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“Is it delicious?” Jiang Yunniang asked.

Yingbao nodded, “Yes, it is.”

Jiang Yunniang laughed, “I’ll make some more for you to take home for your parents to try.”

“Okay.” After finishing a meat pie and a large bowl of vegetable soup, Yingbao was absolutely stuffed.

“Auntie, why are you the only one busy? Where are my older and second cousins?” she asked.

While making more meat pies, Jiang Yunniang answered, “They’ve gone to the Tile House area to sell meat pies.”

“Oh.” Yingbao nodded. That seemed quite reasonable.

At that moment, Uncle Zhang Jia came from afar and said to Jiang Yunniang, “Give me some money. Hong Shao is feeling a bit feverish, and I have to take her to the medicine hall for a consultation.”

Jiang Yunniang gave Zhang Jia a cold glance, “Where would I get money?”

Hong Shao was his concubine’s daughter, nearly two years old now, and she had been frequently getting sick with a cough.

“How do you not have any? What happened to the money you earned today? You just don’t want to give it to me on purpose, you want Hong Shao to die of sickness, don’t you?” Zhang Jia glared at his wife angrily.

Jiang Yunniang gave her husband a sidelong glance and sneered, “The paltry amount I’ve earned isn’t even enough for one of your doses of ‘Five Rocks Blend’, how could that be considered money?”

At some point, Zhang Jia had developed an addiction to the ‘Five Rocks Blend’ drug. He took a dose every few days, then he would fool around with his concubine the whole night.

By now, pustules had started to form on Zhang Jia’s body and neck, and his foul smell could be detected from a long distance away.

Jiang Yunniang was utterly disgusted and was planning to rent a couple of rooms elsewhere to live with her children.

Seeing his wife’s mockery, Zhang Jia was furious and pointed at her nose, “You poisonous woman! I should have divorced you long back!”

“Divorce me?” Jiang Yunniang scoffed, “Go ahead and try it!”

Not to mention her three brothers standing behind her, if she was really provoked, she would sell off that woman and her three kids in a heartbeat.

Zhang Jia glared at Jiang Erlang and Jiang Cheng standing by the shop’s entrance, clenching and unclenching his fists. However, he didn’t dare to actually throw a punch and turned away.

Now, Yingbao understood why her aunt had set up a stall at the entrance of their own shop.

If she did it elsewhere, she would definitely not be able to secure her earnings.

Not only would Zhang Jia forcefully demand it, but those ruffians from her concubine’s family would likely cause trouble as well.

Setting up a stall at the shop entrance could completely prevent such occurrences.

Moreover, at the end of each night, she could store her tables and stools in the shop, and give the silver coins to her elder nephew for safekeeping, killing many birds with one stone.

Jiang Erlang watched Zhang Jia leave with squinted eyes. Only then, he said to Jiang Yunniang, “Wrap up a bit earlier today. Let’s go to Dacheng’s house for a casual meal this evening. Dacheng is getting engaged tomorrow, bring the kids with you too.”

A nephew’s engagement was a big deal. Since his aunt was right there, it seemed inappropriate not to invite her for a meal to celebrate the happy occasion.

Jiang Yunniang nodded, “I will clean up right away.”

Her nephew’s engagement was to the daughter of a famous pastry shop owner in the county town.

Although her parents hadn’t come to the city, both her elder sister-in-law and her two sisters had arrived. She also needed to prepare a substantial red envelope as a gift.

The next day, Dacheng and the matchmaker took gifts and personally drove a horse cart to pick up the family of the pastry shopkeeper, Sima.

Today was essentially a day to set the wedding date between both families.

The four taels of banquet dishes were all cooked by several chefs invited by Jiang Cheng. All of it was both visually appealing and abundant.

At one table sat the older male relatives from both families along with the matchmakers.

The other table was occupied by female relatives from both families, and Yingbao was a part of it as well.

The other two tables were filled with the boys from the family, and Jiang Yunniang’s two sons were sitting with them.

Jiang Yunniang’s husband Zhang Jia was also present, sitting with the male elder. However, he didn’t say a word and buried his head in his drink.

At the table, both families discussed the children’s wedding dates, finally settling on the twenty-second of the last lunar month.

With the saying “marrying a daughter-in-law makes the New Year more festive,” Shopkeeper Qiu gleefully expressed his desire for his daughter to visit the Jiang family as soon as possible to kowtow to her grandparents and ask for her New Year’s money.

Naturally, the wedding date was mainly decided by the bride’s side. Elder Uncle Jiang readily agreed without hesitation, stating that the old family home had already prepared a new house, with all new items, and wouldn’t shortchange the children.

Shopkeeper Qiu, of course, had no objections.

His struggle to snatch Jiang Cheng as a golden son-in-law was not easy, but he was finally successful, and he wished to pack his daughter off to the Jiang family as soon as possible.

Over the past year, business at Jiang’s Specialties had been booming, quickly surpassing Rongfu Pastry Shop, which had been in operation for decades.

Setting that aside, Jiang Cheng had managed to buy a large two-story house in the county town in a short amount of time. What else could an eighteen or nineteen-year-old kid do if not for him?

So he made a concerted effort, letting his daughter do the job of delivering pastries. Even though the goods could be delivered in one trip, he had his daughter run several trips to make more deliveries, allowing her more opportunities to interact with the young man.

On the other side, he went to great lengths to invite Jiang Cheng over for dinner, having his wife personally cook delicious dishes for him. Combined with his own warm hospitality, he quickly won over Jiang Cheng’s heart, and the two young people inevitably got along better and better.

Feeling pleased with himself, Shopkeeper Qiu thought how fortunate it was that he had acted early. The old guy from the silk shop next door was still asking about Jiang Cheng’s situation.

He knew the old man’s situation best; his family had several daughters ready for marriage.

Since Jiang Cheng often went to the pastry shop to pick goods, they saw him, and a few of the young women came to the speciality shop intentionally or unintentionally, claiming to buy pastries.

Their own pastry shop was right next to their house, offering cheap, freshly baked pastries that were hot, fragrant and delicious.

Instead of buying cheap and delicious pastries, they ran two streets away to the speciality shop.

Humph! Sima Zhao’s heart, everyone can see!

Shopkeeper Qiu picked up a cup of wine, grinned at Elder Brother Jiang, and said, “Come, let’s drink to our brotherhood.”

Elder Brother Jiang quickly lifted his cup in response: “Alright, I’ll take the lead.” With that, he tilted his head back and emptied his cup.

After drinking a couple of cups with Elder Brother Jiang, Shopkeeper Qiu drank two cups with Jiang Erlang, then Jiang Sanlang, and then proposed a toast to Zhang Jia, the husband of Jiang Yunniang.

Zhang Jia sneered, slurred a few words due to his drunkenness, gulped down the wine, and then smashed the wine cup on the floor.

The room fell silent instantly.

Seeing this, Jiang Yunniang hurriedly came over with her eldest son to support him, apologizing to everyone: “I’m sorry, my husband can’t hold his liquor, and he’s not making much sense. I’ll take him home!”

With that, she started dragging Zhang Jia towards the exit.

Jiang Cheng paused for a moment, then got up to harness the carriage and take them home.

The faces of Elder Brother Jiang and his brothers were ugly.

Actually, inviting Zhang Jia was out of necessity. After all, he was Jiang Cheng’s biological uncle and still was married to Jiang Yunniang.

They didn’t expect him to behave so rudely, losing face in front of their future in-laws and the matchmakers.

But shopkeeper Qiu didn’t mind; he merely laughed it off.

Having been in business for so many years, what kind of people hadn’t he seen?

He didn’t care about people like Zhang Jia, who were of low character. They wouldn’t amount to much anyway.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Even though Shopkeeper Qiu didn’t mind, Elder Brother Jiang still felt obliged to apologize.

Shopkeeper Qiu shook his head: “No need to care, we’re all family now, and there will be many relatives coming and going in the future, encountering all sorts of temperaments is nothing strange.”

“Indeed, indeed, drunks can’t keep their bearings, and he won’t remember anything when he sobers up.” The two matchmakers laughed in agreement.