They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 157 Missed a Punch
Zeng Xiaoyan comes from a merchant family, so she must be good at business. Maybe this tofu was part of her dowry.

The two families suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment, as if they had punched empty air.
Xu Zhichun watched coldly, secretly sneering.

Madam Bai laughed and said, "That's strange. Zeng Xiaoyan has been married into the family for more than two years now. Why didn't you do it before, but only now?"

Xu Zhichun: "How would I know? If you want to know, go ask her."

Bai choked.

Zhang said, "Since that's the case, you should withdraw. Let your cousin-in-law do it. You have so much work to do at home, don't delay. We have a lot of family members, so it's just right for your cousin-in-law to go."

Bai glanced at Zhang but said nothing.

It's fine to let the eldest son's wife go first. Anyway, don't try to leave the second son's wife out. They can go find the eldest son's wife later.

Xu Zhichun smiled enigmatically: "If I'm unwilling, then you can go find Xiaoyan yourselves if you're so capable."

"The Xu family!"

"Who exactly told you this? What? You can't talk about it in public?"

What good would it do you to tell me?

"It's nothing special, just curiosity. Take it or leave it."

After all, they set up stalls in the city every day, and sooner or later people would find out about them.

"Is there nothing else? Shouldn't you be leaving?"

Zhang was particularly agitated: "Who do you think wants your place!"

Uncle Liang gave her a cold look, seemingly knowing that talking to her was useless, and then turned and left. Zhang and the others followed him.

Bai Shi lingered until the very end, and after everyone had left, she said with a smile, "Don't blame your aunt and uncle for not being able to bring it up. This matter was told by Lian Lao Si. Lian Lao Si happened to see it when he went to town today, so he came back specifically to tell them. You know, why didn't you tell us about something as important as making money? We would have felt more at ease if you had. How much will Zeng Xiaoyan give you?"

Xu Zhichun remained silent.

Bai smiled and glanced at her: "Alright, I'm leaving now. Don't overthink it. Don't worry, we won't harm you."

Xu Zhichun: "Then I must thank my second aunt."

For some reason, Bai's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but take another look at her.

Even the fourth brother, I really didn't expect it to be him.

Zeng Xiaoyan and the others returned with the konjac, and Xu Zhichun closed the courtyard gate so everyone could get to work.

Xu Zhichun recounted the story.

Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu'er were both taken aback.

"Lian Lao Si? That disgusting widower? He's definitely no good. What does this have to do with him? Why is he getting involved!"

"The truth will out eventually. Even without Lian Laosi, someone from our village would go to the city and find out sooner or later. Zhichun, what are we going to do?"

Zeng Xiaoyan quickly added, "Yes, yes, Sister-in-law Zhichun, you make a decision."

Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "We'll stay the same as before. Just tell everyone that this business earns 220 or 230 coins a day."

Lian Lao Si must have been hiding in the shadows observing for a while. A piece of konjac tofu cost three coins, and konjac noodles cost eighteen coins per pound. He couldn't do math, so his calculations were naturally inaccurate.

Two hundred and twenty or thirty coins, divided equally among the three families, would amount to seventy or eighty coins, which was still quite eye-catching for the villagers.

But this is already the best possible outcome.

Sure enough, the Zhang family had no intention of keeping it a secret, and the news spread throughout the village the next day. Zhang and Uncle Liang went to the Liang village head's house to find him, and the two of them resolutely decided to make the decision for Xu Zhichun.

“We’ve discussed this with Zhichun, and she asked us to speak on her behalf. From now on, our family will take over her share. She needs to take care of the family’s fields and won’t have time to do this anymore. Don’t worry, sister-in-law, our eldest daughter-in-law is a capable worker and will definitely do a better job than Zhichun!”

Aunt Liang was completely confused.

Liang Lizheng remained silent.

Zeng Xiaoyan laughed angrily: "Sister-in-law Zhichun told me today that we would set up a stall together tomorrow, and she also talked about what we would do next month and what we would do in the future. We discussed it and made a lot of progress. How come it's completely different in your mouths?"

"That's easy. I'll go and invite Sister Zhichun over right now, and then we'll know who's lying. Anyway, I only work with Sister Zhichun; I won't work with anyone else."

Aunt Liang smiled and said, "Xiao Yan is right. I think you must have misunderstood something. Let's not talk about this anymore."

Uncle Liang and Mrs. Zhang were so angry that their faces turned red, and they left in a huff.

The two originally thought that as long as they could get Liang Lizheng's family to agree to their terms now, there would be no way they could go back on their word, and Xu Zhichun certainly couldn't interfere anymore. Even if things came to a head later, they would still be in the right, and they would never allow Liang Lizheng and his family to go back on their word.

I never expected Zeng Xiaoyan to be so despicable.

Zeng Xiaoyan then had a chance to tell her parents-in-law what they already knew.

The elderly couple were initially quite frightened and bewildered.

"Oh my God, what should we do?"

Aunt Liang panicked a little.

Their daughter, Xiao Yan, can earn seven or eight hundred coins a day. If everyone knew that, it would be quite a big deal.

Who knows how many relatives and friends will come to your door crying poverty and asking for money? Should you give it to them or not?

You see, after Zeng Xiaoyan married into the family, many relatives came to her door crying poverty and asking for money. But they all said they wouldn't touch their daughter-in-law's dowry, that she should decide what to do with it herself. At that time, Xiaoyan had a bad temper and a sour expression, so no one dared to ask her. Several months later, gradually no one came to ask anymore.

Even back then, some people shamelessly instigated her, as a mother-in-law, to pressure her daughter-in-law for a dowry, which she sarcastically retorted, and afterwards they said a lot of bad things about her.

Aunt Liang breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Zeng Xiaoyan say that they had agreed to tell others that they would earn about two hundred coins a day.

That's good, that's good.

If each family earns seventy or eighty coins a day, that's much easier to negotiate.

Here's the reason: the eldest grandson will be getting married in a few years, and the family needs to build an extension of the house, so they need to save money, and they don't have any extra.

Since they failed to achieve their goal at Liang Lizheng's house, Uncle Liang and Zhang Shi were not going to keep the secret, and the news spread throughout the village overnight.
"Good heavens, they dig up konjac every day, can they really make money from it? Isn't that stuff poisonous?"

"Of course konjac is poisonous, they probably have some way to remove the poison. Sigh, they deserve to make such a fortune, others are just envious."

"More than two hundred coins a day, if divided among three families, would amount to several dozen. How much would that add up to in a month or a year? How could anyone possibly spend it all?"

"It's endless, there's simply no way it can all be spent!"

"No wonder Zhichun was able to build such nice houses; he made money from them."

"We're all from the same village, why don't you take us with you? There's plenty of konjac in the mountains, we can go dig some up too."

"That's right, we can dig up konjac ourselves, as long as they teach us how to cook it!"

Aunt Liang glanced at them coldly. The one who complained about not including her was Aunt Hua, the most gossipy woman in the village. The two or three people, including the laziest Liang Liu, chimed in. Aunt Liang gave a silent, cold laugh. They really dared to think that way.

(End of this chapter)