Chapter 13: The Evil Stepmother Revealed
"Mom, you know what, the steamed buns made by my sister-in-law are quite popular."
Gu Dashu was embarrassed at first, but later he asked everyone to buy steamed buns until his voice became hoarse.
At this moment, he had a mysterious confidence that he was also good at business.
"This is just the beginning." Tong Huaqiong took the opportunity to teach her eldest son a lesson, and calmly said, "Don't you want to be the shopkeeper of Zheng's shop? If you have that kind of ambition, why don't you think of a way to start a business and be your own shopkeeper? Why bother to follow others and suffer?"
Gu Dashu laughed and said, "Mom, don't mention the Zheng family matter. I was just confused and blinded by greed."
He didn't believe that a shop could be developed with just a basket of steamed buns. His widowed mother was just hinting at his stupid idea of exchanging his niece for the shopkeeper.
Tong Huaqiong sneered: "It's good that you know."
This bad bamboo showed signs of turning for the better, and it quickly began to reflect on itself.
But it is still a long way from being straight.
"We have sold all the steamed buns. What are we going to eat? I'm starving." Gu Taohua asked while touching her rumbling stomach.
She was really hungry.
After making a scene at the Zheng family and acting as a standee to advertise steamed buns, Gu Taohua, who was usually spoiled to the point of not even having to use a pair of chopsticks, felt that she had done more work in a single day than in the past ten years of her life.
Tong Huaqiong took the opportunity to start educating Gu Taohua.
"Your thick flesh can be used as a cotton-padded jacket to keep out the cold. You won't starve to death if you skip a meal."
"Taohua, I'm not saying anything to you, but you should lose some weight."
"You are old and fat, you can't even run. If there is a war or famine, you will be the first one to be left behind."
This fat girl never treats herself badly during a meal!
Doesn't she have any idea about her figure?
Not to mention the impact on her appearance, if Gu Taohua continues to eat like this, she will be finished if she develops three highs. In this era, there is no antihypertensive drug or insulin to save her life.
Gu Taohua pouted her lips in dissatisfaction.
My mother didn’t say this before. She would hug her fat daughter and say that being fat is a blessing.
Even when her second sister-in-law Liu Yue'e asked her to lose some weight, her mother jumped up and down and scolded her for being a black-hearted rotten seed and for being harsh to her younger sister-in-law.
"Grandma, I'm hungry too." Gu Yaozu looked at the porter gnawing on a chicken leg next to him, his mouth watering with greed.
Liu Yue'e swallowed her saliva. She was actually hungry too, but she didn't dare to say it. Her sister-in-law was scolded by her mother-in-law, and as a daughter-in-law, she didn't dare to bring bad luck upon herself.
"Yaozu is hungry, let's eat big meat buns." Tong Huaqiong said.
The steamed bun shop is near the pier and business seems to be booming.
Yaozu clapped his hands happily and returned to his doted and pampered look.
When they heard that there were meat buns to eat, Gu Taohua and Liu Yue'e's eyes lit up.
Gu Dashu's mouth twitched. His mother's style of doing things was becoming more and more unpredictable. She used the money from selling steamed buns to buy dumplings. If it were someone else, he would have called her crazy.
A steamed bun costs five cents, and a steamed dumpling costs ten cents.
Two steamed buns can be exchanged for one steamed bun.
But he didn't intend to wake his mother up. After all, meat buns were better than steamed buns. He hadn't eaten meat for several days, so he was happy to eat meat buns.
Tong Huaqiong gritted her teeth and bought eight meat buns.
Liu Yue'e and Yaozu each ate one of the peach blossoms in the Valley of Dashu, and Tong Huaqiong ate two herself.
As the oldest person in the family, she has the right to be treated specially.
The remaining two were given to Chen Sufen and Maner.
As for Gu Jingzhe, he had nothing to eat. The whole family tightened their belts to support this bad guy to study, but he actually offended the Zheng family and asked her to break off the engagement, leaving him with nothing to eat.
Having not eaten for almost a day, Gu Dashu and the other bad guys were eating meat buns with relish.
Tong Huaqiong felt that the buns smelled good but tasted just so-so, mainly because the pork had a subtle pungent smell that even the chopped green onions could not suppress.
She had read in a popular science book in her previous life that pork in this era was not as fresh and fragrant as pork in later generations because the pigs were not castrated, so the meat had a fishy smell.
Therefore, pork was not so popular in this era. Ordinary scholars and aristocrats did not eat pork, but mainly ate mutton.
Mutton is relatively expensive and ordinary families cannot afford it. A bun shop like this one, which is located next to the dock and targets porters and laborers, would naturally choose cheap and smelly pork.
Thinking of this, Tong Huaqiong's eyes lit up. She was eager to try to castrate the pig at home, and then launch braised pork, Dongpo pork, braised bones, and big meat buns. Wouldn't that mean she could be the first to seize the pork market?
After Tong Huaqiong finished eating the buns, he grabbed a middle-aged porter who was carrying a sandbag and asked, "Little brother, do you know Gu Dahan?"
She remembered Gu Dahan carrying sandbags at the dock.
I didn’t have time to ask when I was selling steamed buns just now, but now that I have time, I want to ask.
Carrying sandbags at the dock is hard work, and anyone with a decent living wouldn't do it.
Tong Huaqiong looked at the porters carrying sandbags coming and going and wanted to scold Tong Dajiao for being an inhumane person.
The weather was not too hot, but the porters were sweating from exhaustion. The heavy sandbags pressed the porters so hard that they could not straighten their backs, and the foreman in front of them kept urging them on.
Being a porter is not a long-term solution.
Tong Huaqiong planned to bring Gu Dahan home and let him farm in the village in the future.
Tong Huaqiong ate a bun while observing the porters carrying sandbags not far away. She looked for Gu Dahan among them, but couldn't find him after a long search.
That's why I caught a simple-looking porter to ask him about it.
"Who are you?" the middle-aged porter asked as he weighed the sandbag.
"This is my mother, and Gu Dahan is my elder brother." Gu Dashu said first.
The middle-aged man looked Tong Huaqiong up and down and said, "I was wondering who it was? It turns out to be Gu Dahan's evil stepmother. Gu Dahan works so hard here that he can't even bear to drink a bowl of hot soup, but you guys are wearing new clothes and pearl flowers and eating meat buns."
Tong Huaqiong choked.
孽 孽!
She has to take the blame for Tong Da Jiao's mistakes.
"Then little brother, do you know where my son is?" Tong Huaqiong asked without anger.
The middle-aged man was disgusted by Tong Huaqiong's words "my son". It seems that this stepmother is not only vicious but also a green tea!
"What do you want from him? Are you here to ask for money?"
"You are going to fail. He has gone to the capital city."
"What is he doing in the city?"
"To make money. His younger brother who is studying comes to him from time to time to ask for money. How much can he make by carrying sandbags here? In order to make more money, he went to work as a hired worker for a wealthy family in the capital." The middle-aged porter wiped his sweat and sneered at Tong Huaqiong and others.
Tong Huaqiong frowned. How could Gu Jingzhe come to Gu Dahan to ask for money without her knowledge? She would definitely punish him when she got home!
"Do you know which wealthy family he lives in?" Tong Huaqiong asked the middle-aged porter, meeting his unfriendly gaze.
"Not sure." The middle-aged porter walked away carrying the sandbag.
Tong Huaqiong sighed.
"That turned out to be Gu Dahan's stepmother. She is a widow but still dresses so pretty. That pink dress is only worn by wives who don't work."
"I heard that the stepmother was a scoundrel. She chased him to carry sandbags and took away all the money he earned every month."
"No wonder, she has to dress up nicely with her stepson's money."
"Gu Dahan has had a hard time. He has raised a large family and has a little brother who is studying. Tsk tsk tsk ..."
The boss lady of the bun shop and the passing porters heard what Tong Huaqiong and the middle-aged porter said when they asked about Gu Dahan. When they heard that the widow with pink beads was Gu Dahan's stepmother, those who knew Gu Dahan stood up for him.
There were even a few porters who said they regretted buying the steamed buns from the vicious stepmother.
Tong Huaqiong felt a lot of pressure under the burning gazes of those who loved justice.
If I don't leave now, I'm afraid that kind-hearted and righteous people will throw rotten eggs at the vicious stepmother.
Tong Huaqiong, with a dark face, fled with Gu Dashu and others.
"Mom, if my brother wants to go to the provincial capital, then let him go. Why do you care about him?" Gu Dashu said on the way home.
"My eldest brother comes home once a month anyway, it's not like I won't see him."
Gu Dashu didn't know yet that Tong Huaqiong was planning to stop Gu Dahan from doing hard labor.
Tong Huaqiong pointed at Gu Dashu's forehead and said, "You are such a rotten seed. Your elder brother works hard outside to earn money to support the family, but you don't feel sorry for him at all."
Gu Dashu thought, wasn't it you who drove your elder brother out there, you can't blame him at all.
"Dashu." Tong Huaqiong seemed to know Gu Dashu's psychological activities and stared at him with a smile.
Gu Dashu felt so frightened by being stared at.
What is mother going to do again?
"I'll let your third brother, a scholar, stay at home and farm. You two brothers should be fair. I want you to come to the dock to carry sandbags and earn money to support the family. What do you think?"