Yang Ming got dressed and scrubbed his wife’s bath bucket inside out until it was squeaky clean. He even washed the clothes he had changed out of and hung them up neatly before finally entering the room.
As soon as he walked in, he saw Xiaoxiao sitting at the table, busily writing something. Before he could even sit down, she handed him something—it turned out to be silver.
"Here you go, a total of one hundred and twenty-five taels!"
"..." Why was she giving him silver?
"It’s the money for the fifty thousand catties of cabbages!"
Seeing that her cheap husband was not taking the silver, as if he really disliked the idea, Xiaoxiao continued, "I’ve said it before, one should be rewarded for their efforts. This is what you deserve for reselling the cabbages!"
"Keep it, keep it for when you marry a wife in the future!"
Yang Ming hadn’t expected his wife to say that, actually telling him to keep it for marrying a wife. It seemed his status as the husband was quite unsteady, at risk of being discarded any moment!
With those words, Yang Ming climbed into bed, dropped off to sleep, and soon enough, began to snore—he was genuinely exhausted!
Watching Yang Ming , Xiaoxiao realized that she hadn’t heard him snore these many days. He must have been truly worn out.
"Fine! In light of your hard work, I’ll forgive what happened just now!"
Afterwards, Xiaoxiao went to take her bath, and she saw that the bath bucket was all tidy and clean, which made her think even more highly of her cheap husband.
Time flew by, and it was the day she had fixed to collect the pickled vegetables from Big Golden Leg. True to his word, Big Golden Leg arrived bright and early with the cart full of pickled vegetables.
Since the price of cabbages had skyrocketed, naturally, the price of pickled vegetables had risen sharply too. Big Golden Leg had made another fortune—reaping the benefits without doing much!
A portly old man, in a fit of rage, smashed his teacup to the ground!
"This is your grand solution to deal with Yuelai Restaurant?"
"What am I supposed to do with so many cabbages, huh?"
"Are you trying to squander all of your old dad’s coffin money?!"
"Cough! Cough!" While scolding, the old man started coughing, clearly agitated by his brilliant son.
"Quick, stop buying cabbages. Go find someone who can make spicy cabbage! Do you want cabbages to rot in our house?!"
"Get out of here now! You’re such a waster!"
The man in question was the owner of Dongfeng Restaurant. He had fallen ill from the stress of the news.
He knew his restaurant’s standing pretty well. Dongfeng Restaurant could barely compete on even footing with Yuelai Restaurant in this county.
Yuelai Restaurant had establishments in other counties, something Dongfeng Restaurant lacked. He’d been lucky that a semi-apprentice of the Imperial Kitchen chef had fallen into his hands, allowing him to hold his own against Yuelai Restaurant across the way.
But who would have thought, his young and hot-headed son wanted to stand against Yuelai Restaurant, concocting such a scheme—what a foolish child!
"Did that old fellow find out?" Chu Lian asked with a wicked grin, having hoped to continue draining the old man’s wealth.
"Mhm, they’ve stopped buying cabbages."
"Alright, we’ve earned enough as well. Let’s call it quits. It’s unheard of to inflate cabbage prices to one hundred wen per catty!"
This cabbage incident had somehow gone by without Zhong Xiaoxiao seeking his help, which surprised him. But then again, yes, she had Yang Ming at her side now!
However, the first batch of pickled vegetables had already hit the market, and he anticipated seeing her soon. Although he hadn’t planned on competing with his brother, looking at her wouldn’t hurt, right?