The daily life of a concubine's daughter

The brothers were worried about him, but they all breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, they didn't have to eat the porridge. They spit out the porridge they couldn't swallow and asked him, "Is the injury serious?"

Shi Mingchen's head was buzzing, and tears welled up in his eyes. Afraid of being laughed at, he wiped his tears hastily and said vaguely:

"It's just that the stone rubbed my tongue."

Shi Yao picked up the porridge with her chopsticks, slowly took out a stone from the porridge, and immediately said excitedly in a tone of having won a prize:

"Oh, there are quite a few stones! There are some in my bowl too. Stop eating, sister-in-law, and check your bowl to see if there are any."

Tao Ziyi didn't eat a single bite and was hesitating whether to eat it or not. Hearing this, she stirred it and picked out three stones: "..."

She looked at the Shi brothers with sympathy.

At this moment, she and Shi Yao were standing together, and she treated her daughter-in-law as an outsider.

In this way, all the embarrassment can be pushed onto the six brothers of the Shi family.

Shi Mingzhen's face changed. He called Bai Di to check all the porridge, and then called on the guards to check the porridge pot outside.

Sure enough, a lot of stones were picked out.

The Shi brothers had no time to care about Shi Mingchen. They all felt ashamed in front of Shi Yao, so they asked the guards to stop distributing porridge and arrested the servants and staff of the porridge shop for severe interrogation.

Nowadays, people in the capital secretly call the Shi brothers "living devils". The servants are afraid of being beaten to death on the spot, so they all talk at once and give out the person in charge.

It turned out that the woman who scooped the porridge was a man called Zhou Gui, who was the manager of the porridge shop. The couple had been serving porridge for three years.

At first he was diligent and down-to-earth, but later he became sly and cunning, cutting corners, and the porridge became thinner and thinner, and all the money he earned went into his own pocket.

Once, the Shi family's chief steward came to inspect by chance, and the poor people who were queuing for porridge secretly complained.

Zhou Gui and his wife were reprimanded and had their monthly salary deducted, so they bore a grudge and hated these ungrateful and untouchable people.

They no longer cut corners, but instead added stones, sand and spit into the porridge. Sometimes they would even use moldy rice to cook the porridge.

It is good enough for the poor to have something to eat, and since they have no way to complain, they can only endure it.

Shi Mingzhen asked someone to inquire about the matter, and sure enough, Shi's porridge shop had a very bad reputation in this area because of the large amount of stones and sand. It was only because the porridge was cooked thick that its reputation did not rank last.

Isn't this just a bad apple falling into the pot and spoiling the whole pot of porridge?

Pebbles and sand are rat droppings, and Zhou Gui and his wife are also rat droppings.

He had originally done good deeds and accumulated virtue, but ended up with a bad reputation. The Shi brothers were very angry, and they were even more angry that they could not hold their heads up in front of Shi Yao.

Shi Mingzhen immediately sent someone to bring Zhou Gui and his wife back home, and left two servants to preside over the porridge distribution today, and would send a new manager tomorrow.

He hinted Shi Yao to go back home again: "You have encountered such a bad thing and have disturbed my second sister's interest. I will apologize to my second sister again. But I am afraid that it will affect my second sister's reputation. It is better to go back home early. There is a long time to come. If the weather is good another day, I will accompany my second sister to play outside the house."

Shi Yao rubbed her stomach and said, "I'm hungry. Let's eat first before going back home. Third sister-in-law, what famous restaurants are there in the capital? Let's go right away."

Shi Mingzhen kept winking.

Tao Ziyi herself is a person who loves to go out and play, and it was not easy for her to go out.

Since Shi Yao was willing to take the blame, she didn't hesitate. She pretended not to notice that Shi Mingzhen's eyes were about to cramp, and happily recited the signature dishes of three or four restaurants:

"The beggar's chicken at Jixiang Pavilion is very famous, and the Jiangnan cuisine at Tianxiang Pavilion is also good. You will definitely be used to it. If you want to taste some Beijing specialties, then go to Jufeng Pavilion. There are marinated duck, mutton pot, roasted sea cucumber, and the Eight Delicacies of Beijing..."

Tao Ziyi counted on her fingers until she was almost drooling.

Shi Yao's eyes lit up and she nodded repeatedly: "It sounds delicious, we should all try it."

Shi Mingzhen looked at his brothers, hoping they would help to persuade them, but, except for the miserable Shi Mingwei and Shi Mingchen, the younger brothers all stared at him eagerly, with greedy looks on their faces.

Shi Mingzhen sighed: "Go ahead, go ahead. Where do you want to go, second sister?"

Shi Yao licked her lips and said, "I want to go to all of them, but since I'm in Beijing and it's my first time going out, I want to try Beijing specialties, so let's go to Jufeng Pavilion. What do you think, brothers?"

Everyone nodded vigorously.

Shi Yao asked with concern: "Second brother, Seventh brother, are you two okay? Can you go? If you can't go, let Third brother take you back first."

The two didn't want to go anywhere, they just wanted to go home to find their mother, but the old master had said that unless Shi Yao came back, they were not allowed to go back either, so they could only grit their teeth and hold on:

"What man can't do? Okay, go!"

So, a group of people went to Jufeng Pavilion in a mighty manner.

When we got off the bus at our destination, Shi Mingchen limped over and asked with a cold face, "Shi Yao, did you know there were stones in the porridge and deliberately trick me?"

Shi Yao put down her hands, raised her eyebrows, and looked like she was going to keep pestering him: "Seventh Brother, what did you call me just now? I didn't hear it clearly."

Shi Mingchen's face froze, fearing that Shi Yao would punish him by calling him sister twenty times. He swallowed his anger and spoke clearly, "Second sister, sister!"

"That's more like it," Shi Yao laughed and spread her hands, "How should I know? I'm not a god who can predict the future. I just wanted you to try first to see if you can swallow it, but you found a stone in it."

"You're still being stubborn! Didn't you ask Muxiang to go out and scoop out the porridge, stirring the porridge at the bottom of the pot on purpose and scooping out the stones?" Shi Mingchen glared at him, and the wound on his tongue began to hurt again.

"When we entered the room, everyone looked at the porridge in the pot. It's okay. I don't have X-ray vision, so it's okay for me to see it. Then Muxiang went out to scoop porridge. When she came in, did she talk to me alone? You all stared at me like a thief. If she reported it to me, would you still eat the porridge?"

Shi Mingchen was speechless, his face turned terribly dark.

Shi Yao patted his shoulder and said, "Seventh Brother, you are a man. A man should have a broad mind and look out to the vast sky and sea, instead of haggling over a few small stones, let alone haggling over a little girl like me."

Shi Mingchen: “…”

Shi Mingkui dragged him away and whispered, "Don't provoke her again. You can't win. If you continue to fight, you will suffer."

"..."

How could Shi Mingchen eat? He was so angry.

Shi Yao and Tao Ziyi were having a very happy meal.

After lunch, Aunt Liu Hua came and bowed, saying, "I have completed what the young lady asked. It has been cold recently, and many people have gone to the pawnshop to pawn their old coats. I spent more than fifty taels to get one, and the remaining forty or so taels were used to buy a new coat, and some firewood. Everything has been handled properly."

"Aunt has worked hard." Shi Yao explained, "I had planned to stay at the porridge shop for a while, but something happened and I came to Jufeng Pavilion first. I had to leave Sister Muxiang to wait for Aunt. Aunt hasn't eaten yet, right? I ordered some fresh dishes for Aunt. You and Sister Muxiang can go to the next door to eat, and we will leave after you finish eating."