Chapter 46: Boss Gu
Wei Cheng and Zhou Yuan were busy with Xian Manju’s business while Zhou Muzi in Qinghe Village was almost beaten by his in-laws.
The cause was the brown sugar that Zhou Muzi gave to her natal family—
“Zhou Muzi, you still want to come back. You eat and drink for free but you dare to hide money privately and use the money to subsidize your mother’s family to buy brown sugar. You white-eyed wolf, we should stab you with a thousand knives—”
Zhou Muzi just came back from the field but before he could enter the house, he was stopped at the entrance as he was shouted at by his mother-in-law.
Li Hu’s mother pointed at Zhou Muzi and yelled at him by the door, the neighbors and other villagers all saw this scene when they passed by so it seemed that Li Hu’s mother did it on purpose.
Zhou Muzi still doesn’t know what happened, why his mother-in-law was so angry at him, and why she said he hid money.
“Mom, I…”
Zhou Muzi looked eager to ask why, but Li Hu’s younger brother’s wife, Zhou He interrupted him, “Sister-in-law, I found this in your room, and it contained a tael of silver. I heard Mother say that you came in without any dowry. Where did you get the money, sister-in-law?” She proudly raised the red purse in her hand.
It was a purse given to him by his friend Zhou Yuan, and there was still a tael of silver in it. Zhou Muzi felt angry when he recognized the purse.
He has always cherished the purse and hid it at the bottom of the clothesbox. Now that someone found it, it must be because the family members took advantage of his and Li Hu’s absence to enter their room and rummage through their things.
“There is no need to ask, the white-eyed wolf must have stolen it.” Li Hu’s mother said viciously.
The words are serious- she was accusing Zhou Muzi of stealing money from the family, and saying it in front of the villagers at the door of their house, even if this was a false accusation, Zhou Muzi would still become a thief in the eyes of others. This false accusation for a ger will have serious consequences.
This would be equal to destroying him for the better part of his life- at the very least, he would be abandoned by his husband and his family, and at worst, he would commit suicide to prove his innocence.
Zhou Muzi is a person who has no confidence, now being framed in public, his eyes are red with anxiety.
“This is my silver, I didn’t steal it!”
“You are still denying it!” Li Hu’s mother saw that he still didn’t admit it, and she became even more vicious, “This is obviously my Li family’s money. I have kept my Li family’s money privately, and I need to wait for so long in order to earn a tael of silver. No wonder you suddenly got rich and bought brown sugar to subsidize your mother’s house.”
A tael of silver is a lot of money in the countryside, and what Li Hu’s mother said caused an uproar among the surrounding villagers- they started pointing fingers at Zhou Muzi. Zhou Muzi became more anxious, “No, this money is mine, not…”
How could Li Hu’s mother listen to his explanation? Today, she learned from outsiders that Zhou Muzi’s family had brown sugar to drink, and Zhou Muzi’s weak brother looked much better.
At that time, she heard that Zhou Muzi must have subsidized his mother’s family behind his in-law’s back. She was angry and went home to teach him a lesson but when she got home, her other daughter-in-law said that she had seen Zhou Muzi hiding a delicate purse under the clothesbox. She didn’t know what it was but she was curious as to what it contained. She went into the room to look for it, and she found a tael of silver, she was even more furious.
“My son’s money is my Li family’s money. How dare you say that the money belongs to you. I think that if I don’t teach you a lesson today, you will go against me in the future.”
Mother Li shouted, “Kneel down for me—”
How could Zhou Muzi be willing, if he knelt down then he would be admitting that he stole money from the family even when he didn’t.
“I didn’t steal the money, listen to me, this money…”
Li Hu’s younger brother and his wife didn’t think it was a big deal as they watched the excitement as they merely said, “Oh, if you don’t want to get beaten then just admit that you stole it, if you just admit it then mother-in-law will be pleased and would just let you kneel. It’s already good that we have the money back.”
“Zhou He, Xiao-Zhi, you…”
“You, why don’t you hurry up and kneel down.” Seeing that the person was motionless, Li Hu’s mother was furious and raised her hand to slap Zhou Muzi, but before the slap touched Zhou Muzi’s face, Zhou Muzi was pulled away.
Slap!—
The slap fell on Li Hu’s face, and Li Hu’s thick-skinned face was immediately marked red.
One can imagine how strong this hand is.
“Eldest, why are you—”
Li Hu looked at his mother expressionlessly, his eyes were still the same as usual, but he looked straight at his mother’s eyes, which made his mother shrink back.
“Eldest, your wife is a white-eyed wolf who dared to hide money, so I’m going to teach him a lesson.” Mother Li’s angry voice was filled with trepidation.
His younger brother and Zhou He was afraid of Li Hu- his gaze was deep and terrifying so she didn’t dare to speak to him and she stood aside.
Li Hu protected Zhou Muzi behind him, glanced at his sister-in-law saw the purse in her hand, met his mother’s eyes, and said calmly, “If you have anything to say, let us go to the house and talk about it, unless you want to continue this by the door.”
Since the eldest son came back, Li Hu’s mother couldn’t make Zhou Muzi make a fool of himself in front of others.
She knew that Zhou Muzi was important to the eldest son, and if she offended the eldest son, he would dare not hand over to the family. He had threatened the family before which is why the family agreed to him marrying Zhou Muzi.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He was able to threaten his parents, not because he wouldn’t hand in the money he earned, but because he could also make excuses not to go to work at home like his second brother Li Zhi because if there is no work, there will be no money.
Coafg fcafglcu atf gbbw, Ol Le rjlv lc j vffq nblmf, “Ktlr wbcfs lr Zehl’r vbkgs, cba beg Ol ojwlis’r wbcfs.”
Ol Le xcfk tlr wbatfg kfii fcbeut, tf xcfk atja rtf atbeuta tf ujnf Zehl atf bcf ajfi bo rlinfg lc tfg qbmxfa.
Cr rbbc jr Ol Le’r kbgvr mjwf bea, Ol Le’r wbatfg jcv Itbe Lf vlvc’a yfilfnf la.
“Dowry—” Li Hu’s mother said, “His family is poor, how can there be a dowry of a tael of silver, are you not the one who subsidized him?”
Li Hu replied, “Whether I have money to subsidize him, doesn’t my mother know the best?”
Li Hu’s mother’s eyes shrank. Of course, she knew that Li Hu had no money. When he married Zhou Muzi, his family didn’t want to hold a banquet for him so he borrowed money for the banquet from others.
“If sister-in-law’s money is not subsidized by elder brother then where did it come from? With the family background of my sister-in-law, he can’t afford a tael of silver. Could it be that…” Zhou He’s words were strange, clearly implying that yin was yang despite not saying that he didn’t steal it outright, the underlying meaning was clear that she thought Zhou Muzi stole the money.
Mother Li thought that this was also possible.
Li Hu couldn’t tolerate his family members slandering his wife, so he said, “The one tael of silver in the purse is Zhou Yuan’s makeup money for Muzi.”
Mother Li and Zhou He were both stunned.
Mother Li didn’t doubt it when Li Hu said that it was Zhou Yuan who gave it, she knew that Zhou Yuan married in the county, so it was not surprising that he was generous.
It’s just that, since she already had her hand on the silver, Li Hu’s mother didn’t want to give it back, she wanted to find an excuse to keep it for herself, it was only one tael of silver.
“When marrying in, that’s also…”
Li Hu interrupted his mother, “Mother, since you continue to say that the dowry of the bride is the money of the family then I remember that when my sister-in-law got married, there were a few taels of silver for her dowry. Since we need to hand in Muzi’s then they should hand it in together.”
The younger sister-in-law Zhou He couldn’t agree to that when she heard it so she said with an apologetic smile, “Brother, since it is the sister-in-law’s dowry, it is not a private possession of money.”
She is greedy for one or two taels, but her dowry money is more important to her.
Mother Li wanted it, but the rules were like this, and she couldn’t just say that her daughter-in-law’s dowry was family money.
She also wanted to save some face.
The money was given by Zhou Yuan so she couldn’t hold on to it but there was still the brown sugar matter- it must be that Zhou Muzi used her Li family’s money to subsidize her natal family while he hid a tael of silver for himself. It means that she used her family’s money to subsidize his natal family—
Mother Li also wanted to use this matter to trouble Zhou Muzi, so that she would have an excuse to punish him, and if he didn’t want to be punished, he would hand over a tael of silver.
Mother Li’s plan was really shrewd but Li Hu immediately dismissed her plan, “The brown sugar was given by Zhou Yuan.”
Why is it Zhou Yuan again? Li Hu’s mother was stunned, she was planning to find someone to settle the score and got stuck again.
The younger sister-in-law Zhou He deliberately said to herself, “Everything is given by Zhou Yuan, isn’t it just our elder brother being partial to the elder sister-in-law, what nonsense.”
Li Hu cast a cold glance at Zhou He, then turned his gaze back to his mother and said, “If you don’t believe me, you can go to the center of the village and ask Elder Zhou’s home. The brown sugar for his granddaughter-in-law was given by Zhou Yuan. Zhou Yuan’s family, Zhou Qiu, and Muzi both have it, you’ll know if I’m lying if you ask them.”
Mother Li has nowhere to vent her anger, so she stares at the second daughter-in-law as if she wants to vent her anger on her.
“Oops, stomach ache—”
Zhou He suddenly complained of stomach pain, and the three of them were taken aback. Li Hu’s mother didn’t believe it at first but seeing Zhou He’s face turned pale, she said in disgust, “How troublesome.”
She asked Li Hu to go fetch the doctor.
Before the doctor arrived, Father Li also came back. At this time, they all come back from their work outside for dinner but none can eat since Zhou He’s stomach hurts, and the family members are waiting for the doctor to come.
The doctor came and read her pulse, happily announcing that she had a stomachache because of very happy news- she was pregnant. It was because her mood fluctuated too much that she felt some pains but she could just take a dose of anti-fetal medicine, and there would be no major problem.
Zhou He was pregnant with the Li family’s first grandchild. Li Hu’s father and mother smiled happily from ear to ear, and Li Zhi shouted even more happily that he was going to be a father.
This matter was left alone, but the fuse was planted—
Zhou He used to do less work ever since she entered the Li family, but now relying on her pregnancy, she coquettishly makes excuses for being uncomfortable, and the housework falls entirely on Zhou Muzi.
Li Hu’s mother uses the excuse that she has to take care of others and also doesn’t do any work, Li Damei, the youngest sister, wants to marry a good man so she doesn’t want to wrinkle herself up when doing housework. Li Hu’s father doesn’t work while Li Zhi still goes out if he wants to pretend that he goes out to find a job and stays idle at home if he doesn’t go out. Zhou Muzi did all the laundry, cooking, cleaning the fields, and chopping firewood for the whole family.
Li Hu went out to work every day, so he didn’t know what was happening at all but he found that his wife looked more and more tired every day- he fell asleep as soon as he returned to their room at night.
He knew that Zhou Muzi was stubborn, so he wouldn’t say anything to him. He bought his younger sister, Li Damei, some things with his pocket money to bribe her, and Li Damei told him that Zhou Muzi took care of the whole family’s work every day while he was out.
The Li family quarreled once again.
*
On the other side, Boss Gu, a ship merchant, came to Wei Cheng’s doors.
As soon as Boss Gu’s ship docked at the pier, he couldn’t wait to take the boatman Lu Dashan to Wei Cheng’s stall.
Thanks to Wei Cheng, Lu Dashan is now Boss Gu’s guard and his salary has increased by more than one digit.
The two came to the food street, but they couldn’t find the stall. Why did the stall with such a good business disappear?
They found someone to ask.
“You’re talking about the Weiji food stall. It’s on that street now, you can see it when you walk past.”
Even though he was puzzled, he walked over.
They immediately found Wei Ji’s food stall. It was almost lunchtime, and the smell of food was wafting from the stall. Boss Gu and Lu Dashan felt hungry after smelling it. They didn’t know any of the people who were manning the stall so Boss Gu and Lu Dashan went over to ask.
“Excuse me, do you know Wei Cheng?”
Wei Yuan heard that the person in front of him was asking about Wei Cheng, and Wei Cheng had explained before that whenever someone came to the stall to look for him, he should directly bring that someone to him.
Wei Yuan replied, “Wei Cheng is not here. Do you want to meet him? I can take you there.”
Seeing that the person in front of them really knew Wei Cheng, Boss Gu, and Lu Dashan asked Wei Yuan to take them to find Wei Cheng.
*
The stall had hired a few more employees and they were relatives of Wei Yuan’s family.
After receiving a month’s dividend, his family knew how good the stall business was. The money was like a hot stone handed to them and they always felt that they had taken advantage of Wei Cheng, and they wanted to give some more of the money back to Wei Cheng, but Wei Cheng refused to accept anything more.
Wei Yuan’s family discussed and decided to get two more people, and the wages of the invited people would be taken from their family. With two more people, the stall business will be booming, and more money will be made to give back to Wei Cheng. This will make their family feel better.
The relatives that were invited were grateful to Wei Yuan’s family, but they didn’t know that Wei Yuan’s family received dividends at the stall and they didn’t know how much Wei Yuan’s family had a month, so they thought they would receive monthly wages just like them.
The stall has someone manning it so Wei Yuan left to lead Boss Gu to Wei Cheng, reassured.
Wei Yuan’s parents heard that the two were looking for Wei Cheng, and asked their son to take them there quickly. He didn’t need to take care of the stalls, and Wei Cheng’s matters were more important.
Wei Yuan brought him to Xian Manju, and before he entered, he could smell the smell of meat.
Meat is stewed in several pots by the side window, and different stewed vegetables are placed on top of the big pot and so many people line up at the window to pack and buy them home.
“That smells good-”
“This is stewed meat.” Wei Yuan explained this- he knew this since every day when the stalls closed he would come to Xian Manju to help out. His brother Wei Cheng gives his family so much dividends, so he has to help him out more. Even if Wei Cheng disagreed with him, he still came by every day.
As soon as they entered the lobby, they were greeted by the sight of the lobby full of guests.
Wei Yuan took people to the counter, Xiao-Liu was alone at the counter but she knew Wei Yuan, and greeted him, “Sir Yuan, why are you here, do you want to find the master?”
Wei Yuan asked her, “Xiao-Liu, I came to look for Cheng-zi, is Cheng-zi here?” When Wei Cheng’s servants called him Sir Yuan, Wei Yuan was not so comfortable with it.
Xiao-Liu smiled and said, “The masters are having lunch upstairs, you know which private room, you can just go up and find them there.”
Xiao-Liu didn’t know that there was an extra person in Wei Cheng’s private room at this time.
Wei Yuan guided the two people to the private room often used by Wei Cheng. On the other hand, Boss Gu was startled- he hadn’t seen him for a few months but Wei Cheng had already opened such a large restaurant, and his business was really booming.
Boss Gu has some plans in mind, and he wants to build a good relationship with people.
Lu Dashan was also shocked.
Wei Yuan took them up and knocked on the door, and when he heard Wei Cheng letting him in, Wei Yuan pushed open the door of the private room and yelled, “Cheng-zi, there is a Boss Gu—” His eyes saw that it wasn’t just Wei Cheng in the private room, Zhou Yuan, as well as the young owner of Tai Fu Luo, was also there, so Wei Yuan didn’t know how to proceed.
Boss Gu, who was following behind, also saw Yun Chengfeng. Yun Chengfeng was dressed up like a noble and Boss Gu’s eyes flashed with shock.
Wei Cheng and Yun Chengfeng came and went to each other’s places often enough that they both became friends so they didn’t think there was anything wrong with Wei Yuan entering the private room, and Yun Chengfeng was not that kind of stingy person.
Wei Yuan was foolishly afraid of offending Yun Chengfeng and causing trouble for Wei Cheng, so he was about to leave in a hurry, when Wei Cheng said, “Yuan-zi, thank you for bringing them here.”
Wei Cheng saw that it was an acquaintance- it was Boss Gu, a ship merchant he had a deal with a few months ago.
Wei Cheng stood up and greeted him, “Boss Gu, long time no see.”
Boss Gu responded, “Boss Wei, long time no see.”
“Boss Gu, please sit down.” Wei Cheng made a gesture of invitation, and then said to Wei Yuan, “Have you had lunch, how about we eat together?”
Wei Yuan refused as he had to go back to the stall to work, and he soon left.
When Wei Cheng saw Lu Dashan, he had no pretensions and greeted Lu Dashan as well- Lu Dashan was flattered and responded by greeting Boss Wei as well.
Wei Cheng greeted Boss Gu, and when he introduced Yun Chengfeng, he introduced him as the young owner of Tai Fu Luo and didn’t say anything else.
Several men were talking about business matters and Zhou Yuan couldn’t stay, so he opened his mouth to ask to leave. How could Wei Cheng not know that his wife was uncomfortable, so he didn’t stop him. He lowered his head and told him softly, “Let the kitchen make you some food, and then go to work when you’re full, otherwise you aren’t allowed to go to the counter.”
“Okay.”
If he tried to skip a meal, Zhou Yuan knew that his husband would go out and arrange everything for him in person, so he might as well go and eat obediently.
“Go.”
Zhou Yuan just left.
Yun Chengfeng is used to Wei Cheng’s attitude towards his wife. He ate at the same table in Xian Manju for a few days, and while he didn’t pick up food and feed him, he was still very gentle and caring…
He has never seen any couple so sticky.
*
Wei Cheng asked his servants to add extra bowls and chopsticks and also asked his servants to take Lu Dashan to the lobby to order some food.
After a round of wine, Wei Cheng asked, “Boss Gu came to see me today for something?”
Boss Gu said, “I want to order a batch of sauces- the last batch was sold out too quickly.”
Wei Cheng and Yun Chengfeng looked at each other. Just now they were discussing how to sell the first batch of sauce made by the sauce workshop, and someone really came to buy it.
Boss Gu bought the sauce once, and if he cooperates with him later, it must sell well.
Wei Cheng asked, “How much does Boss Gu want this time?”
“Two thousand catties of soybean paste and one thousand catties of chili oil.” Boss Gu asked, “Can Boss Wei provide it?”
“Yes.” Wei Cheng said, “However, it will take a few days for the goods to be available.”
“No hurry, I just arrived in the county today, and I will live in the county for about ten days. You can deliver the goods before I leave.” Boss Gu smiled, “I was really afraid that if I wanted something urgently, Boss Wei wouldn’t be able to provide the goods. But it seems my worries were for naught Boss Wei’s business seems to be getting bigger and bigger.”
“I have cooperated with Tai Fu Luo’s young master to open a sauce workshop. The workshop has only been opened for a short time but there is enough to supply Boss Gu’s orders.” Wei Cheng continued, “The sauce workshop has added a lot of sauces if Boss Gu is interested in learning about them.”
Boss Gu asked, “I didn’t know about this, what new sauce is added, how is it compared to the previous miso and chili oil?”
“Boss Gu, what do you think of Xian Manju’s dishes?” Wei Cheng didn’t answer but asked him instead.
“Ah, I have traveled all over the world, and I can confidently say that Xian Manju’s dishes are novel and delicious.” He has never eaten them before so he has to say a word of appreciation. “The seafood hotpot, stewed meat, and other dishes are all to my taste.”
He used to think that the dishes made with miso sauce were delicious and unique, but now he feels that they are not as good as Xian Manju’s dishes.
Wei Cheng smiled and said, “Except for the seafood hotpot, all other dishes are cooked with the newly added sauces.”
“Is that so?” Boss Gu was surprised by his declaration.
“How could I smash my own signboard by lying?”
On the contrary, Boss Gu was even more interested in the new sauces made by the sauce workshop. The previous sauces sold well, and if there are new ones that can make better dishes then he can expand his business.
He made an appointment with Wei Cheng to go to the sauce workshop. Wei Cheng asks him to go to the grocery store in the suburbs to let him taste the new sauces and judge them for himself.
Yun Chengfeng took a sip of his tea and thought to himself, so there is still this use for building a grocery shop in the workshop area.
He just learned a new lesson.
After getting along for a long time, Yun Chengfeng’s business mindset gradually increased after being beside Wei Cheng, and his thoughts developed new ideas.
t/n: thanks to elain for the ko-fi, this is the first bonus chapter while the next one would be uploaded tomorrow.
Thanks for the update
The Li family is sooooo terrible! (╬ಠ益ಠ) They are poor just because they are lazy, greedy and don’t want to work! Better to separete from them ><
Thank You for the new chapter (´,,•ω•,,)♡
I really hope they do
Thank you so much for the update!!!
Do you use mtl? Looks like you mistranslated xifu as daughter-in-law instead of wife.
God I hate the Li Family! Words cannot describe how much I absolutely HATE them. First, rummaging about in someone’s room, then claiming their money!! What nonsense is this???
Thanks for the chapter!