As night fell, only a few scattered stars dotted the sky, and lanterns were hung high between the pillars under the eaves of the Lu Mansion.
It was at this time that Father Lu came back in the moonlight with a grim look on his face.
Seeing his daughter waiting for him in the yard, Father Lu's expression suddenly relaxed and he felt suddenly comforted.
My daughter has grown up and knows how to feel sorry for others.
"Dad was busy today and came back late. It's so cold, you must be frozen. Just wait in the house from now on." Father Lu handed his cloak to the servant beside him, thought for a moment and said, "By the way, Yue'er, have you eaten yet?"
Mingyue had some snacks in the afternoon. She wasn't hungry, but she was a little curious about the ending of the guy with the black mole.
Mingyue shook her head: "I asked the cook to warm the food, and I'm waiting for you to come back and eat together!"
Father Lu felt more comforted and a smile appeared on his face.
In fact, Father Lu had two concubines in his early years. However, after he lost two children due to the open and secret struggles among the concubines, he dismissed all those women. Now, in the huge Lu family, there are only two masters left, the Lu father and daughter.
The Lu family is a merchant family, and they don’t follow the rule of not talking while eating. On weekdays, the father and daughter will still talk to each other.
"Dad, is there something wrong with the waiter today?" When they had almost finished eating, Mingyue asked with curiosity on her face.
Father Lu really didn't want his daughter to know about these troubles. Anyway, he was still in good health and would have no problem living another 20 or 30 years. In the future, he would find a good son-in-law for his daughter and give birth to a grandson. He would then hand over the Lu family to his grandson. His daughter would have someone to take care of her, and he would be able to close his eyes in peace.
It doesn't matter that my daughter is naive. After all, she has him around now and will have grandchildren in the future, so no one can bully her.
But since his daughter asked, there was nothing Father Lu couldn't say.
After all, there was the lesson of the wet nurse's family, and Father Lu sometimes felt that his daughter was still too naive.
Father Lu snorted disdainfully: "That clerk is indeed problematic. He is so bold that he actually pocketed the money behind the shopkeeper's back, raised the price of the goods in private, and even treated people favorably..."
From his story, Mingyue finally understood why he came back so late.
It turned out that Heizhi bid according to people's attire and appearance. If the person entering the shop was an ordinary citizen, he would add one or two cents to the price. If the person entering the shop was a rich lady, he would add one or two taels to the price. He was truly greedy and was trying to swallow an elephant.
However, those who are willing to buy rouge are not fools, especially the women from ordinary families. If they find the price is too expensive, they will just go to another store to buy. So, although Heizhi has been working at the rouge shop for several months, he has not sold many boxes of rouge.
However, Father Lu was unwilling to let the Lu family's reputation be damaged, so today he went one by one to find those people who had bought the expensive rouge. Not only did he return all the money the buyers had paid, he also bluntly stated that the shop clerk had miscalculated the accounts, and the previous rouge was not counted as money, so it could be considered an apology, which was equivalent to giving away the rouge before for free.
In this way, even if those people find out later that the price they bought before was wrong, they will have an explanation.
Instead, he advertised the Lu family's shop. After all, who would be willing to spend all the money in their pocket like Lu's father did? It was really kind of him.
As for Black Mole, what he did was against the law, and he should pay compensation and go to jail. However, the shopkeeper pleaded for him, saying that he had a family to support, and only then did Father Lu show leniency and just fired him!
Even seeing that Heizhi was poor, Lu's father did not ask him to pay the money. He just said that the Lu family's shop didn't want him anymore.
According to this statement, Father Lu actually has a favor to Heizi.
But many people in this world repay kindness with enmity.
Mingyue sighed in her heart, this father and daughter are really a pair of enemies.
~
Zhang Family. "No, this is absolutely not possible."
Zhang slapped the table hard, and the teacup on it trembled. She continued angrily, "You haven't married Liu Shumin yet, so why are you so ungrateful? He even had the nerve to ask for our money to subsidize his studies. He really doesn't care about the dignity of a scholar."
Zhang Cuixiu was so ashamed by what she said, but she mustered up her courage again when she remembered what Brother Min said: "Mother, it was not Brother Min who brought up this matter, I took the initiative to bring it up. Brother Min is the incarnation of the God of Literature. We are now supporting him to study. If he passes the imperial examination in the future, he will be more sincere to our Zhang family, right?"
"Pah!" Zhang spat on the ground. "I don't even have enough money to spend at home, and yet I'm sending him to the Liu family. Sincerity? How can sincerity be more important than money? He's really flattering himself. Let's wait until he passes the imperial examination and becomes the top scholar. I'm telling you, this matter is non-negotiable."
Seeing that her mother seemed determined not to give her the money, Zhang Cuixiu could not help but look at her father who was sitting by the charcoal fire drinking.
"Dad, can you please say something?"
Father Zhang took a sip of hot wine and smacked his lips. "My daughter, our Zhang family is not the Lu family. You should listen to your mother about spending money to buy sincerity. This deal is not worth it."
Zhang Cuixiu almost cried when she heard this.
Zhang Cuixiu and Lu Mingyue grew up drinking the same milk. Whether in appearance or personality and temperament, she feels that she is no worse than Lu Mingyue.
But at this moment, she suddenly realized that Mingyue could not get enough money to buy a hairpin even if she begged hard.
The reluctance coiled in Zhang Cuixiu's heart like a poisonous snake, making her jealous and hateful towards Lu Mingyue.
Seeing that her parents didn't care, Zhang Cuixiu couldn't stand the grievance any more, so she covered her face and ran out crying.
When Zhang's father and Zhang saw this, they didn't take it seriously at all.
After all, money is something that can only be put into your pocket, not given to others.
The Zhang and Liu families were neighbors. After Zhang Cuixiu ran out of the Zhang family, she wiped her tears, turned around and walked into the Liu family, and went straight to Liu Shumin's room.
The Liu family stayed indoors during the winter, so they didn't mind if someone saw Zhang Cuixiu coming over. They knew that the Zhang family lived a good life anyway. If the fifth brother could really trap the girl from the Zhang family, the Liu family would have one less thing to worry about, at least they wouldn't have to worry about the money for him to marry a wife.
When Liu Shumin saw Zhang Cuixiu, he was happy at first, but when he saw her red eyes, his joy turned into sorrow!
"Not successful?"
Zhang Cuixiu bit her lip and nodded: "Brother Min, my mother doesn't agree."
Although he had expected it, Liu Shumin was still disappointed.
He had already asked his family for two taels of silver yesterday, so he would definitely not get it today, so he set his sights on the Zhang family. However, who knew that the Zhang family was so stingy!
Whenever he thought that after he collected the three taels of silver, he could buy that hairpin, win the heart of Miss Lu, and get all the property of the Lu family, Liu Shumin felt itchy and anxious.
But the problem now is that we are just short of these three or two!
The Zhang family is reluctant to let go of their own family if they cannot be relied upon.
Liu Shumin closed his eyes and endured for a long time before he finally restrained himself from getting angry at Zhang Cuixiu.
However, Zhang Cuixiu felt very distressed when she saw him like this, and couldn't help but come up with an idea:
"Brother Min, how about we tell my uncle, aunt and my parents about this?"
(End of this chapter)