What's meant to be will be

  Entering her parents' bedroom, the room was pitch black without any lights on. Zhang Shu was lying on the bed, and there were intermittent sobbing sounds coming from beside the bed. It was clear that Zhang Shu was extremely heartbroken at this moment.

  She was probably unable to figure out why her own beloved sister, whom she had raised with her own hands, would stab her in the back at this time.

  "Mom, what's wrong? Don't cry..."

  Looking at his mother lying in bed, heartbroken and speechless, Li Yifan felt a deep pain in his heart, and at the same time, he couldn't help but feel an unspoken resentment towards Erniang's family. What they had done was really too much.

  Hearing her son's voice, Zhang Shu turned over and sat up in bed. She rubbed her eyes, not wanting her son to see her crying appearance, nor did she turn on the light.

  "Son, you're back, have you eaten?"

  At this sad moment, she was still worried about whether her son had eaten or not, and Li Yifan suddenly felt a heavy heart.

  "I've eaten, mom, what's wrong? Go out and sit for a while, don't stay alone in the room."

  Zhang Shu felt a surge of resentment in her heart after hearing her son's words, and staying cooped up in the room was not going to resolve anything. So she followed her son out of the room and sat down with him in the living room outside.

  "What's going on? You guys and I need to have a good talk."

  Li Yihuan had already guessed roughly, but still wasn't quite clear about the current situation, so he asked.

  "In the afternoon, your uncle called and asked if we had rented a store from Qianji Yangzaotang to open a new store somewhere. I said no way, we've already paid the rent for our current store for the next year, how could we possibly go open another store?"

  Li Liqiang then recounted what had happened today, at which point Zhang Shu's tears fell again.

  "Your eldest uncle felt a bit strange, so he told us that he received a call from your second aunt, saying that their new store is opening the day after tomorrow and asked him to go and support them. He also found it strange, as wasn't it said that they wouldn't rent anymore? How come they rented another store now?"

  Li Yihong had already roughly understood the course of events, that Er Yi's family had already set up a shop selling Yangzhaguo (mutton soup) and planned to open it in two days.

  They even had the nerve to invite my uncle to their opening ceremony, this family is really shameless. But they dared to do so, obviously they have made preparations in front of relatives and friends, and prepared the words to deal with my parents.

  Now, the only ones who might still be in the dark are probably just Mom's siblings and their families. The second aunt's family and the third aunt's family get along well, so it's unlikely that the third aunt's family wouldn't know about this situation, and since the eldest uncle doesn't know, it's clear that the younger uncle's side also won't know.

  "After hearing this, your mom and I were confused for half a day before finally calling your second aunt and her family. But do you know what they said?"

  At this point, Dad suddenly slapped the tea table next to him with a loud slap, and the teacups on the table rang for half a day. It was obvious that Dad was also furious.

  "They actually told us that they're inviting us to attend their opening ceremony in two days, these two shameless bastards. If it wasn't for us helping them out back then, would they even have made it this far? Now they're still shamelessly inviting us to attend their opening ceremony. I asked them why they're doing this, if they don't want to work together just say so, but instead they said that they'll do business however they want, now that we've split up, it's none of our concern. What kind of people are these?"

  At this point, Li Lisheng slammed his hand on the table again, obviously being greatly annoyed by Erniang's family's arrogant and overbearing attitude.

  "I've told you before that your second sister and brother-in-law are not good people, but you wouldn't listen. Now are you satisfied?"

  At that time, her father disagreed with bringing the second aunt's family to open a store together. Now, he can't help but blame his mother. His mother was already heartbroken by the second aunt's family, and now she feels speechless when her father says this.

  "So many years have passed, what has she done? Our family risked everything to open this store, but they only invested a little over 10,000 yuan and yet they demand half of the annual profits. If I hadn't insisted back then, they would have taken advantage of us. After all these years of running the restaurant, she's just a small shareholder, but she controls the finances, all because your mom kept giving in. What kind of nonsense is this? Every day, your mom and I work ourselves to death in the back, while she puts on a show in the front, picking up easy tasks to do. Now she turns around and says we're in the wrong? This family is worse than pigs and dogs! You should have said something if you didn't want to partner with us, but did you have to resort to such underhanded tactics? Does she even remember that everything she has today is thanks to her sister and brother-in-law?"

  Dad had long been displeased with Er Yi's family, but because of Mom's face, when the two families jointly opened a store, he couldn't say too much about Er Yi and her family. However, he never thought that Er Yi's family would have such audacity, actually making a move to undermine his own family like this.

  "Yi Fan, you're not young anymore, tell me, is what they're doing right? Not only did they secretly open a store, but it's even a seafood restaurant, and they opened it at the entrance of Wu Yi Street, blocking our throat. And they even poached all the service staff from our restaurant! They took advantage of the fact that we just paid the rent to launch this attack. Are they not deliberately trying to put us out of business?"

  Years of resentment, combined with today's provocation, made Dad somewhat incoherent, while on the other hand, Mom was quietly sitting on the sofa, crying uncontrollably. It was clear that Auntie's family had hurt her deeply this time.

  Although Dad didn't say it explicitly, his previous words were also saying that it was her compromise and indulgence that led to today's situation. As the saying goes, "raising a tiger is a disaster", and she herself became the one who raised the old tiger. Now thinking back, how foolish her previous actions must have been?

  "Dad, don't say that. Didn't Mom also not expect things to turn out like this? You're bringing up past matters at a time when we're already feeling down."

  Li Yifan saw his mother crying sadly, so he quickly persuaded his father to stop talking, indicating that he shouldn't continue. Li Lisheng rolled his eyes, but seeing the desperate look on his wife's face, he swallowed the rest of his words.

  "Dad, mom, let's think about it this way. It's actually not bad that the two families are separated. At least from today on, she'll go her own way and we'll go ours. Are we still afraid of them? Moreover, if we think carefully, in this unexpected event, we didn't suffer any actual losses. At most, they just got a head start on us, letting their new store open for a while. But in terms of material things, we didn't lose much. Luckily, we withdrew our dividend from the first half of the year earlier."

  Li Yihong's words made the two old men feel a lot better, and in fact they didn't suffer much loss materially. They were just so angry and heartbroken because of Erniang's family's treacherous behavior.

  "Son, you can't say that. They opened half a year earlier than us and might have taken a lot of our business. Their store is right at the entrance of Wuyi Street, so they'll probably intercept many of our customers. In this half-year period, we won't be able to do any business, but they can cultivate a lot of regular customers. By the time we open, the competitive pressure will be huge."

  As for the business of restaurants, Li Lisheng is still very familiar with it. Although the actual material loss is not great, what about the intangible brand and spiritual losses?

  "Hey! Dad, Mom, are you really planning on continuing to run this restaurant from now on?"

  Li Yifan smiled lightly at his parents and said, "This sentence made his parents stunned.

  "What do you mean by this?"

  Li Liqiang's eyes widened as he stared at his son and said.

  "Dad, Mom, why are you working so hard to run this restaurant? Isn't it just for the sake of making some money, then helping my older brother find a job and get married, and after that, when I go to college and find a job, will you be saving up some retirement money? To put it bluntly, isn't all your hard work just for the sake of money?"

  Li Yihong's words hit the nail on the head, and Li Lisheng and Zhang Shu exchanged a glance. After some careful consideration, they indeed found it to be true.

  "But is our family short of money?"

  Li Yifan said and then went back to his room to fetch those few pieces of Longyan incense, placing them in front of his parents.

  "Son... these are all the ones you found, so what you're saying is..."

  Li Liqiang's emotions were somewhat agitated, and his speech accelerated involuntarily.

  "In a few days, we'll go to the capital and sell these dragon's saliva incense. We'll have money then! And I've inquired about it, the international price of this dragon's saliva incense is quite high now. With just these few pieces, we can live a life free from worries about food and clothing for the rest of our lives. Why bother with their family over such petty gains?"