Chapter 68: Family, Together We Fight
Su Luo walked out of the cashier's door, looked back, and shouted, "What are you daydreaming about? Take me to the Su residence. Do you remember the address?"
"What are you shouting about!" Yun Lang rushed out to stop Su Luo from destroying his glorious image in front of his employees. "They sent a sedan chair to wait at your door to take you."
"Fuck the sedan." Su Luo gritted his teeth and snapped his fingers, "Forcing you to buy and sell, you are really a robber!"
Yun Lang was admiring Su Luo's bold words, but he was unhappy when he heard this, "What's wrong with the robber?"
Su Luo immediately reflected on herself. She was wrong . She was guilty. She shouldn't have classified the word "robber" as a derogatory term. Who made the people around her so complicated? The children of fallen officials, the hooligans who collected protection fees, the bandits who robbed indiscriminately... Look at what kind of friends she has made!
Following Yunlang through the alleys, asking for directions, and walking for half an hour, we finally found a house deep in the wealthy area of Zhuxian Town. The Su Mansion had a vermilion lacquered gate, bluestone steps, and two medium-sized stone lions at the door. Nine out of ten households had the same design, without any creativity.
She rushed to the door and knocked. The doorman opened it and asked who she was looking for.
Su Luo was in a dilemma. She didn't know what Mantou's father's name was, so she just said she was looking for your master.
The doorman said we have the first, second and third masters, which master are you looking for?
Su Luo was really confused. It was really a big family. Who was her mantou dad? After thinking for a while, she said, "I'll find the one who looks most like a mantou."
The doorman thought about it and said, "Even if you put it that way, I can't figure out who you are talking about. You'd better leave your name so that I can inform the three masters one by one to see who knows you."
Su Luo wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, followed Yun Lang and sat down at the gatehouse to wait for reception. After a while, the servant who had gone to deliver the message came back and said that the master wanted to see him.
Su Luo snorted with disdain in his heart. Even though Mantou’s father was so cowardly, he was still the eldest master. He really didn’t give his younger brothers any face.
Standing up, Su Luo stretched his hands and legs, twisted his waist, did a set of stretching exercises, and asked Yun Lang to do some exercises as well, as he would be the main force in the fight. Before leaving, he asked Yun Lang how to make a "crackling" sound with his fingers, which he would use for demonstration, and completely ignored the pale-faced gatekeeper next to him, and followed the messenger into the mansion.
After passing the first courtyard, Su Luo was stunned for a moment. The layout and furnishings behind this house were quite similar to the one she had in Nanjing. It was grand and exquisite. According to Su Luo's original thought, her steamed bread father was probably a petty bourgeois. Seeing that his daughter, whom he had abandoned before, had made a small fortune, he came to recognize her eagerly. Unexpectedly...
Yun Lang pulled her, and Su Luo's steps slowed down. Yun Lang pointed around and said, "Do you think they can live in such a big house and would be interested in your small shop worth only one or two thousand taels?"
Su Luo was also thinking about this, and finally snorted, "Maybe it's just a facade, don't we have a house like this in Nanjing?"
Yunlang chuckled and said that you have a very accurate understanding of your positioning.
Su Luo rolled his eyes, the world became quiet, the discordant sounds disappeared, very good, let's keep moving forward.
Fangcao Garden is in the southwest corner of the garden. Su Luo followed the servant into the garden. There were side rooms on both sides. A cotton curtain was hung on the door of the main room in the middle. The backyard could not be seen, but judging from the layout, it seemed to be another courtyard with several entrances.
When Su Luo looked around, the servant had gone into the house to report and came out again, saying that the master wanted the two of them to come in. Su Luo had long been impatient, and she wanted to take Su and Su Yi away quickly, and didn't want to meet the Mantou family again, so she grabbed the servant and asked where the people your master brought back today were?
The servant shook his head and repeatedly made the gesture of "please". Su Luo had no choice but to step onto the stairs. While lifting the curtain, she was still thinking about how to scold Mantou's father and ask him not to harass them again in the future.
Just as Su Luo moved her hands, the curtain was suddenly opened from the inside, and a round face came into view, which scared her.
The bun-faced man was also startled, but he quickly calmed down and made way for her. "Please come in."
Although it was also a steamed bun, it was not her old man's father. He was about fifty years old and looked familiar. Logically, she should not forget someone with such a distinctive appearance. After a careful look, from the man's eyebrows and eyes, especially the outline of his face, he looked a bit like her old man's father. After entering the room, there was no one else except the two maids serving tea. It seemed that she had guessed wrong. The old man's father was not the eldest master, but this one was.
"Please sit down." The man with the round face was very enthusiastic. He asked the maid to serve tea, and finally asked Su Luo with a smile, "Don't you recognize me?" The round face, round eyes and round nose, and the smile like this made him likable, and he had a certain demeanor and didn't seem to be deliberately fawning, which gave people a good impression. "Think about it carefully?"
Su Luo scratched her chin. Considering that this old man took the initiative to see her, and was so enthusiastic... she suddenly showed a look of great surprise, lowered her voice and asked mysteriously: "Are you my biological father?"
"...Ahem!" The master was obviously upset and waved his hand at the two maids, "Go and invite each family to the main hall to discuss matters."
The two girls retreated with silly looks on their faces, and Su Luo sat down on the chair happily, "Actually, you are my uncle, right?"
Su Jing was sweating helplessly. Ever since he saw Su Luo at the Qiangui opening ceremony a few months ago, he had always felt that this name was familiar. Later, he remembered that a concubine was driven out of the third room more than ten years ago, and her daughter was called this name. So he handed the matter over to his third brother Su Tong, asking him to check whether it was his daughter. Su Tong checked around and found that it was true, so Su Jing asked him to bring them back. But at that time, Su Luo was away on a long trip, and Su Tong did not dare to act because of the tigress at home. It was not until this morning when he heard that Su Luo was back that he went to pick her up again at the instruction of his eldest brother.
Of course he couldn't say that to Su Luo, so he said that when he first saw Su Luo, she looked familiar and he felt that she was his niece who had been lost for many years, so he had to bring her back and reunite the family.
Su Luo immediately slapped her thigh and said that Su Jing looked familiar. She had seen him at the opening ceremony of Qiangui. At that time, he was standing behind the president of the Zhuxian Town Commercial Federation. Qin Huai seemed to have mentioned Jintaixuan, a cloth seller with two branches in Kaifeng. It was also a well-known merchant in Zhuxian Town.
Her kind uncle, the whole family is reunited? Su Luo snorted and laughed, why didn't he think of this when her mother and daughter had no food to eat? Now he remembered to pick them up.
However, Su Luo was not too angry about this matter. After all, she was not the one who suffered before. Besides, it was normal for people to be poor and no one cared about them in a busy city. She was basically a bystander in this matter, so she was only symbolically angry. Glancing at Su Jing's kind face, she sighed, "Uncle, I appreciate your kindness, but we have been away for so many years and are not used to the life of a big family..."
Su Jing waved his hand to stop her from speaking, "For so many years, the Su family has indeed let you down. Now that I know about this, I can't just ignore it."
Look, he cleared himself with just two sentences, as if he didn't know that they were kicked out before. It was really innocent... no business, Su Luo was more and more sure. At the same time, she also understood why the mantou lady had that attitude. It turned out that she didn't want to take the person in, but was forced to do so by Su Jing. No wonder she was so reluctant.
It seemed that nothing could be done now, Su Jing was determined to keep the hostage, and was eager to introduce all the families in the mansion to Su Luo. Su Luo felt that he was quite like the victim's family member. The hostage was in someone else's hands, so did he have the right to say no?
No...then let's go. As they walked, Yun Lang whispered to Su Luo, "This house is nice. You should get it first before you leave."
Su Luo was speechless. This kid is smart. He knows that housing prices will skyrocket in a few hundred years, but he starts hoarding houses now.
Following Su Jing out of the Fangcao Garden, we returned to the main hall as we entered the courtyard. The hall of several dozen square meters had only chairs and coffee tables on both sides facing the gate, and the rest of the space was empty. I wonder if this is called the art of leaving blank space.
When they saw Su Jing coming in, everyone present stood up and saluted. There were quite a few people, about ten or so, men, women, young and old, standing in the room.
Su Luo took a quick look and saw that Mantou Daddy and Mantou Auntie were among them, but Su was not there. Auntie Mantou's face was understandably not good. Besides her, there were two other ladies who were very enthusiastic when they saw her. They sandwiched her in the middle, one saying "I am the eldest aunt" and the other saying "I am the second aunt", and pushed Su Luo to the chair.
Yun Lang did not need anyone to let him go. He ran directly to the most spacious place, ignored the surprised or angry looks of the crowd, and sat in the main seat.
Su Jing looked at Su Luo awkwardly. Su Luo pretended not to see it. She was hoping for a commotion. The bigger the commotion, the better. It would be best if these people would drive them out. When Su Jing saw this, she asked the servants to move another chair and put it in front of Yun Lang. The two of them sat in a row and ate fruit as if they were in class.
"Cough!" Su Jing coughed and introduced Su Luo to everyone first.
Su Luo specifically looked at the expression of her father Su Tong. Perhaps because his elder brother was present, he felt more confident and did not keep wiping his sweat like before. He even dared to look at her with a look of relief in his eyes.
Su Luo really wanted to rush up and spit in his face. Not to mention that she was unhygienic, she was really disgusting.
After introducing Su Luo, Su Jing started from the left and introduced everyone present one by one.
First, there was my second uncle Su Zhang. Although he also had a steamed face, he didn't look as smooth as Su Jing. He had the Confucian air of a cultured man. My second aunt was just the opposite. She had a gossipy face. If you told her any secret, there was no doubt that it would become a secret known to the world. My eldest aunt was better. She looked gentle and dignified, and seemed able to control herself.
I won’t introduce Mr. and Mrs. Su Tong. There are only three brothers in their generation, and then there are Su Luo’s generation.
Su Luo was very happy that he didn't see a pile of steamed buns. It seemed that the masters of the Su family all had recessive genes, and their sons and daughters didn't look like them, but all looked like their mother.
Su Hong is Su Jing's second son, about 28 or 29 years old, very energetic, now in charge of the Jintaixuan branch in Kaifeng, also full of smiles, like his father, he has an older brother named Su Lun, also in Kaifeng, but not back. Su Ji is the second uncle's son, you can tell from his appearance that he is not a good businessman, like his father, he is a cultured person. Su Xuan is Su Luo's half brother, two months younger than her. Su Luo is not afraid of being watched by everyone, she rolled her eyes at him in public, Su Xuan looked very angry, looked at his mother, then looked at his sister, no one stood up for him, so he didn't say anything.
Aunt Mantou’s youngest daughter is called Su Qi. She still ignores Su Luo, and Su Luo doesn’t bother to pay attention to her.
The person that Su Luo was most concerned about among these people was the one sitting at the very end, and Su Jing also introduced him specifically.
Her name was Su Jiang, the youngest daughter of the second branch of the family. She was only 19 years old and had a pretty face, but she wore men's clothing, which was almost impossible in a wealthy family. From the introduction just now, Su Luo learned that each branch had one to three daughters, all of whom were married. Why was this "old girl" who was only one year younger than Su Luo still unmarried and wearing men's clothing?
Su Hong smiled and said, "I heard that Sister Luo also has property in Zhuxian Town. Haven't you heard of Master Su Wu of Jintaixuan?"
Su Luo sweatdropped a little. She just remembered Jintaixuan today, not to mention the others. But... Fifth Master Su? Are you talking about this Su Jiang?
Su Jiang looked at Su Luo coldly without saying anything. Su Hong stepped forward and said, "Master Su Wu is a genius in the business community of Zhuxian Town. It is thanks to Sister Jiang that our cloth shop has developed so fast. We are planning to open a branch in Luoyang next year."
Looking at the smug look on his second aunt's face, Su Luo became really curious. This Su Jiang was quite interesting.
