The Second Young Master’s Obedient Husband : Chapter 90

Chunniang gave birth to a baby boy in the middle of the year. Shuanzi was over the moon to have such a sweet little boy, happy beyond words. This year the whole family celebrated the New Year together again, with two new additions to the family, making the household livelier than ever.

When the market opened on the eighth day of the first lunar month, Liang Yu took Su Qingyu to the market to play. The two were still stuck together, sharing snacks affectionately. Passing through the market, Su Qingyu saw a middle aged man selling vegetables and froze.

The man had a very kind face, looking about thirty years old, calling out as he set up his vegetable stall. The vegetables looked freshly picked. Logically, such fresh and good quality vegetables should sell out quickly, but while the neighboring stalls were surrounded by many people, his stall had no customers. An old man heard the calling and came to ask the price, but when he saw the man had no arms, his steps stopped at once. He turned and walked toward another stall. The man hurriedly raised his voice trying to keep the customer, but in the end he could only sell at half price.

Liang Yu noticed Su Qingyu’s steps had stopped and looked back at him with some question. Following his gaze, he also saw the whole scene of the man selling vegetables. He narrowed his eyes, recognized the person, and pulled Su Qingyu toward that direction. Su Qingyu already felt sorry for him, so he followed Liang Yu over and started to say: “Old sir, I’ll take all your vegetables…”

Before Su Qingyu could finish speaking, he heard Liang Yu call out very respectfully: “Uncle Chen.”

The old man nodded with a smile, looked at Su Qingyu and asked Liang Yu: “Little Liang, this is your husband, isn’t he? Good looking and good hearted. You must treat him well.”

Liang Yu nodded seriously and introduced to Su Qingyu: “This is Uncle Chen. He went to the battlefield a few years before me. Very skilled. I learned my hunting skills from him.”

Su Qingyu greeted him obediently: “Hello, Uncle Chen.”

The man nodded, got up and started packing the vegetables into the basket, smiling: “All good children. If the vegetables don’t sell well, I’ll take them back to eat myself. You two continue strolling, continue having fun.”

Liang Yu hurriedly said: “The vegetables Uncle Chen grows are delicious. My mother was just talking about them the other day. My father also said you haven’t come to drink with him in a long time. Uncle Chen, come eat at our house at noon. My parents are both home. You can also have a good drink with my father. He keeps talking about you.”

“Alright!” Uncle Chen nodded with a smile, picked up the vegetables, and drove his ox cart back to the village.

After Uncle Chen left, Su Qingyu looked at Liang Yu pitifully. Liang Yu pinched his face and began telling the story: “Uncle Chen is from the neighboring village. He grew up eating from a hundred families’ meals. Later he finally saved up some money, got married, and then the war came. The family didn’t have much silver, and they hit a bad harvest year. His husband was pregnant. The silver went to pay for military service and the family couldn’t make ends meet. Uncle Chen had no choice. He went to the battlefield the first time conscription came, and sent all his military pay back home.

When he returned home after the war ended, although the court gave compensation silver, his lost arm could not come back. His husband had hooked up with a wealthy man in town as a kept lover while he was at war. Later, seeing that Uncle Chen returned with a disability, he wanted to divorce him. The child had never seen his birth father and wasn’t close to him. The husband wanted to take the child with him. Uncle Chen agreed, gave half the compensation silver to them, and after that had no heart to remarry. He just lived alone.

Later I went to see Uncle Chen. He sold the half plot of land he was allotted, and slowly cultivated the other half himself. A single man doesn’t need much silver to live on his own. He still had quite a bit of remaining silver, so he could get by. After this matter, Uncle Chen’s temperament became much more withdrawn, and he didn’t smile as much as before. I wanted to bring Uncle Chen to the Liang family, but he refused. My parents also went to persuade him, but he didn’t agree either. He wouldn’t even spend New Year with us. If you specially brought things to see him, he would stuff a basket of vegetables back at you, then chase both person and things out together. In the end, we could only have my mother send Shuanzi to deliver a festival gift on holidays, and my father would occasionally pull him over for drinks to help him unwind, and send over a New Year’s Eve dinner during the New Year.

After going through so much, he never liked being around too many people. Now his temperament is much more cheerful than before. I was quite surprised to see him come sell vegetables today.”

Su Qingyu nodded. “So that’s why you never took me to see him before?”

“Yes and no. You had just married over and were already sensitive by nature. If I took you and you got the cold shoulder, you would definitely overthink it. Later because there were so many things going on, I also forgot.”

Su Qingyu felt his husband was so considerate when he heard the first half, but couldn’t help rolling his eyes at the second half.

Liang Yu pulled him over, pinched his face twice, and stared at Su Qingyu with a dark voice: “I’m not someone with a photographic memory. Isn’t it normal to forget things?”

Su Qingyu kissed his face ingratiatingly, stopped making trouble, and pulled Liang Yu’s hand to continue strolling the streets.

At noon the two of them ate at a restaurant in town. In the afternoon they went to listen to storytelling. After coming out of the teahouse, Su Qingyu thought they were going home, but unexpectedly Liang Yu pulled him in front of a shop. Su Qingyu looked up. The plaque read “Yu Qing Cloth Shop.” Su Qingyu was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Liang Yu.

Liang Yu took out a land deed and shop keys from his chest and handed them to Su Qingyu. The land deed had Su Qingyu’s name on it. Su Qingyu took it and looked, and his eyes couldn’t help turning red.

Liang Yu rubbed his head and said: “I was thinking your family used to sell cloth before, so I wanted to get you a cloth shop here too. But I couldn’t find a suitable shop for the longest time, so I had a broker keep an eye out. A few days ago the broker finally sent word that Zhou’s Cloth Shop was doing poorly in business and wanted to sell the shop and go south to join relatives. It just so happened that a rather large neighboring shop and warehouse were also being sold through a broker, so I bought them all. I want to open an escort agency combined with a martial arts school.

These past days I had people fix it up, and the plaque has been changed too. Later you’ll sell cloth at the cloth shop, and I’ll work at the escort agency. We’ll eat meals together during the day, each doing our own work, and at night we’ll sleep together in the small courtyard behind the cloth shop. We won’t be apart a single day. The cloth we brought back from the south, I separately used silver to buy a batch that wasn’t counted with the convoy’s goods. This batch will stay at the cloth shop to sell. Later, whenever the convoy brings back cloth, we’ll keep a batch to sell at our own cloth shop. This way we can slowly build up the business. It doesn’t matter if we lose money. It’s our own family’s shop. If the cloth doesn’t sell, we’ll keep it to make clothes for ourselves. However you look at it, we can’t lose out.”

Su Qingyu nodded, buried his face in Liang Yu’s chest, and acted spoiled for a good while before a smile appeared on his face again.

Although they had settled on running the business, they couldn’t let go of the trading business that made such good money either.

This year was different from last year. Last year was the first time, feeling their way across the river. They didn’t dare to buy too much stock or recruit too many people. This year was different. Having figured out the market conditions and gained confidence, their courage grew bigger. Liang Yu bought twice as much stock as last year, and they also needed to pick out more hands. The men who went trading last year basically all came back, and they also spread word in the village recruiting people. Just like last year, they screened people round after round. Those who remained were basically men with courage, sturdy builds, and good tempers.

Since Su Qingyu and Liang Yu needed to run the new shop, Liang Yu had Qin Cheng lead the convoy this time. He instructed them to keep proper accounts, and if the accounts didn’t add up, the silver would be withheld and not distributed. After several warnings, even those with ideas didn’t dare to make any small moves.

Once spring opened up, the shop gradually got running. Chunniang was sent by Zhang Yun to help Su Qingyu. Chunniang used to be a young lady from a wealthy merchant’s family, and now helping sell cloth, she was very capable and helped Su Qingyu a great deal.

Shuanzi helped Liang Yu run the escort agency. The escort agency mainly took in men who had retired from the battlefield. Those with high martial skills would escort goods or work as instructors. Those with lesser skills or in poor health would do odd jobs. Although they couldn’t earn big money, they could make a living and even save a little silver. Of course, they didn’t take just anyone. The main thing was character. Liang Yu was no fool either. Those with bad character, no matter how pitiful, would not be taken in to add unnecessary trouble.