Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 569 - Chapter 569 569. Who is the big sucker_1

Chapter 569: 569. Who is the big sucker?_1 Chapter 569: 569. Who is the big sucker?_1 Ah, this.

Zhang Yanping and Xin Jun both fell silent.

Only Qiaoqiao naively remarked, “So, Tianyu bro, are you giving gifts to get a raise?”

Zhou Tianyu laughed, “We look at performance, and my performance is fairly stable. Raises aren’t that easy to come by. At most, giving gifts might lead to getting fewer newcomers assigned to my team in the future, so there’s less hassle, making it easier to earn money.”

“Then…” Qiaoqiao silently did the math, “That means you give gifts, but don’t get a raise. Don’t give gifts, still no raise–so why must you give them? Can’t you just not give them?”

It wasn’t as simple as that. Zhou Tianyu opened his mouth to argue, but then upon further thought, he didn’t know what to say. Faced with Qiaoqiao’s probing gaze, he racked his brains and came up with a metaphor:

“It’s like this, adult social interactions are very complex. For example, when I took my annual leave to go home this time, for five days in total. I gave a gift, so my leave request was approved right away. If I didn’t give a gift, they might have made various excuses not to let me take the leave, like being busy or having training coming up, and so on.”

“Then I would have had to take personal leave, which docks 200 a day, so five days would cost me 1000. Tell me, isn’t that a big loss?”

“Yeah, that’s a big loss.” Qiaoqiao looked at him pityingly as if to say “You’re such a fool”.

Zhou Tianyu was taken aback, thinking he might have misunderstood when he saw Qiaoqiao start to count on her fingers:

“Uncle Maozhu took a total of five jin of tea leaves; Tianyu bro, how many jin did you give away?”

“Three jin,” Zhou Tianyu explained, “Later I asked for more, but my dad didn’t agree.”

“Oh, three jin,” Qiaoqiao started calculating, “Three jin of tea leaves is thirty thousand yuan; brother, you could take, take… 150 days off!”

“Tianyu bro, you’re at a huge loss!”

Zhou Tianyu: …

He couldn’t help but laugh, “Who told you the tea leaves were ten thousand each? I know it’s your family’s tea, but you don’t have to go along with my dad, do you?”

Qiaoqiao was puzzled, “Our family’s tea has always been priced like that. We even have an online store, and we sold two hundred jin!”

It was just that the money was never seen, sprinkled a little here and a little there so that, despite the money coming and going, they are still in dire poverty.

…

Maozhu’s wife was at home cleaning fish.

Her son had texted earlier to say he was on the bus, so she slaughtered the big carp–feeling sorry for it as she did; such a big carp had a lot of fight in it!

Originally, a two or three jin fish, along with some other dishes, would have been enough for the three of them. But just as she was about to start cooking, she remembered the fish was 40 yuan per jin. How delicious must it be to justify that price?

And then there was Zhou Maozhu, who usually didn’t eat like he had that day, stubbornly holding out and loitering around the house with the fan on in the middle of the day.

So, she firmly decided to cut the fish in half!

She didn’t know any fancy cooking methods; after all, carp is just a homestyle dish, right?

She cut the half-carp into pieces, washed them thoroughly in saltwater, then marinated them with salt and cornstarch, and once the oil in the wok was hot, she fried them directly.

That fragrance…

Never mind the rest, even the ceiling boards started making pattering noises, surely the wild cats were attracted by the smell again!

Maozhu’s wife herself couldn’t help but sniff, and unable to resist, she pinched off a piece of the freshly fried fish… wow!

No wonder it was 40 yuan per jin!

If she had tasted this before, she would definitely have bought… bought… two jin at least!

After all, it really was too expensive!

Thinking this, she resisted the urge to eat it and quickly chopped up onions, ginger, garlic, and some facing-heaven chilies to fry in oil until fragrant. After everything was sauteed, she poured it into a clay pot with the fish pieces, added water, and let it simmer slowly on the charcoal fire…

Zhou Maozhu, who had eaten until his belly rounded at lunch, slipped in and said, “This fish smells so good…”

Seeing his eyes linger on the chopstick cage, his wife gave him a glare, “It’s not ready yet!”

“Besides, didn’t you eat at noon?”

Zhou Maozhu didn’t dare to reach out after all: “The fish we had for lunch was Crucian carp, so tender and fresh! The only problem was those tiny bones. If it weren’t for the fear of choking on them, we would’ve eaten much faster!”

…

As the anticipation grew, finally, night fell.

The watermelons in the pond felt cool to the touch, the aroma of the stewed fish wafted for miles, cats roamed about on the roof, meowing anxiously…

At last, a taxi stopped at the doorway!

Zhou Maozhu rushed out joyfully, unsure whether he was more excited to greet his son or the stew.

However, Zhou Tianyu stepped out of the car, looking utterly disheartened and grey-faced. Maozhu’s heart skipped a beat, even before he could ask why the car kept driving forward–

“What’s wrong?” he asked anxiously.

“It’s nothing.” Zhou Tianyu forced a smile, feeling like he’d become the biggest fool in history.

Back when he had given away tea leaves, he thought they were just a local specialty, worth at most a couple of hundred. So, he politely told others it was a humble hometown gift, asking them to give it a try.

The next day, his manager patted his shoulder amiably, praising the good quality of the tea leaves… Tianyu even thought that was why the man had become a manager–the emotional intelligence! Praising such a small gift of tea leaves so highly made him feel almost embarrassed.

After work, he was so inspired that he bought a copy of “High EQ Speaking Skills” and studied it hard.

Now thinking back… what a load of crap about high EQ!

He was the only fool!

With this realization, Tianyu’s expression turned even more bitter.

How could Maozhu believe that everything was fine?

For a moment, he couldn’t even smell the fish anymore, just sighed and said, “Tianyu, if there’s something wrong, just tell me. I’m making good money now; if you’ve really quit your job, it’s no issue to stay at home for a month or two.”

But not any longer than that.

If a kid stays too long at home, it bothers both people and dogs; it’s better for them to go out.

“It’s nothing.” Tianyu, seeing his dad’s serious face, had to force a smile once more:

“I just didn’t expect that the tea costs ten thousand yuan per half kilogram…”

“What’s so surprising about that!”

Maozhu thought he was just making excuses: “Didn’t I tell you it’s ten thousand yuan per half kilogram? Would I lie to you about that? Such expensive tea, I’d feel embarrassed even accepting it as a gift, let alone getting paid for processing the tea leaves…”

“Hey, what are you getting at?” He muttered, then looked at his son warily: “Let me tell you, we can’t afford to give such extravagant gifts. If you were finding a job or slotting into a unit, I wouldn’t be stingy with gifts because I have connections.”

“But you’re giving such an expensive gift while working for someone else; isn’t that being a big fool?”

Exactly!

Tianyu thought to himself: I am that big fool!

During this conversation, they had already entered the courtyard.

In the yard, a calico Main Coon paced anxiously at the kitchen door, its eyes fierce, yet its meow was unbearably tender.

Tianyu was taken aback, then caught the rich aroma in the air:

“What are you stewing? Why does it smell so good?”

“Oh dear, oh dear!” Maozhu panicked: The fish had been stewing for a long time, and he hoped it hadn’t turned mushy!

“Hurry up, will you wash your hands? We haven’t eaten just waiting for you.”

But it was not even seven o’clock yet. In summer, is seven in the evening that late?

This thought flashed through Tianyu’s mind, but with another whiff of the fragrance, he couldn’t care less and rushed off to wash his hands.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.