sbdcsierra Chapter 421 Convincing Lao Zhou
Chapter 421 Convincing Lao Zhou
It was almost noon when Lao Zhou woke up from his drunken dream. He stretched lazily and got out of bed, listening to the cicadas chirping outside the window, but he couldn't help frowning in annoyance.
"Mr. Zhou, are you awake?" Old Zhou just opened the door and was surprised to see the servant A Qun holding a basin of water and a teacup and smiling at him.
"What are you doing here?" Old Zhou was startled suddenly, then looked up and down at Ah Qun who was still grinning at him, and asked vigilantly.
A Qun was a servant in the courtyard of Manager Mu. He suddenly came to him and showed his courtesy for the first time in his life. It was hard not to make Lao Zhou suspicious.
"Of course I am here to help Mr. Zhou wash up. Oh, by the way, Young Master and Young Master Mu Liang are waiting for you to have lunch at Qingyun Garden." Ah Qun continued to smile innocently and replied.
"You are being nice to me for no reason. If you have something to say, just say it directly. Why are you doing such a fuss?" Old Zhou had already guessed that it must be a trick played by the fox Shopkeeper Mu, so when he heard Ah Qun say this, he muttered to himself, walked around him and went to Qingyun Garden.
"Mr. Zhou, wait for me!" Seeing this, Ah Qun hurriedly chased after him with a basin of water.
"Can these really buy off Old Zhou?" In the attic of Qingyun Garden, Li Yunye frowned and muttered as he looked at the bottles of wine on the table in front of him.
These bottles are all precious wines that Li Xingyuan collected when he was alive. Today, the two brothers had to take them out in order to ask for help.
"Probably not." Mu Liang shook his head and sighed, then smiled and said, "But considering these precious wines, at least he won't feel that he's at a disadvantage."
"So you have any other tricks?" Li Yunye approached his brother and asked curiously.
"I'll have to rely on Brother Yunye to say more nice things later." Mu Liang's eyes flickered and he smiled gently at his brother.
"A few nice words will be enough for such a request? Even I can't agree to it, let alone the heartless Old Zhou!" Seeing that Brother Mu Liang was still keeping the secret at the critical moment, Li Yunye pushed him away angrily and said with a frown.
"It turns out that in Mr. Li's eyes, I am a heartless person!" Li Yunye had just finished speaking when Lao Zhou's voice was heard outside. He entered the room before he even smelled of alcohol.
"No, no, you must not have heard it all. I was praising you, praising you for looking like a heart of stone but actually being as compassionate as a bodhisattva!" It happened that his words were heard by Old Zhou. Li Yunye was afraid that he would offend him today, so he quickly tried to make excuses.
Looking at his brother talking nonsense seriously, Mu Liang, who had been silent beside him, couldn't help but smile dotingly.
However, Old Zhou was not so easily fooled. He hurried into the inner room and was about to continue to attack Li Yunye with a stern face, but he caught a glimpse of the bottles of fine wine on the table. His eyes immediately lit up. Old Zhou flew forward in ecstasy and lay on the table to smell the bottles of fine wine several times. At the same time, he couldn't help but mutter to himself:
"Zaoji wine has been praised as a heaven-given wine and a land-given spring since ancient times; Sangluo wine tastes better than nectar and makes you drunk for three days; Tusu wine makes you happy to drink Tusu after others; Zhuyeqing wine makes you crazy after drinking a hundred cups and you feel more spirited; and there is also the drunk Liuxia wine from the Shenchen Palace Banquet! These are rare good wines in the world!"
Shocked to see Lao Zhou's crazy look, Li Yun opened his mouth in disgust. Although he could drink, he didn't like it and he really couldn't understand someone who loved wine so much.
"These are all fine wines that my godfather has collected for many years. You have also helped a lot since the Li family got into trouble. We have long wanted to find an opportunity to thank you properly." Mu Liang smiled as usual at Old Zhou, who was lying on the table holding the bottles of precious wines and drooling.
Old Zhou came to his senses after hearing Mu Liang's words. He quickly raised his sleeve to wipe the saliva from his mouth and stood up from the table. He smiled lightly but his hands were still reluctant to leave the wine bottle: "If you need my help, just tell me. Why do you need all this? I like wine but I'm not stupid. How can I drink this good wine for nothing?"
"These bottles of wine are given to you sincerely, but I do need a small favor from you." Li Yunye was anxious and never liked to beat around the bush, so without waiting for Mu Liang to speak, he spoke directly to Lao Zhou with a smile.
"Giving away five or six bottles of fine wine at once, I guess this is not a small favor, right?" Old Zhou raised his eyebrows, sat calmly at the table and continued to ask Li Yunye in front of him.
“Hehe, but for Mr. Zhou, who is highly skilled in martial arts, it is definitely just a small favor.” Li Yunye also sat in front of Mr. Zhou with a smile and praised him.
"Stop flattering me and just say what you want!" Seeing that Master Li was flattering him, Old Zhou asked curiously.
"Yunyu is poisoned and her life is in danger. She needs to go to the desert to find a medicine. I would like to ask you... to go to the desert with Madam Honghua." At the end, Li Yunye's voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum, and even his head drooped timidly.
To Old Zhou, the previous words seemed a bit difficult but reasonable, so he kept silent. But when he heard that he was asked to go with that vicious woman to find medicine, he immediately jumped up from the stool in a rage, slammed his palm on the table and said angrily: "No, absolutely not! Going to the desert with that vicious woman is tantamount to committing suicide!"
Li Yunye was so scared that he immediately stood up and came to Mu Liang, looking at him for help.
Mu Liang first reached out and patted the back of his brother's hand twice, then smiled at him slowly and said, "Yun Ye, the weather is hot, ask the kitchen to prepare more cold drinks."
Li Yunye was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and hurried out: "Oh, oh, I'll go right away." But when he walked out of the outer room, he quickly leaned over the closed door and whispered to himself in confusion: "I also had a role in persuading Lao Zhou, why did Brother Muliang send me away?"
"Sir, this corridor is stuffy, shall we go downstairs?" An Yun, who was waiting on the side, stepped forward and tried to pull Li Yunye away.
This was the task that Mu Liang assigned to An Yun in advance. The conversation between him and Lao Zhou must not be heard by Li Yunye.
"Hey, don't make trouble!" Li Yunye, who was unaware of the situation, was just wondering what Brother Qi Muliang was going to say to Lao Zhou, so he didn't care about An Yun at all.
"Master, I just saw Madam Honghua come back again. At this time, Master Muliang is trying to persuade Old Zhou not to let her come up to cause trouble!" Seeing that he could not persuade the master, An Yun had to lie in a hurry.
"What? Why is she here again?" Sure enough, when Li Yunye heard this, he was worried that she would interrupt Brother Mu Liang's good opportunity to persuade Lao Zhou at this time, so he turned around and ran downstairs without thinking too much.
"Sir, I'm sorry!" Looking at the young master's departing back, An Yun muttered to himself guiltily, and then chased downstairs.
"You still have such a bad temper!" After things quieted down outside the room, Mu Liang sighed helplessly to Lao Zhou.
"What? Manager Mu wants to persuade me?" But Lao Zhou was still angry. He glanced at him and snorted indifferently.
"Don't you know me yet? I won't advise you on such a difficult matter." Mu Liang sat aside calmly and smiled kindly.
"Yeah, I almost forgot that Shopkeeper Mu is a businessman." Lao Zhou also sat opposite him, poured himself a cup of cold tea and drank it all, and then asked with some interest: "What kind of deal does Shopkeeper Mu want to discuss with me this time?"
"If you agree to make this trip to the desert, apart from the fine wines, the relationship between us will no longer be a contractual one, and you will be free from now on." Mu Liang continued to pour a cup of cold tea for Lao Zhou and said with a smile.
"I remember that there is only one year left on the contract. Anyway, I've gotten used to living in the Li family. I have food, drink and rooms to live in. It's better than living alone outside, eating and sleeping in the open and having to drive a cart for others and fawn on others for a few dollars for wine. As for the good wine, I, Old Zhou, am too unlucky to enjoy it!" Old Zhou glanced at the bottles of wine on the table reluctantly. The conditions were indeed tempting, but when he thought of that vicious woman Honghua, he made up his mind and turned his head to refuse.
"Mr. Zhou, do you still remember what was written in black and white on the contract?" Mu Liang narrowed his eyes and asked again.
When Old Zhou heard the three words "Mr. Zhou" come out of Mu Liang's mouth, his back stiffened. Seeing the other party's foxy smile, he immediately curled his lips with a somewhat unhappy look and said, "Of course I remember. I've been at your service for three years!"
"Then it's your choice, breach of contract or..."
"Then let's break the contract. Even if I lose my freedom and let you, Shopkeeper Mu, order me around, I will never go with that vicious woman!"
Mu Liang looked at Lao Zhou, who looked like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water, and seemed to have expected this. He then sighed in embarrassment:
"Well, in that case, I can only send Manager Li from the farm to go with Madam Honghua."
"What? You want my junior brother to go? Manager Mu knows that my junior brother just wants to hide his identity and live in peace away from his enemies, so why does he force him to get involved in all the right and wrong and grudges?" Old Zhou became anxious when he heard this and couldn't help but yell at Mu Liang angrily.
He felt guilty for not knowing and not being able to help his junior brother who was being chased and seriously injured. Now, when he heard that Manager Mu wanted his junior brother, who had been hiding his identity for many years, to show his face in public again, he was naturally angry.
"There is nothing we can do. If it weren't for Miss Xuanyu, Yunye would have been killed by the bandits and the Li family would have been completely wiped out. So this is not just a life-saving favor. Now that Miss Xuanyu is in danger of death, our Li family must repay this great favor even if we have to go through fire and water." Mu Liang frowned and sighed again.
He knew that since Lao Zhou and Manager Li recognized each other, they had often gone to the farm. From this, he could see that the two brothers had a deep relationship, so Manager Li was also his bargaining chip today.
"Besides, Madam Honghua also said this morning that if we can't find anyone to help her, she will have to take Yunye to the desert tomorrow." Mu Liang said truthfully, and seeing that Lao Zhou remained silent, he sighed.
"Oh, is this vicious woman out of her mind? Doesn't she think it's a burden to take the young master of the Li family with her?" Old Zhou couldn't help but snorted at this time, but he quickly realized that this vicious woman was clearly blackmailing the Li family to find help for her.
"Yun Ye is the boss of a famous Li family in Jiangnan. He is still in mourning and cannot leave Qile City. But he has to repay Xuan Yu's kindness. There is no other way. I can only ask Manager Li to help!" Mu Liang continued to speak with a bitter face.
Old Zhou didn't say anything else. He couldn't help but raise his hand to touch the bottles of wine in front of him, but he saw Mu Liang looking at him. He had to curl his lips and pick up the cold tea beside him to drink.