Chapter 81: Counterattack
That woman heard Jiang Yihuan say this, and her anger dissipated quite a bit.
Su Yaoguang saw there was no more show to watch, pursed her lips, turned around, and left.
Jiang Yihuan glared at Su Yaoguang’s back, her eyes full of disgust.
She finally knew why her mother hated that shrew Zhang Zhaodi so much. Her disgust for Su Yaoguang now was just like her mother’s disgust for Zhang Zhaodi. This mother-daughter pair was exactly their mother-daughter pair’s nemesis.
Jiang Yihuan gave that woman five hundred wen, and also promised to introduce work to Zhong Jianghe, before finally sending that woman away.
Zhong Lanhua was furious, cursing under her breath. The general meaning was that the Zhong family was ungrateful, she had helped them a lot over these years, yet they were still insatiable.
“Your aunt dared to come to our door to extort us, she must have gotten your grandma and grandpa’s approval. And you’re still helping her introduce work? Introduce my foot! From now on, old lady here will never give them one copper coin again.”
“Mom, cousin really got injured because of our horse-drawn carriage, and at the time we even had people carry him back. They have reason and evidence, we can’t push it off, we can only swallow this loss. If we don’t find a way to appease them, with cousin lying in bed for a year or so, we’ll still have to fatten him up nicely. For now, we can only send aunt back first, let her know that making a fuss brings no benefit.”
“The horse-drawn carriage is gone, and we still owe tens of taels of silver to the son of Manager Feng at the horse market, how are we going to pay that back?” Zhong Lanhua frowned. “Even if the two of us do needlework, unless we don’t eat or drink, we couldn’t pay it back in a year.”
“Don’t worry, I can handle it.” Jiang Yihuan said, “Worst case, I’ll coax him, coax him into a good mood, and the silver matter won’t be a problem.”
After Su Yaoguang returned, Aunt Li happened to be looking out from outside the courtyard. Seeing her come back, she excitedly came out to greet her: “Yaoguang, do you still need flower materials?”
“Of course we need them.” Su Yaoguang smiled, “Aunt Li, keep collecting, as much as you can get. But you know my rules, must guarantee the things are good.”
“Don’t worry about my work, I definitely won’t delay your matters.” Aunt Li felt relieved upon hearing this, turned around and went back to discuss the matter with her daughter-in-law.
Su Yaoguang pushed open the courtyard door and shouted inside: “Mom, aunt, uncle-in-law, I’m back.”
Zhang Zhaodi came out from the kitchen, both hands covered in flour, clearly in the middle of kneading dough.
“Having your aunt’s specialty noodles for dinner tonight.” Zhang Zhaodi said, “You must be worn out? Go inside and rest a bit first, I’ll call you when it’s ready.”
After Su Yaoguang entered the room, she changed into a set of clothes, then came out to find Jiang Jing and Jia Chunni.
Jia Chunni was helping her mother make noodles.
Jiang Jing took Wang Huanzhi’s pulse, and said to Zhang Yingdi beside her: “Maternal aunt, no need to worry, maternal uncle-in-law’s condition has improved a lot. With maternal uncle-in-law’s current health, as long as he doesn’t get chilled, it’s no problem for him to walk around the village.”
Zhang Yingdi thanked her repeatedly. Wang Huanzhi held her rough palm, looking at her with heartache.
Zhang Pandi’s skill was indeed very good; the noodles were thin and wide, and very chewy.
While she was making noodles, Su Yaoguang wasn’t idle either. She fried eggs in another small pot, and mixed up sauce with various seasonings.
“Prodigal thing, use less oil.” Zhang Zhaodi ached beside her. “This bit of oil in the past would have lasted us a month, and you’re using so much just to fry an egg.”
“We’re earning money now, of course we should treat ourselves a bit better. Mom, you don’t even look, all of us inside and out together don’t weigh a thousand jin yet.”
Zhang Zhaodi looked at the skinny Su Yaoguang, the similarly skinny others, including herself who was under a hundred jin, and fell silent.
The whole family sat at the table eating noodles.
Taking advantage of the noodle-eating time, Su Yaoguang repeated to them what she had said to Jia Chunni earlier, then asked Zhang Pandi’s opinion: “Second aunt, do you want to go back?”
Zhang Pandi hesitated: “Of course I don’t want to go back to the Jia family, but if I divorce, your grandma and grandpa will beat me to death, and won’t recognize me as their daughter anymore.”
“Second aunt, you’ve been married over there for so many years, has grandma and grandpa ever cared about your life? They should have looked for you, but when they did, it absolutely wasn’t out of concern for you, but wanting to get some benefit from you. Let me guess, the Jia family are all not easy to deal with, definitely no benefits to give them, so over these years they haven’t cared about you and Chunni’s life or death at all, right?”
Zhang Pandi reddened her eyes and buried her head in eating noodles.
“Mom, I don’t want to go back to the Jia family. I’m still young, if I go back to the Jia family, sooner or later they’ll sell me off for a high betrothal gift. Mom, you have to think for me.” Jia Chunni put down her chopsticks, looking earnestly at Zhang Pandi. “Last month I overheard grandma and Second Aunt Su secretly discussing that the old bachelor in the neighboring village is willing to pay twenty taels betrothal gift to marry a daughter-in-law. I’ll be fourteen after this year, how long do you think they can keep me? That old bachelor has beaten three wives to death, if I fall into his hands, my fate will be worse than yours.”
“If it was before, I’d accept my fate. But now it’s different, now big aunt and cousin are willing to help us! If we miss this opportunity, I’ll never escape in this lifetime, mom.”
“What are you still hesitating for? Cry cry cry, you only know how to cry, not as good as your daughter who has a brain.” Zhang Zhaodi slapped the table, “If you want to get beaten, roll back tomorrow, and don’t come looking for me this big sister again, I’ll pretend I never had you as a sister.”
“Sis, don’t be angry.” Zhang Pandi held Zhang Zhaodi’s hand, “I’ll listen to you, listen to Chunni. It’s just that family won’t let me and Chunni go so easily. Chunni is a girl, but she’s still their Jia family descendant. I can’t leave Chunni in the Jia family to suffer!”
“To break free from the Jia family, of course we need some tactics.” Zhang Zhaodi said, “Back then we made a fuss with the Su family second branch people for a good while before shaking them off.”
“Actually, breaking free from them isn’t hard.” Wang Huanzhi said from the side, “The Jia family are selfish and unscrupulous, as long as we exploit their nature well, they’re easy to control.”
“Brother-in-law, do you have a good plan?” Zhang Zhaodi asked.
“My method might require second sis and Chunni to go back to the Jia family and suffer a few days.” Wang Huanzhi said, “As long as you endure this period, you can escape the bitter sea.”
“As long as we can break free from the Jia family, completely sever ties with them, let alone a few days of suffering, I can endure a month’s. Chunni and I have suffered for so many years already.”
“Then rest after eating breakfast today, tomorrow have Yaoguang send you back. But can’t go back all neat and tidy, must make it look a bit wretched.” Wang Huanzhi said.
After finishing with the Jia family matter, Su Yaoguang brought up renting the shop front today. Zhang Zhaodi heard the shop front price was so expensive, and renting for a whole year, and also said what Jia Chunni had said. Su Yaoguang then mentioned how many orders she had on hand, and during the time the shop front is being renovated, finish this batch of goods, and the rent and renovation money would be earned back.
