After Transmigrating Into a Scummy Alpha, I Have Unlimited Krypton Gold (GL) - Chapter 22

“She just responded to their toothless taunts with a cool smirk.”

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When the pair arrived at the old Xue family compound, the elderly matriarch’s bed was already surrounded by a flock of “devoted” children and grandchildren. As soon as they saw the late-arriving Xue Cheng, they were eager to give this unfilial grandchild a good scolding for upsetting their grandmother to the point of fainting.

Xue Lingyu, who had been sitting by her mother’s bed dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, glared at Xue Cheng with a cold expression.

“You have the nerve to show your face?!”

She flung her hand, and the handkerchief she had just used to wipe her tears landed by Xue Cheng’s feet.

Xue Cheng recoiled in disgust. She didn’t know if the handkerchief had been used to blow a nose, but it was certainly unhygienic.

Still, she couldn’t be bothered to argue with Xue Lingyu. The other woman’s eagerness to confront her was clearly just a ploy to seize back control of the two shops.

When the grandmother had held the management rights, she would give a portion of the profits to the other family branches each year, as a kind of rotating support. Now that Xue Cheng had the rights, however, it meant that the profits and losses of the two shops were none of anyone else’s business. She would keep everything for herself.

Most importantly, Xue Cheng had only just reclaimed two shops belonging to the First Branch. Who knew if the grandmother might lose her mind and hand over the entire Xue family to her?

Xue Lingyu was not alone in her worry. The Second and Third branches, who had long disliked Xue Cheng, were also present and ready to add fuel to the fire.

Sure enough, Lu Wanniang, Xue Tingwei’s second wife, who was not much older than Xue Cheng, seized the opportunity to mock her. “What did I tell you? After all those years of neglect, how could someone learn to do business overnight?”

Lu Wanniang eyed Xue Cheng up and down, a cold sneer on her face. “Our matriarch worked so hard, all for some useless person. And now she’s sick in bed because of it.”

The insults were getting a bit much. Xue Cheng’s ears were starting to itch. She finally spoke, asking, “What did you say? Are you a ‘useless person’?”

“Of course I’m not a useless person… you!—”

Lu Wanniang, caught off guard, blurted out a reply before she realized she had been tricked. She was so angry that she was about to leap up and confront Xue Cheng.

But Xue Baiguang saw that her stepmother had absolutely no sense of propriety. Their grandmother was lying sick in bed, and she was here shouting and causing a scene.

So Xue Baiguang held back the furious Lu Wanniang and gestured, “Don’t disturb Grandmother.”

She was usually a woman of few words, but since Xue Tingwei had placed great hope in his daughter, Xue Baiguang’s status in the family was quite high. Even her stepmother had to mind her. After Xue Baiguang’s warning, Lu Wanniang had no choice but to swallow her anger and fall silent, though she didn’t forget to shoot a few hateful glares at Xue Cheng.

Xue Tinghui, ever the calm and collected one, kept his hands tucked in his sleeves and added, “Now that you’re here, why don’t you go and wait on your grandmother?” He was a picture of a condescending and imperious elder, a role he played to the hilt.

Xue Tingwei, remembering what his daughter had just said, also held back from shouting at Xue Cheng. Instead, he made his own snide remark. “You pretend to be a good kid, but now that you’ve made your grandmother sick, you can’t even be bothered to pretend to show some filial piety.”

To these toothless taunts, Xue Cheng simply responded with a calm, cold smirk.

“Heh.”

Seeing that they couldn’t get the upper hand in a verbal spat, they all fell silent, seething with frustration.

The doctor arrived even later than Xue Cheng. This struck her as strange; surely calling for a doctor was more important than notifying all these relatives to come to the family compound. And yet, their grandmother had been lying there unconscious for half the day, and the doctor arrived after she did. It was hard to believe these awful relatives weren’t up to something. Perhaps they were all secretly hoping their grandmother would pass on quickly so they could divvy up the family estate.

But, to their disappointment, the old woman was usually in excellent health. While she had fainted from a fit of extreme anger, there was nothing seriously wrong with her. The doctor just inserted a few needles, and she slowly came to.

The first thing she did upon opening her eyes was call out Xue Cheng’s name.

Xue Cheng was isolated by the crowd, who were all telling her to be dutiful to her grandmother, but were actually scrambling to show off themselves.

“Grandmother, I’m right here.”

Xue Cheng pushed through the people gathered around the matriarch, took her hand, and said with a look of apology, “It was my recklessness. I didn’t explain myself to you beforehand, which made you worry.”

The grandmother sighed, and gently patted Xue Cheng’s hand.

The doctor finished writing the prescription, gave a few instructions, collected his fee, and left quickly, hoping to avoid getting embroiled in the messy affairs of this old house.

Xue Lingyu, seeing that her mother seemed to be in good spirits after waking up, her eyes darting around, was about to put in a few more bad words about Xue Cheng. But her Third Brother caught her eye, signaling her not to speak. Confused, she mouthed the question, “Why?”

Xue Tinghui simply pointed his chin towards their grandmother. The old woman hadn’t said a word since she woke up besides calling Xue Cheng’s name. As a cautious man, Xue Tinghui guessed that their grandmother didn’t want to get into it with Xue Cheng in front of everyone.

And he was right. The grandmother looked at the other children and grandchildren crowded in the room and simply said, “Thank you for your concern. You may all leave now.”

With a single sentence, she dismissed everyone, leaving only Xue Cheng.

Even though the others were unwilling, they didn’t dare to anger the sick woman. They obediently left the room. They only left the bedroom, however, and still gathered in small groups in the courtyard, whispering and gossiping.

Looking at the closed door, Lu Wanniang couldn’t help but ask, “What on earth does the old woman want to talk to Xue Cheng about? Was it really necessary to kick us all out?”

Xue Tingwei and Lu Wanniang were of similar intelligence, so when she asked him, he just scratched his head, unable to figure out what his mother was thinking. “Who knows?”

Xue Lingyu, bored, yawned. She looked at the sky and said, “Forget it, I’m going back to rest. If anything happens, just send someone to my house to get me.”

The various Xue family branches had long since split up. The Xue siblings each had their own residences, and the old compound was typically where the grandmother lived alone. By tradition, the First Branch should have lived there with her. However, the original Xue Cheng had felt that living there would mean being constantly watched and controlled by her grandmother. She had insisted on living on her own, claiming that moving back would remind her of her deceased parents. Not wanting to bring up painful memories for her granddaughter, the grandmother indulged her, even though she knew Xue Cheng was living a wild, undisciplined life on her own.

Back inside the room, the two sat in silence.

Xue Cheng was the one to break it. Even though this was not her own grandmother, she had taken on the original owner’s identity and enjoyed the old woman’s care and trust. So, Xue Cheng decided to explain that her recent actions were not without reason. While she did intend to use the in-app purchase system to get a lot of money, she was not just mindlessly throwing her money away.

“Grandmother, your granddaughter was wrong.”

She spoke demurely, the first thing she said being an apology. Her attitude was impeccable. The grandmother patted Xue Cheng’s hand and said, “Help me sit up.”

“Alright,” Xue Cheng replied.

She helped the old woman sit up and then thoughtfully placed a soft cushion behind her back to make her more comfortable.

This considerate gesture pleased the grandmother greatly.

With a slight smile, she said, “You didn’t want to talk with so many people around. Now that it’s just the two of us, won’t you tell me the truth?”

“I raised you myself, my child. I know you’re not the type to be reckless when it comes to important matters.”

Every word the old woman said was full of trust. Xue Cheng was touched. She did not hide anything and explained her plans in full.

The bookstore and tea house were doing well enough, but Xue Cheng had looked at the ledgers and saw that in the past three years, due to competition, while the two shops were still making a small profit, their earnings were declining each year. The Xue family members who managed them hadn’t put much effort into it. The tea house had introduced almost no new dishes, and even the old ones tasted worse than before.

The master chef from our old teahouse was poached by a competitor, and the replacement we hired isn’t nearly as consistent. That’s why we lost so many of our regular customers.

The lack of new desserts and dishes is one thing, but the teahouse’s business model hasn’t changed at all. Even though the county isn’t big, other teahouses are popping up like mushrooms. Some are investing in beautiful tea ceremonies, others are improving their facilities. Some even go so far as to decorate their entire teahouse to look like a quiet, secluded forest, where a skilled and elegant tea master can brew a perfect cup of tea while a musician plays a soothing tune on the zither.

It’s a feast for both the eyes and ears.

In contrast, the Xue family teahouse only has old storytellers rehashing tired, decade-old tales.

Xue Cheng’s expression was serious and proper as she explained, “If we’re going to make a change, it has to be a complete overhaul. I did my research before making a decision. Besides…” she paused, her lips pressed together, “…I haven’t touched the money in the account.”

In other words, Xue Cheng was using her own private funds to renovate and upgrade the shops.

The grandmother already knew this. When she first heard about Xue Cheng’s radical changes, she immediately asked the accountant. When she learned that Xue Cheng hadn’t used a single cent from the business’s account, she felt relieved. But then, she started to worry about Xue Cheng. She had a good idea of how much money Xue Cheng had on hand. Over the years, the allowance she’d given Xue Cheng was not insignificant, but it wasn’t overly generous either. She worried about Xue Cheng going astray, but also about her having enough money, so she had always calculated it to be just right. Based on Xue Cheng’s spending habits, she probably wouldn’t have much saved up.

The grandmother’s worry grew. She grabbed Xue Cheng’s hand and asked, “Did you borrow money from someone? Please don’t tell me it was from Old Gao and his group.”

“Old Gao,” as the grandmother called him, was a notorious moneylender in town. His business was not a legitimate bank. On the surface, every loan was charged with interest according to the laws of Chu. However, for those in desperate situations, he would secretly add an extra ten percent interest. He even had a classic “loan shark” scheme where you might borrow ten taels of silver, but only receive nine, and then owe eleven with the interest.