Rich in the 70s: I Made a Rugged Veteran a Millionaire-Chapter 66: The Crisis of Competing for Favor
Jiang Cheng’s smile was so blatant, it left Lin Jiaojiao’s brain oxygen-deprived.
"Sorry for bothering you, Comrade Yu, to come all this way."
Jiang Cheng invited Comrade Yu inside, thinking it was better to discuss money matters indoors rather than in the yard.
Li Chunxiang, being naturally sociable, followed them inside with her bag in hand.
In the blink of an eye, only Lin Jiaojiao was left in the yard, fuming with anger!
"I’m so mad!"
Lin Jiaojiao gave a flying kick, breaking a piece of coal briquette.
A slight breeze blew the black coal dust right into her mouth.
"Ptui ptui—"
"You heartless one! Why don’t you kick your own stuff!"
The eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhou family from the other side placed her left hand on her hip, pointing at Lin Jiaojiao with her right hand, shouting loudly.
"Come out and see for yourselves, old Lin family is bullying again!"
With Sister Zhou’s shouting, several people from the Zhou family and Lin family came out. Jiang Cheng had just received payment and was escorting Comrade Yu out.
Comrade Yu left Jiang Cheng’s house carrying a bundle of fresh chives, looking upbeat.
No wonder the supervisor had his eye on Jiang Cheng, who was supposed to be a temporary worker.
The man really knew how to handle things.
At this moment, Sister Zhou was accusing Lin Jiaojiao of kicking their coal briquettes.
"I saw her kick one today, who knows how many she kicked when we weren’t looking before?"
"I was wondering why our coal briquettes kept missing, it must have been you kicking them!"
"I don’t care, your Lin family must compensate us with fifty coal briquettes to make up for all the ones from before too."
After Sister Zhou finished speaking, her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law immediately agreed, complaining about their perpetually missing coal briquettes.
Mother Lin, exasperated, shouted back, "You’re slandering us! Our family has two incomes, why would we need your lousy coal briquettes!"
"If you were really missing them, you would have hollered so loudly the whole courtyard would know, no need to wait until now to say something! You’re just trying to extort us!"
Sister Zhou felt a moment of guilt.
"Stop with the nonsense! Your Lin Jiaojiao kicked them, if she can kick one, she can kick two!"
One family didn’t want to pay, the other insisted on extorting, the argument only got more heated. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
Uncle Sun, the head of the courtyard, appeared again to mediate these trivial disputes which arose frequently.
In the end, the Lin family compensated the Zhou family with ten coal briquettes.
Mother Lin was fuming, glared at Lin Jiaojiao and slapped her.
"Slap!"
"Get back inside, do I have to invite you in?!"
"You really think I owe you something every single day!"
Lin Jiaojiao held her face, tears streaming down, looking up to see Jiang Cheng smiling smugly.
On the steps, Jiang Cheng stood on the left with Li Chunxiang, and on the right was Shen Yue standing on a stool.
Li Chunxiang was earnestly peeling the white strings off an orange, making it completely clean, before feeding it to Jiang Cheng’s mouth.
On the right, Shen Yue was diligently shelling sunflower seeds, gently blowing on her palms to separate the shells from the kernels.
A thought flashed through Lin Jiaojiao’s mind: she might really be no match for Jiang Cheng.
Before she could grasp it, her mother tugged her away forcefully.
"Get in quickly!"
Reluctantly, Lin Jiaojiao cried out, "Mom—"
Having enjoyed the spectacle, Jiang Cheng turned to head back inside, followed swiftly by Li Chunxiang and Shen Yue.
"Jiang Cheng... when should I come over today?"
Li Chunxiang, quickening her pace, caught up with Jiang Cheng to ask.
Trailing behind, Shen Yue felt a growing sense of urgency.
Today she can peel oranges, maybe tomorrow she’ll be peeling sunflower seeds?
Will her spot peeling sunflower seeds be taken over??
No way, she needed to form an alliance!
Shen Yue ran to find Shen Xing, who was doing homework, closing the door to whisper something.
In the main room, Jiang Cheng told Li Chunxiang to come over an hour later.
"Alright then, here’s a peeled orange, take your time eating it."
Li Chunxiang placed a perfectly peeled orange, free of white strings, on the table and left happily.
Just then, Grandma Shen came over with a bowl of food.
"What kind of potion did you give them?"
"Potion? At my level, it would have to be a miracle pill!"
Jiang Cheng joked, getting up to wander around and help Grandma Shen.
Resulting in being thoroughly shooed away.
"Just go away, you’re giving me a headache with all your dawdling! You’re running around pretending to be busier than me!"
In actuality... doing nothing at all!
Jiang Cheng felt a flash of guilt.
But she had thick skin, and said with a grin, "Mainly because Grandma Shen is so skillful, you don’t even need me."
Grandma Shen rolled her eyes at Jiang Cheng, her lips slightly curving upwards, deftly dishing out fried fish from the pot, its crispy fragrance making Jiang Cheng’s mouth water.
"How about I taste test it?"
Jiang Cheng asked, meeting Grandma Shen’s knowing gaze, who lovingly yet begrudgingly pushed the plate over, "Eh."
Just as Jiang Cheng was about to grab a piece, she was interrupted by someone arriving.
"You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Perfect timing, I made some minced meat tofu today, here for you to try."
Aunt Li’s mother-in-law came over with a bowl of minced meat tofu, a smile on her face that Grandma Shen had never seen before.
"Aunt Li... you’re too kind, we’ve just cooked, keep it for yourselves!"
Jiang Cheng politely declined, but Aunt Li’s mother-in-law insisted on giving it.
Back and forth, Grandma Shen’s eyes were getting tired of watching.
"I’ll take it! Enough with the back and forth!"
Grandma Shen took the bowl of minced meat tofu, briskly pouring it into her family’s bowl.
She rinsed Aunt Li’s bowl with some fresh water, then took five pieces of fried fish from the plate and placed them inside.
"Alright, go ahead and take it back!"
Aunt Li immediately protested, "No way! No way! I’m here to give food, not to take fish."
A new round of polite refusals began, and this time Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but intervene.
In the end, Aunt Li’s mother-in-law left with three pieces of fried fish.
After she left, Jiang Cheng set the tofu on the table.
"Grandma Shen, let’s eat."
Grandma Shen brought over the fried fish and said to Jiang Cheng, "Open your mouth!"
"Huh?"
Jiang Cheng asked in confusion, opening her mouth, as a piece of fish was stuffed in.
"How does it taste?"
Grandma Shen asked seriously, with Jiang Cheng smiling brightly, "It’s absolutely excellent! Grandma Shen’s cooking is number one in the world!"
Grandma Shen tried to suppress her smile, and said with mock scolding, "Nonsense... speak the truth!"
Jiang Cheng: "..."
Grandma Shen, you’ve changed!
Calmly turning her back, Grandma Shen curiously and gossip-like asked, "What magic pill did you give, to make this notoriously stingy person voluntarily deliver food?"
Jiang Cheng, snapping back to reality, whispered, "A job opportunity at the machinery factory."
Grandma Shen understood immediately, enlightened, "Well, it’s Chun Xiang’s credit too, isn’t the neighbor going as well? They were so smug on exam day, and didn’t even pass, right?"
Jiang Cheng nodded in agreement.
The two set the table, with Jiang Cheng calling Shen Xing and Shen Yue for dinner.
Shen Xing promptly responded from inside, interrupting Shen Yue’s nagging.
"Yue Yue, Sister Jiang Cheng is calling us for dinner."
Of course, Shen Yue heard, yet still continued to say energetically, "Brother, we must treat Sister Jiang Cheng even better, or else she’ll get snatched away!"
"Okay, I got it. You’ve said it dozens of times."
Shen Yue’s little bun-like face turned serious in a second.
"I’ve said something so important, and you were actually counting!"
Shen Xing: "..."
