Jiang He and Madam Qian had expressions of surprise after they saw Su Tang. Naturally, they were aware that Su Tang had been doing better these days and making money, but compared with the last time they saw her the changes in the girl in front of them were just too big. She was a little taller, and her whole body gave off a cold and quiet aura, seeming noble and difficult to approach. If they hadn’t seen Su Tang dressed in rags before, they really wouldn’t have doubted it if you had told them that this girl was actually a daughter from some wealthy family.
“My cafe isn’t too suitable for male guests, let’s all sit down next door.” Su Tang said calmly. The place she was referring to was the small stuffed steamed bun shop next door to her Dessert Cafe. In the past, this shop had been very ordinary but now, thanks to Su Tang opening her cafe next door, it received a lot of business every day from students who wanted to eat steamed buns with their milk tea.
Done speaking, Su Tang directly walked over to that same shop. When the shop’s boss saw Su Tang come inside, he immediately recognized her and greeted her with a smile, “Miss Su, what’s happened today that you’re so free as to come over to my place?”
“Someone came to talk to me about something, but it’s not too convenient for me to host them in my own shop. Please make us three cups of tea.” Su Tang gave the boss five copper coins as she spoke, which was more than enough. Of course, this was because this was a shop for stuffed steamed buns, so they didn’t sell any good tea and even their best wouldn’t cost more than five copper coins a pot. After all, most people wouldn’t come to this kind of place to drink tea. People who could afford tea would prefer to go to a decent teahouse instead.
“Alright.” The boss accepted the money politely and went to prepare a pot of tea.
Jiang He and Madam Qian nervously followed Su Tang to find a table to sit down in the empty shop. Right now the academy students were still in class, which was why there was no one else in the shop. A moment later, the boss arrived with the hot tea and poured three cups for his guests before retreating to the side again. He was a discerning enough person not to disturb them.
“Big Brother Jiang, sister-in-law, have some tea.” Su Tang gestured and invited the two to drink.
Jiang He and Madam Qian obediently picked up their teacups and took a careful sip each. Su Tang felt a bit amused to see them behaving so cautiously, as if she were some kind of terrifying monster.
The two people really were a bit unnerved. They had no idea that Su Tang wasn’t actually a genuine nine-year-old girl. She had a modern soul and was even somewhat naturally gifted. Moreover, recently, she had been studying with Song Yi, a man who used to teach the emperor. Many of the things she had learned with him, the so-called six skills of a gentleman, were somewhat imperceptible in daily life, and even Su Tang herself didn’t have much feeling that she had changed at all, but by now her mannerisms were already completely different from those of an ordinary peasant girl.
“Big Brother Jiang, sister-in-law, since you’ve both come to see me, you must have something to say to me?” Su Tang saw that these two people didn’t seem to plan to speak, so she could only take the initiative.
In the end, Jiang He was the head of his family, so he could only bite the bullet. When he heard Su Tang’s prodding question, he nodded boldly and said, “Yes, that’s right. Back then we signed a contract with Miss Su stating that you would provide our shop with fish balls. Now, as the weather has been gradually warming up, the fish balls we had frozen before the winter have almost sold out, so we wanted to come and ask if our cooperation could continue or if…”
Put bluntly, what he was saying was that they were worried that Su Tang might breach their contract now that she had enough money that she could afford to pay the penalty. However, Jiang He’s voice trailed off uncertainly midway.
But Su Tang understood what he was getting at, so she helped him finish: “Since I have signed a one-year contract I, of course, will abide by it until the end.”
Su Tang wasn’t the type of person who broke her promises. Although Jiang He and Madam Qian were acting a bit small-minded and overly careful, it wasn’t like they had done anything to hurt Su Tang. On the contrary, it was thanks to them agreeing to work with her that she had been able to have a fixed daily income during the early days. At that time, their agreement to work with her had really solved her urgent needs.
After that, she had gone on to make clothes, worked with Yang Fude, then broke off with Yang Fude, and then even went on to start her cooperation with the Luo family. It could only be said that her side had developed a little too fast and, unfortunately, Jiang He and Madam Qian were no longer qualified to be Su Tang’s business partners. However, Su Tang would never break her promises just because keeping them would be slightly less profitable. That just wasn’t how Su Tang did things, in business or in life.
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