Divorce with three kids? I'll build a house and eat meat, driving my in-laws crazy.

Chapter 269 You Feed Me

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Chu Yingtian slapped her twice, leaving deep handprints on Xue's fair face, which swelled up like a pig's head.

"You...you dare hit me? I'll fight you to the death!"

"Didn't you tell me to hit him? See, I actually hit him and you're not happy now."

Chu Yingtian completely exposed his scumbag nature, shrugged and simply stopped pretending, "Go back to where you came from, and don't let me see you again."

He had a vague feeling that his current predicament was all caused by Xue.

It's all her fault; she didn't discipline the servants and maids properly, and they gave themselves away in front of Shen Kuo.

"Stop arguing, it's so annoying!"

Chu Yu scoffed and walked away on his own.

On the other side, Shen Kuo patted his bottom and, dressed in coarse linen clothes, went to Li Ruru's house again.

"Mr. Shen, you're back!" Peipei greeted him warmly.

Shen Kuo grinned from ear to ear and said to Li Ruru, "Peipei really knows how to talk."

Saying you've arrived makes it seem like you're a guest.

When they come back, they feel the warmth of family.

"You've just arrived for lunch, come and sit down," Li Ruru said, gesturing for Shen Kuo to sit at the table.

Today's lunch was simple: Shen Kuo made pulled noodles yesterday but failed.

Shen Kuo slurped down his noodles, exclaiming, "This is what you call pulled noodles! They're so chewy!"

This bowl, in particular, is almost bigger than my face.

Xiao Yishan was eating noodles and garlic at the same time, which left Shen Kuo speechless.

Question: "Is this...delicious?"

"It's delicious. Let me peel one for you." Xiao Yishan deftly peeled two bright green garlic cloves and handed them to Shen Kuo.

Shen Kuo followed the example of everyone else, taking a bite of noodles and then a bite of garlic.

I only took two bites and my throat felt so irritated. After drinking a sip of the noodle soup, I actually wanted to take another bite.

I quickly got used to this way of eating. I usually only eat one bowl of rice, but today I ate two bowls.

He touched his round belly and asked Fang Xingzhi, "Master, do you think I've gotten fat?"

Fang Xingzhi's right hand was still wrapped in gauze, and he struggled to hold the chopsticks with his left hand.

He hadn't even taken two bites when he was asked such a stupid question. Frustrated, he said, "Fat, so fat!"

Shen Kuo pouted, looking aggrieved.

Peipei said, "Being a little chubby is good; it brings good fortune."

Shen Kuo was pleased again. "This girl has such a sweet tongue and a sharp tongue. She won't be at a disadvantage no matter which boy she marries in the future."

Upon hearing this, Nie Tianlei suddenly looked up, stunned for a long time, and then looked down again, feeling that the pulled noodles in his bowl no longer tasted good.

Peipei secretly glanced at Nie Tianlei and saw him with his head down, not saying a word, just silently eating. She felt inexplicably sad.

She said calmly, "I haven't thought about getting married yet."

Li Ruru said, "No rush. Getting married isn't some kind of honor. Being happy is the most important thing."

Peipei nodded and slowly ate her noodles.

Shen Kuo asked cautiously, "Madam Li, can I still..."

"Yes!" Li Ruru readily agreed.

"Huh? Do you know what I'm going to ask?"

"You want to live here."

"You...yes, yes!" Shen Kuo grinned from ear to ear. He wanted to be like his master and eat here more often from now on.

Hehe, I'm so happy.

Everyone had finished eating, and Fang Xingzhi's rice was almost lumpy, but he hadn't eaten more than a few bites.

Li Ruru asked, "Are you sure you can do it?"

Fang Xingzhi put down his chopsticks and said with dissatisfaction, "No, it won't work anywhere."

Why does Aru keep asking this question?

Chaochao knew he was just being childish, so she asked, "What my mother means is, are you used to eating with your left hand?" Fang Xingzhi naturally understood what Li Ruru meant, but he was inexplicably angry.

No one has comforted them yet.

"Then you can eat slowly." Li Ruru wasn't going to indulge him.

Fang Xingzhi originally intended to wait until everyone left before quickly unwrapping the gauze and taking a couple of bites.

"Master Fang, the village head is looking for you," Nie Tianlei said. "Let's go together."

Fang Xingzhi had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and go to the village head's house.

I saw several wives chatting and guarding the gate at the entrance of his courtyard.

They knew then that something important was to be discussed.

Lu Da got straight to the point: "The magistrate of Chu County suddenly said he wanted to buy our konjac tofu and maltose, and he wanted a lot of them. Both of these items will be used for disaster relief."

No one objected, and they asked happily, "How much does Magistrate Chu want?"

Lü Da: "Sigh, even if we work non-stop for seven days and seven nights, we probably still can't finish it. So, we need to hire another batch of workers this time."

No one had any objection to this.

After a pause, Lü Da added, "These things are for disaster relief, to feed the victims. What I mean is, we can lower the price a little."

Li Ruru was the first to state her opinion: "As long as we can make a profit, that's fine with us."

As for earning more or less, it's okay if it's less.

We still need to pay wages to both raw materials and workers, so we need to recoup that profit.

“Then let’s lower the price a bit. This stuff isn’t expensive to begin with,” Hai said.

"If we're hiring, can we hire people from distant villages?" Pan Dayan was particularly concerned about this.

She wanted to get her relatives to come and earn money too, just to give them a helping hand.

It's really hard to be a good person these days. If you give too much, people may say they're grateful, but they might think you're showing off or looking down on them.

If you give too little, they'll say you're stingy.

Pan Dayan, who had just become wealthy, understood this deeply. Originally, she kindly gave money to subsidize her family.

As a result, the bride's family got a good start, and then they wanted it again next time.

She thought the best way was to let them earn money too.

Li Ruru thought for a moment and said, "This time we can give the workers a raise. They may have to work three shifts and overtime later."

This is similar to factories in China, except that factories don't proactively raise wages, but Li Ruru did.

Hai agreed, "Let's increase it then. This time the quantity is large, so we can still make a profit."

One job can equal several months' worth of work normally, so of course you have to make a profit.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Lü Da made the decision: "Alright, then the workers' wages will increase by 5 coins each, and the prices will decrease by 1 coin each. I'll go and post the notice in a bit."

Fang Xingzhi held the pen in his left hand and surprisingly wrote quite well.

Li Ruru exclaimed in admiration, "That's amazing! You can even write with your left hand."

Fang Xingzhi proudly raised his head; he had many impressive skills.

The proud man suddenly felt his stomach growl.

Mr. Hai asked with concern, "Didn't Master Fang have lunch?"

Fang Xingzhi looked at Li Ruru and said aggrievedly, "No, my hand is not in a good position."

Hai chuckled and nudged Li Ruru: "Just help her out, we can't let her go hungry."

Li Ruru frowned; what did it matter to her if he was hungry?

He tugged at Fang Xingzhi's sleeve and said, "Come on, let's go home for dinner."

As soon as they left, Hai said with a smile, "These two are really like sworn enemies."

Pan Dayan was pondering when to inform her relatives when she heard "enemy," and turned to ask, "What enemy? Whose enemy?"

Hess waved his hand, "It's nothing."

When Li Ruru returned home, she made another bowl of noodles for Fang Xingzhi.

"Here, eat." Don't go around telling everyone, or it'll make it seem like she's abusing him.

Fang Xingzhi raised his left hand and pointed to his right hand, saying, "It's inconvenient, why don't you feed me?"

Anyway, there are no outsiders here, so I'm not worried about anyone seeing us.