Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 206 - 201: Thought They Were a Couple

Lin Qiao smiled, wiped the stool with a cloth, and let her sit down, then placed two pieces of cake in front of her.

Liu Fuzhu didn’t stand on ceremony, ate one piece, and said, "Pack ten for me."

"Okay."

Lin Qiao wrapped ten pieces in paper and put them in front of her. Seeing her want to pay with silver coins, she shook her head and said, "I’m treating the boss."

"There’s no such reason."

Liu Fuzhu still counted fifty cents to her, then took out a piece of paper and handed it to her, "This is a cake order a customer asked me to buy from you. The circled ones are to be delivered to the doorstep, the others can be sent to the inn later."

Lin Qiao glanced at the order, there were at least a hundred or so items, and she understood this favor was given to her by Liu Fuzhu.

"Thank you, boss."

Liu Fuzhu smiled, acknowledging it, and didn’t stay long. She left after a while.

Not long after, Mrs. Liu Xu came with things. When she arrived, Lin Qiao was busy, they didn’t talk much, Mrs. Liu Xu bought ten pieces of cake and left.

Li Guifen was busy out of her mind, packing cakes while muttering, "Five for the Li family, three for the Zhou family, five for the Li family, Zhou family... Girl, how many for the Zhou family?"

"Three pieces." Lin Qiao noted which family’s name was on the top of the paper package with a brush, to be delivered later.

Unknowingly, it was a quarter past noon.

There was no paper wrapper in the shop, Li Guifen carried the silver coins and prepared to buy some, hurriedly bumped into someone, "Oh, ouch."

A young man caught her, hastily saying, "Auntie, are you alright?"

She looked up and saw it was Song Tingfan. Li Guifen breathed a sigh of relief, "Tingfan, quickly help your sister-in-law, we’re too busy, I’m going to buy paper wrappers." After saying so, she hurried away.

Entering the shop and seeing his sister-in-law busy, Song Tingfan didn’t call her, rolled up his sleeves, and started clearing dishes from the table for washing.

Lin Qiao was so busy she didn’t notice he was back. After finding another customer’s silver coins, she began preparing cold noodles for another customer.

After mixing the third bowl, there were no bowls left. She turned around to clear the table, it was clean and tidy. She looked over to where the dishes were washed; the young man was rolling up his sleeves washing the dishes.

She went over, "Little Uncle, when did you come back?"

"Just now. Sister-in-law, do you need a bowl?" Seeing her nod, Song Tingfan handed her a clean bowl.

"Miss! Hurry up, I’m in a rush." a customer shouted with a rough voice.

Lin Qiao paused her thoughts about asking Song Tingfan about his exams, took the bowl, and rushed over.

...

After noon, there weren’t many people left, Lin Qiao could finally take a breather, poured some tea, and drank several sips.

She looked at Song Tingfan, who hadn’t taken a break since he came in. She said again, "Little Uncle, take a break before continuing."

"I’m almost finished." Song Tingfan wiped the last table, rinsed the cloth with water, and hung it on the rope.

Having not eaten all morning, Li Guifen couldn’t bother to save money. She was starving, "I’ll go get a couple of dishes to eat."

Lin Qiao didn’t have the energy to cook, took out a string of copper coins for her. Li Guifen refused, "Would you treat me like an outsider?" she said leaving.

Lin Qiao rested for a while, then took out the silver coins to calculate the morning’s accounts, counted and found they were missing ten cents.

She pursed her lips, estimating that she needed to hire someone to handle the money, or it would be easy to make mistakes when busy.

Song Tiefan came over at some point and glanced at the account book, whispered, "Sister-in-law, is it short?"

"Short by ten cents."

Lin Qiao pushed the account book aside, gesturing him to sit down. After he sat, she asked, "How was the exam?"

"It went okay, I filled in everything the teacher taught," Song Tingfan said seriously.

Hearing that, Lin Qiao felt relieved, "Did they say when we can see the results?"

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"Good."

Song Tingfan looked at the things on the table next to them, "Sister-in-law, are those to be delivered to the Fulaiyun Inn?"

"No, to the doorsteps. I’ve already sent the ones for Fulaiyun, this afternoon you might need Little Uncle to help deliver some." Lin Qiao wasn’t familiar with the town.

Song Tingfan nodded happily, "Not a problem, I’ll go deliver them now."

Seeing him want to leave, Lin Qiao hurriedly grabbed him, "Eat first then go."

There was no business in the afternoon, the people had left after the market.

Li Guifen helped tidy up and was about to go home, can’t sleep here with the girl, "Girl, I’m heading home, I’ll come again tomorrow."

"Wait a minute."

Lin Qiao took out the copper coins, counted out thirty cents, and pushed them into her hand, "Mom can’t help for nothing, this is your wage."

"You child, what wage do I need, keep it yourself." Li Guifen refused her wage.

"If you don’t take it, I won’t ask you to help tomorrow."

"I really don’t need it, who takes money when helping out your daughter?"

"If you don’t take it, I won’t ask for your help tomorrow.

"

Seeing Lin Qiao’s insistence, Li Guifen accepted it, planning to save it for her.

Soon after she left, Song Tingfan returned from delivering the items, covered in sweat. Lin Qiao quickly gave him a cloth to wipe.

Song Tingfan wiped a few times haphazardly and took out a piece of paper from his pocket, "Sister-in-law, these people need it tomorrow too."

Lin Qiao took it and looked, it wasn’t lists given by Liu Fuzhu, she looked at him, "You asked each household?"

No wonder he took an extra ten pieces when leaving.

"No, I just asked when passing by." Song Tiefan didn’t mention being given dirty looks or chased away while asking door to door.

He could only help his sister-in-law with such matters.

He wouldn’t say, Lin Qiao could roughly guess, business wasn’t easy, today several customers buying food were unreasonable, insisting two-tael cold noodles were short.

"Thank you, Little Uncle."

She glanced at the sky outside; the stalls should still be open, "Little Uncle, let’s go buy some fish."

The two locked up the shop and went out, buying fish and some blankets and clothes to change into.

By the time they returned to the shop, it was almost dark. The neighboring shops were getting ready to close. Seeing them, a woman joked, "You two went to buy fish, huh?"

Hearing "you two," Lin Qiao’s mouth twitched slightly. She nodded before explaining, "Big Sis, this is my Little Uncle."

"Oh, I thought he was your husband. Where’s your husband, haven’t seen him around?" Mrs. Qin Li tried to ingratiate herself.

"My husband passed away."

"Oh?"

Mrs. Qin Li realized she asked the wrong thing, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Sister, sorry, I didn’t know."

"It’s okay." Lin Qiao smiled.

After a few words, they each returned to their shops.

Earlier, Lin Qiao warmed up a pot of water, checked the temperature, "Little Uncle, go take a bath first."

Having been out all afternoon and sweating all over, Song Tingfan could smell himself, he nodded embarrassed, "Okay." He said and took some clothes to the back room to wash.

The back room was only the size of two tables, technically a latrine, but Lin Qiao had installed a wooden door to divide it into two small areas, one for the latrine and one for bathing.

As Lin Qiao prepared dinner, she noticed a pair of white inner trousers on the stool, picked them up to give to Song Tingfan.

The outer door to the inner room hadn’t been replaced yet, and they were still using the curtain left by the previous shop.

She truly didn’t expect he would have stripped bare so soon after entering, as she lifted the curtain halfway, her hand froze, "Little..."