Chapter 61: Seventh Young Lord Awed by Mr. Ning Translator: Antonia
In the winter it got dark earlier and earlier. After they finished dinner and prepared everything, the sky had turned pitch-dark.
By the dim light, Mo Qianxue entered the inner room.
Ning Shaoqing was leaning on the newly-made couch, his hair ink-dark, lips light-colored and face delicate and soft, seeming to be pondering something.
She was a little surprised. Usually at this time, he would have long gone to bed already.
Was he waiting for her?
Right. Seeing she came in, Ning Shaoqing smiled and took out an oil-paper pack.
“Here is the title deed. Keep it at a safe place.”
“Yes…” Mo Qianxue replied, smiling and taking over the pack.
As long as they had an official title deed, there wouldn’t be anyone daring to make a trouble here. Certainly, she was happy about this, but she was also a little unhappy about certain thing.
She slowly opened the pack and became astonished.
On the place where the owner’s name was signed should be Mo Qianxue!
She couldn’t believe her eyes, voluntarily rubbing them with her hand.
At the second glance, she was sure that the owner column of the property at Wang village indeed signed Mo Qianxue.
In a hurry, she opened the next one, the title deed of the land at Tianyou dock, and it was Mo Qianxue too.
Surprised! Stunned! She even could shut her mouth.
Mo Qianxue’s expression amused Ning Shaoqing. The corners of his lips slightly arched. Gently poking her forehead, he joked, “Anything wrong?”
“No…no…” When Mo Qianxue looked up again, her eyes were filled with tears.
She had her own property in the estranged world. She was no longer a person of unknown origin. She was not alone anymore. In the future, no one would dare to threat to sell her out as a slave.
The exciting tears didn’t totally stem from the ownership of house and land, but the feeling of being loved and cherished.
Putting down the certificates, Mo Qianxue tried to hold back her excitement and joked with Ning Shaoqing, “That’s wrong. Very wrong. Why use my name for both properties?”
The tears still shone in her eyes, and Ning Shaoqing couldn’t help wiping out the dropping tear, “Sorry for all you have suffered!”
Wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes, Ning Shaoqing answered in a loving tone, “Little fool. It was you who earned the house and the restaurant at the dock. Of course your name should be written down there!”
“Don’t you fear that people may laugh at you?” Suddenly Mo Qianxue understood why, according to Shuanzi, the village head looked unhappy. Ancient men valued most about their faces. Now he lived in his wife’s house. Wouldn’t he fear of being laughed at and looked down upon by others?
“Who dares?” Ning Shaoqing answered readily.
“Yes, yes, yes, nobody dares to…”
“What on earth do you think of your husband?”
Husband? Oh dear heaven! Mo Qianxue mistook his fluster as anger of her looking down on him, so she smiled shyly, “Then thank you, sir!”
Ning Shaoqing again choked on his upsetting when he heard the sir in her thank.
This woman was so annoying. Why did she just ignore his obvious indication? He stopped smiling and gazed at her with a serious look but didn’t manage to say anything.
Mo Qianxue waited him to announce certain significant matter when Ning Shaoqing suddenly approached, the cello-like soft voice blowing her face like gentle night breeze.
“Just call me Shaoqing, okay?”
Mo Qianxue was blown her mind out, voluntarily turned away a little and nodded, “Yes…”
What a big deal? She had long wanted to address him by his name. The ‘sir’ made her feel like a school child too.
However, could this man not talk to her in such gentle voice and not stand so near? And, must he find it so hard to let her call his name?
“Try it.” Ning Shaoqing was a little dissatisfied seeing her stepping aside a little.
“Shaoqing.”
“Yes.”
Mo Qianxue called him carelessly, but Ning Shaoqing answered with satisfaction.
“There is another important thing I need to tell you…”
“I’m listening.”
“Today I went to a winery. The owner is one of my old friends. I’ve talked to him. After your restaurant is open, all wine you need will be supplied by him. He’ll delivery the wine first and the account can be settled at the end of each month. The wine you don’t sell out can give back to him…”
“Really? Is there such a good business?”
Two days ago, she was worrying about this. It would be too expensive to buy good wine bottle by bottle! The budget was limited, so if she bought the wine in big bottles but didn’t manage to sell it, then the money wouldn’t be wasted. Yet, if she bought wine in bulk, that would look too cheap without taste. She had been so disturbed by this matter.
“Shaoqing, you’re so great!” Once the problem was solved, Mo Qianxue was in such a good mood that she jumped to give him a loud kiss on his fair jade-skinned cheek.
“…” He looked a little complacent and the face flushed.
*
On the next day, early in the morning, Mo Qianxue got up out of the bed.
After waiting for Ning Shaoqing to finish breakfast, she and Juniang began to prepare the lunch for the constructors working at the dock.
The dozen of men doing heavy labor should each eat one kilogram of food for lunch. She supposed.
Therefore, she made two straight large pots of steamed buns and stewed a large bucket of pig lung tofu soup.
Pig lungs were scrap of a pig and smelly, so most of households wouldn’t eat them, and thus much cheaper than pork. She bought them with little money.
When Mo Qianxue was little, they were so poor that her mom could only made this pig lung soup to satisfy her craving for meat. They often made this soup, so through time she naturally learned some methods to remove the smelly taste and make delicious appetizing pig lung soup.
Now, she added tofu to the soup to create an even fresher taste.
This dish was going to be a specialty for the restaurant at the dock, because it was delicious, easy to cook and available at a low cost.
The sweet smell floated out of the kitchen and enticed Yaya coming from next door, sucking her fingers and peeking from behind the door.
Mo Qianxue felt both a little sad and amused and with a smile called her inside. She gave her a bowl of the soup, blowing to cool it down and feeding her, and then picked up a steamed bun for her as snack.
Yaya sipped the soup and bit the bun, keeping saying how delicious the food Mrs. Ning made. The cute adorable look made Juniang, a usually serious person, come over to pinch her little face. Taking over the soup bowl from Mo Qianxue, she filled another bowl of soup and fed her.
The two of them talked and laughed while Mo Qianxue thought for a while before she filled a large bucket with the pig lung soup and picked a dozen of steamed buns into lunch boxes, telling Juniang a few words before sending the food to the tofu workshop next door.
She handed over the pig lung soup and steam buns to sister Fang. Mo Qianxue habitually glanced around the workshop to check the working situation when she saw a thin girl standing at the corner of the room, around twelve years old and looking sick and lost.
Seeing that Mo Qianxue was regarding the girl, sister Fang quickly came to explain that the girl was sister Guihua’s daughter, mentioned about Li Kaishi and then began to curse him.
It turned out that now sister Guahua worked every day at the tofu workshop and left Nizi, her daughter, alone at home, so the girl fell target of Li Kaishi who should go to their house and try to take advantage of her. But for the neighbors heard the noise, a tragedy would have happened.
Sister Fang cursed violently while sister Guahua became tearful. She pulled over Nizi and bowed to Mo Qianxue, “Mrs. Ning, I know that it’s not proper to take my child to work, but, but I really can’t rest assured to leave her alone at home.”
“Don’t worry, Nizi is a nice girl. She’ll help us with odds and ends. You don’t have to pay her, and the lunch can be deducted from my salary. Just please don’t drive her away, please.”
Mo Qianxue hurriedly held up sister Guihua and cursed in secrecy the damned Li Kaishi. The lame man should keep causing troubles here and there. What an asshole that he even wanted to take advantage of a physically immature girl!
It seemed that after this busy period, she must spare a moment and give him a good lecture. Besides, she didn’t forget the bitch called Fang Taoer and what she had done to her.
Though she was cursing Li Kaishi to herself, she began to appease sister Guihua, “How will I do that? Sister Guihua, what kind of people do you think I am?
How can it be possible that I hire a child labor and don’t pay her? Besides, making tofu requires physical strength. The girl is small and thin and sick. How can she do this?
What about…”
Sister Guihua mistook it that Mo Qianxue wasn’t willing to hire her duaghter, and as she was about to beg her again, sister Fang pulled her, secretly pinching her hand to calm her down. As far as sister Fang knew, Mo Qianxue was never a relentless person.
“What about letting Nizi stay here and make clothes for me?”
Mo Qianxue made the decision and asked the girl, “Nizi, can you do needlework?”
Recently the weather got colder. Her clothes were too thin to shield off cold, so a few days ago she had bought some cotton and cloth. She had asked aunt Wangsan to make her one piece of clothes, but the workmanship and style weren’t so good as what sister Guihua made.
She had planned to ask sister Guihua to help her, but recently she was really busy at the workshop, so Mo Qianxue didn’t speak it out.
“Yes, of course she can.” Sister Guihua answered for her daughter, “I can’t guarantee other things, but her needlework is all learnt from me. Don’t think that she is too young. Her needlework is even better than mine.”
Nizi lowered her head, looking uneasy, so sister Guihua explained, “The child is timid. Yesterday she was scared. Please don’t blame her.”
Autism? Mo Qianxue was reminded of the word.
“Damned Li Kaishi. That asshole!” Seeing Nizi, sister Fang’s couldn’t help cursing him again and then spoke for Nizi again, “The girl has a bitter life. Ever since her father died, she’s been timid and afraid of strangers…”
Alas. A poor child!
Mo Qianxue squatted down and put her hands around Nizi’s shoulders, “Nizi, are you willing to make some clothes for me?”
“Of course she is.” Sister Guihua answered for Nizi again.
Mo Qianxue frowned and regarded sister Guahua to stop her. She only looked intently at Nizi and repeated the question in a soft soothing voice.
Nizi should learn to take control of her own life because she couldn’t live under the protection of her mother forever.
“Nizi, you’re a nice good. I know you can do it.”
“Nizi, you have to know that you will encounter loads of difficulties in your life. If you give in to them, you can never overcome them. If you choose to leap over them, then they’ll become a mere condiment of your life…” The gentle words flew through Nizi’s heart like warm spring water. Nobody had ever told her this before.
In the encouraging and kind eyes of Mo Qianxue and expecting and begging eyes of her mother, Nizi finally summoned up courage, slightly lifting up her head, and said yes.
Merely by this faint yes, sister Guihua shed tears. From yesterday, Nizi even didn’t talk to her. Mrs. Ning was so excellent.
Indeed education made people different. As long as Nizi lived well, she was willing to do any kind of heavy labor, so now all she wanted was to do more work to repay Mo Qianxue.
When Mo Qianxue took Nizi back to this room, Juniang had already packed the lunch in a short time. Mo Qianxue left food in the kitchen, carefully telling Nizi a few things, and then went to the dock with Juniang in a hurry.
Juniang pushed out her cart and put two baskets of steamed buns and a large bucket of soup on it, leaving no work for Mo Qianxue to do.
This person was really a sincere and honest one. Ever since Mo Qianxue promised to let her be the chef of the restaurant, she became even more pious than sister Fang. She not only finished all the work before anyone else, but also treated her with respect as a real madam.
However, Mo Qianxue didn’t like this and insisted to give her a hand. Seeing her persistent attitude after a few rounds of refusal and the late hour, Juniang didn’t insist any more.
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