Everyone was rendered speechless by Zhao Chun. At this moment, Wang Fuhai laughed. "It seems like your third brother genuinely cares about you. For a prescription worth fifty taels, he’s offering ten taels just because you’re his brother. No wonder his restaurant has no business. Turns out his heart is too dark."
Hearing this, Zhao Chun’s face fell, and he looked unfriendlily at Wang Fuhai. "Who are you? This is our family business. What’s an outsider like you meddling for?"
Wang Fuhai didn’t get angry and replied slowly, "Eh, my friend, you’re mistaken. I just bought two prescriptions from your Brother for one hundred taels. In other words, these two prescriptions now belong to my Guang Ju Restaurant. You tell me, is this still your family business?"
At these words, Zhao Chun was immediately shocked. "What did you say? You bought the prescriptions?!"
Wang Fuhai ignored him and simply nodded farewell to Zhao Dong. "Alright, I’ll take the prescriptions now. We had a pleasant cooperation. If there are any more prescriptions, come find me again."
Having said that, he walked towards the door, and Zhao Dong quickly went to see him off.
Just after Wang Fuhai left, Zhao Chun, his face full of accusation and all pretense of brotherly love gone, began to complain, "Brother! What do you mean by this? Don’t you know that my restaurant and Guang Ju Restaurant are mortal enemies? And you still sold the prescriptions to them; what exactly are your intentions!"
Zhao Dong sneered inwardly but pretended to be pitiful on the surface. "Third Brother, what are you saying? Others sought me out to buy the prescription. They saw my misery and offered fifty taels of silver. You know what your Brother is like now. With this life-saving fifty taels of silver, how could I not sell? Or are you saying you want to see your Brother die?"
Zhao Chun’s face turned ashen. So, Zhao Dong’s words implied that he, his own third brother, was worth less than a stranger who, seeing his hardship, had offered fifty taels of silver!
Although furious, he was too ashamed to stay any longer. So, he had to take the pastries he had brought and left in a frustrated rage.
When he returned home, still fuming, his wife was in the courtyard disciplining their younger daughter.
After Zhao Cai returned home, she heard that Zhao Zhitong had started school. She had always been competitive since childhood and loved to compare herself to Zhao Zhitong.
She wasn’t happy about this and now insisted on going to school too.
Xiao Wang’s face was stern. "Are you stupid? What’s so good about going to school? What’s the use of learning all that classical nonsense? You can’t become an official with it in the future anyway."
Zhao Cai remained insistent. She felt that if she didn’t go to school and receive the Teacher’s approval, it meant she wasn’t as smart as Zhao Zhitong.
She was determined to be better than Zhao Zhitong in every way, so she pleaded, "Mother, please, just let me go to school! Going to school must be good. If it wasn’t, why would that Evil Star go? There must be some benefits!"
Xiao Wang patiently advised her daughter, "You really are foolish. That’s because Mrs. Sun can’t have children anymore, can’t bear a son. Since she doesn’t have a son to take the imperial exams and become a top scholar, she’s gone mad and sent her daughter to school. Don’t be like her. Listen to your mother; just learn a few characters at home. You and your sister can learn the qin, chess, and dance with the female tutor your mother hired. These are much more useful than studying that classical nonsense.
"With all those accomplishments, you’ll be able to marry into a wealthy family and please your husband. Then you’ll have everything you could ever want in life."
Zhao Cai still pouted in disagreement.
Xiao Wang had no choice but to use her trump card. "My dear girl, think about it. In the future, with your accomplishments, you’ll be able to charm men and marry into a good, wealthy family. And that Evil Star, after learning a bellyful of useless knowledge, nobody will want her. She’ll end up marrying some farmer. Think how much better off you’ll be than her! In the future, she’ll have to look up to you."
This finally convinced Zhao Cai. The thought of herself wearing beautiful clothes and expensive jewelry, while that Evil Star could only wear ugly hemp clothes and toil in the fields, made her laugh as if it had already come true.
So she said triumphantly, "Okay, Mother, I’ll listen to you. I’ll definitely learn these skills diligently."
Xiao Wang was finally satisfied. "That’s right. You’re truly Mother’s good girl."
Just then, Zhao Chun returned, fuming.
Seeing her husband in such a state, she knew things hadn’t gone well and hurriedly asked, "What happened? Didn’t they even give you the ten taels of silver? They’re too ungrateful!"
Zhao Chun snorted. "Far from it! He sold the formula to Guang Ju Restaurant!"
"What?!" Xiao Wang was incredulous and shrieked, "How could he do that? We’re family! How could he sell it to our mortal enemy? I’m going to tell Father and Mother!"
Saying this, she stormed into the room angrily.
And so, just as Sun Mei and Zhao Dong had predicted, the turmoil over the prescription was not going to settle easily.
「The next day,」 Mrs. Wang, along with her daughter-in-law Xiao Wang, stormed over.
However, when she arrived, Zhao Dong’s maternal grandfather’s family also happened to be there; they had come to help Zhao Dong’s family with the wheat harvest.
Just then, they had returned from the fields, pulling two flatbed carts laden with wheat, and ran right into Mrs. Wang.
Naturally, a fierce war of words erupted. However, with two maternal aunts and the grandmother present—especially Aunt and the grandmother, both formidable in verbal combat—Mrs. Wang and her daughter-in-law didn’t gain the slightest advantage.
Not only that, but in the end, Mrs. Wang and her daughter-in-law were even pinned to the ground and beaten by the grandmother and her companions.
It caused quite a stir at the village entrance, and villagers from several nearby villages heard the commotion and gathered to watch the spectacle.
However, after finding out the whole story, they all started to denounce Mrs. Wang and her family.
"Pah! How shameless! Zhao Dong’s family is having such a hard time, barely able to make a living and support themselves. And here comes Mrs. Wang, brazenly demanding the prescription. She just can’t stand to see others doing well. A stepmother is truly no match for one’s own mother."
"Isn’t that the truth! Even Guang Ju Restaurant knew to offer fifty taels of silver for the prescription. But these so-called family members only offer ten, and act as if Zhao Dong should be grateful! The nerve of them!"
The surrounding accusations and scoldings infuriated Mrs. Wang and her daughter-in-law even more, and their fight with the grandmother and her group grew fiercer.
Meanwhile, Zhao Zhitong was still unaware of the major incident unfolding at home. She was at school, having a calligraphy competition with Zhao Yue.
At that moment, they had both finished their calligraphy pieces and placed them side by side on the table.
Zhao Zhitong admired both works and generously praised, "Zhao Yue, you’ve improved so much! But I’m not bad either, hmph."
Zhao Yue’s face flushed red as he sat there looking smug. "That’s right! I told you I’d write better than you."
Zhao Zhitong immediately grinned. "Not necessarily! I wrote well too. Let’s go show them to the Teacher right now and let the Teacher decide!"
Hearing they were going to show them to the Teacher, Zhao Yue immediately grew nervous. As a struggling student, what he feared most was seeing the Teacher alone, because whenever that happened, it was never for anything good.
So he unconsciously swallowed. "Do we... do we really have to show them to the Teacher?"
Zhao Zhitong loved talking to the Teacher. Now that her calligraphy had improved so much, she was eager to show the Teacher. So, she grabbed Zhao Yue and ran towards the Teacher’s residence.