Chapter 350 Extra Chapter 3: Little Cui (1)
"Shopkeeper, shopkeeper! We have a customer!"
"Here they come! Here they come!"
Accompanied by a clear, resounding response, a middle-aged woman emerged from the backyard, lifting the curtain.
She was fair-skinned and plump, and her pretty silk dress made her look smart and capable. A delicate gold hairpin was inserted diagonally into her hair, and she had a business-like decisiveness in her movements.
Seeing the two women standing at the door, dressed in fine clothes and with an extraordinary air, they were clearly distinguished guests.
The innkeeper immediately put on a big smile and warmly greeted them, "Oh, gentlemen, please come in! Please come in!"
The two women followed the shopkeeper inside, through the bustling, noisy lobby filled with people.
One of the older men, listening to the commotion, casually asked, "Shopkeeper, why is the street, including your shop, so lively today?"
The innkeeper led the way briskly while chatting with a smile: "Oh my, judging from your accents, you must be from Weizhou, right? You must have traveled all over the country and just returned to Weizhou?"
"Exactly, I'm going back to my hometown to visit relatives."
"No wonder you didn't know!" The innkeeper pushed open the door to the private room and stepped aside to invite them in.
"What a joyous occasion! His Majesty will be touring Weizhou in a few days! As soon as the news spread, people from the surrounding counties flocked here, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Emperor and bask in his divine aura!"
"Such a good thing?" The younger woman had just sat down when she heard this, her eyes lit up, and she turned to her companion and said with a smile, "Mother, we've come at the perfect time to go back to our hometown! We must go and see it!"
The older woman nodded with a smile: "Okay."
The shopkeeper personally poured hot tea for the two of them, his tone full of pride and joy: "Not to mention you two, even my little shop is planning to close for a day so that I can take my whole family to the street early to get a good spot and properly admire the majesty of the Emperor!"
The young woman picked up her teacup and exclaimed excitedly, "This year marks the twentieth anniversary of His Majesty's ascension to the throne. I never imagined that we ordinary people would have the opportunity to see His Majesty's face. It is truly a rare blessing!"
"Indeed!" the shopkeeper chimed in, his voice rising several decibels involuntarily. "I heard that not only His Majesty is coming in person, but even His Highness the Crown Prince is accompanying him! This is truly an immense honor; our Weizhou is really on top of the world this time!"
The older woman took a sip of tea, her gaze fixed on the bustling street outside the window, her voice tinged with a touch of melancholy, "Twenty years... time really flies."
"I still remember when Her Majesty was still the Eldest Princess, she also came to Weizhou. At that time, Weizhou suffered a severe drought, and the Eldest Princess was ordered to provide disaster relief..."
"When the disaster subsided and the princess set off to return to the capital, all the people in the city flocked to the streets to see her off. I was still young at the time, and I knelt in the crowd with my father. I could only see the prince in red riding a white horse in the distance. I was too far away to see his face clearly."
"I only remember that day, a lot of snow suddenly started falling from the sky." A glimmer of light appeared in her eyes. "The people all said that the princess was a goddess descended from heaven, sent by the heavens to save us."
Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper's face also showed a look of reminiscence: "Yes... I was only a teenager when there was a drought that year. People were suffering terribly, and they had eaten all the grass roots and tree bark. Who would have thought that we would have such a good life today?"
The young woman turned her head curiously: "Shopkeeper, did you also meet the Emperor back then?"
"Alas, I am not so fortunate." The innkeeper waved his hand. "When His Majesty was providing disaster relief, I was living in the countryside with my grandmother, eating mud cakes and almost starving to death. If it weren't for the help of a noble person and the Princess herself coming to distribute grain for disaster relief, I would have lost my life long ago. Now I can open this restaurant and live a peaceful life. Speaking of which... it is all thanks to that noble person from back then."
Upon hearing this, the older woman sighed and said, "Times have changed, but thanks to a wise ruler, we have such a prosperous and peaceful era."
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly, "Indeed, thanks to His Majesty, our lives are getting better and better. Look at my shop, everyone has a smile on their face, isn't that all thanks to His Majesty?"
She smiled and changed the subject, asking solicitously, "What would you two distinguished guests like to eat? Our braised pork knuckle and aged liquor are the most famous dishes, and many guests come from afar specifically to try them!"
The young woman said impatiently, "Then one of each, plus two more meat dishes and a pot of tea."
"Alright! Please have some snacks to tide you over. I'll go to the kitchen and keep an eye on things. We have a lot of customers today, so the food will be served a little slowly. Please bear with me." The manager quickly noted it down, smiled, and left, gently closing the door behind him.
Just as the shopkeeper came downstairs and finished instructing the staff, she heard a commotion at the door, with a loud voice calling her name.
"Liu Xiaocui! Liu Xiaocui! Come out here!"
Her heart tightened, and she hurriedly went out.
Then they saw the owner of the silk shop next door, standing outside the door with his hands on his hips, angrily pulling at his two children.
It was her twin daughters, Liu Zhili and Liu Zhiyan.
The two men's new cotton shirts, which they had changed into that morning, were now covered in mud and grass clippings, and their hair was a mess.
It's obvious they've just been in a fight.
Both of them looked down at their toes, as if afraid of being scolded.
There were two little boys standing nearby, sobbing. Their clothes were also filthy and torn, and they had red marks on their faces.
Those were the two beloved sons of Shopkeeper Hua, Xiaolong and Xiaohu, who were about the same age as her daughter and studied at the East City School.
The shopkeeper exploded the moment she saw her, pointing at her and yelling, "Liu Xiaocui! Can't you control your two little devils? In broad daylight, you pinned my Xiaolong and Xiaohu down in the mud and beat them! Look what you've done to my children!"
Two little boys, wiping away tears, complained, "They...they stole our candied hawthorns! They hit us if we didn't give them back!"
"They even called us mangy dogs! Waaaaah..."
The onlookers couldn't help but burst into laughter, teasing, "Little Dragon and Little Tiger, you two young men couldn't beat that girl, so you ran home to complain to your mother. Aren't you ashamed?"
"Exactly, all that height for nothing!"
Little Dragon and Little Tiger blushed and cried even harder after being scolded.
Liu Xiaocui was embarrassed and quickly grabbed her daughter's ears, one in each hand, and scolded her in a low voice: "Hit someone again? What did I tell you before you left home? You were to get along well with your classmates and not cause trouble! Did you just ignore me?"
"Ouch! Mother, that hurts!" The eldest daughter, Liu Zhili, winced in pain, but stubbornly protested, "They deserved to be hit! We agreed to play pitch-pot, and if we won, the candied hawthorns would be ours, but they cheated and refused to give them to us! They broke their promise and deserved to be punished!"
"Am I starving you or something?" Liu Xiaocui glared angrily. "A string of cheap candied hawthorns, is it because we can't afford it? Why did you have to snatch it from someone and even hit them?"
“That’s different!” Liu Zhili insisted. “We won it, so it should be ours! They went back on their word!”
The second daughter, Liu Zhiyan, nodded in agreement, her little face full of indignation: "That's right! They're the ones who cheated and are shameless! The teacher said that a person cannot break their word!"
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