Chapter 67: CH 67

The day Cao Zhang left the village was a market day. They travelled to the north, entering the market along the way.

The carriage stopped. Cao Zhang got off and went to Shunlai Restaurant, then turned to Mo Yan and Mo Ling’s stall.

“Yan’er, give me a few wraps for the road.”

Mo Yan added some firewood to the stove, then straightened up and said, “The way to the metropolis isn’t barren, and there’s plenty of places to get food from. Why are you buying wraps from us here?”

Mrs. Cao’s voice sounded, “Zhang’er, we have sufficient food, why are you buying this?”

Mo Yan saw a bejewelled Mrs. Cao inside a carriage, her head peeking out with a slight smile on her face towards Shunlai Restaurant.

A person came out from the restaurant. It was Mr. Tian, in clean clothes and wearing a backpack, looking like he was the one about to take the imperial examination instead. He was standing by the side of the road, and locked eyes with Mo Ling. Flustered, he didn’t know what to do. Mrs. Cao said from the carriage, “Sir, please get in!”

Mr. Tian got on the carriage, but Cao Zhang still refused to go, “Then, give me a wrap and some salted eggs. I won’t be able to have these in the metropolis.”

Mo Ling quickly made the wrap for him. When he tried to take out money, she shook her head, “There’s no need. We’ve received a lot of help from Mr. and Mrs. Cao in the past.” After saying that, she put four salted eggs in a paper bag, and handed it all to Cao Zhang.

Mo Yan said, “Take this!”

Cao Zhang had just accepted the food when Mrs. Cao told him to hurry up, and he had no choice but to return. When he got on the carriage, he said to Mo Yan, “I’ll return after taking my imperial examination.”

Mo Yan waved towards the carriage. Daqiang whipped the horses, and it quickly went out of sight.

Mo Ling said, “Mr. Cao will be the only one in the Cao family from now on.”

“He still has Ms. Li to cook for him, and Daqiang to work the fields.”

The two of them were working when someone called them. They looked up and saw a woman in rags, holding a boy who stood in front of their stall.

Mo Ling asked, “Would you like to buy anything?”

The woman kept smiling, while the boy asked fearfully, “Do…do you want to rent a storefront? It’ll be cold soon, and having one will help with business.”

Someone had clearly taught him to say this, and Mo Yan and Mo Ling looked at the woman, who smiled bitterly, “My storefront’s small, so the rent won’t be high, and it’ll be freezing cold where you’re currently located once winter arrives.”

“Who told you we wanted to rent a storefront?” Mo Yan asked.

The woman subconsciously glanced towards Mr. Cao’s clinic, “No one in particular. We thought you’d want to rent one, since you have a business document and are clearly planning on doing business long-term.”

The two had never been to here, so why would they know they had a business document?

Mo Yan asked, “Where is your storefront?”

The woman replied hurriedly, “It’s just next to Mr. Cao’s clinic.”

Recently, they had seen a new storefront next to Mr. Cao’s clinic. Turns out it was that one.

Mo Yan replied, “We’ll consider it at home and give you a reply tomorrow.”

She immediately smiled and bowed deeply, “Alright. We live behind that store, so you can go find us when you make a decision.”

She led her son away, and the two immediately started discussing the pros and cons. They’d be unable to continue doing business during winter and would have to find another way. Renting a storefront was a good solution, although Mrs. Liang would definitely object. But most importantly, they wanted to know the situation of the storefront.

Mo Ling said, “She doesn’t have a say in the matter. We’ll go see if the storefront is suitable for renting later on.”

“Sure. If we decide to rent a storefront, we can sell food other than wraps. Then, our business will be really good.”

At noon, the sisters went to check out the storefront after they closed up for the day. It was a square building, roughly two metres in all three dimensions.

Seeing them outside the storefront, Shopkeeper Ho, the food vendor next door, asked, “Are you two planning on renting that storefront?”

Mo Ling nodded, and Shopkeeper Ho said, “Don’t you see the alleyway this storefront’s blocking? It’ll be taken down any day now!”

This storefront will be taken down any day? So the mother and son duo who offered to rent the storefront to us were tricking us? They didn’t seem that malicious!

Mo Yan looked towards the clinic. Mr. Cao was working, so they’d wait until tonight to ask him about the storefront’s situation back at the village.

As they had decided Cao Zhang would come over and reclaim farmland for them tomorrow, Mrs. Liang told Mo Ling to buy some meat. He’d have to eat well to be able to do such hard work.

So they went to the meat vendor, buying a kilogram of pork, a kilogram of pork oil, and half a kilogram of pork skin.

It was already nearing the afternoon, and there weren’t many people in the market, so Mo Ling decided to go to the vegetable market and see if there were any cheap vegetables.

Most of the vegetable vendors had already closed for the day, and there was a large pile of vegetable leaves on the floor. There was a woman and a boy picking up the vegetable leaves from the pile. Aren’t those the two who tried to rent us a storefront?

They saw the two pick up vegetable leaves and put them in a basket, which was nearly full already. If they picked up vegetable leaves from here often, it was no wonder they looked so dirty.

While collecting, the woman said, “Zhao’er, work faster, the street cleaners will be here soon.”

Mo Yan stood there and watched for a while. The boy saw her and turned to call his mother, “Mum, it’s the two big sisters.”

The woman stopped picking up the vegetable leaves and stood up while saying, “It feels wrong to throw all these away, so we’re taking some to feed our rabbits and sheep.”

Mo Yan gave the remaining wrap they hadn’t sold to the boy. Looking at the two, they rarely got a chance to eat white flour. He looked at the wrap, then turned to his mother, who said, “Have it!”

She nodded towards her son, who rubbed his dirty hands on his clothes before taking the wrap and having a bite, “Mum, this wrap is really delicious!”

The woman looked at her ravenous son with tears in her eyes, “My son, why do you have to suffer alongside me!”

The boy saw his mother being sorrowful and stopped eating to comfort her, “Mum, don’t be sad. When I grow up in a few years, I’ll be able to make money to support you.” He handed the wrap over to her, “Mum, you have some too.”

She pushed the wrap back towards him, “Zhao’er, you should have it. You’ll only be able to grow strong and healthy if you eat enough.”

Seeing the two acting like this because of a wrap would tug on anyone’s heartstrings, and Mo Yan said, “We’ve decided to rent your storefront. How much does it cost?”

The woman replied, “It really isn’t expensive, just a thousand dollars per month.”

The boy smiled at his mother, “Mr. Cao really was right.”

So it turns out Mr. Cao was the one who told them to find the two. This storefront wasn’t going to be taken down any day like Shopkeeper Ho said.

Post-edit notes: If I had a tael for each time the Mo sisters thought someone innocent was tricking them, I’d have two taels. Which isn’t that much, but it’s weird it happened twice.