"Ah little miss is already here. Come, let's have breakfast." Fan Dongjin left what he was doing and waved his hand and signaled others to join them for breakfast as well.
"Ah! Good morning miss."
"Good morning miss."
"Thank you for the breakfast miss."
One after another words of greetings and gratitude sounded from all the directions and Gu Yanyan could only wave her hand as a gesture that she received their words and wished them morning in return.
Everyone moved towards the dining area and enjoyed the warm breakfast at the table.
In the middle of the breakfast Fan Dongjin put down his chopsticks and looked at Gu Yanyan.
Gu Yanyan also sensed the change from the other side of the table and while still chewing on her vegetables she looked up only to met Fan Dongjin's eyes filled with the warm and elderly love for her.
"Miss, what you said about opening a Flower house last night, was that only for money and business expansion or you have something else in your mind?" Fan Dongjin asked while serving her a boiled and peeled egg.
Even after being questioned, Gu Yanyan didn't slow down her chewing mouth and even gulped down the egg served by Fan Dongjin before she took a big sip of her tea and only after eating her fill she put down her chopsticks at the side.
"Burp." She eat so much that even her belly said; No more.
"Haha. Don't mind it." She gave an apologetic look at those who turned their head towards her after hearing her loud burp.
"Ah about the Flower House. Yes. I've something in my mind about that. I thought, why not we start a trade secrets business there?" Gu Yanyan casually suggested as if trading secrets were the most normal thing to do.
"Trade secrets?" One of the servants raised his head and asked in surprise.
Since all people here were totally loyal to her, Gu Yanyan didn't shy away from sharing her ideas with them.
"Yes trade secrets. I'm sure, it's normal at any Flower House. In fact I've seen in dramas... ahem... hehe.." Realizing her mistake, she paused in middle and cleared her throat and let out an awkward laugh to ease the tension but others at the table reacted as if they haven't heard anything amiss in her words so she continued. "I've read in books that the Flower houses are actually the secret hideouts for those secret organizations who work as spies and assassins."
"So that's how it works?" Another servant asked after Gu Yanyan finished speaking and immediately groaned in pain because the servant beside him had hit him hard and said "of course that's how it works, if miss is saying so. Right miss?" He turned to Gu Yanyan for confirmation.
Gu Yanyan could only nod her head stiffely at their blind trust on her and said; "Yes that's how it works." And then turned to Fan Dongjin. "So grandpa Fan, can you handle this task?"
"Of course, if little miss wants it to look like an Flower house, work like an entertainment house while the actual business would be trading secrets then so be it." Fan Dongjin said confidently but then, lowered his head asked "But miss, where we would find those girls who will work as the entertainers for the guests and also spy on them?"
"That... that shouldn't be problem right?" Gu Yanyan stammered on her words and asked with uncertainty.
"That should be a problem miss." Fan Dongjin confirmed her suspicion. "We have female worker at our farm but they are not skilled in music and dancing and they are not clever enough to spy on the guests without them noticing and finding girls from outside could be risky because we won't their true origin and goal." Fan Dongjin said, breaking Gu Yanyan's dream of opening her own secret organization into million pieces.
"But we can do this one thing miss. We can first start a normal Flower House and buy those girls who are willing to become Flower girls. In this famine where, everywhere is chaos and people are dying because of hunger, there are plenty of parents who are willing to sell their girls for a few tales of silvers. Those girls who either become someone's slave or concubine. Those girls who had been, neither they have left dignity nor freedom. We can buy those girls for now and they could redeem themselves once they have earned a bit of money or if they are loyal to us and wants to continue working for us, these loyal girls can become our secret agents. Isn't that great idea?" Fan Dongjin asked, his chin lifted up in pride. His eyes gleaming and brows raised. He was really pleased with the idea he found after researching all night about how the Flower houses works in the Hangzhou city.
Gu Yanyan also had to give it to Fan Dongjin for his hard work. So, she raised her right hand and gave him a thumbs-up.
In the last three years and half years she had lived with them, more or less everyone had learnt her special gestures.
Yang Xumei and others too gave Fan Dongjin a thumbs-up showing their green signal for his bright idea.
Getting so many thumbs-up at ones, even middle aged, Fan Dongjin felt his face heat up. Lowering his head in embarrassment he could only signaled with his chopsticks to eat more.
After breakfast Gu Yanyan and Yang Xumei went back to read the documents and make new adjustments which were needed to run her business more easily and smoothly.
While Fan Dongjin also went back to his study to find pen and paper to write a letter to Zhou Fengfeng at Er Xiaolin Manor and asked him to make a visit to see little miss as soon as possible and asked him to bring Qi brothers along with him too.
He put the letter in an envelope and sealed it and then give it to one of his servants to bring it to the Er Xiaolin Manor at fast speed.
After reading the letter, Zhou Fengfeng didn't wasted his time and immediately called for Qi brothers and three men along with a few trusted servants entered the city gate in the guise of local merchants and farmers.