"Daughter, where did you pick up this little thing?"
"What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? Do you know how much it just ate?"
"Mom, it's just eating a little something. Our family is wealthy in Qingyun City—surely we can afford a little food. If Dad heard you say this, he'd definitely scold you for being petty!!" The young miss still didn't know the severity of the situation and thought it had eaten at most a bit more, but not too much.
"If your father were here, he'd immediately slaughter this little monster beast! Do you know how much it just ate?" the mother said angrily.
"How much?" Seeing her mother's expression, the young miss seemed to realize the seriousness of the problem and began to pay attention.
"It has already eaten our entire household's food supply for a month! If I hadn't discovered it early, it could have eaten everything here!!"
"What?! Impossible!"
"It's all because of you, you little girl, randomly picking up things and throwing them in the kitchen!"
"..."
...
"Chi Chi, you glutton, finally willing to come back?"
"Chi~Chi~~"
That evening, Xiaoyao noticed Chi Chi looked very satisfied and knew that Chi Chi must have encountered a wealthy family today!!
...
Back to the present, Xiaoyao drove the ox cart back to the Mo family estate, entering under everyone's surprised gazes.
Of course, everyone's surprised looks weren't directed at him, Xiaoyao, but at the Mo family's Young Miss Mo Yu beside him. People hadn't expected the Young Miss to return so early.
They weren't surprised that the Young Miss came back on an ox cart—they weren't strange about that because they all knew the Young Miss was capable of doing anything.
They were just puzzled that the Young Miss, who usually didn't return home until evening, would come back so soon after noon.
"Xiaoyao, the Great Master has already agreed. You can go to the pharmacy to get the medicine. Oh, Xiao Yu, didn't you go out today?" When the Second Madam saw Xiaoyao and the Young Miss together, she was somewhat puzzled but didn't pay much attention, just asking casually.
"Then I'll go get the medicine. You two chat!" Xiaoyao immediately prepared to get the medicine, looking very enthusiastic.
"Kid, I want to go with you. Don't be hasty!!" The Young Miss looked at Xiaoyao, the corners of her mouth showing an "I understand" smile. You kid, I bet you have some scheme.
Earlier, when the Young Miss arrived here, she saw the Third Young Master suffering inside. She felt his earnest persistence and also felt uncomfortable all over.
She had heard of this method of improvement—it was very hard work. If it were her, she absolutely wouldn't do it, so she had no intention of staying longer and wanted to leave with Xiaoyao.
"??" The Second Madam looked at the Young Miss somewhat strangely, feeling that the Young Miss and this little servant Xiaoyao seemed to be getting rather close, but she wasn't too concerned.
First, the Young Miss wasn't her daughter. Second, she was currently concerned about her suffering son.
"Xiaoyao, how much did you spend on this medicine? Is there enough left?" The Second Madam asked proactively this time.
"It's enough. The pharmacy gave us a 10% discount, so there's money left over. The list and remaining money are there—please check." Xiaoyao said.
10% discount? Kid, you clearly bought it at 20% off, and you've skimmed off that 10% profit!!
"Well done! The Huang family pharmacy rarely gives 10% discounts! Keep the remaining money as a reward." The Second Madam said generously.
"Thank you, Second Madam!!"
After thanking her, Xiaoyao grabbed the reward money at lightning speed and then disappeared.
As a servant, not wanting rewards would definitely be abnormal!! Xiaoyao had just missed out before—it wasn't that he didn't want them...
Damn, this kid even got a reward! But if I didn't know about his profit-skimming, I'd think this reward was deserved!! The Young Miss followed Xiaoyao, finding him increasingly interesting.
"Kid, weren't you afraid I'd expose you just now?" After they'd gone far away, the Young Miss patted Xiaoyao's shoulder and said.
"Not afraid!" Xiaoyao shook his head.
"Why not afraid? Logically, after being discovered, you should have stated the real price, yet you still said you got it at 10% off!" The Young Miss was puzzled by this.
As she said, normal people after being caught would definitely be honest and wouldn't continue skimming profits, at least not this time, but Xiaoyao remained the same.
This left the Young Miss very confused.
"Why state the real price? Since you've already discovered it, even if I stated the real price, it wouldn't matter if you wanted to tell." Xiaoyao said indifferently.
"...You kid are interesting. Finders share—you need to split this with me." The Young Miss said with a grin, shamelessly wanting to share the spoils.
"Fine!" Xiaoyao nodded, agreeing very readily.
Indeed, finders share. When discovered by others, they'd always share a bit. He had received quite a few such shares from others, and since he was very secretive, this seemed to be the first time he was "sharing spoils" with someone.
"...Why did you agree so readily? Is there some other scheme..." The Young Miss looked at Xiaoyao suspiciously.
"I say, young lady, 50-50 split—you can calculate how much yourself." Xiaoyao said irritably, taking out the silver to share with the Young Miss, splitting it 50-50. He calculated very precisely without any deviation.
This wasn't because the target was the Young Miss—even with others, he'd treat them the same way. Actually, he skimmed profits simply because he wanted to skim profits.
If he really cared about the Young Miss's status, then he wouldn't split 50-50 but would give the Young Miss more.
"But why do I feel you have bad intentions?" The Young Miss straightforwardly pocketed the silver—she hadn't thought about whether she should take this money.
"..." Xiaoyao was silent for a while, then continued walking. Could he answer this question?
Pretend, pretend not to hear!!
"Hey, you kid definitely have some unspeakable dirty business!!" Seeing Xiaoyao not speaking, the Young Miss felt there must be something. Don't forget, her purpose was to see what Xiaoyao was up to.
If she discovered Xiaoyao had something going on, she would definitely—
Ignore it!!
Right, she wouldn't care what Xiaoyao did. She just wanted to know what Xiaoyao was doing—it was that simple!
"...Well, Young Miss, I can secretly tell you there is a little scheme here. Since you know, we'll split this matter equally too." Xiaoyao didn't struggle much and directly admitted to the Young Miss, seeming to want to drag her into the water.
"I knew you had a scheme!! Haha, tell me what it is. Maybe this young lady will pretend not to see." The Young Miss looked victorious, but she didn't seem to think about wanting anything.
"Alright, don't talk so loudly, or everyone in the world will know!!" Xiaoyao immediately stopped the Young Miss's excited state, because at this moment, many people were curiously looking at him and the Young Miss.
Walking here with the Young Miss was very ostentatious, and this Young Miss was so strange.
"Hehe, got it! What are you all looking at? What's so interesting!!" While saying she understood, the Young Miss shouted loudly, making everyone pay even more attention to them, though no one dared look directly at them.
"..."
Xiaoyao didn't want to say more and quickened his pace toward the pharmacy to get medicine, then immediately returned to prepare the Third Young Master's medicinal bath. Now the Young Miss was getting confused.
"Kid, aren't you taking these medicinal materials?" The Young Miss saw that after Xiaoyao's distribution, only a few scattered bits of medicinal materials remained. Could this bit count as a scheme? This was completely normal, even less than normal.
The Young Miss had always thought Xiaoyao wanted to take these medicinal materials and deliberately over-reported the materials, but she now realized she might be wrong.
"What? No, these are prepared for the Third Young Master!" Xiaoyao shook his head.
"So there's no surplus?" The Young Miss frowned and asked.
"No, these are all precisely calculated—there won't be much waste!" Xiaoyao continued shaking his head, crushing the Young Miss's last hope.
"Damn, then where exactly is your scheme?" The Young Miss was angry. Was this kid playing with her?
"This... you'll know if you keep watching!!" Xiaoyao was silent for a while, then continued working. He processed the distributed medicinal materials through various procedures—grinding, cutting, or packaging—organizing the materials before putting them in the medicine vat to begin brewing.
"Done!!"
"..."
The Young Miss had been watching from the side, but she really couldn't see any scheme.
"What exactly did you take?"
"These!" Xiaoyao pointed at some things.
"Damn, are you messing with me, kid?!" The Young Miss saw clearly what Xiaoyao pointed at and got a bit angry. This kid was obviously messing with her.
"No!" Xiaoyao answered very seriously.
"What are these? They're just some medicine dregs! This bit is what you called a scheme!!" The Young Miss asked irritably.
"Strictly speaking, these aren't medicine dregs but medicinal material scraps. Though they're small, they still have effects!! Medicine dregs are those, those that have been used..."
"Get lost! No need to explain these to me—this young lady isn't stupid!!" The Young Miss interrupted Xiaoyao's words. "What use are these to you? These are just garbage."
"Young Miss, I just said these still have effects! Though it's just this little bit now, this is only once. If there are ten times, twenty times, then it won't be little—it can let me refine more pills." Xiaoyao said very seriously.
"..." The Young Miss fell silent. She seemed to understand Xiaoyao's meaning.
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