It didn’t taste bad and nor did it taste like it was cooked in an extra pool of vinegar. He blinked his eyes and looked at Yu Dong who was smirking smugly. ” See, I told you that today’s breakfast was better than yesterday, you should have believed me without a hitch.”

” Well, it does taste nice,” said Fang Chi, the flavours weren’t strong and just they tasted just right to him, who couldn’t eat anything heavy at the moment.

Ye Liu too nodded his head as he took a bite of the chicken, though these days he didn’t like eating anything but for the sake of having a child he somehow forced himself to eat a little. The same could be said for Shen Li but his condition was a lot worse than Ye Liu’s, he hardly ate two bites and then pushed the bowl away, ” I think I am full.”

Yu Dong’s eyes dimmed as she looked at Shen Li’s half-eaten breakfast and sighed. ” You can still eat a few more bites, didn’t you hear it can remove the toxins from your body, you know? I am sure you will be fine, you see?”

Shen Li shook his head and refused to take another bite. ” I cannot eat anymore.”

Seeing his weakened condition, Yu Dong knew that he was in a lot more pain than he was showing, so she didn’t push him instead she decided to set her plan in motion a lot earlier than she expected. She clapped her hands and smilingly looked at her husbands, ” You know I just came with a very good plan, as you can see that our business is doing fairly well but the thing is that I cannot manage all the shops by myself, I have to take care of the wine segment and I also have to start the new business of selling strawberries, so I was thinking why not let you guys help me?”

Shen Li’s head snapped up and so did the others.

Ye Liu who was just about to force another bite down his throat looked at his wife and frowned. ” What are you talking about Dong Dong, mers do not help their wives in their business, we are supposed to stay at home and take care of what goes in the house.”

” Yes, Yes but that’s what you guys think, right?”Yu Dong waved her hand and patiently explained. ” Listen, the business is good and many people already have eyes locked on the bar that we opened, do you know that? In just two weeks, the mammies hired by us caught at least ten women servants from our rivals’ shops sneaking inside our bar. Even the manager hired was almost bribed by them and it was my good luck that she was caught before she could sell the secret recipes away.”

” With the popularity of our shop, I am afraid that I cannot entrust it to outsiders and I have a lot more work to do than manage the shops, so why don’t you four take care of them in my stead? I mean rather than entrusting it to an outsider, I would rather give them to you guys to manage?”

Shen Li’s brows scrunched up more and more, as he shook his head. ” I don’t think that this will be appropriate.”

” Why won’t it?” countered Yu Dong. ” Are you stealing, murdering, robbing someone? No, right? You are taking over the shop that I opened and it’s with my permission that you guys are going to manage the shop, right? So, what’s the problem?”

Chen Mi hesitated as he looked at his brothers and somewhat softly added, ” No one would like it, just think what will people say once they find out that you have given us permission to do business, maybe the Yamen will get involved as well.”

” Why will they get involved?” said Yu Dong as she raised her brow. ” I am not letting you take over the shop completely, I am sort of hiring you four to take care of the shops for me. And though the Empress does not approve of mers owning a business, she allows the mers to work, think of this as taking a job and if you are worried about people then I am afraid that you will have a hard time breathing if you kept on worrying about them, it’s their job and they will keep doing it no matter what. If you want to live a good and happy life then you need to let go of this thinking of ‘what will people say’ because it’s not helping.” ‘

The four didn’t say anything and Yu Dong sighed, she placed her hands on the table and sternly said, ” Look, you can stay at home as you want but don’t you think it’s boring? Staying at home every day and doing the same thing over and over again? I am not asking you to do this forever just a few months, if you don’t like working then you can quit it’s not like I am going to force you?”

The others exchanged a look with each other and then narrowed their eyes before looking at Yu Dong. Shen Li as the oldest was the one who took charge and asked, ” And you are telling us to do this because?”

” Who knows maybe I am just looking for some fun things to do as a family?” That was all Yu Dong said.

a

/n: I am changing the plot so please bear with me for the time being.