A Good Country Wife

No wonder someone as clueless as Zhao Erhu could feel affection for his wife. He’d feel the same way—if he had a wife like that, he’d definitely hold her dear in the palm of his hand. Hearing that the matchmaker mentioned the girl was from the same village as Erhu’s wife, Zhao Xing became a bit intrigued. As long as that girl was half as good as Zhao Erhu’s wife, he would accept this marriage proposal.

Recently, Zhao Erhu had also been worried. The bean sprouts they were producing weren’t selling well. Others at the market had also started selling bean sprouts, and at a lower price than theirs, naturally drawing customers toward the cheaper option. After some inquiries, he found out that it was the Wei Residence’s doing. With his growing business acumen, he soon connected the dots. He recalled that during a meal at the old Zhao family house, Master Wei had specifically asked him about the family’s recipe for food and method for growing bean sprouts. He had refused to divulge any information, but then Zhao Lingxiang visited them, surely there was a connection.

Lin Yue was also troubled when she heard about this from Zhao Erhu. She didn’t believe that the people from Wei Residence could have figured out how to grow the bean sprouts otherwise; otherwise, Zhao Yunxiang wouldn’t have specifically come to pry into their relationship. Now that the method had leaked, it was likely there was an issue on their end.

However, she had always been cautious about such matters, knowing full well that not everyone can withstand the temptations of interest. She and Zhao Erhu were the ones who handled matters involving technical processes, and they never entrusted them to anyone else. Only when they became too busy to handle everything did they delegate some less important tasks to Zhao Dahuo and his wife and Wu Qiang and his wife, including the bean sprouts. Lin Yue had always believed these few people would not betray them, but now that such an incident had occurred, she couldn’t help but feel suspicious.

"Zhao Erhu, I believe that the bean sprout growing method must have leaked from our side. Do you think it’s possible?" When Lin Yue said this, she felt somewhat unwilling to believe it, yet also disheartened.

Zhao Erhu understood what his wife meant and immediately denied the idea. He trusted that both his older brother and sister-in-law, as well as Wu Qiang and his wife, were trustworthy, and they would not do such a thing. This trust was not blind, but the result of long-term observation and interaction.

"Wife, it can’t be them. If I trusted them enough to delegate these tasks to them, I trust their character. And we don’t even have clear details about this whole affair yet, so we can’t hastily jump to conclusions."

"I don’t want to believe it either, but how would the people from Wei Residence know about the bean sprout method? Zhao Lingxiang had visited a while ago, and I didn’t reveal a thing." Lin Yue continued, realizing that Zhao Erhu also wouldn’t know the answer—only Master Wei would know where the recipe came from.

Thankfully, for the time being, it seemed that only their bean sprouts had been leaked. Nothing else was affected. Their strategy for selling bean sprouts was to go for small profits and quick turnover. The price at the market had only dropped by two coins, and they could simply adjust their price to match. Reducing it further wouldn’t be profitable, and so the Wei Residence probably wouldn’t lower their prices to compete with them further. Otherwise, Lin Yue would rather give up the bean sprout business and make their method public, and then the hard-earned method the Wei Residence had acquired wouldn’t be useful anymore.