The Marquis' Wife
Arrival of arrogant guests
Adelia's cake business went well and successfully, especially when the summer came to make many customers who like drinks and cakes in the De Xiang store become regular customers, they do not just come with friends or family even with colleagues.
That left the stock of powdered chocolate or liquid chocolate that Adelia collected from both the modern world and last year exhausted but it was fortunate that Lu Tian brought home a new chocolate fruit that the villagers found in the forest to be processed into cocoa powder or liquid chocolate.
Because many customers can make other competitors panic, Lu Niang said there have been two instances of trying to worsen the image of De Xiang's store such as buying cakes and putting cockroaches and hair in them or making noise by complaining of poor service performed by officers.
However Lu Niang and Bai's manager who became De Xiang's store manager were able to deal with the incident without involving Adelia.
Adelia was relieved and gave complete authority to Lu Niang and Bai's manager.
Not only De Xiang's shop, the small garden beside the shop has also been rented several times by scholars who make tea gatherings or discuss poetry and books confucius. In contrast to Adelia's prediction, the small park was only rented by scholars, not by girls from large and influential families because they held events in their respective homes.
"How much chocolate has been made?"
"There are twenty jugs in the mistress. Lu Tian was still looking for other oval-acid fruits from village to village". Now that Lu Mei was Adelia's personal servant, due to a pregnancy that reached five more months, Lu Xiang no longer allowed Adelia to work and only told the maid if she wanted something.
Adelia nodded in understanding. "For fruit jam?"
"The fruit has more than 40 jars of mistresses. Do we still want to make it?"
"no need. Unlike the cake, fruit jam does not run out so quickly because the amount is large. Now focus on wine grapes and rosella and chocolate only".
Lu Xiang bought three female slaves to clean the house and cook, while Lu Yan and Lu Fang focused on the production section.
"Good mistress".
"Mrs. There were guests coming, he said to be from the Zhong family".
Adelia's stunned. "Take them into the living room immediately".
"Lu Mei made a high-quality tea and pudding cake into the living room".
"Good mistress".
Adelia immediately changed her clothes more formally then stepped into the living room.
His eyebrows shot up because instead of looking at Qiao Xue but the thirty-year-old woman dressed in glamour, he was accompanied by two female servants.
"Welcome to the Lu family residence. Sorry, if I can tell you what the Zhong family are?". Adelia kept greeting respectfully.
The bun-haired woman looked at Adelia from top to bottom as if she was judging whether she deserved to talk to him. It made Adelia's forehead frown uncomfortable.
"Why did you come here?" Seeing the woman's trivial gaze, Adelia no longer wanted to mince words and immediately to the subject.
The woman sat down with a "You're Xiefu's mistress?" An arrogant voice and rhetorical questions made Adelia want to turn her eyes away.
"Yes, I'm alone. You who's the madam?".
"I am from the Zhong family. Didn't I tell that to your servant?".
"Why did he ask that again? Does he not believe we are from the Zhong Prefect family?".
"Yes, everyone knows that madam Zheng is from the Zhong family. Doesn't he know anything about Fucheng?".
Lu Mei who was putting down drinks and cakes stared coldly at the two maids. Pets will behave like their employers, it seems like the woman in front of them came with bad intentions.
Adelia was stunned, only time there was a slave acting as if his status was the same as her. He looked at Liang Chenyue and still smiled sweetly.
"Is Qiao Xue the one who sent the madam here?".
Liang Chenyue was stunned as she did not expect that Adelia was familiar with Qiao Xue.
"You know big brother-in-law Qiao Xue?"
"Is Qiao Xue the one who sent the madam here?" Adelia did not answer and repeated her question.
Liang Chenyue snorted cynically thinking that Adelia was only using her sister-in-law's name to scare her. "My name is Liang Chenyue, Mrs Zheng. I own two tart shops out of town".
He is actually from the Liang family who live in Jinzhou city which is 4 hours drive from Fucheng.
The Liang family was one of the undergraduate families. His father and uncle worked in the Jinzhou mayor's office until becoming the mayor's right foot. It was because her aunt Liang Munxi was married to her husband who was now the Prefect of Zhong.
With the Prefect's umbrella, the Liang family was highly respected making the pampered growing Liang Chenyue become extremely arrogant, he fell in love with Zheng Ping who also came from a family of scholars but he himself chose to become a businessman.
After being married for 10 years and given the gift of three children, husband Liang Chenyue decided to move to Fucheng because he wanted to open a tart cake shop whose recipe he got from Adelia.
By relying on the status of the Zhong family, Liang Chenyue easily obtained a shop with a strategic location and quickly adapted to the female circles of a distinguished family, the, that further increased his arrogance and underestimated the people who had no family with high status in Fucheng.
She and her husband opened two tart shops in Fucheng and were convinced that their unique cake shop would be in great demand. When her husband went on a business trip to inspect a cake and cloth shop in another city, she was the one who would lead the management of a cake shop in Fucheng.
But he did not expect that there was a new family who had somehow opened the same cake shop with him and instead added a new menu that made his cake shop become quiet customers.
Liang Chenyue had actually paid people to make the image of De Xiang's shop bad but none of it worked and it made her even more upset and eventually came to Adelia's house.
Adelia finally realized the purpose of Liang Chenyue coming to her house. Hearing either her surname or her husband surname not from Zhong made Adelia slightly sigh in relief. Dealing with the Prefect family would be very troublesome for her husband whose idea project is still being run.
"It's nice to meet you, Madam Zheng. What do you need here?".
Adelia's change in attitude not only made Liang Chenyue stunned but also her two servants.
"Mrs. Be respectful towards Madame Zheng, her status is higher than yours".
"Yes. The Prefect's wife was Madam Zheng's aunt. Don't you know the consequences of making our mistress angry? You can even get out of this town".
Liang Chenyue just silently let her two servants talk, she had been looking for information about Adelia and her husband, she said, but the arrogance of the woman who always looked down on others made her not look for more details when she knew that they were immigrants from the small town of Cheng. So that he confidently came to Lu's residence and acted as if his goal would surely be achieved.
"Shut your mouths!. You have no place here, I'm talking to your employer!" Unconscious servants should be warned not to think that their status is the same.
The sharp gaze and firm tone made the two servants Liang Chenyue speechless. Adelia smiled at Liang Chenyue again, she did not know how this woman was related to Prefect Zheng's wife so she could not get out of control and made her husband's relationship with Prefect Zhong become tenuous.
"Alright lady ZHENG. What the hell did you come here for? This is my third question"
Liang Chenyue was shocked and became because Adelia was scolding the servant who was indirectly also scolding her. Especially after hearing the scornful question from the woman before him.
"You!!"