Chapter 441 - 439: Dishonest
"That’s more like it." Tong Xinglan grinned at her. "I think Brother Gang is a good choice for you. No wicked mother-in-law, no difficult sister-in-law. If he dares to treat you badly, we’ll just have my cousin and cousin-in-law teach him a lesson!"
Lin Lan chuckled, teasing, "If you ask me, you’re the difficult sister-in-law!"
Tong Xinglan wrinkled her nose. "I am not! Anyway, I have to go—the oven timer is up."
Lin Lan then handed the necklace back to Qiaohui. "Zhigang is a good guy," she said. "If you like him, you should ask your aunt what she thinks after we close up shop this afternoon."
"Mhm!" Qiaohui put the necklace in a small bag, her face blushing as she said, "Brother Gang went over to Yucai Road to find you all and talk about this."
Now Lin Lan understood why Old Li had called Yang Zhigang so hesitant. She laughed. "We must have missed him. Your brother-in-law is waiting for him at the department store!"
"Okay! Cousin, you watch the shop. Xinglan and I will go bake the vegetable crackers."
"Okay." Lin Lan sat on a stool, packing the roasted pumpkin seeds into kraft paper bags.
Lin Yuezhen wasn’t feeling well from a cold, so she hadn’t come in today. That left just Qiaohui and Tong Xinglan in the shop. Between the wholesale orders and the pastries for the kindergarten, the two of them were much busier than usual.
A little while later, Qiaohui brought the freshly baked vegetable crackers out to the shop. Lin Lan packaged them, and Qiaohui took them for delivery to the kindergarten.
She had just left when Yang Zhigang and Li Xiangyang arrived, pulling a handcart to pick up the duck eggs.
As soon as Yang Zhigang entered the backyard, Tong Xinglan pointed at him. "Aha, Comrade Yang Zhigang! I never would have thought. You look so honest, but your actions are anything but!"
Yang Zhigang glanced at Lin Lan, his face flushing red. "No, I haven’t... How have I been dishonest?"
"Hmph! Hmph!" Tong Xinglan snorted, giving him a sidelong glance. "Fess up. How did you sweet-talk Qiaohui? If you don’t, we won’t approve of you two getting together."
Finished, she stroked her chin and circled him. ’Honest-looking people are the most deceptive,’ she thought. ’These two were carrying on a secret romance right under my nose, and they actually managed to evade my eagle eyes.’
Yang Zhigang’s face was red as he raised his hands and laughed. "I really didn’t sweet-talk her. You like grilled skewers, don’t you? What do you want? You name it, and I’ll bike over and buy it right now."
"That’s more like it." Tong Xinglan didn’t hold back. "I want beef skewers, eel segments, grilled oyster mushrooms... and an orange soda."
"Alright, I’ll go buy them now." Yang Zhigang turned to Lin Lan with an accommodating smile. "Sister-in-law, what kind of skewers do you want? I’ll get them for you!"
Lin Lan smiled. "A few skewers of chives and a roasted eggplant. The vendor knows what I like."
Yang Zhigang nodded repeatedly. "Brother Xiangyang, what about you?"
Li Xiangyang said with a smile, "Anything’s fine. Just get whatever you think is good."
After Yang Zhigang left, Li Xiangyang smiled at Lin Lan and said, "I never expected he’d fallen for Qiaohui. What do you think of them as a couple?"
Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "They’re a good match. That girl Xinglan was even saying that getting with Zhigang would be great—no wicked mother-in-law and no difficult sister-in-law."
"Zhigang asked Dad to be his matchmaker, but the old man told him he should ask Qiaohui’s mother to do it, saying that would be best. Zhigang also said that as long as her parents agree, he wants to get engaged after you all get through the Mid-Autumn Festival rush."
"That guy, he’s really thought it through," Lin Lan said with a laugh.
"Dad told me to tell her aunt and uncle that Zhigang is a loyal and upstanding young man, and that Qiaohui would be in good hands if she married him."
Lin Lan nodded. "You have to spend your life with someone who’s down-to-earth."
Li Xiangyang added, "Mayor Zhu came by the shop looking for me earlier. He said they’ll start construction on the houses after the New Year. He also mentioned that ever since the farmers and vendors from the Eucalyptus Forest moved to the South City Market, a lot of people are complaining that it’s too far to come over here to sell their produce."
"So people have started setting up stalls in front of the supply and marketing co-op. The number of stalls has been growing this month, and sometimes it even blocks traffic. He thinks we could build a vegetable market there."
Lin Lan thought for a moment after hearing this, then shook her head. "A private individual building a market... Would the Bureau for Industry and Commerce even approve that?"
Li Xiangyang replied, "After Mayor Zhu left, Dad and I discussed it. We’re also worried the Bureau wouldn’t approve. Plus, how would we collect fees once the market is built? If a local farmer just wants to sell a few vegetables, they’ll curse you out if you try to charge them a stall fee. For a fee, they’d rather just stick to setting up their stalls by the co-op like they’re doing now."
He and Yang Zhigang had just biked over for a look. The street outside the co-op—diagonally across from the alley by the vehicle factory—was now packed with small vegetable stalls. He wasn’t sure when it started, but the area was bustling with people.
Lin Lan felt that collecting stall fees would be too much trouble and would only make people resent them. "Let’s wait. Didn’t you say you were optimistic about the cold storage facility in Yangcheng City? Let’s wait a couple of years for the policies to loosen up more, then we can build the cold storage facility like you said."
’Leaving the land empty for a short while would just mean losing out on some potential interest,’ she thought. ’And in two years, at most, land prices here won’t be this low anymore.’
"Okay." Li Xiangyang frowned as he spoke. "Uncle Da was just complaining to me yesterday. He said even though things have opened up, there are still so many restrictions. It’s so inconvenient, like his hands and feet are tied."
Lin Lan looked at him. "What I’m worried about now is, after Sister Yuezhen has her baby, she won’t have any elders at home to help take care of it. And once my belly gets bigger, Qiaohui and Xinglan won’t be able to handle everything on their own at all."
Li Xiangyang laughed. "Don’t worry. Isn’t it easy to hire someone? Several acquaintances have already gone to the old man, wanting to send their kids here to be your apprentices!"
Lin Lan nodded. "Let’s just get through the Mid-Autumn Festival rush first. We can talk after that."
"Skewers are here!" Before his voice had even faded, Yang Zhigang walked in carrying a basket. "Sister-in-law, the vendor heard you wanted roasted eggplant, so he grilled two for you. He also grilled some small intestines and oyster mushrooms."
The fragrant aroma of grilled skewers wafted over.
Lin Lan swallowed. She took the plate, which held two roasted eggplants sprinkled with bright green scallions and cilantro on their purplish-red skins. It looked so appetizing. "My mouth is watering."
’My cravings are getting stronger every day,’ she mused. ’Sometimes I even dream about looking for food, only to wake up to my stomach RUMBLING. I bet this one in my belly is a little glutton, just like Douzi.’
"Sister-in-law, you must not have eaten enough this morning!" Yang Zhigang said with a laugh, taking the skewers out of the basket and placing them on a low cabinet.
Lin Lan laughed. "Exactly! Your brother is so stingy, he won’t even let me eat my fill!"
Yang Zhigang laughed and shook his head repeatedly. "My brother would never. From what I’ve seen, he’d rather go hungry himself than not let you eat first."
"See? Zhigang gets me." Li Xiangyang smiled, handing her a pair of chopsticks. "Go on, eat. You’ve got to appease the craving-bug first."
Lin Lan nodded. "There’s so much. Come on, let’s all eat together." ’The roasted eggplant is amazing,’ she thought, ’especially these tender autumn ones. They just make you want to eat more and more.’
Yang Zhigang, holding a beef skewer, took a big bite from the side. "Of course there’s a lot! It was practically half-price!"
Tong Xinglan put a baking sheet in the oven, then walked over with a beef skewer in one hand and a soda bottle in the other. "Cousin, we should buy some stuff to grill ourselves one of these days."
Lin Lan thought about how busy they were getting. "How about tomorrow? I’ll pick up the ingredients on my way here, and we can close the shop early to go home."