Jubo : Text 012. Break the Shop

Author: Yin Ya

Translator: tend0u, Renkun27

Proofreader: Lonelycauliflower

The west side was covered by rosy clouds and the sun was quickly setting.

Wang Cheng originally planned to personally cook dinner for his family, but it turned out that there were no eggs in the fridge, so he went in the chicken shed to look for eggs. He looked through a few corners before finding four or five eggs. When he walked out, he ran into his younger sister.

Wang Ziyu was crying while running back home. The two of them ran into each other at the front door, which made Wang Cheng surprised. His younger sister rarely cried. If she cried, there was definitely a big problem to have caused her to cry. Only after asking did he find out that Aunt Zhang was involved.

Uncle Zhang, who was a relatively good man, had to go to the vegetable market for more than half of the day to pick fresh vegetables and meat for the next day and come back to make baozi. Therefore, most of the time, the steamed stuffed buns shop was watched over by Aunt Zhang. This Aunt Zhang was a very petty person. If she felt something was not right, she would make things up.

From how Wang Cheng referred her to, Aunt Zhang was similar to his eldest aunt and second aunt. Apart from being talkative, this person also loved to flaunt herself.

The Zhangs’ steamed stuffed buns shop was located in the Shiquan County’s Marketplace. Shiquan County was the scope of Hua Ying Real Estate lands for acquisition, so when the time would come, they would also need to move away; however, Aunt Zhang opened her steamed stuffed buns shop at home and their business was good. She owned two houses in Shiquan County, too; therefore, the amount of funds that could be obtained was more than what her brother-in-law received.

If it was not because they live in different villages, Wang Cheng might be afraid seeing Aunt Zhang showing off every day.

Wang Cheng remembered that his second aunt once sourly made a few remarks about Aunt Zhang’s family making a fortune. His second aunt’s Zhang clan had the same hometown as Aunt Zhang’s family. This time, the Zhangs’ Village was also acquired by Hua Ying Real Estate. The number of times that Aunt Zhang’s family and her family have contacted increased. It was not surprising to know Aunt Zhang’s family situation.

After the acquisition, Aunt Zhang‘s family became one of the wealthiest families in the Zhangs’ Village. Now, they were showing off to everyone and they were starting to become like Wang Cheng’s eldest aunt and second aunt. They thought that others were no better than their own family, especially those who have been trampled under their feet or given alms, like Wang Cheng’s family. It was like adding new grudges on top of old. Because of that, Aunt Zhang picking on Wang Ziyu intensified.

Wang Ziyu went to work early this morning. The steamed stuffed buns shop would usually begin steaming the baozis around 6 o’clock. Because people in rural areas get up earlier, they would start selling the baozis as early as half past six. The time of her arrival was just right; however, Aunt Zhang accused her of coming too late today, saying that at this time, everyone had already gone to work and most of them had already eaten.

Wang Ziyu put up with it, but Aunt Zhang began to nitpick on her fault, asking why her sweeping was not clean.

She could even tell a bold-faced lie. Since Aunt Zhang did not give her face, Wang Ziyu did not intend to aggrieve herself. When she was about to leave work, she made a decision to quit her job and asked for her seven days’ wages.

Aunt Zhang refused, saying that they originally had an agreement that Wang Ziyu’s work was good for two months, but Wang Ziyu suddenly did not want to work anymore. Where could she find another employee? Wang Ziyu violated their original agreement. Therefore, she refused to give Wang Ziyu her wages. She even loudly discredited Wang Ziyu, saying that she was usually lazy and did not work, stole their family’s steamed stuffed buns, did not have clean hands, and so on.

Wang Ziyu was anxious, and her eyes were getting red.

Although an acquaintance nearby knew that Aunt Zhang was talking nonsense, people who did not know her would believe it. A good girl was defamed like this. If it was not resolved, it would certainly have an indelible influence on her reputation.

Some people criticized that Aunt Zhang should not treat a little girl this way; furthermore, she was still an acquaintance. However, those people were verbally abused by Aunt Zhang with a few words, so they left while shaking their head.

Wang Ziyu refuted a few words, but there was no end of Aunt Zhang‘s agile glib talk. Just like a slap to her face, Aunt Zhang uttered every words like a firecracker. This feeling of being wronged could cause somebody to run back to their home.

When Wang Cheng caught sight of his little sister feeling wronged, after listening to her whole story, he did not wait for Papa Wang and Mama Wang to come back anymore. Apart from anything else, he just took Wang Ziyu and went to the Zhangs’ steamed stuffed buns shop.

The Zhangs’ steamed stuffed buns shop has not closed yet, but Aunt Zhang, who was able to save two to three hundred yuan, was in a good mood. She hummed songs, prepared to wait for her husband to come back, and closed the door. She did not notice that Wang Cheng had already entered the baozi shop, until she was shocked by a loud noise coming from behind her. When she turned around, she almost screamed out loud out of fear.

When Wang Cheng came in, he grabbed the chair on top of the table and ruthlessly smashed it on the floor. One leg of the chair broke immediately. However, he did not stop just yet. He lifted the table up and threw it over so it broke. Finally, Aunt Zhang started to scream.

“Wang Cheng, stop it!”

How could Wang Cheng listen to her? Then he smashed another chair and looked at Aunt Zhang. His eyes were cold: “Don’t think that just because you’re an elder, you could just talk nonsense and dare to discredit my sister. Even if Uncle Zhang is here, I would still break it like before. If you won’t apologize to my sister now, I won’t let this slide!”

“Well, Wang Cheng, how can I discredit your Little Sister? What I said was the fact. Your Little Sister’s hands aren’t clean. I just said what I wanted to say. How could you make it difficult for me?” Aunt Zhang was so angry; her face was livid. She never thought that Wang Cheng would turn out to be a hard one, but she was not the kind of person who would flinch and retreat just because she was frightened by him.

“Today, I will take your shop down. You’ll see how I’ll make it difficult for you.” After Wang Cheng stopped talking, he then started to go to work. He walked over to the table nearest to Aunt Zhang and by just one kick, it flew a distance. He did not know how much strength he used, but even if it seemed to be a very sturdy table, it still crashed into the wall and fell apart.

When Aunt Zhang saw this scene, she got scared and was retreated to the corner. If this kick was made to her body, she was afraid that if she didn’t die, she would lose half of her life. In her heart, she finally regretted it a bit. If she had known that Wang Cheng would turn into a madman, she would not have provoked him.

In fact, Wang Cheng could also have used a slightly gentler approach, but thinking about his Little Sister’s reputation being tainted by other people, he was so angry that he wanted to give Aunt Zhang a little color. Otherwise, they would think that his family could be easily bullied.

The doorway had long gathered a crowd of people watching lively.

Some people thought that Aunt Zhang deserved it. Whoever told her to have a sharp tongue? If she would put herself in somebody else’s shoes, and if it was her daughter who was the one who got discredited like that, she would get back at that person at all cost. However, some people thought that Wang Cheng was too ruthless. This was only one incident, but this incident made more than hundreds in loss.

“What happened?” Uncle Zhang found out that his own steamed stuffed buns shop’s doorway was surrounded by a lot of people. From outside, he had difficulties squeezing in. When he saw the situation in the shop, he was suddenly dumbfounded.

 

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