The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 520 - 519 Pei Yang Cheating

Chapter 520: Chapter 519 Pei Yang Cheating

The door of Volga’s car opened, and Shen Mingzhu, wearing an apricot-colored shirt and coffee-colored wide-leg pants with sunglasses on her face, stepped out of the car.

The two workers delivering goods exchanged glances.

"President Shen, what a coincidence, we were just about to make a delivery."

The worker driving the car leaned out of the window and smiled as he greeted Shen Mingzhu.

Shen Mingzhu pushed her sunglasses up to her forehead, and her palm-sized face was as bright as a flower in the sunlight, "It’s no coincidence, I was waiting here on purpose."

"The goods for Shenji are in the car, right?"

The worker nodded, "Yes, they are."

Shen Mingzhu revealed a dazzlingly white smile, "That’s good, today I’ll receive the goods myself, so there’s no trouble for you to take them to Shenji."

The worker was taken aback and then showed a bitter smile, "President Shen, please don’t make things difficult for us. We’re just working our job, and if we don’t follow the boss’s instructions, we’ll lose our livelihoods."

"Alright, I won’t make it hard for you. Just go and tell Tang Jinshui that I’m waiting here to take delivery."

One of the workers had no choice but to get off and run back to the market.

Tang Jinshui soon came out of the seafood market, "President Shen, what do you mean by this?"

Shen Mingzhu smiled and said, "Mr. Tang, you said yesterday that I couldn’t be picky at your ponds. Fine, I’ll follow your rules, but our agreement didn’t say anything about not taking delivery halfway, right?"

Tang Jinshui’s face tightened unpleasantly, "President Shen, this is not how business is done."

"Please understand, Mr. Tang, I just lost several thousand bucks and really can’t afford another loss. My shop is small, and if it suffers like yesterday again, I might as well close down."

"Anyway, you have already transported the goods out, and I am here. Let’s just finish the transaction now; it also saves your men another trip."

At this time, it was the peak period for deliveries, and the seafood market was bustling with people coming and going.

The standoff between the two quickly drew onlookers who were eager to watch, blocking the road.

Some vendors, hearing the news, also ran out to join the crowd.

Shen Mingzhu glanced at the three layers of spectators inside and outside and said with a smile, "Mr. Tang, let’s not waste time anymore, right?"

Under these circumstances, Tang Jinshui was even less likely to let Shen Mingzhu inspect the goods.

The experts were all standing there; if he showcased his merchandise, his brand would be ruined.

After weighing the pros and cons, Tang Jinshui’s face broke into a forced smile, "Ah, President Shen, you’ve got it wrong. It’s not that I won’t let you inspect the goods, but your goods from Shenji aren’t on the truck."

"Oh? But the worker just said they were."

Tang Jinshui immediately responded, "He misremembered. There’s a lot of goods today; the truck couldn’t fit everything, and Shenji’s goods are still in the store."

Shen Mingzhu immediately replied, "That’s perfect, there’s no need for you to send someone else. Just hand them over to me directly. I won’t go in so as not to break your rules, Mr. Tang. I’ll just wait here, thank you for the trouble."

"Fine, you wait."

Watching Tang Jinshui’s agitated figure head back to the market, Shen Mingzhu sneered inwardly.

From Tang Jinshui’s denial of responsibility yesterday, she could glimpse that the man’s character wasn’t up to much.

Fortunately, she was prepared.

Otherwise, waiting for the workers to deliver the goods to the shop, when it was almost time to serve customers, she would be caught in a dilemma whether to accept the goods or not.

Not taking the goods meant no dishes to serve today, and accepting them would mean a lot of rubbish goods that would smash Shenji’s reputation just the same.

Tang Jinshui quickly pulled out a box of top-quality goods.

Shen Mingzhu personally inspected the goods and, satisfied, had Julie and the workers load them into the van; she also told Tang Jinshui that from now on she would send someone to receive the goods at the entrance to the seafood market.

"Damn woman!"

After Shen Mingzhu drove off, Tang Jinshui swore with a grim face before storming back into the market.

Once at Shenji.

After Julie unloaded the goods, Shen Mingzhu instructed, "It’s going to be hard on you these next few days. You must be careful when inspecting the goods. Don’t accept anything that’s not right."

Julie nodded eagerly, "President Shen, don’t worry. I’ve helped transport seafood before; I know a little about the ins and outs of it."

Shen Mingzhu was relieved, "I’ll pay you overtime for these days."

Julie hurriedly said there was no need.

Shen Mingzhu smiled, "The rule for those who work for me is: there are rewards for doing well and punishment for doing poorly."

Hearing this, Old Zhu didn’t say much more and went back to the factory to work after unloading the goods.

Mingzhu walked through the front hall and the kitchen checking on the work, then called Han Zibin over, "Change your clothes, we’re going out for a bit."

Han Zibin didn’t ask any questions, changed into his casual clothes, and got in her car.

During the drive, Mingzhu chatted casually with Han Zibin as she drove, in order to get a preliminary understanding of his current situation.

Mingzhu took Han Zibin to the old store in the suburbs.

Julie was on duty at the old store that day and thought something had happened when she saw her arrive.

Ever since the new store opened, Mingzhu had basically left the old store in Julie and Xiangnan’s hands, and she seldom came by now.

"It’s nothing, I just came to have a look."

After a brief inspection and pointing out a few issues, Mingzhu let Julie get back to work, while she took Feng Huiying and Han Zibin to a private room for a talk.

"I have a task for you to handle. If you do well, you’ll both get a promotion and a raise when you come back. If you screw it up, Shenji might face closure."

Upon hearing this, both of their expressions turned grave.

...

After dinner, Mingzhu took the raw marinated crab from the fridge into the kitchen and poured all the marinade into a pot to cook it.

As the marinade in the pot began to boil, a rich and tempting aroma of freshness permeated the air.

The whole family, young and old, came running to the kitchen, drawn by the scent.

"Mom, what delicious thing are you making?"

Guoguo had gone to bed early the night before, so she didn’t know that her mom, dad, and brother had made raw marinated crabs together.

"Wow, we’re having crab tonight, I’m glad I didn’t leave, otherwise I would’ve missed out big time," Pei Ke chortled with amusement.

He had dinner outside with Cui Lianying the day before and went straight to his own place to sleep afterward, so he was also unaware of the marinated crabs Mingzhu had prepared.

Pei Yang and his son Pei Ziheng stared at the crabs that had been marinated to a sauce color, silently swallowing their saliva.

"Mom, can we eat the crabs now?"

"Wife, I want a whole one."

Guoguo, not to be outdone, raised her tender little paw, "Me too, Mom, I want some too!"

Pei Yang chuckled, "Then I’ll just have half."

Mingzhu amusedly glanced at her family, "It’s not time yet, they need to marinate for two more days to be fully flavored."

Hearing that they couldn’t eat yet, everyone was disappointed.

Being able to look but not eat, Pei Yang simply took the kids to the ice-skating rink to play, to avoid the temptation.

Pei Ke went back to his own place.

Mingzhu stayed home to study for a while, and once the cooked marinade had cooled down, she poured it back into the glass jar with the crabs and then put the jar back in the fridge.

In the middle of the night.

Pei Yang got up to go to the bathroom, and on his way back to the room, his feet froze when he saw the refrigerator in the corner of the living room.

"Son."

Rudely awakened from his sleep, Pei Ziheng’s entire face was one of irritation.

"What?"

"Want to eat the marinated crab?"

The annoyance in Pei Ziheng’s eyes gradually faded, replaced by anger and disbelief, "You’re stealing Mom’s marinated crabs!?"

Pei Yang covered his mouth, whispering, "This isn’t stealing, it’s just pre-tasting. Don’t you want to try? We’ll take one, half each, how about that?"

Pei Ziheng was torn.

Reason told him to refuse, not to upset Mom.

But he really wanted to taste it.

Just the smell made his mouth water, let alone imagining how delicious it would actually taste.

The allure of the unknown is always difficult to resist.

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