Translator: Dragon Boat Translation
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Kun, what’s the matter with you? Why do you look so pale?” Zhou Kun’s uncle, Xu Cai, asked when he walked toward Zhou Kun with a container food, appearing rather worried.
Naturally, Zhou Kun had just experienced the scene that just happened, and now, his face was still pale and a little grim.
“Uncle, I’m alright, I just didn’t sleep well last night,” Zhou Kun said perfunctorily after looking for a random excuse.
Xu Cai remained silent for a while before saying worriedly, “Don’t be too stressed about the matters regarding your parents. I believe they can survive. I brought you some food. Hurry and eat.”
Xu Cai was also very worried about what happened to his sister and brother-in-law. However, looking at his nephew who seemed to have grown up overnight, he felt relieved. At the same time, he also felt rather sympathetic toward him.
His sister and brother-in-law had gotten into a car accident. Although the driver did not escape and the insurance company paid for their medical expenses, his sister had just regained consciousness while his brother-in-law was still in a coma. The burden of keeping the family business running had fallen onto the shoulders of his nephew. He felt that he could not do much for them other than deliver food occasionally. Besides, there was still someone he had to take care of at home.
Xu Cai sighed silently in his heart at the thought of it.
“Uncle, I have already said that you don’t have to go to the trouble of bringing me food every day. Besides, the business at your shop is so busy now. Running that business is still more important.”
Zhou Kun was a little embarrassed about the fact that his uncle had delivered food to him. After all, the weather was getting warmer day by day, and his uncle still had to manage the business in his own shop.
Xu Cai operated a fruit juice store, and he would usually get his supply of fruits from Zhou Kun’s warehouse. At that time, Zhou Kun’s mother supplied the fruits to her brother at the cost price because she wanted to take care of him. Only then could Xu Cai’s store gain a firm foothold in the fruit juice industry, under the circumstances of there being numerous fruit stores.
“Your aunt is handling the business in the store. I don’t need to worry about it, but we’ve used up the last batch of fruits. I need to get some pears and dragon fruits from you. It’d be great if you can give me some grapefruit and mangoes too.”
“But didn’t Auntie say previously that…”
“Your aunt was just making a casual remark then. Don’t listen to her.”
Ever since his parents got into an accident, Zhou Kun’s fruit business was in turmoil and hence, his uncle presumptuously decided to purchase fruits from them according to the market price.
Zhou Kun’s uncle had kind intentions and wanted to let Zhou Kun make some money. After all, the business in their juice store was not too bad, and they did require a large supply of fruits.
However, Zhou Kun’s aunt Lu Guifen was reluctant to do so. Originally, she didn’t know that Xu Cai had acted presumptuously and merely discovered that the profits of the store had declined. After a careful inspection in the store, she finally discovered that the problem was actually caused by Zhou Kun.
In the first place, Lu Guifen disagreed with Xu Cai’s decision to purchase fruits from Zhou Kun’s family business.
In her opinion, there was no need to use fresh fruits for fruit juice and felt that they could simply get processed rotten fruit from the supermarket, remove the rotten parts and then throw them in the juicer. She felt that no one would be able to tell the difference and that they shouldn’t do such a thing that would result in losses.
Hence, Lu Guifen took the opportunity to go to Zhou Kun’s shop to complain. Initially, Zhou Kun didn’t think that Lu Guifen was the kind to be unreasonable and demanding. After all, his uncle and aunt were very polite to them before his parents had gotten into an accident.
In the end, Lu Guifen somehow ran into Xu Cai who happened to be there to deliver some food. Although his uncle usually doted on his wife, he was absolutely clear-headed and firm at the critical junctures.
He stood unyieldingly against the shoddy behavior that she supported and also felt that there was nothing wrong with raising the purchase price of fruits from Zhou Kun, now that something terrible had happened to his family.
Hence, the two of them got into an argument in Zhou Kun’s shop. Finally, Zhou Kun’s aunt, Lu Guifen, cried and threw a huge tantrum, saying that Xu Cai had no conscience and did not understand the hard work that she had put in the shop over the years. That caused Xu Cai to be put in a spot.
“Xu Cai, where you have been? I’m so busy with running the business in the store. Don’t you care about it at all?” Lu Guifen’s voice suddenly came out at the door of the cold storage warehouse.
Zhou Kun looked at the direction of the door, only to see Lu Guifen, who had red lipstick on, berating Xu Cai while her mouth continuously opened widely and closed again.
“I’m just here to deliver some food to the kid. Why are you yelling?” Although Xu Cai was a little harsh previously, which was rather rare of him, he usually gave in to Lu Guifen and was very tolerating toward her. As a consequence, Xu Cai felt a little guilty.
“The business is so busy in the store. How can you take the time out to deliver food? Besides, he’s not a kid anymore. What’s wrong with letting him eat non-home-cooked food?” Lu Guifen barked without sparing a thought for the relationship between the two families. It was as if the hypocrisy and pretense that she had put up previously were all gone.
“Why are you so unreasonable? No matter how tasty store-bought food may be, can it be cleaner and any more hygienic than home-cooked food?”
He continued, “Now that Kun is so busy with the business while working hard alone, what’s wrong with me bringing him a meal?” Xu Cai was obviously not good at arguing, and his speech was still as slow as usual.
“I think you are too idle and have too much time on your hands. Did you purchase fruit from them again?” It turned out that she was not actually upset about Xu Cai delivering food. Instead, she was displeased with his purchase of fruit from them.
In essence, Lu Guifen had already made up her mind to switch suppliers for a long time, but she was too embarrassed to bring it up previously because Zhou Kun’s parents were still tending to the business. Now that Xu Cai had presumptuously raised the purchase price, she found an excuse.
“Why are you mentioning this again? Didn’t I already say that we can only get fruits from Kun?”
“Why? The purchase price of the fruits is so expensive nowadays. If we buy them, how much money can we profit from selling a glass of juice? You keep paying them out of your own pocket. How are we supposed to survive?”
She continued, “Our son is going to high school next year. Where are you going to get the fees to pay?”
“You…” Lu Guifen’s words rendered Xu Cai speechless.
“Auntie, I don’t have much fruit left in my warehouse now. I only have dragon fruit. The fruits that Uncle mentioned are all out of stock. Why don’t you get them from elsewhere?” said Zhou Kun who was telling the truth. He currently only had dragon fruits in his warehouse. However, it would be easy for fruit suppliers like him to get two cartons from other suppliers. Zhou Kun was just giving him an out.
“Okay, we’ll take a few boxes of dragon fruit then. Since you don’t have other types of fruits, we’ll go take a look at the stock from other suppliers.” Upon hearing Zhou Kun’s words, Lu Guifen decided not to continue throwing a tantrum. The few cartons of dragon fruit wouldn’t cost much anyway.
Xu Cai opened his mouth but did not say anything else.
“What are you looking at? Go back with me! We still have to get busy in the shop!”
“Kun, I’m going back now. Remember to eat,” Xu Cai said with concern, seemingly worried about Zhou Kun.
After sending the two of them away, Zhou Kun sighed again while staring at the food container in his hand.
It was a three-layer food container. The first layer contained rice while the second layer contained wintermelon pork rib soup. It was almost summertime, which was the perfect season to eat wintermelon to cool down.
When Zhou Kun removed the lid of the third layer, his eyes turned red.
There was a stack of money in the third-layer compartment of the food container, which seemed to be five thousand yuan.
Zhou Kun knew that that was the money that Xu Cai had saved up and given to him secretly. He reckoned that Xu Cai had probably left it inside the food container because he knew that Zhou Kun would not want it.