Chapter 345
Suzuki Yoshiko didn’t open the store because she wanted to make money, she wanted success and her husband’s heart.
Zhu Yuyan had won her husband’s heart through her successful career, so she wanted to get Suzuki Saburo’s heart in the same way.
After all, how can a woman not know whether a man loves her or not?
She knew very well that Suzuki Saburo was not in love with her.
It was possible that after she gave birth to her son, he would leave her to seek the comfort of a lover.
But if she could provide far superior success than the flesh of a lover, then she could keep her husband’s heart.
So even when Yixiong lost so much money that her personal money was about to bottom out, she didn’t think of shutting Yixiong down, but rather thought of where she could make more money to well support Yixiong.
Zhu Yuyan gave her a good idea again.
Zhu Yuyan: “You know, grain is the most popular commodity in the city now. The last time I used potatoes to make a name for myself, do you remember?”
Zhu Yuyan describes her constant buying of grain and selling it to the poor at very low prices as a way to make a good name for herself.
Zhu Yuyan: “The more famous I am, the more people like me, and Mr. Su will think more and more highly of me. You see, now everyone calls me Mrs. Su, Mrs. Bodhisattva, even walking on the street there are people who know me, in the past I had to pay for journalists before they were willing to come to interview me and take pictures of me, now I go out of the door and there are journalists looking for them, and they will also follow me in the back of the car. It’s all about influence!”
This argument was unexpectedly convincing, so not only did Suzuki Yoshiko believe it, but Suzuki Saburo, as well as Su Chunjun’s side of the family, all believed that Zhu Yuyan’s incessant almsgiving of food to the poor was meant to earn the couple a good reputation.
This had a strange effect: many people who wanted a good reputation also went to give alms to the poor.
The most fashionable thing in town now was charitable behavior. On an average, the newspapers reported three or four times a day the charitable acts of Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So.
On the whole, it’s a good thing.
Not all the charity taken out was food, but at least it was good that someone gave.
She once saw a Mrs. give two bottles of soy sauce to each of the poor.
Presumably the people could take it back and wash it down with water.
Yoshiko Suzuki took the advice. And Zhu Yuyan wasn’t the only buyer now, a lot of people wanted to buy smuggled goods.
Of course, she couldn’t smuggle everything in, the Hirata family fleet wouldn’t listen to her. She can only take what she can get.
And this time, maybe the Hirata family was angry with her, so they asked her to pay first, and she couldn’t refuse whatever she brought back.
Zhu Yuyan again rushed to pay without seeing anything, like a best friend in the world.
She comforted Suzuki Yoshiko and convinced her that it was a good idea.
Three months later, the fleet returned, and they brought back potatoes this time as well, along with a fair amount of corn.
This was because the sugar mill in the city had ordered corn from them to be used in the extraction of sugar.
Corn is very easy to produce sugar, and the syrup produced is so excellent that it can be used in many kinds of food processing.
Now this sugar mill has started to make liquor, and the white and yellow sugar, sugar cubes and sodas he produces are already being sold, and the proprietor is making a great deal of money.
And Saburo Suzuki’s tinplate factory hasn’t been built yet, but it has started hiring.
But because he was a few months behind the others, it made him very angry to see now that the others were already making money and he had not yet begun to do so.
His attitude towards Yoshiko Suzuki also starts to deteriorate, and he teases her about Kazuo at dinner.
The two don’t have a child yet, and Suzuki Yoshiko has been looking forward to it every day since they got married, but it’s only been four months now, so even if they haven’t heard anything, it’s normal. Besides, Suzuki Saburo was busy with his work and wasn’t too affectionate with Suzuki Yoshiko.
–This was all speculated by Zhu Yuyan.
Because as long as Suzuki Yoshiko looked bad, was grumpy, and liked to curse more than usual, it meant that she hadn’t been able to see her beloved husband lately.
And the number of times she lost her temper made Zhu Yuyan suspect that Suzuki Saburo had already taken a hundred concubines.
Just …… make people happy, huh?
Suzuki Saburo said that if they did have a son in the future, they couldn’t let Yoshiko educate him, or else this son would probably turn out to be an incompetent man like the one in her store.
Suzuki Jiazi can’t be angry in front of him, and when she goes back, she is so angry that she wrings her arms and thighs with bruises and red marks all over them. Zhu Yuyan thinks she’s being abused by Suzuki Saburo, but it turns out she twisted them herself, saying she’s enjoyed doing it since before.
Suzuki Yoshiko: “This way I don’t cry out when I hide in my room, otherwise even the maids at home would laugh at me.”
Maintaining decency and scenery is the most important thing.
Zhu Yuyan wanted the smuggled corn, and she encouraged Suzuki Yoshiko to grab it as well.
She said, “It’s that sugar factory, the one that made Mr. Suzuki angry. If they don’t have the corn, won’t they be unable to start?”
Suzuki Yoshiko was immediately heartened. She was the young lady of the Hirata family and married to Saburo Suzuki.
She stood there and insisted on taking those corn away.
Zhu Yuyan paid those bitter laborers a high price to run onto the boat and carry the corn away.
The laborers were the same as the last time, they didn’t even think twice before rushing onto the ship, the sticks in their hands became weapons, some of them were really armed, they were like a pack of vicious wolves snatching away the corn from the ship, and they even injured the crew members.
Zhu Yuyan told them to take the corn to the night market.
The man from last time asked her, “Mrs. Su, are we still waiting for you to go over like last time?”
Zhu Yuyan: “No, you can sell it when you arrive. By the way, each of you will first divide two bags and send them home, as soon as possible, someone will come looking for these corn.”
Zhu Yuyan pulled out two gold bars and said, “There may be some problems to follow. This ship belongs to the Japanese, and although it’s now considered a Japanese inside-bar, there’s a chance that they’ll still look for trouble from you guys. So, after this is done, if you guys can leave, you should leave for a while, to avoid staying and being captured and victimized.”
The man gasped for air, glanced at the gold bar in her hand, took it and said, “Ma’am, we’re fine, none of us are afraid of death. There are a lot of laborers over here, we can start every day here, we can all earn a little bit of money, if we go somewhere else we will still not be able to survive.”
Zhu Yuyan was speechless.
As dead as this city was, it was big enough to hold enough people, and it offered more opportunities than any other place could offer.
This was the reason why many poor people did not leave even if they were suffering here, because they might not be able to survive even more if they left.
Zhu Yuyan: “Anyway, you guys be more careful.”
The man nodded: “Mrs. Su, we know, we will be careful. Don’t worry, even if someone dies, they won’t hate you, the money you gave is enough to buy all of our lives.”
Zhu Yuyan’s heart was particularly uncomfortable.
Man: “You have saved many people, you are a good man.”
The man ran away carrying two bags of corn, and soon many of the drudges learned that they could carry away two bags of corn.
The laborers did as Zhu Yuyan said and carried the rest of the corn to the night market and sold it at a very cheap price to the people who went to the night market that night.
That night, Nanjing Road was jammed.
The corn disappeared in one night.
The people at the sugar mill were, of course, mad as hell. They heard that the Japanese and Zhu Yuyan had teamed up to do this and were determined to take revenge on the Japanese and Zhu Yuyan.
The boss of the sugar factory had followed Mr. Zhang, so of course he had to go to Mr. Zhang to seek justice.
The Japanese are not easy to deal with, and Zhu Yuyan is the wife of Su Chunjun.
However, the boss of the sugar factory thought that his backer was Mr. Zhang, and he was not willing to eat this dumb loss.
Mr. Zhang was very annoyed at being put up and was not very willing to stand up for himself.
But he was pushed too far by these bosses, and had to pass a message to Su Chunjun, asking him to come to him to tell him what happened.
Su Chunjun went there with Chen driver without telling Zhu Yuyan.
Zhao Shuli said before he went, “You’re going to get scolded this time, aren’t you?”
Su Chunjun sighed, “What a pain in the ass, what’s the name of the owner of that sugar factory or whatever? Let’s see if we can arrest the person and lock him up for a while, let’s see if he still dares to sue me, he’s really tired of living.”
Zhao Shuli laughed: “It’s fine to sue you, especially the wife, right?”
Su Chunjun: “How can Yan Yan stand up to the Japanese? She’s the one who got dragged into this. You check up on that boss, we can’t ask someone to ride on our heads.”
Zhao Shuli smiled and said, “Good.”