Chapter 83 Compensation The clerk glanced sideways at Granny Chen, secretly thinking...
Wei Yaren glanced at Granny Chen, thinking to himself, "Look at her cowardly appearance now. Why didn't she know how to restrain herself just now? She has completely offended Madam Jiang."
Ultimately, this matter has nothing to do with Wei Yaren. Even if it escalates to the government office, he can still explain the whole story clearly.
As Wei Yaren thought this, he glanced at Granny Chen again, thinking that Granny Chen could turn her benefactor into a ditch in the blink of an eye. Heaven knows what she thinks of him, the broker who has seen her ugly side.
Thinking of this, Wei Yaren felt even colder. He was too lazy to help Granny Chen up, so he let her slump on the ground and went straight back to the brokerage.
After a long while, Granny Chen finally got up from the ground. Seeing that Wei the broker had already disappeared, she panicked and, without even bothering to go to the brokerage to look for him, went home with a long face.
Upon arriving at Xu's house, Granny Chen hurriedly patted her face, forced a smile, greeted the servant sweeping the door, and went inside.
The servant, suspicious, turned to the coachman and said, "That old woman Chen seemed rather strange today."
"What's wrong? Showing off in front of you again?"
"No, that's not it." The servant leaned on his broom, recalling how Granny Chen looked when she left this morning: "When Granny Chen left this morning, she was dressed in all new clothes, and she even hired a hairdresser to style her hair and put on many hairpins. She looked very wealthy."
“But now—” The servant raised his chin, gesturing for the coachman to look. He saw that Granny Chen’s brand-new skirt was covered in mud, her hair was loose, and even the hairpin on her head was crooked to one side.
What's more, under the watchful eyes of the two, the hurried old woman Chen didn't even notice the threshold and slammed into the door with a 'plop'.
The coachman gasped, "Hiss—"
He nodded repeatedly, agreeing, "I think something's not quite right."
Old Mrs. Chen stumbled into the house, startling Old Man Hu quite a bit. He quickly put down what he was carrying, helped his wife up, and asked, "What's wrong? Why are you so flustered?"
Where is Sister Hong?
"She went to the Marquis's residence with Cook Xu," Old Man Hu answered instinctively, then frowned: "I asked you what happened, why are you asking about Sister Hong? Besides, why didn't you say what you were going to do this morning?"
"What exactly did you do? Did you go out and cause trouble?" Old Man Hu kept asking, looking at Granny Chen's disheveled appearance.
"I..." Granny Chen wiped away her tears with her handkerchief and sobbed as she said, "That damned Jiang Zhenniang actually wanted us to pay 180 strings of cash before she would break off the contract."
"...What?" Old Man Hu was taken aback at first, then his expression suddenly changed. He quickly closed the door, afraid that others would hear their conversation, and then asked, "What 180 strings of cash...wait a minute."
"You, you, you haven't broken your contract with Lady Su yet?"
"You, this, this, this..."
"Aren't you ruining Sister Hong's life by doing this?"
How could you be so foolish? Huh?
"Lady Su has been kind to us, and I told you we shouldn't have acted this way..."
Old Man Hu felt a chill run through him and paced back and forth in the room. But when Granny Chen heard his constant accusations, she became furious and cursed, "You make it sound so easy, but when I said I wanted to dissolve the contract, you didn't say it was bad either!"
Old Man Hu's face flushed red, and he angrily said, "That's because you said that Chef Xu intended to take Sister Hong as her apprentice..."
"Pah!" Granny Chen spat in his face and cursed, "Han'er saved your life, but did you think about it at the time? You were so excited when you saw that Chef Xu was going to take on an apprentice, and you even said that you wanted to go to the Marquis's mansion to enjoy a life of luxury."
"Back then, didn't you know the date of the contract?"
"I...I...I thought you had already broken off your contract with her..."
"Bullshit!" Granny Chen retorted aggressively, her eyes wide with anger as she stared intently at Old Man Hu. "Besides spouting nice words, what have you actually done? These past few days, I've been busy at the stall every day. Do you think I didn't know whether I had terminated the contract or not? What, you're assuming I terminated it just because I didn't say anything?"
"What are you pretending to be, a good person? Didn't you know when I entrusted someone with my family's money? Why didn't you say anything then?"
Granny Chen had long hoped that her granddaughter could enter the Marquis's mansion. At first, she had her eye on Su Zhihan, but later, seeing that Su Zhihan's boat had sunk, she took the money and asked someone for help.
Fearing that the broker would find out and inform the other broker, she chose another brokerage. Granny Chen paid a generous sum, and the stall at the pavilion was quite famous, so the broker soon brought good news—the cook of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion was sending people to find a young, orphaned girl with culinary talent, but she wanted a contract of marriage.
For someone as accomplished as Chef Xu to choose an apprentice, countless people in the capital would be scrambling to get a position. Granny Chen poured all the money she had saved over half a year into securing this opportunity for Xiao Hong.
At this moment, Old Man Hu was still saying this, and Granny Chen looked at him with eyes that seemed to be spitting fire.
Old Zhao's shoulders slumped, and he changed the subject, saying, "Tell me... what should we do now?"
"Where would our family get that much money..."
"But if Han-jie reports it to the authorities, what will happen to our Xiao Hong... what will happen to Xiao Hong?"
Old Man Zhao and Old Woman Chen were heartbroken, and finally decided that one of them would sell the house and the other would go to Jiang's braised meat shop to beg for more time.
"Today I met Madam Jiang."
"Han Jie'er is gentle by nature, why don't you go and beg her? Maybe she will agree."
"As long as your family pays the money as my mother said, we'll be even and have nothing to do with each other anymore." Su Zhihan just sneered when she saw Old Man Zhao begging for mercy and admitting defeat, without giving an inch.
Last night, she learned about Granny Chen's character from Jiang Zhenniang and knew that their current apology was only because Jiang Zhenniang had hit a nerve, which made them so humble.
Furthermore, he specifically chose himself.
What? Do you think you're easy to bully?
Su Zhihan felt a chill in her heart and grew increasingly disgusted with the people in front of her, coldly watching them for not living a good life and insisting on walking into that abyss.
She turned around and went back to work in the shop.
Unexpectedly, Old Man Zhao was so shameless that he followed us into the shop, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed repeatedly, pleading, "Please, Miss Han, have mercy and give our family a way to survive."
"Our family has already sold the house."
"Please consider that I've done more than half a year of work for your family, so I'll give you a little less."
Outside Jiang's braised meat shop, the customers queuing up all turned to look and whispered among themselves: "What's going on?"
"You old man..."
"What does Jiang's Braised Meat Shop do? How come it's driving people to the point of having to sell their houses?"
Seeing this, Su Zhihan was so angry she laughed. If it were a shy young woman, she would probably be embarrassed and lose face. In her confused state, she went along with what Old Man Zhao said. By the time she came to her senses, the news had already spread, and it was impossible to tell whether it was right or wrong.
Su Zhihan thought Old Man Zhao was an honest man, but she never expected that birds of a feather flock together. Old Man Zhao and Granny Chen were clearly cut from the same cloth!
Su Zhihan laughed and said, "Old Zhao, how am I not giving your family a way to make a living? Last winter, you were so sick that you had to sell yourself to the brokerage. Who rented Hong Jie'er and taught her a skill to support your family of three?"
"Ask your own conscience."
"During holidays and festivals, have I ever treated you unfairly? The business of that gazebo stall is obvious to all. You get a commission for every sale you make. Who else can offer such treatment?"
"Leaving aside the fine fruits and cakes, the clothes I gave to Sister Hong would cost several strings of cash to make a set elsewhere. Tell me, how many times have I given them to her? How many sets have I given her?"
"And how did you repay me?"
“I will sign a two-year contract with you and teach you how to run the stall for two years. Then you will be allowed to use your skills to open another shop to support your family.”
“If I say this out loud, everyone will praise me for having a good conscience,” Su Zhihan said loudly, her voice reaching the ears of many.
The more successful Jiang's braised meat shop was, the more astonishing this event became. Upon hearing Su Zhihan's words, the diners immediately erupted in commotion, their gazes towards Old Man Zhao instantly changing.
"You all think you can take advantage of my kind heart, so you try to scheme against me. You broke the contract but don't want to pay for the prescription. You think you can just give me and my mother thirty strings of cash? Are you taking advantage of the fact that it's just my mother and me at home?"
"I'll give you five days to hand over the money," Su Zhihan sneered. "Otherwise, we'll meet at the government office, and I'll see who's in the wrong!"
After Su Zhihan finished speaking, Old Man Zhao covered his face with his sleeve, slunk out of the crowd, and hurriedly ran away, afraid that people would see his face.
Back at Xu's house, Granny Chen beat and complained to him a lot, but the two of them had no choice but to sell their own house, as well as all the gold and silver in the house, and all the good fabrics and clothes they had saved up. But even with all that, they could only raise a little over 160 strings of cash.
The remaining ten or so strings of cash were nowhere to be found.
Old Man Zhao and Granny Chen were at their wits' end, and dared not ask Cook Xu for help. So they had to swallow their pride and go to Cook Xu, saying that although they were a bit old, they could still work and wanted to stay with their granddaughter. They asked Cook Xu to put in a good word for them and help them sell themselves into the household.
"At such a young age, why would you sell yourself?"
"You can stay in my manor and live out your old age here." Upon hearing this, the cook Xu chuckled. The people chosen for the Marquis's manor are all carefully selected, so why would they want old women and servants of this age who can't even wash clothes properly?
Old Mrs. Chen shamelessly said, "My lady doesn't know, I've watched Xiao Hong grow up since she was a child. She's my only granddaughter, and I worry about her every day when I don't see her during the day."
"I don't want to make a lot of money, I just want to watch."
“My husband is the same way. He just wants to take care of the kids during the day so they won’t have to worry about us when they’re teaching them.”
"Besides, we feel bad about staying here for free," Old Man Zhao quickly added. "Once we get to your house, we'll do whatever we can to repay you, Madam."
The cook felt relieved to hear this, but also worried that the two might be uncomfortable living in their own residence, so she mentioned it to the Marquis of Zhongyong the next day.
The manager, naturally unwilling to offend Chef Xu, readily agreed to the matter. He reasoned that given the couple's age and physical condition, any dentistry would surely be willing to take them in.
After much deliberation, the manager gave a total of twenty strings of cash.
Granny Chen resented the Marquis's mansion for looking down on her and only giving her this small amount of money, but she remained silent and even expressed her gratitude. She quickly took the money to Jiang's braised meat shop.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Zhenniang was waiting for her: "I have something else to tell you. We need to sign another contract. As long as you and Hong Jie'er are in the capital, you are not allowed to teach your skills to others or open a similar stall."
Granny Chen's eyes flickered, and she said unwillingly, "Didn't you already sell me the prescription at market price..."
"That's a claim based on the contract, not a sale to you."
"Madam Jiang, aren't you asking too much?" Granny Chen initially objected, but upon hearing Madam Jiang mention going to the government office, she immediately complied. She signed the contract as Jiang Zhenniang requested, had Wei Yaren and Yao Lang review it, and finally slunk away with her contract in tow.
"Madam Jiang... why did you have to offend her in the end?"
"What do you mean by 'finally offending her'?" Madam Jiang raised an eyebrow and glared at Wei Yaren. "Their family has long harbored resentment towards our family. If we don't sign this contract, they'll probably turn around and sell the formula to someone else."
Wei Yaren was speechless for a moment, unable to find any words to refute her, and he also realized in his heart that what Jiang Zhenniang said was indeed reasonable.
He paused for a moment, then finally told Jiang Zhenniang the news he had found out: "Their family has entered the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion. I heard that Granny Chen's granddaughter, Xiao Hong, is going to become Chef Xu's apprentice."
Having said that, Wei Yaren prepared to take his leave.
Jiang Niangzi grabbed a handful of copper coins and stuffed them into his hand to thank Wei Yaren for his kindness, but she did not reveal to him that it was precisely because they knew where Xiao Hong's family had gone that they dared to act in this way.
The Chen family thought they had climbed the social ladder, but they didn't know that Cook Xu was someone who couldn't tolerate any wrongdoing.
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