CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 49: HUANG WENLONG’S REQUEST

Liu Yongming irritably scratched his scalp, squatting on the ground, on the verge of collapse.

"Big brother, Fang Meixiang has dirt on me! Back when I wanted to divorce Lin Qin, she introduced me to someone who lent me a hundred and fifty bucks, and now Fang Meixiang says that person is a loan shark. If I can’t repay this money, I’m done for!

And Lin Yi’s issues... Any one of these could ruin me, big brother! I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today, and I’m just about to graduate and get a job. I can’t take the risk!"

For the first time, Liu Yongguo felt so stifled, "Are you just going to let that woman have her way? It’s bad enough you can’t get a divorce, but do you really want to raise that kid too?

You’ve taken all of mom’s savings, and now we’re relying on loans to get by. If you also raise that girl, mom is going to be furious! And on top of that, I have to explain things to your sister-in-law!"

Talking about it just made Liu Yongguo angrier, to the point of wanting to kill someone to vent.

Liu Yongming clung tightly to Liu Yongguo’s clothes, "Big brother, I’ve decided to go back to school and lie low for a while. I’ll return after I get a job assigned by the school; it’s only about two months away. Please hold on for me, and when I return to work, I’ll definitely repay you all!"

Liu Yongguo looked troubled, unable to refuse his brother’s plea, he braced himself to explain things to Ma Cuihua and Xu Manzhi.

"What? You can’t divorce, and you have to raise Fang Meixiang’s daughter too? Dream on!" Ma Cuihua’s voice was piercing with anger, as if she wanted to hit Liu Yongguo with a stick.

Liu Yongguo quickly backed away, retreating into the courtyard, watching Ma Cuihua cautiously, "Mom, little bro said he needs to go back to school to lay low, and I think he’s right. Once he gets a job, we’ll deal with this.

Fang Meixiang still has leverage over him; what if she exposes him? She’s already in jail, what does she have to fear? But we can’t take that risk! It’s just a girl, just give her enough to eat, as long as she’s not starving, we have the leverage over Fang Meixiang!"

Ma Cuihua’s furious mind gradually calmed down, "You’re right, we can’t let that bitch ruin your brother. Since Fang Meixiang said so, you go and bring that money-draining kid back tomorrow, and let them divorce when she’s out of prison."

Upon hearing Ma Cuihua agreeing to take care of the child, Liu Yongming immediately submitted his resignation to his internship unit, packed his bags, and returned to school.

Chen Wenjun only knew about this when he went to deliver fish and shrimp to Guoxing Restaurant.

He snorted discontentedly, "Lucky for him, he didn’t go to jail!"

Zheng Guoxing, now aware of Chen Wenjun’s past with his wife, consoled, "Just because he’s not in trouble now doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods! So many issues have cropped up, he’s famous in An City now. There’s no way he’ll get a job here after graduation; no unit will dare hire him! Just you wait!

By the way, in a moment, a friend of mine from the construction industry is coming over for a meal. You should meet him. His name is Huang Wenlong, we grew up together."

As they spoke, a group of dusty men entered the restaurant.

They sat down, casually shouting, "Hey stinky, give us a table of food, three dishes and a soup, whatever’s cheap works!"

Zheng Guoxing shouted back irritably, "Who’s stinky! I’m Zheng Guoxing, I have a name!"

"What’s up with you? Eat gunpowder today?" Huang Wenlong finally glanced in Zheng Guoxing’s direction, noticed two unfamiliar faces, and sheepishly approached, "Sorry sorry! I hope we’re not disturbing? It’s like, buddy, we’re starving, and city leaders are coming to inspect later, so we’ll probably have no lunch today, could you whip up something for us to eat first."

"Go away! Shoo!" Zheng Guoxing slapped away Huang Wenlong’s dirty hand and said to Chen Wenjun, "This is my childhood buddy in the construction business, don’t mind his laid-back demeanor, even if he really is laid-back. If you need cement and gravel, feel free to negotiate with him, he’s quite gullible. I’ll go cook now!"

Huang Wenlong jumped up in frustration, "Unprincipled and heartless bastard! I’ll eat you out of business one day!"

Cursing a little, he turned back to Chen Wenjun with a friendly grin showing eight teeth, "Take a seat! You’re the friend that stinky head said bought an uninhabited island?"

Chen Wenjun nodded hesitantly, a bit bewildered, "We’re planning to build a house, Boss Zheng said since you do road construction, we could ask you to help buy cement and gravel, it would be cheaper."

"That’s right! The director of the cement factory is my second uncle! Of course it’d be cheaper! Building houses doesn’t use that much!"

Huang Wenlong put away his unserious demeanor.

Chen Wenjun said helplessly, "We want to build a house on the uninhabited island, need to raise the foundation. The island is not short of stones, but we need cement and gravel. According to the plan, we want to raise it about one meter, and the combined area of the house is around two hundred and thirty square meters."

Huang Wenlong took out a notebook and pen from the counter, calculated according to what Chen Wenjun said, and his frown deepened, "If we do it as you say, it’ll cost around twenty thousand! If you pull cement directly from the factory, it’s a hundred and twenty per ton, but since I do engineering work, the internal price is ninety per ton. If you can accept that, find me and I’ll sort it out for you."

"Yes yes yes...." Chen Wenjun was overjoyed, grinning from ear to ear.

When he was selling fish, he’d asked around the market, and indeed, pulling straight from the cement factory cost a hundred and twenty per ton. More importantly, their attitude was very bossy, and you couldn’t guarantee the quality of the cement.

If they bought through Huang Wenlong, even if the materials weren’t the best, they wouldn’t be too bad either.

Huang Wenlong glanced back at Zheng Guoxing, seeing he was still cooking, he quickly lowered his voice and asked, "Do you supply fish and shrimp to stinky head every day?"

Chen Wenjun nodded, still a bit confused.

"What about your wife?" Huang Wenlong asked again.

Chen Wenjun was even more at a loss, but he answered honestly, "She didn’t come with me today."

Huang Wenlong leaned in closer, "To be honest with you, I’ve taken on another road project. The construction site isn’t far from here. My guys say it’s too expensive eating out all the time, they want to cook for themselves.

But this matter... it’s hard to organize, firstly because it’s hard to cater to everyone’s taste, and we rough guys don’t have anyone like stinky head who can cook. Plus, we don’t have time to buy ingredients and cook, so we want to find someone in charge!

I heard your wife is great, would she be interested in cooking for us? We’d buy all fish and shrimp from you guys, how about that?"

Chen Wenjun looked shocked, "This, this... It won’t work! She only knows how to cook regular meals, not like Boss Zheng’s skills."

"Hey! Old Zheng runs a restaurant, if your wife had skills like his, I couldn’t afford her! Our requirements are simple, just make homestyle meals for the workers. Three dishes and a soup, or four dishes and a soup is fine. Mainly because roadwork is really tough, I want the guys to eat well, just add some fish or shrimp every day, and two more dishes will do!"