“A bowl of ice jelly relieves the summer heat, two spoonfuls of brown sugar bring peace of mind.”

This simple rhyming verse spread widely in Nanfu Academy, and within just one day and night, ice jelly became a well-known treat among the students.

As soon as Cheng Wanwan set up her stall, students arrived in groups of three or five.

With only twenty sets of tableware and five people working together, in less than fifteen minutes, the entire bucket of ice jelly was sold out.

An empty bucket now held all the copper coins they had earned for the day.

The four Zhao brothers had never seen so many coins before, their eyes gleaming with amazement.

Cheng Wanwan coughed and said, “Let’s clean up first, then find a quiet place to count how much we’ve made.”

The four boys nodded eagerly, quickly washing the utensils, placing them into a water bucket, tidying up the wooden boards, and stacking them neatly by the roadside.

Then, the five of them hurried toward a nearby alley.

Just as Zhao Sidang turned around, he suddenly froze.

Looking back, he saw someone walking out of Nanfu Academy—wasn’t that his cousin?

Their mother often scolded them, saying they could never compare to Cousin Cheng Zhao.

Whenever there was good food at home, their mother would send it to the Cheng family, which actually meant giving it to Cousin Cheng Zhao.

Cheng Zhao’s studies were expensive, and the condolence money from their father’s death in battle had all been given to the Cheng family by their mother.

Now that they had earned so many copper coins today, if their mother saw Cousin Cheng Zhao, she would definitely hand over all their earnings to him without hesitation.

This was their hard-earned money—there was no way they would let Cheng Zhao take advantage of it!

Zhao Sidan glanced at Cheng Wanwan and, seeing that their mother hadn’t noticed their cousin, quickly hurried away from the academy gate.

Meanwhile, Cheng Zhao, just stepping out of the academy, frowned as he watched the five figures disappearing into the distance.

Wasn’t that his second aunt and his four younger cousins?

Why had Second Aunt brought them to Hekou Town?

As he pondered, a few of his classmates approached, smirking.

“Brother Cheng, where are you off to?”

Cheng Zhao, holding a few copied books in his hands, replied humbly, “I’m heading to Dehe Hall. Would you care to join me?”

“You’re going to copy books at Dehe Hall? No thanks,” one student scoffed. “I heard copying a book only earns you a hundred coins. How long does it take to finish one?”

Cheng Zhao replied calmly, “If my coursework is heavy, it takes half a month to complete one.”

“Hahaha, so you only earn a hundred coins in half a month?”

“A hundred coins can’t even buy an inkstone—it’s barely enough for the cheapest brush!”

“With your family’s poverty, Brother Cheng, you’d be better off farming instead of studying.”

The mockery was blatant, but Cheng Zhao’s expression remained unchanged. Without another word, he turned away from the academy gate and walked toward Dehe Hall with his copied books.

..

In a quiet alley, Cheng Wanwan and her four sons sat on the ground.

The boys had never learned arithmetic; they could only count to ten before getting stuck, scratching their heads in frustration.

Cheng Wanwan had no choice but to count the money herself.

After tallying it up, they had earned a total of 723 copper coins.

“We used nearly three jin (about 1.5 kg) of ice jelly seeds for three buckets of ice jelly, around twelve jin of lantern fruit.”