Chapter 190 Reunion
Before leaving, Zhao Xiao took back the money they had used to buy the visiting cards and beat up the president of the Chamber of Commerce. The two of them then rushed back to the cloth shop they had visited yesterday.
When the shopkeeper saw the two people rushing in, he thought there was something wrong with the clothes and asked, "My two guests, are your clothes not fitting you?"
"No, boss, the shop you said was on fire yesterday was a tea shop?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Is the owner of the tea shop named Deng?"
The owner of the cloth shop nodded, not understanding why they asked this.
Song Yuzhu said excitedly: "Then do you know where he is now?!"
"How would I know? He lost a lot of money when his shop was burned down. I guess he lost all his capital and went back to his hometown."
Song Yuzhu's heart sank when she heard this. If he didn't know, others probably didn't know either. After all, he had been gone for three years, and looking for him now would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Boss Deng didn't go back to his hometown. His wife came to look for him with their son."
The shopkeeper said, "Is that so? Then there is nothing we can do."
Song Yuzhu and Zhao Xiao walked out of the cloth workshop. It seemed that their only option was to go to the government office to find out. Once the Hangzhou government was alerted, their identities would be exposed and they would be in trouble wherever they went.
"Wait a minute." Suddenly a voice came from behind, and the owner of the cloth shop actually chased out.
"I remember that the man who opened the teahouse with Boss Deng was named Yu. He seems to be working at the dock now. You might as well go ask him."
"Hey! Thank you, thank you!" Song Yuzhu clenched his fists excitedly. He didn't expect that there would be a new clue after all the trouble!
The two of them went back to the inn first and told the mother and son of the Deng family about the news they had heard today.
When Mrs. Deng heard about the many setbacks her husband had encountered in Hangzhou, she felt angry and distressed. She was angry that he did not tell the truth to his family when such a big thing happened.
"Thank you so much, I don't know what to say..." Mrs. Deng wiped her tears with a handkerchief.
Song Yuzhu said, "Don't say thank you. The key now is to find your husband. I wonder if the man surnamed Yu knows the whereabouts of your husband."
Mrs. Deng remembered that her husband had written in the letter that Yu Sanming opened a tea shop with him. This man was an old friend and a fellow villager of Deng Fangyuan, and Mrs. Deng had met him once, so he must be right!
In the afternoon, Zhao Xiao drove a horse-drawn carriage and took a few people to the Hangzhou Canal Wharf.
After asking a few guys, they soon found Yu Sanming. He was stunned when he saw Mrs. Deng, "You are the eldest sister-in-law of the Deng family? Why are you here?"
Mrs. Deng excitedly pulled his sleeve and said, "Sanming, do you know where Old Deng is?"
"Don't worry, I know where he is."
I didn’t expect that this person actually knew where Deng Fangyuan was!
Madam Deng said anxiously, "Then take me to find him!"
Yu Sanming said with some embarrassment: "I can only leave after the work at the dock is over, otherwise the higher-ups will blame me if something goes wrong."
Deng Zhong gently pulled his mother's hand and said, "Mom, now that we know where Dad is, we don't have to rush. It won't be too late to go after Uncle is done with his work."
Yu Sanming touched his head and said, "This is Zhong'er, you are so big now, your father always talks about you."
Madam Deng complained, "What's the point of talking about it? Why don't you go back and take a look?"
Yu Sanming hesitated to speak: "Hey, everyone, please come in with me, sit down for a while, have a cup of tea and chat slowly."
After entering the house, Yu Sanming moved stools for a few people. Song Yuzhu and Zhao Xiao were also curious about why Deng Fangyuan did not go home in the past few years, so they followed in to listen to the reason.
After Yu Sanming poured tea for the four people, he sat on the bench and sighed: "Come to think of it, Brother Deng and I haven't been home for three years."
"That's right. The child has almost forgotten what he looks like." Madam Deng choked up and continued, "If not for this, why would I have come all the way here to find him?"
Yu Sanming sighed again: "Back then, Brother Deng and I were young and full of vigor. We were dazzled by the prosperity of Jiangnan and thought we could make a big splash here. Who knew..."
Three years ago, when the two were delivering goods to the south, they met several tea merchants in Jiangnan by chance. They learned from them that the profit from selling tea was astonishingly large, and there was no loss as long as the business was done.
At that time, they were just small cloth resellers. Their job was to collect cloth from every household in the village, and then resell it to make a profit from the difference.
However, in recent years, with the widespread use of steam looms, hand weaving has gradually been eliminated and their profits have become lower and lower.
After delivering the goods back that time, the two of them discussed that why not just give up the cloth trading business and go to Jiangnan to try their luck. If they succeed, they would become wealthy and rich!
They acted right away. The two of them first went home to raise money. Deng Fangyuan took out all the silver that had been saved at home, a total of more than one thousand taels, and only left two hundred taels for the family for food and clothing.
The same went for Yu Sanming, he also took about 1,200 taels of silver. The two young men boarded a carriage heading south with their dreams in their hearts.
However, the reality is often much more cruel than imagined, and they cannot do the tea business just because they want to.
When they first arrived in Hangzhou, they did not rush to open a shop, but instead went to the tea merchants they met that day to ask if they could buy from them. After the other party readily agreed, they started to run the shop.
Hangzhou is a prosperous city, and the prices of shops are ridiculously high. The rent for a room in a good location is over a thousand taels a year, and there are too few customers in cheaper places. The two men struggled for two days, and finally decided to spend a little more money and find a shop in a good location.
Soon they found a shop, which earned eight hundred taels of silver a year. The location was excellent, and the whole street was filled with shops. There was also a teahouse next to it. As long as they could run the teahouse, they would definitely not lose money!
The two planned to earn enough to rent the shop in the first year, and then save money to expand the shop in the second year... However, they were stumped before they even opened the shop.
They first went to the government to get approval for opening a shop. Like every local government, it took half a month to get it done. Then the two of them hurried to buy tea.
They bought tea worth 500 taels of silver in one go and prepared to choose a good day to open the business.
A few days before the opening, someone suddenly approached them and said, "If you want to open a store in Hangzhou, you must visit the Hangzhou Chamber of Commerce in advance and get their permission before you can open the business, otherwise this business will not last long."
Deng Fangyuan went out to ask around with doubt, and when he came back he said with a heavy face: "What the cloth shop owner said is true. You must get approval from the Chamber of Commerce before you can open a shop."
Yu Sanming said anxiously: "What should we do? How about we go to the Chamber of Commerce to ask tomorrow?"
The next morning, the two went to the Chamber of Commerce, and like Zhao Xiao and the others, they stopped people and asked for money as soon as they entered the door.
Yu Sanming's face turned red as he tried to argue with the servant, but Deng Fangyuan quickly stopped him and said, "Let's go buy a visiting card!"
The two of them came to the antique shop as the servant said. Yu Sanming just wanted to spend fifty taels to meet the owner. It hurt him to spend the fifty taels, because how much cloth would he have to resell to earn that much money!
Deng Fangyuan, however, felt that meeting the person in charge might not work, so it would be better to spend an extra fifty taels to meet the vice president.
After spending 100 taels of silver and buying a visiting card, they went to the Chamber of Commerce again. This time they successfully entered and met the vice president. After learning about their purpose, the other party smiled and said, "If you want to open a shop in Hangzhou, the rule of our Chamber of Commerce is that a large shop costs 1,000 taels and a small shop costs 500 taels. Of course, this is only for ordinary shops. If it is a tea or salt shop, it will cost at least ten times more."
"What?!" the two screamed in surprise. Where would they get so much silver?
Deng Fangyuan asked, "If we don't spend money, can't we open for business?"
"You can't say that. There are a number of teahouses in Hangzhou. You can wait in line. If a teahouse fails and closes, you can open yours."
They could afford to wait, but they couldn't wait for the rent, which was eight hundred taels of silver. If they didn't open the store, they would lose it all. They also bought so much tea, and if they couldn't sell it and it got moldy, they would have nothing left in their hands!
Coming out of the Chamber of Commerce, both of them looked lifeless. The capital they had taken was the hard-earned money their parents had accumulated, and seeing it was going to go down the drain, no one could accept it.
After resting for two days in the teahouse, they began to go out and give gifts to build relationships. Seeing that the money in hand was getting less and less, and the opening of the business was still a long way off, Deng Fangyuan was so worried that his hair turned white.
This delayed them for half a year. Finally, there was no other way, so they gritted their teeth and decided to quietly open the business. After they finished selling the tea, they would return to their hometown in Zhongzhou and continue their cloth business honestly.
After opening, they lowered the price of tea to a very low level and sold it very quickly. They were about to make back their investment, but then one night the tea shop suddenly caught fire!
The fire was so fierce that it burned the entire shop in less than a quarter of an hour.
Deng Fangyuan was extremely anxious. There were a lot of banknotes stored in the shop. Silver was not afraid of burning, but banknotes would turn into ashes once burned and be gone!
In a hurry, he rushed into the sea of fire, put the valuables in an iron box and ran out. Although he took out the valuables, his face was also burned by the fire, and half of his face could not be seen...
Later, they paid a lot of money to the landlord, losing all their capital and earnings, and could only find work in Hangzhou to make a living.
After listening to Xu Sanming's words, Mrs. Deng's body softened and she almost fell off the stool. Deng Zhong quickly supported her: "Mother, mother!"
"I'm fine..." Madam Deng bit her lip, tears streaming down her face. "Why didn't he tell me? How could he be so stupid!"
"Brother Deng didn't tell you because he was afraid you would worry. Now he works in a steel mill. He was promoted to a supervisor at the beginning of the year and earns a lot more than before." Xu Sanming scratched his head awkwardly. "We all want to make more money before going home to avoid being laughed at."
Song Yuzhu sighed after hearing this: "I didn't expect you two would encounter such a difficult situation. Brother Deng is a man of steel."
Xu Sanming looked over at them and saw that they were dressed in unusual clothes. He bowed and said, "I wonder who you two are..."
Madam Deng said quickly, "These two are my and Zhong'er's saviors. They helped me find you. If it weren't for them, I'm afraid Zhong'er and I would have reported to the underworld long ago."
It was getting dark outside and all the boats at the dock had been loaded. Xu Sanming went out to check and saw that there was nothing to do so he could leave.
It was still some distance from Hangzhou City to the steel plant in the suburbs, and they didn't have the strength to walk, so Song Yuzhu decided to give them a ride.
*
Deng Fangyuan had just finished handing over his work at the factory and was about to go to the cafeteria to eat when someone suddenly called him, "Manager Deng, someone is looking for you outside."
"Okay, got it." Deng Fangyuan didn't have many friends in Hangzhou, and Yu Sanming was the only one who could come to see him. He guessed that Yu Sanming was asking him to help write a letter and send it back home.
Yu Sanming was illiterate and every time he wrote to him he was asking for help. It just so happened that the day had come for him to send a letter home.
In the past few years, he has been hiding it from his family, claiming that he is doing business outside and has no time to go back. He also deliberately used a fake address in Hangzhou to mail it, just to reassure his family.
He made an agreement with Yu Sanming that he would go back after saving some money for two more years.
When he arrived at the gate and saw a carriage parked outside, Deng Fangyuan was puzzled. Sanming, this kid, usually spends every penny he can, but he is willing to spend money to hire a carriage?
"Brother Deng!" Yu Sanming jumped off the carriage and walked over. Zhao Xiao stopped the carriage and helped Song Yuzhu and the mother and son of the Deng family get off the carriage.
"Bang!" The bowl in Deng Fangyuan's hand fell to the ground and shattered. He hurriedly turned his head to cover the scar on his face.
"Fang Yuan!" Mrs. Deng's crying voice came.
"Daddy, Daddy!" Deng Zhong also called him anxiously.
Deng Fangyuan slowly turned around and said, trying hard to hold back his sobs, "Why are you here?"
Deng Zhong ran over and hugged his waist: "Zhong'er missed you and begged mother to come."
Deng Fangyuan's nose felt sore and tears rolled down his uneven cheeks.
"You know everything about me...right?"
Madam Deng said, "Sanming told me everything."
"I am a useless husband. I lost all the money in the family and burned my face."
"So what? You will always be my husband and Zhong'er's father. You should have told me about this big thing."
The couple hugged each other and cried, and it took them a long time to calm down. After they finished crying, Deng Fangyuan realized that there were two strange men standing next to Yu Sanming.
"Who are these two?"
Mrs. Deng sniffed and told him what had happened along the way.
After hearing this, Deng Fangyuan pulled his son to his knees and kowtowed to them: "Thank you for saving my wife and son. I can never repay you for your kindness in this life. I will repay you in my next life by working like a slave."
Zhao Xiao reached out and helped him up: "No need to be polite, we are relieved to see your family reunited."
Song Yuzhu added: "Why don't you wait in Hangzhou for a few months? Maybe the money the Chamber of Commerce extorted from you can be returned."
Deng Fangyuan and Yu Sanming looked at each other, not understanding what they meant.
Song Yuzhu didn't explain too much to them, "We have other things to do, so let's say goodbye now." After that, she and Zhao Xiao got on the carriage and left.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
