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Chapter 76 :昌顺 (Chang Sun)
The New Year passed by in an instant. It would soon be the beginning of spring1 again, signifying that the weather started to warm up gradually, no longer getting colder by the day, but instead it was getting warmer day by day.
Although the weather was said to be getting warmer in spring, Zhong Ziqi still felt very cold, especially when the difference in temperature between morning and evening was particularly high. He usually avoided this time of day when he went out.
It could even be said, Zhong Ziqi was the most relaxed person among all of them. He was now in his third trimester and no longer vomiting, his appetite was good again so he was naturally in a happy mood, plus the Zhong family and the Wang family didn’t dare to come to their home looking for trouble anymore. At home, Zhao Zheng’an did everything for him, there was no shortage of food, no shortage of money, so his daily life was very nourishing and smooth, but of course this was only in the eyes of others.
In Zhong Ziqi’s eyes, he was no different from a pig now. Every day, all he does is eat and sleep as if his bones are falling apart.It was really too boring. Every day, there is no entertainment. He could only stay silly all day long, eating and sleeping all day, and no beans to play2…
If it was just 15 days or a half months, then it would be fine, but there was still 6 or 7 months away! If he kept staying like this, he would be depressed.
Zhong Ziqi raised a protest to Zhao Zheng’an, saying that it was good for his health and for the baby, for him to go out and move around more often.
Zhao Zheng’an thought that it was also not a good idea for Zhong Ziqi to stay here all the time. He still needed to do some exercise. But their village was not big and they weren’t familiar with many people here. They were only familiar with people in the town so in the village, he didn’t have anyone to talk to even when he went out.
Zhao Zheng’an had no choice but to take Zhong Ziqi to the town. It was just that they couldn’t always take Zhao Er Shu’s carriage. It was inconvenient. The two of them discussed it and decided to buy a horse-drawn carriage as they would need it in the future, so it made no difference if they bought it earlier or later.
So Zhao Zheng’an came back this day with a carriage.
Zhong Ziqi was sewing Zhao Zheng’an’s clothes which came unsewn. He vaguely heard a sound coming from outside the house. Da Hei and Xiao Hei also stood up and looked intently3 at the door, barking twice.
Zhong Ziqi put down the clothes, put on his shoes and walked out of the room. The entrance door at this moment was knocked on so Zhong Ziqi asked warily, “Who is it?”
“Wife, it’s me.” Zhao Zheng’an answered from outside the door.
Their house usually had the front door locked, especially when he was at home by himself, to prevent an illegal person (criminal) from coming in, whereas all Zhao Zheng’an had to do when he came back was to knock on the door, then Zhong Ziqi would go and open it for him.
“Oh …” Zhong Ziqi hurried over and opened the door. What exactly caught his eye was the carriage outside the door.
A brown adult horse was standing there honestly, wagging its tail and looking at Zhong Ziqi and Zhao Zheng’an with two big watery eyes.
[bright and intelligent (eyes)]
Zhong Ziqi felt himself melt : “Can I touch it?”
Zhao Zheng’an immediately stopped him, “It’s not familiar with you yet, be careful not to get hurt.”
“Oh.” Zhong Ziqi regretted that as he replied, then he went into the carriage to look at it up and down, carefully from left to right, he was very satisfied with the carriage.
“Not bad, huh?” Zhao Zheng’an asked with a smile, he had picked it out for a long time.
Zhong Ziqi nodded, “It’s good.” This made it easier for them to go out, to go wherever they wanted to go.
Even though their yard was spacious enough, a chicken coop and a doghouse took up a lot of space, so the carriage could be put directly in the courtyard, but where they should put the horse was indeed a difficult problem since they couldn’t just leave it in the courtyard, it looked too dirty to be there.
Zhao Zheng’an thought about it and went to those broken houses, found some boards, put them together horizontally and vertically, and built a simple stable for the horse. As long as it didn’t get caught in the wind and rain, it would be fine. After a period of time, their family would build a new house and they would definitely rebuild a new stable properly.
The next day, after the sun had risen and the temperature was warm, Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi went to Qing Shui Town. Now the compound was guarded by Wang Jicheng, so there was no need to worry about any problems.The two of them started to become an arm-flinging shop owner.4
Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi went straight to ‘Quite Delicious’. At this time of the day, there were still quite a lot of people at ‘Quite Delicious’. Some sharp-eyed people spotted Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi, who had not been seen for a long time.
Everyone greeted each other, “Boss Zhao is here.”
“Zhao xiao zi and Qi Ge’er, you guys are here?”
“You two brats, you don’t even come to see us old fellows.” This was said by those who were familiar with them.
“….”
There were many people greeting them, Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi stood at the front door with smiles on their faces and answered one by one with pleasantries for a while.
Then they entered the shop.
“What brings you two here?” Zhao Amu found time to ask out of his busy activities.
“Ziqi was too bored to stay at home, so I brought him out for a walk to relieve his boredom.” Zhao Zheng’an open his mouth to talk.
Zhao Amu nodded: “It’s time for him to go out , move around and exercise more, you’re too strict in looking after him.”
“You think so too right, Zhao Amu? Every day he doesn’t let me do this and he doesn’t let me do that. After I eat, I go to sleep, wake up and eat again. What’s the difference between me and a pig then?” Zhong Ziqi complained helplessly to Zhao Amu.
Zhao Zheng’an was also helpless, he was also worried about him, okay~
Zhao Amu then laughed, “You are also in a blessed state yet you are unaware of it. When I was pregnant, I went down to the fields to do the farm work, transplant the rice seedlings and harvest. I did it all. At that time, I was so tired that I wanted to take a rest for a while, but I didn’t have time.”
Zhong Ziqi just laughed ‘hehe’ while being preached.
Zhao Zheng’an saw that the shop was crowded so he went over to help.
Not long after, Zhao Ning came to talk to Zhong Ziqi when he had time, “Ziqi, have you guys bought your family’s carriage?” They had all heard Zhao Zheng’an talk about wanting to buy a carriage.
“Bought it, he’s the one who rushed over today.”
Zhao Ning said enviously, “It cost quite a lot of money, didn’t it?”
“Not bad, dozens of taels.” It was a sum they could still afford.
Zhao Ning shook his head in shock, ‘A few dozen taels is still less!’ Their family had worked so hard for so long to have this at best.
“What? Do you like it? Let Lei Ge buy it for you too.” Zhong Ziqi said, wink at him.
Zhao Ning couldn’t help but glance at Huang Jinlei, who was still busy and shook his head : “Forget it, this is too expensive. Who’s like you guys who don’t even blink when they take out dozens of taels?”
Zhong Ziqi laughed and made fun of him, “You haven’t even married yet and you’re already saving money?”
“What are you talking about!?” Zhao Ning glared at him.
“Oh yeah, Ziqi, have you heard that the Chang Shun restaurant in our town, the one that bullied us, is about to close down?”
Zhao Ning rejoiced in their misfortune since Chang Shun was once really bullying them too hard, especially by beating up Zhao Zheng’an. if it were not for Zhao Zheng’an had been so lucky, Zhong Ziqi might have to live as a widow now. No matter what era it was, there were many rights and wrongs at the front of the widow’s door, so much difficulty!
“Oh? Wasn’t the business open properly? Why is it closed?”
Zhong Ziqi remembered how savage this Changshun was. Although he knew it was only a matter of time before they closed down, he was curious as to why they had suddenly closed down.
Zhao Ning pouted, “I heard from the people who came here to eat that the Chang Shun restaurant has been having a hard time since they were pressured by the Jin Hua Restaurant. The County Grand Master behind them has ordered them to know their place especially after they injured your family Zhao Zheng’an. The County Magistrate bursts into anger so much that the concubine from the Chang family is given the cold shoulder by him and loses his favor. It didn’t take long before the County magistrate to bring in another wife. Although his looks is not as good looking as the Chang family’s Ger but he is more gentle and lovely so the County Magistrate likes him.”
“Moreover, ever since you started your business in town, you’ve been taking away a lot of customers. Especially since we opened the restaurant here, there’s been more people coming. Jin Hua is not affected because Jin Hua’s source of customers is provided for the wealthy people. Also, the chefs at Jin Hua are much better than the chefs at Chang Shun. I heard that the chef at Chang Shun was not clean and was kicked out of many restaurants for that reason. No one dared to hire him again. He was finally taken in by Chang Shun for the convenient and cheap labor’s reason but indeed, the chef’s cooking skill was nothing outstanding. Changshun was not happy with the lack of business so he started to forcibly take the cooking recipe.”
Zhong Ziqi shook his head disapprovingly, so what was the point of robbing it, if the cooking skill was no good? Even if you rob it, you couldn’t make this kind of taste. It would be such a waste of these delicious recipes.
Zhao Ning took a sip of water and continued: “This Chang Shun restaurant is not like the Jin Hua restaurant where most of the people who go there are rich people. The chefs don’t have the skills, so the customers are usually just the common people. They always think they can compete with Jin Hua, they really do not know the immensity between heaven and the earth.5 Since we opened ‘Quite Delicious’, most of those customers have come to us. Especially since you started supplying the other restaurants with you tiou and ma hua, the customers have been going only to the restaurants that have you tiou and mahua. We didn’t even give supply to Chang Shun, so no one went there. I’ve heard that there are only three or two people a day, and it’s very quiet. The Chang family can’t keep up with the expenses over the time, especially since the ger from Chang Family have been in favour, they have been spending a lot of money and have offended many people. Now that ger has fallen out of favour and was no longer backed up by the County Magistrate. Those who had been offended by them began to come to the door to pick a fight. Naturally, the restaurant can no longer be opened.”
Zhong Ziqi concluded his sentiments after hearing this by saying: “At the end of the day, good and evil will be rewarded. It’s not that the time has not yet come for retribution. See, now is the time for retribution. So to be a human being, you can’t be too cruel. This is the result of it.”
Zhao Ning also nodded his head as if he understood but he actually didn’t understand.
Zhong Ziqi stayed in the shop all morning and went home with Zhao Zheng’an. On the way back, Zhong Ziqi told Zhao Zheng’an about what had happened to Chang Shun.
Zhao Zheng’an sighed: “It’s really admirable to be this level kind of person, as if he is itching to offend the entire world.”
“Who wouldn’t say that? They say that many friends make many roads but in their family, it’s better to have many enemies, so that they can eat well.”
Zhong Ziqi shook his head as he sat in the carriage, reaching out to touch the bump on his stomach, thinking to himself that they must educate their future children well. If they were like that, it would be better not to raise them, in order not to harm people.
When they got home, Zhao Zheng’an rested for a while and went into the kitchen to cook, while Zhong Ziqi sat on the Kang bed looking like he was thinking about something.
He was thinking of adding some more food to sell. They didn’t have time to sell it retail at the compound, but they could manufacture it, as long as they made it into finished products and sold it through every big restaurant.
He wasn’t afraid that those restaurants wouldn’t sell it, as each of his food’s variants was the first of its kind in this world. Only if they took a sample back and taste it, anyone with brain would agree, unless they were stupid.
How could they miss the opportunity to make money?
But it was just that he had to think carefully about what to sell.