This wasn't Lüdou's first time making money.
But where was this? This was the capital!
Lüdou hadn't dared to hope she'd sell everything.
When she was preparing yesterday, she hadn't planned to make much.
It was Duoduo who kept urging her to make more, saying pastries could last a few days, and if they didn't sell out in a day, she could continue selling them afterward.
Lüdou thought about how she still had to accompany Duoduo into the palace and couldn't make pastries every day.
So, she took a chance and prepared enough for three days.
She had originally thought that if she really couldn't sell them, she'd have Shitou take them back for them to eat themselves.
But she never imagined that in just one day, everything would be completely sold out!
Her pastries were actually popular in the capital too!
This realization excited Lüdou more than the money she had earned.
Lüdou looked at Duoduo's happy expression with a thrilled face and stuffed the coin pouch into Duoduo's hands.
"Your Highness, this is for you!"
Duoduo smiled and looked at Lüdou. "You earned all this. Why are you giving it to me?"
"Without Your Highness, I wouldn't be where I am today."
"What's mine is Yours!"
Lüdou spoke very firmly.
If it hadn't been for her protecting Duoduo back then, the Prince of Pingyang wouldn't have taken her along as well.
There wouldn't have been the chance to learn a skill from a master afterward.
Nor would she have been able to turn the pastries she made into silver after learning.
Which servant in those great households didn't have some skill to rely on?
But which master gave their servants a chance to stand out?
Maybe some did, but Lüdou had never seen it.
Deep down, Lüdou was very clear-headed.
Duoduo opened the coin pouch and looked inside—it was full of copper coins, heavy and substantial.
"Giving it all to me? Aren't you sorry to part with it?" Duoduo winked at Lüdou.
Lüdou smiled and nodded. "Not at all! From now on, every coin I earn will be for Your Highness!"
Duoduo tilted her little head.
"Before, weren't you thinking of buying your freedom and leaving the household? If you give it all to me, what about your redemption fee?"
Lüdou lowered her head.
"I've thought it over. I'm still young now, and even if I leave, I might not be able to help Your Highness much."
"I'll wait until I'm a bit older, and then redeem myself and leave the mansion."
Duoduo held the coin pouch, catching the resolve in Lüdou's words.
"Alright, I'll keep this silver for you."
"When you decide you want to leave the mansion someday, this silver can be your first... hmm, start-up capital!"
Duoduo remembered a term Xu Jinxin once said.
Lüdou quickly shook her head.
"I can earn more! If Your Highness needs silver, just use it however you wish."
"Sister Lüdou, isn't Her Highness richer than you?" Shitou interrupted from the side.
Lüdou looked at Shitou seriously. "We're in the capital now. There are many places where silver is needed."
"In the palace, if you want a eunuch's help, you have to spend money."
"If you don't give enough, they'll talk down to you with their noses in the air!"
Shitou was a bit surprised. "Her Highness is the mistress, and those eunuchs are just servants—how dare they?"
"What do you know? The people in the palace step on the lowly and flatter the powerful—they've gotten very good at it."
"And you can't even find a single fault with them!"
When Lüdou talked about the palace, she couldn't help but complain.
Her time accompanying Duoduo into the palace had shocked her worldview more than once.
The eunuchs in the palace sometimes acted more haughty than the disfavored masters.
And the worst part was, you couldn't afford to provoke them.
Eunuchs were rootless men, vicious and ruthless!
Lüdou picked bits of what she had heard and seen to tell Shitou.
Even Duoduo listened with great interest.
Just as Lüdou was getting into the story, she looked up and saw the water clock.
"Oh dear, it's getting late."
"Your Highness, I'm going to prepare tomorrow's pastries!"
"Shitou, you help me with the prep work!"
Lüdou didn't want Duoduo to help again—she was the mistress, after all.
"Alright, coming!" Shitou responded.
As Shitou was about to walk out, he suddenly remembered something.
He turned back and bowed to Duoduo.
"Your Highness, today I met a young lad in the abandoned temple."
"His name is Liqing, and he's an orphan too."
"He seemed like a decent person, and he can read, so I brought him back."
"Your Highness, I told him to wait outside while I came in."
Lüdou shot Shitou a glare.
"You've been talking in here for so long, and you only remember the important matters now."
By now, Shitou was familiar enough with Lüdou not to be afraid of her.
"Sister Lüdou, it's just that your story was too engaging, so I forgot about him!"
Duoduo chuckled as she watched them tease each other.
"Shitou, let him come in."
"Yes, Your Highness!" Shitou ran out and soon brought in a young boy.
Duoduo quietly observed this boy named Liqing.
Liqing entered with his head bowed, walked to the center of the room, and knelt before Duoduo.
"Your humble servant greets Your Highness. May Your Highness be blessed!"
"Lift your head!" Duoduo commanded.
Liqing raised his head slightly and quickly glanced at Duoduo's face.
When he saw that Duoduo was looking at him too, he swiftly lowered his eyes.
Liqing was very thin, and his clothes were too short, revealing slender wrists.
But he had a very handsome face and a pair of fox-like eyes.
Duoduo was curious.
How had a boy with such looks escaped the clutches of human traffickers?
She knew from things Xu Jinxin had casually mentioned that if traffickers found a handsome-looking beggar, they would find a way to catch them and sell them to certain places.
"Show me your hands," Duoduo ordered calmly.
Liqing was a little surprised inside, but he still stretched out his hands.
Duoduo looked at them—his fingers were very long,
and his fingernails were clean, nothing like the hands of a beggar.
"Turn them over," Duoduo ordered again.
Liqing hesitated for a moment, then flipped his palms over.
Duoduo saw that there were calluses on his fingers.
"How old are you? Where is your hometown? Do you have any family?"
"What are you good at?" Duoduo pretended not to have noticed.
Liqing withdrew his hands and lowered his head.
"In answer to Your Highness, I am nine years old in nominal age. I have no fixed home, and I have no family."
"I'm not particularly skilled at anything, but I was fortunate enough to learn some self-defense martial arts from someone."
Duoduo's eyes flickered.
Martial arts? No wonder he had avoided the traffickers.
"Can you read and write?"
"I know a little bit," Liqing replied respectfully.
"Show us the martial arts you know," Duoduo ordered again.
"Yes." This time, Liqing stood up without any hesitation.
"Your Highness, the room is small, so I'll just demonstrate a few moves."
With that, Liqing squatted down and began to practice.
Duoduo, having learned martial arts from Li Jin, could tell that Liqing's skills were solid—not something learned in just a day or two.
She really did need someone with martial arts skills by her side.
