Chapter 77: This girl, she's not that young

Looking at it, the Jia Family and Shazhu are about to lock horns again.

The hypocrite Yi Zhonghai hurriedly spoke up to smooth things over.

He spouted a bunch of irrelevant nonsense, neither agreeing to the dinner invitation nor refusing to cook, and in any case the neighbors of the Siheyuan were all quite upset.

Except for children playing and showing off their new clothes.

The adults all stayed at home.

Waiting for Xu Daming to bring people back, to see whether Yi Zhonghai would adopt the child or not, more importantly, whether the neighbors could enjoy the benefit feast from Yi Zhonghai adopting a child.

Shazhu's cooking!

Everyone was craving.

Most of the people in the Siheyuan were workers from the Yagangchang.

Thanks to Xu Daming.

The Yagangchang has long been spreading the reputation of Shazhu as a culinary god; the canteen head who initially didn't even give Shazhu an apprentice position has now been assigned to clean toilets.

Along with the hypocrite suffering a huge loss, worried that he was scheming to prevent Shazhu from revealing his apprenticeship exploits, which would ruin Yi Zhonghai's reputation, Yi Zhonghai privately gave that canteen head quite a few things.

That's exactly why.

Only then did Yi Zhonghai appear stretched thin.

The family's savings were basically gone; the one million lent to Shazhu was the Yi Zhonghai family's only remaining savings, which also resulted in the sewing machine sent to the Jia Family mysteriously taking the surname He.

"Old Yi."

Yi Zhonghai turned his face and looked at the expectant elder aunt.

He knew the elder aunt had always wanted to adopt a child.

The key was that Yi Zhonghai felt uneasy inside.

Long Laotaitai once said that as long as a child isn't biological, whether adopted or not doesn't matter; although Jia Dongxu looks respectable, when it comes to providing for the elderly, in the whole Siheyuan only Shazhu meets that condition.

Yi Zhonghai thought Long Laotaitai made sense, so even though the family still had one million left, he gritted his teeth and lent that money to Shazhu.

Just so that Shazhu would remember him fondly.

"What kind of person is Xu Daming? We all know he's the type who'd sneak into the women's restroom at eight; if it were Zhuzi who brought someone over, we'd grit our teeth and agree to adopt, but now Xu Daming is arranging this adoption for us, and I don't trust Xu Daming."

"What if Xu Daming brings the person? What then?"

Yi Zhonghai let out a cold snort.

Meet force with force.

Meet water with earth.

The person was brought by Xu Daming, without consulting the Yi Zhonghai couple; they could do whatever they wanted, and could even blame the Yi Zhonghai couple.

"What about the Jia Family?"

"Don't worry about them."

"I'm talking about Jia Dongxu's wedding." The elder aunt mentioned the Jia Family with an envious look, "Jia Popo told me that the whole Yagangchang says Zhuzi's cooking is fragrant, asking you to step in and mediate, to have Shazhu help as head cook, saying Shazhu's cooking will give Dongxu's wedding banquet prestige."

"This Jia Popo, always finding trouble for me."

Yi Zhonghai muttered a sentence.

He stepped outside and walked away.

Jia Dongxu is his disciple, and he also has plans for old-age support.

Naturally, he needs to put effort into it.

Also blaming Jia Zhangshi, a perfectly fine widow, for some reason after Yi Zhonghai suggested Qin Huairu as Jia Dongxu's wife, Jia Zhangshi became unreasonable.

Because the sewing machine was compensated to Shazhu, and they butted heads every day; even a clay figurine has some temper, let alone a person—Shazhu is about to cut ties with the Jia Family forever.

Just stepped out the front door.

Yi Zhonghai just stood there stunned, as Biesun Xu Daming smiled and stood at the junction of the Zhong Yuan and the front courtyard, looking at him with a grin.

Behind Xu Daming followed people from the front courtyard watching the spectacle.

Yi Zhonghai's gaze quickly swept past Xu Daming and landed on a girl trailing behind him.

She had braids, wore dull gray old clothes, and mismatched cloth shoes—clearly from a poor household.

This couldn't be the girl Xu Daming is arranging for Yi Zhonghai to adopt, could it?

She's also too old.

Looking like she's seventeen or eighteen.

Adopting a seven- or eight-year-old, even a teenager, would be fine.

She's already grown up, about to get married, and you're arranging for me to adopt her?

Do I also need to prepare a dowry?

Who knows what kind of personality the other person has?

If the personality is gentle,

not bad.

If it's someone like Jia Zhangshi, an unreasonable troublemaker,

it would be an absolute disaster.

"Elder Uncle." Xu Daming pointed at the shocked Yi Zhonghai and the equally bewildered elder aunt who had come out upon hearing the commotion, "Elder Aunt, I told you you'd be pleasantly surprised, and indeed you are."

Having said that.

He seemingly showed off by pulling the girl behind him out.

Acting as the intermediary between the two parties.

"Elder Uncle, Elder Aunt, this girl is seventeen this year, will be eighteen after the New Year; her parents and brothers are all dead, she came alone to the Capital City to seek relatives, that relative of hers hasn't shown up, I met her, thinking that since she's alone anyway, and you, Elder Uncle and Aunt, have no children, I might as well bring her to our Dayuan."

The scene instantly fell silent as silk.

One aspect is being stunned by Xu Daming's operation.

They had never seen a case of a sensible seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl acknowledging her father and mother.

Such a bizarre operation.

How did Xu Daming come up with this?

On the other hand, they were waiting for Yi Zhonghai and his wife's answer.

Just now Shazhu said.

Saying that if Yi Zhonghai agrees to adopt a child, he would arrange a pork stew meal in the courtyard.

The meal Shazhu cooked.

Just thinking about it makes one's mouth water.

"She is called Li Xiuzhi; if your eldest uncle and aunt think it's alright, let her be your daughter, and next year or the year after bring in a son-in-law, so the whole family can live happily together— isn't that good?"

Xu Daming looked pleased.

He also blinked at Shazhu.

Shazhu didn't care about Li whatever Xiuzhi.

His head buzzed nonstop.

He was a bit unable to understand Xu Daming's operation.

Xu Daming had told Shazhu that he would help Yi Zhonghai and his wife adopt a child from the orphanage, but he brought back a marriageable young woman.

Just thinking of Xu Daming's lustful nature made Shazhu feel a headache.

This guy must have messed up with that girl, having no other idea, he thought of using the pretense of acknowledging Yi Zhonghai and his wife as parents to extricate himself.

In his previous life, he settled Qin Jingru in ten minutes.

He had a prior record.

"Xu Daming."

"Shazhu, don't delay me doing good deeds; I'm doing this for the sake of your eldest uncle and aunt."

Doing a damn good deed.

Didn't see that Yi Zhonghai was unhappy, and consequently the Jia family members were also unhappy.

You have successfully offended the three major households of the courtyard, the man-eating Jia family, the hypocrite Yi Zhonghai, and the ancestors of the rear and main courtyards, the deaf old lady.

Shazhu grabbed Xu Daming and went to the corner, not caring whether the courtyard's people saw them, and lowered his voice.

"Aren't you supposed to adopt a child from the orphanage? How did you bring back an adult?"

"I met this girl on the road; at first glance she seemed to be from the countryside coming to rely on relatives; I asked a few more questions, she had no parents, her relatives had disappeared, staying in the capital was a dead end, and Yi Zhonghai and his wife had no child— isn't that a good thing?"