Chapter 80: Shop Front
The next day, Su Yaoguang and Jia Chunni went to the real estate agency to look at shop fronts.
After shopping around, they finally selected a shop with a good location, large shop front, and a backyard where people could live.
Of course, a shop front with such good conditions was definitely not cheap. To rent this shop front, she had spent a fortune.
Su Yaoguang selected the shop front in the morning and went to sign the deed in the afternoon, paying a full year’s rent.
Jia Chunni saw her take out so much money and voiced her worry: “Cousin, a full year’s rent is seventy taels. Next, we’ll have to spend money to renovate it. Even if we keep it simple, ten taels of silver will still be needed. You’ve invested so much silver from the start. If we cannot earn money, how much silver will we lose?”
“Chunni, if you back out before even starting the work, what do you think you can accomplish with that mentality? I can afford this silver without owing any debt. At worst, the result would just be losing this silver. If I really fall, I’ll get back up myself. Besides, there were a few more orders yesterday—all money. I don’t have time to overthink.”
After Su Yaoguang finished speaking, she handed the drawn diagram to Jia Chunni to look at and asked her: “This room is reserved for you and your mother. What do you think?”
Jia Chunni widened her eyes in surprise and looked at Su Yaoguang: “Cousin, are you still keeping us mother and daughter?”
“Do you want to go back to the Jia family?” Su Yaoguang frowned. “With the Jia family’s situation, if you go back, you’ll just return to your previous life.”
“Of course we don’t want to go back. It’s just that last time you said this order would only last twenty days. I thought it would end after those twenty days and had already prepared to go back to the Jia family to suffer.”
“Chunni, your family… Cousin is speaking harshly. If you don’t want to hear it, just pretend you didn’t. No one in your family cares about you mother and daughter; they just treat you as free servants. If you mother and daughter want to continue working with us, you have to handle those troublesome things in your family. I mean for your mother and your father to divorce. But I don’t know what your mother thinks. If she still has feelings for your father, it seems inappropriate for me, a junior, to encourage them to divorce.”
“My mother is desperate to get rid of them. She didn’t dare before because my father would beat her, and she couldn’t resist him at all. Plus, traditionally, only men divorce wives; it’s never heard of for a woman to initiate divorce from a man. My father looks down on my mother, saying her belly is useless and she can’t even give birth to a son. My mother has had several miscarriages and now finds it hard to get pregnant again. Even so, my father won’t let her leave. All the work at home is done by me and my mother. How could he bear to let a woman who works herself to death go?”
“As long as you’re willing to leave that family, we’ll discuss the rest when we get back. In short, if you want the money you earn to be all yours, you have to escape that abyss.”
While Su Yaoguang and Jia Chunni were talking, Chun E brought Jiang Jing in.
“This girl came with the ox cart to pick you up. I didn’t know where you were, so I brought her along. Perfect timing—she can take a look too. This is the shop front you’ve rented. You’ll do business here from now on.”
Jiang Jing looked around the shop, then pulled Su Yaoguang to the backyard. Seeing the spacious courtyard and the well in it, she got excited.
“This place is pretty good.”
“There are five rooms in total. My mother gets one room, us sisters one room, Second Aunt and female cousin one room, maternal aunt and maternal uncle one room, and the last one reserved for Wangshu.”
“So many rooms—we can all fit with this many people. Great. But that house in the village was finally tidied up, and we spent money to build the wall. It’s a bit of a shame to leave it.”
“Anyway, we won’t be staying long-term in the village, so there’s nothing to regret. Let’s do this for today. We’ll buy some ingredients, then go back to the village to celebrate with the family.”
Just as they returned to the village, they heard someone in the village making a big fuss. She turned her head to look and saw Zhong Lanhua arguing fiercely with a harsh and sharp-tongued woman.
“I’ve said it already—your son’s injury has nothing to do with me. If not for Zhang Zhaodi’s family blocking the road, our horse wouldn’t have been startled. Now our horse-drawn carriage is broken, the horse ran off scared, and I’m the one with heavy losses. I’m the one who should curse and hit. If you want to settle accounts, go find Zhang Zhaodi.”
Su Yaoguang told Jiang Jing to drive the ox cart back and got off on the countryside path.
Jiang Jing was worried and asked: “Let me go with you!”
“No need. You staying would affect my performance.” Su Yaoguang rolled up her sleeves. “You go back with Chunni first. She’s timid—don’t scare her.”
Su Yaoguang strode toward Zhong Lanhua.
Zhong Lanhua sensed danger, looked up, and saw the unfriendly-faced Su Yaoguang.
She thought of Su Yaoguang’s freakish divine power, saw her cracking her knuckles, and watched warily as she approached: “What do you want?”
“I’m a reasonable person, unlike some who spew filth from their mouths and wrongly accuse people without evidence. Auntie, I personally saw this auntie push your son off the horse-drawn carriage that day. His injury was caused by her. Now she’s shirking responsibility and trying to make you offend others.” Su Yaoguang picked up a stone, gripped it hard, and it turned to dust. “Think about it—if you believe her slander and come to cause trouble for our family, how many fists from me could your small frame withstand? This person’s the most despicable and shameless. You must settle accounts with her properly.”
That woman saw Su Yaoguang crush the stone to dust and didn’t dare offend this fierce demon. Her goal was silver anyway. Since someone ‘proved’ her son’s injury was caused by Zhong Lanhua, she’d cling to her until she got the silver. After all, her son had been lured away by this flirtatious sister-in-law.
“Zhong Lanhua, the Zhong family has only this one heir. You did this to him—your father and mother fell seriously ill, your brother sought several doctors and spent all the family’s silver. You have to take responsibility. You must take responsibility, or this matter isn’t over.”
Zhong Lanhua pointed at Su Yaoguang and cursed: “You stinky girl, when did I ever push him? You’re spouting nonsense here. Eldest sister-in-law, you’ve fallen for this stinky girl’s trick.”
“Enough!” Jiang Yihuan came out from inside. “We’re heartbroken that male cousin is injured. Aunt, it wasn’t easy for my mother, a widow, to raise me and my brother. We have no silver left. Whatever we had before was sent to our maternal family to help you live better. This is our last bit of silver—use it first to treat male cousin’s injury. Once he’s healed, I’ll introduce him to work that earns money, so he can support his family with his own hands in the future.”
