After leaving Zhaolan, Xing Zhaozhao went to Xunlan Teahouse, which was located in Zhaohong Square. It was only a ten-minute walk away. When she arrived, there was a great commotion inside.
This was the first time in her life that Xing Zhaozhao had ever seen a man lying on the ground throwing a tantrum. To be precise, he was an old man around seventy years old with a mean-spirited face, and he probably wasn't a good person when he was young.
"Money, give me the money! If you don't give it to me, you can forget about doing business here anymore. I'll come here every day and cause trouble!" the old man shouted as he reached out to Fu Hong for money.
Fu Hong's face turned pale with anger. Ever since she suddenly heard the tragic news of Fu Lan's death and fainted in the hospital, even though she has been discharged now, Fu Hong's health has deteriorated significantly. After all, she is getting old. Unexpectedly, her husband's younger brother came to cause trouble again, which seemed to make matters worse.
"Get out! I'm your sister-in-law, not your mother. There's no reason for me to support your elderly brother-in-law and his family anywhere!" Fu Hong shouted angrily.
The old man, with his neck stiff and an air of self-righteousness, said, "Of course! An elder sister-in-law is like a mother. Now that Mom and Dad are gone, and my eldest brother is gone too, isn't it only natural that you, as the elder sister-in-law, should take on the responsibility of caring for the younger ones?"
Fu Hong was so angry she almost fell over backwards: "You're already seventy years old, and you still come up to me and talk about being young? Have you no shame, Dong Cang?"
Xing Zhaozhao's heart skipped a beat. So this old man was Fu Hong's brother-in-law, Dong Cang. Now she finally saw it for herself. Fu Lan was right after all; he had no shame whatsoever.
Dong Cang, shameless as ever, said, "Compared to you, sister-in-law, I'm just the younger one. What's wrong with that? Besides, you used to give to us all the time, and now you just stop giving to us like that. You're treating us like monkeys, and now you want to kick us to the curb after you've had your fun. Don't even think about it, there's no way you'll get away with it."
Fu Hong sneered and said, "I gave you money before, partly because of your brother, and partly because I wanted you to shut up and stop bothering me. I didn't expect it would only make you more greedy. Ten thousand a month isn't enough for you. You dare to ask me for an exorbitant amount. Well then, don't even think about getting a single penny. Over the years, I've given you at least several hundred thousand, if not hundreds of thousands. If I used that much money to raise monkeys, at least the monkeys would entertain me. But you're not even as good as monkeys. Get lost."
Dong Cang looked at Fu Hong with a gloomy expression: "It seems that sister-in-law really doesn't plan to keep this shop open."
Fu Hong looked coldly at Dong Cang: "You can try it, but don't blame me for disregarding family ties and calling the police to send you to jail."
Dong Cang chuckled dismissively, "Then you can give it a try, sister-in-law. Anyway, I'm old enough that even if I get arrested, I'll only be locked up for a few days at most, maybe not even that. But if something happens to your shop every now and then, the losses will be huge."
Fu Hong's face darkened, and she turned to her daughter and granddaughter, who were both furious, and said, "Fanghua, Shasha, throw him out of here."
Because Dong Cang held the title of elder, and with Fu Hong present, Dong Fanghua stood to the side, listening to Dong Cang's shameless words. Although she was furious, she hadn't planned to speak up until now. Now that she had Fu Hong's permission, she was overjoyed and immediately nodded without hesitation, "Okay, Mom."
Seeing a waiter holding a broom, Dong Fanghua took it and swept it directly at Dong Cang, who was sitting on the ground: "Get out."
Fu Hong had already shown him no respect, but now even a junior dared to slap him in public. Dong Cang, used to being arrogant, couldn't stand it. He scrambled to his feet, grabbed the broom Dong Fanghua had swept at him, and raised his other hand high, ready to slap Dong Fanghua across the face: "You brat, no matter what, I'm your uncle, your elder, and a teacher. You have no manners at all! Your father's gone and can't control you anymore, so let me, your uncle, teach you a lesson..."
Fu Hong and He Shasha, seeing the situation was bad, became anxious and cried out, "Fanghua (Mom), be careful!"
Dong Fanghua realized something was wrong and tried to back away, but Dong Cang grabbed the broom in her hand and she couldn't back away. By the time she tried to let go, it was too late. The slap was about to fall, and she could feel the wind from the slap on her face. She was so frightened that she instinctively closed her eyes.
However, after waiting for a while, the slap did not fall. Dong Fanghua couldn't help but cautiously open one eye and was surprised to see that Dong Cang's hand was being held by a fair and slender hand. When she looked at the owner of the hand next to her, she was stunned and exclaimed in surprise, "How come it's you?"
He Shasha was also stunned when she saw Xing Zhaozhao: "You're not... how could you be..."
Only Fu Hong looked pleasantly surprised: "Miss Xing?!"
He Shasha then realized that the Miss Xing that her mother had been talking about for so long was her.
Xing Zhaozhao smiled and nodded at Fu Hong: "Long time no see."
"It really has been a long time," Fu Hong said with a smile. It had been more than two months since they last met.
"What brings you here today?" Fu Hong then asked.
"I need to talk to you about something," Xing Zhaozhao said.
"Oh?" Fu Hong was about to ask more questions when Dong Cang, who had been held tightly by Xing Zhaozhao and had tried several times to break free but failed, couldn't hold back any longer and started cursing, "Let me go, you stinking..."
The insults were so vulgar that Xing Zhaozhao frowned and slapped him across the face.
With a sharp "smack," Dong Cang's head was knocked to one side, his ears were ringing, and he could even see stars flashing before his eyes.
"At your age, you still act like a senior citizen, disrespectful to your elders. Do you really think everyone will indulge you?" Xing Zhaozhao said coldly with a look of disdain.
The ringing in his ears finally stopped, and the stars in his eyes disappeared. Dong Cang came to his senses and looked at Xing Zhaozhao in disbelief: "You, you, you beat up an old man! I'm going to call the police to arrest you." He had used this trick to extort money from many people, and it never failed him. The police couldn't do anything about it.
"Whatever, go ahead and report it. Anyway, there are security cameras in the store. You bullied the elderly and women, and it was all recorded. I call this acting bravely for a just cause. Don't think you can extort money from me just because you're old. My husband is a general. You try it." Xing Zhaozhao said nonchalantly.
"Your man? A general?" Dong Cang looked at Xing Zhaozhao with disbelief, then quickly looked her up and down, scoffed, and said, "How could that be? You're kidding me."
Not to mention Dong Cang, even He Shasha looked suspicious.
A general? Really? No way! She did know someone with the rank of general—her new boss's father-in-law. But maybe it really was true; otherwise, why would her new boss be so respectful to him? The two families knew each other, and their relationship was probably quite close.
He Shasha felt she had figured it out, but she was a little curious about how old this man was, since that position couldn't be attained solely through military merit.
“It’s true.” Fu Hong looked at Dong Cang seriously and said, “If you don’t believe me, you can try it.”
Dong Cang: "??!!"
Dong Cang initially didn't believe it, but seeing Fu Hong's serious expression, he began to have doubts. Really?
Just as Dong Cang hesitated, Xing Zhaozhao picked him up, turned around and walked to the door, throwing him out like trash: "Don't let me see you here again, or I'll beat you every time I see you, and send you to jail for a meal."
After saying that, Xing Zhaozhao slammed the door shut and locked it.
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