When the pears are green

Chapter 73 A visit

A horse-drawn carriage stopped at the door of Li's house, attracting many neighbors to watch, making the already narrow alley even more crowded.

Kai Xin was standing nearby holding the gift. The owner of Hu Ji Restaurant knocked on the door "dong, dong, dong". He knocked and asked, "Kai Xin, are you sure this is the one? If you make a mistake, it will be embarrassing."

"Don't worry, boss. I asked several people and they all said this is the one." Kai Xin answered with certainty.

With a creak, Li Liu poked her head out from the crack of the door, looked at the elegant man in a green brocade robe and a white jade hairpin, and asked softly, "Excuse me, who are you looking for, sir?"

The owner of Hu's Restaurant smiled and said, "Aunt, is Uncle Li Yingshi at home?"

When Mrs. Li Liu heard Li Ying's name, she asked uncertainly, "May I ask who you are, young master?"

The owner of Hu's Restaurant bowed to Li Liu and said, "Nephew Hu Zhimin greets aunt."

After hearing this, Li Liu looked at Hu Zhimin carefully again.

Not long ago, Lingling's father Li Ying told Li Liushi that he had arranged a marriage for Lingling, saying that it was with the Hu family who ran a restaurant in the county town. Although she was the second wife, the man had no children. Li Liushi blamed Li Ying for selling Lingling's life happiness for such a small profit. Li Ying said that Li Liushi was short-sighted. The Li family was a small family, and it was not easy for them to marry into the Hu family.

Li Liu thought that Li Ying was talking about a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, but she didn't expect him to be so young.

Hu Zhimin let Li Liu look at him. He smiled and said, "Aunt, I was sent by my family to manage the restaurant in Heihe Town. Although I haven't officially made an engagement with your daughter, I still have to come and visit you."

Mrs. Li Liu retracted her gaze and said to Hu Zhimin, "Li Ying and Lingling are not at home. Please go back. I will inform them when they come back."

Hu Zhimin waved to Kai Xin, who came over holding a gift. Hu Zhimin smiled and said to Li Liu: "Aunt, this is our first meeting. I hope you will accept this small gift as a token of my respect."

Li Liu wanted to refuse, but Kai Xin forced it into her hands.

Hu Zhimin looked at Kai Xin with satisfaction, then said goodbye to Li Liu.

As the carriage left, the onlookers came forward to ask Li Liu who this was. Li Liu slammed the door shut, blocking out the sounds of discussion outside.

Happy sat on the carriage and asked Hu Zhimin through the curtain: "Boss, should we go back home or to Li's shop?"

Hu Zhimin was half lying in the carriage. He thought for a moment and then said, "Let's go to Li's shop. Since we are here, we have to meet each other. Happy, you know the place, right?"

"Don't worry, boss. I have also inquired about it." He answered happily.

Hu Zhimin in the carriage didn't say anything else, and happily drove the carriage slowly towards Li's shop.

The carriage stopped steadily in front of Li's shop. The curtain was happily opened and Hu Zhimin jumped out of the carriage.

Hu Zhimin stood in front of Li's shop, looking at this somewhat shabby grocery store in front of him. The shop was only the size of two houses, and a wooden plaque with five large characters "Li's Grocery Store" was hung on the lintel.

Kai Xin walked up to Hu Zhimin and said, "Boss, this is it. This shop is very ordinary. It's just that the handkerchiefs have been selling well since a while ago. They must have found an embroiderer with good embroidery skills not long ago."

Hu Zhimin nodded and walked straight into the grocery store. He did not see Li Ying, only two little girls who were talking with their backs to the shop door.

The two little girls were talking seriously and didn't notice Hu Zhimin and Kai Xin walked in.

Hu Zhimin waited patiently for a while, but the two little girls were still chattering non-stop.

"Ahem," Hu Zhimin pretended to cough, which attracted the attention of two girls. One of them was wearing a pink long skirt, with two buns on her hair, a pair of shining eyes, and two small canine teeth when she smiled. She came over and asked, "Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

Hu Zhimin looked the little girl up and down, and said with a smile, "I am Hu Zhimin."

"Hu Zhimin?" Lingling repeated in confusion. She looked at Hu Zhimin carefully and shook her head, indicating that she didn't know him.

Seeing this, Hu Zhimin wondered if Li Ying had not told the girl?

After Song Yue heard what Hu Zhimin said, she ran to Lingling and whispered to her, "Lingling, his last name is Hu. Is he the one from the Hu family your father mentioned? Is he the one you mentioned?"

After Lingling heard what Song Yue said, both of them opened their eyes wide, and then they both secretly glanced at Hu Zhimin.

Lingling mustered up her courage and asked softly, "Excuse me, are you the owner of Hu's Restaurant?"

Hu Zhimin smiled, nodded, and then asked, "Is Uncle Li not here?"

Lingling shook her head and said, "My father is usually not in the store. I look after the store and my brother manages the shop."

"You're a little girl, and if you meet a tricky customer, it will be difficult to deal with it! Just like what you two said just now, if a bad guy comes in and you two are not on guard, how are you going to deal with it?" Hu Zhimin said to Lingling and Song Yue with a smile.

Lingling and Song Yue looked at each other and lowered their heads in front of Hu Zhimin like two children who had made mistakes.

Hu Zhimin looked at the little girl in front of him who was nearly ten years younger than him, and then looked at the ten-year-old Kai Xin next to him. He felt that he was born to raise a child.

Hu Zhimin sighed in his heart and said to Lingling, "My family sent me to Heihe Town. I will stay here often in the future. If you have any problems that you can't solve, you can come to me. Starting tomorrow, I will send someone to help you. It's really worrying to have a child guarding here."

After Hu Zhimin finished speaking, he strolled in the shop. The shop was very neat and tidy, and all kinds of goods were neatly placed in their own places. He picked up a handkerchief, looked at it carefully, and said to the two girls with a smile: "The handkerchiefs in your shop are really good. The patterns are more novel than those in other shops in the town, and the embroidery is also good."

After hearing this, Song Yue and Lingling jumped up happily.

Hu Zhimin asked curiously, "Did you two embroider this handkerchief?"

Lingling pointed at Song Yue and said, "It wasn't me, it was Xiaoyue and Ruyi who embroidered it. The pattern was drawn by my brother. My brother draws very well, and Ruyi and Xiaoyue embroidered it very well too."

After hearing this, Hu Zhimin picked up the two handkerchiefs and looked at them carefully. He smiled and said, "Indeed, they were embroidered by two people. This one is relatively better."

Lingling took the handkerchief from Hu Zhimin's hand, looked at it, and said to Hu Zhimin, "This was embroidered by Xiaoyue. My brother taught her to draw."

After hearing this, Hu Zhimin smiled and said to Song Yue: "It seems that this should be my future sister-in-law."

Song Yue blushed immediately, and she said hurriedly: "Mr. Hu, don't talk nonsense. My sister asked Mr. Li to teach me. It wasn't just Mr. Li who taught me, Mr. Wu also taught me a lot."

"Oh, what the girl said is interesting." Hu Zhimin said softly.

Song Yue blushed and handed the handkerchiefs in the basket to Lingling. Lingling counted them and found there were ten in total. She wrote down the number, then took out twenty cents from the wooden box and handed them to Song Yue.

Song Yue didn't dare to stay here any longer. She hurriedly said goodbye to Lingling and prepared to wait for Old Man Wang's ox cart.

Lingling looked at Hu Zhimin with a bit of resentment and said, "You scared my friends away. I want her to marry my brother so that I can play with her all day long."

After hearing this, Hu Zhimin smiled and said to her, "There's no hope."

Lingling glared at Hu Zhimin angrily. Hu Zhimin looked at the angry girl and asked with a smile, "I still don't know your name?"

"Li Yunling." Lingling turned her head away and said.

Hu Zhimin stayed in the shop for a while. When he saw a customer coming, he said to Kai Xin and Ling Ling, "I'm going to go back first. Kai Xin, you help her here. When the shop closes, you can send her home and then come back to the shop."

"Boss, don't worry." Kai Xin said.

Without waiting for Lingling to say anything against it, Hu Zhimin walked out of the shop and drove the carriage back to the restaurant.

In Hengqu Academy, Li Yun'an and Wu Mingde kept sneezing, and both thought that the other was saying bad things about them.