My Fantastic Chef Wife

When Xiao Baoshan had just left, some officers suddenly showed up in their restaurant saying that they were here to take the boss of the restaurant to see the county magistrate, which was a sudden shock for both Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei.

Ye Xiaoxian remembered that the constable who was in charge was Young Master Zhang’s pa. Could it be that they had been biding their time to take revenge?

It was not only Constable Zhang who was there but Xun Wenda had also been presented.

Ye Xiaoxian questioned Constable Zhang. “I’ve been doing business openly and righteously and all my dishes are hygienic. Is there a single person who ever says that my dishes are not delicious? You come here to arrest me just like that? Who has given you the right to do this in broad daylight? I wonder if there is any law which against this?”

Constable Zhang folded his arms, as if it had nothing to do with him. “Mrs. Xiao, you really treat us unjustly. You’ve been running your business openly and righteously and we’re here to arrest you also openly and righteously. We have proof also. I heard that you haven’t paid taxes yet which is why we’ve come here to arrest you!”

“Nonsense, we’ve paid taxes every month and I’ve also have the receipts from the government office.” Ye Xiaoxian knew that in this era the spirit was stressing agriculture and restraining commerce and the taxes were very heavy. According to social status, the ranking order was scholars, farmers, workers, businessmen and then servicemen. If a business person did not have a backer he would suffer severe injustice.

Constable Zhang sneered. “Okay, show me your receipts.”

Ye Xiaoxian hurriedly asked Baozhu to fetch the tax receipts. However, after Constable Zhang looked at it he sneered again. “You’ve paid something alright but what you’ve paid is the lowest tax bracket which is for small traders, but look at how big your business is and one jar of wine costs five hundred coins, yet you’ve only paid the lowest tax rate. Who do you expect I’m going to arrest then?”

After Constable Zhang finished talking he gave an order to his men. “Take her away!”

Xun Wenda stood in front of Ye Xiaoxian and said with a villainous smile, “Mrs. Xiao, this way please!”

Ye Xiaoxian looked at Xun Wenda coldly and her intuition told her that Xun Wenda must have also played a role in this matter. Last time when the two uncles came to dine here this man was with them. Could it be that the gang had come up with some tricks to entrap her?

Li Hongmei saw that Ye Xiaoxian was going to be taken away and despite being very worried she was unable to stop them, so she hurriedly asked Little Five to accompany her as he could more or less take care of her.

On the other hand Li Hongmei asked Little Six, “Quickly go to the dock to check if Baoshan is still there. If he is, ask him to come back immediately.”

Xiao Baoshan had just gone sailing however. He had been to the provincial capital this time and would not be back for two days at least.

Ye Xiaoxian had left for already half a day and not come back until now. The restaurant could not open up without Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei was in a panic. All she could think of was Scholar Wong and Liu Qianqian.

After pondering things over, Li Hongmei decided that Liu Qianqian was closer to their family as Lord Liu also came to dine in their restaurant from time to time.

Li Hongmei got Xiao Baozhu to look after the restaurant and she went to find Lord Liu, thinking that maybe Lord Liu would get Little Ye out.

…

Ye Xiaoxian was taken to the government office in no time. The person in charge of her case was a tax official called Fang Shanding. As what Ye Xiaoxian was suspected of was tax related they would not need to tie her down or anything but just let her sit down and check the accounts with her carefully.

Fang Shanding did not sound friendly in the slightest to Ye Xiaoxian. “You’re running a business but have only paid two taels of silver per month, is that right?”

Ye Xiaoxian said, “When we declared our income before, the standard tax rate for our restaurant was two taels.”

“But according to our national law, because you have got a kind of wine costing five-hundred coins per jar and also charge five-hundred coins for a single meal, and assuming that you have ten tables of customers per day, you should make several taels of silver a day, right? You should pay the highest tax rate which is six taels monthly.”

Paying six tales a month equated to earning nothing. It was no wonder that doing business in town was really difficult. Even some steadfast businessmen could not make a fortune.

Ye Xiaoxian explained, “Sir, this is not the way of calculating the profit as you haven’t taken the primary costs into account. The wine is not homemade. We bought it from a wine factory in the west district and we are actually the consignee, so we don’t make much money from it at all. Moreover, to open up a restaurant we have to hire hands, pay the rent and spend a lot on buying vegetables and hiring workers. We don’t make much money in one day actually. Two taels of silver is the very most amount we can afford to pay in taxes.”

“Nonsense, my men in the government office have been to your restaurant to eat. You can’t fool me.”

Ye Xiaoxian sneered. “So does this mean that someone has reported us? Sir, please examine this matter carefully and don’t believe everything you’re told.”

“What a joke. Am I going to believe you instead of my own men? I heard that you charge more than any other restaurant, so in this case you of course need to pay much more taxes than others. That is that. Unless you pay off these taxes you’ll be locked away for a month or so and don’t even think of opening up your establishment again!”

Ye Xiaoxian had seen something like this in the modern era but there were some written laws and rules in the modern days. As long as you handled affairs according to laws then others would not be able to make things difficult for you. However, in this era they had laws but they were not clearly written and those lords were the only ones who had the final say in how much money people should pay.

She did not want to stay in the government office but was not willing to pay the rest of the money, so they were just in a stalemate here.

Giving it some thought, this must have done by Xun Wenda or elder and third uncles.

…

Outside the government office Xun Wenda was picking his teeth with a stalk of grass and made a “phew” noise from to time to time. Who knew what he was spitting.

Standing in front of him were Xiao Tieshu and Xiao Tongshu.

Xiao Tieshu kept saying, “I don’t think it’s a good idea. We are family after all and this is a bit too much…”

“Phew!” Xun Wenda spat something again and then scolded Xiao Tieshu severely. “What’s too much? Too much for what? That day the old slut charged you for food and forced you two to write an IOU, did she ever consider you as her family? She’s asked for it, she deserves it!”

Xiao Tongshu also said resolutely, “Yes, elder brother. This is retribution for the second household. They not only charged us for lunch but abused our pa. He looked half-human when he got back home. Our old man looked fine before but has wasted away badly staying with them. This is just a small punishment from us and I dare them to treat us like that in the future.

Xun Wenda said, “That’s right. tax evasion is a major crime. If they don’t pay it off they can’t open up. If they want to open up again they better pay more taxes. If they had behaved from the very beginning they wouldn’t have ended up paying so much money.”

…

Ye Xiaoxian stayed at the government office alone. Fang Shanding said that he would give her time to consider it, letting her choose if she would like to open up the restaurant or stay here.

She could not make up her mind so she was left in the back of the government office. However, she was not at all afraid.

She did not think that she had done anything wrong as she had merely been tricked nastily by others, and besides, Xiao Baoshan had confessed his love to her. With him behind her she felt much more steady in her heart.