The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 13: The Vicious Stepmother Reveals Her True Colors
"Mom, you know, sister-in-law’s steamed buns are quite popular, huh."
Dashi initially felt embarrassed, but later his voice went hoarse from shouting for everyone to buy buns.
At this moment, he felt a mysterious confidence that he was also good at doing business.
"This is just the beginning." Taking the opportunity to educate her eldest son, Tong Huaqiong said calmly, "Don’t you want to be the shopkeeper at Zheng’s shop? Instead of being eager about that, why not think of doing business and become your own shopkeeper? Why follow others and get irritated."
Dashi chuckled and said, "Mom, don’t bring up the Zheng Family matter. I was just blinded by stupidity."
He didn’t believe that just a basket of buns could develop into a shop. His mother was merely hinting at his absurd idea of swapping his niece for the role of a shopkeeper.
Tong Huaqiong sneered, "Good that you know."
This bad bamboo shows signs of turning good, so quickly realizing self-reflection.
But there’s still a long way to go to be upright.
"We’ve sold all the buns, what are we going to eat now? I’m starving," Taohua asked, rubbing her rumbling stomach.
She was truly hungry.
After causing a scene at Zheng’s and posing as a human billboard to advertise the buns, the pampered Taohua, who never even washed a pair of chopsticks before, felt that in her life, she had never done as much work as today.
Tong Huaqiong seized the opportunity to educate Taohua.
"You have so much flesh you could resist the cold like a padded jacket, skipping one meal won’t starve you."
"Taohua, not to criticize you, but you should really shed some of that weight."
"You’re so chubby you can’t even run; if there’s a war or disaster, you’d be the first to be left behind."
This plump girl never skimps on meals!
Does she have any idea about her own figure?
Not to mention it affects looks, if Taohua keeps eating like this, getting the three highs (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol) would be the end, as there’s no medication for it in this era.
Taohua pouted, unconvinced.
Mom never used to say that, hugging her plump daughter, saying being fat is a blessing.
Even when second sister-in-law Liu Yueer suggested she lose some weight, mom jumped up and scolded the heartless second sister-in-law for being cruel to the little sister-in-law.
"Grandma, I’m hungry too." Yaozu looked at the porter next to him gnawing on a chicken leg, drooling with envy.
Liu Yueer swallowed her saliva. She was actually hungry too, but she dared not say so. Her little sister-in-law was scolded by her mother-in-law; as a daughter-in-law, she dared not court disaster.
"Yaozu is hungry, let’s have some big meat buns," Tong Huaqiong said.
The bun shop was near the dock, and their business seemed quite prosperous.
Yaozu clapped his hands happily, reverting to the pampered and cheeky demeanor.
Upon hearing that there were meat buns to eat, Taohua and Liu Yueer’s eyes lit up.
Dashi’s mouth twitched; mom’s way of doing things was becoming even more unpredictable, using the money from selling buns to buy meat buns, he’d curse anyone else as crazy.
Buns were five coins each, meat buns ten coins each.
Two buns could get one meat bun.
But he didn’t plan to enlighten mom; meat buns tasted better than plain buns, and he hadn’t had meat in days, so he was all for it.
Tong Huaqiong gritted her teeth and bought eight meat buns.
Dashi, Taohua, Liu Yueer, and Yaozu each had one, Tong Huaqiong herself ate two.
Being the eldest in the family, she had the privilege to be special.
The remaining two were for Chen Sufen and Man Er.
As for Jingzhe, he got nothing. The whole family tightened their belts to support this rotten bamboo’s education, yet he got them into trouble with the Zheng Family, making her go all out to cancel the engagement, he could eat air.
Almost a day without food, Dashi, a few bad bamboos with him, savored the meat buns.
Tong Huaqiong thought the buns smelled good, but the taste was just average; mainly, the pork had a slight gamey odor, even the green onions couldn’t cover it.
She read in a previous life’s popular science book that the pork of this era wasn’t as fresh and fragrant compared to later generations because the pigs weren’t castrated, giving the meat a gamey smell.
Therefore, pork wasn’t popular in this era; aristocratic and noble classes typically didn’t eat pork but preferred lamb.
Lamb was more expensive, unaffordable for regular families. Bun shops like these, targeting porters and laborers by the dock, naturally chose cheap, gamey pork.
Upon thinking this, Tong Huaqiong’s eyes lit up; she wanted to try castrating their family’s pig and make braised pork, Dongpo pork, sauce-braised bones, big meat buns to capture the pork market first.
After finishing her bun, Tong Huaqiong grabbed a middle-aged porter carrying a sandbag and asked, "Little brother, do you know Gu Dahuan?"
She remembered Gu Dahuan carrying sandbags at the dock.
Earlier when selling buns, she didn’t have time to inquire, but now she had the time and wanted to ask around.
Carrying sandbags at the dock is hard labor, but those who can manage at home wouldn’t do this work.
Tong Huaqiong looked at the laborers coming and going, carrying sandbags, and wanted to curse Tong Dajiao for being inhuman.
The weather wasn’t very hot yet, but the laborers were sweating all over. The heavy sandbags were pressing on the laborers so hard that they couldn’t straighten their backs, and the foreman in front kept urging them on.
Being a laborer is not a long-term plan.
Tong Huaqiong planned to bring Gu Dahuan home and let him farm in the village in the future.
Tong Huaqiong was eating buns and observing the laborers carrying sandbags not far away, searching for the figure of Gu Dahuan and couldn’t find him after looking for a long time.
So she grabbed a plain-looking laborer to ask around.
"Who are you?" The middle-aged laborer weighed the sandbag and asked.
"This is my mom, Gu Dahuan is my elder brother." Gu Dashu said in advance.
The middle-aged man sized up Tong Huaqiong, sarcastically saying, "I wondered who it was? It turns out to be Gu Dahuan’s heartless stepmother. Gu Dahuan works hard here without even drinking a sip of hot soup, while you wear new clothes with beaded flowers and eat meat buns."
Tong Huaqiong choked.
Such sin!
Tong Dajiao’s burden, she still had to bear it.
"Well, young man, do you know where my son is?" Tong Huaqiong asked with mild anger.
The middle-aged man was disgusted by Tong Huaqiong’s "my son" phrase, realizing this stepmother was not only vicious but also pretentious!
"Why are you looking for him? To demand money?"
"You’ll be disappointed; he went to the prefecture city."
"Why did he go to the prefecture city?"
"To earn more money. His younger brother who studies occasionally comes to him for money, but how much could he earn from carrying sandbags here? To earn more, he went to become a hired worker at a rich family in the prefecture city." The middle-aged laborer wiped his sweat, sneering at Tong Huaqiong and the others.
Tong Huaqiong frowned deeply. What a Gu Jingzhe, he actually went behind her back to seek money from Gu Dahuan, she would definitely punish him when they returned home!
"Do you know which rich family he works at?" Tong Huaqiong asked, facing the unfriendly gaze of the middle-aged laborer.
"No idea." The middle-aged laborer walked away carrying a sandbag.
Tong Huaqiong sighed heavily.
"It turns out she’s Gu Dahuan’s stepmother, dressed up so finely even though widowed, wearing that pink outfit only worn by idle ladies."
"Heard that stepmother is inhuman, chasing him to carry sandbags, scraping away the monthly money completely."
"No wonder, using the stepson’s money to doll up like that."
"Gu Dahuan doesn’t have an easy life, supporting a whole family, also with a younger brother who studies. Tsk tsk..."
While Tong Huaqiong and the middle-aged laborer were inquiring about Gu Dahuan earlier, the bun shopkeeper and passing laborers heard it. Upon knowing this bun-seller was Gu Dahuan’s notorious stepmother, those knowing him felt indignant on his behalf.
Some laborers even regretted buying buns from that vicious stepmother.
Tong Huaqiong felt great pressure under the scrutinizing eyes of righteous people.
If she didn’t leave soon, she feared those righteous people would start throwing rotten eggs at the vicious stepmother.
With a face full of dark lines, Tong Huaqiong led Gu Dashu and the others in a hasty retreat.
"Mom, if elder brother is willing to go to the prefecture city, let him go. Why care about him." On the way home, Gu Dashu said.
"Anyway, elder brother comes home once a month, it’s not like we won’t see him."
Gu Dashu still didn’t know Tong Huaqiong planned to prevent Gu Dahuan from going out to do hard labor.
Tong Huaqiong tapped Gu Dashu’s forehead, saying, "Heartless rotten child, your elder brother works diligently outside to earn money for the family, yet you don’t care for him at all."
Gu Dashu thought to himself, wasn’t it you who pushed elder brother out, how could it be blamed on him.
"Dashu." Tong Huaqiong seemed to know Gu Dashu’s thoughts, staring at him with a faint smile.
Gu Dashu felt a shiver under his mother’s gaze.
What on earth is mom planning now?
"I want your third brother, the scholar, to farm at home, the two of you brothers have to be fair. I plan for you to go to the dock to carry sandbags to earn money for the family. How about that?"
