Chapter 19 Indifference (Yuan Zhou CP) Li Yang's career takes off again...

Li Yang led Zhao Di straight to the Fang family teahouse, and sure enough, they saw Zhou family scholar as soon as they entered.

Seeing him sitting at the tea table in the center, Li Yang walked over with Zhao Di with a smile.

"Brother Chengli, you're here again."

Zhou Chengli leaned half his body on the table, using his arm as a pillow, a grin spreading across his face, his eyes half-open, his pupils hidden under his eyelashes as he followed Fang Yuan's back and forth.

He heard someone call his name, and slowly turned his head, his eyes still lingering on the spot, reluctant to look away.

When he saw who it was, his eyes lit up with surprise, and he quickly stood up and invited the two of them to sit down. "Zhaozhao! Long time no see. Come on, sit down and let's talk."

"Brother Chengli, do you hang around here every day? Didn't Uncle Zhou take you to the academy?" Li Yang didn't stand on ceremony. After sitting down, he took a cup and poured tea for himself and Zhao Di.

Her words only made things worse. Zhou Chengli, upon hearing this, flung his sleeves and feigned aggrieved frown, "Don't mention it again. I finally got a day off, and I rushed to see Yuanyuan without even having a drink of water. But look at her—"

He lowered his voice and said, "He was so indifferent, giving me such a cold shoulder. It's really, oh dear..." He then clutched his chest, "It's heartbreaking, so sad."

After saying that, he craned his neck and looked into the shop, unable to hide the smile in his eyes, which made the two young ladies giggle.

"Sad? If you're sad, why are you still sitting here? Go somewhere else if you're not sad, don't take up my space." Fang Yuan arrived at some point, rolled her eyes at Zhou Chengli, and sat down to talk to Li Yang, "Zhao Zhao, where have you been these past few days? Why haven't you come over?"

She took the teacup Zhou Chengli offered, drank it down in one gulp, and without even glancing away, had the scholar take the cup back from her. She continued, "Your fresh produce is in high demand at the banquet hall. By the way, who is this gentleman?"

When Li Yang sat down first, he pulled Zhao Di to sit next to him, so Fang Yuan and the others could tell that she was not a maid from the Chen family.

Li Yang then recounted how he had bought the girl from the tea shop over the past two days.

Fang Yuan was stunned by what she heard. "You mean, you bought a person??"

Zhou Chengli carried the stool closer to Fang Yuan, also looking at Li Yang with a curious expression.

Upon receiving the other party's nod of confirmation, Fang Yuan immediately exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! Marrying a salt merchant really changes things! Fifty taels of silver! Don't you think about how long it took to save up for that? Spending so much money to buy a maid, you didn't even blink an eye!"

As she continued speaking in increasingly outrageous terms, Li Yang quickly covered her mouth, saying, "Quiet down, Grandma, if you keep shouting, the whole of Songshan Town will know."

You weren't there, but her family really went to great lengths to bind her feet. Her mother even said that once her feet were bound, they would sell them to a matchmaker at a brothel. Yuanyuan, if you were there, you would have bought them too.”

Fang Yuan pouted, "I don't have fifty taels of silver." Then, noticing Zhao Di cowering beside Li Yang, looking pitiful, she added, "Hey, little girl, I really don't know if you're lucky or unlucky. Your father doesn't love you, your mother doesn't care for you, but you still managed to meet someone as soft-hearted as Zhao Zhao. Hey, little girl, what's your name?"

Hearing this, Li Yang's lips curled up, and he hurriedly tugged at Zhao Di, "Quick, say hello to Sister Fang Yuan!"

Zhao Di held onto Li Yang's arm with both hands, her head buried, only half of her face showing. Her two round, grape-like eyes blinked as she said, "Sister Fang Yuan, my name is Zhao Di."

“Zhao Di?” Fang Yuan laughed. “Zhao Zhao, this girl really hits off with you. Your name is Zhao Zhao, and her name is Zhao Di.”

As the two sisters were laughing, Zhou Chengli paused in his tea-pouring, a drop of tea falling from the spout and rippling in the cup. He placed the teapot on the table and said, "This name does indeed violate the host's taboo."

Seeing the puzzled looks on the faces of the three, he handed the teacup to the young lady beside him and slowly explained, "When buying slaves or maids, the first thing is to identify their names. If a name clashes with the master's name, it is disrespectful, and we must ask the master to bestow a new name upon us."

'Is there such a saying?' Li Yang was still pondering the necessity of this matter when, to his surprise, Zhao Di had already knelt down on the ground and kowtowed, 'Young Madam, Young Madam, please change my name, I won't be called Zhao Di anymore...'

"Oh my, what is this girl doing?" Fang Yuan exclaimed in surprise. She had never seen anyone kowtow so smoothly.

"Alright, alright, I'll change it, get up now." Li Yang's voice carried a hint of annoyance as she helped Zhao Di sit up. "Don't kneel and kowtow all the time, we don't do that here." After seeing that she was seated properly, she muttered to herself: How could such parents have given birth to such a weak and frail girl?

He raised his hand and wiped away the tears from Zhao Di's eyes with his sleeve. Seeing her big, grape-like eyes, Li Yang's heart stirred slightly, and he said, "My mother said that the deer in the forest are the happiest and freest. Now that you have left the tea plantation and gained your freedom, you should just live happily from now on. How about we call you 'Little Deer'? Your maiden name is Liu, so it would be 'Liu Deer'. What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Fang Yuan glanced at Zhou Chengli and said, "Scholar Zhou, you started this whole thing, so why don't you explain yourself?"

The other party wasn't annoyed, and muttered to himself, "As the poem says, 'Deer are seen when the forest is deep, and no bell is heard at midday by the stream.' I think it's excellent."

He even recited a short poem to support his claim, and Fang Yuan smiled, saying, "I think it's good too, much better than 'Zhao Di.' What do you think, little girl?"

Seeing that everyone agreed, Zhao Di stopped crying and smiled. "Hmm, that sounds nice! From now on, I'll be called 'Liu Lu'. Thank you, young mistress, thank you..." As she spoke, she was about to bow to Li Yang again, but Li Yang hurriedly pulled her back.

The other two burst into laughter upon seeing this, and Li Yang chuckled twice as well. "Yuanyuan, I brought her here today because there's something else I'd like to discuss with you."

Fang Yuan drank the tea that Zhou Chengli handed her. "Speak, what is it? Sigh, let me make this clear beforehand, I don't have fifty taels of silver to give her."

“I don’t want your money…” Li Yang knew her best friend’s character well; she was no different from herself, both of them obsessed with money and unwilling to leave. “I want her to learn how to do things here with you.”

"What is there to learn here?" Fang Yuan's eyes swept around her shop. "Look, just these few tables and chairs, what is there to learn? Besides, does the Chen family think they can't even tolerate a maid like her?"

Li Yang said seriously, "No, no, Chen Junbo agreed to keep her. But, Yuanyuan, I brought her out of the tea shop, so I have to consider her situation. Chen Junbo is right. If we keep her in the Chen family as a maid, she will eventually be a slave. Besides, the servants in the house are all managed by the mother-in-law. After thinking it over, the only place I can think of is here. She can learn to run a tea shop from you. Maybe in the future, she can take over a shop and support herself."

After hearing her words, Fang Yuan pursed her lips and pondered.

Li Yang quickly snatched the teacup from Zhou Chengli's hand and pushed it in front of her.

Seeing that she had also learned Zhou Chengli's sycophantic manner, Fang Yuan chuckled and said, "Oh well, alright, alright, just consider it as having another waiter. But let me make it clear beforehand, our monthly salary here is not as high as the Chen family's."

“Yuanyuan! You’re the best! You teach her more, I don’t need your monthly salary, I’ll just give her the money from the business of the banquet hall.” Li Yang’s eyes sparkled, he rushed over and picked up Fang Yuan, pretending to kiss her, but she blocked him with her arm and said with a look of disgust, “Go away, go away, you’re so annoying.”

After discussing it, the two agreed that from now on, Xiao Lu would go to Fang's teahouse at the end of the morning to learn chores from Fang Yuan, return home at the hour of You (5-7 PM), and stay in the side room of Chen's house with Li Yang at night.

After the important matters were settled, the group discussed the business of the banquet hall. Li Yang then left Xiao Lu behind and went with Zhou Chengli to the banquet hall to settle the bill.

It turns out that during the few days that Yanlou had been at the tea shop in Liyang, they had come to urge them several times to increase the quantity of ingredients to be purchased.

Li Yang chuckled inwardly: It seems Manager Zhou has made quite a bit of money these past few days. No wonder he allowed Brother Chengli to stroll around Fang's teahouse. My business has become a red thread.

The banquet hall wasn't far away, and before long, Li Yang returned to pick up Xiao Lu and they went back to the Chen residence together.

On the way, Xiao Lu asked, her eyes filled with doubt, "Young Madam, why don't you want me to stay at the Chen family to serve you?"

The villagers all said that it was the young mistress who personally chose him, and that he was fortunate enough to enter such a blessed home as the Chen family.

Her mother said that the young mistress of the Chen family had only just entered the family, yet she was able to decide to buy her. It was even the young master of the Chen family who personally helped negotiate the contract. This shows that the young mistress is favored. As long as she serves the young mistress well, she will surely have a good life in the future.

But to her surprise, she had barely returned to town, and before she could even enter the Chen family's house, the young mistress arranged for her to learn a trade at the Fang family's teahouse. This teahouse looked rather drab; why was she going to learn a trade here?

Upon hearing her question, Li Yang seemed to be talking to himself as he said, "What's so good about staying in the Chen family? Whether you live or die depends on the master's mood. How good can it be if you can't even control your own life and death?"

Besides, I don't even know how long I'll stay in the Chen family. What will you do when I leave?

If Fang Yuan is willing to teach you, you'll learn a lot of skills. You can open your own teahouse later; it will be hard work, but you'll never have to worry about food or clothing. Don't you like this kind of life where you earn your own money and spend it as you please?

Xiao Lu didn't think she understood: Isn't this all just serving others? In the Chen family, she only needed to serve the young master and young mistress; with so many maids and servants attending to them, how tiring could it be? In the teahouse, she had to serve all those burly tea drinkers; she'd seen Fang Yuan today, except for the time she spent talking, she was constantly busy. Why did the young mistress say that being an apprentice in the teahouse was better than being a maid in the Chen family?

However, remembering what her parents had taught her, she replied respectfully, "I like it, thank you, young mistress." After all, she now lived in the Chen residence every day and was considered half a member of the Chen family.