Chapter 197: Good Reputation
Zhang Zhaodi saw this, turned from anger to laughter, put her hands on her hips and said: “With that foul mouth of yours, even Heaven wants to punish you.”
“What’s going on?” Su Yaoguang didn’t know what had happened.
But Zhang Zhaodi’s emotions were stable now, and ordinary matters wouldn’t make her this angry. That old woman servant didn’t know what she had said to anger her like this.
“Yaoguang, that old woman servant said she wanted to arrange a marriage for us, we weren’t willing, so she said your mother brought bad luck that killed your father. Her words were infuriating.”
Su Yaoguang rolled up her sleeves upon hearing this and ran toward the doorway.
Matchmaker Li had just gotten back up and was rubbing her waist when she heard the noise behind her. She turned to look and was immediately frightened into running away.
As she ran, she fell again. This time she didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before running away at top speed.
“Don’t run if you dare, see if I don’t beat you to death.” Su Yaoguang shouted toward Matchmaker Li’s direction.
“Boss Su, what’s going on?” A passerby asked.
Su Yaoguang’s eyes were red-rimmed, and she said aggrievedly: “That old woman servant said my mother brought bad luck to my father and killed him. Everyone knows my father went to the battlefield to be a hero. Who goes to the battlefield without aiming to serve the country loyally? If he died on the battlefield, the wife at home would bear the stigma of bringing bad luck to her husband. I wonder if those loyal souls can rest in peace?”
“This Li woman is too much, how can she talk such nonsense? From now on, she won’t handle my daughter’s marriage engagement.”
“She won’t handle my son’s marriage engagement either.”
“Boss Su’s whole family are good-hearted people, how could she say such things?”
“Aunties, don’t offend this Matchmaker Li for Yaoguang’s sake. A matchmaker’s mouth is the best at twisting black and white. If you offend her, it won’t be easy to arrange marriages for families with children of marriageable age.”
“It’s not like there’s only one matchmaker here. If we don’t go to her for marriage engagements, others will naturally come. We won’t indulge such a vicious old woman servant.”
“Right, we won’t go to her for marriage engagements anymore.”
Su Yaoguang thanked the aunties for speaking up for her, then turned and went back into the shop.
Zhou Wangshu gave her a thumbs up.
Su Yaoguang tilted her head up, looking proud and tsundere.
“These two old things are no good, actually scheming against us sisters. They must be eyeing our shop.” Zhang Zhaodi said.
Zhang Pandi was a bit confused: “You’re the shop owner, marrying you gets the shop, that’s understandable. But I’m not, so why do they want to marry me?”
“You know the prescription.” Su Yaoguang said from the side, “If they’re after the prescription, targeting you is the easiest. You’re soft-tempered and easy to grasp.”
“This is a small matter, it’s not worth getting angry over such people.” Su Yaoguang coaxed, “Come, let me give Mother and Second Aunt a back massage to relax body and mind.”
The next day, Matchmaker Li brought Master Wang and Master Zhang to personally come asking for marriage. They brought a large amount of gifts. But before they could enter, the things were thrown out.
Jiang Jing and Jia Chunni blocked the doorway.
Jiang Jing said coldly: “We made it very clear yesterday, and you come back today to humiliate yourselves. You really have thick skin.”
“Exactly.” Jia Chunni chimed in, her little face puffed up with anger, but with no deterrent power.
“Doctor Jiang, I was too offensive yesterday, my head was dizzy and I said the wrong things. Please let me see Granny Zhang and Zhang Second Wife, I’ll kneel and beg their forgiveness, okay?”
Matchmaker Li now regretted it to death.
Yesterday she shouldn’t have deliberately said something stimulating to Zhang Zhaodi just to vent. Because of that sentence, soon after she got home, all the families who had asked her to arrange marriages came to tell her they no longer needed her services, and wouldn’t ask her for any marriage engagements in the future. This scared her badly. She knew the family relied on her mouth for food; if no one asked her for marriage engagements, how could the whole family survive without drinking northwest wind?
Her status at home hadn’t been high before; only after getting the marriage-arranging business did she gain status. She didn’t want to go back to those days of being beaten by her husband every day.
“You two young ladies, this old man bows to you.” Master Wang gave a big salute, said with a smiling face: “This old man truly wants to marry Granny Zhang, please help pass on the message and let me see Granny Zhang. I want to express my intentions to Granny Zhang personally, so she knows my true heart.”
“No need, my godmother doesn’t want to see you. Also, my godmother won’t remarry, so stop pestering. And you, Master Zhang, right? My Second Aunt has no intention of remarrying either.”
“Your family is really something, a widow, one divorced, another married a sickly wimp, and now we’re willing to take them on, but you’re not happy?” Boss Zhang saw they couldn’t get in no matter what, so he immediately flipped his face, revealing his ugly true colors.
Jiang Jing and Jia Chunni exchanged a glance, then stepped aside, only to see many male shop assistants rushing out from inside.
The shop assistants were all holding long sticks, charging over angrily at this moment.
Matchmaker Li and the two masters, Master Wang and Master Zhang, saw this and ran away hurriedly. But they were old and couldn’t run fast, and were soon caught up by the shop assistants and given a thorough beating.
“Beat them hard, keep beating…” Jia Chunni waved her arms.
“Shameless old geezer, with grandsons running all over, still eyeing my godmother.” Jiang Jing snorted coldly, “Really want to stick him with a few needles to make him half-paralyzed.”
Su Yaoguang came out from the Flower Market.
She had just negotiated cooperation with the Flower Market boss, having them send another batch of goods to the workshop.
Since opening the workshop, their daily output had increased a lot, which also meant they needed more and more raw materials and had to source from several places to meet supply.
Su Yaoguang passed by the gambling house doorway and happened to see Xiao Yanci coming out from inside with Jiang Yihuan and her daughter.
Xiao Yanci and the others also saw her.
At this time, Su Yaoguang was dressed exquisitely and beautifully, her skin nurtured to be fair and delicate. No one would doubt she was a miss raised in some wealthy family. In contrast, Jiang Yihuan wasn’t dressed as exquisitely as before. This outfit was still decent in style, but the material was downright coarse. Her hair was pinned up without even a silver ornament. But she knew men’s hearts well; without any adornments, she styled a pitifully alluring hairstyle that didn’t look like that of a proper wife at all.
There were dark circles under her eyes; she clearly hadn’t been sleeping well lately. Her originally snow-like skin was now dull and lackluster, as if her vitality had been sucked out.
As for Xiao Yanci, other than being thinner, there weren’t any big changes.
But that made sense; with Xiao Yanci’s way of doing things, he must still be studying every day as before, focusing on schoolwork, not putting effort into anything else.
Fenghua Pavilion was gone, and Jiang Yihui had left a pile of debts. He could ignore it, but the gambling house and brothel would definitely go after Zhong Lanhua and her daughter for the debt. She didn’t know how they handled it.
Seeing Su Yaoguang again, Xiao Yanci had complicated feelings.
He led Jiang Yihuan and her daughter past her side.
