The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 123 The Butterfly Effect
Before going home to harvest wheat, Gu Dahan took Qin Qingyou to the Lu family to deliver pastries.

When the two returned, they brought Tong Huaqiong two tools she had always dreamed of.

That tool was a gear-driven generator.

It is said that Lu Chaoyang had his business managers from various regions mobilize skilled craftsmen in their respective areas. In the end, a craftsman from Shengjing disassembled the electric hair-beating device that Man'er brought out and improved it into a hand-cranked gear hair-beating device.

It has to be said that expanding one's business empire has many advantages; at the very least, the network of connections one makes is something that some businesses in Yanguan Town can't match.

Therefore, Tong Huaqiong secretly resolved that she could not be satisfied with the small town of Yanguan, nor with just a pastry shop. She was determined to explore new business opportunities and, like the Lu family, expand her business throughout the country.

Tong Huaqiong tried whipping egg whites with a hand-cranked gear whisk. Although it was not as fast as an electric whisk, it was much faster and less strenuous than whipping with chopsticks and sorghum stalks. Moreover, the whipped egg whites were just as dense and stable as those whipped with an electric whisk.

Tong Huaqiong was very satisfied with the effect of the hand-cranked gear hair curler.

Indeed, every era has its great inventors.

"How is Young Master Lu?" Tong Huaqiong asked Gu Dahan.

She remembered Lu Zhaozhao's illness.

During their last meeting, she guessed that Lu Zhaoyang had gluten intolerance symptoms and that he would be fine as long as he avoided eating flour and wheat products.

She didn't know whether her deduction was correct or not.

“Young Master Lu is sending a message to thank Mother. He said that since he stopped eating wheat and flour products, he hasn’t had a relapse. When I saw Young Master Lu this time, he looked much better than before, and he wasn’t even out of breath when he spoke,” Gu Dahan said.

Tong Huaqiong breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that Lu Zhaoyang's health had improved.

Lu Zhaoyang's fate should have changed from this point on.

If he were alive, as the most outstanding student of Wanliu Academy, he would surely shine in the imperial examinations and might even achieve the highest score in all six categories.

In the future, the many students from Wanliu Academy in the court will not follow Gu Jingzhe as their leader, but will follow Lu Zhaoyang.

In addition, Lu Zhaoyang is a man of exceptional talent, and it is only a matter of time before he becomes prime minister.

Lu Zhaoyang's fate changes, and Lu Zhaozhao's fate will change accordingly.

With an older brother who is a top scholar in the imperial examinations, Lu Zhaozhao is likely to be the object of many marriage alliances among the high-ranking families in Shengjing, and may become a princess or a general's wife.

However, no matter who Lu Zhaozhao is with, Tong Huaqiong feels that it's better than being with Gu Jingzhe.

Since Lu Zhaozhao suffered enough from the pain of love and the Gu family in her previous life, she deserves compensation in this life.

When Tong Huaqiong transmigrated into Tong Dajiao's body, it was like a butterfly flapping its wings, changing the life trajectories of the Lu siblings.

She felt that she was atoning for her sins in Tong Dajiao's previous life.

Since she has atoned for Tong Dajiao's sins, it's not unreasonable for her to act like an old matriarch, having a few wicked bamboos serve her and live at her beck and call.

"Well, shopkeeper, the wheat is almost ripe, so I need to ask for a few days off to harvest it. You know, it's just my parents at home, and I'm worried they won't be able to handle it." After finishing his task of delivering pastries, Qin Qingyou hesitated before asking for leave.

His parents originally said that he and Qiaoyun had finally found a stable job with Tong Huaqiong, so they shouldn't take leave easily; the two of them could just harvest wheat.

However, Qin Qingyou was a very filial son and couldn't bear to see his parents suffer. In addition, the family owned a lot of land and he was worried about rain, so after thinking about it, he asked Tong Huaqiong for leave.

Qin Qingyou's request for leave touched a nerve with Tong Huaqiong, and she has been somewhat worried these past few days.

The wheat harvest season is a major event, and in this place without machinery, everything is done by hand.

After the wheat is harvested, it needs to be threshed, threshed with stone rollers, dried, and stored. But that's not all; after the wheat is stored, corn and beans need to be planted. The entire wheat harvest season isn't considered over until the next season's crops are planted.

Moreover, everyone in the household has to pitch in, because if it rains or hails, the entire season's harvest will be lost.

Therefore, even the most demanding shops would allow their rural workers to return home to participate in the wheat harvest.

Peach blossom desserts are no exception.

The people working in the shop, almost every family needed to harvest wheat.

Leaving aside the others, Tong Huaqiong's family has several acres of wheat fields, and even if Gu Dahan worked himself to the bone, he probably couldn't finish them all.

It is reasonable and appropriate to give everyone a holiday for the wheat harvest.

The other shopkeepers and their assistants from the countryside all had holidays during the wheat harvest.

Peach blossom desserts cannot be enjoyed alone.

However, Peach Blossom Desserts had only been open for a short time and needed to continue to establish itself in the market. She was afraid that Su Shi Yuan would take advantage of the wheat harvest season to destroy the foundation that Peach Blossom Desserts had worked so hard to build.

Tong Huaqiong thought for a moment and said to Qin Qingyou, "The wheat harvest is definitely very important during this period, and I've been thinking about it too. Call everyone else over; I have something to say."

Qin Qingyou knew that Tong Huaqiong was going to have a meeting, so he summoned all the shop assistants.

Tong Huaqiong had only one principle: when the wheat harvest season arrived, she would not delay those who had wheat from harvesting it, but she also had to take care of the business in her shop.

This requires a reasonable allocation of manpower in the shop.

Qin Qingyou said that he and his parents could harvest the wheat themselves, and when they were threshing it, his two uncles and cousin would come to help, while Qiaoyun would stay in the shop.

Liu Shan said that the wheat at home didn't need Hu's, and Hu could stay at Taohua Dessert Shop to continue baking pastries.

Ma Huateng's family has no land, so they don't need to worry about harvesting wheat. Gu Xiaocao's family has little land, and her parents had already told her that they not only don't need Gu Xiaocao to harvest wheat so that she can sell pastries in peace at Peach Blossom Dessert Shop, but they also plan to help Gu Dahan thresh wheat after they finish harvesting their own two acres of land.

Just then, Hong Xiaoxi also resigned from Su Shi Yuan and officially joined Tao Hua Dessert Shop. As the youngest son in the family, he discussed with his older brother, sister-in-law, and parents that he didn't need to go home to participate in the harvest.

As for Tong Huaqiong and Ji Gendaizhu, Tong Huaqiong plans to stay to bake pastries and oversee the overall situation, Gu Taohua will stay to be in charge of customer service, and Gu Jingzhe, who reacts quickly, will also stay in the store to handle emergencies, while Gu Dahan and his wife, and Gu Dashu and his wife will go home to harvest wheat.

Tong Huaqiong recorded everyone's situation and found that the staffing was more optimistic than she had thought. In fact, the core staff of the shop did not need to go home to rush to harvest.

With the wheat harvest season approaching, customer traffic will definitely be much lower than usual, but these core staff members are perfectly capable of handling it.

Liu Yue'e didn't really want to go back to harvest the wheat, but she didn't dare disobey her mother-in-law's orders.

The Gu family didn't have much land, and if the second son and his wife were as hardworking as the eldest son and his wife, they could finish harvesting quickly. Tong Huaqiong suggested to the Gu family that they could go help with the harvest at the Liu family's farm after their own wheat harvest was complete, as the Liu family had a lot of wheat.

With the help of Gu Dashu and his wife, Liu Shan's job became easier, and with everyone working together, they could finish their work and come to work earlier.

Starting tomorrow, we will implement today's personnel arrangements until the wheat harvest is over.

Just as Tong Huaqiong finished assigning tasks to the remaining employees in the shop, Gu Baishuang arrived at the door.

Of course, Gu Baishuang came to her younger brother Gu Dahan to discuss something.

Tong Huaqiong didn't care too much. It was just a matter of their parents being buried together. Tong Huaqiong had already made her stance clear: let them do whatever they wanted. Let whoever wanted that old cucumber, Lao Gu, have it; she wouldn't touch it at all.

She doesn't even attend the ceremony; wouldn't it be better for her to spend that time making money in town?
(End of this chapter)