The Lady's Sickly Husband

C60. Persistence, Uneasiness of the Su Qi

In the alley of Tianxiang city.

A group of men cornered a thief-like youth, one of them cursing, "Wang Xiangcai, you asshole, where do you want to hide? You've taken master Liao's money but didn't do things for us? This can't be settled so easily. Give it to us, where is the recipe?"

"I didn't get the recipe. That woman is so shrewd that the village elders took her side. I really couldn't get the recipe. To do the task you gave me, my father even lost thirty taels of silver."

"You didn't get it? You father lost money? It has nothing to do with us. Dare you blame it to master Liao? When will you pay us back?"

"Please give me a few more days."

"More days?"

"Please..."

"Dare you take the money and didn't do things for me. Come on and beat him to death."

The men began to punch and kick Wang Xiangcai up while the leading man walked to the depth of the alley, turning a corner, and bowed to a person who looked like a manager.

"Master Liao, it seems that the recipe is hard to get, so..."

"Stupid. Now in our restaurant, as long as people order tofu and we don't have it, they will leave and go to Baiyunju."

"What about we hire Xiaotaohong, the top singer-prostitute again?"

"No use. Now Xiaotaohong is very expensive. By our turnover, we can't afford her. Besides, those women are useless. People have become tired of her. Now they all turn to the story-tellers."

"Then what about learning from others and hiring some story-tellers too?"

"Stupid idea! All story-tellers in Tianxiang city have signed a contract with him, promising they won't tell stories in other restaurants. Now they can get one hundred cents per month even they don't work and sit at home. But if they breach the contract, they have to pay thousands of taels of silver. Who will work with us?"

"What should we do?"

"It's fine. If we can't make it with a tough hand, then let's try a soft way. Boss said that tomorrow he would personally go to Wang village tomorrow..."

*

When Mo Qianxue got back to Wang village, sister Fang had taken three smart wives and a black-faced man waiting in the yard.

In the future, Mo Qianxue planned to spare herself from the tofu workshop, so she decided to totally hand it over to sister Fang and promote her to manager with a raising salary of two hundred cents per month. Fang Datang could be her assistant, helping with carrying and moving. He would be paid six hundred cents per month.

Being a manager didn't get paid only with salary. Mo Qianxue also promised to give the couple part of the annual income of the tofu workshop at the end of the year, so sister Fang was overjoyed.

Now the couple fully took her side and respected her wholeheartedly, really regarding her as their madam.

Among the four people, two young wives worked together with sister Fang and Guihua to make tofu and other by-products while the black-faced man followed Fang Datang to do heavy labor.

Another young wife Juniang followed Mo Qianxue to be the cook of the restaurant at the dock. She didn't plan to hire a professional cook who would be expensive but not be able to make new styles of dishes.

All these people were employed after Mo Qianxue's careful consideration of their family background and personal characters.

The two young wives surnamed Li while the black-faced man surnamed Gao.