Chapter 185: At noon everyone ate together, Ye Cheng paid

"No, big brother, it's my parents and Uncle Duan and them." Xiao Hu turned his head and said.

"Oh, that's fine; I thought we'd have to fight again as soon as we got back." Ye Cheng muttered.

The four got out of the taxi, Ye Cheng hurriedly paid the fare—after all, it was the Chen family's money.

Seeing the four get out of the car, a crowd came forward to greet them, led by Duan Chunsheng and Xiao Hu's parents, plus Zhang Guafu and several neighbors who were on good terms with the eldest brother,

"Guowei, A Cheng, you're back."

"You didn't suffer, did you?"

"Guowei, you hit well, you hit well, that's so satisfying!" said Qian Shen, who lived next door to the eldest brother's house; they too had been roughed up by Chen Jinhai before, and they'd long taken a dislike to the Chen family.

Ye Cheng stood at the back, rubbing his nose, saying, "This was my idea, okay? How did it suddenly become big brother's victory?"

He was feeling depressed when Duan Chunsheng squeezed over, grabbed Ye Cheng's hand and shook it vigorously, "A Cheng, don't worry, Uncle's got your back—offending the Sea Dragon King is just nonsense; this time Uncle really caught fish worth 5000 dollars."

"Yeah, yeah, go out two more times and the money I borrowed will be paid back." Duan Shen also beamed; with money at home, her heart naturally felt lighter.

"Uncle, it's just your skill." Ye Cheng returned the compliment.

"What good is skill if you have no boat to scoop with your hands?" Duan Chunsheng said with a laugh.

A group chatted happily at the village entrance for a while, and finally Ye Guowei shouted,

"Nobody leave at noon; come to my house for a meal together, thanks for your help—you definitely have to come."

After saying that, he looked at Ye Cheng again, pointed at him and said, "Money—Ye Cheng will pay!"

Hearing that Ye Cheng would pay, the crowd instantly burst into thunderous cheers,

"Good!"

Ye Cheng gave a wry smile; this was like beating the rich and dividing the land.

They were all villagers, so arranging a banquet was quick; several families' women gathered together, each taking on tasks to prepare the dishes.

The men moved the tables and chairs over, then went to buy some drinks—anyway, Ye Cheng was footing the bill.

In Ye Guowei's courtyard three tables were set, filled with guests; Ye Cheng also counted as having spent a lot—each table had Small Blue Dragon, abalone, and spotted grouper, plus the usual pork trotters, big cuts of meat, etc., with just the dish cost per table coming to 1000 dollars.

As for the drinks, they were taken from Li Quezi, which made him happy.

Besides that, Ye Cheng also seated Li Quezi at the banquet, as thanks for his information.

Such a big scene spread through the village in an instant.

Chen Jinhai looked at the lively scene over there, then at his two nephews whose faces were pale, and instantly his anger flared.

"All you do is eat, eat, eat—you're useless; even stealing a fish trap gets you noticed."

Chen Zhangfu glanced at his great-uncle, muttered, "I think they just know how to make money; they never really offended the Sea Dragon King."

"What did you say? I said he offended them, so he offended them—you don't know squat!" His own nephew dared to talk back, and Chen Jinhai was so angry he wanted to hit him with a stick.

"Great-uncle, everyone connected with Ye Cheng has made money—Xiao Hu, quit saying that; his mother smiles all day, Zhang Guafu has money to treat her son's illness, the Duan family can buy a boat, even Li Quezi's business has improved a lot—how could that be offending the Sea Dragon King? It's more like the Sea Dragon King took a liking to them." Chen Zhangfu said, face full of indignation.

"Exactly, they were even gulping meat in the detention room while we had nothing." Chen Zhanglong chimed in, recalling vividly the taste of yesterday's detention— the feeling of watching others eat meat while he could only have pickled vegetables was truly maddening.

"Bullshit! You two little brats are trying to rebel, aren't you? Jinli, you're not going to manage them either?" Chen Jinhai pointed at his cousin Chen Jinli and shouted.

Chen Jinli glanced at Chen Jinhai; he used to think him formidable, but now he seemed utterly useless.

If Ye Cheng hadn't let them off this time, his two sons would have gotten criminal records and ended up in jail.

What does that mean? From now on they won't even be able to find a wife, let alone a job.

"Cousin, the state now says we should develop the economy—shouldn't we also look toward money instead of always messing with these things?" Chen Jinli interjected calmly.

Chen Jinhai looked at his cousin in disbelief, "Fine, fine, you all just want to follow them, huh? If you go along, it'll seem like you'll get rich just by following him—you've dragged the Chen family's reputation through the mud."

Having said that, Chen Jinhai angrily went back inside, too bothered to deal with those three blockheads.

Watching Chen Jinhai's retreating back, Chen Zhangfu snorted disdainfully, "All he knows is how to throw his weight around."

Having said that, he turned to his father Chen Jinli, "Dad, what should we do? We lost quite a bit of money this time."

Last time the money from selling the fish trap was mostly spent by him and his brother; this time the funds for accompanying Ye Cheng all came from the family.

"Dad, I just saw—this time the Ye family's feast includes lobster and spotted grouper; the food is great." Chen Zhanglong now only feels envy; his earlier resentment is gone.

Chen Jinli lowered his head in thought, "I'll go find your Uncle Jinshui; he's close to Lao Er, see if he can help mediate so we can also get a share of the benefits later."

The Ye family's banquet here lasted until 3 p. m., guests were fully satisfied, food and drink abundant.

Ye Cheng himself didn't even know how many rounds of drinks he'd gone through; originally it was supposed to be Elder Brother Ye Guowei treating everyone, but everyone's toasts were aimed at him.

At first he could fend them off, decline a bit, but then Zhang Guafu came up with a cup of 3 liang of baijiu and downed it in one gulp, leaving Ye Cheng flat on his back.

This woman—those who don't drink abstain completely, while those who do drink are truly terrifying.

With Zhang Guafu's breakthrough, the village aunties suddenly all seemed able to drink, they got Ye Cheng drunk as a skunk, and then...

And then there was no "then."

Afterwards Ye Cheng didn't even know what he'd done, but he just felt really high.

By the time he regained consciousness and opened his eyes, it was already the next day.

The only feeling was a headache—damn it, I don't know if Li Quezi was selling fake liquor, why does my head hurt so much?

"A Cheng, are you up?" came the voice of sister-in-law Jiang Yunxiang from outside the door.

"Here, sister-in-law." Ye Cheng just threw on a pair of pants and came out, eyes still heavy with sleep.

"You drank too much, come on—sister-in-law made you some porridge; drinking too much, a bit of porridge will make you feel better, with added dried scallop seafood porridge." Jiang Yunxiang said while pulling a bowl of hot porridge, steaming, from the basket, plus two steamed buns.

Seeing that fragrant, steaming porridge, Ye Cheng's stomach immediately growled, and without ceremony he sat down and began to eat.