Chapter 742 - 744: Love for Buffets in the Capital
Bai Ruozhu gave an order to the attendant beside her. The attendant hurriedly nodded, ran to the main gate, and loudly told Madame Jiang, "Madame Jiang, if you don’t leave, we will send someone to notify Elder Jiang Ge to come and collect you."
"You damn servant who relies on the power of others!" Madame Jiang cursed with fierce eyes, but she didn’t make a commotion like before, she quickly left dispiritedly.
Bai Ruozhu, listening to the noise in the courtyard, couldn’t help but laugh. The Jiang family wasn’t really that complicated. The initial two rooms worth of people had condensed into one room, and Elder Jiang Ge valued reputation so much, what noise could really be made?
Besides, she was now absolutely certain that Madame Jiang had come here on a whim out of fear that Elder Jiang Ge would find out. Furthermore, although she used her status as an elder member of the family to oppress them as soon as she entered the courtyard, she didn’t dare to mention "elder" outside, indicating that she didn’t want others to know about her relationship with the Jiang family.
It further showed that she was impatient, fearing that Jiang Yichun would return to the Jiang Family to recognize his ancestors and join the family, so she came to intimidate Bai Ruozhu first, claiming that the Jiang Family would divorce Bai Ruozhu who had not been selected by them to persuade Jiang Yichun not to return to the Jiang Family.
"Jianqi!" Bai Ruozhu ordered softly, "Find out what the situation of the Jiang family is now, investigate it in detail."
Before Jiang Yichun returned in the evening, he had heard of Madame Jiang’s visit. His mood was very bad at first, but when he heard that she had been thrown out by Bai Ruozhu and fled without daring to make a sound, his mood significantly improved.
"Ruozhu, I don’t want to return to the Jiang family. It might be a hassle in the future," Jiang Yichun said as he played with Bai Ruozhu’s fingers.
"I don’t want to go back either. I’m afraid of trouble. Plus, they’ve been bullying you so much that even if you want to go back, I won’t let you!" Bai Ruozhu protested with a pouting mouth.
He though she looked incredibly adorable right now, so he lightly bit her lip.
Their normal conversation turned into a certain exercise, and Bai Ruozhu was so tired that she almost couldn’t get up the next day...
"Misstress, it is all clear," Jianqi slowly started to report. After listening to it, Bai Ruozhu analysed and concluded that the situation of the Jiang family is probably as follows.
Elder Jiang Ge, Jiang Chenxun, was about to turn sixty, which means his sixtieth birthday was in October of this year. His wife passed away more than a decade ago, and he had three concubines. However, that the one who has spread the scandal nine years ago with Jiang Yichun’s father was not included. That concubine was divorced by Elder Jiang Ge nine years ago and returned to her maternal home before she quickly fell ill and died.
Under the Jiang family was the eldest son, Jiang Xuexiang and his wife. The woman who caused trouble a few days ago was Jiang Xuexiang’s wife, a member of the Chen Family. Now, the Jiang Residence was in her hands. In addition, their eldest daughter was already married, and they had a son named Jiang Yihong, who was only sixteen years old this year, five years younger than Jiang Yichun, and was studying at the Bailu Academy in the Capital. There was also a son who was six and a daughter who was three.
The Jiang family was not an outstanding noble family, but they did have some assets. In normal families, the family assets are usually inherited by the eldest son, but Elder Jiang Ge believes that the capable should take charge. As of now, the Jiang family had no choice whether or not to be capable, since Elder Jiang Ge only had one son who could inherit the family assets. Of course, he also had two illegitimate sons aged six and seven, but being such a man who pays attention to rules and regulations, he definitely would not allow an illegitimate son to inherit the family assets.
Jiang Yichun’s father, Jiang Chenrui’s accident all those years ago seemed to be related to the main room - the benefits they received were too obvious. However, if it were so obvious, wouldn’t Elder Jiang Ge have figured it out?
At noon, Bai Ruozhu went out carrying Dengdeng, because in the morning she and Jiang Yichun decided to have lunch at the Welcome Guest Restaurant to evaluate its taste. When she arrived at the Welcome Guest restaurant, she saw a notice posted that the restaurant was only serving a buffet for regular customers at noon and would only start admitting other guests after two o’clock.
Bai Ruozhu took out her pocket watch and checked the time, it was just past noon. However, the spots for the buffet had already all been booked; it seemed she had made the trip in vain. With this in mind, she decided to find Jiang Yichun first and then go somewhere else for lunch.
"Are....are you Miss Bai?" The shopkeeper at the entrance suddenly came forward and asked.
Bai Ruozhu was taken aback. She didn’t recognize this shopkeeper, so she simply replied, "Indeed."
The shopkeeper began to laugh, saying, "The boss sent us a letter informing us that you are also one of the bosses of our restaurant. You eat at the restaurant for free and he wished you would give us some more advice. To prevent us from wrongly recognizing you, a portrait of you was also specially enclosed in the letter."
"The boss also said that the idea of the buffet was invented by you. We had one before and it was very successful. Hence, this month we decided to hold another one. Miss Bai, please go in and have your meal and also help us see if there is anything that needs to be improved," added the shopkeeper
"I will wait for my husband." She thought Jiang Yichun would be there soon, so she decided to wait for him at the entrance, but after waiting for a quarter of an hour, she still didn’t see him. Feeling a bit tired from standing, she decided to go in by herself, leaving instructions with the shopkeeper to let Jiang Yichun in for the meal once his identity was confirmed.
As she entered the main gate holding Dengdeng, she saw that many buffet stands and plates had been set up in the hall. The setting seemed way more impressive than the restaurant in Beiyu City.
"Sister Bai!" A pleasant voice rang out. Bai Ruozhu turned to look, it was Miss Leng.
"I didn’t expect to see you here. Isn’t it said that only regular customers are allowed today? And didn’t you recently arrive in the Capital?" Leng Wanhua asked puzzledly.
Before Bai Ruozhu could explain, the shopkeeper standing to one side said, "Miss Bai is also one of the owners of our Welcome Guest restaurant, and the buffet is her invention."
The shopkeeper’s voice was quite loud, and the people around who heard this turned their gaze on Bai Ruozhu, and some began to speculate which family she was from to posses such ability.
Leng Wanhua then grabbed Bai Ruozhu’s arm and said, "Sister Bai, you are really amazing! You have no idea how popular this buffet is in the Capital now. We just heard that it was imported from Beiyu City, but we didn’t expect it to come from you"
Bai Ruozhu laughed and said, "I also heard about it from a merchant. He said that the royalty in the Western Country really enjoys this type of buffet."
Many people were listening with their ears perked. Once they heard it had a connection with royalty, they had an even better impression of the buffet, feeling that it was very high class.
Bai Ruozhu was not at all convenient eating while holding Dengdeng, besides, the number of people allowed in the buffet was limited, so she didn’t bring the nanny Lamei. Now, with Dengdeng in her arms, how was she supposed to eat?
Miss Leng saw her predicament and voluntarily offered to hold the baby for her. Bai Ruozhu thought about it and decided not to refuse, so she handed Dengdeng over to Leng Wanhua.
Bai Ruozhu had a quick bite to eat and then hurried back to take Dengdeng. She was wondering why Jiang Yichun hadn’t arrived yet. If he had been there, he could have taken care of Dengdeng, and she wouldn’t have needed to worry about not having time to eat her food. For a while, many people approached Bai Ruozhu to chat, but there was still no sign of Jiang Yichun....
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I fell asleep in the middle of typing... I will update this much for today. I calculate I still owe everyone 10 or 11 more updates, let’s say 11. I am going to start paying off the debt soon....