Chapter 112: Incitement
Su Guilan hurried to Anning Village and knocked open the gate of Uncle Su’s house.
Second Aunt Su grumbled, "What’s the rush, got a ghost chasing you?"
Ever since they suffered losses at Zhang Zhaodi and her daughter’s place, Second Aunt Su particularly disliked Su Guilan.
In Second Aunt Su’s view, if it weren’t for helping Su Guilan trick Su Yaoguang into marrying her foolish son, they wouldn’t have fallen out with Su Yaoguang and her mother. Now that Su Yaoguang and her mother are making money and they’re getting nothing out of it, it’s all because of Su Guilan, this unlucky star.
"Where’s my mom?" Su Guilan didn’t like this second sister-in-law either.
Of course, the eldest sister-in-law and third sister-in-law didn’t like her either. Anyway, all these sisters-in-law were annoying.
"She has a headache, lying inside!" Second Aunt Su said sarcastically.
The old hag can’t boss around Zhang Zhaodi anymore, so she shoved all the housework onto her, lying in bed pretending to be dead all day.
"Mom..." Su Guilan ran inside. "Mom, that pair of brats Zhang Zhaodi and Su Yaoguang have opened a big store in the city."
Second Aunt Su, upon hearing that, stopped complaining and followed Su Guilan inside.
Grandma Su suddenly sat up and asked anxiously, "What kind of store, is it making money?"
"A very big store, selling rouge and cosmetics, one box sells for two taels of silver. She even called her second and third sisters over, and her third sister’s husband, that sickly guy, is managing the accounts. Do you think they are making money?"
"That heartless jinx, we are her real family, but she makes money and doesn’t think of us, thinking only of her freeloading maternal family. No way, I must go find her." Grandma Su got off the bed.
Second Aunt Su stopped Grandma Su, her eyes darting around, and said, "Mom, if you go find her now, she’ll deny it, she says she’s cut off ties with us, no more relations."
"She says no relations, so no relations? She’s married to my son, that Su Yaoguang who loses money is also Su family’s offspring. If I had known, I wouldn’t have signed that breakup letter. Now look at the mess. Isn’t it your fault?" Grandma Su hit Su Guilan’s arm, venting her anger at her.
Su Guilan dodged Grandma Su’s blows, aching from the pain, "Oh mom, stop hitting. Let’s brainstorm about how to coax Zhang Zhaodi and Su Yaoguang back."
"That mother-daughter duo are stubborn as iron, they would never share their money with us. If we want their money, we have to think of another way." Second Aunt Su beckoned them over, "I have an idea."
Grandma Su and Su Guilan exchanged a glance, leaned in closer to Second Aunt Su, listening to her ’plan.’
Since Su Guilan showed up, Su Yaoguang had been wary of them causing trouble, but after waiting three to four days, they still hadn’t shown up.
When Su Yaoguang went out again and returned, she asked if those troublesome relatives had visited, Zhang Zhaodi said beside her, "Don’t worry. We’ve signed the breakup letter, even if they come, they can’t take advantage, they’re not stupid, why would they come and find us?"
These days, Zhang Zhaodi’s mood was quite good.
One reason was Su Guilan’s troublesome relatives hadn’t shown up; more importantly, Zhong Lanhua and her daughter suffered huge losses, and their business plummeted. The rumor about their store becoming a mouse nest had spread quickly, now nobody wanted to step inside.
A lot of their goods had also been damaged and spoiled by the mice.
The worse Fenghua Pavilion’s luck was, the louder Zhang Zhaodi laughed. However, Zhong Lanhua was not the type to accept losses quietly. Each time Zhang Zhaodi mocked them, she’d bicker with Zhang Zhaodi, resulting in quite a spectacle these days, passing pedestrians would always pause to watch their three-hundred-round battle.
"Really strange, it’s raining again." Zhang Pandi looked outside and said, "Whenever it rains, customers don’t like going out, and our business gets impacted."
Zhang Yingdi agreed, "Lately, hasn’t it rained too much?"
"It’s normal to have some rain during this season." Zhang Zhaodi said indifferently.
But Su Yaoguang took it in.
She seemed to have overlooked something important.
It was such a long time ago, she hadn’t remembered such a significant event happened during this period.
In her past life, there was a period where it kept raining, she was busy making a living, running around with Zhang Zhaodi daily, even in heavy rain to survive.
Xiao Yanci stayed in the academy, staying ignorant of the outside world, unaware of how the money was earned during that time.
She and her mother struggled to get by, visiting places looking for work, taking on the most tasks for the lowest pay to barely survive that hardest period.
The most crucial point was after the heavy rains, many people in the city caught illnesses. The sickness seemed harmless, just ordinary cold symptoms, yet many couldn’t pull through.
She caught it too. Her mother sold their land to pay for her treatment. She was bedridden for half a month but eventually lived through it. She just didn’t want Xiao Yanci distracted, never telling him about these things.
Once she recovered, she first went to see Xiao Yanci, but only got cold stares, criticizing her for not sending him food or money during that time, saying if she really couldn’t afford him, then stop pretending.
"It hurts..." Zhou Wangshu’s painful cry woke Su Yaoguang.
Su Yaoguang came to her senses, realizing her hand was pinching Zhou Wangshu’s arm.
"Sorry."
"What are you thinking about, so absorbed, and looking so fierce?" Zhou Wangshu pointed at the red marks she left, complaining, "It’s all red."
"Wangshu, the rain’s been too frequent lately, something seems off, I want to prepare some medicinal herbs at home."
"That’s no problem, since we have a little doctor girl at home, it’s always better to be prepared." Zhou Wangshu said, "You make a list, I’ll go to the pharmacy and buy them."
"I don’t even know what we need to buy, I’ll go find Jing’er, let her help me make a list."
Su Yaoguang immediately found Jiang Jing, shared her concerns, then asked if there were illnesses similar to colds but not actually flu-like.
Jiang Jing didn’t know what she was referring to but made a list according to the symptoms she described.
Zhou Wangshu took on the task, and Su Yaoguang, still uneasy, followed him to the pharmacy, then prepared various herbs.
"Let’s buy some grains to store at home later. Think about it, with rain this frequent, transporting grains would be harder, the price would definitely rise then."
"Yaoguang is right." Zhou Wangshu nodded, "I’ll also tell Chen Buyu and Zhong Chushan to prepare some grains and medicines at home."
Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu were walking with an umbrella.
Xiao Yanci also had an umbrella, coming out of the bookshop.
He saw the two walking and laughing, an inexplicable anger rising, clutching books and running over.
He ran quickly, directly cutting between Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu.
"Watch out..." Seeing Su Yaoguang about to fall, Zhou Wangshu couldn’t pull her in time, using himself as a human cushion behind her.