Chapter 167: Persuasion

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: Persuasion

"Mom, let’s go."

From around a nearby corner, Gu Nuan Nuan pursed her lips, signaling to her mother that they could leave. As they walked, she quietly recounted what she had overheard. After repeating Han Bingquan’s final words, she sneered, "It’s true. The only way to deal with bad people is to act even ’worse’ and more formidable than they are. Only then will they realize you’re not to be trifled with and leave you alone. If you show the slightest bit of mercy, they’ll just think you’re a pushover and bully you whenever they get the chance. He’s like that, and so are Dad, Grandma, and Auntie."

Zhang Minzhen: "..."

She looked at Gu Nuan Nuan with some worry, opened her mouth, and then sighed. "Nuannuan, no matter what other people are like, Mom doesn’t want you to turn into a bad person yourself just because of their wickedness."

"Mom, I won’t. I promise I’ll never become the kind of awful person that even I would hate. But I also don’t want to be like the foolish farmer in the fable, who couldn’t tell good from evil and wasted his kindness on a snake that bit him in return. So, I’ll just treat others the way they treat me."

’Repay kindness tenfold, but repay hatred a hundredfold,’ Gu Nuan Nuan silently added in her heart.

"That’s right. My Nuannuan has really grown up. You’re so young, yet you already understand a principle that Mom is only just now figuring out." Zhang Minzhen looked at her daughter with a mixture of love and guilt. "It’s good to be kind, but being equally kind to wicked and unreasonable people is just foolish."

"Mom, you figured it out?" Gu Nuan Nuan was pleasantly surprised. She had already noticed her mother changing a lot recently, but hearing her say it herself felt completely different.

"After everything that’s happened recently, how could I not figure it out?" Zhang Minzhen gave a wry smile. ’It seems I really am nowhere near as capable as my daughter. She isn’t just smart; she’s perceptive. Still, seeing her be stronger than me fills my heart more with happiness and pride than anything else.’

That evening, back in Zhang Family Village, Gu Nuan Nuan’s final exam scores were naturally shown off once again, drawing looks of envy and jealousy from her cousins. Gu Nuan Nuan’s second aunt-in-law, Fang Juxian, was still holding a grudge because Gu Nuan Nuan had refused to give her the meat bun filling recipe. Upon hearing the news, she sneered, "What’s the use of a little girl getting good grades?" In front of the Zhang family’s Zhang Wei Qiang and Zhang Dazhuang, she didn’t dare to be too brazen. But she turned right around, took her rice bowl, and went to gossip with the neighbors. "She’s just a good-for-nothing girl that her own father and grandmother abandoned. She gets one lucky score, like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse, and suddenly she’s all high and mighty. What’s the point of her studying so hard? When she gets married, is anyone going to care about her test scores? Of course not! The first thing they’ll notice is that her mother’s a divorcée. What decent family would ever want to marry into a family like that?"

Gu Nuan Nuan was unaware of the nasty things Fang Juxian was saying behind her back. Lately, unless it was absolutely necessary, she had made a conscious effort not to use her "eavesdropping" skill to pry into people’s privacy. At that moment, she was eating her dinner, listening intently as her mother, grandfather, and grandmother talked. The conversation started with her grandfather and mother telling her grandmother about her idea, then moved on to her eldest uncle’s decision to burn his boats. To everyone’s surprise, her grandmother was quick to accept it, agreeing after only a moment of thought.

"Nuannuan’s idea is excellent; it’s amazing that she was able to come up with it. And Qiangzi’s not bad either, at least much more capable than you are now." Wen Xiu shook her head and smiled at Zhang Dazhuang. "You, on the other hand... back when you were young, you had the same kind of drive Qiangzi has now. But the older you get, the more conservative and timid you’ve become."

"It’s true, I’m getting old. You can’t fight it." Zhang Dazhuang wasn’t offended by his wife’s words; instead, he accepted them with a cheerful laugh. The harmonious and loving atmosphere between the two made Gu Nuan Nuan, watching from the side, secretly envious of her grandparents’ relationship.

It had been the same in her past life. Right up until her grandparents passed away, she had never once seen them argue or get red-faced with each other.

Seeing that her own mother had accepted her older brother’s idea, Zhang Minzhen finally spoke up to Zhang Dazhuang and Wen Xiu. "Dad, Mom, since we’re going into business together, we need one person who has the final say. I think Big Brother is the most suitable. That’s why I don’t think the original share distribution is appropriate. Nuannuan and I hold the majority, and in the future, if this business really gets big and successful, we’ll definitely have more people working for us. When that happens, if our employees find out that Big Brother’s share is smaller than ours, will they truly respect his authority when he’s giving orders?"

"I talked about this with your big brother a little this afternoon. He thinks you should be the one in charge. After all, the recipe is Nuannuan’s, she’s the one who found the Fish Spring, and the entire idea was hers. So right now, we’re all just helping her out. When she’s older, this whole business has to be handed back to her." Zhang Dazhuang shook his head. "If we can make money, then your big brother and I are just helping, so we’re not at a disadvantage. In fact, we’re the ones getting a great deal."

"Grandpa, even though the recipe, the Fish Spring, and the idea all came from me, without all of you getting involved, we could only look at the Fish Spring and do nothing," Gu Nuan Nuan chimed in. "Even with the idea, we couldn’t have made it a reality anytime soon. And Mom would have had to spend who-knows-how-many years working her stall alone, rain or shine, just to earn a little hard-earned money."

"Exactly," Zhang Minzhen said, nodding along. "Dad, you know my personality. I might be okay handling small matters, but what we’re planning now is huge. Even if you and Big Brother felt comfortable putting me in charge, I’m just not cut out for it. I wouldn’t dare take on that responsibility."

"If you don’t think you can do it, then it’s fine to let your big brother take the lead for now. Later, when Nuannuan is older, the responsibility can be passed to her." After a moment’s thought, Zhang Dazhuang agreed that his youngest daughter’s temperament probably wasn’t suited to running such a large business, just as she’d said, so he didn’t insist.

"Dad, Nuannuan is still so young; we don’t know what she’ll be like in the future. Isn’t it a bit too early to talk about her taking over?" Zhang Minzhen gave a wry smile. She remembered discussing this exact topic with Nuannuan that afternoon, and something her daughter said had really struck a chord. She couldn’t help but repeat it to Zhang Dazhuang now. "Besides, putting aside whether Nuannuan is even interested in the business, she couldn’t do that even if she wanted to. Right now, we’re essentially building an empire. It makes no sense for her eldest uncle to work so hard with us to build it, only to pass it on to his niece instead of his own sons. If that were to happen, even if Big Brother had no objections, do you think his wife and my two nephews would feel the same way?"