Chapter 15 When generosity meets righteousness
"Do you know who my father is?"
After leaving Li Fuhu's house, Su Luo asked Zhou Chongwen a question. She didn't expect Zhou Si to be able to answer it, because prying into people's privacy is not a gentleman's behavior.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Si actually hesitated for a moment. Su Luo became interested and asked, "You actually knew that?"
Zhou Chongwen shook his head again, "I only heard that he also lived in Zhuxian Town. Su Luo had secretly met him once, but Aunt Su didn't know about it."
Su Luo stroked his chin in thought. It seemed that the matter here was quite complicated. It sounded like a father and daughter reuniting after a divorce. But were there any divorcees now? Or divorced wives?
Thinking of these three words, Su Luo felt a sharp pain in her heart, which touched upon the thing she least wanted to recall. Her face became gloomy, but she quickly adjusted her mood. Before Zhou Chongwen cast a worried look at her, she returned to being the carefree Su Luo again.
"I'm hungry." Su Luo twitched his nose and walked forward while smelling the smell, "Dumplings!"
Before Zhou Chongwen could stop him, Su Luo had already sat down at a nearby steamed bun stall. On the open-air stove stood a row of steamed bun baskets. The fragrant smell and rising steam made Su Luo feel familiar. He looked around and shouted happily, "Boss! Steamed bun boss, here I come again!"
This was the place where she had competed with the storyteller last time. The bun stall was the prize sponsor. Although the final award ceremony was ruined by the underworld, she still achieved a small success here, gained dozens of fans, and had a mutual understanding with a senior storyteller. In the end, she had to thank the owner of the bun stall. Without him, Su Luo would not have this opportunity.
After calling a few times, no one showed up to see the boss. It was already lunchtime, and there was only one other customer at the stall besides Su Luo. That customer was sitting at another table with his head buried in his thoughts, looking very troubled. It was obvious that he was not paying attention to the buns.
At this time Zhou Chongwen came over, pulled Su Luo and said, since there is no one here, let’s go home and eat.
Su Luo pulled him to sit down and said, "Today, do you want me to eat buns or punch your face into a bun? You decide."
Zhou Chongwen considered it and gave in.
After waiting for a while, Su Luo knocked his chopsticks loudly, but the boss still didn't come back. Because of the regret from last time, Su Luo developed a special feeling for the buns here and didn't want to eat anything else. After thinking about it, he decided to take it out and eat it first. Anyway, he would pay after finishing it.
Just like that, Su Luo lifted the steamer under Zhou Chongwen's strongly disapproving gaze, and enthusiastically asked another person at the stall how many he wanted to eat. The man looked up at Su Luo, with a bit of anxiety on his honest face, and shook his head. After a while, he looked up again and asked, "Do you know Brother Bao?"
Su Luo shook his head . "The only person with the surname Bao that I know is Justice Bao."
The man stopped talking and continued to keep silent. Su Luo picked up the buns and returned to the table. He took a bite of one when he saw the fat bun boss trotting out of the alley next door with a small bag under his arm. He was happy to see Su Luo when he returned to the stall. He raised his hand to say hello, turned around and sat next to the honest-looking man, stuffed the small cloth bag into his hand, and said earnestly: "Brother, I can't help you too much, don't think these are too little."
The honest man was stunned for a moment, then immediately changed his face, jumped up and said, "I didn't come to you for this."
The steamed bun boss asked him to sit down and said, "You and I have been brothers since childhood. Of course I know you don't want this, but you are in trouble now, and I can't help you much as your brother, so I'm just doing my best."
Zhonghou Lian sat with his head down and burst into tears without warning. Then the two of them talked and reminisced for nearly thirty minutes. Zhonghou Lian picked up the small bag on the table and said with a red face that he would remember his brother's friendship and would repay him when he made a comeback in the future.
After the honest face left, the bun shop owner's eyes turned red. He turned his back and secretly wiped his eyes, then turned back and happily looked at Su Luo who had finished a plate of buns.
Su Luo was impressed by the brotherhood between the Baozi boss and Zhonghou Lian. Seeing the boss's strong performance, he admired him even more. "Who was that guy just now? He looked miserable."
The boss didn't say anything. He picked up the empty plate in front of Su Luo and filled it with four buns. Then he sat opposite Su Luo and sighed, "He is my sworn brother from my hometown in Yangzhou. We grew up together. He has been doing business in various places over the years. He has made some profits and some losses. He was unlucky and was cheated. He has no money left and has to come to me from afar. I just wanted to let him suffer some injustice at my stall, so I gave him some money. Even if I can't help, it's a token of my appreciation."
"How much did you take?" In fact, Su Luo shouldn't have asked, but she was more sensitive about money now and would convert it into RMB unconsciously.
The Baozi boss was a straightforward man. He laughed twice and said, "My entire fortune, plus the deed to my ancestral property in Yangzhou, is only worth about three or four hundred taels."
Su Luo was very impressed and immediately asked the boss for two more plates of buns, saying, "I'm here to support you today."
Zhou Chongwen watched for a long time but couldn't understand how these two people could become so familiar with each other in an instant as if they had known each other for ten years. One was generous and the other was righteous. After eating a few plates of buns, they were just one step away from becoming sworn brothers. But he, on the other hand, sat there doing nothing and couldn't even get a word in, which made him a little drowsy.
Su Luo asked the boss, "Your family has ancestral property, why do you come so far to sell steamed buns?" The boss said that this was because his wife's hometown. He followed his wife back to visit relatives and liked it when he came here. He then opened a steamed bun shop. Later, his wife died , and he was reluctant to end the business, so he stayed in Zhuxian Town.
Su Luo admired him and showed him respect. Finally, he asked the steamed buns boss, "What if your buddy fails again?"
The Baozi boss would laugh before speaking, and then he would say, "Brother, my parents died early, my wife also died early, I have no ties, I was born with a tough life, even if the money goes away and never comes back, I don't have to explain to anyone, and my brother is very capable, he is doing a business that is sure to make money."
"Is there a business that is sure to make money?" Su Luo burst into laughter. "He will come to you if it is sure to make money."
"Hey, hey," the steamed buns boss waved his hand, "My brother is in the matchmaking business, specializing in matchmaking, acting as a middleman, and then he makes money by collecting commissions. This time he trusted people too much, and paid for the buyer only to find out that the goods were all worthless and inferior. He went to find the seller, but he had already run away, and the buyer was also missing. It turns out that the two were in cahoots and cheated him together."
When Su Luo heard this, she realized that the sewing industry has a long history.
"What kind of transactions does he usually make?" Su Luo thought of the one thousand taels of silver that did not belong to him yet. He wanted to find out what industry was easy to do so as to avoid being confused later.
"Food and cloth." The Baozi boss was obviously proud of this brother. "My brother knows all the big grain and cloth merchants in Jiangnan."
Food? Su Luo stroked his chin and pondered for a while, then stood up and bowed with a smile, "Brother, I'll take my leave first. I may need your help in the future, so you can't refuse."
"Of course." The Baozi boss stood up and said, "I felt like we were compatible when we first met that day, and today I feel like we met too late."
The two reluctantly said goodbye to each other. Su Luo wanted to pay the bill, but the bun shop owner refused to accept it, so the two pushed and shoved for a long time. Before leaving, Su Luo asked, "Brother, what's your name?"
Zhou Chongwen was stunned. After being busy for such a long time and eating countless buns, he didn't even know the other person's name.
Fortunately, the boss of the steamed bun shop was naturally open-minded and was not angry. He said my name was Baozixing.
It really is Baozi, Zhou Chongwen thought to himself. Of course, this has violated his gentleman's clause. How can a gentleman be so mean to others? Just when he was reflecting on himself, the Baozi boss asked Su Luo again, "What's your name?"
Zhou Chongwen was completely convinced.
