Mrs. Mei's Survival Diary - Chapter 26

Chapter 26 – Their Affairs

“Is your wife named Yue Niang?”

As soon as she asked that question, the ghost suddenly vanished.

Rong Yinshuang secretly pinched her fingers and began to chant a spell. Sure enough, after a brief silence, the ghostly face lunged at her with a piercing scream. 

She casually waved her hand when the ghost face was about to collide with her. A swirling golden light barrier emerged in front of her, causing the ghostly face to crash into it. After the ghost face struck once, it completely evaporated like mist, only to reappear nearby. It seemed determined and continued to charge forward.

In a critical moment, Rong Yinshuang sighed and remarked, “Do you still wish to linger here? Do you still want to see your wife suffer outside?”

The ghostly figure that was rushing towards her halted abruptly, hovering just outside Rong Yinshuang’s golden light barrier. It lingered for a while before transforming into smoke. After swirling around the yard a few times, it gradually took shape.

“I regret what I did to her, I regret it…”

Seeing that he had calmed down, Rong Yinshuang lowered the barrier and heard his hollow voice echoing in the yard.

“I shouldn’t have gone gambling. I shouldn’t have lost all the family’s money. I shouldn’t have been so desperate that I used her as a wager. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have let her endure that suffering, I shouldn’t!”

Rong Yinshuang inhaled deeply, beginning to grasp his story a bit better.  “You shouldn’t have acted that way, but you did. She is now in Zui Xiang Lou, living a life worse than death.”

Upon hearing that, the ghost let out a sudden scream, filled with all the bitterness from his life and death. 

It was so piercing that Rong Yinshuang nearly covered her ears.

“I know! I caused her harm… I caused her harm!”

Rong Yinshuang didn’t stop him; she let him express his feelings. Then she asked, “How long have you been dead?”

“Almost three years.”

Rong Yinshuang replied, “After three years, if you don’t move on, do you realize what will happen?”

The ghost hesitated before responding, “I’ll be reduced to ashes, I know.”

“You don’t seem like a vengeful spirit. Is your reason for lingering here just regret? Is there something you want to tell your wife?”

“…”

The ghost turned around a couple of times before speaking to Rong Yinshuang. “She and I were childhood sweethearts from Zhaoxiang. Ten years ago, a plague hit my hometown, and many lives were lost. Everyone in both our families perished. I took her to the capital. People from Zhaoxiang have been making dim sum for generations, so we found this teahouse to settle in and got married. But our happiness was short-lived. I should have never gotten into gambling. In those six months, I lost all my family’s money and racked up huge debts. The more I lost, the more I wanted to win. They took a liking to Yue Niang and proposed that I gamble with her; they said if I won, all my debts would be cleared, but if I lost, they would sell Yue Niang to them. I was so caught up in it that I agreed.”

Rong Yinshuang listened to his regretful tale. “After you failed, she was sold to Zui Xiang Lou?”  

There was another wave of regret, but the ghost seemed to suddenly remember something and said to Rong Yinshuang, “No, no, later I snatched her indenture contract and hid it. That’s why those people came to my house to kill me. I hid the indenture contract under the long table in the main hall. I broke off a brick and put it underneath. I didn’t sell her in the end. No!”

Rong Yinshuang stood up unexpectedly, and according to his instructions, she found the indenture contract he mentioned under the dusty long table in the main hall. The contract was carefully tied with oil paper, and until today it has not been stained by moisture and is very clear.

“It’s this indenture contract. I regretted it after I signed it, so I tried my best to get it back. Before I could tell Yue Niang, those casino scum chased me home and killed me. Can you give this indenture contract to Yue Niang for me?”

Looking at the contract in his hand, Rong Yinshuang sighed and said, “What a coincidence, fate plays tricks on people… After you died, those people took Yue Niang back even though they didn’t have the indenture contract you signed. Yue Niang didn’t know you hid the indenture contract, so she had to commit herself to Zui Xiang Lou. I saw her once in the daytime. There was a moon birthmark on the back of her neck. It was very obvious, right?”

The ghost kept nodding, saying, “Yes, yes, when Yue Niang was born, her parents named her Yue Niang because they noticed the moon birthmark on the back of her neck. Did you actually see her? Is she… is she alright? Does she still have feelings of hatred towards me?”

Rong Yinshuang carefully folded Yue Niang’s indenture contract, tucked it into her lapel, and replied to him, “I can’t say for sure if she hates you or not, but she does have a significant scar on her face. I’m not sure what happened. Right now, she’s doing odd jobs and collecting slops in the backyard of Zui Xiang Lou.”

“…”

The piercing cry echoed again. Noticing that he was once more engulfed in his sorrow and rage, Rong Yinshuang decided to stop talking to him. She opened the gate,  stepped outside, and just closed the gate behind her without locking it.

Even though that ghost looked terrifying, it was just in the form it had before dying. It was not a vengeful spirit and won’t cling to people to create chaos. He was merely a lonely soul left behind due to his own actions.

After getting back to the teahouse, Manager Li had just bought some pastries and said to Rong Yinshuang, “Boss, the pastries at Tianxin Pavilion are way too pricey. Fifty taels only gets you eighty kilograms. I had to haggle with the manager for quite a while before he agreed to give me two extra kilograms.”

Rong Yinshuang glanced at the two carts filled with cakes, then turned to Manager Li and asked, “How many pastries do you think our teahouse can sell in a day?”

Manager Li took a moment to think and then replied honestly, “People who come for tea know that Master Zhang and Master Wang’s skills aren’t that great, so usually, regulars don’t order pastries. Only a few new customers do. The last couple of months, the average new customers only ate about twenty plates a day, and each plate weighs around half a kilogram.”

“…”

Rong Yinshuang looked at the two carts filled with pastries and sighed helplessly. “The maximum we can sell in a day is twenty plates, which means we can only sell a little over ten kilograms.”

Manager Li counted on his fingers and confirmed, “Yes.”

“So… why did you buy so many?”

“…” Manager Li was taken aback and replied in surprise, “Boss, didn’t you tell me to buy pastries worth fifty taels?”

Rong Yinshuang was momentarily speechless by his straightforwardness. Yes, she did give him fifty taels and asked him to get pastries. But she only meant for him to buy pastries, not to spend all fifty taels. 

Manager Li was managing the teahouse for quite a while; he should have a good grasp of the teahouse’s sales. Normally, over 10 kilograms of pastries would be sold daily, yet he bought 80 kilograms all at once. These pastries weren’t like other items; they would go stale by tomorrow. 

‘This Manager Li really… isn’t the best at business. Even these issues that I, someone who knows nothing about business, can figure out, he can’t seem to grasp. He just follows others’ advice blindly like a nerd, lacking innovation and ideas, and sticking to the same old methods.’

Manager Li saw that Rong Yinshuang stopped talking halfway, so he came up to ask, “Boss, what should we do with the extra pastries? They won’t be fresh tomorrow.”

“…”

Rong Yinshuang gazed at his sincere expression and found it hard to feel angry. After a deep breath and a heavy exhale, she spoke with a hint of resignation, “Save the priciest pastries for new customers. For now, the prices will stay the same as they were before. Give the rest away for free to our regulars.”

Manager Li stammered, “Wait, no money?”

Rong Yinshuang confirmed with a nod. “Exactly, just give them out and let them know that the new manager is treating them as a thank-you gift during the transition from the old to the new manager.”

Manager Li suddenly got it. “Oh… the manager’s cleverness and kindness. I understand now. I’ll take care of it right away.”

With that, Manager Li called out to everyone to come and help with the pastries. 

Meanwhile, Rong Yinshuang stood to the side, grabbing two bags of jujube and yam cakes. As she watched the pastries being taken to the kitchen, she felt like money was slipping through her fingers like water. She reassured herself that doing a good deed would help build a good reputation.

With a sigh, Rong Yinshuang called for the eldest and the youngest. The two had been having a blast in the private room, completely drenched in sweat. She wiped their foreheads and handed them each a bag of cakes, reminding them not to be too rowdy. The kids took the cakes and dashed off, beaming with joy.

Rong Yinshuang and the others brought the pastries into the back kitchen. At noon, they casually shared a meal with everyone. It was Manager Li himself who cooked the food in the kitchen. While it might not have been as tasty as what you’d find at a restaurant, it had that special home-cooked flavour.

As they ate, they chatted with everyone. When the conversation turned to the couple in the backyard, several waiters who had been around for years still remembered them, and they started discussing it excitedly.

“Brother Aqiang met a tragic end. Those grandsons at Xingyi Casino are just heartless. They not only beat him to death but also gouged out one of his eyes.”

“Hey, wasn’t his wife taken away by those grandsons? They didn’t even let her take care of Brother Aqiang’s funeral. I heard she was sold to a brothel.”

“Really? Is Aqiang’s wife pretty?”

“She’s really beautiful. Let me tell you…”

Rong Yinshuang shook her head in disbelief, touching the items in the secret pocket of her collar. After she quickly ate a couple of bites, she said a few words to Manager Li and hurried off to Zui Xiang Lou.

In the afternoon, Zui Xiang Lou started to show some activity, but the door was still closed. Rong Yinshuang decided to go around to the back door, which was slightly open. Unlike in the morning, she was more cautious this time.

She knocked on the door, and after a while, someone came out and asked, “Who is it?”

End of chapter 26

Have a nice day!