"Come on, give me three catties, I haven't had any for days," the regular customer said in a low voice.
“Miss Jiang, you don’t know, in the few days you were away, several stalls selling braised pork offal appeared in the market, but none of them tasted as good as yours.”
Jiang Hua handed over the packaged salt-baked chicken feet, smiled but didn't say anything. After this regular customer left, several more customers came in, all buying three to five catties at a time, and some buying one or two catties.
So, the chicken feet sold out quickly. Just as they were packing up to leave, several men surrounded them, the leader of whom had a blade of grass in his mouth.
"Young lady, our manager requests your presence at Guangfu Restaurant," the leading man said, spitting out the foxtail grass from his mouth.
He said "please," but no one could tell that he was respectfully inviting someone over.
"I'm not going," Jiang Hua said without looking up as she packed up her things at the stall.
"Let's go then." The leader was about to turn around when his henchman reminded him.
"Boss, she said she's not going," the underling said weakly.
"What?! You actually dare not go!" The leader's face immediately showed displeasure as he looked at Jiang Hua: "Do you know who I am?!"
"There's no one on this whole street who doesn't know me, Zhao Liu, and there's no one I, Zhao Liu, can't get!"
"Get her! Smash her stall! She'll regret this!" With that, Zhao Liu gave a look to his two henchmen behind him, signaling them to make their move.
However, before the two men could even touch anything on the cart, they were kicked two meters away by Jiang Xingzhou and his companions who had stepped forward.
"What's going on? Are you all just good for nothing?" Zhao Liu shouted at the two underlings who had been suddenly kicked away.
"Who exactly are you?" Seeing his two underlings lying on the ground screaming in pain, Zhao Liu had no choice but to face Jiang Xingzhou alone.
"You don't even know who I am, yet you dare to come and cause trouble!" Jiang Xingzhou said coldly.
Zhao Liu was stunned. He actually examined Jiang Xingzhou carefully for a while before finally confirming that he really hadn't seen this man on that road.
Moreover, Ye Guicheng didn't tell him about this tough nut to crack; he just said it was a young woman who ran a stall at the market.
"Do you want to smash it again?" Jiang Xingzhou asked him again.
Smash it!
Why not smash it? If he doesn't smash it, how will Zhao Liu continue to live on West Street? Thinking this, he already stretched out his foot to kick the wooden bucket of salt-baked chicken feet on the cart.
Ah~
Zhao Liu's screams rang out from the crowd as he lay down next to his two henchmen.
However, the two henchmen were loyal to their friends. When they saw Zhao Liu being kicked to the ground, they immediately got up and helped him up.
"You just wait, I'll be back."
Supported by his two henchmen, Zhao Liu clutched his throbbing wound, uttered some harsh words, and quickly left.
"Let's go, let's go to the market," Jiang Hua said calmly, glancing at the three people who were fleeing in disarray.
After Zhao Liu was driven away, Jiang Hua and her group were able to set up their stall at the market safely for another month.
"Stepmother, how much silver did we earn?" Jiang Jingyi asked expectantly as Jiang Hua counted the loose silver coins laid out on the table.
“One hundred and thirty-five taels,” Jiang Hua replied, counting out fifty taels from the pile of loose silver and pushing it in front of Jiang Xingzhou.
"I'll return the fifty taels of silver to you now."
"Father, you can't accept this." Before Jiang Xingzhou could speak, Jiang Jingyi had already pushed the silver back.
"Stepmother, are you leaving me and Father?" The little guy's eyes immediately turned red, looking at Jiang Hua pitifully like an abandoned puppy.
“I didn’t say I was leaving,” Jiang Hua explained. “I was just returning the money to him.”
"No need to return it." With that, Jiang Xingzhou took out two hundred-tael silver notes from his sleeve and placed them on the table.
"What is this?" Jiang Hua looked at Jiang Xingzhou in confusion.
"I'll be leaving Xujia Village for a while, so I'll leave Ayi in your care," Jiang Xingzhou said slowly.
"How long will it take?" Jiang Hua asked, frowning.
"I don't know yet. It could take three months at the shortest, or six months at the longest," Jiang Xingzhou replied.
"I can't bring Ah Yi with me now, so I'll have to trouble you to take care of him."
"Okay." Jiang Hua nodded in agreement.
"Father, where are you going? Don't you want me anymore?" Jiang Jingyi threw herself into Jiang Xingzhou's arms and cried.
"Father has things to do, so you stay home and listen to your stepmother," Jiang Xingzhou coaxed.
"When are you leaving?" Jiang Hua asked again.
"First thing tomorrow morning."
"So sudden?"
"Yes, it happened suddenly," Jiang Xingzhou said briefly. He had also received the news suddenly last night.
Jiang Xingzhou comforted Jiang Jingyi a few more times. Ever since he learned that Jiang Xingzhou was leaving the next day, he had been holding Jiang Jingyi's hand tightly every night while sleeping. He was still just a child after all.
Jiang Hua looked at his red, swollen eyes and sighed inwardly.
Before dawn, Jiang Hua heard movement on the bed, opened her eyes, and saw that Jiang Xingzhou was already up.
"Are you leaving?" Jiang Hua asked, getting up.
"Hmm." Jiang Xingzhou nodded, and the two met eyes, unsure of what to say for a moment.
Upon exiting the courtyard, a fiery red horse appeared out of nowhere, and a person dressed in night clothes was waiting in the courtyard.
Jiang Xingzhou strode out, leaped onto his horse, and rode away into the darkness.
"Stepmother, has Father left?"
Jiang Hua was still making breakfast in the kitchen when Jiang Jingyi ran barefoot from the inner room.
"Okay, he's leaving. Your father told you to stay home and read. He'll be back after you finish reading the books in the inner room," Jiang Hua said, comforting him as he looked disappointed.
"Really?" Jiang Jingyi's eyes, which had been downcast, lit up immediately, and he asked uncertainly.
Jiang Jingyi felt a little disappointed that his father had never asked him to leave before, but now that he had been gone for so long, he felt relieved. However, seeing Jiang Hua busy in the kitchen, he felt at ease.
"Okay, go put your shoes on first. It's not good to go barefoot."
"good."
After breakfast, Jiang Hua dried herbs in the courtyard, while Jiang Jingyi moved a stool out to read a book at the door of the inner room.
"Huahua." Aunt Liu walked in carrying a pile of finished clothes.
"Auntie's here, come in and sit down." Jiang Hua brought out a stool.
"I finished making your clothes and was thinking of bringing them to you. I thought you had gone out today." Aunt Liu handed the clothes to Jiang Hua.
"Thank you so much, Auntie." Jiang Hua carried the clothes inside and took out some money from her spatial storage to make the clothes, giving it to Aunt Liu.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com