He hesitated for a long time, then knocked the door lightly. A familiar voice answered from the inside, “Yes, wait a bit.”

The door opened with a creak and Wen Yan was the one who answered. He stood there and frowned when he saw Jiang Zhou, but there was a little sadness in his eyes, “Why are you here?”

Jiang Zhou knew that he didn’t believe his story the last time, he wasn’t in hurry and took a step back to make Wen Yan felt safer, “Ah Yan, I got a recipe and made some snacks. Here it’s for you.”

Wen Yan looked at him for a while and didn’t close the door, he saw Jiang Zhou’s hesitant face and was a little confused. Jiang Zhou didn’t look like that one who changed his temper, right now he actually reminded him of his husband. But he was a little scared, Afterall, he didn’t know if his husband was back or still possessed, “No, I don’t need it.”

Wen Yan was home alone with the little son; his parents went out today. He didn’t dare to take anything from Jiang Zhou and was afraid to meet him. After he answered, he was about to close the door. Jiang Zhou hurriedly opened the oil paper and showed off the cake while looking at Wen Yan with bright eyes.

Wen Yan was familiar with this look of his eyes. Every time Jiang Zhou found something good or new, he would always hand it over for him first and waited for a praise, “Ah Yan, let’s try it first.”

Wen Yan had been coaxed by this eye in the past to eat a sour food and spicy noodle, he almost cried back then. He would frown at him and stuck out his tongue to refuse, but Jiang Zhou would coax him softly.

But now, he looked at the sponge cake, it looked like a mushroom from the mountain but there was sweet scent coming from it.

Jiang Zhou saw his hesitation and knew Wen Yan must be wary of him, he took a little bit and stuffed inside his mouth. He pushed the cake into Wen Yan’s hands.

Wen Yan picked it up in surprise and saw Jiang Zhou smiled at him.

Jiang Zhou was happy; he didn’t bring the good-looking cake but chose the failed one. First, this was his first attempt and he knew Wen Yan wouldn’t be suspicious if the cake was slightly bad looking. After all, he didn’t have great talent in the kitchen.

Wen Yan took the cake and Jiang Zhou was smiling happily, the atmosphere around them was a little weird. It wasn’t awkward as before and a little warm.

After a long time looking at each other, Jiang Zhou finally said, “Okay, I should go back.”

Wen Yan’s lips twitched as if wanting to say something but he didn’t speak and saw him leaving.

Jiang Zhou turned around and left, but he kept looking back three times. He knew he couldn’t do anything drastic; he must carefully gain Wen Yan’s trust. For now, he could only slowly try to interact with his wife.

.

There was another issue, Uncle Yu said the sponge cake was quite good and he much prepared more. But the eggs he had wasn’t enough.

When he got home and planning to make sponge cake, someone was squatting in front of his house. When Jiang Zhou got closer, he knew it was Lu Dalang from Yanghe Village next door.

Lu Dalang was a legendary figure, when there was a flood in the Yanghe Village and the life was hard. He thought of raising chicken in his house and sold it. The villagers didn’t believe it would result in good harvest, but after they saw Lu Dalang’s life was improved. They followed him and had a very large chicken farm together. Right now, the Yanghe Village was well known for their chicken meat and egg business.

The legendary Lu Dalang saw Jiang Zhou came back and greeted him, “Jiang Da.”

Jiang Zhou nodded at him, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Dalang touched his nose, “I’m here to talk about your sponge cake.”

This cake was Jiang Zhou’s top priority to improve his life, he immediately invited him inside to talk about business, “You sit down, I will get a water for you.”

After both sat down, Lu Dalang said his purpose. It turned out, early that day he took uncle Yu’s boat and tasted the sponge cake. He tasted it and knew it was made from eggs, he asked uncle Yu about it and heard Jiang Zhou was looking for eggs. So, he smelled it was a good deal and wanted to ask for Jiang Zhou’s cooperation.

He didn’t play any trick and said directly, “I know you need eggs. It just so happens that I have some batch left. Ten eggs for twenty-five wens, what do you think?”

An egg cold be sold for three wens; if you followed the market price, it would be thirty wens for ten eggs. But Lu Dalang actually offered twenty-five, Jiang Zhou was a little surprised by his generosity.

Lu Dalang smiled bitterly while looking at Jiang Zhou’s face, “You may don’t believe me. But if we don’t sell this batch, it will be a loss for us.”

It turned out, people in the town ordered their eggs for a birthday celebration. The number was very large and his villagers started saving the eggs. But, who knew, the people were promoted somewhere and had to leave for work. The birthday party couldn’t be held and the eggs couldn’t be sold.

The buyer said the business couldn’t be continued and apologized. Lu Dalang couldn’t do anything, the deposit was still in his hands. He had no choice but to suffer this failed deal.

When he heard that Jiang Zhou wanted to buy eggs, it could be said it was a rain to his drought, so Lu Dalang ran over here in a hurry.

Jiang Zhou asked about the specific amount and a little worried; he only had one tael on him now, he couldn’t afford a big purchase. He wanted to slowly sell the cake and purchased a little by little to increase his product. But now, Lu Dalang was willing to sell the eggs in a low price, he was tempted but also worried.

Since Lu Dalang carefully told him his difficulty, Jiang Zhou told him about his money problems. Unexpectedly, Lu Dalang didn’t take it seriously, “I know your situation. I don’t need you to pay upfront. You can pay it half and use the cake as an exchange for the rest.”

Jiang Zhou was surprised, “Use sponge cake?”

Lu Dalang nodded with confident, “Yes, these eggs were saved by my villagers. I have the list of each egg from which family. You can exchange twelve eggs with one sponge cake. We will not sell it around here, so your business won’t be affected. We have a peddler to sell chicken and egg, we will ask them to sell farther away under your name, what do you think?”

Jiang Zhou thought about it; this matter wasn’t a loss to him. First, he didn’t have much money. Using sponge cake as the barter was a good thing for his business. Second, Lu Dalang would help him sell his sponge cake. This man had a wide connection, which a great thing for business.

Jiang Zhou also planned to have other business, this way, people would know his name and there might be customer who wiling to buy his new product.

After turning around in his mind, Jiang Zhou made up his mind and finalized the deal. At the same time, he was a little confused, “You trust me so much?”

Well, his reputation was a little under the dirt since last year.

Lu Dalang smiled at him, “Zhou Chu can change, how about Jiang Zhou?”

Jiang Zhou was led by Wen Yan and read two classics, he happened to know about Zhou Chu’s story, “Thank you.”

The two looked at each other and smiled, they felt very satisfied with the deal.

Note:

This me, kimyeona. I am again, moving my project here. Wew, it’s been so long since I opened this novel lol. I hope everyone enjoy this, thanks for reading^^

From the Author: The story about Zhou Chu came from “Shì shuō xīnyŭ”

It was about Zhou Chou who was cruel and arrogant man and people were afraid about him. They called him to kill a tiger and a dragon. They said let them kill each other.

Zhou Chu went to kill a white tiger, then he was slaying the dragon and submerged in the river. he didn’t come out for a long time, the people thought he was dead and celebrated. But Zhou Chu came back successfully and saw people were celebrating his death.

He realized that he was the evil in the people’s eyes, he changed his ways and became a loyal minister.