Chapter 228 Ask Your Sister-in-Law
The teaching of roasted chestnuts is supposed to start at 8:00 AM, but it's not even 7:30 yet. Xiao Zhenwei and Luo Shiliu won't come that early, so who will come and what will they do?
As soon as Xiao Wei opened the door, his brows furrowed.
"Is there something you need?"
Wang Cuihua looked inside with a tearful expression, pleading, "Is Brother Xiao Cheng here?"
Xiao Wei pursed his lips: "You have mice in your house again?"
"No, no!" Now, whenever Wang Cuihua hears the word "rat," she recalls the terrifying scene from that night when Bai Lu swatted a rat away, and the rat smeared her face with blood.
My heart, liver, and lungs were trembling uncontrollably.
"I'm here to buy an electric chestnut roasting machine. Sugar-roasted chestnuts are too difficult to roast." Wang Cuihua held up her right hand, which had a small blister, palm up, for Xiao Wei to see.
When she caught sight of Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu out of the corner of her eye, she immediately began to complain: "I just finished roasting the chestnuts I was supposed to sell this morning yesterday, and my hands are already covered in big blisters. I worked so hard, and after finally selling all the chestnuts, I came back to cook, but the blisters suddenly burst while I was washing the vegetables. It hurts so much that I can't even hold the spatula. I can't roast the chestnuts I'm supposed to sell this afternoon."
"My hands are killing me. I've been resting since yesterday afternoon until this morning, and the blisters on my hands still haven't healed. It really hurts so much, I really can't roast chestnuts anymore."
Before she started roasting chestnuts, Wang Cuihua wanted Bailu's recipe for sugar-roasted chestnuts every day.
Now that she has learned how to make roasted chestnuts, she realizes how tiring it is to keep stirring them.
Wang Cuihua didn't want to fry them anymore, but Bailu only sells fresh chestnuts now and won't fry them for her to sell anymore.
She can only afford an electric chestnut roasting machine; she absolutely must buy one so she can earn money without lifting a finger.
Wang Cuihua spread out her injured palm for Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu to see. Her hand trembled from time to time, and she looked pitiful from the pain, as if she was about to cry at any moment.
Bai Lu glanced at the "big blister" in front of her, about a third the size of a mung bean, and was speechless for a moment.
If you say they faked it, that's not true. They really did have blisters on their palms. As for whether they were in excruciating pain, we don't know. After all, the blisters were on their hands, and the skin was definitely broken a little.
If you had come three minutes later, the wound would have healed; after all, it had already scabbed over.
Xiao Cheng glanced indifferently at the inconspicuous bubbles in front of him and said coldly, "If you can't make a profit, then don't sell it."
The tear that Wang Cuihua managed to squeeze out was instantly forced to stop at the corner of her eye, unable to fall even if she wanted to.
Bai Lu turned her face away; as long as she didn't make a sound, no one would know she was smiling.
Wang Cuihua was stunned for a second by Xiao Cheng's cold attitude, but she immediately explained, "Brother Xiao Cheng, I want to buy an electric chestnut roasting machine. Roasting them manually for a day or two is fine, but roasting them every day will make me so tired that I won't even be able to hold chopsticks, and I won't be able to do laundry or cook. I can't manage to stay home alone..."
Wang Cuihua forced a single tear from the corner of her eye, her eyes red and swollen, looking incredibly wronged and pitiful.
Xiao Cheng noticed that Bai Lu was very quiet today and deliberately turned her face away from him. He pulled her back with one hand and said, "The electric stir-fry machine belongs to your sister-in-law. Ask your sister-in-law."
Bai Lu stared blankly at the large hand wrapped around her waist, frozen in place, her silent chuckle from just now choked back.
Her relationship with Xiao Cheng was somewhat delicate, but the two of them knew the truth and did not make it public.
To the outside world, their relationship remains unchanged—that of husband and wife.
What he said... isn't wrong.
Wang Cuihua was stunned for a while by Xiao Cheng's action of embracing Bai Lu to announce his identity. Only then did she reluctantly turn her pitiful face to Bai Lu and say, "Bai Lu, I want to buy an electric chestnut roasting machine. You don't make sugar-roasted chestnuts anymore, so sell me the electric roasting machine."
"You have so many electric chestnut roasting machines, I'll only buy one. You can keep the others as your treasures."
The electric stir-fry machine was a gift from Xiao Cheng to Bai Lu. Although only the first one was explicitly mentioned, and the other two were not, Bai Lu was the only one in the family who made sugar-roasted chestnuts. It wasn't a gift to Bai Lu, but it was specially made for her.
During the last lesson, when everyone suggested buying it, Xiao Cheng got angry. Bai Lu didn't want to cause herself any trouble. You can't mess with a tiger's whiskers; it might eat you alive when it gets angry!
He firmly refused: "Not for sale."
This wasn't the first time Wang Cuihua had been refused; she insisted on buying it: "Bai Lu, please help me."
"I've already taught you how to make roasted chestnuts," Bai Lu said, indicating that she had already helped.
Wang Cuihua had already paid her tuition fees; what she wanted wasn't this kind of help, but rather, "I want to buy an electric stir-fry machine."
Bai Lu refused: "Not for sale."
"I'll just buy one."
"Not a single one will be sold."
"White Dew..."
"You guys actually have an electric chestnut roasting machine!"
The sudden sound interrupted Wang Cuihua's unfinished words, and footsteps sounded at the door at the same time.
The burly figure burst through the door and shouted, "I want to buy an electric chestnut roasting machine. How much do you want?"
If the teaching atmosphere yesterday hadn't been so "exciting," Bai Lu would have believed Xiao Zhenwei's outrageous offer.
Anyone can ask for a high price, but whether they can actually afford it, and whether they're genuinely willing to pay it or not, is another matter entirely.
Just as Bai Lu was about to refuse, another voice, along with a few footsteps, rang out first—
"You haven't even learned how to fry sand, and you want to buy a machine? You're a real genius!"
Wang Hao's impatience is usually manifested when he goes out on business with Xiao Cheng, when he is slandered by his opponents, and when they verbally abuse each other before a fight. He can even bring up your ancestors for eighteen generations. He usually doesn't verbally abuse or attack you randomly unless there's a reason.
I don't know if it's because he's too happy or too excited about becoming a father, but he's been arguing with Xiao Zhenwei lately.
He immediately launched into a tirade against the "talented" person, leaving them red-faced and humiliated.
Luo Shiliu chimed in with a sarcastic remark, "You haven't even learned how to roast chestnuts, are you going to buy a machine to breed them at home?"
Xiao Zhenwei: "..."
Xiao Dazhuang thought Xiao Zhenwei's idea was wrong: "My sister-in-law said that one should be down-to-earth and not think about taking shortcuts or finding loopholes all day long. Having real ability is the only true principle."
Xiao Zhenwei wanted to hit someone: "Who sells a machine without teaching how to use it? I bought an electric chestnut roasting machine, so the machine's capabilities are mine. Why should I need to learn how to roast chestnuts!"
Wang Cuihua failed to buy the electric stir-fry machine and even attracted a competitor who was also trying to buy it. Fearing that Xiao Cheng would blame her, she hurriedly told Bai Lu, "I'll come back this afternoon," and ran away.
Xiao Cheng glanced coldly at Xiao Zhenwei, dismissing his arrogance with two words: "Not for sale."
"I can offer a high price!" Xiao Zhenwei didn't want to learn how to make roasted chestnuts anymore; it was time-consuming, laborious, and thankless.
While Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu sold recipes for roasted chestnuts, he sold electric chestnut roasting machines—that's where he made the most money.
As far as Xiao Zhenwei knew, there were no electric chestnut roasting machines in the surrounding counties or Nanshi.
If he buys the electric chestnut roasting machine from Xiao Cheng and Bai Lu's house and gets a few of his old colleagues from the hardware store to work on it, he'll definitely be able to mass-produce it.
That's way more profitable than roasted chestnuts!
(End of this chapter)
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