Spoiled and mad critic of powerful ministers

It was early morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Shen Qiongju then went out, wrapped in a thick cloak.

She had Shen Song drive the carriage, which wound its way through the streets before finally stopping at the end of a deep alley.

An old carpenter surnamed Lu lives here. He did repairs for the Shen family's tavern in his younger days. He was very skilled, but had an eccentric temper.

Pushing open the sawdust-covered courtyard gate, Shen Qiongju explained her purpose and handed over a roll of blueprints.

Old Lu took the blueprints and peered at them closely with his cloudy old eyes.

As I looked at it, my brows furrowed into a deep frown.

"Shen family girl, are you building a restaurant or a stage for operas?"

Old Lu pointed to the huge circular protrusion in the center of the drawing.

"There's such a large empty space in the middle, and instead of putting tables there, they've put up a platform? And surrounded it with a fence? Are they trying to send people up there to fight?"

Shen Qiongju smiled and tapped her finger on the round platform.

"Uncle Lu has a good eye; this is for people to 'fight'."

"But it's not about fighting, it's about drinking contests."

"A drinking contest?" Old Man Lu was even more confused.

"In this day and age, everyone's holding back their anger, what's the point of drinking alone in silence?"

Shen Qiongju's voice was soft, yet it conveyed a sense of certainty.

"I want them to drink to their hearts' content and have a good time. This stage is a drinking contest; whoever can drink, whoever dares to drink, can go up here. The winner gets all the drinks for free tonight, and the loser will just make everyone laugh."

Old Lu smacked his lips, seemingly savoring the nuances of the matter.

He then pointed to the strange long tables on both sides of the drawing.

"And what about these two sides? Such a high table needs high stools. How can guests be comfortable sitting there with their feet not touching the ground?"

"This is called a 'bar'."

Shen Qiongju didn't explain the origin of the word, but just gestured to it.

"Customers don't need to sit upright; they can just lean back, close to the bartender, making it easier to talk."

"The bartender is right behind this long table, skillfully mixing and turning the different kinds of drinks, like a magician. The customers find it novel, so they naturally drink more."

Old Man Lu listened, completely bewildered.

He had built houses in Wuxian County his whole life and had never seen anything like this.

Shen Qiongju didn't explain it clearly.

There's much more to these blueprints than meets the eye.

Originally, Shen's Tavern in the county town had an excellent location, right on the bustling Central Street.

Unfortunately, after Wen Xiujie and his men smashed it up once, it became deserted and a mess.

Now that she has "rectified spirits" as her weapon, her business in the military is secure.

Those soldiers who live on the edge of death need strong liquor to disinfect their wounds and warm their bodies.

But military businesses cannot be conducted openly; they must remain secret.

She needed a pretext, a gimmick that could attract the attention of the entire city.

Those soldiers on leave, having received their paychecks and having been suppressed for years, desperately needed a place to vent their frustrations.

This tavern, brimming with "江湖气" (a kind of chivalrous atmosphere) and "鲜感" (a sense of novelty), was tailor-made for them to squander their money.

As for wealthy merchants and tycoons, they naturally have private rooms on the second floor to serve them.

Shen Qiongju pointed to a few lines of small print in the corner of the drawing.

"Uncle Lu, some cards need to be specially made for these tables."

"Cards?"

"Yes, it's made of cardboard and decorated with patterns. I'll keep the rules a secret for now."

That was what Du Hengniang taught her in her past life, when she was trapped on the estate in her most desperate moment.

Du Hengniang was an extraordinary woman, but also a woman with a tragic fate.

After being abandoned by her, he spent his days in a drunken stupor.

She dragged Shen Qiongju to drink, taught her how to roll dice, how to mix strangely colored but delicious drinks, and how to play a game called "Truth or Dare".

"Qiongju, men are unreliable; only the wine and money in your hands are trustworthy."

Du Hengniang's drunken, hazy appearance is still imprinted in Shen Qiongju's mind.

Those games that were once used to numb her pain have now become tools for her to make money.

She wanted to bring all the flair bartending techniques that Du Hengniang had taught her, as well as those addictive card games, to this tavern.

In this dull and monotonous border region, these unheard-of things are enough to get people excited.

She wanted to make Shen Family Tavern a magnet in Wu County.

Old Man Lu looked at the young woman in front of him.

She was dressed in the simplest clothes, with a gentle smile on her face, but her eyes held a depth and ambition that he couldn't understand.

"Girl, just how much stuff is in your head?"

Old Lu shook his head and rolled up the blueprints.

"Alright, since you're so willing to pay, this old man will go crazy with you. But if no one comes after you make this weird-looking thing, don't cry."

Shen Qiongju stood up and bowed to Old Man Lu.

"Uncle Lu, don't worry."

"The day this tavern opens will be the day the Shen family rises again."

She stepped out of the courtyard gate, facing the biting morning wind, and took a deep breath.

The air smelled of coal smoke and horse manure, but to her it smelled like silver.

.

Pei Family Accounting Office.

"Sister, I'm afraid we won't be able to go in and repair that estate anytime soon." Shen Song took off his leather hat, vigorously brushed off the snow, and frowned deeply.

Shen Qiongju put down her wolf-hair brush, lightly flicking her finger across the abacus. "What? Did the house collapse, or did that corrupt steward escape from prison?"

"Neither," Shen Song said indignantly after taking a big gulp of hot tea. "They are the two concubines left behind by the steward. After the steward was arrested and thrown into jail, the two of them lost their support and, upon hearing that we were going to take back the estate, they refused to leave the main courtyard."

"If it were just a normal situation where they were staying, we could just give them some severance pay and send them on their way. But these two women..." Shen Song's face showed an expression as if he had seen a ghost.

"One of them held a pair of scissors to their own neck, and the other had a white silk ribbon hanging from the roof beam. They said that if we dared to kick them out, they would die in the house, adding two more blood debts to our new home and making it impossible for us to live in peace!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Qiongju was not angry at all; instead, she raised an eyebrow.

These days, is there still such a thing as preferring to die rather than stay at someone else's house?

"Prepare the car." Shen Qiongju stood up, straightened her skirt, and said, "I'll go take a look."

Shenjia Village is not far from the county town; the carriage arrived in half an hour.

The estate was indeed as Shen Qiongju had said, covering a considerable area. However, at this moment, the main courtyard was in a mess, and the wailing could be heard from two miles away.

A group of tenant farmers gathered at the gate to watch the commotion, pointing and whispering, but none of them dared to step forward.

Shen Qiongju pushed through the crowd and went inside.

At the entrance to the main hall, two women were performing a theatrical piece.

The woman on the left, dressed in a gaudy peach-red vest, with her hair disheveled, was gesturing at the craftsman who had come to persuade her, clutching a pair of scissors in her hand. She was beautiful, but her eyes and brows revealed a fierce spirit, and although she was crying, her voice was extremely loud.

The one on the right was much quieter, wearing a somewhat worn silk shirt, standing barefoot on a bench, her neck already wrapped in a white silk sash hanging under the eaves. When the wind blew, her thin body swayed, looking particularly eerie.

The woman had deep-set features, a high nose bridge, and her eyes, though red and swollen, had a unique amber color characteristic of foreign lands.

"Don't come any closer!" the woman with the scissors screamed. "This estate is managed by us men. Why should you take it back with just a word? We're just a widow and her children; we'd all die anyway if we went out. We might as well die here and haunt you as ghosts!"