Zhang Daniu immediately complained, "Meizi, why do you have to ask your mother-in-law about everything? You need her approval to hire people, and you need her approval to have a meal with someone. What, is she the Queen Mother of the West at home? You still say she's good to you, but I think she's just a shrew!"
Zhang Mei stood up abruptly, her face flushed with anger, and said:
“Brother, how can you talk about my mother-in-law like that? My mother-in-law is a very good person. If you're going to say such bad things about her, then you should leave my house. I'll pretend you and your sister-in-law never came here.”
She turned away, her nose stinging with tears. Why was her brother still like this?
When Zhang Mei yelled at him, Zhang Daniu was furious and was about to hit her when Zhao glared at him and gestured with her lips. Zhang Daniu immediately lowered his hand sheepishly. He had come on important business today and couldn't let himself be kicked out.
"Meizi, I was wrong just now. That's just my temper. Don't be angry with me," Zhang Daniu said, trying to appease her.
Zhao also advised from the side, "Meizi, your brother has this bad temper. Don't take it to heart. He's just worried that you'll be mistreated by your in-laws."
Zhang Mei turned around and said, "My mother-in-law treats me very well, but as her daughter-in-law, I can't presume to invite you to stay for dinner. I was a bit harsh just now, so please don't blame me, brother and sister-in-law."
When Zhang Daniu and Zhao Shi saw that Zhang Mei wasn't going to hold it against them, they said, "Good, good, good."
When Song Anxin heard Zhang Mei say that her brother and sister-in-law wanted to stay for dinner, she softened and agreed, seeing Zhang Mei's cautious yet expectant expression.
She felt more at ease if the Zhang family elder brother and sister-in-law were just there to freeload.
At noon, her family cooked chestnut rice; white rice was too precious for Song Anxin to give to them. Since Uncle Bai was also eating at home, the dishes were still quite good: braised pork belly, runny scrambled eggs, braised pork, meatball soup, stir-fried vegetables with pork cracklings...
The Zhang brothers and sisters-in-law ate with gusto, their mouths greasy with oil, exclaiming that this was even better than what they ate during the Chinese New Year.
They secretly vowed that they must get their hands on the secret recipe for these rich and oily eggs so that their family could live like that every day.
After finishing their meal, Zhang's brother and sister-in-law lingered and began to stroll around the yard. When they reached the backyard, they saw a strong ox in the straw shed. Zhang Daniu was delighted and went up to stroke the ox with his hand.
"This ox is really good; it looks strong and capable of working."
Just then, Lin Fengnian brought over some water plants to feed the cattle. Looking at Zhang's brother and sister-in-law, he awkwardly called out:
"Brother, sister-in-law, there's nothing to see here. Meizi is looking for you in the front yard. You should go quickly."
Although he liked Meizi, he couldn't really feel any affection for her when he remembered how her brother and sister-in-law had treated her before.
But Meizi said her brother and sister-in-law had changed, had become better, and had even apologized to her, so he couldn't say anything.
At this moment, Zhao was craning her neck to look into the workshop in the back house from the back gate.
She said, "Brother-in-law, that's your family's workshop, right? It's quite big, I'd like to take a look, is that alright?"
Lin Fengnian immediately put on a stern face and said in a gruff voice, "No, that's a restricted area of the workshop. Only our family members and the workers are allowed to go in."
"Oh dear, brother-in-law, if it's not going to work out, it's not going to work out. Why are you making such a fuss? It's scary," Zhao said, patting her chest.
If she can't get in today, she'll eventually have a chance to get in if she comes every day.
She turned to Zhang Daniu, who was still stroking the cow, and said, "Let's go. What's so interesting about that cow? Look at you, so pathetic."
Zhang Daniu was very reluctant to leave. Once he got the secret recipe and sold it for money, he was determined to buy a fine ox like that.
Lin Fengnian gave the water plants to the cow, lowered his head and gently stroked the cow's head, then went to his mother's house.
Song Anxin and Lin Fengshou were checking the accounts. Every time Lin Fengshou returned from delivering goods, he would first go to the river with Shitou Xiaohe and several aunties to wash the pig offal that had come in. After lunch, the mother and son would take advantage of this lunch break to start checking the accounts.
Yesterday, the gift box containing 450 duck eggs cost a total of 175 taels. After purchasing red paper, oil, salt, and ink blocks, and deducting various expenses such as transportation costs, the final price was a little over 100 taels. The main expenses were for the salt and paper.
Today we sold over 600 pigs. Because the prices varied, after deducting the cost of buying pig offal and the labor cost of washing it, we still had a profit of a little over 197 taels.
Adding the money spent on the braised delicacies for the restaurant, and the money her family had left over, she now had a little over three hundred taels of silver in total. Looking at the money in her hand, Song Anxin smiled.
After so much hard work, her family fortune has finally exceeded one hundred million. However, she still has to pay the workers' wages, settle accounts with Brother Lin, and buy a large quantity of duck eggs. The Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes will only be profitable in the next few days, so she still needs to work harder if she wants to live in a large brick house.
"Mom, I never dreamed that our family would earn so much money one day," Lin Fengshou said in disbelief. The money they'd earned in the last two days was more than he had ever made—no, more than the entire Lin Family Village had ever seen.
Song Anxin said with a smile, "Our family will earn more and more money in the future, and then we will find you a beautiful wife."
Lin Fengshou blushed instantly, which made Song Anxin even happier. Her second son was quite the businessman and businessman, but he blushed when the topic of marriage came up. Only at times like this did she realize that her seemingly more mature second son was still just a big boy.
Seeing that their family's life was getting better and better, many people wanted to arrange marriages for Fengshou, but she turned them all down. Her bottom line was that he had to get married at eighteen.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Mother, second brother, it is Fengnian."
Lin Fengshou immediately got up, opened the door, and then closed it again. Zhang's brother and sister-in-law were still in the yard; he couldn't let them see the money in the house.
Song Anxin asked, "Fengnian, is something the matter?"
Lin Fengnian said with a bad expression, "Just now, Meizi's sister-in-law in the backyard kept looking into our workshop in the back room and said she wanted to go in and take a look, but I stopped her."
Lin Fengshou said, "Could it be that those two are staying at our house and not leaving because they're after our duck eggs?"
Song Anxin's mind flashed and she immediately thought of Lin Gangzi. "Oh, so that's why Lin Gangzi didn't make a move. So he came to find a helper when he couldn't do it himself."
She said, "I guess Lin Gangzi found them, probably to get our family's secret recipe for 'Rich and Delicious Oily Eggs'."
Lin Fengnian and Lin Fengshou immediately heard the alarm bells ringing.
"What! Then I'll kick them out right now," Lin Fengshou said.
Lin Fengnian looked troubled. What should he do about Meizi? Meizi would definitely be very sad.
Song Anxin also knew Feng Nian's concerns. She was afraid that if she directly drove away Zhang's brother and sister-in-law, Mei Zi would not blame them, but she would definitely be sad.
It would be better if other families developed resentment towards each other.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com