…Everybody who had their meals paid for were overjoyed and were as flattered by this Young Master Zhang as it is possible to be, so Young Master Zhang become complacent again, even feeling it worth a good kicking up the ass by his old man back home.
Ye Xiaoxian quickly added, “Young Master Zhang, according to the old rule you have to pay first when the bill is over two taels of silver. I roughly calculated that all the bills of our diners here are thirty taels, plus your own bill, let’s make it thirty-three taels in total. Do you prefer to pay it with silver or this gold ingot of yours?”
One gold ingot equals to fifty taels of silver.
Like bearing the pain of his flesh being cut off, Young Master Zhang passed the gold ingot to Ye Xiaoxian.
Ye took it with a big smile and said, “I’ll give you the change later.”
After Ye Xiaoxian went inside the kitchen she never again came out and even the change was given to Young Master Zhang by Li Hongmei.
Young Master Zhang saw that a big gold ingot had now become some pale silvers and that kind of pain hurt him even more than being dismembered to death.
Fatty knew that Young Master Zhang’s heart hurt badly, as Young Master Zhang had flirted with so many girls and never spent so much money. He normally could get to hook up with a missy with ten or so taels of silver.
Fatty then said, “Sir, have we…suffered a loss? We’ve already spent silver and gold now but that missy hasn’t responded at all.”
Skinny said immediately, “She appeared to give no response but perhaps she already secretly had a big crush on Young Master Zhang. When that missy turned around just now I noticed that she couldn’t even hold back the smile on her lips.”
As for Young Master Zhang, he did not feel he had suffered any loss at all as so many people had complimented him just now and Ye Xiaoxian also compared him with that out-of-town merchant, so he felt that he had already planted the seed of love in Ye Xiaoxian’s heart and now would simply wait for it to bloom and bear fruit.
Some diners were already done eating and all the them would come over and thank Young Master Zhang. “Young Master Zhang, thank you so much for paying for the food. I’m so grateful!”
Young Master Zhang would wave his hands generously. “No problem, no problem.”
However, once those diners went out of the restaurant they changed into another face.
“Is that Young Master Zhang a fool? Even if he is from a rich family he shouldn’t spend money like this.”
“Perhaps he’s showing off in front of that chef lady. If I were that Young Master Zhang’s pa, I’d break his damn legs.”
“Why should we mind him? It’s good as long as we ate for free. I should’ve ordered more food just now.”
The following morning, Ye Xiaoxian got up early as usual. When she got up she saw Baofeng who was also ready to leave.
Ever since they moved to town Ye Xiaoxian and others had slept late at night, so Xiao Baofeng had no one to cook breakfast for him. Li Hongmei just always gave him several coins and asked him to buy some buns outside to make do.
“Sister-in-law, good morning!” Xiao Baofeng greeted Ye Xiaoxian and saluted her with the demeanor of a little scholar.
Ye Xiaoxian also smiled. “Good morning, Baofeng, why did you get up so early?”
“It’s far away from here to school so I have to get up early to recite my textbooks when I arrive there.” Xiao Baofeng explained.
Ye Xiaoxian then said, “Then off you go. Be safe on the way to school and don’t forget to eat breakfast. You need to eat breakfast regularly to become tall.”
“I see. Good-bye, Sister-in-law,” said Xiao Baofeng.
After Xiao Baofeng left, Ye Xiaoxian didn’t move but stood there and watched the back view of him.
Although they have moved to town, Baofeng was still studying in Windward Hall which was a long way to go and he was on his own. Ye Xiaoxian was really worried about Xiao Baofeng encountering some dangers on the way. Even if there was no danger it was a waste of time walking all that way everyday.
Ye Xiaoxian then considered that she would ask Scholar Wong the next time she saw him to see if he knew of any private schools in town where Baofeng could be transferred.
…Scholar Wong came at noon that day. He stepped in together with Young Master Zhang.
Scholar Wong was always low key and was quiet when he went inside, and Young Master Zhang happened to bump into him and swore rudely, “Get out of my way!”
Scholar Wong did not mind it and went straight upstairs, picking up a seat and sat down.
Young Master Zhang was seated downstairs, right beneath Scholar Wong so what they were talking about had gone straight to Scholar Wong’s ears.
“Young Master Zhang, are you sure you can finally have that little chef lady today?” asked Fatty.
Young Master Zhang was swaying a paper fan and said cockily, “I spent three taels of silver the day before yesterday and another gold ingot yesterday, so if I still can’t have her by today, do I look like a monk or what?”
“So what are you going to say to her later?” asked Fatty.
Young Master Zhang shook his head. “Have you forgotten my three moves? The first one is to show off my money, the second is to sound her out and the third move…hehe, getting to business already.”
Fatty then asked, “You’ve used the fist one but the second one…to sound her out?”
Young Master Zhang rolled his eyes at Fatty. “I’ve already done sounding her out. Do you remember I touched her little hand the other day and she didn’t cry or anything, so you tell me what this means…”
Skinny and Fatty looked at each other and then they grinned in a naughty way.
“Young Master Zhang, you actually have already sounded her out but the way you’ve done it is different from what you do to other girls. You usually grope other’s backsides and hips or pull their hair, but how come you only touched the chef lady’s hand? It’s way too subtle. What if she thought you touched it by accident?” said Skinny.
Fatty also said, “That’s right. You were passing the silver to her and of course you would touch her, right?”
Young Master Zhang scolded, “I know what I’m doing. Ask that old wifey to come here.”
“Old wifey” was right now serving Scholar Wong.
In this era teachers and scholars were specially respected so Li Hongmei naturally went to serve Scholar Wong first.
Scholar Wong had just finished ordering his food when Skinny and Fatty began to shout downstairs, “Old wifey, come down here right away!”
Li Hongmei swore quietly, “Those three sons of bitches!”
When she cursed, Scholar Wong heard it so he had confirmed that the short, the fat and the skinny downstairs were aiming for Ye Xiaoxian. He was obliged to pay more attention to what was happening downstairs.
After Li Hongmei went down, Young Master Zhang said to her, “Old wifey, Miss Ye should be in the kitchen, is she? I’d like to order my food there. You take me over.”
Li Hongmei said, “Our chef said that the kitchen is staff only, so I’m sorry, Young Master Zhang. Why don’t you just order here and I’ll deliver your order to the kitchen.”
Young Master Zhang asked, “You deliver my order? Who the bloody hell are you? Ask the chef lady to come here and I’ll order my food.”
Li Hongmei was about to go to the kitchen but Ye Xiaoxian had already come out.
Little Five told her about Young Master Zhang and Ye Xiaoxian was afraid that Young Master Zhang would make things difficult for Li Hongmei so she’d gone out first.
“Oh, chef lady…you look rather good today,” said Young Master Zhang.
Ye Xiaoxian was not in the mood for wasting her time on Young Master Zhang today, so she went to him and said coldly, “What would you like you eat, Young Master Zhang? From the menu?”