Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 158 - 153: Villains Are Ruthless—Watch Out or They’ll Break Your Legs
The actions of the two uncles and sister-in-law had different thoughts in the minds of others. Those with normal thoughts just felt that the two uncles and sister-in-law had a good relationship, while those with crooked thoughts felt that there was something fishy about them, an improper relationship.
Lin Qiao naturally noticed, but didn’t take it to heart; after all, it wasn’t the first time.
Clear is clear; what’s white cannot be said to be black.
In the swaying motion, a woman shaded the sun with an empty basket on her head and couldn’t help but complain, "Uncle Zhou, when are you going to put a canopy on the donkey cart? It’s hot enough to kill someone."
"How can I? It’s not a carriage." Old Zhou was used to these women’s nitpicking and responded unpleasantly.
The woman muttered under her breath, "Hmph, next time I won’t take your donkey cart." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
Old Zhou naturally didn’t hear it, singing a tune, "A ten-thousand-strong army cannot block a villain~"
A while later, arriving at the town, Lin Qiao paid for the donkey cart, and Old Zhou happily accepted it, then pointed to the tea stall, saying, "It’s that woman, she wants cold dishes."
Having said that, he shouted, "Sis! They’re here, talk among yourselves."
The woman at the tea stall heard the call, looked up, and immediately put down her work, "Sis, come over and have a seat."
When Lin Qiao and the others came over, she poured two bowls of tea and handed them to them, "You must be worn out from the donkey ride, have a sip of water."
Lin Qiao didn’t refuse her kindness and drank a couple of sips, Song Tingfan drank only after seeing her drink.
The tea stall woman noticed they had put down their bowls and cheerily said, "Uncle Zhou told you, right? We have a banquet at home the day after tomorrow, needing a dozen pounds of cold dishes."
"I’ve had the cold dishes from your place and thought it was good, so I asked Uncle Zhou to bring the message."
"Can you make it? If you can, I’ll pay half the silver coin upfront, no haggling over the price, just don’t make the taste bad."
"I can make it, aunt, don’t worry. The taste will be as it was before." Lin Qiao took out cooked chicken from the basket and continued, "Recently at home, I’ve come up with cold chicken pieces, haven’t sold them yet, so I don’t know if aunt might want it, brought a bowl."
"I’ll mix it, have aunt taste it, it’s alright if you don’t want it." She said and started sprinkling condiments, used chopsticks to stir, and handed it to the tea stall woman.
The tea stall woman took and tasted a piece, her eyes brightening, "Not bad, eating cold stuff when the weather is hot can take away some of the heat."
"How much silver coin per pound?"
"Aunt is straightforward, I won’t sell high to you. Aunt knows chicken is seventeen or eighteen cents per pound, with the condiments, the cost is twenty cents. I’ll just add some labor cost, twenty-five cents a pound." Lin Qiao’s expression was sincere, making it hard not to believe her words were truthful.
The tea stall woman liked straight talking; she most disliked people shouting high prices then negotiating down, "Alright, I want ten pounds of chicken meat, ten pounds of cold dishes, five pounds each of pig stomach and intestine."
"Also, fifty pieces of the cake your family sells."
Ten pounds of chicken cost two hundred and fifty cents, cold dishes one hundred cents, pig stomach one hundred and fifty cents, intestine seventy-five cents, cake two hundred and fifty cents, totaling eight hundred and twenty-five cents.
The tea stall woman readily gave her half a tael of silver, "Deliver before noon the day after tomorrow."
Lin Qiao accepted, "Alright, thanks for everything, aunt."
"Thank what? I should be thanking you."
...
Leaving the tea stall, Lin Qiao took Song Tingfan to buy chicken, asking around along the way; basically, it was seventeen or eighteen cents a pound.
Next to her, Song Tingfan suddenly scratched his head, saying, "Sis-in-law, I know a place that raises chickens, might be cheaper by a couple of cents."
"Then let’s have a look." Lin Qiao now aimed to save wherever she could, as the family bought land and was out of silver coin.
She also wanted to renovate the house and found the tiles on the roof cracking quite a bit some days ago.
"It’s a bit far, walking over will take half an hour. Sis-in-law, I’ll go buy, you find a place to rest."
"It’s not too far, I’ll go with you."
The way to the chicken farmer was tough; it was an uphill path, should be a mountain field used for chicken farming.
Song Tingfan occasionally glanced at sis-in-law, seeing her catch her breath, wanting to support her but dared not, finally holding his sleeve.
Lin Qiao was really tired from climbing, not noticing his actions, gasping heavily at the farmer’s door.
The young man opened a bamboo tube and handed it to her, she drank a few sips, then returned it to him, "Little uncle, have a sip."
"Not thirsty." Song Tingfan knew how much water he had in the bamboo tube, drinking nearly half on the way, so after sis-in-law drank too, not much was left.
Lips all dry and still not thirsty, Lin Qiao held it to his lips, "Be good, drink some. We’ll ask the farmer to fill up water a while later."
Song Tingfan hesitated before taking the bamboo tube and drinking a sip.
At this moment, a middle-aged man carrying chicken feed walked over, "What are you doing here?"
"Uncle, we came to buy chickens," Lin Qiao said.
"How many do you want?"
"Around four or five, how much per pound?"
"Outside they sell seventeen or eighteen; here it’s sixteen cents."
"Fifteen cents, okay?"
"No."
Cheaper by one, fine with that, Lin Qiao thought of the half-hour walk back and forth only sparing a ten-cent "wage."
Cheaper than a bit part.
At least, she played a corpse for ten minutes for two hundred pieces.
Beside her, Song Tingfan interrupted, "Uncle, a little cheaper, we have come from town, walked a long way."
"I know, otherwise, wouldn’t be lowering by one cent." Uncle put down the chicken feed and knocked with a stone, a flock of chickens ran over.
"Uncle, my sis-in-law sells cold dishes, will certainly buy more chickens; lower another cent, and we’ll always buy from here."
Usually tongue-tied in conversation, Song Tingfan clearly and orderly negotiated.
Hearing they were in business, Uncle considered for a while, "Sure, fifteen cents a pound, but don’t spread it around."
He caught five chickens, each around four or five pounds and weighed them, totaling to twenty-one pounds, "Three hundred and fifteen cents."
"Uncle, do you sell chicks? I want two or three to raise for eggs." Lin Qiao pointed at the small yellow chicks enclosed by bamboo.
Uncle nodded, "Sell, five cents each. You want three, give ten cents. Want ducklings too? Same price."
Lin Qiao thought that their home was just by the river, easy for feeding ducks, and nodded, "Same, three of them."
They hadn’t brought baskets; Uncle gave them an old one to bring next time when they came to town.
On the way back, the big chickens kept squawking, downhill pace quickened, catching the last run of Zhou Family’s donkey cart at dusk.
Those sounds caught curiosity, some people looking over again and again.
Upon returning to the village, it was dark. Lai Cai and Jinbao were sharp-nosed, running to greet them after a few steps off the donkey cart.
Whether it was Lai Cai or Jinbao, vigorously pushing Lin Qiao’s hand, she lightly smacked, whispering, "Behaved all afternoon? Bite stuff again next time and Little Uncle will beat you."
He’s fierce; be careful your dog legs don’t get taken off.
