Under the cover of darkness, with stars twinkling and insects chirping in the fields, Ling Dapeng, carrying a hoe and a cloth bag at his waist, quietly arrived at Tao Wanniang's potato field.
"It's just a few potatoes. Even if they're discovered, what can they do to him?" With this self-comforting thought, Ling Dapeng started digging up the potatoes.
In the pitch black, with only a faint moonlight, Ling Dapeng swung his hoe with all his might, then hurriedly stuffed the potatoes he had dug up into a cloth bag, and finally ran away in a panic with the bag in his hand.
The next morning, the villagers discovered the digging marks in the potato field and immediately informed Lin Zhuangshi.
"Manager, someone's stealing potatoes!"
Lin Zhuangshi looked at the turned-up land with a meaningful expression. The surrounding farmers wouldn't steal this stuff; not many people even knew about it!
"I need to talk to the boss about this. He doesn't seem to care much about potatoes, but it looks like someone's got their eye on them!"
It just so happened that they also needed to deliver dishes to the restaurant that day, so after Lin Zhuangshi packed all the dishes, they went to the capital together.
"What? Someone stole potatoes?" Tao Wanniang was somewhat surprised after hearing Lin Zhuangshi's words.
"Boss, even though ordinary people wouldn't know about these potatoes, who is stealing them?" Lin Zhuangshi was also completely baffled.
"How much was lost?" Tao Wanniang asked.
"About ten or so, this... will only last a few days." Lin Zhuangshi couldn't understand it either. There were villages all over that area, surely no one would be so poor that they had to steal from their fields! If they were going to steal, they wouldn't steal from strangers!
"Just pretend you don't know anything, and keep a close eye on things tonight. If they make another move, we'll catch them eventually." Tao Wanniang thought that the other party might make another move, so she told Lin Zhuangshi to be careful.
"This is the only way right now," Lin Zhuangshi nodded.
"I'll leave the affairs of the estate to Manager Lin." Tao Wanniang saw Lin Zhuangshi off from the restaurant and gave him some other instructions. She couldn't leave the restaurant right now because Lu Neng had taken a waiter to Wangjing, and Chen Liansheng was currently taking over Lu Neng's work. As the manager of the kitchen, she also had to take care of some things at the front.
Who stole the potatoes? Tao Wan's mother thought it might be a rival restaurant, after all, the potato dishes at Zhaixinglou were very popular! If that restaurant stole once, they would definitely steal again, since growing your own potatoes isn't that easy.
Ling Dapeng, who stole the potatoes, was on tenterhooks all day, but after handing them over as agreed, he actually received a hundred taels of silver, and he felt quite lightheaded!
Isn't making money such an easy thing?
"Remember to call me next time there's a good deal like this!" After parting ways with the people he was dealing with, Ling Dapeng hummed a little tune as he returned to the manor. He hadn't slept well because he had been thieving in the middle of the night, so he was catching up on sleep in his room during the day.
When Zhou Xiaoyun and the others returned from the fields, they saw Ling Dapeng sleeping in the house during the day, and she was furious.
"Get up, get up right now! Look at the state you're in!" Zhou Xiaoyun shoved Ling Dapeng awake. "Dapeng, why are you sleeping during the day and not doing any work in the fields?"
"Xiaoyun, why are you interfering? There are other people who will do the work in the fields. They only pay a few dollars a month. What's wrong with me taking a few days off?" Ling Dapeng rubbed his eyes and said impatiently.
"A few wages are still money, Dapeng. Don't be like this. We still need to make a living," Zhou Xiaoyun said, somewhat irritated and uneasy. "Get up and wash your face. Let's get back to work!"
“I’m not going. Do I need that little bit of money?” Ling Dapeng struggled to push Zhou Xiaoyun away, but Zhou Xiaoyun grabbed his clothes, and in the struggle, the silver notes that Ling Dapeng had hidden in his chest fell out.
"What is this?" Zhou Xiaoyun immediately picked it up, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Give it to me, this is what I worked hard to earn." Ling Dapeng tried to take it back, but Zhou Xiaoyun casually stuffed it into her collar and slapped away Ling Dapeng's outstretched hand.
"Ling Dapeng, tell me honestly, where did the money come from?"
"This money is what I earned, so I'll give it to you, but you have to hide it well." Although Ling Dapeng was reluctant to part with it, he wasn't really going to be wary of his wife.
“Tell me how you made this money. Ling Dapeng, don’t go borrowing money from loan sharks again. Our house has already been mortgaged.”
"Don't worry, this is a rural area where everyone farms. There's no way they'd lend money at exorbitant rates. This money is something I earned through my own abilities," Ling Dapeng said, his eyes darting around.
If Zhou Xiaoyun still doesn't understand Ling Dapeng, then she's wasted all those years.
“Tell me, what kind of outrageous thing have you done again, Ling Dapeng? Ling Dapeng, you’ve squandered all our family’s wealth!” Zhou Xiaoyun cried and cursed. “We were driven to this village, and we don’t even know who owns our house in the city now. We don’t even know if Aunt Liu and Xiaocao are still around. If you had any conscience, you wouldn’t have done such outrageous things!”
"What nonsense! I...I...I just dug up a few potatoes!" Ling Dapeng said in a low voice. "Xiaoyun, I've thought of a way to make a fortune."
"Potatoes? What potatoes?" Zhou Xiaoyun didn't know much about them.
“These are from my mother’s field. Didn’t Li Fu and that official from the Ministry of Revenue also cultivate a piece of land here to grow them?” Ling Dapeng said in a low voice. “I only found out now that my mother makes a fortune growing these things, and they sell extremely well. Moreover, no other family has them. This time, another restaurant asked someone to have me dig them up. I dug up about ten and they gave me a hundred taels of silver.”
"You're stealing..." Zhou Xiaoyun exclaimed in surprise.
"What stealing? It's something grown in the field, can you call that stealing? Besides, it's not like we can't grow it. I was thinking we could grow it too, but I didn't expect it to sell so well." Ling Dapeng's idea was to grow a field of potatoes and sell them to whoever wanted them, wouldn't that be profitable?
"Grow potatoes?" Zhou Xiaoyun asked with a frown. "But how do you grow potatoes? We don't have land or seeds, and I don't even know how to eat them."
“Aren’t there ready-made seedlings? Li Fu and the others have already planted them, I…” Ling Dapeng was about to say something when Zhou Xiaoyun smacked him on the head. “Are you crazy? Do you still want to dig up seedlings? That official values that place very much.”
"Then...then I'll go dig in Mother's field, and we can plant them in various places and make a fortune next year," Ling Dapeng said after thinking for a moment.
Zhou Xiaoyun also wanted to make money, and the hundred taels of silver in her arms made her feel incredibly secure.
"Well... don't steal them! Or, how about we talk to Mom and ask her to teach us how to plant potatoes?" Zhou Xiaoyun thought for a moment. "If we farm diligently, Mom has no reason to refuse!"
"Hmph, not necessarily. She looks down on me, and she favors my older brother. I don't want to keep putting up with her cold shoulder." Ling Dapeng was still angry.
"So what do you mean..." Zhou Xiaoyun was actually a little resentful. Helping them was something her mother-in-law could have done with ease, but she refused. How could she not resent that?
“Let’s go together tonight!” Ling Dapeng thought for a moment, “You keep watch for me, and go dig some first.”
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