The Wealthy Eldest Sister Rules Supreme

Seeing Zhuang Qingning’s indifference, Hu Da became increasingly anxious. “Manager Zhuang, I understand you might be angry because of what happened, thinking we’re misbehaving. But it’s not what you think,” he hurriedly tried to explain.

Frankly, whether they behaved themselves or not didn’t matter to her at this point; she just wanted to catch the bullock cart.

“As I said before, anything goes. I’m in a rush, we can settle everything later,” Zhuang Qingning’s previously lifted eyebrows frowned, hinting her growing impatience.

This was not just a simple ‘anything goes’; she was clearly annoyed.

Extremely annoyed, in fact.

Hu Da felt increasingly uneasy and quickly said, “Manager Zhuang, please don’t be angry. Let me explain, it’s not that we’re unchanging in our bad attitudes, randomly resembling people and demanding money…”

Zhuang Qingning watched with open eyes as someone drove the bullock cart farther and farther away.

The bullock cart…

The cart…

Completely disappeared from her sight.

Zhuang Qingning reluctantly shifted her gaze back to Hu Da who was standing before her.

She was visibly annoyed.

Since she had missed the cart, he owed her!

Hu Da was startled, fearing Zhuang Qingning was getting angry. He started speaking faster, “Manager Zhuang, the truth is, that person is a rascal in disguise. He lives comfortably but borrows money from others. After borrowing money, he puts it in the bank and profits from it.

“When others ask him to repay the money, he blatantly lies about not having any and refuses to repay. This time, his cousin’s child fell ill, and they didn’t have money to see the doctor. They wanted to get their money back, but he bluntly refused. His cousin had no other option than to entrust us with the job of getting the money back.”

“We didn’t want to get involved in this initially, because we remembered what Manager Zhuang said earlier. So, we, three brothers, decided to step away from trouble. However, when we saw that person crying profusely, saying his child’s condition could worsen if not treated in time, we felt pity for him.”

“We thought it would be a good deed to help him out in this situation, so we agreed to lend a hand, and that’s why…”

“Yes, that person also said if we could help him get his money back and cure his child’s illness, he would treat us to a meal and would want his child to recognize me as godfather or something like that. Being an unwed, I declined his proposal of becoming a godfather. I just said that if we managed to resolve the issue, he could give us two taels of wine.”

“If Manager Zhuang does not believe me, you can come with us to his house and ask him yourselves.”

After explaining everything, Hu Da eyed Zhuang Qingning, afraid that she wouldn’t believe his story.

Hu Er and Hu San, standing beside him, were nodding in affirmation, validating Hu Da’s words.

“So, that’s what happened.” After hearing all of this, Zhuang Qingning’s anger, caused by missing the cart, had subsided considerably.

It turns out, the Hu brothers had done a good deed.

Regardless of the predicament, doing good deeds deserve praise.

“Good job.” Zhuang Qingning nodded slightly in affirmation.

First off, Hu Da was surprised, and then his face lit up with joy. A feeling of excitement welled up in him almost bringing him to tears.

Manager Zhuang had praised him. She had actually praised him!

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.” Hu Da was somewhat excited. “We did our duty.” “So…” Zhuang Qingning paused, “Did you chase after me just to tell me this?” “Ah, yes.” Hu Da vigorously nods his head, “I was afraid that Manager Zhuang might have gotten the wrong idea about us before, so I specifically wanted to explain it to avoid any prejudice against us.”

Prejudice?

Was her opinion about them that important?

Zhuang Qingning looked puzzled at the brothers standing before her.

But seeing the excitement and relief on their faces after she had accepted their story, she exhaled a sigh of resignation, also feeling a sense of novelty.

Maybe this was…not bad?

After all, the town would have three less thugs who would do anything for money. Instead, there would be three more normal people. This seemingly stood to benefit both her and the town.

Zhuang Qingning looked at Hu Da and his brothers for a while, then asked, “In usual times, what do you three do for a living?”

“What we do?” Hu Da was taken aback for a moment, scratching the back of his head unconsciously.

How should he answer that…

Hu Er spoke up on the side, “This morning we had breakfast, then we started with this job after eating. We just finished. By the way, for breakfast we had vegetarian buns. The meat ones are a bit expensive, and big brother was unwilling to buy them. We had noodles for lunch, topped with a few slices of pork liver. The liver wasn’t very tasty; I suppose it was leftover from yesterday’s meat shop, but big brother bought it because it was cheap…” “Idiot! Manager Zhuang didn’t ask what we did today.” Hu San couldn’t help but interject.

“So she asked about yesterday? Yesterday the weather wasn’t good, it was a bit cloudy and there was light rain. We stayed at home, didn’t eat properly, only two meals…”

Zhuang Qingning,”…”

“What do you usually do for a living?” Zhuang Qingning rephrased her question.

“Ah, we don’t really do anything,” Hu Er answered.

“You don’t do anything?” This time Zhuang Qingning was surprised, “Then where does the money you use daily come from?”

“This is a long story…”

Hu Da stopped scratching his head and spoke, “Our parents passed away when we were young, and our eldest uncle’s family was domineering. Even our grandparents didn’t stand for us. The land of our family was not divided among us. They never shared any food either. We three only worked for the elder uncle’s family, and the amount of food we got depended on how much work we did.”

“When we were kids, we didn’t understand much and were content with what we got. However, as we grew up, we realized that the work we did was not proportional to the food we got. We could eat our fill we were better off working for others instead.”

“So the three of us decided to work for others. We found a dwelling at a dock and worked as day laborers, loading and unloading goods. Although the money we earned was not substantial, we managed to have our stomachs full. If we worked assiduously, we could save a little.”

“Life was bearable then. But once, after finishing work, we went to a town nearby to have wontons. At that time, we saw a rascal bullying a girl who was sellingwontons at a stall. Despite many bystanders, no one helped. I couldn’t stand it, so I consigned him a good beating.”

“I thought, after beating him up, he won’t tell anybody since he himself was guilty. But, the next day he visited us at the dock with some government officials. It turns out, he is the nephew of an inspector and is used to being a tyrant.”