Business is exceptionally good today.
The restaurant was packed with guests from other places.
One guest even specifically requested to eat village dishes, otherwise he would not pay.
So I went to my own vegetable garden and brought back a basket of vegetables, including cucumbers, cantaloupes, loofahs, ground eggs, as well as green vegetables, spinach, yams, etc.
These vegetables were grown by my grandparents. They opened a lot of vegetable plots specifically for my restaurant. They dug up the land in front of and behind the house and planted dozens of kinds of fruits and vegetables.
Of course, I also paid them for my dishes. Sometimes the restaurant would bring in fresh game, and after I cooked it, I would serve a bowl to them to try.
I washed the vegetables and sent them to the kitchen.
The chef in the kitchen is my son. He just got married. His daughter-in-law is from Linxian County. She has a gentle personality and is very good-looking.
My daughter-in-law is not only good-looking, but also hardworking and has a fairly well-off family.
The reason why his son was able to marry such a good daughter-in-law was because his father-in-law's parents were in poor health and wanted to stay in Dongchen Village to recuperate.
It’s funny, this was not the daughter-in-law my father-in-law proposed to me at the time, but for some reason, she became this one after she married into the family.
When my son saw that his wife was prettier than the original one, he accepted it and had no complaints.
Fortunately, my daughter-in-law is a nice person, gentle and polite, so my family can be considered to have found a treasure.
It was not until later, when a woman came to my house and had an argument with my wife, that I found out why the person who married into my family was someone else and not the one on the original marriage certificate.
The daughter-in-law cried and said that this was her elder sister. When she learned that her parents had arranged to marry her to a family in the village, who was a rural merchant, she cried and refused to marry him, and even threatened to commit suicide to ask her parents to change their minds. Her parents had no choice but to marry her to him.
But the name on the wedding invitation was not changed, because the elder sister married someone else under her own name. Unexpectedly, two years later, the elder sister suddenly came here to make a fuss, wanting to change the marriage back.
My daughter-in-law cried while holding her little granddaughter who was only a few months old. I could see that she was very worried that her family would abandon her and take back her older sister.
I had no choice but to comfort her, "Don't worry, Qiong Niang. We only recognize you. You are my son's legal wife. If that woman dares to make trouble again, I will beat her with a rolling pin."
Only then did my daughter-in-law stop crying and smile. She tied the baby behind her and helped me wash and cut vegetables.
Two months later, the daughter-in-law's elder sister came again, and she also brought her mother, the wife of her father-in-law.
The woman cried in front of me, saying that she was tricked by the man. It was supposed to be her elder sister's marriage, but he made it easier for her younger sister to marry.
I just listened and had no intention of letting them into the house.
After they finished crying, I said, "Your family was dishonest. What's the point of coming here to complain? To be honest, it was you who deceived us. If this doesn't work, we can go to the county government and have a talk."
The mother and daughter were stunned when they heard this. The elder sister was very willful and continued, "Go to the county government office if you want. I won't have a good life, and Qiong Niang won't have a good life either. Why should she, a girl born of a young woman, have enough food and clothing, while I have to suffer poverty and starvation?"
When I heard this, my face darkened. "In that case, there are officials here. Let's ask one to come and judge for you. But I have to say this in advance. Qiong Niang is my daughter-in-law who was married to me in a formal ceremony. She was carried into my house in a sedan chair by eight men. No matter how the officials judge, this cannot be changed. But you, who have committed the crime of fraud, may be beaten with a stick and exiled."
After hearing this, the mother and daughter hesitated for a long time and finally proposed that as long as they could stay in Dongchen Village, they would not mention the past.
I sneered and asked the maid to drive them away.
But thinking that his daughter-in-law would have to go back to her parents' home to visit her parents, he gave them a bag of corn.
It's not that I have bad intentions, but my daughter-in-law's mother is still in that family. If I don't give her any benefits, I believe they will torture that concubine to death.
I went back to the restaurant, sat by the flower window upstairs and looked out.
That is the Jiang family’s mansion. I haven’t been there for many years.
It’s not that I don’t want to go, it’s just that I’m too embarrassed to see my sister Yingbao.
Ever since Daddy framed Yingbao, my brother and I have no face to see her anymore.
Even though I had a child and my child got married, I still couldn't hold my head up in front of her.
In recent years, my sister often comes back to select villagers to travel with her to the fairyland. My son also wants to go very much, but I am embarrassed to ask her about it.
Now our family can have such a rich and stable life, thanks to her. I am content and don't dare to ask for too much.
Thinking back to when I was young, I was scared of being beaten and scolded by my mother. I always fantasized about getting away from that home and staying away from my mother. I didn't want to stay at home, even if I had to become a concubine in a wealthy family.
Later, when my mother died, I realized that it was not so bad when I had my mother. As long as she didn't lose her temper or hit or scold me, she would actually mend my clothes and secretly tear off a piece of cooked meat during the New Year and put it in my mouth.
So I figured it out and decided to stay at home, take good care of my younger brother, and let him grow up healthily.
Fortunately, I did it. Not only did I help my brother make money, I also helped him get married and built a big inn for him.
Others said I was stupid. My parents-in-law and sister-in-law scolded me as a homeless dog who was only thinking about supporting my parents' home. But they forgot that my husband's family used to be extremely poor and they relied on my business to support them. I also renovated their three thatched houses into five large tiled houses.
Fortunately, my husband is very protective of me and won’t allow anyone in the family to say anything about me, otherwise he will not care about their life or death. Only then did my parents-in-law, my elder sister-in-law, my uncle, and my younger brothers-in-law stop talking to me.
As for what they secretly complain about in private, I am very busy and don't bother to argue with them.
Later, Dongchen Village became more and more famous. Seeing this, I quickly bought several plots of land nearby, built a large yard, and moved in with my children and husband.
My brother didn't have enough money, so I shamelessly borrowed some from others and helped him buy a piece of land. Not long after, I paid back the money because my business was so good that people came to eat and drink with us from morning to night.
Those guests said that the food here can cure diseases, so they can't wait to eat five meals a day.
Later I found out that the reason they ate at my restaurant was because my vegetables were all grown in a magic circle. They said that they were vegetables protected by the sacred tree and were all spiritual food.
Since then, I gritted my teeth and hung a sign at the door stating that the restaurant’s vegetables are from Shenshu Village and can prolong life.
After that, I raised the price of each dish by five times. Anyway, locals wouldn’t come to eat here, and my customers are mainly rich people from other places.
They don't care about money. On the contrary, the more expensive the product, the more willing they are to buy it. In this way, I made a lot of money.
Some people say that I am a dishonest businessman, and that it is no wonder that merchants are lowly and are a bunch of shameless people. But who can remember that when I had any sense of shame, I always ate coarse food and washed clothes by chiseling ice in an ice hole in the middle of winter, and my fingers were frozen like radishes.
Now that I have money, I can hire someone to wash my clothes, fetch water and chop firewood. In the future, my grandchildren will be able to go to the school in Shenshu Village and study in the same school as those princes and princesses.
In the future, my granddaughter might be able to marry a young man from a noble family and become his wife.
I thought proudly that it was a good thing that I listened to my sister Yingbao and set up a small stall in the market. Even after getting married, I did not leave the village.
Now that I think about it, my little sister Yingbao is my lucky star. I really don’t understand why my parents abandoned her.
At this time, my little daughter ran upstairs and told me that the princess had returned and was talking to someone in the village, and asked me to go and see.
I followed my daughter back to the village as if possessed by a ghost.
But I couldn't get close at all, because there were so many people surrounding the Jiang family, most of them were the emperor's guards and children of aristocratic families.
However, they did not make any noise, but just listened quietly to what Sister Yingbao was saying.
She said that she would select a group of children to go with her and come back ten years later, and asked everyone if they were willing.
Who wouldn't want to do this? Everyone raised their hands, including me.
I thought Yingbao must not have noticed me, so I felt at ease. But unexpectedly, Yingbao, who was originally standing in the middle of the crowd, suddenly came in front of me. She asked me seriously if I really wanted to go with her.
At that moment, my eyes turned red, and I nodded and shook my head: "I raised it for my little son, he didn't come to school."
My daughter was anxious and said quickly, "Mom, there's me too. I raised my hand too."
Sister Yingbao smiled and immediately agreed with both my daughter and son.
I looked at my sister Yingbao, tears kept falling. It turned out that she was still willing to help me.
Later, my two children followed Yingbao and were gone for ten years. When they came back, their identities were different.
The emperor summoned them to the capital and conferred official titles on them.
Before my daughter left, she gave me the pill that Yingbao gave her, saying that if I took it, I could keep my appearance unchanged for fifty years.
I ate it, and my face remained in my thirties. Everyone envied me for having the chance to become an immortal. Even my daughter-in-law's stepmother tried to please my daughter-in-law, because my grandson had also been chosen to go to the immortal land.
As the days passed, my restaurant became more and more prosperous, and my brother's inn was also rebuilt into a three-story building.
The first floor is a brick and stone structure, and the second and third floors are mortise and tenon wooden buildings.
Because more and more guests wanted to stay in the hotel, and his yard was so small, he converted it into a building so that more guests could be accommodated.
One day, I suddenly had a dream. I dreamed that I went back to my childhood and I also dreamed of my mother.
She was beating a child with a bamboo stick. I looked closely and saw that the child was Yingbao when she was a few years old.
I wanted to stop A Niang, but I couldn't do it.
At this moment, I found that my younger self and my older sister were hiding behind the door and peeking.
Then, I saw many more scenes. Yingbao was beaten by A Niang until her whole body was bruised. The skin on her arms, head and face was even cracked, revealing bright red flesh.
She was lying in a haystack outside the yard, covered with a tattered reed coat.
I saw my childhood self walk over, throw a piece of black flour cake far away, put a broken bowl next to it, and then run away quickly.
I can clearly feel what I was thinking when I was a few years old. I was very scared of Yingbao at that time, very scared, because her eyes were very weird.
But I never thought about helping her, and so did my eldest sister. After we had dinner, we would just bring her some food. Sometimes I went, sometimes my eldest sister went. But I noticed that my eldest sister would throw the black-flour cakes to the dog at home several times.
But I didn’t say anything, nor did I think of complaining to grandma.
Later, Yingbao gradually got better. I heard my grandmother and mother muttering that she was so lucky to be alive in this state, which showed that she was a very brave person.
At this time, A'niang was holding her younger brother Xubao, feeding him egg custard, and said: It's good to be alive, so that there will be someone in the family who can work in the future.
So my elder sister and I had some free time, and except for occasionally going to the river to fetch water, all the work was left to Yingbao.
Later, when I talked with the girls in the village, I learned that the family surnamed Jiang in Dongchen Village had moved away, and it was said that they moved to Jiangjia Village.
But I saw Yingbao sneaking to Dongchen Village several times, so I followed her quietly and saw the Jiang couple hugging her and crying, and they also stuffed her with several boiled eggs.
I was thinking that I would give the eggs to A Niang when she came back, but I saw her sitting on the ground and eating all the boiled eggs.
I was very angry, so I went back and told my mother.
A Niang immediately took a clothes beater and went out. Under my guidance, she found Yingbao, pulled her over and started beating her severely.
The Jiang couple tried to protect Yingbao, but they were also beaten several times. Finally, Sanlang of the Jiang family beat his mother and threatened her that he would report her to the police if she dared to abuse Yingbao again.
But Ah Niang was not afraid at all, she shouted loudly, saying that what was wrong with beating her daughter? She was not afraid even if the king of heaven came.
In the end, the Jiang couple were dragged away, and Yingbao was taken home by her mother, where she was naturally beaten severely.
But Yingbao seemed very stubborn. She would sneak away whenever she had free time to look for her adoptive parents.
Later, A'niang bought an iron chain and tied her ankles, tied her under a big tree, and held Xu Bao in her arms, pointing at her and saying: She is a bitch, don't treat her as a human being in the future.
A'niang also taught Xu Bao to beat her with a bamboo stick, saying that she was like a dog and must be beaten.
Later, the village chief couldn't stand it anymore and came over to scold A Niang, and then she untied the chain on Yingbao's ankle.
I heard the village chief whisper to Yingbao, telling her to live well, and when she grows up and gets married, she can leave here and do whatever she wants.
I saw Yingbao crying. She didn't cry even though her mother beat her so badly. The village chief just spoke a few words to her in a kind tone and she burst into tears.
At that moment, I felt a little sorry for Yingbao.
I knew I was dreaming and wanted to wake up, but I couldn't. Those scenes flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
I saw that there was a heavy flood in the village, so my family and I went to the county town.
I also saw my parents taking us to live in my aunt's house.
Once, I went out for fun with my aunt and sisters, and my second cousin's flower was caught by a branch.
I saw myself when I was ten years old, not saying a word, bending down and pretending to pull off my heels, quietly putting the gold and jewel-encrusted ornate necklace into my sleeve.
After I came back, I quietly put on my Huasheng in front of the mirror, but Yingbao who came in saw me.
I was very scared, and my second sister had been looking for the lost Huasheng. After struggling for a long time, I decided to give up the Huasheng and put it under Yingbao's pillow.
Afterwards, Yingbao was severely beaten by A Niang and locked in a chicken coop.
Later, Yingbao was sold to a brothel by her mother.
I saw my mother holding thirty taels of silver and said to my father happily: I didn't expect that the girl was so valuable that she was sold for thirty taels. Now we can settle down in the county.