CH 149

Ms. Liang hurriedly tried to smooth things over, “Isn’t it just a few tea leaves?”

“They cost ten taels of silver per kilogram.”

“What, they’re so expensive! Feng’er, who did you give them to?”

Mo Feng looked around wildly before saying, “Xiuying.”

“Ms. Li’s daughter?”

Mo Feng nodded. Xiuying was Ms. Li’s eldest daughter. She was sixteen years old, one year older than him. Since he’s giving her a gift without request, it’s obvious he liked her.

Ms. Liang said, “Xiuying is capable. I often see her working in the fields, and she looks alright. But her mother is a social climber and can never make concessions. She’s just a helper, but actually regards herself as a member of the Cao family. She swaggers around the village more than Mrs. Cao and acts condescending.”

Mo Feng smiled, “In Chenzhong Village, is there anyone mother can’t handle? In the future, when Xiuying marries into our family, she will have to respect you.”

Mo Yan knew she couldn’t pursue further, so just said, “Brother, if you need anything in the future, tell me or Cao Zhang. Everything in the firm must be recorded. At the time, I wondered if it had been stolen by an employee! Fortunately, I didn’t wrongfully place blame on others.”

Lu Junming asked outside the carriage, “Yan’er, are you still going to the workshop today?”

“Yeah, after all, Ze Wu has to drive the carriage back anyway.”

Ms. Liang and Mo Feng got off the carriage at their house, but Mo Yan didn’t. Just after leaving Chenzhong Village, the carriage stopped, and Mo Yan was about to ask Ze Wu what happened, when the curtain of the carriage lifted and Lu Junming got in.

“Why didn’t you go on horseback?”

Lu Junming sat down and said, “I’m tired, so I wanted to come in and take a seat.”

Mo Yan said dejectedly, “Mu Feng insists on being our firm’s manager, what do you think I should do?”

“Did you promise him?”

“In the morning, he said that he wouldn’t go with us if I didn’t agree to that. If we’re inquiring about the marriage, but the bride’s brother doesn’t go, what would people think?”

Lu Junming lowered his head and thought about it, “He is absolutely not allowed to join the firm.Find a way to get him to work in the workshop and leave the rest to me.”

“That’s easy with how lazy he is. I’ll just ask the employees to work him to the bone.”

The carriage drove into the workshop, and Mo Yan entered the office, lying on the table in a daze. Mo Ling knew they were back when she saw Ze Wu going to the stable to tie the horses, so she came to ask about the situation, and Mo Yan told her everything.

When she heard of Zhong Cheng’s second sister-in-law, Mo Ling said nonchalantly, “Let her mess around, unfortunately, she won’t succeed!”

Chi Jie, who was in front of his workbench, came over with a pencil in hand, “Household politics doesn’t just rely on your family’s strength, you have to have a strategy.”

Lu Junming laughed as he pushed him back to his workbench, “What do you know about household politics?”

“My father has three concubines which scheme against each other constantly. I am no stranger to this.”

It turns out that the household politics plots in those web serials weren’t all groundless. In fact, what happens in real life may be more exciting than in what was shown in those novels.

Mo Yan begged Chi Jie to explain, and he said, “I heard you’re a good storyteller, how about we tell each other a story?”

Mo Yan slapped the table in agreement, “Alright, I’ll stay here tonight. I want to see how lively your family is so I can make a story about it.”

She turned back to Mo Ling and said, “Sis, when you go back, think about what dowry you want to prepare, and what kind of wedding dress you want. I’ll prepare it for you.”

When Chi Jie heard this, he got excited, “For the wedding dress, I can help! Once I’m done, I guarantee it’ll be so good no one will ever be able to match it.”

“Okay, then you draw the picture first to let us have a look before we decide.”

After the workshop closed for the day, Mo Ling went home. Mo Yan and Chi Xie swapped stories, and she recorded the outline of the household politics stories that Chi Jie told. This is a habit she developed when she used to write web serials. Mo Yan often recorded interesting stories she heard and used them in books.

Ms. Hua came in with dinner, and raised the topic of her courtyard, “Yan’er, it’s not appropriate to just leave the courtyard there!”

Liu Fengchun and the Mo family were at a stalemate. Liu Fengchun wanted to get the land, but neither of them wanted to build a house there. But the fire was set by Liu Fengchun to force Ms. Hua and Zhao’er to sell the land to him, since they didn’t have the ability to rebuild their house. But he didn’t expect Mo Yan to buy the courtyard first.

Mo Yan asked Chi Jie, “Using your experience with household politics, how would you solve this problem?”

Chi Jie tapped his head with his pencil, “Wasn’t there a rumour in town recently that Zhao’er’s father set fire to the house because he was worried about their mother and son, and he didn’t want other people to buy it?”

Mu Yan also tapped her head with her fingers, “It looks like his father wasn’t very smart! He wants to protect his wife and children, so shouldn’t he burn the houses of the people who want to pressure them to sell the house?”

Lu Junming said, “We can’t set fires too.”

Chi Jie replied, “No, but Zhao’er’s father can express his dissatisfaction.”

Mo Yan met Lu Junming’s eyes, and then smiled happily, “Let’s use him to scare the people who burnt down the house.”

This time, Ms. Hua also understood, “I’ll go. I’m familiar with my husband’s speech patterns, so I’d be better at pretending.”

Chi Jie curled his lips, “It would be bad if you were caught. Since they like to spread rumours, let’s do the same. Why don’t we let Godmother cry about having no job, home, or means of survival, and say her husband said he was murdered in a dream.”

At this time, Ms. Hua’s knowledge of the countryside came in handy, “Why don’t I cry at his grave, and say that my husband came to give me a dream, that my house was set on fire by a villian, and that he died unjustly. There is a saying in the countryside that you can’t go to the grave casually, so when I cry, the others will definitely take note.”

Mu Yan slapped her forehead and said, “That’s right! Before, when my sister didn’t fetch water for my grandma, she went to the ancestors’ grave to cry, just to attract people to take attention and sympathise with her.”

Ms. Hua placed the dishes on the table, “I’ll go tomorrow!”

Mo Yan said, “Why not wait until a market day? There will be more people.”

Ms. Hua raised her hand and said, “It’s okay, I’ll go every day, it’ll definitely spread all over the countryside.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Ms. Hua said with a smile, “You are busy helping with my family’s affairs. I can’t help you much, so I’ll do all that I can.”

“Then Godmother, rest early tonight and recharge her energy. Tomorrow, cook some delicious food so you can go on a full stomach.”

Lu Junming also said, “These days, people are often working in the field, as long as you start crying, people will definitely come over to take a look.”

Chi Jie put down the pencil in his hand and came over to eat, “You need to cry over his grave in the evening, to generate yang energy and suppress the yin energy.”

Post-translation notes: Hi. Consecutive chapters because I have a trip I need to go on and won’t be back until next week. As always, thank you for reading!