Chapter 23 Opening

When Song Yushu came to the academy to deliver food, he saw an unexpected scene: Zhou Chengyu brought Zhou Chengli over.

"Mother, please get a meal for eldest brother too. The Zhou family isn't doing well these days either," Zhou Chengyu said, glancing at Song Yushu before letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that Song Yushu wasn't angry.

“I was ignorant before, and it’s normal that Madam Wei is unwilling to forgive me now. Chengyu, you don’t need to worry about me,” Zhou Chengli said, perhaps feeling embarrassed, and left quickly.

Song Yushu didn't understand what the two of them were up to, but when Zhou Chengyu asked her to pack a meal for Zhou Chengli as well, she didn't mind much. Although she felt that getting too close to the male lead wouldn't end well, Zhou Chengyu treated Zhou Chengli like an older brother, so she figured the two brothers should handle their own affairs.

Even Zhou Chengli's former classmates found it strange that he had been visiting Zhou Chengyu more frequently lately.

Zhou Chengyu initially felt awkward, but after Zhou Chengli occasionally helped him explain the parts of the book he didn't understand, he accepted Zhou Chengli's intentional attempt to befriend him.

Every time Zhou Chengli came to see him, he would mention the current situation of the Zhou family, but after successfully arousing Zhou Chengyu's concern, he would hastily change the topic. This made Zhou Chengyu feel even more that something had happened in the Zhou family that caused his elder brother to change so much.

At the same time, his initial dissatisfaction with the Zhou family for neglecting him and favoring Zhou Chengli gradually turned into sympathy for Zhou Chengli.

So Song Yushu would leave two portions of food for Zhou Chengyu almost every day, and the other portion was naturally for Zhou Chengyu to bring to Zhou Chengli.

Even with Song Yushu's keen mind, he noticed Zhou Chengyu's difference. For example, he would frequently mention the Zhou family when the mother and son had dinner together, and when he mentioned Zhou Chengli, his tone was always sympathetic.

Song Yushu, recalling how Zhou Chengyu and Zhou Chengli had grown closer during this time, couldn't help but worry that his foolish son would be sold off by the male lead.

“Zhou Chengyu, let me remind you, your good brother is currently in debt to the gambling den for fifty taels of silver. You can sympathize with him, but you should know that he signed the IOU himself. Now that he is married, he should bear the consequences of his actions,” Song Yushu said seriously, fearing that he would be trapped.

“But that was a debt owed by the Zhao family, how can you blame it on my elder brother? And what does it have to do with our Zhou family?” Zhou Chengyu was clearly already biased towards Zhou Chengli.

Song Yushu stared at Zhou Chengyu for a while, but still suppressed his anger: "He insisted on marrying Zhao Yuzhi, and he signed the IOU for Zhao the Cripple. How can it not have anything to do with him? You can help him if you want, but you can only use your own private money. Don't think about anything else."

"You treat someone like an older brother, but they might not treat you like a younger brother. You're incredibly stupid."

Song Yushu lost his appetite and put down his chopsticks to leave, leaving Zhou Chengyu and Zhou Chengzhu staring at each other in bewilderment.

The consequence of offending Song Yushu was that not only did Zhou Chengli lose his meal, but Zhou Chengyu was also not allowed to have his.

Zhou Chengyu could only eat the plum juice with his sister, unable to swallow the food provided by the academy, while his classmates around him were enjoying their meals.

"What did you do to upset that woman? She won't even give you food."

Seeing his pitiful state, Xia Yun gave him a small piece of meat.

Zhou Chengyu hadn't been eating well lately and looked quite thin, so he couldn't help but complain to Xia Yun.

"Did I say something wrong? Why is my mother so petty?" After explaining the whole story, Zhou Chengyu still felt that he was right.

After hearing this, Xia Yun was speechless. Although he was the young master of the Xia family who had never wanted for anything, he knew who had given him all of this. Therefore, he had always been very filial to his parents. In his opinion, Zhou Chengyu was indeed somewhat ungrateful.

"Brother Zhou, let me put it this way, without your mother, wouldn't you have been able to go to school? Wouldn't you have been able to eat good food?"

“That’s right, but he’s still my older brother…”

“That’s your own brother, not Aunt Wei’s. Even if I hadn’t deliberately inquired before, I knew that Zhou Chengli had a mean and shrewish stepmother. But now that I’ve met her, I’ve found that Aunt Wei is not the same as the rumors. Who spread these rumors? I guess it’s your brother, right?”

“If I were Aunt Wei, I would have been very polite by not treating him like an enemy. Besides, you said that your older brother and you weren’t very close before, so why has he been coming to see you so frequently lately? Think about it carefully.”

Xia Yun gave him a look of utter disbelief, feeling that his classmate was ungrateful for his good fortune. As a rich young master, he knew how to please his benefactors, while Zhou Chengyu was siding with outsiders. If he were in the Xia family, his legs would be broken.

Zhou Chengyu was so distracted by Xia Yun's words that even Zhou Chengli, who came to find him, noticed.

If he hadn't used Zhou Chengyu as a breakthrough point during this period, he wouldn't have wasted time tutoring Zhou Chengyu. Now, Zhou Chengyu is even distracted.

"Brother, that's enough for today, I'm going back now!" Zhou Chengyu hadn't figured out how to face Zhou Chengli yet, so he quickly left with the book, leaving Zhou Chengli with a gloomy look in his eyes.

Putting aside the fact that her son was too stupid, Song Yushu had almost finished preparing her restaurant, and the day she left Zhang was getting closer and closer.

"Let's call it Good Taste Restaurant!"

After finalizing the plaque, Song Yushu also commissioned someone to carve the menu items, and all the tables, chairs, bowls, and plates were prepared.

On the opening day, almost all the regular customers who had bought the braised food before came, and Song Yushu even reserved two tables for the students of the academy.

"Where is Zhou Chengyu?" Xia Yun didn't see Zhou Chengyu even after all the dishes were served.

"You all eat first, don't worry about him," Song Yushu's good mood was not affected.

"Then I wish Mr. Wei a prosperous business!" Xia Yun and several students said sweetly.

"Thank you, consider this my way of thanking you for taking care of me during this time, so I'll give you a free meal!" Seeing that the group of teenagers were lively, Song Yushu liked them and wanted to build a good relationship with these customers, so he decided to give them a free meal.

"Thank you, Boss Wei!" Although many of the students came from wealthy families, they all cheered at the prospect of eating for free.

"Master Xue is here!" A sharp-eyed student shouted as usual during class, and the group of students immediately fell silent.

“Master Xue, there’s an empty seat here,” Song Yushu said, noticing a girl who looked similar to Zhou Chengzhu standing next to Master Xue. The two had somewhat similar features and were quite striking in the crowd.

Xue Huai'an didn't like crowded places, but Xue Qingyao insisted on dragging him along to join in the fun when she learned that this restaurant was opening.

"No need for formalities, just do as usual," Xue Huai'an wasn't too rigid, he was just deliberately keeping a straight face in order to keep the group of students in the academy in check.