My Loyal and Lovely Husband

That poor child Tao Xiaoqing becomes a helpless little orphan. Unwillingly, he has no place to go to but to turn to his younger uncle, Tao Dafu, his father’s younger brother. Generally speaking, Tao Dafu should have taken care of Tao Xiaoqing wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, though Tao Dafu and Tao Dayong are whole brothers, they are totally different. Being conscientious and careful in his work, Tao Dayong is praised by the neighbors while Tao Dafu, lazy and cheating, makes everyone in their community dislike him.

In order to marry their younger son off, the old couple in Tao’s family spent all their money for his marriage, which was nearly equal to buying a wife for Tao Dafu. Unexpectedly, the wife that the old couple bought for their younger son was so vicious and greedy that the old couple were pissed off. Because of that, Tao Dayong acted on an impulse, and divided up family property and lived apart. Since then, the two brothers broke off their relationship.

Now, without a penny in his pocket, how can Tao Xiaoqing be welcomed by his uncle Tao Dafu? Then, wearing an expression of unwillingness, Tao Dafu despised Tao Xiaoqing who was shivering for fear. When he knew that Chen had taken away all the valuable things in the family, his unwillingness of adopting his nephew was even stronger.

It was the agreement that Tao Xiaoxing promised to give his only possession, the three tile houses, to Tao Dafu that made him agree to take care of him reluctantly. Although the three tile houses were not big, it cost Tao Dayong much money and effort. It is still worth quite some money if sold, though it is already old.

But, Tao Dafu did not take care of his nephew carefully for the sake of Tao Xaiqing’s three houses. By contrast, he treated Tao Xiaoqing as a servant, who not only had to do all the farm work all by himself, but also cooked and did the housework for the whole family of his uncle. What’s more exasperating is that Tao Dafu never gave him enough food to eat; as a result, Tao Xiaoqing got short and weak due to malnutrition.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Please take me in, sister. I just want to have a meal…”The sausage hanging on the beam makes Tao Xiaoqing swallow his saliva. The whole city is bathed in the delicious smell of sausages of Jin’s meat shop. Every time, when Tao Xiaoqing feels hungry, he sneaks in and smells the fragrance of the sausage. Every time, the pitiful look of Tao Xiaoqing touches the softest part of Qin Lingxin’s heart. It is Chen’s fault and has nothing to do with Tao Xiaoqing. What’s more, she resorted to her own memory about playing with Tao Xiaoqing when they were young. She finds that Tao Xiaoqing never harmed her, and they got along with each other quite well. Sometimes, he even caught fish and shrimp for her.

“Ok. You can stay. Start to work tomorrow morning.” Pausing for a moment, Jin Weiwei continues, “Don’t worry. You can eat as much as you like. But, look, you are so tiny and bonny that it is impossible for you to do the same work as other workers. Well… It is a little bit unfair to cut half of your payment. Is that Ok to cut 30 present of your payment?” “Ok, Ok! Thank you my sister! Thank you very much!” Hearing that Weiwei will recruit him as a worker in her meat shop, he is so glad that he has no mood to care about the payment! He expresses his thanks for thousands of times, and guarantees that he will spare no efforts to work for Jin’s meat shop and become an excellent worker here.

At dawn the next day, Tao Xiaoqing has already waited at the gate of Jin’s family located in the west of the village. Jin Weiwei looks at him at the moment she opens the door. She says, “How come you are waiting at the gate of my family? Why don’t you go to the meat shop directly?” With the reddened face, Tao Xiaoqing responds shyly, “Your legs are weak, my boss, so I wonder if I can help you to take something to the meat shop.” Jin Weiwei is quite admired by Tao Xiaoqing’s devotion to his work. She thinks that she is so wise to recruit a good worker like him.

“Today, I have nothing to carry. Yesterday, the pork was sent to our shop. There’s no need to add more. As for the sausage, Little Rich can carry that to our shop.” Saying that, Jin Weiwei passes the threshold with difficulty. “Take care, my sister.” Seeing that her legs are weak in walking, Tao Xiaoqing supports her by her arms immediately. But, the moment when his hands touches the arms of Jin Weiwei, Little Rich pushes his hands away. “You take those sausages.” Little Rich hands the ten grams of sausages down to Tao Xiaoqing and he stretches out a hand to Jin Weiwei. “Hold me!” he says with no expression on his face.

What does he want to do? Jin Weiwei is shocked. Em……Is he jealous? Jealous?! Why is he jealous? Jin Weiwei smiles lightly and puts her arms on the arms of Little Rich. After a while, they walk in three and arrive at the meat shop.

Little Rich brings a chair for Jin Weiwei and supports her carefully when she sits down. Jin Weiwei says, “Everyone, please stop working and listen to me.” “Now our meat shop is expanded and we recruit more workers. It is not efficient for us to follow the old ways of management; therefore, we should make clear the specific jobs for each of you to do.” “That’s a good suggestion! I do whatever you ask me to do.” Tao Xiaoqing responds actively. Jin Weiwei nods, and says, “Xiaoqing is not familiar with our meat shop. If you want to know our work as soon as possible, you should do more work in the following days. You are supposed to be responsible for some trivial works like moving things in the meat shop. Plus, the more important things for you to learn is cutting and weighing the pork in the meat stand in front of our shop. Any problems?” “No problem!” responds Tao Xiaoqing immediately. “As for Little Rich…You are in charge of collecting money and accounting. You have to manage our meat sock and calculate how much meat and how many sausages we need in a day.” Little Rich nods for approval.

“OK, if there’s no question, we start to work right now.” Jin Weiwei feels happy when she assigns the work, which gives her a feeling of being a boss. Everything gets well after the whole morning. Although Tao Xiaoqing is small and weak, he can indeed endure hardships. Even carrying half a pig is not a problem for him. Apart from that, he is quite polite with everyone. His pleasant words make every customer willing to buy pork at his stand. Jin Weiwei is totally satisfied with his work.

At the lunch time, Jin Weiwei deliberately makes a little extra red meat for Tao Xiaoqing. At the table, she puts more food onto the plate of Tao Xiaoqing and says that he is tired, which moves him a lot. “Boss, you are so kind to me.” Tao Xiaoqi says that with tears in his eyes and meat in his mouth. “I should treat you well. If you keep on working industriously, I will treat you better than that forever.” Jin Weiwei knows that it is not enough to use higher payment to inspire the good staff to work well; the emotional investment is also necessary. A good staff like Tao Xiaoqi deserves her emotional investment if she wants to keep him in her meat shop. However, a good meal like that is interrupted by an unwelcome guest.