Chapter 40

"Fourth son!"

Elder Xue subconsciously stretched out his hand, and the ashes from the smoking pot rolled out and fell down his leg.

He stretched out his hand to pat, but his expression was stunned.

Yeah, why did he sit and watch? The fourth child has a straightforward personality. He has repeated to his family members over and over again every time that the Fourth child works hard for the family yet is not greedy for the family’s money.

Maybe he had some suspicion in his heart, or maybe he was afraid that other sons would have conflicts because of suspicion, so he repeated that phrase over and over again. So when the eldest son went to the field to look for him and said that the fourth child had bought a mule cart with the money from the family, he actually believed it.

No, no, he actually still wanted to hear the fourth child’s explanation, so he kept silent. Isn't it best to figure out the matter so that there is no barrier between family members?

Father Xue felt pain in his heart, and his mind was stiff and stupid.

He heard the eldest son say: "The Sun family is not without sons, yet they are willing to send money to their daughter? Who are you trying to fool?!"

He stood up suddenly, and by the time he knew what he was doing, he had already struck the eldest son across the face.

"Shut your mouth!"

Zhao Shi screamed: "Old man!"

"Shut up, all of you!"

The world was quiet all at once.

It may have been a moment, or it may have been two moments, when Sun Shi’s joyous voice suddenly sounded in the yard: “Hey, this cart is really bought. Oh, hey, take a look at this steady mule. The cart is really good. Hey, where's the head of the house? Huai Ge! Where are the other members of the family?"

There was also Maodan’s voice: "Mule, what a big mule!"

Until she came to the main house did Sun Shi see the crowd of people standing in the house.

"What are you all doing?"

Zhao'er moved a bit, went to the square table and picked up the two deeds, and came to the door.

"Fourth Aunt, this one belongs to your house, take it quickly."

"Zhao'er, what's the matter? Why did you guys look for it? The place where I put it was secret. Your uncle must have been looking for it for a long time."

Zhao'er didn't speak, and sighed as passed her on the way back to the house.

Sun also realized the abnormality, looked at the people in the room, and went to see Zhao'er's back. Finally she realized something and rushed back to her house.

"Oh my God, this is a thief!"

The people in the main room dispersed silently. Xue Qingshan was beaten for the first time since he grew up, but he did not dare to say a word. Including Zhao Shi, they all knew that Elder Xue was really annoyed this time.

Yang Shi lowered her head and slumped to help Xue Qingshan walk away. The Third family couple didn't stay much longer. They went back to their own house. The door of the Fourth family’s house was knocked open, and Sun Shi rammed out like she had gone crazy.

Maodan who was still playing with the mule was startled and immediately started to cry.

Zhao'er couldn't sit still in the room, so she came out and shouted Fourth aunt. Sun Shi's eyes were straight and she ignored her as she rushed towards the East Chamber.

She didn't go in. She sat down in front of the main room and started to cry.

"It's so shameless, it's so shameless! Bullying people, bullying has no way to survive, and the family is so shameless that they have grown rice worms. They feel great riding on people's heads, pooping and urinating, and framing people. These utterly abominable people have lived so many years with just their mouths. They don’t know how to work, so they expect their brothers to raise them. After raising a big one, raise a small one, raising a family, and struggling to death. For half of my life, we have gotten nothing good from them, yet they became a thief!

"I said at the beginning that the head was stupid. Who do you work persistently for? For your brother? Brothers treat you as a fart. At least when you raise a dog, it knows how to wag its tail when it sees the owner. Raise a brother and he eats your flesh, blood, and bones leaving nothing and still thinks your meat smells!"

The words of Sun Shi's scolding were too painful, Xue Qingshan's face became the same color as pig liver, and Yang Shi's whole body was trembling with anger. But the couple shrank in the room and didn't dare to move. Seeing that the old couple was almost going crazy, wouldn't it be stupid to use jade to knock against the rubble? !

Don't move, bear with it.

The Dafang couple could bear it, but Zhao shi couldn't bear it anymore. She stood up and walked outside the door.

"Where are you going?! Sit down!"

"Old man!"

"If you want this home to disperse, then go, you go!"

Zhao Shi tore the corners of her clothes a few times, then turned around and sat on the kang, her tears falling down.

Sun Shi outside the door was still scolding, but now the object of her scolding had become Xue Qinghuai.

"...Why was I blind in the first place and married here. I saw that you were hardworking, but I forgot the rationale that you should look at the pigsty before buying pigs... After all these years of marriage, Mao Dan has become so big and yet you can count the clothes made for me. I searched all the places in my house, and if I can sweep out ten coppers, I would consider myself wealthy. To make clothes for my children, I need to use my dowry. Every time I go back to my parents’ house, my mother asks me, girl, how many years have you been wearing this dress?

"How many years has it been? I don't even know it myself! My mother secretly gave me some money, yet I didn't dare to spend it, for fear that those bad-hearted people would do something. Well, finally our families separated. Yet, when we planned to do some small business for Maodan, we were framed. Xue Qinghuai, you say, how blind I was to get married to you! What kind of people are in this family!"

Zhao'er had led the Maodan into the house long ago, and seeing him crying sadly, she took out the pastries she had bought for her little man and gave them to Maodan to coax him.

While Maodan was eating it, tears fell pattering down. Zhao’er stroked his little head again and again, but her heart was full of sorrow.

Sun cried with tears and snot running down her face, sitting on the ground like a crazy woman. Fortunately, the Xue family’s yard is large, and the house next to it is far away, otherwise the villagers would have come to see it. But if the trouble goes on like this, who knows when someone will pass by the door.

Xue Qinghuai appeared in front of the Fourth Family’s house and walked over to pull her.

"Get up, go back to the house!"

"I won't go back, I'm not comfortable in my heart. Am I not allowed to cry a few times?"

"Don't you know shame?"

"You still know shame. You know shame, but some people don't know it!"

Sun shi cried as she was pulled up from the ground, and she slapped him angrily twice. The couple pulled and pushed each other on their way back to their house.

The yard finally calmed down, but there was a dead silence.

No one cooked at noon, and it seems that everyone had forgotten about eating.

Zhou Shi cooked dinner at night, but no one from the Fourth family came out to eat. Zhao'er didn't go to the main room to eat because there were a lot of leftovers from yesterday. She warmed up the leftovers and brought some to the Fourth room. The rest was eaten in her room.

After eating, Xue Qinghuai went to the Third house. No one knows what he said to Xue Qingbai, but after he left, Xue Qingbai went to the main house.

"Father, Fourth brother said that from the extra food from a few stores, he only wants 20%."

Father Xue was taken aback and nodded slowly.

Xue Qingbai sighed, turned his head and went out.

Early the next morning, before dawn, Xue Qinghuai went out with Zhao'er.

The two drove a mule cart around a few nearby villages and entered Huyang Town when the sun rose. The two of them didn't go to Nanshi either. They took a cart of food and went to a restaurant first.

Huyang Town is not a big place nor a small place. Because it is the largest town in the vicinity of ten miles and eight townships, it is also extremely prosperous and lively. There are three big restaurants, ‘Xiankelai’, ‘Liuxianju’, and ‘Drunk Xianlou’. As for the small restaurants and teahouses, there are countless.

Zhao'er and Xue Qinghuai went to ‘Xiankelai’ first.

At the time when the sun is rising, the restaurant is usually busy. Although the door is opened for business only when this time arrives, people who make food always have to make preparations in advance.

For example, ‘xiankelai’ dishes are always the freshest, and any dishes left overnight are discarded, so every morning people in the restaurant have to go to the market to buy them.

It's not that no one has thought about letting the vegetable sellers have a partnership with them, but the farmers who come to sell the vegetables are not specializing in business. The vegetables are those that the family has too much of and therefore are being sold to earn a bit of money. Secondly, the farmers still need to farm the land, so it is not very cost-effective to come to town just to sell vegetables for a few cents.

Therefore, it is a big task to buy vegetables for a restaurant every day. Fortunately, the market is full of varieties. Although it is cumbersome, you can buy a full range.

The door of Xiankelai has not been opened yet, but the back door has been opened. There will be an endless stream of people delivering salt, rice, all kinds of spices, firewood, and all kinds of meat. There are two guys guarding the back door, one is responsible for counting the points and the other is busy weighing. Everyone was so busy.

The mule cart stopped at the back door. Zhao’er jumped off the mule cart, stepped forward and smiled: "Little brother, I want to find the shopkeeper who specializes in purchasing."

The guy was arguing with a butcher-like person over the weight of the meat. At this moment, a person interrupted, and he originally said it was 22.7 jin, but he remembered it as 21.2 jin. The butcher asked him to weigh it again but he just didn't want to since the weight of the meat was too heavy. He couldn't complete the weighing by himself, and his companion had already gone in with the vinegar.

"This is obviously a wrong weight, so please weigh it again."

"That was not what you said when you looked at it and weighed it."

He was originally talking to someone when he was interrupted, and this person actually wanted to find the shopkeeper. Naturally, the guy didn't have a good tone: "What are you doing, looking for our shopkeeper."

Zhao’er was not at all annoyed, and she smiled and said: "I brought some vegetables to sell. They are all very fresh. I just picked them in the morning."

"No need, our vegetables don't need to be delivered. We buy the freshest ones at the market every day."

"Brother, let's take a look and talk about it. My family's vegetables are very complete."

"Complete? How complete could it be? I already told you I don’t want it, so why are you still here." In fact, the guy had other reasons to refuse. It is not enough to buy the same two things. In the end, they would still have to go to the market to buy other vegetables. This would create more trouble.

Because the restaurant is different from other locations, the front hall is the front hall, the back kitchen is the back kitchen, and buying is buying. And the things that are purchased have to be counted and billed. Like these fixed delivery of various things, the method is familiar: the things are delivered, the number is counted, and the bill is settled at the end of the month.

But the vegetables are different. It's already cheap. It may cost dozens of yuan to buy the same vegetable. How can there be debts? Since there are no debts, workers have to pay. The money will not pass through the hands of the people below, and the shopkeeper who is in charge of purchasing will not go through the effort of paying each and every person. Instead of being so troublesome, it's better to go to the market and finish all the purchases.

Of course, the various details were not told to Zhao’er, but Zhao’er used to sell vegetables in the market, and had also been close to these restaurants, so she knew a little bit.

"I know your shopkeeper. He told me to bring the food."

Upon hearing this, the man glanced at her with a puzzled look and asked: "Then wait, we are not in charge of this task. The shopkeeper Yao will be here in a while."

Zhao'er nodded with a smile on her face, moved aside, and stood aside.

Xue Qinghuai got out of the cart, walked to Zhao'er, and asked in a low voice: "Zhao'er, you..."

Zhao'er winked at him hurriedly, and then the two of them stood there waiting.

After who knows how long, a person suddenly walked out from the back door.

He wore a royal blue straight, seemed forty years old, and wore a large opal ring on his hand. As soon as the workers saw this person, the two men respectfully said: "Shopkeeper."

Two buddies followed him, nodded, and planned to leave, but suddenly someone rushed over in front of him.

"Shopkeeper Yao, hello."

"you are--"

"Shopkeeper Yao, have you forgotten me? You bought my vegetables. Didn't you tell me that you think my vegetables are fresh, so if I have them I can bring it to you?"

The treasurer Yao looked suspicious. He said this before?

"That day, you said that the vegetables I sold were fresh and tender. You told me to keep them for you next time. You also said that you are a ‘Xiankelai’. Did you forget?"

Seeing that the young man in front of him looked aggrieved, the Shopkeeper Yao thought to himself that he might have really said such things.

Maybe this young man had misunderstood it. He didn’t know how many times he had said this kind of words, but few people took it seriously. The business in the market is like the prostitute in the kiln, right? They don’t talk about old feelings but rather are all on a first-come, first-served basis. Whoever keeps it and just waits to sell it to a specific person.

He has never taken it seriously himself. At this time, seeing someone really took it seriously, he couldn't help but hesitate, and said, "Where are your vegetables? Let me see, if it works, I’ll just keep it." What he thought was these fellows had already come here. Anyway, he was going to the market, so buying something was suitable.

"I brought the vegetables, come and see." Zhao'er pointed to the mule cart not far away.

The vegetable sellers are also on the mule cart! As soon as this thought slipped past, Shopkeeper Yao was stunned by the baskets of vegetables that Xue Qinghuai unloaded from the car.

Then the young man, who was a little honest in his eyes, smiled very brightly and said to him: "Look at it, I dare not say that the market is not as fresh as ours, but it is definitely not as abundant as ours. You said at the beginning. After that, I just put it in my heart. I picked all the new vegetables from the garden and brought them to you. Look at the green peppers, shepherd's purse, celery, rapeseed, and Xiaobai Song, how tender they are. The toon buds were just picked from the tree."

Not to mention, it's really tender.

Especially after a winter, and half a cold spring, there is no green in the eyes for a long time. Now to see this basket of green and tender vegetables, not to mention it. Every winter and spring, when the new vegetables in spring have not come down, that is when shopkeeper Yao is the most troubled. The restaurant is selling food, but meat alone is not good, it must be accompanied by a refreshing green.

But no, even if there are, there are very few.

Sometimes shopkeeper Yao wants to tell the villagers in the countryside, don’t just eat new vegetables by yourself. Go sell them. But few country folks can realize this, so they will only sell what they can't finish. And he didn't realize this either. Most of all, he had come over this way all these years, and he was used to it. Occasionally he would say a few words, but no one would listen to it, so he would stop saying it after a while.

During this period of time, the fresh vegetables are sold by restaurants in portions. Shopkeeper Yao was still thinking, I don't know if there are any vegetables that suit my wishes at the market today. He didn't expect so many to appear in front of his eyes.

He was so surprised that he was stunned for a long time, but the voice of Zhao'er called him back: "Shopkeeper Yao, how much do you want for your restaurant?"

"All!" He waved his hand boldly.

Immediately he paused in the air, hesitating, and listened to the boy again: "Your family probably doesn't use that much, right? This fresh dish is different from the others. It can't be stored. It's barely stored for a day.

I heard people say that Xiankelai is the most particular place in our town and never sells overnight dishes. If you just want to have enough for today, I’ll give it to you tomorrow? "

"There will be tomorrow?"

"Yes, of course! There are as many as you want!"