Chapter 1654: Chapter 1081: Concealment (Part 2)
"What on earth is it? Tell me." Zhao Qihui anxiously tugged on Chuxia’s arm. "You know what I’m like. If it’s something that needs to be kept secret, I definitely won’t leak it. And if there’s anything unfair about it, I absolutely won’t go barging in to settle scores."
"It’s not that I’m deliberately hiding it from you..." With a sigh, Chuxia looked at her seriously. "It’s just that Eldest maternal aunt and my mom have already decided this matter should be resolved among the elders. If they manage to sort it out smoothly, it’s actually better you don’t know. If they can’t, you’ll naturally be told then. So, Sister Qihui, don’t make it hard for me, okay? I promised them this matter would stop with me."
After a moment of silence, Zhao Qihui agreed. "Okay, I won’t push you. I know if you’re not telling me, there must be a reason it’s not convenient to say.
Even though I really want to know what’s going on, I still hope this is something I’ll never need to know..." She paused, then asked, "It’s about Eldest Aunt, right?"
"Yeah." On that point, Chuxia didn’t hide it from Zhao Qihui.
"Then I won’t ask. Anyway, the affairs at Eldest Aunt’s place are just one big tangled mess, sigh..." She glanced at Wang Jinsong, who was walking back with the two little ones, and finally the corners of her lips curved into a faint smile. "Fortunately, Jinsong turned out well. Otherwise, Eldest Aunt probably wouldn’t even have anything to look forward to."
Does Wang Jinsong know about it too?
The thought flashed through her mind, and Chuxia’s mood sank a little. Wang Jinsong was at school every day; adults wouldn’t talk about these things in front of him, but kids?
Back when she was in school, she’d often run into gossipy classmates, and their gossip usually came from what they’d heard at home...
If he already knows, yet has to keep it all bottled up, how much must he be suffering?
"Fourth Sis, did flowers grow on my face or something?" Wang Jinsong’s question cut off Chuxia’s train of thought. She deliberately pretended to scrutinize him for a couple of seconds. "I was just wondering how you grew from such a tiny little bean sprout into such a good-looking young man. Tell me, do you have girls chasing after you?"
"Fourth Sis, you’re getting bad too. I’m a student now; how could I be thinking about that kind of stuff? If something like that really happened, the teachers would definitely kick me back home..." Wang Jinsong looked at Chuxia with a serious face. "I study really hard at school. I absolutely won’t waste my mind on that messy nonsense."
"Alright, alright..." Secretly letting out a breath, Chuxia stood up. "Come on, help me pick grapes. Tomorrow’s fruit platters are counting on them. After that I have to go over to Little Aunt’s. You two coming with me?"
"You’re driving?" Wang Jinsong looked at Chuxia with open admiration. "Fourth Sis, you’re getting more and more awesome. If only I could be as awesome as you."
"As long as you work hard, you’ll definitely be more awesome than me in the future."
"Okay!~" Wang Jinsong nodded hard. "For that sentence from you, I’ve got to work twice as hard."
...
"Where did these grapes come from?" Seeing the big basket of grapes Wang Jinsong brought in, Zhao Yushan’s brows furrowed. He then looked over at Zhao Qihui. "You picked them from the orchard?"
"Yeah..."
Before Zhao Qihui could say more, Zhao Yushan’s brows knit even tighter. "How many times have I told you, the better off we are compared to before, the more careful we have to be. You start things off like this—how do you expect the villagers to see it?"
Seeing that her eldest uncle’s lecture-big-sister mode was about to switch on, Chuxia hurriedly stepped forward. "Eldest Uncle, this was my idea. When we left the orchard, Fifth Grandpa weighed them and wrote them down in the ledger. We agreed we’d pay at the going price when the fruit is sold.
I checked tomorrow’s menu—once the meat dishes are done, we should at least give everyone some fruit to cut the greasiness. Whether we buy elsewhere or buy in our own village, it’s all buying. So why not let the money stay in our own village? Isn’t that right, Eldest Uncle?"
"You kids..." Zhao Yushan shook his head. "Remember this in the future: we’d rather go to another village to buy than pick from our own. We might not be taking advantage, but some people are going to overthink it. Acting like this also puts your Fifth Grandpa in a tough spot."
"Huh?" Chuxia looked at her eldest uncle, completely puzzled. She didn’t get how this would make Fifth Grandpa’s life difficult. Selling things is wrong now? They didn’t get any discount, didn’t specially pick and choose, they just picked along one trellis. How is that making things hard?
"Some people will say, if the Zhao’s house people can go into the orchard to buy, then they want to go in too. You might really buy what you pick and not take any extra advantage, but some people, besides buying what they pick, will also pick and eat as they go. If the inside ends up a complete mess, won’t that infuriate your Fifth Uncle?"
"Oh, oh, oh..." Realization dawned on Chuxia, and she quickly promised Zhao Yushan this would be the last time. Before, she’d just thought: this is what we ourselves planted, it’s fresh, and instead of letting others make the money, we could eat fresh, safe fruit and let people we know earn the money. She hadn’t thought that human nature has both good and bad sides. With how far Eldest Uncle had developed things now, plenty of people were already jealous. She really had been thoughtless.
As for her own mom and Eldest maternal aunt, they’d probably been so consumed by Eldest Aunt’s affairs that they hadn’t considered any of this...
It wasn’t until evening that Zhao Yulan and Li Aiyuan finally came back. Judging by their expressions, Chuxia couldn’t see anything, so when no one was paying attention, she quietly asked her mom, "Was it resolved?"
Zhao Yulan shook her head and sighed. "Forget it. If we can’t manage it, then we won’t. Your Eldest Aunt will handle it herself. Once Longlong’s one-month celebration is over, we’ll hurry to City A so we don’t miss Doudou’s Huhu’s full-month ceremony."
It seemed her mom didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Chuxia had no choice but to push down all the questions in her heart and agree. In fact, this really wasn’t the right time to bring it up either... (There will be more fresh content of the novel "First Married, Deeply Loved" on the official WeChat platform, and there are also 100% prize draws for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" in the upper right corner to "Add Contacts," search for the public account "qdread" and follow it. Hurry up!)(To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)
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