Casting Nets to Catch a Husband

Chapter 135: Fortune and misfortune depend on each other

Lu Xun was so excited that he was about to go and tell the breakthrough plan devised by Liu Yu to Liu Yanqing and the others, but Liu Yu stopped him.

“Uncle, when you mention the Li family’s matter later, it’s better to be vague,” she advised.

Lu Xun understood her meaning and nodded. “I understand. A girl’s reputation is not to be trifled with. You have a good heart.”

In Lu Xun’s view, regardless of the roles played by the Li family in this matter, he would uphold the past relationships between the Li and Qian families. Naturally, he wouldn’t mention anything about Li Yunbi, a young girl, even though one of them was Liu Yu’s elder brother and the other two were his own sons.

However, Liu Yu’s consideration for Li Yunbi impressed Lu Xun quite a bit, and he felt that her kindness was genuine.

Lu Xun always believed that those with kind hearts would be blessed, so he especially liked Liu Yu’s reaction.

Liu Yu smiled. She was only respecting Lu Chengxiao’s wishes and didn’t want to unnecessarily complicate things between Lu Chengxiao and Li Yunbi in the eyes of others.

When the two returned to Lu Chengzong and the others, Lu Xun explained Liu Yu’s idea. Liu Yanqing’s eyes lit up with surprise, while Lu Chengzong and Lu Chengzhang were both delighted and admiring.

“So, problems can be solved from another perspective using this method,” Lu Chengzong chuckled. “Little sister is indeed clever. With this, we don’t need to worry about this batch of goods anymore.”

“It’s not just this batch. If this works out, we won’t have to worry about goods in the future,” Lu Chengzhang was extremely excited. This was a huge change, and he had never imagined that their Lu Feng could actually become a cloth emporium.

A cloth emporium.

Lu Chengzhang even felt ashamed of his previous calculations. Those hidden thoughts that had never been voiced made it difficult for him to apologize. However, feeling embarrassed about apologizing, he stood up, bowed solemnly to Liu Yu, and said, “Little sister, thank you. This time, we really owe it to you.”

Liu Yu didn’t dare to accept his gesture and quickly stepped aside to avoid it. Since Lu Chengzong and Lu Chengzhang referred to her as “little sister,” Liu Yu decided not to be shy. She smiled and said, “Second brother, please don’t be so polite. We are family, and helping each other is what we should do. Besides, I just offered an idea.”

Lu Chengzong smiled beside them. “But this idea is quite remarkable.”

Seeing the attitude of his second son, Lu Xun felt somewhat relieved. Being able to see the good in people was finally a step forward. As for the rest, he would take it slow. There was still plenty of time.

With a solution in hand and less pressure, everyone relaxed. They would depart for the goods early the next morning. After several days of travel by boat, Liu Yanqing went downstairs to fetch some water, intending to wash off the dust from the journey. That evening, Lu Xun took everyone to a nearby small restaurant known for its good food before they each returned to their rooms.

During the night, Lu Xun and Lu Chengzhang shared a room. Lu Xun was washing his face while Lu Chengzhang was tidying up the bedding.

Although they were father and son, they hadn’t slept on the same bed in many years. Lu Chengzhang still felt somewhat uncomfortable. There was a small bed in the inn, so after preparing the bedding for Lu Xun, he prepared to sleep on the small bed himself.

Although he said he was going to sleep, after this first long journey and encountering so many things, Lu Chengzhang couldn’t really fall asleep. Sitting on the small bed, he couldn’t resist his curiosity and asked Lu Xun, “Dad, what did little sister say to you alone during the day?”

Lu Xun took the cloth from his face and glanced at him. “Since you know it was a private conversation, why ask?”

Lu Chengzhang chuckled awkwardly, saying, “I was just being nosy. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Lu Xun smiled back. It wasn’t entirely something he couldn’t mention. Liu Yu had called him out privately to cover up the matter concerning Li Yunbi.

He concealed the details about the Li family, only mentioning that the Qian family no longer wished to support them and that Qian Hong had actually left three days earlier than them. He also clarified that the partnership involving fabric wasn’t something they stumbled upon here; it had been planned beforehand.

Lu Chengzhang’s face suddenly changed. He went from initially lounging lazily with one foot on the ground to sitting up straight. “Is what you’re saying true?”

He couldn’t quite believe it and instinctively asked Lu Xun, “How did you find out?”

“Your third sister noticed something amiss and had Yanqing ask the waiter to investigate,” Lu Xun replied.

Lu Chengzhang finally understood that the reason Liu Yu had called his father out alone was related to this matter. However, he couldn’t comprehend it fully. “Why would the Qian family do this? We had such a good relationship with the Li family. Isn’t Qian Hong Li Tai Tai’s elder brother?”

Lu Xun naturally wouldn’t bring up the matter concerning Li Yunbi. He simply said, “They just don’t want to help anymore. There’s no need to delve into the reasons. No one owes anyone anything.”

“Second Brother, relying on others is still relying on others. What’s truly reliable is what you have yourself. That’s also why I split you brothers up in the first place, to let you forge your own paths. The Lu family can’t always rely on others. It’s unstable,” Lu Xun added.

He hadn’t expected things to escalate so quickly.

Lu Xun had thought their relationships were fairly good. He had expected Lu Feng to grow stronger over the next few years, not just relying on the Qian family, but at least growing to a strength comparable to theirs. Perhaps in the future, Lu Feng could even provide some assistance to the Qian family.

Lu Chengzhang fell silent, recalling his father’s words before the family split.

“If Longxing becomes prosperous one day, will there still be an obligation to support us?”

Relying on others was temporary. Only by becoming strong on their own could they be truly reliable. People needed to learn to look three steps ahead while living in peace but preparing for danger.

At the time, Lu Chengzhang hadn’t really taken those words to heart. He thought his father was just finding an excuse, blaming him for caring too much about his third brother’s business and the fabric from the Liu family, and wanting to teach him a lesson.

Later, seeing the same treatment given to his third brother, Lu Chengzhang had let go of these thoughts somewhat, but he hadn’t really thought about his father’s words.

The favor of saving their lives and partnering on the goods wasn’t a favor to their Lu family. Lu Chengzhang had never considered that the Qian family would be as his father had said: one day they might not bring them along.

Even today, seeing Qian Hong leave like this, he had thought it was simply because they arrived late and Qian Hong couldn’t wait, planning for the next trip.

Now he realized there might not be another trip.

Seeing how shaken Lu Chengzhang was, Lu Xun said, “No one can see everything that’s coming. I’ve always taught you to think three steps ahead, but even I didn’t see far enough this time. If it weren’t for your third sister’s insight, our family would have been in big trouble.”

This last sentence jolted Lu Chengzhang. He finally realized something and gritted his teeth. “Dad, the Qian family is being too disloyal. Even if they don’t want to bring us along, couldn’t they be more straightforward about it? Why all these twists and turns? They don’t know that our family just opened a branch, or about Third Sister opening an embroidery shop. If our family was still just one shop in the county and one in Changfeng Town, and without Third Sister’s idea, how hard would we have fallen?”

Lu Xun shook his head. “Not really. It’s precisely because they don’t know our family opened a branch and that your third sister opened an embroidery shop, and both are doing well. In their eyes, leaving us in Hongdu Prefecture, they wouldn’t dare to and couldn’t procure goods here with just two shops. They’d have to turn back to Yuanzhou and follow the path of the fabric shop to source their goods. Next time they try to leave us hanging again, we’ll already know. We won’t go knocking on their doors.”

Damn it, Lu Chengzhang was even more furious.

“They’re just putting us back to square one. What grudge is this?”

Lu Xun looked at him and chuckled. “There’s no point in getting angry. It just shows that our three families are not aligned. We don’t have the fate to continue together. They shouldn’t owe us anything. That’s it. We should still appreciate their help so far.”

Lu Chengzhang felt choked up and couldn’t get the words out. He pounded his chest a few times.

Lu Xun chuckled, tossed the cloth into the water to wash, wrung it dry, and hung it up. Then he said, “Take it easy. Look at it from a different angle. It was your third brother who saved Li Cunyi. It’s his karma with his foster father. It has nothing much to do with you, me, or the Qian family. If we can get along, it’s fate. If we can’t, there’s no need to force it.”

As for Madam Li and the Li family, they were naturally involved in this karma. If this matter really had something to do with Madam Li or anyone else from the Li family, Lu Xun didn’t care. They had to be okay with it themselves. After this incident, he had an idea of how to get along with the Li family in the future.

Lu Chengzhang didn’t know about the Li family’s involvement. Hearing Lu Xun’s words, he thought about it and realized it might be true. But he still felt aggrieved and said, “We shouldn’t associate with such people in the future. I’m going to talk to Mother when we get back. We should reduce the amount of gifts sent to Yuanzhou. With people like them, we shouldn’t be too eager to deal with them.”

Lu Xun smiled but didn’t comment. He took off his outer garment and lay down.

Lu Chengzhang suddenly sat up, his eyes shining. “Dad, do you think Mrs. Li knows about this? The Qian family has treated us so unfairly. Shouldn’t we tell Uncle Li about this? We can’t let them get away with it for nothing, right?”

Lu Xun chuckled. How could the Mrs. Li not know? Qian Hong was most likely just acting on their behalf. Reporting to the main family about someone who was just helping out was absurd.

Besides, he didn’t want to get involved in such messy affairs. The Lu family had indeed received help from the Qian and Li families to open a shop in the county. They had simply stopped this help. Chengxiao had saved Li Cunyi, Madam Li had asked the Qian family to help them, and if Li Yunbi had such thoughts about Chengxiao, considering how much Chengxiao cared about Liu Yu, he would not want to cause trouble for Liu Yu. In this case, two unrelated families had become even.

Upon figuring it out, Lu Xun waved his hand and said, “Calm down. Whether we know or not doesn’t really matter. Go to sleep early, we have to go get supplies first thing in the morning.”

“Oh.” Lu Chengzhang dejectedly blew out the lamp and lay down, still feeling quite unsettled and somewhat frightened. In a low voice, he said, “Fortunately, our third brother’s wife opened an embroidery shop and came up with this idea; otherwise, we’d be in trouble.”

In the dark night, Lu Xun responded, “Chengzhang, remember this from what happened: sometimes helping others might also be helping yourself. Don’t always dwell on gains and losses. Only by focusing on the path ahead can it become wider.”

Lu Xun’s words were vague, but Lu Chengzhang understood. It was a subtle critique of his tendency to be overly concerned with details, particularly evident in his attitude towards the Liu family’s fabric dealings, Liu Yanping, and his joint business ventures with his third sibling.

Reflecting now, if their family hadn’t been willing to assist the Liu family initially, covering expenses for their third sibling and Liu Yanping to start a major venture together, the Liu family’s embroidery workshop wouldn’t have taken off so quickly. Without Ruyi Embroidery today, the Lu family would have struggled to overcome their current challenges.

To put it abstractly, it was about fate determining every step; put simply, having more friends makes the journey easier.

In the past, Lu Chengzhang often thought his father’s lofty principles were meaningless, similar to how he had insisted on investing his own money in helping Lin Huaigeng and Liu Zhang earn a decent profit. His father saw it as generosity and willingness to take a loss, but to him, it seemed foolish.

His father and brother had always been involved in similar matters, along with his eldest brother, who always gave a little extra in their business dealings.

Letting things slide was acceptable, and Lu Chengzhang was shrewd in business. Letting things slide meant mentioning it afterward. That didn’t mean letting things go to waste, did it?

His eldest brother wouldn’t do that, however. He would honestly give people more cloth without saying a word. In fact, he didn’t know how many times he had tried to teach his elder brother, who only ever laughed and claimed he was stupid and it didn’t matter if he spoke or not.

He used to shake his head at his previous thinking, but now, in hindsight, who was really foolish?

Although there was an old saying that the one who buys has no brains, were the customers really that stupid?

Considering events like this today, Lu Chengzhang thought carefully about it. The previous year, it didn’t seem that his older brother’s counter was always busier than his.

At that moment, Lu Chengzhang suddenly felt enlightened. It turned out that he had always thought himself clever, but he was the one who had been foolish all along.

Taking losses as blessings, kind-hearted people have their rewards. This was something his father had always preached, and Lu Chengzhang finally understood it today.

Lu Chengzhang’s voice lifted slightly with his mood. “Dad, I understand now. I’ll learn more from my elder brother and third sibling in the future.”

Including his elder brother in his new approach, Lu Xun knew his second son had truly grasped the lesson this time.

He smiled faintly, with a few laugh lines forming at the corners of his eyes. “Good. Now, let’s get some sleep.”

Sometimes, understanding certain things only takes a moment, a rare opportunity.

Teaching his second son had indeed been challenging without the right opportunity. Reciting those words in his ear wouldn’t have been effective. Today, however, they had unexpectedly stumbled upon that opportunity.

Lu Xun rested his hand behind his head. Tonight, he could truly sleep well.

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