Chapter 256: Manager Zeng Steps Down

Gu Jinli chuckled, "So you’re saying, you specifically had Gu Dexing and Gu Dewang take a day off to go home and prepare the spices just to go look for a shop with us."

Indeed, that’s so Mrs. Chen.

Mrs. Chen’s smile stiffened for a moment, then she quickly smiled again, "It’s not like I asked them to take a day off on purpose. It’s just that they’ve been studying so hard, I thought they could use half a day to relax. What if they become too overwhelmed by studying?"

Finding a shop is a big deal, and since she is going to be the future shopkeeper’s wife, how could she not go along to find the shop? What if Third Grandpa and Xiao Yu get cheated?

Third Grandpa looked at Mrs. Chen and shook his head, "If you want to go, then go."

"Eh, thank you, Third Grandpa," Mrs. Chen was delighted and gave Gu Jinli a smug look.

Gu Jinli rolled her eyes at her and warned, "You can go, but don’t mess up by saying something out of line. If you spoil things, don’t blame me for being rude!"

As she spoke, she flicked her wrist and actually pulled out a dagger, waving it in front of Mrs. Chen.

Mrs. Chen took a few steps back in fear and forced a smile, "Look at you, when has your Aunt Da Gui ever messed things up?"

Gu Jinli didn’t bother to humor her and said directly, "If you talk nonsense and mess things up, when it’s time to divide the money at the end of April, your family’s share will be deducted."

Mrs. Chen loved money, and hearing this, she immediately protested, "Why should you deduct my family’s share?"

Gu Jinli grinned at her and replied, "Because I’m the one who made the spices."

Mrs. Chen was speechless and had no choice but to nod in agreement, "Hmm."

Seeing that she had calmed down, Gu Jinli let it be.

"Let’s go!" Father Luo called out and began pulling the cart away from Gu’s Workshop.

Uncle Tian pushed the cart from behind.

Gu Jinli and Luo Huiniang picked up some firewood.

Ms. Chu and Aunt Tian each carried a load of seasoning spices and a load of bean dregs, while Mrs. Chen, twisting her waist and acting like a noble, followed behind.

Gu Jinli rolled her eyes towards the sky and said to Ms. Chu, "Aunt Luo, it’s still a long way to the town. You can let Aunt Da Gui carry your load first and take a rest. When she gets tired, you can take over."

Mrs. Chen’s face turned green, and she complained to Gu Jinli, "I’m wearing new clothes that I need to wear to meet people."

Gu Jinli gave her a dazzling smile that seemed to say, ’Deal with it.’

Fuming inside, Mrs. Chen could only take over Ms. Chu’s load, "Sister-in-law Luo, let me carry it. You take a rest."

She endured it for the sake of going to see the shop!

Gu Jinli actually felt a bit sympathetic towards Mrs. Chen, as today they were merely asking around in the town where there were shops for sale; it wasn’t likely they’d find one immediately, but Mrs. Chen thought they were actually going to buy a shop and seemed desperate to become the shopkeeper’s wife.

Ms. Chu didn’t refuse and handed over the load to Mrs. Chen.

The group hurried along and finally, towards the end of Chen period, arrived at the market stalls in the town.

The tofu stall was already surrounded by customers. Seeing them arrive, a man carrying a shoulder pole and a long rope complained, "Brother Luo, why are you guys so late? I’ve been waiting for a long time. Hurry up and give me twelve golden bean pancakes, make them extra oily, four with chili, and the other eight without."

Other customers also complained: "Yes, please hurry up, we have been waiting here since early in the morning."

"Ei, ei, don’t rush, we are going to make it now." Ms. Chu said while she and Aunt Tian began to efficiently unload things from the cart.

Father Luo and Uncle Tian were pulling the cart, running to Xuanhu Fang to fetch the stove, iron plate, and other items stored there.

Customers, fearful of missing out on buying tofu and bean dregs cakes, eagerly called out: "Give me ten golden bean pancakes."

"I want four servings of Fried Five-Spice Tofu."

"One load of plain tofu, one load of plain tofu and ten pounds of seasoning spices!"

These customers included other food stall owners, specifically coming to buy plain tofu and seasoning spices.

"We from Fugui Building also want one load of plain tofu and ten pounds of seasoning spices!"

Gu Jinli heard the three words Fugui Building and looked at the speaker, seeing the somewhat chubby Chef Li, who was panting as he spoke. Beside him were two workers in short brown clothes, wearing sleeve covers and with cleaning cloths hanging from their shoulders.

Chef Li also saw her and greeted her with a smile: "Gu Family’s little girl, you’re setting up a stall again, haven’t seen you for a long time. I thought you stopped coming to the market."

Gu Jinli had not forgotten her feud with Fugui Building, and did not respond to Chef Li, but instead told the customers, "Everyone please line up; we will start selling in a moment."

The customers knew the rules of Gu Family’s tofu stall and immediately queued up.

Seeing that Gu Jinli did not respond to him, Chef Li was not angry but continued cheerfully, "Manager Zeng made a mistake a couple of days ago, and last night the lady sent people over to arrest his whole family and sent them to the Manor to work. They will no longer be in Qingfu Town."

Gu Jinli was startled, Manager Zeng was no longer managing Fugui Building, and Mrs. Zou had punished him by sending him to work on the farm. Chef Li specifically came to tell her this.

What is the Zou family up to?

Third Grandpa, hearing this, also looked at Chef Li.

Chef Li squeezed over and said to Third Grandpa: "The lady appreciates me, and now I’ll be the shopkeeper of Fugui Building. I’m sorry for the past issues and hope you all won’t blame us and continue to sell tofu and spices to Fugui Building."

Due to the incident with Manager Zeng, Gu Family’s tofu stall was very wary of Fugui Building. Whenever Fugui Building came to buy plain tofu and spices, they made them print their signatures in a register, saying that if something went wrong, it was their own responsibility and not related to the tofu stall.

If they refused to print their signature, Gu Family’s tofu stall would not sell them tofu and spices.

Manager Zeng had also thought about buying tofu and spices from Gu Family and then poisoning them to create a mishap and bring down the Gu Family.

After all, with many disaster victims around, a little extra silver could buy a person’s life, and the death of one or even a whole family wouldn’t matter.

But Mrs. Zou disagreed and severely scolded Manager Zeng, and she also told County Magistrate Zou: "Old Master, although tofu and spices are profitable, does the Zou family lack these things? It is a critical moment, we must not let a few emigrant families ruin the foundation of the Zou family."

"As long as we secure the position of County Magistrate and serve the new County Magistrate well when he arrives, our Zou family can prosper for another hundred years. By that time, are we still afraid of not being able to handle those few emigrant families?"

With only half a year left until the end of Tianfu County Magistrate’s term, there was talk of reassignment, waiting for the current magistrate to leave and a new one to be appointed.

It was for this reason that the current magistrate did not really care about the covert struggle between the Jiang Family and Zou Family and only wanted to peacefully finish his term.

"Moreover, the Jiang family is not stupid. Managing the county cases, can they not see through such framing tactics? Old Master, we must not fall for Zeng Da’s tricks and harm the entire Zou family."

Recently, County Magistrate Zou had received several good concubine maids, all arranged by Mrs. Zou. Thinking it over, he agreed with her reasoning.

Mrs. Zou immediately took action against Manager Zeng, dismissed him, and let Chef Li take over Fugui Building.