When Lu Shengcai heard that his eldest grandson already had a name, he was a little angry.

But when he heard that Lu Bocheng had specially chosen the name before he left; and there were names for both boys and girls. After looking at the names he had thought of after a few days, he decisively abandoned them. He felt that his eldest son was still quite capable.

But when Mother Su, Xiao Qingyang, Qingxing and others called him “Yangyang”, he refused to call him that and insisted on calling him Xiaobao. He rushed to call him this nickname.

Su Qingyu didn’t care. She was only happy that the child was loved by her grandfather.

“Sister, I asked the teacher about the word Yang, and he said it means the rising sun.” Xiao Qingyang’s greatest pleasure after school was to come to Lu’s house to see his little nephew and compete with Xiao Qingxing to hold him.

Maybe it was more interesting for children to watch children, even Yaya felt that she was a jiejie now, and would help to coax him.

Su Qingyu looked at her son who slept most of the time with watery eyes, smiled and nodded.

“The two names your jiefu chose mean sunrise and sunny and warm weather.” Yang also referred to a handsome man. She didn’t know if that guy meant it that way. He was quite narcissistic sometimes.

“Sister, that’s Lu Weiyang. Is Wei the first child in their family?” Xiao Qingxing asked with difficulty, looking up from her nephew.

Seeing Su Qingyu nod, she turned her eyes to Xiao Weiyang again. Everything around her was not in her eyes. She only had her cute little nephew in her eyes.

Su Qingyu couldn’t help but smile when she saw it.

Since the child was born, Xiao Qingxing had been almost glued to the Lu family. As long as the store was not busy, she would run to the Lu family with Yaya in her arms.

“Your jiefu’s cousin’s wife in his hometown also gave birth to a son named Lu Weiji.”

“Lu Weiji? Not as nice as my nephew’s name.” Xiao Qingyang said.

“That’s right, the name my jiefu chose is still better.” Xiao Qingxing agreed without raising her head.

“Yes, it sounds good. You three should stop surrounding your nephew, he will wake up soon.” Mother Su came in with chicken soup and said something when she saw this.

“I will comfort him when he wakes up.” Little Qingxing refused and lay on her stomach to watch.

“Your nephew can cry so hard that the roof will be blown off. Can you comfort him?”

“Mom, I can. He won’t cry after my sister feeds him milk. He only cries when he is hungry.”

Su Qingyu smiled, took the chicken soup, blew it and drank it.

She handed the bowl to Mother Su: “Mom, you have been here for a few days. If you don’t go back, there will be talk. It’s spring, and the fields should be busier.”

Now Father Su was helping in the store and had a fixed salary, which was more than what Su Siquan brought home, so Old Su had never asked Father Su to go back.

The family was missing two labourers, Father Su and Su Siquan, and Qingxing and Qingyang were no longer at home to help with small chores. Now that they were busy in the fields, there was not enough manpower, and the second and third wives had been complaining.

The old couple kept the money that Father Su and Su Siquan brought back and never gave it out. There was no improvement in their diet. They didn’t see any money, but there was more work to do in the fields, and the family was not at peace.

“I’ll take care of you for two more days. Aunt Zhou Hongxiu and I will make some more clothes these days, and prepare more diapers for you in case the weather is bad and you have to dry them before you can use them. The child will get up at night to drink milk these days, and you will have to get up several times, and you will be so tired that you can’t even open your eyes. Mother will help take care of you for two more days so that you can get used to it.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

“Well, why are you telling me all this.”

Su Qingyu was really not used to her life these days. The child had to eat every hour, and the eating and pooping made her very tired. Sometimes she was sleeping so soundly that she didn’t even notice the child crying. She kept her eyes closed while holding the child to feed him. The child ate slowly, and she would fall asleep leaning against the head of the bed before he finished eating. Fortunately, Mother Su was there to protect him, and the child slipped from her hands several times.

“Mom, my cousin’s wife is about to give birth, right?”

“Yes, it should be in the next few days. Mom will go back early the day after tomorrow morning, and your dad just happens to be going back to the village next door to collect ducks. I’ll take your dad’s ox cart back.”

“Ducks from the next-door village? Didn’t Fourth Uncle help Second Aunt collect ducks from the villages near our village?”

Mother Su curled her lips: “Your Second Aunt is not willing to pay, and no one wants to do business with her. It’s all because of Si Quan’s face.”

“Didn’t Fourth Uncle pay first and then settle with Second Aunt?”

“Don’t you know your Second Aunt? Can she settle with Si Quan so easily? A cage of chickens and ducks costs several taels of silver. Can Si Quan afford to pay for a whole cart? Isn’t it all because of our family’s reputation that she’s selling on credit? Besides, the chicken and duck business in her store is not as good as yours, especially the ducks. Your Second Aunt’s store is on a prosperous street. She would like to hire someone like Granny Zhou to pluck the chickens and ducks, but will the neighbours agree?”

“Ah? Mother, the second aunt’s shop also sold out all the ducks and chickens. She also learned to cut and sell them like my sister. Where did she kill the chickens?” Xiao Qingyang asked with his head tilted. He thought it was the same as his sister.

“She later asked your fourth uncle to kill the chickens at home before sending them over. Your grandmother saw that your cousin Qiuju and others could make some money by making feather dusters and keys, so she had no objection to killing the chickens at home. The chicken feathers and offal were all left at home.”

Su Qingyu frowned: “It’s okay when the weather is cool, but when it gets hot, the meat will not be fresh when it is transported from home.”

“That’s right. It’s not as good as you killing it on the spot. So her shop has fewer chickens and ducks. Especially ducks, your grandmother thinks it’s troublesome to pluck the duck feathers, so they don’t want to kill the ducks.”

Su Qingyu thought of her second aunt’s stingy and calculating way. If she was more generous and knew how to behave, her grandmother would ask the whole family to help her.

Su Qingyu also had many opinions about her. Not only did she imitate Su Qingyu and open a shop to grab business, but she also used all kinds of tricks to buy oil from Su Qingyu’s shop, which made her unhappy.

She was the only family in the town that opened an oil shop, so her family should have a very convenient way of using oil. Since her family learned from Su Qingyu how to make crispy chicken and other cooked food, they should have made more money than her. But she didn’t know whether it was because of cutting corners or lack of skills, the cooked meat business had never taken off.

Su Ergu ^[1]second paternal aunt was indignant and wanted to stop Su Qingyu from using oil. Once when Su Qingyu went to buy oil, she directly said that there was no stock in the warehouse, and if she was in a hurry, she could bring the oil here to squeeze it.

Su Qingyu was so angry that she later asked Su Dahu to buy oil from other places when he went to other places to collect goods and never bought oil from her family again.

Su Ergu lost Su Qingyu, a big oil buyer, and later came to her several times, and also went to Su Siquan and Father Su to negotiate. Su Qingyu directly said that if the oil price was the same as that in Pingchuan County, she would buy from her shop, and she would save the trouble of going all the way.

But Su Ergu’s oil pressing technology was not as good as others, and the output of each catty of oil was not as good as that of the oil shop in Pingchuan County, so the price per catty was several coins more expensive than that in Pingchuan County.

So she disagreed. Su Qingyu did not compromise and still bought oil from other places.

Later, Lu Shengcai found out, and when he went to Pingchuan County to purchase goods, he also brought oil back for her.

Su Ergu shot herself in the foot. From then on, her family would not say hello to Su Qingyu when they saw her in the town, just like a stranger. And Su Qingyu didn’t care at all.

(End of this chapter)