Upon hearing this, Yang Cui frowned slightly, her face displeased, and she put down her chopsticks: "Aunt, from what you're saying, you're blaming me."
An Dafu angrily rebuked Wen Shi: "You wretched woman, your mouth stinks like you've eaten dung! Can't you speak properly?"
"What did I say?" Wen and An Dafu started arguing. "How could I blame her? I was just thinking that there was a chance to get three jobs, so why did she only introduce Xiaohe and Xiaojiang to work? Those two prescriptions must be worth a lot of money. Taking only two jobs is a loss, isn't it?"
"You're being greedy!" An Dafu scolded. "Without Xiao Cui, there's no work for Xiao He and Xiao Jiang! Speak properly, or shut up!"
Seeing his parents arguing, An Xiaojiang felt a little embarrassed in front of Yang Cui. He stepped forward and said against his will, "Father and Mother, please stop arguing. Let my older brother do the work at the restaurant. I... I don't like working there anyway."
"Eldest brother and third brother, please go! I'll stay home and help out," An Xiaohe said modestly, stepping forward.
An Xiaohai: "No need. Xiaohe and Xiaojiang, you two go and do your jobs well. I'm fine at home. The family can't be left unattended. I'm the eldest son, so it's my duty to take care of my parents at home."
Although An Xiaohai was grateful to Yang Cui for helping his two younger brothers get jobs, he still felt a little uncomfortable because Yang Cui specifically pointed out that the jobs were for Xiao He and Xiao Jiang. He wondered if he had offended Yang Cui, if Yang Cui disliked him, or if he had done something wrong, otherwise why would Yang Cui treat him differently?
Seeing her sons being so courteous to each other, Madam Wen felt comforted, but still felt regretful. She glanced at Yang Cui and sighed, "Xiaocui, your aunt isn't blaming you, but I feel we can definitely raise the conditions a bit. Why don't you go and talk to Manager Yu again?"
An Dafu: "Xiao Cui, don't listen to your aunt. Don't anger Manager Yu because of this. It's fine as it is now."
Wen glared at An Dafu, about to retort, when Yang Cui said sternly, "Alright, stop arguing!"
The An family could tell that Yang Cui was angry.
How could she not be angry? Yang Cui meant well, thinking of helping the An family and letting An Xiaohe and An Xiaojiang go out to broaden their horizons and earn a living. The An family can't even feed themselves with the little land they have now. After they get married and the family grows up, they will have even less to eat. But now, she has only made a fool of herself.
“Aunt, I have my own reasons for doing things, and I don’t need you to teach me how to do them!” Yang Cui said with a cold and stern expression. “I am very unhappy with what you just said. If you think you are more capable than me, you can go and help your cousins make a future for themselves!”
Yang Cui's words were rather harsh.
Wen was a little confused. Yang Cui would never talk to her like that normally! She didn't react for a moment.
Just as An Dafu was about to speak, Yang Cui spoke up first: "The reason I asked Manager Yu to arrange jobs for Xiao Jiang and Xiao He is not because Xiao Hai is bad, but because I have other plans for him. They are both my brothers, and I cannot favor one over the other."
Upon hearing this, the An family was greatly encouraged.
An Xiaohai then realized: it wasn't that his cousin Cui disliked him!
He was secretly delighted.
“The ducks needed by the Stargazing Pavilion will all be purchased from me. The Stargazing Pavilion business is huge, and I predict that the demand will be very large in the future. I definitely can't raise that many with Er Ya and San Ya. Xiao Hai can raise ducks at home.”
An Dafu was excited: "Xiaocui, thank you, thank you for thinking so much about your younger brothers. If they ever forget their kindness and embarrass you in the future, I will not forgive them!"
An Xiaojiang immediately declared, "Sister Cui, don't worry, I won't let you down after I go!"
An Xiaohe: "Me too, I definitely won't hold you back!"
An Xiaohai: "Thank you, Sister Cui. I... I will do my best."
Wen moved her lips but didn't speak. She hadn't expected Yang Cui to think that way; she had misunderstood.
An Dafu kicked Wen Shi, signaling her to apologize. Wen Shi felt that as an elder, how could an elder apologize to a junior? She refused to apologize, but knowing that she was in the wrong, she put two pieces of chicken on Yang Cui's plate and said with a smile, "Xiaocui, eat chicken. Your aunt doesn't know how to speak. We are all family. We can talk things out."
What kind of talk is this? Yang Cui was so angry that she ignored her. If it weren't for saving An Dafu's face, Yang Cui would have left with the child long ago!
The An family boys were quite good. Knowing that their mother had said something wrong and upset Yang Cui, they kept apologizing to her. Yang Cui sighed and said to them earnestly, "If you do well when you go out, you will benefit in the future."
Xiao Hu is still young. If there's a chance, I hope you, Uncle, can send him to school. Whether he passes the imperial examinations or not is another matter, but learning more characters will be good for him when he goes out to work. Xiao He and Xiao Jiang, you two should also learn as much as possible. Otherwise, you'll always be just doing odd jobs. If Manager Yu couldn't read, he wouldn't be a manager. So, learning to read and write is very important. If you want your business to grow big in the future, Xiao Hai also needs to learn. Otherwise, raising too many ducks will be impossible; you won't even be able to count them all, and the profits and losses from raising ducks will be even harder to calculate.”
The eyes of the An family boys lit up at the mention of reading.
An Dafu looked troubled: "But going to school costs a lot of money!"
"The tuition fee is two taels of silver a year, plus the cost of writing materials, the cost is at most four taels of silver. If you raise a lot of ducks and sell a lot of them, you can still earn four taels of silver a year. With a restaurant as big as Guanxinglou and a county as big as Wan'an, I don't believe that we can't sell five ducks a day."
A duck sells for around 40 to 50 coins. If you sell 100 ducks a year, you'll earn 4 taels of silver. As for the cost, if you're diligent and catch more earthworms and frogs, chop them up and feed them to the ducks, the cost isn't very high. The cost of buying 100 ducklings is only 300 coins.
An Dafu was tempted by Yang Cui's words, but this time, Wen Shi was more decisive than An Dafu. She blurted out, "Send him! Send Xiao Hu to school!"
This made Yang Cui look at Wen with new eyes. Wen was sometimes unpleasant to talk about and liked to pry, but she wasn't entirely without merits.
"I believe you!" Madam Wen seemed to have made a great decision. "Dafu, listen to Xiaocui, send Xiaohu to school, and when Xiaohu comes home from school every day, she can teach your three older brothers what she has learned."
The An family father and son looked at the Wen family in surprise.
Madam Wen said, "You can't go wrong by listening to Xiao Cui. She's so capable, she can't be wrong!"
These past few days, Yang Cui's various actions have impressed her greatly, and she believes that Yang Cui's judgment is correct! If Xiao Hu can pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, that would be wonderful. Even if he is not academically inclined, with Yang Cui's abilities, she can still find a good future for Xiao Hu. The more Wen thought about it, the more excited she became, and her mouth stretched to the back of her ears.
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