The Amusing Adventures of a Directionally Challenged Dad and Daughter-Chapter 152

The precarious father-daughter relationship was salvaged by Chang'an with a hot pot meal.

After dinner, Old Gu Six boasted about his great achievements.

"I caught over a hundred clams, all for you, my girl. You can have any pearl jewelry you want."

Chang'an also told her father, "I sold a pink pearl today for a hundred thousand taels of silver."

"What? ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​‍A hundred thousand for a pearl? Daughter, we can't swindle fools—that’s too immoral."

"It was that young man who’s always hanging around here. He wanted you to become a fortune-teller and scam people."

"Oh, him? Then it’s fine. He’s rich. You undersold it—should’ve charged two hundred thousand." The Jiang Family’s wealth surpassed even the national treasury. Old Gu Six stroked his chin—this was a fat sheep, and he needed to find the right way to shear it.

Becoming a fortune-teller wasn’t out of the question. It all depended on whether Second Jiang—no, Second Young Master Jiang—could afford the fee. freewёbnoνel.com

Before even leaving the coast, Second Young Master Jiang sneezed several times and wrapped his coat tighter. Was he catching a cold?

That year, Chang'an and Old Gu Six behaved unusually well, never leaving the mountains. Instead, they frequented the sea, stripping it of every visible treasure until even Old Gu Six felt guilty.

The fastest growth and development, however, belonged to Dazhu. Taking the recipes Chang'an had given him, he returned to his hometown and announced he would strike out on his own.

The villagers, having tasted the benefits, all insisted they shouldn’t split up.

So Dazhu lied, "The shop was funded by that uncle who visited our home before. I’m just the manager he hired. If the uncles and elders want to join, there won’t be profit shares—just monthly wages as shop employees."

When the villagers seemed skeptical, Dazhu added, "Shuanzi and the others have met Uncle Gu. You can ask them. I talked with Uncle Gu for a long time before rejoining them."

"Uncles and elders, Uncle Gu once saved my father’s life. Now he needs our family’s help, and we dare not refuse. His business is vast, and he’s short on hands. When he met me and learned I’d opened a shop with you all, he thought I was clever and wanted to recruit me."

"My family has to repay this debt, but since you all don’t know Uncle Gu, there’s no need to follow me and become his servants. The food shop is yours to run. Shuanzi already knows how to source goods. Just return half of our investment, and keep the other half as thanks for your support."

Hearing that Dazhu was leaving to work for someone else, the villagers dropped their insistence on sticking together and even advised him that one family member repaying the debt was enough—no need for the whole family to go.

But they didn’t press further. It was his family’s matter, not theirs to interfere with.

And so, under Old Gu Six’s name, Dazhu started anew. Qingqing, a girl with a talent for cooking, successfully made mooncakes and shrimp cakes.

Remembering the recipes came from Chang'an and that they were now using Old Gu Six’s name, Dazhu included shares for both him and Chang'an in the shop.

A'qing suggested a fifty-fifty split. Dazhu had no objections, and neither did the three women in the household.

Dazhu told A'qing, "Father, I met Uncle Gu and Miss Chang'an in a coastal town while collecting goods. Uncle Gu invited me to their home, but I refused—not because I didn’t want to go, but because it wasn’t proper."

A'qing nodded, patted his son’s shoulder, and smiled without a word, continuing to knead dough in the kitchen for his daughter.

The novelty of the pastries made the shop a hit, but its success invited envy from competitors, who repeatedly tried to sabotage them.

At first, Dazhu struggled to handle these schemes, but with experience, he learned to retaliate—earning himself a reputation for being unshakeable.

Unbeknownst to the father-daughter pair, someone outside the mountains was making money for them. They had long forgotten about Dazhu and the recipes.

Second Jiang’s town wasn’t something that could be built overnight—especially not on such a grand scale. Even with an army of craftsmen, it would take three to five years to complete.

The happiest were the mountain folk. The longer the construction lasted, the steadier their income.

Of course, they didn’t wish for the town to never be finished. They hoped it would be completed soon—they just couldn’t let short-term gains blind them. They had to think of their descendants.

Second Jiang traded two rolls of cloud-pattern brocade, two rolls of silk, and two uncarved jade stones the size of adult fists for Chang'an’s pink pearl.

Old Gu Six, unwilling to let this fat sheep escape, threw in an extra pearl the size of a pinky finger—buy one, get one free.

Both sides were satisfied with the deal.

Chang'an and Old Gu Six: "A rich and gullible young master is rare. We must keep shearing him."

Second Jiang: "This gentleman does honest business. Even the free pearl is top quality."

Old Gu Six had no shortage of shiny things or pearls. The ones Second Jiang treasured were commonplace to him, so giving one away didn’t sting.

After two years of silence, the Old Master finally reappeared—and surprisingly, he came looking for them himself.

["Care to explain what you’ve been up to while I was gone? Why has your father’s merit vanished?"]

Chang'an was baffled. "We didn’t do much—just gathered some things from the sea. How could that erase his merit?"

The Old Master was furious. ["Bull! Just ‘gathering things’ wouldn’t wipe out his merit! You two better be careful. If his merit drops into the negatives, his trial will fail."]

"What?!" Chang'an nearly shrieked.

"Then how much does he have left?"

["Three points. And let me tell you—if he fails, you’re going through the next cycle with him."]

"You can’t keep shearing the same sheep! Pay up."

["...He hasn’t failed yet! No extortion!"]

"Fine. Then upgrade my space first. And give me two puppets, an oil press, a rice processor, and a flour mill."

["Where am I supposed to get those?!"]

"I don’t care. If you don’t deliver, I’ll take Old Gu Six to do something wicked. We can always start over."

["Truly his daughter—just as infuriating. Fine. Wait here."]

When Old Gu Six returned home, he sensed a familiar presence. What luck—the old man he wanted to mooch off had come to him!

The Old Master’s scalp prickled, and he vanished in an instant. He shouldn’t have come back. Who cared about merit? It wasn’t his trial.

Chang'an happily surveyed her upgraded space. The front and back gardens had expanded to a thousand square meters each, and two new workshops had appeared—one for oil pressing, the other for grain processing.

She immediately bound two new puppets. One was assigned to learn cooking and chores, while the other would be taught oil pressing and grain processing—once the Old Master delivered the machines.

Of course, both had to learn farming first.

Old Gu Six ruffled his daughter’s hair and hurried to his room, sending his consciousness into the space to hunt for his "father" in every possible way.

Suddenly, Chang'an's furious voice rang out in the courtyard, "Dad, you didn’t wash your hands after using the toilet and now you’re touching my head?"

Old Gu Six: Hiss~ Got too excited and forgot.

Chang'an had the overwhelming urge to shove her Old Six dad’s head straight into a pile of cow dung.