Chapter 362
The two kids gritted their teeth in childish anger.
Zhou Yueshen bought some groceries on his way home. As soon as he entered the house, he paused, seeing his son wiping away tears.
"What's wrong?"
Zhou Zehan wiped his tears and asked, "Dad, is our family going bankrupt?"
Zhou Yueshen was stunned. He frowned immediately, "Who said that?"
Zhou Zehan said miserably, "Many people are saying it. They say no one is buying our pork anymore, that our pork is dirty and comes from sick pigs. Dad, do we have to go back to Xingfu Village?"
Although he would be happy to go back to Xingfu Village, he couldn't bear to leave his friends.
Plus, there was so much good food in the city, and he hadn't tried it all yet.
Seeing Zhou Yueshen frown, he hurriedly explained, "Dad, I don't mean I'd despise you for going bankrupt. Don't worry, even if you go bankrupt, I will still call you Dad."
Zhou Yueshen didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and he pinched the boy's little face with his large hand.
Zhou Zehan smiled at him, then said conflictedly, "It's just that Mom still has to teach. If Mom doesn't go back, I can only choose Mom. When the time comes, can you please not force me to go with you?"
Zhou Yueshen: "..."
He was touched for nothing.
Beside them, Zhou Zedong, who was reading a book, couldn't help but roll his eyes at his younger brother.
What a fool.
He retracted his gaze and continued reading, but his mind unconsciously dwelled on what his brother had said.
Just then, Zhou Yueshen's interest was piqued. He turned his head to look at him: "What about Xiaodong? Will you go with Dad or Mom?"
Xiaodong was usually sensible. He was genuinely curious—if he returned to the village, would this child follow him or his mother?
Zhou Yueshen had always believed his eldest son to be a very rational and sensible person.
Zhou Zedong froze for a moment and instinctively replied, "Mom."
After saying that, even he was stunned. His little face quickly flushed red, and he hurriedly looked away, not daring to meet Zhou Yueshen's eyes. He had been very grateful to Zhou Yueshen since he was young, knowing it was Zhou Yueshen who had saved their three siblings from a living hell.
Even though Zhou Yueshen didn't know how to take care of them in the past, Zhou Zedong never blamed him.
Later, he even brought them back a wonderful mother.
He felt very happy now, but if he had to choose... rationally, he should go with his dad, but his body acted on its own.
Zhou Zedong thought hard and finally came up with a good solution. "Dad, don't worry. If you can't make money anymore, I will. In the future, I'll send money back home for you to spend. My brother and I will also... will also go back to Xingfu Village to visit you during the holidays."
Second Child hurriedly chimed in, "Yes, we will go see you."
Look at that, he even used the respectful 'you'.
Zhou Yueshen was both annoyed and amused.
Si Nian walked out holding a plate. Hearing Zhou Yueshen's low chuckle, she asked, "What are you three talking about? You seem so happy."
Zhou Yueshen didn't interact much with the children, and it was Si Nian's first time seeing him so cheerful.
Zhou Zedong's little face turned red, and he didn't dare to speak.
Zhou Zehan, however, didn't think much of it. When Si Nian asked, he answered directly, "Dad asked me and my brother whether we would go with him or Mom if he went bankrupt."
Zhou Yueshen: "?"
Was he the one who asked that question?
Hearing this, Si Nian immediately laughed, "You're so bored that you're asking questions like this."
Zhou Yueshen felt like he had been thrown under the bus by his son. He rubbed his nose resentfully. "I was just teasing them. I heard there are rumors outside lately that our family is going bankrupt."
Still smiling, Si Nian began applying cucumber slices from the plate onto her face, under the bewildered gazes of the father and sons.
Second Child: "?" Aren't those pickled cucumbers?
Why is Mom putting them on her face?
Meeting the dumbfounded stares of the one adult and two children, Si Nian coughed, "This is my homemade cucumber face mask. It's cheap, comes in a big portion, and works well. My skin has been feeling a bit dry lately."
"By the way, who just said our family is going bankrupt?"
Second Child hurriedly raised his hand and said, "It was Little Pig and his friends. They even sang a song to make fun of us, saying something like the Zhou family is going bankrupt, the oldest will cry, the second will farm, the third will pick up trash, and Jiang Jiu will be bullied... I'm so mad!" He slammed his fist onto the sofa.
Si Nian said, "Oh, them?"
When passing by over the past few days, she had indeed noticed those people pointing at her and gossiping.
From time to time, they would cast gloating glances her way.
But she hadn't thought much of it.
Now, she could roughly guess the reason.
Zhou Yueshen hadn't interacted with the people in the neighborhood. Hearing his son say this, his smile faded, and his expression turned cold.
"The people from the tenement building over there?"
Si Nian nodded, "Yes, the people from the tenement building. Xiaohan had some conflicts with the kids there before. The parents of those kids were greedy for a bargain and bought meat from sick pigs. When their kids got sick, they blamed it on us."
"Now the authorities have issued a regulation, and people are no longer buying meat from outside stalls. Everyone goes to buy the pork that has been inspected by the supply and marketing cooperative. So they probably think our meat won't sell and we're going bankrupt."
Zhou Yueshen knew about the tenement building not far from their home; his second son used to love running over there to play.
He had thought they got along quite well.
He never expected this to be the case.
No wonder the boy was wiping away tears of grievance.
Although he said he wanted to stay with his mom, if something really happened, the children surely wouldn't want to be separated from their parents.
Zhou Yueshen lowered his eyes, concealing the coldness within them.
"Since they despise us, they won't get to eat our meat from now on."
Si Nian tilted her head and glanced at him.
The older man was quite protective of his cubs.
The residents of the tenement building were originally waiting for the Zhou family to go bankrupt.
But who would have thought that instead of waiting for the Zhou family's bankruptcy, they would receive news of a meat price hike at the supply and marketing cooperative.
The crowd was dumbfounded, thinking to themselves that just a few days ago it was one yuan per pound, so how did it suddenly jump to one yuan and fifty cents?
They immediately refused to accept it and teamed up to go cause trouble at the cooperative.
The explanation given by the cooperative's leadership was, "We changed suppliers. So many farms in our city have closed down recently, and pork supply was already falling short of demand. The few qualified factories were selected and partnered with by the higher-ups. The Zhou family's farm was willing to supply at the previous price, so the city's cooperatives all partnered with him."
"And guess what?"
The crowd: "? What?"
"They said someone in our area was complaining that their pork wasn't good, so they stopped supplying us. We had to sign with another farm. Now this is the price everywhere outside. Eat it if you want, or leave it if you don't."
At this time, the pork supply was already insufficient. People had to line up every day to buy it, and each person could only get a small portion.
If you were late, you couldn't buy any at all.
Everyone had originally been very happy that the price hadn't gone up, because the other outside vendors selling inspected meat were charging exorbitant prices.
They had even gloated over others not being able to afford meat.
Well, look at them now.
The tables had turned, and they were the ones who couldn't afford meat.
"Wait, who did you say supplied the meat originally?"
The leader waved his hand impatiently: "The Zhou family. I heard the boss lives right on Old East Street. Hey, don't tell me it was you bunch of old women who offended them?"
The group from the tenement building: "..."
The aunties of the tenement building thought: Leader, you're a psychic, you guessed it right on the money.