The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 125: Hopping Mad and Hands on Hips, Swearing Up a Storm
"Could it be that Boss Qian has taken a fancy to Taohua?"
Hong Xiaoxi witnessed Boss Qian feeding bird’s nest to Gu Taohua after being teased by Tong Huaqiong and couldn’t help but start gossiping back at the shop.
Everyone loves gossip, even the scholar Ma Huateng is no exception; hearing this from Hong Xiaoxi, he stopped fiddling with the abacus and said, "No wonder Boss Qian has been hanging around our shop these days."
Gu Xiaocao said weakly, "Our Shopkeeper dotes on his daughter more than his son. She definitely won’t agree, no matter how much money an old man has."
Liu Qiaoyun listened to their conversation and couldn’t hold back a chuckle, saying, "How are you guys so sure Boss Qian is interested in Taohua? Don’t go around ruining Taohua’s reputation with baseless talk."
Hong Xiaoxi said, "If not Taohua, could it be Xiaocao? We only have two girls in the shop."
Gu Xiaocao was terrified and turned pale; because of that scoundrel Xu Si, she’d long lost interest in men.
She definitely didn’t want any man to take interest in her.
Liu Qiaoyun smiled mysteriously and, hiding her talent and fame, said, "Alright, stop speculating blindly. Trust me, Boss Qian isn’t interested in either Taohua or Xiaocao."
A bunch of unmarried youngsters and girls don’t understand Boss Qian’s intentions.
Liu Qiaoyun had noticed long ago that the old widower was eyeing their Shopkeeper, Aunt Tong.
Several times she’d seen Boss Qian sneaking glances at Manager Tong, more intense than when Qin Qingyou had looked at her during their newlywed days; the old house was certainly on fire.
Liu Qiaoyun pondered, who said widows can’t have good marriages? Even though Aunt Tong already has grandchildren, she can still attract the fancy of the town’s wealthy old widower.
Therefore, women must be capable like Aunt Tong.
Having a shop and skills gives you dignity.
If the village’s backbiters like Yan Pozi and Huang Pozi, who love to slander Manager Tong, knew Boss Qian was interested in her, wouldn’t they be fuming?
However, she felt Boss Qian was probably one-sidedly interested because Manager Tong had no such intention.
Hong Xiaoxi and the others couldn’t stop asking Liu Qiaoyun who Boss Qian was interested in. Liu Qiaoyun stopped smiling and said, "Stop gossiping about your employer’s affairs. Get ready, customers will be arriving soon. Let’s focus on welcoming them; regardless of who Boss Qian fancies, whether it’s Ma Huateng or Hong Xiaoxi, it shouldn’t interfere with our business."
Ma Huateng: "..."
Hong Xiaoxi: "..."
...
From Yan Guan Town to Qinghe Bay, there were golden waves of wheat rolling, with silhouettes wielding sickles appearing in the waves as everyone rushed to harvest.
In an era where one relied on the sky to eat, any weather change could affect the yield.
For instance, now everyone hoped for sunny days every day; but when the wheat dried and was stored and it was time to sow corn, they’d start praying for rain.
The horse-drawn carriage arrived at the entrance of Qinghe Bay Village.
Tong Huaqiong saw Gu Dahuan, Chen Sufen and others in her family’s field, wielding sickles and harvesting wheat.
Gu Dahuan and Chen Sufen were skilled workers; under the couple’s leadership, the Gu Family had six acres of wheat almost finishing the harvest, with only three acres left.
In the countryside, horse-drawn carriages rarely came in, so when people saw a large cart parked at the entrance, they stopped their work to curiously glance over.
Seeing Tong Huaqiong poking her head out of the carriage, they couldn’t help but sigh.
"Dashi’s mother, you’re wealthy now, riding a big carriage!"
"I heard your shop is booming; once the wheat is harvested, I’ll go to town to take a look."
"Tut-tut-tut, who would’ve thought Widow Tong had such capability; life’s actually gotten better since her husband passed."
"So it means our family’s life isn’t good because you old geezer aren’t dead."
There were those who envied, felt jealous, or sighed.
The ones particularly envious were Huang Pozi and Yan Pozi. Since Tong Huaqiong opened a shop in town, these two had been secretly cursing Taohua Dessert to go bust, yet Taohua Dessert didn’t just survive, it also earned rave reviews in Yan Guan Town and surrounding villages, which enraged the two women to the point of chest pain.
Huang Pozi had been saying around the village that Tong Huaqiong had stolen her granddaughter Gu Xiaocao, and alluded that the pair were being promiscuous in town.
She didn’t dare curse Tong Huaqiong to her face or Tong Huaqiong would tear her mouth apart.
Huang Pozi heard Gu Xiaocao had a monthly salary of three hundred coins, and recently she’d been sitting at the gate of Gu Guangkui’s house demanding money. Gu Guangkui was afraid she’d go to Taohua Dessert to curse, affecting Gu Xiaocao’s work and thus harming Taohua Dessert’s reputation, so he reluctantly sold his chickens and ducks to give Huang Pozi some money.
At this moment, the two women sat dully on the riverbank, rolling their eyes at Tong Huaqiong.
"A widow going to town to show face is one thing, but stealing someone else’s daughters and daughter-in-laws along is another. I say, your granddaughter’s work at the shop is no different than selling smiles, you as a grandma should demand an explanation from Widow Tong," Yan Pozi said as she saw Tong Huaqiong getting off the carriage in new clothes, casually giving candies to Man Er and Yaozu, filled with jealousy.
"And Qin Qingyou’s family too, letting his wife stand at the counter to sell smiles. Isn’t the village chief going to step in? Otherwise, the whole village may end up dragged down by Widow Tong, what about our village girls’ reputations?" Yan Pozi continued, "One promiscuous widow will sooner or later corrupt all our village’s young girls and wives into promiscuity."
She wasn’t afraid of Tong Huaqiong hearing this, it wasn’t like she was on Mr. Xu’s cart, her four sons were all working in the fields.
The words wafted over to Tong Huaqiong’s ears with the wind.
Tong Huaqiong thought, what does her business have to do with Yan Pozi? You can envy in your heart, but thrusting insults onto her she couldn’t tolerate?
Yan Pozi must’ve forgotten that Tong Dajiao was once also adept at street brawls and swearing matches.
Thinking this, Tong Huaqiong stepped onto the field’s edge, pointing at Yan Pozi, and started to curse fiercely.
"Yan Pozi, you think just because your surname is Yan you share a bed with King Yan and hold the life and death ledger over the village, right? You keep saying widows, are you jealous of me and want to be a widow too? No wonder I saw you buying rat poison in town, are you feeling your old man’s too old and want to poison him so you can be a widow?"
When it comes to criticising one’s purity?
Tong Huaqiong can do it too!
As a modern graduate student, she detests slut-shaming, but living in a rural setting, if she doesn’t retaliate when humiliated, she’d get trapped in purity clusters.
Start with the catty comments, since Yan Pozi started insulting her first. Should she just become the Holy Mother by not retaliating?
Yan Pozi, being barked at by Tong Huaqiong, was fuming.
The laughter from nearby further provoked her, making her retort, "I bought the rat poison to kill mice."
Tong Huaqiong chuckled, Yan Pozi had fallen into a trap of self-justification; today she was determined to "beat down" this woman. Putting her hands on her hips, she cursed, "If you truly had no thoughts of poisoning your husband, why would you even explain? I see you just want to poison your husband, become a widow, and act promiscuous. Otherwise, who would constantly shout promiscuous this, promiscuous that? Isn’t what you shout a reflection of your own desires?"
"What do you mean the whole village’s girls were dragged down by me? It’s clearly you who want to be promiscuous and thus ruin the village girls’ reputation. I wonder, since you bore four sons without a single daughter, what’s the reason for your concern with our village girls’ reputation? It’s just to picture your ill-behaved son capturing the leftovers after slandering our village girls. You can forget about it, which family’s daughter would be compatible with your good son?"
"I’ll give you a clever solution; you want to poison your husband and become a widow to act promiscuous, and your son is just eager to marry, why don’t you stop messing with outsiders, keep it within the family, unite in mutual consumption?"
Tong Huaqiong cursed while hopping, her curses both vicious and vulgar.
Listening to this, every person harvesting wheat felt pleased.
Right now, Yan Pozi and her son Xu Si were the village people’s headaches, especially those with daughters, who genuinely wished the mother and son would self-absorb.
Yan Pozi’s face flushed red and white, unable to outdo Tong Huaqiong at swearing, she estimated that she couldn’t beat Tong Huaqiong in a fight either. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
In the past, pulling hair, she couldn’t outmatch Tong Dajiao, now Tong Huaqiong dressed in lavish attire, embodying a powerful aura of a female tycoon, standing in front of Yan Pozi with hands on hips, hopping with absolute dominance.
Yan Pozi didn’t dare confront Tong Huaqiong one-on-one head-to-head.
