“Sister-in-law, look at you, Lihua is going shopping with you because I’ve allowed it. How could I deduct her pay? Lihua, just enjoy yourself with your sixth aunt. Have a good time, and your salary will be paid as usual,” Lin Chuxia looked at her, smiling even more tenderly.
A flash of joy sparkled in Qin Lihua’s eyes. The opportunity to go out and still get paid was one nobody would pass up.
And accompanying the sixth aunt shopping, would she just watch her buy clothes? The sixth uncle is her dad’s own brother.
“Thank you, fourth aunt.”
“What for? You should thank your sixth aunt for taking you out.”
Ma Suyun raised her bowl and took a sip of porridge, her words muffled, “I… I need to wait a bit longer before I can go, I haven’t finished eating yet. Fourth sister-in-law, your shop seems pretty busy too, so just focus on your work and don’t worry about me. Lihua as well, get back to work quickly. Don’t let me hold up the business.”
However, Lin Chuxia said, “Then I’ll get busy first. Lihua, stay with your sixth aunt a little longer; it’s rare for her to visit the shop.”
Qin Lihua nodded brightly, “I understand, fourth aunt.”
Lin Chuxia stopped fussing over the two of them and went off to work with Zhang Guilan.
Seeing her coming back alone, Zhang Guilan asked, “What’s going on? Isn’t Lihua coming?”
“It’s okay, let her stay there. The shop will be less busy soon. I’ll help you out.”
Zhang Guilan guessed something from Lin Chuxia’s comment, “Did Ma Suyun say something?”
“She wants Lihua to chat with her for a bit, so I just gave Lihua half a day off to accompany her to the city.”
Zhang Guilan caught the slyness in Lin Chuxia’s eyes and chuckled softly, “I think that’s good, given she’s come all this way, Lihua should really spend some good time with her sixth aunt.”
There weren’t many new customers in the shop at the moment, and Qin Han was busy with cash and buns, he didn’t really need their help, so Zhang Guilan and Lin Chuxia whispered to each other.
“I don’t know what wind brought her here. You might not know since you’ve just entered the door; among the men of our Old Qin Family, except for our second brother, it’s Qin Wen from our eldest uncle’s family who is the most accomplished. We won’t talk about the second brother, but Qin Wen got a job at the counter of a Hardware Company, which is quite good. But I don’t know when, he always starts comparing himself with our second brother.”
Zhang Guilan might have felt it was inappropriate to say these things among relatives, so she added an explanation to Lin Chuxia, “I’m not trying to stir up trouble between the brothers, just letting you in on what’s going on so you’re aware.”
“Sister, I know, I can feel it too, Ma Suyun seems to have a bit of that towards me.”
“More than just a bit. When you and the second brother set your marriage, Ma Suyun had plenty of cold things to say, especially about your eldest sister, and then it was changed to you. Normally, this isn’t a big deal, marriage talks aren’t set just because someone has mentioned it once, but Ma Suyun made a fuss about it. Perhaps it was because she felt that on the matter of marriage, her Qin Wen finally had the upper hand over the second brother. Without any doubt, they were probably waiting to see our Qin Family become a laughing stock when you two just got married.”
Lin Chuxia chuckled. Such things were too common, even blood brothers competed, let alone cousins.
Qin Wen was less than two years younger than Qin Yang. The two used to go to school together, but when Qin Yang skipped a grade, the gap between them widened, and perhaps that caused some psychological harm to Qin Wen.
Ma Suyun was Qin Wen’s wife, so naturally, she would be influenced by him.
“The more she wants to laugh at us, the less we’ll let her.”
“Well, that’s for sure,” Zhang Guilan said with a smile about this, “Ma Suyun always thought that among the brothers, they were the couple who had the best life. In the three brothers of the Qin Family, their big room was the most outstanding. Qin Wen is a sales clerk at the Hardware Company, and Qin Jiang’s wife is an elementary school teacher. Our room only has the second son, but he works out in another place, and our eldest is not young yet hasn’t married a wife. Now that you’ve opened the Bun Shop, and your big brother and I have come to work, it really brings honor to our second branch. Even Xiao Wu and Hongmei from Uncle’s place are doing better than them.”
Zhang Guilan glanced at Qin Han next to her when she reached this point, and the topic turned back, “But speaking of which, among the Qin Family’s brothers, aside from Qin Wen and his wife being a bit petty, the others are all good. You married into the family relatively late, so you don’t know about those times at the production team. It was also thanks to the brothers sticking together that we never suffered any losses in the village.”
“I know, sister-in-law, I can see that the Qin Family people all value relationships and loyalty.”
Not to mention Qin Wen and Ma Suyun, Qin Liang, Qin Jiang, and Qin Wu are all very nice people, and the sisters-in-law are also very kind to her.
The two chatted for a while, but then customers came into the shop, so they went to get busy. After a while, Qin Lihua also came over to help.
Seeing her coming over, Zhang Guilan looked at the dining table in the distance, no longer seeing Ma Suyun’s figure.
“Didn’t your fourth aunt give you a day off? What about your sixth aunt?”
Qin Lihua was obviously a bit disappointed, “The sixth aunt said she had other things to do. It’s inconvenient for a child like me to be with her, so she told me to work hard in the shop and not slack off just because we’re family.”
Zhang Guilan scoffed inwardly, but it wasn’t appropriate to show it in front of the younger generation, “Has your sixth aunt settled the bill?”
When Ma Suyun came to the shop, she asked for steamed buns, cooked food, and cold dishes, not missing a single kind.
Qin Lihua shook her head, “I was calculating the bill for the sixth aunt, but she said there’s no need to be so clear-cut about it since we’re family.”
Zhang Guilan could barely suppress her scoff, looking at Qin Lihua, she finally couldn’t hold it back.
“Lihua, your sixth aunt is right, we can’t violate the shop’s rules and regulations just because we’re relatives. In the future, no matter who comes, we can’t let visitors affect our work. If there were no customers in the shop it would be fine, but just now when the shop was full of people, you were still chatting with your sixth aunt, making customers wait, isn’t that a bit inappropriate?”
Qin Lihua bit her lip, explaining softly, “I wanted to go help, but the sixth aunt said she rarely gets to come, and it’s been a long time since she’s seen me, she wanted to talk to me. She held onto me to talk, and I couldn’t just leave.”
At this moment, she was genuinely blaming Ma Suyun in her heart.
She wanted to work when she wasn’t allowed, her fourth aunt had given her a day off, yet she didn’t take her with her, and then she spoke of not slacking off. Wasn’t her slacking off caused by her?
Seeing Qin Lihua looking so pitiful, Zhang Guilan found it hard to be harsh,
“All right, go ahead and work. Remember this for next time.”
Qin Lihua nodded, “I got it, second aunt.”
……….
A few days later, Su Wensong found a suitable chicken farm to partner with, but Lin Chuxia had yet to receive a reply from Qin Yang, and now she started getting anxious as well.
Qin Han, knowing she had sent two letters without receiving any reply, also began to worry. Including his own, the family had sent three letters without any response, which was previously unheard of.
It’s impossible that all three letters would get lost in the mail, even if one did.