Chapter 110: A Mishap

In Lu family.

Grandma Lu lay on the bed and cursed Chen Xiao Mi scolded, “That bastard has asked the villagers to tackle me! I won’t just let it go.”

Tang looked at Grandma Lu and said, “Mother, let’s just swallow this insult, what else can we do?”

Grandma Lu’s eyes turned red and she said, “I’ll go to his store every day. Can that Chen Xiao Mi drive me back every day?”

Tang thought to herself, ‘Chen Xiao Mi spent one tael of silver to drive the old lady back. If the old lady made trouble every day, Chen Xiao Mi wouldn’t be able to stand it. Although it is troublesome to make a scene every day, it is still a way.’

The next day, Tang had a hard time borrowing an ox-cart.

Tang asked sullenly, “What do you mean by you are not going to lend your cart to us?”

“This ox needs some rest! It’s too torturous for him to travel that far every day,” Aunty Zhang said.

Tang looked at Aunty Zhang and said discontentedly, “We just borrowed it once. What’s the big deal?”

Auntie Zhang smiled and said, “Our ox looked ill since you borrowed it last time! I’m old, I can’t deal with the hassle of sending for a doctor and haggling about the treatment fee!”

Tang pestered Aunty Zhang for a while but to no avail. Seeing that Aunty Zhang was unwilling to let go, Tang had to leave sullenly.

……

“Aunty Zhang, you didn’t lend Tang your ox-cart?”

Aunty Zhang smiled, “Why would I? Our ox really looks sick now, what’s more, Tang didn’t mention a word about paying us some money. She kept saying that Lu Cheng Yu was now a Xiucai and he was bound to have a bright future. Well, for starters, I have no idea how true that is, secondly, knowing Tang, I doubt it she will ever return the favor.”

Lending the cart to Tang was a losing business. Aunty Zhang really didn’t want to offend Chen Xiao Mi. And she was hoped that she could get one tael of silver as reward from Chen Xiao Mi.

Aunty Zhang heard a villager saying that Chen Xiao Mi had asked the Village Head to spread the word that he would give anyone who refused to lend their ox-cart to Tang and Grandma Lu as a reward. Aunty Zhang was determined to earn that easy money, but the Village Head didn’t mention a word after he came back from town. Aunty Zhang wasn’t sure how authentic the message was.

Aunty Zhang suspected that the Village Head had deliberately withheld the message from them because he didn’t want to offend the Lus.

……

Grandma Lu waited for Tang impatiently at home.

Tang glanced at Grandma Lu and said, “No one is willing to lend us the ox-cart.”

After Lu Cheng Yu passed the exam, Grandma Lu was privileged enough to order the villagers around. In her opinion, every villager was supposed to curry favor with them. She was shocked to hear that no one wanted to do them this small favor.

Tang said sullenly, “I’ve visited all the families with ox-carts, they all have turned me down. Mother, you are old now, no way can you walk to town!”

Grandma Lu said excitedly, “Why has everyone turned us down? It’s not harvest season or anything, they don’t need the ox-cart for any farm work, why?”

“It must be Chen Xiao Mi. He must be the one who has forbidden the villagers to lend us the carts.”

“This bastard! ” Grandma Lu was so indignant that she started to shiver.

What had shocked Grandma Lu more was the villagers all listened to Chen Xiao Mi despite the fact that Lu Cheng Yu was a Xiucai now.

Tang said sullenly, ” Chen Xiao Mi seems to have promised them some benefits.”

“What exactly did Chen Xiao Mi say?”

Tang hesitated for a moment and said, “I heard that Chen Xiao Mi said that whoever doesn’t lend the cart to us can get one tael of silver from him at the end of the year. It was said that Chen Xiao Mi asked the Village Head to spread the word.”

Grandma Lu turned utterly discomfited on hearing that, “This is too much. The Village Head shouldn’t have spread the word! That bastard Chen Xiao Mi has actually come up with such a way to deal with us!”

Tang was angry as well, and she was worried at the same time. ‘If the villagers all listen to Chen Xiao Mi and refuse to lend us the ox-carts, how inconvenient it is going to be for us to go to town! What’s more, this is such a slap on the face! We don’t have any ally in the village!’

Grandma Lu gritted her teeth and said, “No, Chen Xiao Mi is bullying us. I have to go and ask the Village Head what exactly Chen Xiao Mi has said.”

Tang grabbed Grandma Lu hand and said, “Mother! Think twice before you leap!”

Tang knew her mother-in-law very well, she was sure that her mother-in-law would only make matters worse. Tang didn’t want to offend the Village Head over nothing. Grandpa Lu was able to cope with the aftermath of the disaster caused by Grandma Lu when he was healthy, but now his medical condition had greatly limited him.

Grandma Lu excitedly, “Let go of me, I demand an explanation from the Village Head. I cannot just ignore it.”

Tang looked at Grandma Lu and regretted for telling her the truth. However, seeing how indignant Grandma Lu was, she didn’t dare to stop her anymore in case Grandma Lu vented her anger on her.

……

In the Zhang Family.

Zhang Jin looked at Zhang Cheng and said, “Father, I told you earlier that you shouldn’t meddle in the Lu family’s affairs.”

Zhang Cheng pulled a long face and said, “I didn’t expect things to end like this.”

Zhang Cheng went to the commercial house to talk to Chen Xiao Mi, but Chen Xiao Mi thumbed his nose at Lu Cheng Yu, he showed zero interest in supporting this Xiucai financially. Not only that, but Chen Xiao Mi also asked him to spread the word about the ox-cart.

Zhang Cheng came back hesitated again and again, and he kept the message to himself. However, the news was spread by some other villagers who were working in town.

A villager who had a mule cart came to ask Zhang Cheng whether the news was true or not, Zhang Cheng had to confirm that it was true. The villager kept complaining that the Village Head should have had spread the word like Chen Xiao Mi said, because he could really use that one tale of silver as some additional income.

Zhang Cheng felt so wronged, he just said even though Chen Xiao Mi had said that, no one could be sure whether he was joking or being serious.

The villager left in a huff saying that he deserved to know about the message no matter it was true or not.

However, the message somehow ended up being ‘the Village Head suggested the villagers not lend their ox-carts to the Lus’.

Grandma Lu could no longer sit at home and pretend everything was okay, she marched down to Zhang Cheng’s house and accused him of bullying her.

Never had Zhang Cheng imagined that things would take such a sudden turn for the worse.

Those villagers who had carts blamed him for withholding the news that Chen Xiao Mi asked him to spread, while the Lu family blamed him for not letting the villagers lend their carts to Grandma Lu. Grandma Lu had even accused Zhang Cheng od taking bribes from Chen Xiao Mi.

“No villager will lend their carts to the Lus, that’s one tale of silver on the line,” Zhang Jin said.

Villagers who lend their carts to others would usually charge 10 cents or so from a return trip, and now Chen Xiao Mi offered them 1 tale of silver only on one condition, of course they would come up with all kinds of excused to turn the Lus down.

Zhang Cheng’s face darkened, “Chen Xiao Mi has gone too far.”

Zhang Cheng cried bitterness in the heart at the same time. He meant to patch things up between Lu Lin and the Lu family, but in the end, the matter had only gone worse.

Not only did they not resolve the conflict, both sides spoke critically of him. Chen Xiao Mi felt that he was biased towards the Lu family, while the Lu family felt that he had sided with Chen Xiao Mi since Chen Xiao Mi was the rich one.

Zhang Cheng felt that he should have listened to his son right from the start. He should not have got involved into their family business. Although Zhang Cheng regretted it, he was too proud to admit his mistake in front of his son.

……

Chen Xiao Mi sat in the rocking chair leisurely. Chen Xiao Mai looked at Chen Xiao Mi and asked, “Big Brother, is this chair very comfortable?”

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, “If you only knew.”

Chen Xiao Mai’s eyes widened, “My turn, my turn please.”

“Where’s your rocking chair?” asked Chen Xiao Mi.

The rocking chair Lu Lin made for Chen Xiao Mai was more special, he had carved many animals on it.

Chen Xiao Mai said sullenly, “Lin Ge sold it again.”

Chen Xiao Mi made a snicker.

Rocking chairs and toys were always out of stock, Lu Lin had to come up with a way to mollify customers who had been waiting for a long time. The way was to sell the stuff he made for Xiao Mai. In this way, Mai would always get new toys and rocking chairs, but they would end up being sold by Lu Lin within just a few days.

The customers were more than willing to buy stuff belonged to Xiao Mai because Lu Lin always made special editions for Xiao Mai.

“Xiao Mi Ge, bad, bad news!” Qin Ming rushed into the yard screaming.

Chen Xiao Mi frowned and said, “What happened, why in such a fluster?”

Qin Ming said sullenly, “Someone sued us saying that our food made him sick!”

Chen Xiao Mi frowned and asked, “Our food made him sick?”

Qin Ming shook his head and said, “I don’t know much about the details. However, the government has declared us guilty, they have sent officials to arrest you.”

Chen Xiao Mi narrowed his eyes. They didn’t sell food as a product. They would only use some packaged snacks as freebies. The last time they gave snacks as freebies was a few days ago, so it was just nonsense that someone said he just got sick from eating the food in their store.

……

The news of Chen Xiao Mi being arrested by the officials soon spread in the village.

Grandma Chen was thrilled when she heard that Chen Xiao Mi was arrested. She rushed about telling the news to other villagers, saying this was karma, karma of Chen Xiao Mi being unfilial.

Chen Jing was also very happy. After knowing that Chen Xiao Mi was the boss of Sino Commercial House, Chen Jing had been looking forward to Chen Xiao Mi being utterly discredited.

The villagers were in a state of panic. All of a sudden, the crowd started to say that it was better to be a government official! No matter how big your business was, there was nothing you could do when you were hotly purposed by the government.

Some villagers were worried that their income would be affected now that Chen Xiao Mi was arrested, while some were gloating over Chen Xiao Mi’s misfortune, they were glad that Chen Xiao Mi had gone downhill.

Grandma Lu was very excited to know that Chen Xiao Mi was arrested.

“Cheng Yu! Is this your doing?” Tang asked Lu Cheng Yu.

Lu Cheng Yu shook his head and said, “Not me. However, it has something to do with me.”

The county magistrate’s term of office was almost run out, he wanted to seize the opportunity to make a fast buck. Therefore, Lu Cheng Yu and the Secretary-General suggested this idea to the magistrate.

After Chen Xiao Mi was arrested, Lu Lin spent three hundred taels and bailed Chen Xiao Mi out. Chen Xiao Mi didn’t suffer because Lu Lin acted fast.

Lu Lin shut down the commercial house for fear of any more problems.