After arranging things, Meng Zhao drove the donkey cart back to the county. In the distance, he saw a figure walking towards the county. As he got closer, he realized it was Li Yunxiang.
Seeing that no one was around, Meng Zhao pulled on the reins to stop the car and jumped off.
Upon seeing it was her, Li Yunxiang knelt down without saying a word. Meng Zhao was helpless. Although she should thank him, couldn't she have done it in a different way?
Meng Zhao gave a wry smile and reached out to help Li Yunxiang up. "If you have something to say, just say it properly. Why keep kneeling like that?"
Li Yunxiang stood up, her eyes reddening. "Thank you, thank you Meng Zhao. You are like a second parent to me and Er Ya. From now on, Er Ya and I will live in your hands."
Meng Zhao sighed and said, "I only gave you a method. You and Er Ya were the ones who carried it out. You also had to bear the risks if anything went wrong. In the end, you saved yourself and Er Ya. If you had continued to be so timid, even if I wanted to help you, I wouldn't have gotten involved in these things."
Looking at the weeping Li Yunxiang, Meng Zhao continued, "You still have to live your life. Er Ya is still young, and she has to support the family too."
Hearing Meng Zhao's words, Li Yunxiang stopped crying and nodded emphatically, "I will."
Li Yunxiang said to Meng Zhao with a worried expression, "I was too anxious today and revealed the name of Huichuntang. Fortunately, only the village head knew about it, but I don't know if he will tell the Li family."
Meng Zhao comforted him, "Since the village head discovered the problem but still helped you and Er Ya leave the Li family, he won't cause you any more trouble. Don't worry about it."
Hearing Meng Zhao's words, Li Yunxiang finally felt relieved, and then took out three taels of silver from her pocket.
“I rented two rooms in the village, but right now there’s nowhere to hide money. I know the Li family; they definitely won’t just give me these three taels of silver. So, I’d appreciate it if you could keep this money for me.”
Meng Zhao raised an eyebrow, slightly teasing, "Aren't you worried I'll run off with this money?" Besides these three taels, the fifty taels of silver that Li Erya had borrowed earlier were also with her.
Li Yunxiang looked at Meng Zhao seriously, without the slightest hesitation or doubt in her eyes, "If it weren't for you, I probably would have jumped into the river and died. If I had died, Er Ya would definitely have been tortured to death by the Li family. You saved both Er Ya's and my lives, so why would I worry about these things?"
Meng Zhao asked with a smile, "Do you have any money left on you?"
“I secretly saved more than two hundred coins before, and now it’s just enough to pay the rent. Besides, the more miserable we are now, the less likely the Li family will find out.”
Meng Zhao nodded. "Okay, then you can just bear with it for another two or three months. After the New Year, you can find a chance to pay back the money."
The place where Meng Zhao borrowed the money was chosen after much searching. Although the person there was skilled at debt collection, he was still quite disciplined and followed procedures. He would intimidate people first before taking action. Today, he only came over and vandalized the place without hurting anyone.
According to what Meng Zhao had heard, this kind of vandalism might happen four or five more times, so he should just bear with it for now and pay back the money when the other party comes to him.
Although she would definitely lose the interest, as long as she worked hard for a year, Li Yunxiang could earn back the interest. It was much better than working herself to the bone at the Li family's house every day and not even getting any money in her own hands.
Seeing that someone was coming from behind, Meng Zhao stopped talking, got into the carriage, and drove the donkey cart home.
Li Yunxiang used the excuse of going to the county to buy things to see Meng Zhao. Although she had already met him, she still decided to go to the county to avoid suspicion.
She only planned to buy some food this time, and nothing else, since buying anything else would only lead to being vandalized by debt collectors.
The next morning, Meng Zhao prepared the spice packet herself in the room. Now that the shop was well-staffed, she no longer got involved in everything, but only did the key parts, such as the spice packet, which was something that absolutely could not be leaked.
To ensure the secrecy of the spice packet recipe, Meng Zhao went to great lengths. He bought the spices from different shops and even had his second uncle buy several kinds from other counties. When mixing the spices, he ground some of them into small pieces so that even if the spice packet was stolen, no one would be able to tell what it contained.
She even carefully counts the quantity of used spice packets and destroys them all. Because she is so meticulous, no braised meat shop in the county has appeared yet that tastes similar.
After the ingredients were prepared, Meng Zhao went out to help with other tasks. Although she did less work, she didn't do nothing. Only by doing the work herself could she discover any problems in the current process that needed improvement.
The group chatted as they worked, and since they were all from Shenjia Village, they naturally talked about things related to Shenjia Village.
Shen Suyun said, "You live far away, so you don't know. My house is right next to Dafu's old house. Yunxiang and her daughter just moved in yesterday, and they were robbed that very night."
Upon hearing this, Aunt Feng'e was immediately furious. "Who is so heartless? Yunxiang and her daughter have already suffered enough, and now they have to come and torment them."
Shen Suyun snorted and continued, "Who else could it be but Li Dayong? He's a heartless bastard. Yunxiang worked hard for them, even if she didn't do anything right. Now that he's gone, he's still stealing money from Yunxiang's house. He really doesn't leave Yunxiang and her daughter any way to survive."
"Fortunately, Dafu's house was dilapidated. When Li Dayong left, a piece of wood happened to fall down and hit him, making him shout. That's when he was discovered. Later, the village head also came and took Li Dayong back and gave him a severe lesson. He told them to stay away from Yunxiang and her daughter and said that if they got too close to them, he would report Li Dayong to the authorities for stealing."
Meng Zhao was relieved to hear this, thinking that with Li in charge, Yunxiang and her daughter would be safe.
When Meng Zhao led everyone to the shop to open for business, she was still doing the work of cutting meat and doing accounts. This position was the closest to the customers and the position where she could hear firsthand feedback.
One customer simply brought over a bowl and said, "Give me a whole pig."
Meng Zhao smiled and took the bowl. This "whole pig family" consisted of pig ears, pig head meat, pig intestines, pig belly, pig hock, pig trotters, and so on. Because Meng Zhao had a wide variety of items, some customers wanted to order a little of everything, hence the name "whole pig family."
Meng Zhao skillfully cut out all the items the other party wanted and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled out two large spoonfuls of soup and said with a smile, "Alright, here you go, it's 130 coins in total."
The diner readily paid the money. Although this pot of meat cost him almost two days' wages, the taste was just too good. Today was a happy occasion in his family, and bringing back a pot of fragrant braised pork would make his whole family of more than ten people happy.
Just as Meng Zhao was settling accounts with the customers, Zhao Cheng's wife, who had previously learned to set up a stall selling boxed lunches like Meng Zhao at the dock, rushed over, looking flustered and panting, saying, "Boss Meng, you'd better go and see, some thugs have come to the dock and are going to kick your stall out."
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