Shrewd wife of Lin brothers

Chapter 667 Su Yu Cheng

　　Su Yu Cheng hurried home with sweat trickling down his face, he kept looking over his shoulder as if he was worried that someone would pop up from behind and nearly cause trouble for him. Afraid and anxious, he wiped his sweat off his face and then rushed inside the village, he was worried that he will be caught that’s why he came in the middle of the night. At least the darkness would hide him from the loan sharks that were chasing after him like he was a juicy piece of meat and they were a bunch of hungry dogs. 

After much dodging and ducking as he avoided all the villagers who were walking outside their house, he reached the Su family house, even though the Su family has rapidly declined, Su Bai refused to sell the house for money. He was a man with great vanity and wanted to keep it that way, though even if managing such a big house was becoming more and more of a hassle, Su Bai stubbornly refused to sell it away. 

Su Yu Cheng knew just how much his dad was looking forward to him passing the exams of the scholars and bringing glory to the Su family but he was spoiled rotten by his parents and never took their efforts seriously, at least not until the family ran into complete poverty. 

Afraid that he would see his father or sister, Su Yu Cheng walked towards the backyard ignoring the front door and tapping on the window of his parents’ room, he knew that at this time his father would be sitting in the courtyard smoking and his sister would be in her room enjoying the small break that she has gotten after working so hard for all day. 

Madam Su who was nursing her feet after working day in the fields heard the tap on her window pane and somehow got off the bed as she opened it with a hard tug. At first, her expression was dull thinking that it was her daughter again asking for another meal but when she saw that it was her son, all the drowsiness that she was feeling vanished and she opened her mouth to shout in glee but Su Yu Cheng who has snuck in the village immediately hissed, ” Mother don’t you dare to shout! If you do then I will be done for!” 

Listening to her son’s words Madam Su immediately closed her mouth, and then looked around the room before motioning Su Yu Cheng to stay where he was and crossing the room before closing the door as she walked back and took a good look at her son who was indeed looking really pale and stretched her hands out to pull her son inside the house. 

Once she was done and Su Yu Cheng entered the room without any problems, Madam Su narrowed her eyes and asked, ” What are you thinking? What happened why did you do something like that? What’s going on?” 

Question after question was fired at Su Yu Cheng who pulled a frustrated expression and immediately whisper shouted, ” Why don’t you call that precious daughter of a father and ask her what she did? It’s all her fault  that I am in this condition!” 

” What happened?” demanded Madam Su as she looked at her son who was burning with anger. ” What did she do to make you upset?” 

” What do you think? Mother, she doesn’t need to do anything! After taking away the dowry of her mother she has already pushed us to our deaths!” sneered Su Yu Cheng as he threw the bag that he was carrying on the bed and clutched his head. ” She offended a rich heir and caused me to become a laughing stock but that wasn’t enough, she even barred me from the restaurant that she owns. Mother, you already know that for the sake of getting close to the seniors I need to take them to a good restaurant and treat them, without that how am I supposed to get their notes and guidance?” 

” Treating my seniors in other restaurants costs money…” he sighed and then looked up at his mother. ” Mother, why didn’t she help me? She is my sister, isn’t she? If I become an official then she too will have a good life won’t she?” 

Though Su Yu Cheng knew that he will never help Su Wan if he ever became an official but what was wrong with paying lip service? 

” Humph, that white-eyed wolf, if I knew that she will become something like this I would have killed her long ago!” snarled Madam Su loudly, causing Su Yu Cheng to motion for her to lower her voice. ” Mother what are you doing? Do you want to let father find out that I have caused trouble?” 

The words ‘ I have caused trouble’ made Madam Su look at her son in shock. As far as she knew her son was someone who hardly made any trouble and his grades were also good, so how come he suddenly did something troublesome? She crouched down and looked at her son who was busy avoiding her eyes causing Madam Su to catch his chin with her fingers as she whisperingly asked, ” What did you do?” 

Su Yu Cheng hesitated but in the end decided to come clean after all, he needed the help of his mother. ” I … I borrowed hundred silver taels from the loan sharks.” 

Madam Su stared at her son for two minutes before she blinked her eyes and carefully asked, ” What did you say?” 

” I borrowed money from the loan sharks,” repeated Su Yu Cheng in a low voice causing madam Su to yell, ” WHAT?”

” Mother, what’s wrong?” Su Lan who was sleeping in the next room was woken up by her mother’s loud shout and frowned. ” What are you screaming for mother?” 

Su Yu Cheng shook his head fervently begging Madam Su not to say anything to his sister. His mother glared at him as if she wanted to eat her alive. But in the end, she still pressed the anger down and answered Su Lan, “It’s nothing, I just stubbed my toe on the wooden edge of the cabinet.” 

Realising that it wasn’t anything serious Su Lan yawned and went back to her room while Madam Su glared at her son before raising her hand and poking his head with one finger. ” What were you thinking, Yu Cheng? A hundred taels? Even this house doesn’t have that much money! Even if I somehow make your father agree to sell this house, we wouldn’t be able to get that hundred taels! What were you thinking?” 

Su Yu Cheng was also regretful but there was no point in crying over spilt milk.  “Mother, I didn’t do it because I wanted to! I wanted money and you guys couldn’t give it to me, so I have to do what I could after all I needed to treat my seniors well, or else I would have been kicked out of the academy without their guidance!” 

The truth was that Su Yu Cheng liked sucking up to his seniors and that was why he did things like gifting them and treating them to a meal because the students in the academy were all rich, and he didn’t want to be left out by them so he pretended to be rich by borrowing the money from the loan sharks and now the debt reached to the point where the loan sharks were hunting him down. 

Madam Su’s anger diminished to a great degree as she realised that her son did that for getting good marks and suddenly felt really guilty. Running her hand through his hair, she apologised, ” I am sorry, mother shouldn’t have said such things but Yu Cheng now what? What are we going to do now? If your father finds out then he will kick us both out.” 

This was something that he was worried about as well, he came to the village because he was worried that he will be bothered by the thugs at the academy but he never thought that he will be empty hand at his house as well. 

” Mother thinks of something,” said Su Yu Cheng as he pouted in an aggrieved way. ” I don’t want to quit school, I am sure that this year will be mine and I will be able to pass the exams. Please do something…” 

Madam Su’s eyes flickered as she nodded. ” I will think of something.” 

When Su Wan opened her eyes, it was already evening. She got off her bed and arched her back as she walked out of her room and headed straight to the main hall through the moon gates and when she came to a stop in front of the entrance of the main hall, she wasn’t surprised to see the ‘uninvited guest’ who for some reason had invited themselves to her humble abode. If she was being honest she was kind of expecting this person to invite themselves over.