows up." Zhang Ruomei sighed.

"Stop talking, I've been worried recently. Changping wants to take part in the county exam next year. I told him he wouldn't listen and wanted the teacher to persuade him, but the teacher said that although he lacks some skills, he can still take a try. Look at him, he has studied for so many years and deserves to fail. He has only studied for three years and he wants to take the exam. Isn't that overestimating his own abilities?"

Chen Cui complained with a worried look on her face.

Zhang Ruomei glanced at her, pondered for a moment, and then said slowly: "Since the master said it's okay to give it a try, sister, why are you still worried? Let's do this, when the master is on vacation in a few days, you can ask Changping to come over, and I'll let the master test him to see if he's good enough."

This is what Chen Cui wanted to hear. She couldn't help but feel happy when she heard it: "Then I'll trouble you, sister. I'll also let the master take more care of it."

Zhang Ruomei scolded, "We are not strangers, so why should we be polite, sister?"

In the past two years, the two first partnered in the canned food business and then opened a hot pot restaurant together. Both businesses were very profitable, allowing Zhang Ruomei to make a fortune and Chen Cui's wealth also increased.

Although Zhang Ruomei was in charge of operations and sales, the initial ideas and raw materials for the two businesses came from Chen Cui. She was very tactful and only took a small share, and did not interfere in the management of the business. Zhang Ruomei was very satisfied with this.

Now that Chen Cui mentioned her son's imperial examination, her intention was very obvious. Zhang Ruomei naturally had to give her this face and let the master meet this young man and give him some advice, which would be enough to benefit him.

It is a well-known fact that the person who sets the questions for the county examination is the county magistrate. For the candidates, being able to get tips before the exam and learn about the examiner's preference in setting questions is already a great advantage.

Chen Cui went home that night and told Chang Ping about this: "After Lord Wang presides over the county examination next year, he will be transferred to the prefectural capital. You must seize the opportunity."

Changping had a complicated expression, he didn't expect his mother to ask for help for this matter. He just wanted to test his true level and gain fame through his own efforts instead of relying on backdoors to get promoted.

Chen Cui saw that he looked unhappy and knew that the child was being stubborn. "Why do you think that most of the people who passed the imperial examinations throughout history were children of officials? That's because they have a profound family background and can collect complete information. Before the exam, they can analyze the examiner's essays and the style they like. Then they can cater to the examiner's preferences and gain recognition. Now that our family has this condition, why not use it? You just treat it as a regular test, not cheating. This is a convenience within the rules. You should understand this as soon as possible."

Changping agreed with a pale face. He was still too inexperienced and had never been exposed to these official affairs, so he found it difficult to accept it for a while.

In fact, Chen Cui's understanding of this world is just the tip of the iceberg. She is also constantly exploring and increasing her in-depth understanding of the rules of this era. Fortunately, many things are the same, and she can use her experience from her previous life as a reference.

When it comes to relationships, it is the same both in ancient and modern times. After all, society is made up of people, and human relationships can play a big role at times.

Another winter is here, and the "Yipinxian" hot pot restaurant that opened in the county last year is becoming booming again.

This Yipinxian restaurant is famous for its copper pot. This kind of pot is not uncommon in the local area, and many people eat mutton hotpot here in winter, but the pot here is different from others.

There is a spicy hot pot, which is very spicy, fresh and fragrant. The spicier it is, the more you want to eat it. There is also a shuangyuan hot pot, which is a pot divided into two halves, with spicy and non-spicy soup bases respectively, to meet the preferences of different people.

The locals love to eat mutton, so when the weather gets colder, more people go to the hot pot restaurant. After eating the spicy food, they sweat and feel very comfortable. Therefore, the restaurant is crowded with customers every day and business is busy.

This hot pot restaurant was opened by Zhang Ruomei. Last year, she opened two more in Shu. Three stores opened at the same time and business was booming. More than half of the peppers planted by Chen Cui last year were consumed. Fortunately, the planting area was expanded this year, so there was no shortage of raw materials.

Although spicy hotpot is most popular only in winter and sales drop sharply when the weather gets hot, Chen Cui still earned nearly 3,000 taels of silver from the hotpot restaurant last winter. With the more than 6,000 taels of dividends from canned food, her net worth has exceeded 10,000 taels.

Compared with this income, their family's expenses are really not much.

Chen Cui was a widow and was used to living a simple life. Even though her clothes were of better quality nowadays, they still looked ordinary. Her children only cared about the comfort of the clothes and did not care about the material.

What they eat are just home-cooked meals, but the children love to eat meat, so the family buys meat often, and there must be eggs every day and vegetables as well, so that the nutrition is balanced.

Apart from this, Chen Cui doesn't have many social contacts. In this county town, there are only a few families she interacts with, and gifts are exchanged among them, so the income and expenditure are basically balanced.

When she first received the imperial title, many prominent families in the city came to give her gifts and congratulate her, and some women also came up to her and wanted to make friends with her.

But later they found out the details of the Liu family and saw that this family really had no background and would be of little use to them in the future. Moreover, Chen was of a vulgar character and they had nothing in common with her. They could not get along with each other, so they gradually felt that there was no need to associate with her and stopped interacting with her.

They thought that if they wanted to curry favor with the magistrate, wouldn't it be better to go directly to the county magistrate's wife? Why bother dealing with a peasant woman here?

There were only a few families who were originally from humble backgrounds, and whose women were also of ordinary backgrounds. They had some common topics with Chen Cui and they would often visit her.

Chen Cui did not tell her sons the real income situation of the family. They only knew that there was such an income, but she did not let them know how much money it was.

The three of them have focused on their studies. Now they have all been promoted to Class A, and the students in the class are all the best in the school. Although the three brothers are excellent, they are not the best in the class. A sense of urgency has always been with them.

Because Changping said that he would take an exam after the new year, Changan and Changfu dared not slack off.

They don't have the confidence to take the exam at their current level, and the teacher won't allow them. This is the gap between them and their eldest brother.

Soon, the New Year came again, and the family returned to the village early to prepare for the New Year.

Just when they were busy cleaning and tidying up the yard, an unexpected person suddenly came to the door.