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Chapter 30: 生意 (Business)
Translator: LittleYen
It was a beautiful sunny day. Ching Shui Town was as lively as usual. A crowd of people gathered at the south pier of Qing Shui Town.
Some people who were new to the town didn’t know what was going on so one of them asked someone on the sidelines, “What’s going on here? There are so many people around!”
The person who was being asked looked at him and said, “First time at the pier?”
The man nodded his head in confusion.
“It is the most popular snack on the pier, so if they don’t crowd around, there’ll be nothing left.”
The man looked at the huge queue in a daze and horror, how popular must it be? Unbelievably, he squeezed into the queue too, squeezing around for a long time before his person could reach him (the seller).
“How much do you want?” A delicate and good-looking ger asked him without raising his head.
“Er… how much is one?”
“Two wen for one.”
The man looked at the large pot of golden stuff and hesitated: “Two sticks.”
The delicate and good looking little ger neatly wrapped two chinese breadsticks in oil paper and handed it to him: “Pay this way!”
Standing next to the ger was a man who looked somewhat like him, he has tall stature and a very handsome appearance.
” Come on!” Someone at the back urged him.
The man hurriedly reached out and handed the man the four wen. After squeezing out through the crowd, the man couldn’t wait to open the oil paper to take a bite. In that short moment, he regretted it immediately,not because he had spent money in vain, but because he didn’t buy two more. It was really delicious!
Such a hot crowd was caused by Zhong Ziqi. Today is the third day he has set up his stall again. He originally wanted to visit the North Pier, but considering that he would need to reintegrate there once he arrived, he might as well stay at the South Pier, where all his regular customers are.The first day he opened the stall was a proof to his thinking. Many people were resentful since the stall had been closed for so long! Now that Jin Hua Restaurant has started selling cold noodles, everyone knows that this stall owner sold that delicious cold noodles recipe to Jin Hua. Many people regret that since everyone has their own taste, they still think that what this young ger made was more tasteful.
The stall owner who had disappeared for many days, unexpectedly reappeared with something even more delicious and tasty. Zhong Ziqi’s stall is well known on the South Pier. The most eye-catching thing about it is the combination of four young good-looking lads with their delicious cooking.This combination made them famous!
News passed quickly from mouth to mouth around the docks. Soon the news that Zhong Ziqi was bringing along the culinary delicacy spread very fast. Many people came to the restaurant to see what was coming out. The result lived up to their expectations. It was so good! The fried breadsticks could also be eaten whether hot or cold. The owner also said that it would last for three days. Not only did the men who worked there, but also many Amu who lived in the town came to buy some, from time to time to satisfy their food craving.
Zhong Ziqi’s offer of one free chinese breadstick when you buy five, or free two when you buy ten, caused a huge rush. Many people looked at him as if he was stupid.
Of course Zhong Ziqi is not stupid, the fried breadsticks is more profitable than cold noodles, it has the highest net profit, one person have a minimum of three sticks for one time meal, basically, an adult man needs five sticks to fill his stomach. If you can’t eat all of it, you can put it away for another meal. In just three days, Zhong Ziqi earned more than half a Guan. There were also the big families in town, who often bought more and paid more, so it was not uncommon for them to reward a few more.
Every day, Zhong Ziqi was immersed in the happiness of earning money.
Because he trusted Uncle Huang’s family, the dough that Zhong Ziqi needed every day was made by Huang Amu. When Zhong Ziqi came over, he took it away every morning. Every day, in addition to the cart money, Zhong Ziqi paid him an extra five wen for his work.
In a place that Zhong Ziqi could not see, two men stood. Gloomy-looking man with a thin and weak figure looking at the lively vendor booth. Halfway through the day, he only saw his face grim as he said to the man leaning down slightly beside him: “Teach them a lesson for me! Let them know that we, Chang Shun, are not easy to mess with. How dare they play with us, really got a lot of nerve!”
[The original saying is actually ‘eat the bear’s heart and the gallbladder of a leopard’, it means ‘bold or brave/ great courage’. This saying just implify that if you dare to eat a bear’s heart and gallbladder of a leopard, you are really bold. ]
“This… (姨太太= yi tai tai=concubine) Concubine’s place instructed us to be more restrained.”
The man frowned: “No harm at all! Go and do your job! I’ll talk to my big brother. He won’t blame me.”
“…Yes.”
Zhong Ziqi obviously did not anticipate that someone would still have the brains to do this to him. Yet it was this brain-dead act that turned Zhong Ziqi’s life upside down.
Of course that was an afterthought, but he was surprised and relieved when the person who had put Zhong Ziqi in a bad mood turned up.
The person who appeared in front of his house was Li Xiu Juan, his uncle’s wife whom he had not seen for a long time. When he entered the courtyard, he looked around with a thief’s head, looking here and there with an occasional ‘tsk!’, which annoyed Zhong Ziqi who said in a cold voice: “What are you doing here?”
Li Xiu Juan said, “Look at you! What can I do here? Of course I came to see you.”
Zhong Ziqi only thought in his heart that why does this way of speaking sound so familiar? Oh, he remembered! The last time Wang Cuihua came here, he had the same opening line, which was really boring.
“I’m not talking bad about you,Qi Ge’er! After you got married to that fool, you didn’t come back even after three days. Now it’s almost a month, your grandfather and grand Amu miss you so much.” Li Xiu Juan rolled his eyes as he said this.
Three days back? What the hell is that? Zhong Ziqi was baffled, no one had ever told him about this three-day return’s rule. As an unmarried man in the modern century, he really didn’t know that there was such a rule. He had just arrived in this world but he already had a big argument with his family. When he married out, he had a big argument with his in-laws too.
Since he had no neighbours to tell him, how could he know? Even if he did, he might not go back either.
“Is it my fault? I think that since you sold me out, you should have the awareness that we should completely not visit each other, right?” Zhong Ziqi said with a smiling yet not a smiling expression,there was a ridiculous look in his eyes.
“Qi Ge’er ,that’s not right, what do you mean by selling? I’ve found you a good family. Look at you, you’re living a prosperous life yet you’re turning your back on me and pretending to not know me!” Li Xiu Juan’s skill was much higher than Wang Cui hua’s.
“Oh? Then you should give it back to me, that one tael of silver you sold me for! That was my dowry. Even if you were the matchmaker, you’d still have to return half of it to me.” Zhong Ziqi said.
“What’s with the money? When your father and Amu died, we were the ones who took care of the banquet and the guests inside and out. Qi Ge’er, you should not be a white-eyes wolf (aka thankless wretch)!”
“Oh, if you say so, we have to do some better calculations. When my parents were alive, my father earned all the money for our family’s expenses, not to mention the money from the sale of your one acre of land, which we didn’t see any penny of. Moreover, your house was built by my father. Don’t you feel guilty that you’re treating me like this? Aren’t you afraid that my father and my Amu will come looking for you at night?” Zhong Ziqi said threateningly.
Li Xiu Juan shivered.
In ancient times, it was still superstitious. So when he heard Zhong Ziqi’s words, Li Xiu Juan was a bit scared, but it was impossible to make him give out the silver, therefore he strained his neck and said, “You little brat, you can only delude people with lies, huh? I don’t even want to stay in your shitty place any longer! ” After saying that, Li Xiu Juan turned around and left. There was nothing he could do since he was the one in the wrong.
[妖言惑眾 – yāo yán huò zhòng :
to mislead the public with rumors (idiom) / to delude the people with lies]
When he got home, Zhong Zhen Ping asked: “How did it go?”
Li Xiu Juan shook his head, sat down to take a sip of water and said angrily: “This kid, when did he become sharp-tongued? He’s asking me for his dowry! How could I possibly give it to him?!”
Zhong Zhen Ping nodded approvingly, “So did he say he’d come back?”
“Well,he didn’t say anything about that. Why don’t you try it? If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s making a lot of money, who’d bother with him? ” Li Xiu Juan said impatiently.
A few days ago,it was rumoured by the villagers that Zhong Ziqi’s business had gone downhill so he had closed his business and returned.He was very happy about that for quite a while.Unexpectedly,it wasn’t long before another news spread that Zhong Ziqi had changed his business. Now he was even more prosperous than before, even better than his father. He was making a lot of money. That’s when they (refer to Zhong Ziqi’s uncle’s family) couldn’t sit still.
But they were very thick-headed, thinking that Zhong Ziqi was a member of the Zhong family. Moreover now he was married to a fool, didn’t he still need their support? Without the support of his family, it would be unpleasant and would make people especially pay attention to him.
Zhong Ziqi closed the door before he watched Zhao Zheng’an play with Da Hei and Xiao Hei. In his mind, he was thinking that since the Zhong family had never cut off the family relationship, it was impossible for him not to interact with them. Even if he chose not to interact with them and if the matter of this spread out, people would say that he was not filial. Although he didn’t care,if the rumours were too much, it was indeed annoying.
It seemed that one day he would have to go back with bringing something to visit them! Li Xiu Juan’s intentions were clear enough to him. Zhong Ziqi had his own plans, he would only go back in the name of seeing his grandfather and grand Amu. As for his eldest uncle’s family, he could just ignore them. Anyway, he was a married ger then he had no obligation to support his grandparents. Besides, the whole village knew what they had done to him. It was already kind of him to visit and see what they were doing.