noffsinger Chapter 156: Meeting Lai Zi and his mother at a stall
Chapter 156: Meeting Lai Zi and his mother at a stall
As soon as they arrived, some old customers saw them and gathered around.
"You guys are finally here to set up a stall, hurry up and make me a bowl of braised seafood to try."
Li Erlang smiled and said, "It takes a long time to heat up the marinated seafood. You have to wait a while. Do you want us to keep it for you? Come and get it in a quarter of an hour."
The man thought about it and said, "Okay, I want two bowls of braised seafood and one bowl of small seafood with sauce. My home is nearby. I can go home and get a bowl and bring it back for my family to try."
Li Laosan and Li Erlang set up the stall swiftly. The braised seafood and fish ball soup needed to be heated for a while, and then they started selling the seafood with sauce.
"Give me two bowls of seafood with sauce." The customer who had eaten there paid for two bowls directly.
Li Laosan swiftly filled the bowl and handed it over.
In less than half an hour, the seafood in sauce was gone.
There are already more than ten people lining up for the braised seafood and fish ball soup.
At this time, Li Laosan seemed to see Lai Zi's figure and shouted.
The man turned around and it was indeed Lai Zi.
"Laizi, are you shopping?"
There was a woman following Lai Zi. Li Laosan recognized her as Lai Zi's mother, Ms. Qiao. Ms. Qiao was very beautiful and looked about the same age as Lai Zi's sister.
Qiao's beauty is as gentle and graceful as that of a Jiangnan woman, not as bright and pretty as Li Meir.
Li Laosan was happy for him from the bottom of his heart. Lai Zi and his mother had not had a good relationship for many years, otherwise Lai Zi would not have hung out with them.
It is naturally a good thing to see that the mother and son can go shopping peacefully now.
"Third brother, Happy New Year! Are you starting to set up the stall?" Lai Zi seemed to be in a good mood and not as ruffian as before.
"Mei'er has researched some seafood delicacies at home, and came out to the temple fair to test the market. Will you come back to work after the New Year?" Li Laosan chatted with the two while serving seafood.
"Of course! Where else would I go if not following my third brother?"
Li Laosan nodded, then wished Lai Zi's mother, Qiao, a happy new year.
Mrs. Qiao also spoke in a gentle voice, "You must be Ziqiang's good brother, Ziqiang often mentions you. You are all good children. You have learned to share the burden of the family at a young age."
Last time, Lai Zi earned three taels of silver from Li Laosan and also got a lot of New Year's goods. When he took it home, Qiao was so angry that she burst into tears on the spot.
She said with great sorrow: "Ziqiang, where did you get all this money and things?"
When Lai Zi saw that she thought of him like this, he became angry.
"I stole it, I robbed it!"
Hearing her son admit it himself, Mrs. Qiao became even more sad and cried out of breath.
At this time, Captain Zhong happened to come to deliver New Year's goods. Seeing the scene in front of him, he explained on behalf of Lai Zi: "Xian Niang, you misunderstood. These things were all earned by Ziqiang. He is now selling oil lamps at the market with Li Laosan. They earned all this money by themselves."
Because of Lai Zi, Captain Zhong was very familiar with Li Laosan and his gang of hooligans, and had been observing them secretly. Knowing that they had not done anything wrong, he did not pay much attention to them. He also knew that they were selling shell oil lamps at the market, and they were quite expensive.
Mrs. Qiao was not an unreasonable person. She admitted her mistake to her son quickly and comforted him with kind words.
The relationship between Captain Zhong and the Qiao family is somewhat complicated.
Qiao Xian's father was a businessman in Jiangnan, and her mother was a skinny girl from Yangzhou, with only the stage name Xi Yao. Her father bought her as a plaything and often took her to accompany clients. Later, her mother gave birth to her, but she did not get any status.
Once, a wealthy businessman from another place took a fancy to his mother, and his father did not hesitate to exchange his mother for a large order. Not long after, his mother was sent back, her face was disfigured, and there was not a single piece of healthy skin on her body. She died of illness a few days later.
Before she died, her mother told her not to trust her father and to escape from home as soon as possible.
Her mother's maid, who was also her wet nurse, also inexplicably slipped and fell into the lotus pond and drowned not long after that.
She found an opportunity and escaped from the house with her wet nurse's brother, who was also her wet nurse's son.
They fled all the way to a small coastal town in the north, where they got married, used their savings to buy their household registration, and bought a house. From then on, they settled down and lived an ordinary life.
Lai Zi's father used to be a clerk in his grandfather's shop. He learned some tricks of the trade and became a peddler. Although his income was not much, it was enough to support his family.
When Lai Zi was three years old, one day, his father went out to sell goods and did not come back until dark. His mother begged neighbors to help look for him. Finally, he was found in a nearby ditch with a big hole on the back of his head. He had drowned.
The neighbors speculated that he slipped and accidentally hit his head, then fell into the ditch, and couldn't climb out, so he drowned.
His mother cried her heart out. A few days after his father's funeral, the neighbors came to say that his mother had jumped into the river and was rescued by Captain Zhong who was passing by.
When Qiao Xianniang was rescued, she was soaking wet and her clothes were in disarray. Since then, there have been gossips about his mother and Captain Zhong.
Captain Zhong had been a widower for many years at that time. His previous wife died of illness, leaving behind only a daughter.
It can be said that Captain Zhong fell in love with Qiao Xianniang at first sight and decided to take responsibility for her. Qiao Xianniang's husband had just passed away, so she naturally couldn't marry him immediately, so she kept dragging it out.
Captain Zhong took good care of the mother and daughter. When Lai Zi's father had just passed away, there were often scoundrels who came to make trouble and wanted to take advantage of Qiao Xianniang, but they were all dealt with by Captain Zhong.
Captain Zhong often went in and out of the Xu family. Lai Zi also saw something and thought that he was a bad man with ulterior motives and wanted to take his mother away. His mother explained to him, but he was young at that time and did not listen. He just thought that his mother was just like the gossips around him said, that she was a fickle woman who betrayed her father. The conflicts between the two began to increase.
In addition, people around him bullied Lai Zi because he had no father. It was obviously their own child who made the mistake, but they blamed it on Lai Zi. Lai Zi's mother wanted to keep things quiet because she was an orphan and a widow, and she was soft-hearted.
Over time, people got used to bullying Lai Zi and gave him a nickname called Lai Zi. Lai Zi's real name was Xu Ziqiang, which was given by his father, meaning that one should be self-reliant.
Captain Zhong has always taken meticulous care of Qiao's mother and son. As the saying goes, love grows over time, and in order for her son to grow up safely, Qiao gave herself to Captain Zhong.
A year later, Captain Zhong wanted to marry Qiao, but his mother refused to agree and wanted him to marry her niece. Captain Zhong also refused to agree.
So the two sides kept wasting time, and this battle lasted for many years.
Years ago, Captain Zhong's mother died of illness. This spring, Captain Zhong's eldest daughter was going to get married, so he found an official matchmaker to propose marriage, and the wedding date was set for May.