As soon as Mrs. Lin finished speaking, she realized she had misspoken. She reached out to slap her mouth and awkwardly smiled at everyone present. "I was joking, I didn’t know it was stabbed with a needle, I..."
The more Mrs. Lin tried to explain, the worse it got. Old Mrs. Mu threw down the bowl and chopsticks in her hand, stepped forward, grabbed the collar of Mrs. Lin’s clothes, and began to pull hard, simultaneously slapping her back.
"Second son’s wife, so it was your doing, you slly woman. How dare you use an embroidery needle to kill my chicken. Spit it out, spit it all out."
With a few presses and slaps, Old Mrs. Mu forced the chicken Mrs. Lin had just eaten out of her stomach before it reached her stomach.
"Ugh..." The fresh chicken soup and chicken at that Mrs. Lin vomited covered the floor of the room.
"Wretch, if you ever use such lowly tricks again, I’ll beat you to death. No dinner for you tonight."
Having punished Mrs. Lin, Old Mrs. Mu finally felt satisfied, and the anger in her heart subsided quite a bit.
But the others in the room couldn’t handle it, especially since it was al ti. Mu Xianxian and Mu Dade stood up in disgust, implying that they would skip this al.
The two of them looked at each other and decided it was more important to get down to business.
"Shuang, I heard you’ve been delivering sothing called cold noodles to the Jiu Si Xuan in town recently and made quite a bit of money. I heard that after the third branch moved out, you built a kitchen for the family, raised pigs, and bought cloth. Tell your aunt how you make that stuff."
Mu Xianxian’s words made Mu Shuangshuang’s heart skip a beat. She had been making cold noodles for quite so ti, and no one from the Old Mu Family had noticed.
Several tis, Mr. Mu saw her and Lu Yuanfeng pushing a wheelbarrow down the street, thinking they were just fetching so worthless wild goods from the mountains to sell in town. He never asked about it.
But now Mu Xianxian ca right up, so sure she had made money and wanted to know how it was done, she must have investigated. Could it be, she knew I delivered cold noodles today?
"Auntie, what are you talking about? Cold noodles are just for kids to play with, I’m just ssing around, how could it make money." Mu Shuangshuang laughed openly, with a hint of caution in her eyes.
"Oh, making eight or nine hundred copper coins at a ti is just child’s play now, is it? Since that’s the case, Shuang, teach , your fifth uncle, how it’s done, so I can earn nine hundred copper coins a trip too."
At this point, Mu Shuangshuang knew, it turns out the Old Mu Family invited them for dinner to ask for the recipe.
And they joined forces, it really is a trap like the Feast at Hongn.
Mu Shuangshuang glanced at Mu Dashan with the corner of her eye and saw him staring in shock at the people from the Old Mu Family. She finally felt relieved.
Her "Baozi" dad is good at everything, just that he values emotions too much—blood ties, kinship. If back then Mr. Mu and Old Mrs. Mu hadn’t gone too far with the division of family property, Mu Dashan probably would have given his heart to Mr. Mu and Old Mrs. Mu.
These days, she sensed her dad becoming more assertive, starting to protect their third branch.
People have to grow, grow little by little, better than standing still.
"Shuang, I’m not going to hold grudges about the past, you should hurry up and hand over the recipe to your aunt.
Then your aunt can start a cold noodle shop, maybe she’ll make a lot of money, and you might end up with so at for your third branch."
The onlooker laughed at that, holding the recipe in her own hands, earning nine hundred a ti, couldn’t they afford a piece of at?
"Grandma, are you joking? Can I casually give away a recipe? If I do, what will our third branch eat later? We can’t possibly survive on Northwest wind!"
Mu Shuangshuang questioned with a sneer.
Next to her, Mu Dashan’s face turned pale. When Old Mrs. Mu asked for the recipe, he suddenly felt he was a big joke.
He thought he could earn money now by making straw fans, and his parents would value him. Who knew it was still about draining the third branch’s blood.
"Shuang, your grandma didn’t an that. She just thinks you’re a little kid, with limited ability, delivering cold noodles, you can only go every three days.
If you don’t have a place to live or eat in town, if you give us the recipe, we can expand. You make nine hundred a day, in our hands, it could be nine taels, ninety taels..."
Mu Xianxian painted a grand future, making the Old Mu Family drool.
Nine taels of silver every day, that’s two hundred and seventy taels a month. Who knows if they could see that much silver in a lifeti, but now it could be seen in a month.
So everyone looked at Mu Shuangshuang with greedy eyes.
"Shuang, we’re blood brothers with your third brother, even broken bones are connected. Fifth uncle hasn’t married yet, if you hand over the recipe, when your aunt makes money, she’ll find a wife, and you’ll gain a fifth aunt."
Mu Danian looked at Mu Shuangshuang earnestly, with a sincere expression.
The others nodded in agreent.
Beside him, Mu Dashan was shaking, thinking how foolish he was to believe his mother and father would invite him to dinner. They never valued him.
How muddle-headed he was...
The more Mu Shuangshuang listened, the more amusing she found it. She’s seen plenty of shaless people, but it’s the first ti she’s seen such shaless motives expressed this way.
The Old Mu Family saw Mu Shuangshuang remaining silent and continued. "Shuang, we were wrong before, we shouldn’t have called you a slly girl. Look at you now, not only are you not slly, but you’re also skillful. If you hand over the recipe, we’ll..."
"Do you really think I’m a fool? If the recipe goes out, what else is there for ? Would the third branch even have any food left?" Mu Shuangshuang coldly glanced at everyone present, making it clear that she was not cooperating, not going along with it.
"You... you stubborn girl, I talked nicely, but you refuse, and now you dare to put on airs with .
You think your third branch making a bit of silver is great, don’t forget, your father ca from my womb. If you don’t agree, he will, and then old granny, let’s see your swagger."
Old Mrs. Mu spat on the ground, glaring fiercely at Mu Shuangshuang.
"Old three, you big man, why are you hiding like a turtle? Say it, will you let your daughter hand over the recipe today, or you’re no son of mine."
Old Mrs. Mu’s final weapon spewed out, leaving Mu Dashan defenseless and nearly collapsing, his chopsticks falling to the ground and rolling far away.
After a long while, Mu Dashan took a deep breath and finally spoke.
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