Chapter 126
"Xiao Nuo, this is Luo Xingchen or Second Young Master Luo. You can call him Brother Luo." Su Tang introduced Luo Xingchen.
Luo Xingchen knew that Su Tang lived alone with just her younger brother, and she had long been curious about what kind of younger brother a magical girl like Su Tang might have. However, after seeing him, she felt a little disappointed. It turned out that the little brother was very ordinary.
Luo Xingchen took out a few candies from one of her pockets. "You must be Xiao Nuo. Here you go, these candies are pretty good, take it as a gift from Big Brother."
Su Nuo looked over at his sister and waited to see her nod before he took the candy and said, "Thank you, Brother Luo!"
Luo Xingchen nodded, "Your little brother is quite good."
"Thanks for saying so. Anyway, let's go to the east wing. Don't disturb my brother's studies. If you delay him from taking the top place in the Imperial examinations just see how I'll settle you."
When Luo Xingchen heard Su Tang say that so confidently, she laughed along and said, "Alright, I will not delay the future top scorer!"
With that, the two people headed to the east wing where there were several boxes for making soap laid out. When Luo Xingchen saw that she curiously walked forward to take a look and said, "So this is how your soap is made!"
Su Tang ignored her and sat down. "What was that earlier?"
If it hadn't been for the orange cat's reminder and Su Tang's own alertness, she was afraid that things might have developed very differently today.
When Luo Xingchen heard Su Tang's question, she stopped worrying about the soap and sat down across from Su Tang while rubbing her brows tiredly. Her eyes were red and bloodshot and it was clear she hadn't been getting much rest recently. Eventually, she spoke: "I went back to tell my father about cooperating regarding the soap and the two sauces with you. He thought that taking 30% of the soap profit was acceptable, but then he told me that matters regarding the two sauces needed to be kept secret and that I would be responsible for all the future development of this business."
"So how did your brother end up interfering?" Su Tang was a very straightforward person, so she asked Luo Xingchen about this matter directly.
However, just then Baohe came in with the tea. Recently Su Tang had been bringing Su Nuo to this courtyard every morning, so she had taken out some of her space's spring water and some honey, which could be used with hawthorn berries to make Honey Hawthorn tea. Because of that, nowadays whenever she was here in the morning she would sometimes ask for them to make her some tea.
Baohe smoothly delivered the tea and then withdrew, closing the door behind her so that Su Tang and Luo Xingchen could talk alone.
Luo Xingchen picked up the teacup and looked curiously at the reddish-brown tea inside that was emitting the sweet fragrance of honey and Hawthorn. She took a sip and was surprised to find that one gulp seemed to warm her entire body and fill her with energy as if she had just gotten a full eight hours of sleep.
"Tomato sauce and chili sauce are two seasonings that have never appeared in our country so we expect that they should be extremely profitable, which is why my father attaches great importance to them. However. when he heard the news, a confidant planted by my brother at my father's side immediately also told my brother about it, and so my brother went to my father and asked to be allowed to take over this business. However, thanks to the fact that I told my father that Miss Su only agreed to sign the contract with me because she trusted me, my father naturally turned my brother down."
Luo Xingchen continued to talk about what had happened these past few days. "Then, because I was in a hurry to come back here, I left after only staying for a single night. Meanwhile, because Luo Xinghe didn't achieve his goal on his father's side, he decided to bribe my attendants and had someone deliberately lead me in the wrong direction while we were headed back. At the same time, he tried to get Yongwang to come and see you and try to destroy our relationship."
When she spoke to this point, Luo Xingchen's tone was a bit bleak and sarcastic. "If you think about it, it's a pity for him that you already saw through my secret last time... because of that, there is a fair amount of trust between us. If not, then what happened today would have been enough to plant a seed of doubt about me in your heart, which would have been enough for Luo Xinghe to make a move and destroy our cooperation."
Luo Xingchen laughed wryly.
Chapter 127
Business was like a battlefield and maintaining or destroying the cooperation between two parties were both things that required a degree of calculation. Luo Xinghe wasn't a terribly smart person, but he at least had some people by his side who could give him ideas.
Of course, Luo Xinghe didn't actually expect Yongwang to somehow steal away the cooperation with Su Tang, but his actions would demonstrate that Luo Xingchen wasn't about the control the people closest to him. Obviously, that was a terrible trait for a potential business partner to have, so Luo Xinghe expected it would create a rift in Su Tang and Luo Xingchen's relationship that he would then be able to take advantage of.
If Su Tang lost her trust in Luo Xingchen because of the incident, then she might be willing to cooperate with Luo Xinghe instead. However, what Luo Xinghe failed to account for was the fact that Su Tang and Luo Xingchen's relationship was not simply to the degree of business partners.
After all, Luo Xingchen's life could be said to be in Su Tang's hands to some extent. Right now, across the whole world, the only person who knew Luo Xingchen was actually a girl besides her mother was Su Tang.
Considering the era they were in and what they knew about each other, they both inevitably had some mutual sympathy and mutual understanding, which also led to a certain degree of trust. And, for various reasons, Su Tang had a hard time envisioning a scenario in which she would agree to cooperate with someone else.
That was because she felt that Luo Xingchen wouldn't ever betray her while they were working together. In part because of their shared emotional experience as women who were trying to business in this male-dominated world and in part because, from another, more coldly rational perspective, Luo Xingchen would probably never dare to betray her.
Of course, they both tacitly understood that reality but neither of them had ever bothered to say it out loud, which was why Luo Xingchen found this whole situation a bit ironic. She had originally thought that Su Tang knowing her secret meant that the other girl had an insurmountable piece of leverage over her, but now that leverage had become the most powerful tool in maintaining their cooperation. How could she not find it funny?
Having heard Luo Xingchen's explanation, Su Tang said, "It seems to be about the same as I guessed. Perhaps your brother can still be called an opponent, he doesn't seem quite stupid enough to ascend to heaven directly on his own."
Luo Xingchen laughed bitterly when she heard that. "He's very stupid, it's just he has people around him to give him advice."
When she saw Su Tang was just calmly drinking her tea despite everything, Luo Xingchen looked at her anxiously and asked, "Do you think I'm too ruthless?"
Su Tang returned her gaze evenly, "I've already said that I've decided to trust you."
Actually, truth be told, as a modern person, when Su Tang saw how Luo Xingchen dealt with Yongwang she couldn't say she had no feelings of discomfort at all. However, Su Tang knew very well that was just how this world worked.
Even if this were the modern times what Yongwang did would be considered a crime, and society would always have a punishment for criminals.
When Luo Xingchen heard Su Tang's affirmation, her eyes turned red and teary, "Tang..."
This feeling of having someone who completely trusted her was something very strange for Luo Xingchen and she felt uncontrollably moved. Even though her biological mother had raised her as a man from an early age, she had never really believed in her or understood her.
However, she had now met Su Tang, this girl she had only seen a few times but who could still easily say that she trusted her completely.
Maybe two girls facing similar situations like them could really understand each other's difficulties in a way no one else could.
Seeing the older girl like this, Su Tang frowned for a moment, but then a sly smile crept onto her lips. When Luo Xingchen saw that smile her eyes widened and she felt an ominous shiver run up her spine.
"After all, they say that it doesn't matter who you are, if you even slightly offend that Second Young Master Luo you are definitely bound to die." Sure enough, after smiling like that, Su Tang came out with a sentence that directly jabbed Luo Xingchen's heart.
Su Tang had actually never heard of the Luo family from Beikou before so after Luo Xingchen had left, she had asked the orange cat to ask around and find out what he could. In that manner, she had come to learn that Second Young Master Luo was quite the infamous character and really explained why Yang Fude had been so scared of her on that day when they had first met.
When she heard Su Tang mention her black history, Luo Xingchen's eyes widened, as if in disbelief, and she dramatically clutched at her chest over her heart. "Tang, my Tang, how could you just believe what those people outside say? You've seen for yourself, am I such a person? Can you bear to bully me like this?!"
Chapter 128
Su Tang rolled her eyes, what kind of drama queen was this?
"I can!" Su Tang retorted against the other girl's pitiful act decisively.
After she spoke, Luo Xingchen put on a terribly wronged expression and gave her a silent but aggrieved look, as if she was begging to be comforted.
For her part, Su Tang just took another sip of her tea. The Hawthorn berries, honey, and spring water used to make this tea all came from her space and, now that the space had reached level 16, it seemed that there might be some positive effects from drinking it. After all, in the past, the orange cat had told her that the space would become more and more powerful as it grew to higher levels, so it was about time for it to finally show some effects.
If nothing else, even though she was drinking tea made with the same spring water, as usual, Su Tang somehow felt that the taste was more crisp and clean than ever, and all of the produce harvested from the fields seemed to have upgraded in taste by a level.
As she enjoyed the sweet and sour taste of her tea, Su Tang completely ignored Luo Xingchen's begging eyes. She just snorted and said, "Who asked you to be so stupid that you can't even teach the people around you properly?"
This was a critical hit! Luo Xingchen suddenly went from pretending to be aggrieved, to actually feeling aggrieved. She said morosely, "Him being so stupid exceeded my expectations as well."
Looking at the whole of Luo Xinghe's plan, it was very obvious that Yongwang was just a pawn that would be immediately abandoned after he served his purpose. To put it simply, Luo Xinghe had never actually expected Yongwang to be able to seriously discuss any business with Su Tang. If he really managed to do that, wouldn't that mean that Su Tang was a complete fool?
If Yongwang had some suitably high position, like the butler or the housekeeper for the Luo family, and he wanted to discuss business with Su Tang, that would just barely be plausible. But the reality was that Yongwang was only one of Second Young Master Luo's attendants. What kind of business would he have the right to talk about with that identity?
From beginning to the end, Luo Xinghe's real goal had been to destroy Su Tang's impression of Luo Xingchen, in the hopes that he would be able to take advantage of the gap if their cooperation was broken off.
As to what benefits Luo Xinghe might have promised Yongwang for him to take such a risk, it didn't matter at all because he was just going to be used and discarded. However, it was the truth that he had been one of Luo Xingchen's attendants, so Su Tang's admonishment that she wasn't teaching her people properly wasn't without merit.
However, Luo Xingchen also felt very aggrieved over this matter. The truth was that she had only entered the business world a short three years ago and, although she had some connections, she had always been inferior to Luo Xinghe in many ways just because he had already been working and mingling in the adult world for many years when she was just starting. And, no matter what, it was always difficult to grasp a person's heart.
For instance, Yongwang had betrayed her despite following her for three years. Meanwhile, she had only known Su Tang for less than a month and had only met her a scant handful of times but they were already able to work together and trust each other. Their level of mutual understanding was difficult to put into words.
"Hmph..." When Su Tang heard Luo Xingchen's words she just snorted.
However, when Luo Xingchen saw Su Tang's little face scrunch up to snort, she immediately smiled and said, "Tang, you've seen that I've been working very hard. Would you make me some of that grilled fish again?"
This foodie, the second she finished talking about serious business, she shifted gears to begging Su Tang to cook for her.
"You don't know, but I've been dreaming of eating your grilled fish every night ever since we last parted. This time I need to bring away 10,000 bars of soap so I'll probably be here in Qinghe Town for a while. Just look at me, I've been working so hard, and then, on top of that, I was betrayed. Can you still be heartless? Don't you feel distressed for me Tang..."
Luo Xingchen had no sense of shame at all. She quickly began tugging on Su Tang's sleeve and putting on a pitiful expression in the hopes that the other girl would agree to cook.
Su Tang looked up at her and began to wonder if she had been wrong to tear down the other girl's cold and serious facade back then? It was a bit hard to believe that this hungry ghost in front of her was the same person who had pulled her aside and threatened to kill her back when they first met.
"Wait a minute. Is this person in front of me really Second Young Master Luo from the Luo family of Beikou? The one from the richest merchant family in the north?" Su Tang couldn't help but tease.
"I am, I am. Can I have some grilled fish made by my Tang now?" The beautiful teenager blinked her phoenix eyes and pretended to be cute. At any rate, she really didn't have any image to speak of or secrets to keep in front of Su Tang, so she didn't care at all if her image right now was terrible, eating was more important, okay? That grilled fish was really delicious ah!
Chapter 129
Su Tang silently expressed her admiration for this person's shamelessness before patting the hand that was holding her sleeve. "I'm not free in the afternoon. I'll come over and cook for you this evening though. I'll have Ms. Lan go and buy the ingredients first, and then I'll be able to give you a proper reception tonight!"
"Great. I always knew that my Tang treats me best!" Luo Xingchen clung to Su Tang happily.
Su Tang also had a helpless but happy smile on her face. There was no one in this world that truly wanted to live as a singular individual, and Su Tang was no exception. She, like anyone else, also longed to have friends. Back in Sujia Village she had often worked with Su Nuan and had been quite fond of her but, in the end, Su Nuan was a very ordinary farm girl. She was gentle, sensible, clever, and she greatly enjoyed listening to Su Tang's stories, but that was it. She was still very much a child who was a product of the era.
However, Luo Xingchen was different. Su Tang didn't know if she would keep meeting more ambitious and worldly girls like her in the future but, for the moment at least, Luo Xingchen was the girl with the most modern outlook that she had met so far.
Having a person who she could talk about cooperation with, who she could do business with, who she could speak her mind to, it created good feelings, not just for Luo Xingchen, but also for Su Tang.
"Anyway, let's discuss more later. All of your bedding from last time is still in the main room so go and get some sleep first." From the moment she saw Luo Xingchen today, Su Tang could tell at a glance that the other girl had been working very hard because her face looked tired and travelworn, with dark circles under her bloodshot eyes.
The cup of tea that was made with ingredients from the space would have refreshed her a little bit, but it was still important that she get some real rest. Of course, when Luo Xingchen heard Su Tang say that, she agreed with a tired smile, "En. I'll go and get some sleep and then see you again later this evening."
Su Tang made sure the other girl really went to rest, and then left with Su Nuo over to the Song Residence. Then, later that evening, Su Tang came back with Su Nuo in tow, carrying a basket on her back.
When Zhang Cuilan saw Su Tang coming over carrying a big basket filled with many things she hurriedly went over to take it while saying, "Young miss, in the future, let this servant buy whatever you need."
"It's fine!" Su Tang agreeably passed the basket over to Zhang Cuilan. In fact, the reason why she had brought this basket over herself was that inside it was ingredients that had been taken from inside her space. Su Tang felt it would be a terrible waste to spend money to buy ingredients that she could get for free herself and, on top of that, the ingredients from the space tasted better than the ones outside anyway. That was why she had asked Zhang Cuilan to buy certain ingredients that she couldn't harvest from her space while bringing the rest herself.
"Ms. Lan go ahead and prepare these two fish, and Baohe, you wash and cut up these vegetables!" After arriving in the kitchen, Su Tang quickly issued instructions.
Zhang Cuilan and Baohe worked efficiently and the fire was soon stoked and ready, just waiting for the dishes to be cooked over it.
As the two people moved to attend to their tasks very quickly, Su Tang didn't just continue to stare at them, instead, she headed off to the main room to check on her guest. There she found Luo Xingchen, who was already awake and changed into fresh clothes, sitting in front of the desk with a cup of tea close at hand while she looked down at something with a serious expression.
When she heard Su Tang enter the room, she looked up and asked, "You're back?"
Su Tang raised an eyebrow. "Why does this scene feel like the little wife who is waiting for her husband to come home?"
Luo Xingchen laughed and joked. "If that's the case then shouldn't I be the husband while you are the little wife?"
After that, her face turned serious and she motioned for Su Tang to sit down, "Come and take a look with me, where do you think would be the best place to build the sauce factory?"
It turned out that she was looking at a map and trying to choose the location for the sauce factory. When she understood that, Su Tang asked Baohe to warm her a glass of milk before also sitting down and saying, "It needs to be somewhere that's convenient to transport goods to and from, and it would be better if it could be a bit remote."
It was a pretty simple suggestion, but hearing it caused Luo Xingchen's eyes to brighten. "You're right, it needs to be convenient to transport the raw materials there and the finished products away, and it will be less noticeable if it's a bit more remote."
With that in mind, Luo Xingchen set her sights on a particular place, "This area seems to be pretty good. What do you think Tang?"
Su Tang glanced at her and replied, "You have good eyes."
Chapter 130
Luo Xingchen laughed with a 'haha': "Of course there's no need to say that. If I didn't have good eyes, how could I have dared to work with you?"
In the past, Luo Xingchen had actually always thought pretty highly of herself. After all, the elder brother who was always suppressing her didn't have any skills to speak of, while she, a girl, was a much more competent businesswoman. Because of that, she couldn't help but feel that she was different from regular people, someone destined to stand out.
However, meeting Su Tang caused Luo Xingchen to put away that budding arrogance. After all, Su Tang was just a small peasant girl but Luo Xinchen didn't feel she was any wiser or better at business than that same peasant girl.
In the past, Luo Xingchen had always felt that she was a rare and special kind of woman in this world, but after she met Su Tang she felt as if she was actually weaker than she wanted to admit because much of what she was doing was only possible for her to do on the premise that she was a 'man', and many of her thoughts and ideas were borrowed from that identity.
But Su Tang was different. She had her own set of values and morals and her own bottom line. And, most importantly, she was a person who knew what she wanted and who was able to use her smarts and competence to chase after that goal without lowering herself to act or think as a 'man'.
Su Tang would never hide her identity as a woman. Instead, she would just firmly declare: 'Who says that women aren't as good as men?' to anyone who doubts her. That was the confidence of a real woman, or maybe it was just the confidence of a naturally confident person and had nothing to do with gender.
Luo Xingchen recognized the other girl's impressive bearing and temperament, but at the same time, she knew that it would take a long time for her to be able to reach that level herself.
At the same time, Luo Xingchen admitted to herself that meeting Su Tang wasn't just something as simple as meeting another good business partner. Meeting her had shed some light on doubts that she had been having about herself and her own path that she had been having for a long time. Until recently she hadn't known what path would be right for her, and if she had wondered if she should just continue spending her entire life becoming a successful 'man'.
But once she met Su Tang she discovered that the doubts that had plagued her in the past were fundamentally wrong from the very beginning. Her truth path was to peel off this shell of gender and achieve the career she wanted despite whatever odds, and that would be what she would consider real success.
With that realization, Luo Xingchen was no longer so entangled in her doubts. She now felt that she should just work hard on her career and one day her achievements would be able to break through the shackles of gender and force society to recognize her.
While Luo Xingchen was lost in her musings, Su Tang smiled and pointed at the place she had suggested for the factory and asked, "This place is surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only one road that leads to the outside. Who was so talented to buy such a 'good' piece of land?"
The piece of land selected by Luo Xingchen was actually kind of terrible thinking normally. It was a little outside of Qingyuan County and was surrounded by mountains on three sides. It's the only advantage was that it had a road that led to Qingyuan County that was relatively smooth and well-maintained.
"I don't remember. Some idiot gave it to me a while ago." Luo Xingchen thought about it carefully but found that she really didn't remember when this piece of land had fallen into her hands.
Su Tang was speechless at that reply, "Second Young Master Luo is truly a local tyrant!"
Luo Xingchen blinked and put on an aggrieved expression when she heard Su Tang's jab. "I'm not, I'm really not. This reputation has nothing to do with me, okay? It's just that I don't like people getting close to me, for obvious reasons, so I warned some people a bit harshly back when I was first starting and Luo Xinghe deliberately used that opportunity to blow things up and ruin my image. He did it because he was afraid that my father would try to pair me with some powerful in-laws if he could."
After denying up and down for a while, Luo Xingchen eventually explained that, after all, she was a girl and couldn't let that secret be found out, so she had to find various ways to keep people away from her so she wouldn't have to worry about her secret being found out.
Because of that, she had a reputation for being eccentric ever since she was a child and, when she grew up a bit and started to do business, people would sometimes see her extremely good looks and have some other thoughts. Whenever she encountered that kind of situation, she had no choice but to fiercely correct those bad thoughts and, before she knew it, her bad reputation had already been cemented.
Her brother Luo Xinghe was actually already married, but he still didn't have a son, so he was very worried. After all, his 'brother' was already more competent than him, so if he married a woman from a powerful family and had a son it would really put Luo Xinghe in a dangerous position.
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# REMINDER:
THIS STORY IS NOT MINE. THIS IS FOR OFFLINE READING PURPOSE ONLY.