Chapter 150: Getting Busy

After leaving the roast duck restaurant, they went to visit Tang Dafu.

Tang Dafu was eating and drinking well, and had put on a round of weight. Moreover, his leg injury was genuinely healing—at least he was no longer groaning and complaining of pain all day long like he had been doing the previous days.

Doctor Wei once again asked Tang Yixiao if he was willing to follow him to study medicine. Tang Yixiao's answer remained the same: he had no interest in studying medicine.

Returning to the village in the afternoon, Li Taohua first went to check on the progress of the new house. Qin Huiyin went straight to find Xiang Chuntao and Wang Jiuying to tell them she needed more manpower, asking them to help recruit people.

"Oh, right, if Brother Tiejun and Brother Sanjin come back, tell them I still need a large quantity of crabs," Qin Huiyin said. "They can still collect them just like last time, filling up a cart before bringing them back."

"This time, let's have them clean the crabs beforehand. If they deliver them already cleaned, we can offer a higher price," Xiang Chuntao said. "That will save both time and effort."

"Sister-in-law, then I'll have to trouble you," Qin Huiyin said. "How are the mushrooms you two are growing coming along?"

"Come and take a look..."

The mushrooms Xiang Chuntao and Wang Jiuying were growing were doing fine. The two of them also frequently visited a few other households to inspect their crops, correcting any issues immediately upon discovery. By now, the two women held a position of high prestige among the sisterhood, and even Wang Jiuying had become much more talkative and cheerful than before.

"Right, Sister Huiyin, since you were away in town, you probably missed it, but something particularly interesting happened today," Xiang Chuntao said mysteriously. "The Xiao family went to call off Zhang Lei's engagement."

"Could it be that Brother Erzu convinced the Xiao family and they're willing to let their daughter marry him instead?" Qin Huiyin asked curiously.

"No, no, no, it wasn't like that. Erzu went to the Xiao family in person to show his sincerity, saying he was willing to pay them a fixed sum every month until the ten-year term was up. But the Xiao family are shallow-sighted people who only care about the cash they can grab right away. They wouldn't listen to Erzu's proposal at all and even drove him out."

"The Xiao family thought Erzu was trying to pull a marriage scam. They figured once the girl married into their family, she belonged to them, and even if he stopped paying, there was nothing the Xiao family could do. No matter how many times Erzu promised he wouldn't go back on his word, the Xiao family refused to believe him," Wang Jiuying added.

"Then how did the Xiao family end up breaking off the engagement with Zhang Lei?" Qin Huiyin wondered.

"I heard that Zhang Lei owed a mountain of gambling debts. Not only did the debt collectors go to Grandma Zhang demanding money and smash the Zhang family's house to pieces, but they also went straight to the Xiao family to grab Xiao Chunni, claiming they would take Zhang Lei's fiancée to pay off his debts. Seeing that their daughter was about to be snatched away and their easy money was about to vanish, the Xiao family hurriedly claimed that their daughter wasn't betrothed to Zhang Lei of the Zhang family, but rather to Zhang Lei's nephew, Zhang Erzu. Those debt collectors dragged Zhang Erzu over to act as a witness, and only backed off and left after hearing with their own ears that Zhang Erzu admitted to it. The moment the debt collectors left, the Xiao family went straight to Grandma Zhang to call off the engagement. They even claimed that because Zhang Lei owed so much debt and the betrothal gifts previously given to them had been taken away by the debt collectors, it had nothing to do with the Xiao family anymore."

"We were only gone for a few hours, and there's already this much excitement in the village," Qin Huiyin remarked. "As expected, staying in the village is the way to go. How could the city ever be as lively as the village?"

"You can say that again."

"So the Xiao family actually agreed to Brother Erzu's marriage proposal?" Qin Huiyin asked. "What about the betrothal gift? Are they still going with Erzu's plan to pay monthly?"

"The Xiao family wouldn't agree to that at all! They were terrified that Erzu would go back on his word and stop paying once he married their girl into his home, so they still demanded five taels of silver paid all at once."

"The Zhang family just split their household and hasn't a single coin to their name. Never mind five taels of silver, they don't even have one tael," Qin Huiyin said.

"That's right, everyone's saying the same thing. But this time, Zhang Erzu didn't refuse. He just said he would scrape together the money within three days and then come to welcome Xiao Chunni over to get married."

"They're getting married three days from now?" Qin Huiyin was genuinely surprised.

"That stubborn blockhead Erzu is worried that if they drag it out too long, the Xiao family will back out again. But knowing the Xiao family, that's exactly something they would pull. Xiao Chunni is a capable girl and quite pretty to boot; the Xiao family set their sights on that and deliberately demanded a high bride price to marry her off."

After chatting idly with Xiang Chuntao and Wang Jiuying for a while, Qin Huiyin went over to the old homestead site to inspect the house-building progress. Tang Cheng saw her coming over and led her around for a tour.

Seeing that the water well was well-protected and that no construction work would be happening there anytime soon, Qin Huiyin decided to use this spot for her washing chores.

That very night, the Zhang family invited them over for dinner.

After discussing it with Qin Huiyin, Li Taohua brought over a pot of pig's trotters soup that had been simmering for an hour to add to the meal, and then helped Mrs. Zhou in the kitchen to get the dinner ready.

Li Taohua had assumed Mrs. Zhou wanted to borrow money. In truth, if Mrs. Zhou had brought it up this time, she would have agreed to lend it. First, five taels of silver wasn't a huge amount, and since she would soon be hiring them to make a batch of furniture, it could practically be offset against that cost later. Second, the Zhang family had handled this recent situation quite well. Given the conduct and character of the Zhang brothers, she was more than willing to offer help in times of need. However, until the meal was finished, neither Mrs. Zhou nor the father-and-son duo of the Zhang family so much as hinted at borrowing money.

Since the hosts didn't mention it, there was no need for them to bring it up unprompted; perhaps they had already figured out a solution.

After dinner, Zhang Daliu stopped Qin Huiyin and said, "Sister Huiyin, I have a somewhat presumptuous request."

"Brother Daliu, go ahead," Qin Huiyin replied.

Li Taohua helped Mrs. Zhou clear the table.

Mrs. Zhou's face flushed red, and she said with embarrassment, "I can do it, Mother Huiyin, please sit down and rest a while."

"The dining table you designed is wonderfully practical, and so far, no tables like this are being sold out there. We want to make this kind of dining table and split the profits evenly with you, fifty-fifty. Would that be all right?"

Qin Huiyin was surprised. "When did you come up with this idea?"

She had thought Zhang Daliu was stopping her to borrow money and had already prepared herself mentally on how to agree to it, but instead of borrowing money, his mind was on making a profit.

"I've been racking my brain these past few days trying to figure out how to make money. While I was making furniture for your family, I suddenly thought of your dining table. It's such a clever design—the first time I've ever seen one, and there's nothing like it on the market. I was thinking, if restaurants started using tables like this, wouldn't it be much more convenient for the customers? I didn't know if this would work, so I wanted to discuss it with you first, since this is your design after all."

"Yes, absolutely," Qin Huiyin said. "Brother Daliu, you have a very sharp business mind. I'm sure your family's life will only get better and better."

"Thank you, Sister Huiyin, for your generosity. Sister Huiyin is our family's lucky star; with your help, we'll surely get through this hurdle."

"However, I heard that Brother Erzu promised to go to the Xiao family to propose in three days. Is three days enough time?" Qin Huiyin asked.

"It will be. Once we negotiate a deal, the clients will definitely have to pay a deposit. A table like this can sell for five hundred wen, so two tables make a whole tael of silver. I'm heading into town tomorrow to talk business with some restaurant owners."

"How are you going to pitch it? The owners haven't even seen this kind of dining table yet," Qin Huiyin reminded him. "You could make a miniature sample—a table about the size of a palm—to make it easier for you to explain it to them."

"Since we're going into business with our younger sister here, shouldn't we draw up a formal contract?" Li Taohua smiled and said, "Even brothers must settle accounts clearly! We can invite the village chief and a few clan elders over to witness it."