Miss and farmhand

After returning home, Zhou Shitai brought the complete contract back to show Old Zhou the shopkeeper, and he was quite proud of himself.

"I've never seen such a stupid woman. She doesn't realize she's escaped from danger, yet she's eager to go back into the tiger's mouth."

He had never spoken so blatantly about anyone before. Even when he did some business scheming and cheated fools out of money, he would do it but never say anything vulgar or let people say that he was a businessman who was ill-mannered and that's why his mouth was so dirty.

Old Zhou, the shopkeeper, is his father. He knows every single hair on his body. Judging from his tone, there's nothing he doesn't know.

When a man has designs on a woman, he is often at his most blatant. Morality, integrity, and upbringing are useless, and social status is irrelevant; when it comes to matters of the heart, this is always the case.

He gave his son a deep look; the silly boy was unaware that he had already given himself away.

He didn't rush to talk to him about this. He would address each issue one by one.

He asked, "Are you sure no one in the Huang family suspects anything?"

When the conversation turned to serious matters, Zhou Shitai also composed himself.

"I'm not entirely sure, but Father, you don't know how stifled Miss Huang was being watched by her live-in son-in-law, and how she practically had her pants on fire when she managed to get rid of him and sign the contract with me. If she really had suspicions and could do that, she wouldn't have needed to cooperate with our family."

He recounted in detail what had happened at the Huang family's house, and Old Manager Zhou listened attentively without suspecting anything amiss.

"Then, Father, should we stick to the original plan...?"

After thinking for a moment, Old Manager Zhou shook his head. "With this situation, it's actually not appropriate to take advantage of her so easily. Otherwise, she'll become suspicious even if she wasn't. And even if she isn't suspicious, won't her family investigate? If someone else takes over, especially that son-in-law, it'll be even more troublesome. Let's just proceed with the normal shipping this time. With this extra money, we can pay this season's tribute, so we won't lose out."

Zhou Shitai then lowered his head and wrote it down.

After finishing the business, Manager Zhou rolled his eyes and smoothly steered the conversation to personal matters.

"That son-in-law is indeed a nuisance. I don't know what stroke of luck he had to catch Huang Xingtong's eye." Old Manager Zhou glanced at Zhou Shitai. "If we can find a way to replace him and put someone else in his place, not only will things be more convenient for us in the future, but things we never dared to dream of before, such as the Huang family... could also be done for us."

Zhou Shitai did not respond, but simply lowered his head and tidied up the things at hand.

Shopkeeper Zhou smiled.

"Are you pretending to be ignorant with your father?"

"I wouldn't dare."

"You dare say you have no feelings for that Miss Huang?"

Zhou Shitai pursed his lips, smiled but did not reply.

Without any hesitation, Old Manager Zhou grabbed Zhou Shitai's face and pulled him in front of him. Zhou Shitai then knelt down.

The father looked at his own son as if he were a piece of merchandise, and the son did the same thing as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

"You look just like your mother... That bitch may not have much else, but she gave you a beautiful face, so we can't waste it," Old Manager Zhou muttered.

Zhou Shitai wasn't angry at all. Instead, he agreed, "Fortunately, I only got this face. If my brain is like hers and not like my father's, then my life is over."

Old Manager Zhou chuckled. "Your eldest and second brothers are inferior to you in this respect. Although our sons aren't as cunning as women, they're just ruthless, not as shrewd as you. If only ruthlessness could get you anywhere in this world, that would be great. Alright, I'll think of a way for you. He's just a lowly lacquerer; getting rid of him won't take much effort. But you should also show some backbone and attitude. Cut off those relationships outside as soon as possible. As for the ones at home… you can use them for now, but when the time is right, you should know when to cut ties."

Zhou Shitai then grinned.

"I'll do whatever Dad says."

……

Huang Chu breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Zhou Shitai off.

Huang Muyun also chose a spot next to the stone and sat down.

The three sat facing each other when Shi Tou suddenly stood up and, facing Huang Chu across the room, began to bow deeply, saying, "I admire you! I admire you! Young lady, you are truly admirable!"

Huang Chu was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but chuckle. She stood up and returned the greeting with a bow from a distance, saying, "I admire you! Little Stone is just as good."

"...What's wrong with it?"

Huang Chu laughed even harder, "You're not much worse than me, are you?"

Stone then laughed heartily.

The two exchanged a glance and then simultaneously bowed to Huang Muyun.

"Strategist!" "Strategist!"

Seeing the two of them like this, Huang Muyun wanted to laugh, but for some reason, he felt ashamed, and his face became even more tense than before. Just looking at them like that made him seem like an oddball.

Stone straightened up and waved his hands in dissatisfaction. "Brother, you're such a spoilsport. You don't give me any face at all."

Huang Chu didn't seem to mind, or rather, he didn't seem to care.

She smiled and asked Shi Tou, "Haven't I given you enough face?"

"No way, it's not that he's disrespecting me, it's that he's disrespecting us," Stone muttered.

After Huang Chu finished joking around with him, he sat back down. "Let's not rush to celebrate. Let's wait and see. It'll take some time for the ship to return. In the meantime, we won't be idle. Although we know the Zhou family is colluding with the pirates, we can't do anything to them on our own. Now that we've confirmed it, we can report it to the authorities and ask them to send more people to keep an eye on them. But we can't say this ourselves. I think we should inform my father first and have him communicate with the authorities. That would be more convincing."

Shi Tou nodded and volunteered to be a witness, after all, he had been on the Zhou family's boat.

Huang Muyun suddenly said, "But at present we only have verbal speculation and what we see, but there is no evidence, no one was injured, and no property was lost."

Shi Tou said, "So what? The young lady personally experienced almost being kidnapped! With her status, and Master Huang's status, do you think the magistrate would ignore it?"

Huang Muyun said, "I didn't say I would definitely ignore it. It's just..."

He frowned, recalling memories of Master Zhao Dong.

He saw the county magistrate twice because he had to deal with Zhao Dong's matter.

"Our magistrate... doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be so kind-hearted," he considered. "To him, what hasn't happened yet is what won't happen. Without evidence, only verbal accounts, and expecting him to believe that the county's merchants are colluding with pirates, even if you, sir, were to speak on his behalf, you'd probably only get a bunch of bureaucratic platitudes and evasive answers."

After he finished speaking, Huang Chu knew that it was indeed true. He was speechless for a moment.

Shi Tou felt very annoyed when he saw the two of them suddenly fall silent, and the atmosphere suddenly changed from joyful and enthusiastic to hesitant and indecisive.

Without much thought, he slammed his hand on the table and said, "Then let's get him some evidence! I refuse to believe that the Zhou family's business can hide everything so perfectly! Just you wait and see, I have a plan!"

Huang Chu blinked, slightly surprised.

Stone retorted defiantly, "What, you don't believe me?"

"No, no," Huang Chu smiled slightly, "I just didn't want to involve you anymore. It's too dangerous for you. These things have nothing to do with you anyway, it's all because of me..."

"No, no, no, young lady, please don't say such things," Shi Tou waved his hand. "Just remember, no matter what, as long as I don't have to go back to that academy to recite those damn Three Character Classics, I'll do anything willingly!"

After saying that, he laughed, and Huang Chu had no choice but to accept his kindness.

It's because Shi Tou's thoughts are too straightforward, without any reservations, both in his past and present lives. In his past life, he didn't like Huang Chu, but Huang Chu still remembered his kindness. In this life, she is fortunate to befriend him, and she can also repay him in some way, so naturally she is happy to do so.

With today's major events already decided, Huang Chu didn't want to delay their dinner and rest, so he got up and left first.

As he passed the stone, the setting sun shone through the window of the flower hall, falling directly on him. This reminded Huang Chu of the leisurely and contented way she had seen him sitting under the eaves basking in the sun that morning.

Just like in the morning, she reached out and stroked his hair, as if she were petting a loyal dog, very naturally, and quickly withdrew her hand as if it were nothing serious, and left the flower hall.

Stone was engrossed in imagining another new adventure after his voyage, and didn't react much when Huang Chu tried to soothe him.

However, I suddenly felt a chill on my body.

Looking up, he saw that the sun was setting and was finally blocked by the houses outside, so he no longer received any sunlight.

He touched himself, and was about to say that it was getting late and they should go back.

In the blink of an eye, he saw Huang Muyun's eyes, deeper and colder than the night, almost freezing his hair.