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  Translator: Fan Translation Studio

  Xiao Tieshu said to the subordinate of the tax official. “We only know that Baoshan is working in the dock now and my sister-in-law and others were running a restaurant in town. Haven’t you investigated their restaurant before? That’s how it goes roughly. Just like what you have investigated last time.”


  Xiao Tongshu also said, “Yea, that’s how it goes. By the way, I heard that they bought a house in town but they haven’t thrown a housewarming banquet. We also haven’t been invited to their new house.”


  “.……”


  After the tax official went away Xiao Tieshu started cursing.

  “The second household is going way too far. They don’t even invite us to have a look at their new house.”


  Xiao Tongshu said, “Isn’t their new house on the route of our patrolling? We pass that area everyday and we know what it roughly looks like. It doesn’t matter if we go there or not.”


  “That’s not the case. If they invite us, it means that they still treat us as their relatives, but if they don’t invite us, they must have totally exclude us from their household.”


  Xiao Tongshu said, “That’s right. We don’t have some deep-seated hatred against them. We just made them do more work in the past, didn’t we? But they couldn’t earn any money back then, shouldn’t they need to do more work?”


  “Ah, you wish you know people’s hearts.” Xiao Tieshu sighed.

  The two brothers did not expect that they would see Ye Xiaoxian the next day.

  Ye Xiaoxian went back home from the restaurant at noon when she encountered the two brothers who were patrolling on the street.

  Ye Xiaoxian went over and greeted them. “Elder Uncle, Third Uncle.”


  Xiao Tieshu saw Ye Xiaoxian and was not very cheerful. He snorted. “Mhmm.”


  Xiao Tongshu then said sneeringly, “Hah, Little Ye, why aren’t you in the restaurant? Don’t they need you to work there?”


  Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “No, not really. We have a cook to do the job there.”


  “No wonder you look rather energetic. It turns out that you’ve hired someone,” said Xiao Tieshu.

  Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “Elder uncle, did you praise me? Thank you.”


  Xiao Tongshu said as if he ate sour grapes. “People become energetic and refreshed when they have something good going on. Your restaurant is running well and you have bought a new house and you also won some big prize in the provincial capital. You have become much better-off day by day.”


  Ye Xiaoxian said, “It’s not that good. By the way, Uncles, why don’t you come to our new house and have a meal with us when you’re free?”


  Once Ye asked, Xiao Tieshu and Xiao Tongshu felt shocked……

  Ye Xiaoxian actually invited them to have a meal there. Was the sun rising from the west?

  Ye Xiaoxian smiled again. “I was busy about the issue of Baozhu and then went to the provincial capital to take part in the contest and now have something tricky to mind, so I didn’t even have time to invite you to our new house. I heard that you went to visit Baozhu before, so I tell myself that you’re really the family. Only our own family is willing to visit Baozhu.”


  Xiao Tieshu and Xiao Tongshu were surprised again.

  Xiao Tieshu then said, “Never mind, I remember that I still owe you several hundreds of coins. I wrote an IOU last time, didn’t I?”


  Ye Xiaoxian explained with a smile. “Elder Uncle, although our restaurant looked rather grand, we actually don’t make that much of money and we’ve already explained the reason to you. We need to pay the employees, the rent, the tax and the food ingredients like vegetables and rice, so we really don’t have much money left. Therefore, even though our family members come to eat, we have to charge you.

  However, Uncles, after all you went to eat for the first time, so let’s just call the debt off, but there’s one condition. You can’t take anyone else to eat again, especially that Xun Wenda. That guy doesn’t look decent.”


  Ye Xiaoxian had given them an out to that extent, so if the two brothers still could not understand, they must have some mind problems.

  Also, seeing Ye Xiaoxian who was really sincere, Xiao Tieshu then said, “Well……I’ll go back and check with your elder aunt to see when we’re free to go. If we have time, we will go.”


  “Right. I’ll see you later,” said Ye Xiaoxian.

  “What? You want to invite your two uncles to eat in our house?” Li Hongmei looked Ye Xiaoxian in surprise.

  Ye Xiaoxian said, “Yea, I’ve thought about it. The two uncles and us are not enemies. After all, we’re blood relatives. We don’t have some serious hatred and also, we have moved to a new house, so it’ll be inappropriate if we don’t invite them to come over and have a meal.”


  Li Hongmei thought about Wong Mudan and Chen Ju and felt a bit unhappy.

  Ye Xiaoxian then tried to persuade Li Hongmei with a smile. “Ma, we’re not in the village now, so we can’t be short-sighted and limit ourselves to the current small interests. We have think ahead. Elder and third uncles are attendants working for the government office. Who knows, maybe they can give us a hand someday in the future. Besides, elder and third aunts are in the village and won’t sponge off us very often. I have told them very clearly already.”


  Li Hongmei still felt a bit struggling. “Well, we’ve done so hard that finally got rid of them.”


  “How can we get rid of them? Blood is still thicker than water.” Ye Xiaoxian smiled.

  Li Hongmei could not win Ye Xiaoxian over, so she could only said, “Fine, it’s all up to you, so long as you find it okay.”
……

  As for Fang Shanding, he had investigated that Ye Xiaoxian’s husband was working in the dock, so he had quite a feeling of superiority.

  Just like the Young Master Zhang before, Fang Shanding thought that he was much superior than workers in the dock. He also thought that he could attract Ye Xiaoxian’s attention.

  For women, at the beginning they all found young and handsome guys attractive but with time passing by, they would value money more. Fang Shanding regarded Ye Xiaoxian as one of those women too.

  Fang Shanding was a cautious man, so he asked others to have a further investigation.

  Later on he discovered that Xiao Baoshan had quite a decent wage and was a kung fu master, so he did not have much advantages.

  About this matter, he could only do it strategically and gained access gradually. He could not do it forcefully.

  Fang Shanding had analyzed his advantages and disadvantages.

  His advantage was that he had a higher position in the government office, so he could take Ye Xiaoxian to meet upper-class people and offer her more opportunities. As to his disadvantages, naturally, he was getting old and had wives and children. Even if he could mange to get Ye Xiaoxian, she could only be a little concubine of his.

  Fang Shanding was old and did not wish to make any trouble for himself, he did not want to make Ye Xiaoxian his concubine. He only wanted to treat Ye Xiaoxian as his soul mate, so they could chat, enjoy the poetic aspect of life and also, beyond being soul mates, they could be another kind of partners.

  He also felt that this kind of arrangement actually favored Ye Xiaoxian.

  She could not only have Xiao Baoshan as her husband but gain one more mature soul mate.

  “Little Ye, that tax official came again and wanted to see you.”


  In the restaurant, seeing Fang Shanding come again, Li Hongmei went to serve him but Fang Shanding said that he had something to talk with Ye Xiaoxian.

  Ye Xiaoxian was about to go out when Li Hongmei held her hands with an anxious look. “Little Ye, you must be careful. I don’t think the tax official bear a good intention.”


  Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “He can’t be like that, can he? He didn’t say anything last time he came.”


  “Old guys always conceal their feelings. Maybe he is adopting a long-term plan to secure something big.” In short, Li Hongmei felt really worried.

  Li Hongmei comforted Li Hongmei. “No matter what, I have to go to check.”


  Today Fang Shanding came here alone to see Ye Xiaoxian. When he saw Ye Xiaoxian he only ordered one dish but offered her an invitation. “Miss Ye, last time you went to my home to cook the birthday banquet for my son, right? There were a lot of people dining in my house including the chief of the government office himself. He ate the food you cooked and could not stop praising you. After a couple of days, the chief will hold a banquet in his house. Are you free? Do you want to go there and help them to cook a couple of dishes?”


  “Cooking dishes?”