Chapter 171: Partners

When Xia Yan arrived at the vegetable market, her business was noticeably slower than before due to Li Hu's interference. Only a sporadic few people walked over to take a look without even asking about the price.

Seeing that business was sluggish, Xia Yan had to raise her voice and call out, "Get your spiced tea eggs here! Fragrant, delicious spiced tea eggs!"

Hearing his mother shouting, Lin Hongzhuo imitated her and began to hawk the wares as well.

"Young lady, you're finally here! That little imp at home has been making a fuss all day, demanding to eat the tea eggs you sell."

The speaker was none other than the woman who had bought tea eggs from Li Hu that morning.

Xia Yan recognized her instantly and explained, "Auntie, we don't have a fixed spot for selling tea eggs in the morning. Sometimes we set up near the entrance of the military dependents' compound, then come to the vegetable market in the evening, and sometimes we come right here in the morning..."

The woman nodded, "So that's how it is. Well, give me six then. I'll buy a few extra; these things keep for a day. Otherwise, if you aren't here tomorrow morning and my little grandson wants them, I won't be able to buy any."

"All right, I'll pack them up for you right away."

"You have no idea, young lady, I almost got scammed when I came this morning. Some unscrupulous young man actually claimed he was from your family, but the taste wasn't right at all."

The woman took the tea eggs and ate one on the spot. The flavor was undeniably different.

As for someone impersonating her, Xia Yan had her own solution. She planned to go to the Administration for Industry and Commerce to register a trademark. Once that was done, anyone who dared to impersonate her would face a fine.

She just hadn't decided on a name for the trademark yet, and she intended to discuss it with the family over dinner tonight.

From a distance, Li Hu watched the two of them and took a drag on his cigarette, feeling baffled. Why couldn't he replicate this young lady's recipe?

His tall figure caught Xia Yan's attention. She leaned down and whispered something to Lin Hongzhuo, who glanced at Li Hu and then ran straight toward him.

"Mister, my mom is looking for you."

"Looking for me?"

Li Hu thought Xia Yan was coming to settle scores. Must admit, that young girl's glare was rather intimidating, as if she could devour a person whole.

"Yes, you're the uncle who was selling tea eggs here during the day, right?"

"Ahem..."

Realizing that Xia Yan had seen through him, Li Hu had no choice but to bite the bullet and walk over. He mentally pumped himself up: a six-foot-tall man like him shouldn't be afraid of a young girl, right?

In broad daylight, she surely wouldn't resort to violence!

"You're looking for me?" Li Hu forced a rugged, tough expression onto his face to make himself look unapproachable.

"That's right. How do you plan to resolve the matter of you impersonating my brother to sell tea eggs here this morning? Look at my business—it dropped so much because of you!"

Xia Yan didn't beat around the bush and asked directly, standing with her hands on her hips, radiating a fierce and aggressive aura.

"Selling tea eggs isn't a monopoly for you alone!"

"But you pretended to be from my family! You ruined my reputation."

"I... well, people asked, so the words just slipped out. What? Are you planning to settle scores with me?"

Originally, Xia Yan had intended to postpone her franchising plans, but seeing Li Hu suddenly sparked an idea.

She had thought Li Hu was an unreasonable person, but now he looked like nothing more than a paper tiger—all bark and no bite.

"Settling scores is out of the question. I want to discuss something with you."

Li Hu was stunned. "Discuss something with me?"

Xia Yan nodded. "Yes. Let me ask you, do you want to get into the tea egg business too?"

Li Hu didn't understand the implication behind Xia Yan's question, but he nodded anyway. "Seeing you make money, of course I want to do this business too, only..."

"Is the flavor not coming out right?"

By now, more and more customers were coming over to buy tea eggs. Xia Yan glanced at Li Hu and said, "Help my son collect the money, and we'll talk about the rest in a moment."

Not knowing what this girl wanted to tell him, Li Hu opened his mouth to ask why he should help her collect money, but swallowed the words back down. A gut feeling told him that following this girl's lead wouldn't be a mistake.

Because business had started slowly, today's batch of tea eggs took over an hour to sell out.

As Xia Yan counted the money, Li Hu looked on with unconcealed envy and couldn't help asking, "What was that matter you mentioned earlier?"

"I thought you'd be able to hold out longer."

Xia Yan put the money away and pulled out thirty cents to hand to Lin Hongzhuo. "Xiaozhuo, go buy three candied hawthorn skewers to take back for your older brother and younger sister later."

"Got it, Mom."

Watching Lin Hongzhuo run off, Li Hu asked, "That's your son too? And the one from the daytime as well?"

"What? Doesn't look like it?"

Li Hu nodded. "Indeed not. How old are you, and how old are those kids!"

Xia Yan looked at him, picked up her porcelain mug, and took a sip of water. "I didn't expect you to be quite the judge of age. They aren't my biological children, but they're closer than my own."

"You're so young and you're already a stepmother?" Li Hu was somewhat astonished. Xia Yan looked at most like she had just reached adulthood. At her age and with her looks, what kind of good man couldn't she find? Why on earth would she choose to marry a man with kids and become a stepmother?

Xia Yan wasn't surprised by Li Hu's reaction, considering that such a situation would be quite mind-boggling even in her original era.

Becoming a stepmother to three kids at nineteen was indeed somewhat absurd. Nineteen was the age of a young adult who was just beginning to understand the world; if she were in college, her eyes would still hold a hint of innocent foolishness.

"Being a stepmother isn't as difficult as you think. Look at how sensible my two sons are."

"True, that little rascal's attitude during the day was quite formidable."

Recalling Lin Hongzhe's questioning stance earlier that day, Li Hu chuckled.

"Xia Yan." Xia Yan introduced herself first.

"My name is Li Hu."

"How are you related to Old Li, who sells spices?"

"I didn't expect you to guess that." Li Hu was quite surprised.

"It's not hard to guess. I'd only been selling tea eggs for a few days when you started following suit, even using my name. The only people in the vegetable market who knew about me were Sister Zhang, who sells eggs, and Old Li, who sells spices. Since your last name is Li, it's pretty obvious."

Xia Yan showed off a bit of her deductive reasoning, though mainly the clues were too glaring. Before she started selling tea eggs, no one else in the market sold them, and the only person who knew the spice formula was Old Li.

Upon hearing this, Li Hu gave Xia Yan a thumbs-up. This girl was truly sharp. "He's my father."

"All right, let's get back to our previous topic. You want to get into this business, but you don't know how to make the tea eggs, right?"

Seeing Xia Yan be so straightforward, Li Hu didn't beat around the bush either. "Right."

"Well, I have an idea: you can pick up the tea eggs from me every day to sell."

Li Hu dug at his ear in disbelief and asked, "What did you say? You want me to get the tea eggs from you to sell? Did I hear that right? You're willing to turn down profits?"

Giving Li Hu a classic Xia-style eye-roll, she retorted, "Will you let me finish my sentence?"

Sensibly shutting his mouth, Li Hu replied, "Fine, go ahead."

Clearing her throat, Xia Yan continued, "I've been thinking: instead of having an extra competitor, why don't we become partners?"

"Partners?!"