The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book) - 163

 

| TBBOTOF | 163

If it were someone else, they would have given Tang Xu a thumbs up for what he said.

Only Wei Dong had an issue with it. Tang Xu had just gone into the room and packed a bag of children's clothes, and this was after Li Xiu had slandered him.

However, this man never questions his husband's decisions, so when Old Wei praised Tang Xu, Wei Dong remained silent.

By the time it was over, the sky was already completely dark. Tang Xu had put the child in the room to sleep, took a bath himself, and then got up.

He went to warm up some leftover food for his husband. Given Wei Dong’s digestion, after all this running around, he should be hungry.

The kitchen was lit by a lantern. Wei Dong sat on a small stool, holding a big bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other. He mixed several leftover dishes with warm ones and stirred them into a big bowl of mixed grain rice.

He used his chopsticks to flip through the food in the bowl and raised his eyes to glance at his husband, who was sitting beside him drying his hair.

“Did you take the initiative to tell Grandma that you wanted to take Tang Qi to do business?”

Tang Xu shook his almost dry long hair, complained again about the hassle of long hair, twisted it, and then twisted it into a bun at the back of his head. He smiled and nodded at him, “What’s the matter? Do you have any thoughts?”

Wei Dong raised an eyebrow and exposed his little thought.

“You want to help Tang Qi stand up, just to anger Li Xiu.”

Tang Xu burst out laughing, his eyebrows curved, and his red lips slightly lifted, revealing a bit of smugness. 

He shook his head and said, “That's why you’re my man; you know me best.”

Li Xiu had provoked him more than once. Even a clay figurine has some temper, let alone Tang Xu, who never lets himself be pushed around.

Since the family isn't going to split up, they might as well destroy it from within.

So why does Li Xiu have such a big grudge against Tang Xu?

It all boils down to money.

Because of money, she lost her child, and she blamed Tang Xu for it.

Whenever she had the chance, she would try to make trouble for Tang Xu. Even if she didn't succeed, as long as she felt satisfied for that brief moment, it was worth it to her.

Tang Qi has a steady temperament and has now started his own family. Judging by his attitude toward his wife, it's clear he wants to manage his small household well. 

Unfortunately, all the money in the family is tightly controlled by his mother. If Tang Qi wanted to scrape together a single copper coin, it would take a lot of effort.

If Tang Xu were to help him get hold of some money, no matter what, Tang Qi would hold onto this opportunity to earn money tightly. 

If he could earn the silver that Li Xiu couldn't, would Li Xiu be happy about it?

Moreover, since the family isn't split, to Tang Xu, it doesn't really matter who in the family earns the money. He wouldn't need Tang Qi to hand over all the money he earns—just a small portion would suffice to get his father's support.

Over time, as Tang Qi starts to accumulate his own money, Li Xiu's efforts to stir up trouble will be in vain.

"I really don't feel like constantly arguing with her. With her temperament, it's better if she stays away from us; otherwise, one day when she goes crazy, our kids could get scared." Tang Xu actually had an even worse thought—if one day Li Xiu came over and harmed the kids when they weren't paying attention, he wouldn't even know where to cry about it.

Thinking about this, he turned to Wei Dong and said, "Should we get a couple of dogs?"

The sudden change in topic caught Wei Dong off guard, and his mind didn't immediately follow Tang Xu's train of thought.

He took a bite of food, looking a bit puzzled. "What for?"

"For guarding the house! We've got so much stuff at home, and neither the old nor the young have any real fighting ability. If we had two dogs to guard the house, it would be great—safe!" 

Tang Xu's eyes shone brightly, and the more he talked, the more he felt that getting dogs was the best idea. They needed to be big, loyal, and fierce dogs.

Wei Dong thought about who in the village had dogs and shook his head, "None."

"Huh? No big dogs?"

"They're all big dogs, no small ones," Wei Dong said. "No one mentioned any puppies being born recently. If you want to raise them, you’ll have to start from when they're young."

Tang Xu realized this was true. Dogs need to be raised and trained from a young age to be close to the children.

He pouted, then, after finishing his meal, reached out to take Wei Dong's bowl and chopsticks. "Then ask around, if anyone has puppies, bring back a couple—make sure they're males."

"Alright," Wei Dong nodded in agreement.

Tang Xu had come up with the idea of getting Tang Qi to join in the business on a whim, so he hadn't gone to discuss it with anyone right away.

Time passed, and before they knew it, it was two months later, at the end of autumn.

During this busy farming season, Wei Zhonghong and Luo Pingping had closed their stalls, and Tang Zu and Wu Hong were once again carrying their burdens and selling braised foods, hawking their wares as they went from street to street.

Because the weather had gotten colder, braised foods could be stored for longer, so Wei Zhonghong and Luo Pingping discussed increasing their production.

They even specifically mentioned it to Tang Xu, but Tang Xu didn’t recommend doing so.

“Why not?” Luo Pingping was puzzled. The business was doing so well, so why not sell more?

Tang Xu was holding a bowl of egg custard, feeding Xiao Bao who hadn’t finished his meal.

Normally, there was no need to feed him, but Xiao Bao had caught a bit of a cold over the past few days. He was feeling sluggish and didn’t have much energy, clinging to people and refusing to walk, wanting to be held all the time. 

He wasn’t eating well either, so the egg custard was specially made to coax him into eating a bit more.

Xiao Bao pursed his lips and refused to swallow. Tang Xu poked his cheek, signaling him to hurry up and eat, then looked up at Luo Pingping and said helplessly, “Auntie, when you have too much of something, people stop craving it. Haven’t you noticed that some of the customers who used to buy regularly haven’t been buying lately?”

When he asked this, Luo Pingping actually thought about it and then frowned.

It seemed that he was right.

Tang Xu continued, “If you increase production now, you might end up with unsold inventory.”

“That’s no problem. We can take it to sell in other villages. That’s what we planned to do before,” Wei Zhonghong said.

Tang Xu shook his head. “There’s no need. The weather is getting colder. If you were going to sell fresh items directly as planned, that’s fine. But if you’re trying to sell leftovers, even if they haven’t gone bad, people might not be happy to buy them.”

He tried feeding Xiao Bao another spoonful of egg custard, but Xiao Bao turned his head away and tightly closed his mouth.

At that moment, Er Bao came running over from the backyard, seeing his father feeding his little brother. He rushed over and jumped onto Tang Xu’s lap, opening his mouth wide, “Ah~!”

“What’s with the ‘ah’? You just had a chicken leg. Are you hungry again?” Tang Xu didn’t give him any food.

Er Bao pouted and moved closer, “I want to eat.”

“What do you want to eat? Go play!” Tang Xu didn’t plan on giving him any. This child was practically a miniature version of Wei Dong, not only in appearance but also in appetite.

Er Bao grumbled and reached out to grab the small spoon.

Tang Xu didn’t stop him and handed over the spoon, but he kept a close eye on his actions. If Er Bao dared to put a spoonful into his own mouth, Tang Xu would take it back.

However, Er Bao didn’t put the food into his own mouth but fed it to Xiao Bao instead.

Xiao Bao cooperated—though reluctantly, he did open his mouth.

Seeing this, Tang Xu was amused, “You have favorites, huh? Alright, let your second brother feed you, and I’ll chat with your grandmothers for a bit.” He got up and lifted Er Bao onto the chair, cautioning, “Don’t eat it, understand? Your brother is sick, and if you both use the same spoon, you could get sick too.”

Er Bao nodded obediently, “I won’t eat!”

Tang Xu stretched and then said to the two women, “I suggest you keep selling at the current volume. If you want to increase production, then just have them take the extra to other nearby villages for a while, so that our village customers will miss it a bit.”

Wei Zhonghong understood his idea, and Luo Pingping nodded in agreement, finding the suggestion reasonable.

By mid-October, Tang Zu and Wu Hong started going to neighboring villages to sell their braised offal. At first, there weren’t many buyers. 

After all, pork offal was cheap and something rural people often ate. To put it bluntly, it had a strong flavor that was hard to get rid of, and people with a bit of money generally didn’t like eating it.

So as soon as people heard that they were selling braised offal, they waved them off without even trying it.

For the first couple of days, Tang Zu and Wu Hong were quite discouraged. However, they didn’t let it get them down. 

After some discussion, they decided to carry a small pot with them and heat the offal with the broth on-site.

With that aroma wafting through the air, there was no way people wouldn’t buy it.

They didn’t plan to sell separately either, as they weren’t familiar with the area and felt safer together.

When people in the village noticed that the two stalls hadn’t been set up, they started talking.

“Why did they suddenly stop running the stalls when the business was going so well?”

“What do you mean stop? I saw Wu Hong heading out before dawn, carrying his goods. He said they were going to visit some nearby villages.”

“Nearby villages? So they’re not selling in our village anymore?”

“They both went out, so it looks like they won’t be selling here for a while.”

“Oh, I was getting a bit tired of eating it every day and thought I’d take a break before buying more, but now they’ve stopped selling!”

“Exactly! I haven’t bought any for a while, thinking I’d wait a few more days.”

Someone who was familiar with Luo Pingping even went to ask her directly, and after receiving an affirmative response, they were a bit disappointed.

Seeing their reactions, Luo Pingping thought to herself that Xu Ge'er was right; it was necessary to whet their appetites.

While they were busy with their business, there was another significant event happening in Tang Sanhu’s household: the unusual occurrence of both the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law giving birth on the same day, which was quite the talk of the village.

However, since Li Xiu had already given birth to several children, this one came quickly. Within just one hour, she was holding her newborn son in her arms.

Tang Qi’s wife, on the other hand, had a much tougher time. She struggled from dawn till dusk before finally giving birth to a baby boy.

Tang Sanhu was overjoyed, with both a newborn son and a grandson, and he cried tears of happiness.

Tang Qi stayed in the room with his wife, his face showing a mix of concern and frustration.

If it weren’t for his mother causing trouble earlier today, his wife wouldn’t have been so upset, leading to her experiencing abdominal pain and complications.

“You should rest and not get upset,” he said softly.

Wang Lixiang, looking slightly pale, replied weakly, “I’m fine, you shouldn’t be angry.”

Getting angry wouldn’t help; it would only cause more problems for herself.

Tang Qi’s expression darkened as he glanced at his son, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on the kang bed. His eyes were filled with a shadowed look.

He knew he had to find a way out for himself. Otherwise, not only would his wife continue to be mistreated, but they wouldn’t even be able to raise their son properly. With his mother’s personality, everything would be given to her newborn son, and her first grandson wouldn’t mean anything to her.

Thinking this, Tang Qi went to find Tang Xu the next day.

He didn’t know why he came over on impulse; even as he sat in the chair, he still felt a bit dazed.

“That’s why we’re cousins. I was thinking of sending Ah Dong to find you to discuss something,” Tang Xu poured him some water. Seeing Tang Qi's dazed expression, he asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Something happened at home?”

“My mother and my wife both gave birth yesterday. Both had sons,” Tang Qi took a sip of water and sighed. “My wife gave birth prematurely by more than a month.”

Tang Xu frowned, “Are both mother and child okay?”

He didn’t need to ask; judging by Tang Qi’s expression, it was likely that Li Xiu had caused trouble again, making his wife so upset that she gave birth prematurely.

“They’re fine,” Tang Qi didn’t want to go into detail about this family scandal, so he mentioned it briefly and moved on.

At that moment, the chubby boy ran over, holding Xiao Bao’s hand. Seeing Tang Qi, he quickly called out to him. 

Xiao Bao curiously looked up at Tang Qi, then walked a few steps forward and leaned against Tang Xu’s leg, holding up something in his little hand towards Tang Xu’s mouth, “Dad, eat.”

Tang Xu opened his mouth and ate the cookie that had already crumbled in Xiao Bao’s hand, then patted his cheek.

The chubby boy looked curiously at Tang Qi and asked, “Uncle, why are you here?”

Tang Qi smiled and patted his head, “I have something to discuss with your father.”

“Then you two talk, I’ll take my little brother out to play,” the chubby boy said with the maturity of a little adult, going over to grab Xiao Bao’s hand, “Come on, Baobei, big brother will take you to play!”

Previous TOC Next

TL: I went back and fixed TQ's gender, so LX does already have a son and I didn't read the raws correctly...haha. It said 'with one son' not 'without a son'. Thank you guys for letting me know what chapter it was so that I was able to fix it ⁽⁽ଘ( ˊᵕˋ )ଓ⁾⁾