Xiaoxiao knew she had to make things clear with her aunt-in-law, because modern ideas for making money kept popping into her head. If her aunt-in-law stopped being sneaky in the future, Xiaoxiao wouldn’t mind helping another person. After all, it’s easier to walk down a road with more friends rather than enemies!
"Yang Ming’s wife, don’t worry, your aunt-in-law will definitely not cause any trouble for you all from now on. I’ve had enough this time, and my family hasn’t stopped complaining about me! I totally regret it!"
It was then that Xiaoxiao helped her aunt-in-law to plead with Golden Leg. She felt really embarrassed, for it was her own people who had dropped the ball.
"Well, consider it as owing you one, just let them go for now. They are my relatives, hehe!"
"..." Chu Lian had not expected that they were relatives. Had he known they were Xiaoxiao’s relatives, he would not have arrested them.
"Have you made any progress with the ones playing dead to extort money? Has that family confessed yet?"
Xiaoxiao thought, since she was here, she might as well ask about the progress.
"It seems someone has been paying them off behind the scenes, but they refuse to admit it. However, I suspect it’s the Dongfeng Restaurant across the street!"
The only enemy they had made here was the Dongfeng Restaurant across the street. Business had been terrible due to previous squeezes, and now, when things were finally looking up, they started causing trouble again.
"Those spicy pickled cabbages are bound to get copied, so think of a way to disguise them. It would be best to make something else with apples and pears as a decoy."
Xiaoxiao had been thinking about this for days and hadn’t taken action mainly because she knew apples and pears could be made into canned goods, but she wasn’t skilled at it herself. She had tried making them in modern times, and although her family would grudgingly eat them, they didn’t come close to the store-bought quality and were not presentable.
However, now that she had Golden Leg’s support, maybe she could ask his chefs to experiment. After all, they were professionals and should do better than her half-baked attempts.
"Do you have any good ideas, miss?"
Chu Lian figured Xiaoxiao must have some clever plan up her sleeve; this girl always brought him surprises.
"I do have one, but it will require your chef’s experimentation. I’m just offering the idea."
Xiaoxiao shared the idea of canning with Golden Leg and let them research it. This could also count as repaying a favor in a way.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the beginning of the month. The men in the family, having sustained only minor injuries, were now bouncing around lively again.
Since the spicy pickled cabbage was going to be sold in jars, and they needed to produce a large quantity for eight towns and the county, Xiaoxiao’s whole familyjoined forces to get busy!
For the external sales, they changed the packaging from 25-pound jars to smaller 5-pound jars.
One early morning, during breakfast.
"Ugh! Ugh!" Xiaoxiao, for some unknown reason, started vomiting.
"Younger sister-in-law, what’s wrong with you?" The second sister-in-law noticed Xiaoxiao’s symptoms and thought she might be pregnant, sensing big gossip because she knew Yang Ming had not consummated the marriage.
"Maybe I just have an upset stomach," Xiaoxiao said, thinking little of it.
"Ugh! Ugh!" Unable to sit still, Xiaoxiao immediately rushed to the outhouse, throwing up violently.
"Could the younger sister-in-law be...?" The second sister-in-law, never one to avoid stirring things up, voiced her gossip-laden thoughts.
The family was stunned. The fact that Yang Ming and his wife hadn’t consummated their marriage was an open secret. What was going on now?
Finally, the old master Yang Ming spoke up and instructed the women of the house to go and ask.
"Daughter-in-law, have you had your ’monthly’ yet?" Xiaoxiao had just laid down when her mother-in-law rushed in to inquire.
"..." Monthly? What the hell? She had no idea what her mother-in-law was talking about!
"It’s, you know, that!" the second sister-in-law reminded her.