“Uncle Zhou, I want to buy meat.” Li Menglan stood smiling in front of Butcher Zhou.
Recently, Li Menglan had been patronizing Butcher Zhou’s business every few days, and the two of them had grown quite familiar with each other. Butcher Zhou had genuinely taken a liking to this clever and sweet-talking little girl.
“Lan girl, why are you so early today?” Butcher Zhou had only just opened his stall, and Li Menglan was his very first customer of the day.
Li Menglan said with a smile, “Mm…. I have a lot to buy today, so I left home more than an hour earlier than usual. Uncle Zhou, the pork looks good today!”
Li Menglan knew that Butcher Zhou only looked fierce; in truth, he was very kind-hearted.
“Speak up! What do you want to buy today?” Butcher Zhou asked cheerfully. “That pork offal, do you still want it?”
“Of course!” Li Menglan nodded vigorously. “The pig’s head, trotters, tail…. sell me all of those again too.”
“Sure! But Lan girl, Uncle will still give you the offal from my stall for free, but if you want the offal from next door, you’ll have to pay them ten wen per set.” Butcher Zhou said with a smile uglier than tears. “Lan girl, I won’t hide it from you; recently there’s been a sudden increase in people buying pork offal, so they aren’t willing to give it away for free anymore.”
Perhaps worried that Li Menglan would misunderstand, Butcher Zhou explained to her.
After hearing Butcher Zhou’s words, Li Menglan thought that the Zhao family’s restaurant had probably started making braised dishes; the people buying pork offal were likely from the Zhao family, right?
“It’s fine, Uncle Zhou. Then please trouble yourself to get the offal from next door for me. Here…. here’s twenty wen.” Li Menglan counted out twenty wen and placed them before Butcher Zhou. “Since the pork offal can already be sold for money, I can’t take advantage of you; however much the offal from next door costs, naturally I’ll pay you the same amount.”
“Hehe…. You!” Butcher Zhou shook his head somewhat helplessly. “Why is this girl of yours so honest?”
“Uncle Zhou, cut me twenty jin of streaky pork, five jin of lean meat, and five jin of fatty meat.” Li Menglan stated the pork her family needed.
“Sure, Uncle will also give you a few large bones to boil soup!” Butcher Zhou probably felt embarrassed about taking money for the pork offal, so he generously gave her several large bones.
“Little sister, what else do we need to buy?” Li Zhiming and Li Zhihao, the two brothers, each carried a large basket and walked beside Li Menglan. The one who spoke was the second brother, Li Zhihao.
“Mm…. Second Brother, let’s go buy some fish too! That way…. tomorrow we’ll have another meat dish. Eating meat every day is rather greasy and tiresome.”
“Sure, we’ll listen to you.”
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The moment Li Menglan walked into Zhao Ji Restaurant, she saw Zhao Qingyun sitting properly behind the counter at first glance: “Brother Zhao, why are you here so early today?”
Zhao Ji Restaurant hadn’t even opened for business yet, but Zhao Qingyun was already stationed inside; it was perfectly normal for Li Menglan to find this strange.
When Zhao Qingyun saw Li Menglan, his originally unpleasant expression grew even worse: “Lan’er, why did you come to Clearwater Town so early today?”
Zhao Qingyun knew very well that Shangliang Village was not close to Clearwater Town; for Li Menglan to arrive in Clearwater Town so early meant she had set out before dawn.
“Oh…. Our new house is having its ridge beam raised tomorrow. According to custom, our family is hosting a banquet tomorrow; so…. we came to Clearwater Town today for a big purchase.” Li Menglan didn’t think much of it, and upon hearing Zhao Qingyun’s question, naturally told him her purpose for coming to town.
“What? Lan girl, your family’s new house is almost finished?” The speaker was none other than the Zhao family’s old urchin, Old Master Zhao.
The old man who walked out excitedly from the back hall carrying a bowl of noodles in his hands, uh…. wasn’t that the Zhao family’s Old Master?
Uh…. Looking at the other party’s excited expression, Li Menglan suddenly had a bad feeling: “Hello, Grandpa!”
At this moment…. Li Menglan finally understood what was behind Zhao Qingyun’s unpleasant expression.
“Lan girl! Grandpa has finally waited for you to come.” Old Master Zhao looked at Li Menglan and suddenly said with great emotion: “You heartless little rascal, you have no idea how much Grandpa misses you; look…. because I’ve been thinking of you, I’ve lost a whole circle of weight.”
Uh…. Had he? Li Menglan silently rolled her eyes toward the heavens. Why did it look to her like he had actually gained weight?
“Grandpa.” Old Master Zhao’s words made Zhao Qingyun’s face lose some of its composure.
“Go, off to the side.” Old Master Zhao waved his hand somewhat impatiently, as if shooing away flies: “Can’t you see Grandpa is talking to Lan girl?”
Ugh…. How depressing! It was the first time in Zhao Qingyun’s life that he had been disdained by his own grandfather; the boy felt quite upset inside.
“Then…. Grandpa, what do you want?”
Li Menglan had no time to sympathize with Zhao Qingyun, who had been disdained by his own elder; she should pity herself first. This Old Master of the Zhao family…. based on Li Menglan’s several interactions with him, he was no easy customer; he was simply an old fox that had cultivated into a spirit.
Thinking about it, he was the great general of Yunliang Nation with illustrious military achievements; tsk tsk…. how could an old man who had come down from the battlefield be an ordinary elder? Even if he looked completely harmless, she could not treat him as an ordinary old man.
“Lan girl! Didn’t you say your family is raising the ridge beam tomorrow?” Old Master Zhao said excitedly, his face full of uncontainable excitement: “Grandpa has decided, tomorrow I’ll go to your family to celebrate and offer congratulations!”
What? Could her ears be hearing things?
Li Menglan’s little face scrunched up. She cast a pitiful, help-seeking gaze toward Zhao Qingyun; wuwu…. Our tiny temple cannot accommodate your great Buddha!
Uh…. But this time Zhao Qingyun didn’t help her out. It turned out this fellow himself harbored a small desire to see what Li Menglan’s home actually looked like.
Not only did he not help her out, Zhao Qingyun instead joined in enthusiastically: “That’s right! Lan’er, Grandpa’s words make perfect sense; with your family raising the ridge beam tomorrow, Grandpa and I truly should go to offer congratulations.”
Great…. another one. Li Menglan somehow felt that his words had the ring of hitting someone when they were down.
“Um…. Can I refuse?” Li Menglan glanced cautiously at the Zhao family grandfather and grandson, and said sheepishly.
“Lan girl, could you bear to see Grandpa at my advanced age…. still sad and heartbroken?” Old Master Zhao employed the ploy of the sorrowful soldier combined with the ruse of self-injury.
Uh…. Once again, Li Menglan was dumbfounded; very good—truly there was no most shameless, only more shameless. Li Menglan very wisely chose to shut her mouth.
As for the brothers Li Zhiming and Li Zhihao following behind Li Menglan, ever since they had witnessed Old Master Zhao’s methods for the first time, every time they saw the old man they would hide as far away as possible, with no intention of getting close.
Unable to do anything about the elder, she could only turn her eyes to Zhao Qingyun at the side: “How about it, Brother Zhao, why don’t you not go?”
Zhao Qingyun was even more direct. He looked at her faintly with slightly reddened eyes; under his silent accusation, very soon…. Li Menglan also raised the white flag and surrendered: “Alright! Pretend I didn’t say anything; go…. go…. both you grandfather and grandson go, that should finally be enough, right!”
Li Menglan lowered her head and muttered.
The brothers Li Zhiming and Li Zhihao at the side could only look at their little sister with sympathy, suddenly feeling that they were somewhat failing as older brothers? But…. glancing at the Zhao family grandfather and grandson beside them, who were clearly of the same fox-spirit caliber, the two brothers unanimously chose silence.
A hint of small triumph flashed in Zhao Qingyun’s eyes. Hehe…. He had observed Li Menglan many times from the side, and Zhao Qingyun had reached a conclusion—as long as he revealed a slightly aggrieved expression, the other party would certainly surrender.
Just like the scene before his eyes…. a faint smile once again emerged on Zhao Qingyun’s face.