Chapter 49 Pity and Hatefulness
Floating Cloud Residence.

When Xu Shuhe came out of the shower, she was a little surprised to see Chen Zhi in the room.

She thought Chen Zhi wouldn't come here today.

"I had a drink with Master Gao tonight." Chen Zhi took the initiative to speak.

Xu Shuhe sat down next to him, "What did you talk about?"

He must have come here because he wanted to share something with her.

Sure enough, after she asked, Chen Zhi slowly recounted what he had talked about with Gao Yuci today.

After hearing this, Xu Shuhe was also very happy. "Mr. Gao seems to have good character and a good family background. Since he has mentioned this and said that he will take us with him if there is business in the future, he must not be joking. But don't be careless. We still have to be careful to maintain the relationship."

"Well, don't worry, I know these limits." Chen knew, and finally asked, "Did the second brother and his wife quarrel today? The second brother went to the store to withdraw money and complained to me a few words."

"Yes, they had a big fight today, and my second sister-in-law said she wanted to go back to her parents' home." Xu Shuhe took the cloth handed over by Xinyue and wiped her hair by herself. "But their quarrel has nothing to do with us. I went to my second sister-in-law's place today, and I will help her with some housework in the future."

This surprised Chen Zhi, and he put down the teacup.

"Is she willing to share power with you?"

In the past, Chen Zhi had seen with his own eyes that his second sister-in-law wanted to squeeze out the mother-in-law and take charge of the entire Chen family's inner house.

Xu Shuhe curled her lips and said jokingly, "Of course she is reluctant, but she wants to make time to give birth to a son. Besides, she doesn't want to bother with her father-in-law and Miss Guo's affairs. She hopes someone will take over. Anyway, when Wan Shuangzhai is released from house arrest, they will find a way to take back the power of housekeeper, so she doesn't need to worry about it."

After hearing this, Chen Zhi finally understood.

Indeed, not having a son has always been a concern for Li Mingzhu.

Similarly, my older sister Chen Yurong, who is already married, has also been worried about not being able to conceive a second child in recent years.

However, Chen Zhi also knew that although the situations on both sides were the same, the root causes were different.

"Did your second brother tell you that his maid named Qianwen is pregnant?" Xu Shuhe asked again.

Chen Zhi lowered his eyes, not caring much, "No, he never cares about these things. Besides, she just got pregnant, and I don't know whether it's a boy or a girl, and I don't know if she can give birth to the baby."

In her previous life, this maid named Qianwen had bad luck. Her fetus was too big and difficult to deliver. Both mother and child were suffocated to death, and the gender of the baby in her belly was unknown.

It's really sad.

But Xu Shuhe didn't know what he was thinking. She just thought that what he said was a hint that Li Mingzhu was cruel and would not allow her concubine to give birth to a child, so she just sighed lightly at this moment.

"Life in this world is really hard for women. Good or bad depends on that belly."

Whether it is Li Mingzhu or Chen Yurong, they are both worried about not being able to give birth to a boy, which is pitiful and sad. Look at this little maid named Qianwen, she doesn't know whether to be happy or sad when she gets pregnant, even Chunliu.

There must be something hateful about a pitiful person, and conversely, a hateful person also has her pitiful aspects.

Sensing Xu Shuhe's emotions, Chen Zhi was afraid that she would feel upset and think too much, so he immediately whispered to comfort her.

"Don't think too much. I don't care about these things. In the future, whether it's a boy or a girl, I will love them equally. If I don't have a son, it's the same as raising a daughter well."

This is not a lie. Chen Zhi thought that if he had a son who was as confused as he was in his previous life, or as useless as Chen Jin, it would be better to have a daughter as cute and smart as Xu Shuhe.

But Xu Shuhe just listened and said, I treat you as my son, and you want to have a baby with me, bah!

But she had to play it off, so she coughed lightly, lowered her eyes and said shyly.

"It's too early to say this. Once I recover, everything will come naturally."

Chen Zhi also realized their previous agreement, and his face suddenly turned red. After all, what he said just now made it seem as if they were already an old married couple, but in fact, they had not yet consummated their marriage, so he was busy trying to smooth things over.

"Yes, your health is more important." He stood up again and said, "I still have some account books to look over tonight. I don't want to disturb your rest, so I'll go to the front yard to sleep."

After saying this, he didn't even give Xu Shuhe a chance to open his mouth, and immediately left Fuyunju as if escaping.

As soon as he left, Meixiang came in and said, "Master, the hot water is ready, you can go take a bath."

"No need, he went back to the front yard." Xu Shuhe's voice came from the house.

Meixiang looked puzzled, "Why are you leaving again?"

Normally, since you come here so late at night, you should stay overnight, otherwise you might end up having a quarrel.

Meixiang became worried as she was thinking about this, after all, she had just seen the quarrel over there with the Second Young Master.

Seeing Meixiang's worries, Xu Shuhe said, "There are a lot of accounts in the store, and he has to look at the account books at night. He is disturbing my rest here, so I will go to the front."

Hearing this, Meixiang felt relieved, but when she was about to leave, Xu Shuhe stopped her.

"Tomorrow you go out, buy a carriage, and find a driver. Remember, the carriage is not a big deal, but the driver must be reliable and trustworthy, and he must always go out with me in the future."

"Yes, I understand!" Meixiang said seriously, bowed and then walked out.

In the past, Xu Shuhe didn't care about the household. If she wanted to buy herself a carriage, she had to pay for it herself and also had to consider the opinions of the elders in her family. Now that they haven't fallen out yet, she bought a carriage specifically for her own use, which is not good, as it seems that she, as a daughter-in-law, despises her husband's family.

Now that I’m the housekeeper, I naturally have to buy more things, and I use public money to buy them, which saves a lot.

If Feng brought it up in the future, she would pay the money back out of her own pocket, so that the carriage would legitimately become her private property, which would be even more to her liking.

Of course, these are all for later.

Right now, Xu Shuhe is more concerned about business matters.

After a few days of opening ceremony and offering customers a chance to win, it is time to see whether the business is booming.

Fortunately, the result was gratifying. The second opening made Yunshang Pavilion famous, and the business of the store was much better than before.

Moreover, the plan proposed by Chen Zhi to use Yunshang Pavilion to drive the rouge shop has also been effective.

But it didn't work very well, and Xu Shuhe thought it was because the product was not good enough.

But these are not important. As long as there is a successful precedent, the motivation will increase in the future. These days, Chen Zhi obviously looks much more energetic than before.

Then he walks with the wind.

Every day when I returned home, I would talk to her about business, and new ideas would pop up one after another.

Judging from his attitude, he wants to reform and update all the shops under his control.

However, Xu Shuhe's opinion was that the idea was good, but if he started running before he had walked steadily on the road, he might fall. So he advised him to focus on Yunshang Pavilion and Yanzhi Shop first, and make plans for the other stores slowly.

Chen Zhi listened to the advice and agreed to everything.

Then he told her about another thing.

"Do you still remember what I told you about the Qizhou iron ore business?"

"Haven't we already advised Mr. Gao not to get involved? Could something have happened?" Xu Shuhe asked immediately.

Seeing Chen Zhi's serious expression made people feel a little worried.

But then Chen Zhi shook his head and said, "It's not that Master Gao got into trouble. It's that the Fifth Prince from the capital brought a group of officials to Qizhou to investigate the case of smuggling iron ore. Now a lot of people have been arrested in the city. I'm worried about Master Gao. I've sent Zhang Ping to inquire about it. No one with the surname Gao from the capital has been arrested. But I haven't been able to contact Master Gao at the moment. The innkeeper of the inn where he stayed said that he left a few days ago."

(End of this chapter)