CMWKSD -Chapter 80 Dark Moon Gradually Expands

An intelligence outpost itself must not draw too much attention—otherwise it’s very easy to be wiped out in one fell swoop.

Previously, Dark Moon Pavilion had used the shop together with the small courtyard behind it as the base. But this time, both Shao Qing and Jiu Yue felt they couldn’t keep things combined like that anymore.

Having learned from Dark Moon Pavilion’s example, this time the prefectural city’s outpost was set up a little farther away from Dark Moon Bookstore. They bought a very small courtyard instead.

As for Jiu Yue’s comment that she “didn’t know how to make money,” the expression on Shao Qing’s face could only be described as wonderfully complicated.

Dark Moon Pavilion was a tiny shop, barely bigger than a sesame seed, yet it made over a hundred taels of silver a month. If Jiu Yue hadn’t felt that rolling pills was too tiring, she would’ve only hired the three girls from the Ji family to do it.

On top of that, each person could only buy a limited number of pills per day. If not for those limits, the monthly income would’ve been even higher.

After all, once people bought those things and took them home, not a single person said they were useless.

At first, the Body-Strengthening Pills sold best. But for some reason, over the past two months—

The Hair-Darkening Pills and Hair-Growth Pills sold out the moment the doors opened. Most buyers were scholars and wealthy merchants. It seemed that both studying and doing business were brutal on one’s hair.

Then there was the newly opened bookstore.

Shao Qing didn’t want to argue with Jiu Yue, so whatever Jiu Yue said was right—Doctor Jiu Yue was absolutely correct.

Correct my ass.

Because what Jiu Yue proposed was this: pay one tael of silver to get a membership card; each person could borrow two books, and the daily reading fee was only two copper coins.

On opening day, the bookstore’s manager and five assistants were run ragged.

Just the money from issuing membership cards alone amounted to over five hundred taels.

Over five hundred taels!!!

And Jiu Yue still said she didn’t know how to make money. Shao Qing felt Doctor Jiu Yue was being far too modest.

Because in this era there were few scholars and studying cost a great deal of money, Jiu Yue had rather self-righteously assumed that the bookstore’s business would probably be just so-so.

Barely enough to break even.

When Jiu Yue later went to the capital and finally saw the account books—when she looked at the wooden chest Shao Qing carried over—she felt like she was a lucky beckoning cat!

She really, truly knew how to make money! Delighted beyond measure!

But right now, Jiu Yue was still discussing with Shao Qing how to lay out intelligence outposts across the various counties.

Shao Qing felt there was no need to open a shop in every single place.

Ji Yiqing and Ji Chaomian were ultimately going to take the imperial examinations. Officials should not compete with the people for profit. If Jiu Yue’s businesses became too conspicuously prosperous, it wouldn’t be good for their reputations.

After all, in Shao Qing’s opinion, with the way Jiu Yue made money, it wouldn’t take more than two years before the position of Great Qi’s richest person had to be handed over to someone else.

A small stall was fine. A small shop was fine too. As long as it was like everyone else’s and could balance income and expenses, that was enough.

They also couldn’t all use the Dark Moon name as a signboard—it would be too easy to get wiped out all at once.

Shao Qing took out a plan he’d already written. This so-called “plan” was something Jiu Yue had taught him to do.

“We’ll make a hidden mark, something like a moon symbol, and create a token. Only you will have this token, and only you can dispatch these people. As for what kind of shop to open or what business to run, I’ve adjusted the plans according to the conditions of each county…”

Jiu Yue listened, nodding along. “Oh, oh, oh. Then why would they listen to me?”

Shao Qing curled his lips slightly. “Doctor Jiu Yue, there are plenty of people in this world who can’t survive. As long as you give them a little sweetness, forget listening to you—even giving you their lives would be fine.”

Jiu Yue clicked her tongue. Damn feudalism. Human lives in this era were really cheap. Fortunately, she hadn’t started out doing assassination work.

Otherwise, she definitely wouldn’t have made this much silver—because killing people really doesn’t make money.

After thinking it over calmly, Jiu Yue agreed with Shao Qing’s view that the shops should be as inconspicuous as possible and not draw attention.

The bookstore and Dark Moon Pavilion were already open, so there was nothing to be done about them. But the rest absolutely couldn’t be like that—true concealment lay hidden in plain sight.

Jiu Yue felt Shao Qing had a point, but everyone had to be firmly in her grasp.

She took out a bottle of medicine. Shao Qing’s hand paused for a moment, as if he’d already expected it; even his expression didn’t change.

“Follow me. As long as you don’t betray me, there will be more benefits in the future.” As she spoke, she directly took out five hundred taels of silver.

“As for what specific shops to open, wait until I get back and plan it out.”

Shao Qing wanted to say, Please don’t plan anymore. Every time you say you don’t want to make money, the result is that you open a shop even more profitable than the last. You’ve only opened two so far, and each one earns more than the previous.

But he didn’t dare resist. He simply took the silver and the bottle of medicine and left. After administering the medicine, he had to give Jiu Yue a name list; otherwise, Jiu Yue said that if she forgot to give the antidote later, it would be a huge loss.

This time, however, the medicine was only taken once every three years. If it were once a year, even the antidote would be a significant expense. Jiu Yue felt she was really poor.

Jiu Yue went to Shen Mei and asked for several recipe formulas.

Shen Mei had already become a master chef. As long as Jiu Yue mentioned something in passing, Shen Mei could basically replicate it before long.

Jiu Yue adjusted the recipes here and there—tweaking them so the flavors wouldn’t be too outstanding, but also not too bad. Just good enough to survive in the cracks.

Then she wrote to Wang Sheng. Ever since the market for vermicelli and starch had opened up, Wang Sheng had begun opening restaurants in various counties as well.

Over the past few months, Jiu Yue had been continuously feeding Wang Sheng all the recipes Shen Mei developed related to starch and vermicelli.

Based on this relationship alone, Wang Sheng would also shelter those small vendors. There was no helping it—small vendors had no human rights, and Jiu Yue couldn’t possibly station herself in every county.

She could only rely on Wang Sheng, trusting that after years of cooperation and making him buckets of money, he wouldn’t refuse.

After giving the recipes to Shao Qing, Shao Qing quickly arranged for them to be implemented.

Shao Qing also gave Jiu Yue a timeframe. It might take until the end of the year, or even the first half of next year, for this prefectural city to be fully laid out. Jiu Yue felt the schedule was too tight.

It didn’t need to be that rushed—taking it easy would be fine. Even the end of next year would be acceptable.

But since Shao Qing said so, he probably could get it done.

Those recipes included—but were not limited to—various noodle stalls, eateries, cloth shops (selling the clothing and shoe styles made by Su Ruo)…

With these matters arranged, time crept toward August, and the provincial examinations were about to begin.

Jiu Yue had been exhausted these days because of all this work. Back then, she’d naively thought setting up intelligence outposts would be easy.

Only when she actually did it did she realize that in an era without the internet and without anything like Wikipedia, building an intelligence organization was truly no easy task.

Fortunately, Ji Yiqing and Ji Chaomian summarized, planned, and refined things; Shao Qing executed; and Jiu Yue provided ideas and money.

In the end, things were completed smoothly. As for other prefectural cities, they could just replicate what had been done here. The hardest part was the beginning—after that, it wouldn’t take nearly as much time.

After all, they were taking the exam to become juren. The Ji family was extremely worried.

After all, golden juren, silver jinshi—one could imagine just how valuable the title of juren was.

So today, the entire Ji family planned to mobilize. But Jiu Yue pressed everyone back—wasn’t that just putting too much pressure on Ji Chaomian and Ji Yiqing?

In the end, only Jiu Yue saw the two of them off to the exam.

The three sat in the carriage. Jiu Yue offered neither verbal encouragement nor threats.

But…

Ji Chaomian and Ji Yiqing felt that Jiu Yue would’ve been better off saying a few harsh words.

Because the moment they got in the carriage, Jiu Yue stared straight at the two of them—first at Ji Yiqing, then at Ji Chaomian; after Ji Chaomian, back to Ji Yiqing.

Ji Chaomian couldn’t take it anymore and cautiously spoke up first. “Sister-in-law, Second Brother and I will both do our best. Don’t worry.”

Jiu Yue replied with an “Mm.” “I’m not worried. Just go take the exam with peace of mind.” After saying that, she continued staring at them intently.

Ji Chaomian: …

Ji Yiqing: …

You’d really be better off saying a few words—or if you’re truly unhappy, just hit us a couple of times. Don’t look at us like this!!!

So scary…