Translator: SJade, Editor: Dj22031
Advanced chapters available on Patreon. Also, a bonus chapter will be released, if you buy me a kofi.
That spring, the Yong family encountered a bully who bullied others by taking advantage of his power, and the little family business that Old Man Yong had worked hard for many years was destroyed.
Old Man Yong learned to cook since he was a child. He was smart, hardworking and motivated, and his cooking skills were excellent. When he was almost forty years old, he saved enough money and bought a small courtyard in Shuangxi Hutong and opened a private restaurant – Yong’s Restaurant. Old Man Yong was the chef himself and brought a young apprentice to help in the kitchen. Zhou collected money and did the accounting, and hired two young waiters to serve. But not long after, a wealthy family nearby wanted to expand their house and needed his homestead, so they wanted to buy the small courtyard.
Yong’s family didn’t dare to confront the wealthy family, so they wanted to ask the wealthy family to pay a little more money so that they could find another place to reopen. As for the loss of old customers caused by the relocation of the restaurant, they didn’t dare to care. But the wealthy family was so abominable that not only were they unwilling to pay more, they were also very picky about his small courtyard and quoted a price lower than the market price.
Old Man Yong had placed all his life savings and hard work on this small restaurant, so naturally he refused to sell it.
Not long after, something happened at Yong’s Restaurant – a customer had diarrhoea after eating at the restaurant, and thought it was an epidemic, so he reported it directly to the government. When the government checked, it turned out that more than a dozen people had diarrhoea and asked for doctors! After further investigation, it turned out that these dozen people who had diarrhoea and asked for doctors had eaten at Yong’s Restaurant!
Everyone in the restaurant, except for Zhou, a woman, from Old Man Yong to the apprentice, and then to the two waiters, were taken to court.
After a beating, the apprentice confessed: Old Man Yong wanted to sell the restaurant and return to his hometown, so he wanted to make more money before selling it for travel expenses and the capital for reopening. In order to save costs, the dead pigs at home were used as raw materials for cooking, and homemade red sauce was used to suppress the flavour and enhance the freshness. When the yamen runners came to search, they actually found several pieces of pork marinated with red sauce in a jar in the kitchen. And a few days ago, a pig in the Yong family did die of diarrhoea. When they dug up the pig carcass buried deep in lime, they found that the meat on the back of the pig’s legs had been cut off!
Now that there was evidence, old man Yong was tortured and finally couldn’t stand it and confessed.
According to the court law: those who intentionally sell spoiled or poisonous food and cause death shall be sentenced to hanging; those who cause serious illness but not death shall be caned 60 times and imprisoned for one year. In the case of the Yong family, no one died, but many people had diarrhoea and almost lost their lives. Old man Yong was sentenced to 80 canes and one year of imprisonment, and also had to compensate the victims with a certain amount of silver.
Old man Yong was not young to begin with, and died in prison before he was released after being tortured. In order to pay the compensation and bribe people, Zhou had to sell the small courtyard to the wealthy family at a low price, and had to pawn or sell her dowry and other valuable things in the house. They had to move from their original residence to the current shabby courtyard.
“My father was timid, cautious, and sometimes a little stubborn. The sentence he said to us the most was: People should have a conscience, and money should not be earned by dishonest means, otherwise sooner or later, the original capital will be lost. How could such a person cut dead pork to cook for guests!!!”
Yong Ruo let out a long breath, and then said: “There are many strange things in this case. But we have no evidence, so we can only take the blame and accept our fate.”
“The key figure in this case is the apprentice. Do you know his whereabouts?”
Yong Ruo shook her head: “I don’t know. The apprentice had been with my father for more than ten years. After the case was closed, we never saw him again. He was originally from Ruzhou, and later fled the capital. Both his parents were dead. My father took pity on him because he was alone and smart, so he took him in as an apprentice, but he didn’t expect that he would be letting a wolf into the house.”
Feng Liao seemed to be thinking about something. His fingers drew circles on the armrest of the chair again.
Yong Ruo continued, “Not long after the case was closed, another incident happened in the alley. A silk shop next to our house caught fire at night. Not only did it burn down our house, but it also burned down six or seven houses of neighbours. Not only did they suffer heavy losses, but the head of the family was also taken to the government office for arson and was beaten with fifty sticks. A few days after the beating, the head of the family died. His wife couldn’t support the elderly and children, so she sold the house and went to live with relatives and friends in other places. Now, the homestead of my small courtyard and the homestead of the silk shop have become the back garden of that wealthy family.” She smiled sarcastically.
“Who is that wealthy family?” Feng Liao asked. He looked calm and she could not tell whether he was happy or angry.
“The family’s surname is Wei. They were originally engaged in business. Later, one of their sons passed the imperial examination and became an official family. Now their son has married the daughter of a high-ranking official in the court and works as a director in the Ministry of Works.”
“How did you make a living after your father passed away?”
“My mother and I did needlework and laundry for others. Unfortunately, our embroidery skills are not very good, so we can only take on some ordinary jobs to earn a few hard-earned dollars…”
“Don’t you have any relatives to rely on?”
“No. My mother was sold by my stepmother when she was young. She was originally a maid, but was later released by the family and married to my father. My grandfather’s parents died early, and he had no place to stay in the clan, so he wandered to the capital and became a son-in-law of my grandmother’s family. My grandmother only gave birth to my father, and there were not many relatives in the family…” She smiled, “I once thought about selling myself as a slave and working as a maid in a wealthy family in exchange for better living conditions for my family. But my mother would never agree. She said: She herself was born a slave, and she couldn’t bear to let her daughter become a slave again. No matter how hard life is, as long as the family is together, there will be sweetness in bitterness.”
“Your mother loves you very much!” Yong Ruo nodded, put her elbows on the table, raised the pair of hands covered with chilblains and cracks, turned them over and over twice, and smiled: “So, we mother and children rely on our own hands to support ourselves. Isn’t it amazing?” She looked at Feng Liao with smiling eyes.
Feng Liao’s eyes also fell on her hands, and there seemed to be a hint of heartache in his eyes.
“It’s amazing!” He said in a very gentle voice, “You have suffered so much!”
Just when he was feeling sad, Yong Ruo’s expression and tone suddenly changed: “But to live, people must not only have that kind of spirit in their hearts, but also have to eat and wear clothes. The yearning for delicious food is human nature and something engraved in the blood. Our family’s daily life can only ensure that we don’t starve to death. I haven’t tasted meat for a long time! The young master spent money to treat me to dinner tonight. If I eat alone, I will feel uneasy. Please allow me to take the leftovers back!”
She shrugged her head, clenched her fists lightly and placed them on her chin, raised her eyebrows and pouted her lips, stared at Feng Liao with a pitiful and aggrieved look, and shamelessly acted cute and pitiful: “Please…”
Feng Liao was a little dazed by this sudden change in style.
He looked at Yong Ruo in surprise and blinked his eyes, but she still had the same expression! Blinking again, she still had the same expression!! This, this, this… Was this a different person? Where was her previous character? Where was her previous arrogance? Where was her previous loyalty?
Gradually, his face showed a look of enlightenment, and then he couldn’t help laughing, and finally pointed at Yong Ruo and laughed.
“Hahaha…” He laughed so hard that he pounded the table and stamped his feet, until tears were about to come out, and there was no longer any etiquette of a nobleman.
Yong Ruo sighed in her heart: After not being cute for a long time, returning to her old job ended up like this… It’s heartbreaking! In this era, no one can understand the cute culture!
She put away her pretense of being pitiful, and she found it funny to see Feng Liao so happy. Shaking her head, she picked up the chopsticks and picked up a piece of tofu. While eating the tofu, she admired the rare loss of composure of the nobleman.
Feng Liao laughed for a long time before he laughed enough.
“Why do you look so weird?” he asked Yong Ruo, “Just to take away a few plates of leftovers?”
Yong Ruo shook her head: “In our family, we can’t even eat leftovers like this even if we want to!”
Feng Liao thought for a while, coughed lightly, and said seriously: “It is disrespectful to bring leftovers to your relatives. I’d better ask the store to make a few new dishes for you to take back!”
Yong Ruo shook her head and said seriously: “I will feel at ease if I take the leftovers back, and my family will eat more comfortably.”
Feng Liao looked at her straight. Yong Ruo looked at him frankly. After a long time, Feng Liao smiled helplessly, shook his head, and had to say: “It’s up to you!”
The two chatted while eating.
Yong Ruo no longer talked about her family’s affairs but picked up a few absurd and interesting things that happened in the slum of Mopan Hutong due to poverty and told them to Feng Liao, so that he could know a little about the suffering of the people, but these incidents were not too uncomfortable to listen to. After all, it was the Lantern Festival, and people should be happy!
“There was a young wife in the alley. Not long after she got married, she discovered something strange. Every time she came back from washing clothes, her mother-in-law was unhappy and would always find an excuse to make some indirect accusations before she would stop. It would be fine once or twice, but it happened every time. The young wife found it strange, so she prepared gifts and sincerely asked her aunt for advice. The aunt told her to wash clothes less often, not to be so diligent, and not to use washboards, clothes hammers and other objects to wash clothes! Do you know why?”
Feng Liao stared at her intently, with interest in his eyes: “I don’t know! Why?”
“Because the mother-in-law is a very stingy person. She thinks that washing clothes too much will damage the material and tear quickly, so they should not be washed too much, let alone rubbed with a washboard or clothes hammer. Therefore, when she washes clothes herself, she always soaks the clothes in water and gently rinses them a few times, and she thinks they are washed…”
“‘Rinse’ clothes?” Feng Liao’s eyes widened, very unbelievable, “Then is it ‘washed’ clean?”
“Of course it can’t be washed clean. So her daily clothes are always very dirty!”
“…Once, the mother-in-law wore a new dress to attend a banquet at her relative’s house. There was a greasy stain on the front of her clothes, which made her very sad! She took the clothes to the river, but she was reluctant to wash them in the water, so she took them home. Not long after, she went to someone else’s house for a banquet, and people found that her clothes still looked like they had never been washed, but there was an incongruous pear-flower patch on the chest. It turned out that the mother-in-law was reluctant to wash the new clothes in the water, and was reluctant to use silk thread to embroider a flower to cover the greasy stain, so she took a piece of white cloth, cut it into the shape of a pear flower, and used embroidery needlework to cover the stain with the white cloth pear flower. A little girl got close to the pear flower and smelled it. She could still smell the smell of ginger, garlic and sauce, so she said: Your pear flower is so unique that it can compete with the kitchen…”
Feng Liao laughed so hard that he fell down again.
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
Please support me on Ko-fi if possible or become a patron on Patreon.
Discord Server Link: https://discord.gg/bUtjSUQpNq
I’ll be able to post more chapters if you support me
Previous • Table of Contents • Next