Chapter 63 Chapter 63 A fierce woman appeared in Nanzhou!
Nanzhou.
The sky was just beginning to break. The rain had fallen all night, its drops pattering on the bluestone slabs, taking away the unbearable heat of Tang County. A gentle morning breeze blew, bringing a touch of coolness to pedestrians walking along the streets.
At this time, in the Hat Bian Alley of Tang County, the shouts of vendors could be heard from time to time. Those middle-aged men with bare chests and dark complexions would swing their cotton handkerchiefs and shout loudly when they saw customers passing by:
"Fresh sugar cold dumplings, with their authentic, rich sugar color, perfect as a refreshing drink! Hey, would you like to buy some to try?"
Another one shouted, "My dear lady, the method of making crystal soap buns in my family is handed down from our ancestors, and it has been passed down to me for exactly thirteen generations. I heard that the great-grandfather loved these crystal soap buns so much that he invited my great-grandfather to come to Beijing and serve them in the imperial kitchen."
"And these lychee pastes, sweetened fruits, and crispy crystal fish—even Grandpa Taizu can't forget these delicacies!"
"Dear guests, come and taste it!"
Everyone burst into laughter after hearing this. Someone pointed at the man who was shouting loudly and said, "Zhang Laosan, you're always boastful, and now you're even more arrogant. If you really want to be noticed by the Great Ancestor, would you, a hairless kid, still be shouting in Hat Brim Alley?"
"The emperor must worship your whole family as living Buddhas!"
The rest of the audience burst into laughter after hearing what he said. Zhang Laosan was only sixteen or seventeen, and he had just shouted at the top of his lungs for such a long time, so they thought he was shameless.
Being ridiculed by everyone, his dark face flushed crimson, and his lips moved up and down, but no words came out. Someone called out, "What's up, Zhang Laosan? You have nothing to say, right?"
Zhang Laosan turned around angrily and said, "What I said is true. Believe it or not. If you don't believe me, you can ask my boss. She is from the capital!"
The boss Zhang Laosan mentioned was well-known to everyone. The men present felt a chill in their stomachs when they heard him mention his boss.
When Zhang Laosan's boss first met him, he thought he was a delicate and frail Gushe Immortal. But he didn't expect him to be so fierce.
Some people don't believe it and imagine a beautiful woman with a slender waist and fair arms, and a shy look, and want to meet her at night.
Unexpectedly, he didn't get any oil at all, but was immediately cut into pieces by the boss with a butcher knife, using superb knife skills.
It was said that when the authorities came to investigate the next day, the bastard was still lying in the yard. Someone's dog smelled the blood and rushed forward to grab it. However, as soon as its teeth touched the bastard, it immediately put it down in disgust and kicked it hard into the grass nearby.
The lecher reported the boss to the government, but the boss was right and he was wrong. The boss put his hands on his hips and cursed:
"You climbed over the wall in the middle of the night. How could I know if it was a human or a monster? If it was a monster, I would have sent it away. If it was a human, the same would apply! Who told you to sneak into my house in the dead of night?"
As she spoke, her eyes welled up with tears, and she covered her handkerchief with her hand and said softly to the officer, "Sir, I just want to live a stable life in Tang County. What I did last night was self-defense. You can't punish me."
The official frowned but said nothing.
The other men who were watching the excitement were stunned by the sudden change in attitude of the female demon. Then, seeing the official's deliberate shielding attitude, they immediately suppressed the thoughts that had been rising in their minds.
These beauties are also divided into different levels.
A man's beauty has hands as delicate as catkins, skin as white as cream, a delicate forehead and eyebrows, a charming smile, and eyes full of longing. [Note 1] This is the highest level of beauty.
A man's beauty is as quiet as a delicate flower reflecting in water, and as graceful as a willow swaying in the wind. [Note 2] Her gaze is radiant and captivating. This is a medium level of beauty.
A man's beauty has eyebrows like willows, hair like clouds, a cherry-like mouth, and a willow-like waist. But though beautiful in appearance, she behaves unruly and without restraint, and speaks in a voice that sounds like spitting dung. This is the inferior kind of beauty.
The beauty of the lower class, beautiful but without any manners. Obviously, in the eyes of everyone, Zhang Laosan's boss belongs to the lower class of beauty.
Besides, this fierce woman, not only does she have a bad temper, but she also has excellent knife skills. Who would dare to mess with her?
Even if they really wanted to give up, they were those who wanted to enter the palace to become eunuchs. Ordinary people still wanted to marry a beautiful wife and have three or five children comfortably.
Therefore, the price of provoking that boss is too high. Moreover, she has someone in the government backing her up, so even if her subordinates cry out for justice to the sky, they can't punish her.
Why bother? Everyone secretly murmured. Such a beautiful woman's favor is too much for us to enjoy. Let's give it to someone else.
From then on, Zhang Laosan's reputation as a tough boss was completely spread.
While everyone was arguing with Zhang Laosan, a roar suddenly broke out from the crowded crowd: "You idiot who eats dog shit, you hairless bald donkey, I eat your food and use your things, and you dare to hit me?!"
The burly man pulling the cart in the alley was like a bullied young wife, lowering his head and apologizing to her.
"I'm really sorry, Mr. Liang, it's my fault. I was negligent for a moment."
The man called Boss Liang waved his hands impatiently, "Get out, get out, I don't want to see you!" The burly man pulling the cart thought that the boss in bright clothes wanted him to pay compensation. After all, his cart was loaded with coal, and the collision just now had rubbed the boss's orange-pink jacket black.
Hearing this, Liang Dongjia was half surprised and half puzzled. Seeing the man standing there in a daze, he couldn't help but glare at him: "Why don't you get out of here? You're blocking the road!!"
"Yes, yes, I'll get out of here right now!" The man came to his senses and quickly pulled up the carriage and ran away like the wind.
Everyone was shocked. This man usually pulled the cart very slowly, but today he was like a ghost.
Weird, weird!
Attention returned to Ms. Liang. Seeing her beautiful face, cherry lips, and skin that was almost transparent in the sunlight, everyone was stunned, and both men and women stopped in their tracks.
"You bunch of clueless fools, if you look at me again, I'll gouge out both of your eyes!"
The sudden thunder blasted all the men and women present to pieces. The men came to their senses and realized that although the hostess was beautiful, she was actually a shrew. She had used that three-way cutting technique very skillfully.
Who dares to mess with him? Old man Wang, whose penis had been cut off, is still lying at home.
Liang Dongjia walked to the front of Zhang Laosan's stall, looked around, kicked the dirt on the ground, shook the parasol, and nodded with satisfaction: "Not bad."
She asked Zhang Laosan, "How's business today?"
Zhang Laosan was sweet-mouthed and called out "boss" from a distance. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Business today is just as good as usual! If we keep it on display for another hour or so, we'll almost sell out."
The colleagues who were setting up stalls here suddenly felt their hearts ache again. This Liang owner was really lucky. Although she was not a very likable person, the things she made and sold were often snapped up by customers not long after they were put on the market.
Normally, those who hated her also wanted to steal her method. But she was not afraid of you learning it at all, and even opened the door of her kitchen to you and handed the recipe to you.
The strange thing is that it is the same recipe and the same steps, but the food made by others is not as good as the one in Liang’s shop.
As expected, people still have to believe in fate. If it is destined to happen, it will happen. If it is not destined to happen, don't force it. After this incident, everyone became indifferent. Mrs. Liang was just lucky, and others couldn't learn from her.
It’s better to just do your own thing quietly.
Mr. Liang, who had just roared like a lion at the driver of the cart, seemed extremely kind to Zhang Laosan, patting him on the shoulder and saying "thank you for your hard work" from time to time.
Zhang Laosan was an orphan. He had been wandering around since he was a child, wearing clothes from different families and eating food from different families.
No one treated him as a human being, but as a working, hard-working animal. It was at Liang Dong's house that Zhang Laosan finally realized the dignity of being a human being.
He can gain the respect of Liang Dongjia.
This was undoubtedly a matter of great joy to Zhang Laosan. Furthermore, his boss had always been kind to him, and he couldn't understand why someone would be dissatisfied with such a good boss and talk about her.
Whenever someone called Liang Dongjia a she-devil, Zhang Laosan was the first to disagree. Their Dongjia was clearly the most kind and reasonable.
As for the previous incident, it was clearly someone else being rude to her. That old man, Wang, climbed over the wall in the middle of the night, intending to commit adultery. The landlord was simply acting in self-defense; what was wrong with that?
But these people refused to give in, thinking that it was all the boss's fault that Old Man Wang had his three legs cut off. If this happened to Zhang Laosan, he would definitely twist Old Man Wang's neck!
Liang Dongjia instructed him: "Go back quickly after you finish selling. The sun is strong and you must not get sunburned."
Zhang Laosan smiled innocently and said: "Boss, I'm not afraid of the sun and I won't get tanned."
After hearing this, the people around couldn't help but complain in their hearts: You, Zhang Laosan, are as evil as a coal seller. If you get even eviler, won't you become a monster?
After giving his instructions, Liang Hanzhang admired the busy scene in Maoyan Lane and walked home slowly, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan.
Liang Hanzhang had survived a disaster and, with help, had fled to Nanzhou, where she had settled down. She was penniless, but the benefactor who had helped her had left her a few ingots of silver.
Even though she had money, she couldn't just live off it. She remembered that she often watched the imperial chefs prepare various meals and pastries in the East Palace. She learned some of the techniques by watching and hearing them.
With those ingots of silver as capital, she opened the Liang family shop, specializing in selling various kinds of pastries and snacks. People in Tang County love sweets, and these newly improved methods made the originally monotonous breakfast instantly become delicious.
The Liang family shop became famous and accumulated considerable assets. However, Liang Hanzhang did not squander the money. Instead, he bought a house with two entrances and two exits and hired a guard for his own safety.
This guard was Zhang Laosan. Back then, Zhang Laosan was still a teenager, sold by human traffickers in the East Market. Liang Hanzhang saw that although the young man was dark-skinned, his arms were full of tendons, so he must be very strong. Just the right skills for a guard job.
After Zhang Laosan came to the Liang Mansion and became familiar with the owner, he took the initiative to take on the task of selling noodles and snacks every day.
After all, although Mrs. Liang had the protection of the officials, she herself became famous because of the incident with Old Man Wang, and ordinary people dared not provoke her.
But what if you meet someone who's blind? Those bullying young men, who are of high status, spend their days doing cockfighting, running errands, and stealing women.
Seeing Mr. Liang appearing in Maoyan Lane every day, he might become lustful and use his power to abduct Mr. Liang.
Although the county magistrate was asked to protect the Liang family, it was difficult for a powerful dragon to suppress a local snake. Even though the county magistrate was the father and mother of the area, there were times when he could not provide adequate protection.
After returning home, a young man who worked in the county government office handed a letter to Liang Hanzhang and said with a shy smile: "Madam Liang, someone sent you a letter, and I brought it to you."
Seeing that the young man was already out of breath after walking for a while, Liang Hanzhang couldn't help but smile and said, "Sir, come in and rest your feet and have some light tea, would you?"
The soldier waved his hands repeatedly. It was not that he looked down on the light tea from Madam Liang's house, but that Madam Liang was a widow at home, and he, a foreigner, should not enter the mansion and bring bad reputation to Madam Liang.
He said hastily, "I'll go back after I finish sending it off. Shangguan has asked me to do other things. Madam Liang, I'm leaving first!" As he said this, his earlobes turned bright red and he hurried away.
-----------------------
The author has something to say: [Note 1] From the Book of Songs: Wei Feng
【Note 2】From Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com