CMWKSD -Chapter 67 We’re Open for Business

Heavy snow fell in flurries, making Jiu Yue even more reluctant to go out. The dirt roads turned muddy the moment you stepped on them, and every time she went out, she couldn’t help but grumble inwardly.

Fortunately, not going out didn’t really matter now. The shop had already been named: Dark Moon Pavilion.

Jiu Yue was terrible at naming things, so she simply carried over the name of her assassin organization, with not the slightest awareness of trademarks. After all, in this era, what concept of copyright was there anyway?

She had originally thought that with renovations and all the miscellaneous tasks, Dark Moon Pavilion wouldn’t be ready for at least a month.

But ancient craftsmen were truly impressive—just a little over half a month later, Dark Moon Pavilion was fully renovated.

They hired two shop assistants and one shopkeeper; together with Shao Qing, that made four people in total.

Whenever they had nothing else to do, they would go to the shop to keep busy—washing, cleaning, and tidying up.

That day, even though Jiu Yue really didn’t want to go out, she still did. There was no helping it—she needed to explain the dietary therapy prescriptions and the sales method she had written to Shopkeeper Zhuang.

After all, what they were selling were medicinal pills. Since they were pills, they wouldn’t necessarily be suitable for everyone.

When Shopkeeper Zhuang recorded the accounts, he would also have every customer who came to buy pills sign their name separately.

Each type of pill had different groups for whom it was unsuitable. For example, most people with congenital heart conditions, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, high blood sugar…

All of these were unsuitable.

If they still wanted to buy them, then they had to sign—after all, one’s own body was ultimately one’s own responsibility.

That said, Jiu Yue’s pills were highly effective. As long as someone wasn’t on the verge of death, taking them wouldn’t necessarily cause problems. But she was worried that if something went wrong, not only would the pills not sell, they’d also end up in serious trouble—not worth it.

Shopkeeper Zhuang listened as Jiu Yue carefully listed the conditions. Of course, in this era, heart disease wasn’t called heart disease—it was called palpitations.

Jiu Yue did her best to describe these illnesses using ancient terminology, then had someone write everything on a large sheet of xuan paper and paste it up in the shop, titled: Precautions.

She also wrote out two or three relatively simple dietary therapy recipes and pasted them directly on the wall, so people could see them at a glance.

Jiu Yue hadn’t planned on making much money anyway, so she didn’t take it too seriously.

In the blink of an eye, the opening day arrived. After all, this was the Ji family’s first shop. Even though it belonged to Jiu Yue, no one dared not show up to support it.

Everyone put on newly made clothes early in the morning. Even Ji Zhouye, Ji Wanqiao, and Ji Weizhou from the academy specially took leave and brought people with them to show support.

There was no helping it—the body-strengthening pills Jiu Yue had given them worked a little too well. Coupled with their conscious effort to exercise, their physiques were in excellent shape.

Once they found out that those pills had been made by their second sister-in-law, they were already itching with curiosity—and now she was actually opening a shop.

So even people who didn’t particularly want to buy anything came to join the excitement, wanting to see whether these so-called body-strengthening pills really had such miraculous effects.

Jiu Yue hadn’t done any special promotion. If there were too many people, they’d have to roll more pills—and she definitely wasn’t going to do manual labor.

She hadn’t made many of each kind of pill anyway. These pills all had a shelf life. For several of the less common ones, she only had ten bottles made.

Even for the more common ones, none exceeded fifty bottles—everything was based on fate.

Jiu Yue arrived around the middle of the chen hour. The auspicious time was the end of the chen hour, around 8:50 in the morning.

Yet before she even reached the shop, she saw a huge crowd gathered at the entrance of Dark Moon Pavilion.

She looked at Ji Yiqing, who was driving the carriage beside her, her voice unconsciously rising.
“Did you invite people?”

Ji Chaomian lifted the carriage curtain. He hadn’t expected so many people either, but seeing all the long robes, he guessed they were scholars brought by Ji Zhouye and the others.

“Third Brother and the others seem to have brought some classmates.”

Jiu Yue gave an “oh,” but still—there were far too many people.

The Ji family was large. Jiu Yue and her branch were riding in a carriage, while the others had borrowed ox carts from the village and were following behind—they hadn’t arrived yet.

Ji Yiqing glanced upward and noticed that across from Dark Moon Pavilion was what seemed to be the Wang family’s cloth shop. The second-floor window was open, and at a glance he spotted Wang Sheng.

He pointed him out to Jiu Yue. “That looks like Master Wang.”

Jiu Yue looked up, and her face immediately darkened. The one smiling like a blooming flower—who else could it be but Wang Sheng?

Not only that, behind Wang Sheng were several other people. And as they drew closer, Jiu Yue realized that the crowd at the shop entrance wasn’t just scholars.

There were also several middle-aged men wearing short brocade jackets—people like these were usually stewards from prominent households in the county.

Ji Yiqing scanned the crowd carefully and even spotted a servant from Magistrate Li’s household, squeezed so badly he was swaying from side to side. Several times he tried to shout something, but didn’t dare to actually call out.

Fortunately, it was almost 8:30 by now—opening time was close.

But entering through the front door was impossible. Ji Yiqing simply stopped the carriage by the roadside and had everyone get down, then went to park it near the city gate.

The others carefully made their way through a small alley and entered through the back door.

Jiu Yue found it both funny and exasperating. It seemed that Master Wang had probably known the shop was hers and had deliberately helped create momentum for her.

Others might not know, but Master Wang certainly knew of Jiu Yue’s medical skills. Naturally, the pills she made would be extraordinary.

He had to come buy a few bottles to try.

The crackling of firecrackers echoed through the street as Jiu Yue pulled down the red silk covering the plaque above Dark Moon Pavilion.

Ji Shan and Hu Chunhua could no longer call the shots. Ji Dahai had never seen much of the world, so the one in charge of the Ji family had become Ji Chaomian.

As the eldest grandson of the main branch, this was only fitting. Jiu Yue couldn’t be bothered to stand at the shop entrance as some kind of lucky mascot and give a speech, so she simply pushed Ji Chaomian forward.

They had discussed it the night before. Since they were already building momentum for Ji Chaomian and Ji Yiqing, then Jiu Yue’s medical skills were no longer something that had to be hidden.

She wouldn’t see patients or open a clinic. Those who couldn’t afford it wouldn’t dare come to her anyway.

Those who could afford it could invite her for private house calls—and Jiu Yue was more than happy with that. As long as she didn’t have to keep office hours, everything was fine.

Unexpectedly, the moment Ji Chaomian stepped to the entrance, scholars in the crowd began shouting:

“It’s Ji Chaomian!”

“It’s Ji Chaomian!”

“Wasn’t his leg ruined? He’s standing up!”

One after another, people stood on tiptoe to see whether Ji Chaomian was using any support. Yet there he stood—straight as a towering pine.

No tricks, no deception—he was standing!

Among scholars—especially those in Qingshui County—Ji Chaomian and Ji Yiqing were both very well-known. When the two had met with misfortune back then, some had sighed in regret, others had taken malicious pleasure.

Now seeing Ji Chaomian standing again, all those earlier assumptions were completely overturned.

What’s more, with Ji Chaomian and Ji Yiqing around, no one else could even dream of taking first place in next year’s examinations.

Some were jealous. Some were happy…

Ji Chaomian raised his hand to quiet the crowd. “Welcome, elders and townsfolk, to the opening of Dark Moon Pavilion. Your presence brings great honor to us. This humble one offers his thanks.”

With that, Ji Chaomian cupped his hands in salute.