Chapter 45: Rumors

Shen Zhiyi really liked this kind of playboy's style. She ignored the sarcastic remarks and didn't take them to heart at all. Fortunately, Zheng San was in the same boat as her, and both of them said that it was a very pleasant exchange.

"A contract," the man said again.

Shen Zhiyi didn't delay at all, returned the contract, and said, "In that case, we're done! From now on, Xiaba Village will no longer supply goods to your Jufu Restaurant, and in return, your Jufu Restaurant can no longer restrict the sale of chili peppers from Xiaba Village!"

"Please help me bear witness!" Shen Zhiyi said loudly to the other diners, and she had become the focus of attention in the restaurant lobby.

"Don't worry, young lady, I, Qian Shouye, will be your witness." Qian Shouye said with a gloating look on his face, his eyes full of the desire to see Lin Xiaodong make a fool of himself.

Shen Zhiyi sincerely bowed to Qian Shouye. Although he was not biased towards her, he had still helped her in the current situation, for which she naturally wanted to express her gratitude.

"Thank you for speaking up for us, Young Master Qian and everyone here." Shen Zhiyi said gratefully, and Zheng San, who was standing next to her, quickly followed suit and bowed.

"You're welcome."

“It’s not easy for a young girl to be away from home.”

Amidst these friendly words, Shen Zhiyi smiled back at them and led Zheng San away from the restaurant.

Once those gazes had left, Zheng San stopped his strutting posture, rubbed his hands together, and turned to the side, as if he wanted to say something to Shen Zhiyi, but then a voice came from the side: "Well, didn't Young Master Qian arrive just in time?"

Shen Zhiyi turned around and saw Ge Ermazi standing at the entrance of the alley next to her, still in that self-proclaimed dashing posture, which in her eyes looked like nothing but a strange creature.

"You found him?" Shen Zhiyi couldn't help but ask. She didn't believe that Qian Shouye's appearance was a coincidence, but if she said that he was brought here by Ge Ermazi, she didn't understand the key point.

Under that distrustful gaze, Ge Ermazi was the first to bristle, saying, "Ever since Young Master Lin ousted his elder brother and took over running this restaurant, I've been keeping a close eye on things. Seeing a commotion, of course I had to inform Young Master Qian to come and see, and I even got a half-tael reward..."

At this point, Ge Ermazi met Shen Zhiyi's half-smiling eyes and immediately realized that he had let something slip. His original intention to gain some benefits could only be abandoned.

"Didn't they say that Lin Dongjia went to the prefectural city? How come he was forced to step down?" Shen Zhiyi asked curiously.

"Well..." Ge Ermazi said, raising his hand and rubbing it together as if to indicate his intention.

Seeing this, Zheng San said coldly, "Speak if you want, or don't!"

Shen Zhiyi really wanted to know the inside story. After all, they were former business partners, and what if there was a chance for cooperation in the future?

However, Ge Ermazi's money-grubbing nature needs to be tempered. When she can no longer produce the money, he is very likely to betray her. Therefore, we must take precautions before that happens.

“Okay, let’s go,” Shen Zhiyi said cooperatively.

"Hey! Don't go! Since we're here to talk, we should go somewhere safe, right?" Ge Ermazi said hurriedly, reaching out to grab Zheng San. "Brother! Brother, I have a lot of information. There's nothing I don't know, only things you can't imagine."

Zheng San turned his head to look at Shen Zhiyi, knowing that she wasn't trying to stop him. Seeing that she nodded in agreement, he reluctantly said, "Go if you want, but don't pull or tug at me, it will cause misunderstandings."

"Sure! Sure!" Ge Ermazi withdrew his hand, quickly picked out a place, and led the way, saying, "Let's go, I know a place that's absolutely safe."

Zheng San walked in front the whole time, completely blocking Ge Er Mazi's view of Shen Zhiyi. That was a walking twenty-tael silver note; even a single glance from someone would be considered a major loss!

The group walked along the bustling main street, through an alley, and past several cramped shops before finally arriving at what they called a "safe place." At the entrance stood a water heater with several rolls of leaves of indistinct color floating on the boiling water, which we'll tentatively call tea leaves.

Ge Ermazi walked straight inside, straightened the crooked benches, wiped the benches with his sleeve in front of Shen Zhiyi and the others, and then handed them over, saying, "Please sit down, I'll pour you some tea."

As he spoke, he walked inside, and through a straw curtain, his voice softened as he said, "Auntie, I've brought two friends over for tea. Don't bother, I can take care of them myself."

"Talk it out, don't fight." A hoarse voice came from inside.

Ge Ermazi listened helplessly and said, "I know."

This was the first time Shen Zhiyi had seen Ge Er Mazi so obedient, so she couldn't help but take a few more glances at him. Then, the man turned around and said, "Since you're here for tea, then the tea fee..."

Shen Zhiyi was speechless. The double standard was right before her eyes. Suspecting the other party would quote a high price, she cautiously asked, "How much?"

"Ten..." Ge Ermazi glanced behind the straw curtain and quickly stopped talking, honestly saying, "Three coins a day, and there are two of you..."

"I'm not thirsty!" Zheng San hurriedly said, ignoring Ge Ermazi's disdainful gaze, "I won't drink."

Ge Ermazi could only look at Shen Zhiyi, but Zheng San blocked his view. Just as he was about to say something with a helpless expression, someone said, "This is for two people, and it's six coins."

Shen Zhiyi neatly placed the six coins on the table.

"Oh my, I knew you were destined for great things!" Ge Ermazi smiled, his eyes narrowing and revealing his slightly yellow teeth.

The scene was too shocking to look at, so Shen Zhiyi chose not to look in that direction and got to the point: "What's going on with the Lin family?"

"This matter has to start with the Lin family's affairs..." Ge Ermazi said as he went to the door to get the water stove. "Master Lin has two sons. The eldest son is the owner of Jufu Restaurant. He was born to Master Lin's first wife and both of them have won Mr. Li's favor."

“Mr. Li?” Shen Zhiyi asked, recalling hearing about “Mr. Li’s handwriting” in the restaurant. It seemed that Mr. Li was quite remarkable.

"Mr. Li, you don't know him?" Ge Ermazi looked at Zheng San, who was completely bewildered, with disbelief in his eyes. He then said, "Mr. Li was the first scholar in our county! It is said that many girls were infatuated with him back then. Unfortunately, Mr. Li was a man of integrity and loyalty. He married the daughter of the pancake seller in the same year he passed the imperial examination."

Shen Zhiyi was too lazy to correct Ge Ermazi's incorrect word choice. With the title of "the first," he certainly deserved such attention.

"And then?" Zheng San couldn't help but ask, as if he had opened a new door to gossip for himself, which would also be new topics of conversation when he got back.

"What happened next?" Ge Ermazi asked in surprise, then thought about the follow-up carefully. "After Mr. Li got married, he took the exam again, but he failed. He remained a Xiucai (a lower-level scholar) for life. Later, he opened the first private school in our county, and everyone respectfully called him Mr. Li."

Ge Ermazi lowered his voice mysteriously and said, "Some people say that once this kind of energy is used up, one will only become more and more unlucky, which is why his private school isn't very good."

"Nonsense." Shen Zhiyi said sternly upon hearing this. "The imperial examination is not that easy. Just being able to sit there and take the exam is already far superior to us. Don't follow those brainless people and talk nonsense anymore."

“What’s so difficult about the imperial examination? Look at our county magistrate, he’s a top scholar who’s achieved the highest rank!” Ge Ermazi retorted with dissatisfaction.

Shen Zhiyi was slightly taken aback. Of course, she understood that it meant "six top scholars in the imperial examination". It seemed suspicious that a top scholar of the imperial examination had been assigned to an official position in this small county.

However, this is not something she can control.

“We’ve gone off on a tangent. Let’s get back to what’s going on with Mr. Lin’s family,” Shen Zhiyi quickly said.

"It's because you asked," Ge Ermazi muttered under his breath, coughed lightly, and continued, "The current young master Lin is the son of Master Lin's second wife. As for his personality, he's not well-liked by the other young masters. For example, Young Master Qian particularly dislikes him. It's said that it's because he went to Young Master Qian's house and flirted with a maid. Later, the maid couldn't bear it and committed suicide. But Young Master Qian really liked that maid, so he started to make things difficult for him."

Shen Zhiyi frowned more and more as she listened. This style of doing things was so much like the young master Zhao Daya had described. She slowly said, "Is it the Lin family, who owns a large estate in Quliu Village?"

"Otherwise, who else could it be but Master Lin?" Ge Ermazi retorted.

Suddenly, Shen Zhiyi realized something and said, "Where did Master Lin go in the end? And what about all those waiters, accountants, and kitchen staff from the restaurant...?"

“They’ve all been replaced,” Ge Ermazi said slowly. “Some of them went to the prefectural city with Lin Dongjia, but I haven’t found out what they went there for yet.”

Now everything matches up!

"Don't you have the county magistrate as your backer? What are you afraid of, Young Master Lin?" Ge Ermazi suggested.

Shen Zhiyi frowned upon hearing this and retorted, "Who said our backer is the county magistrate?"

"No, no one," Ge Ermazi said in a panic.

Shen Zhiyi took out three coins and placed them on the table, asking with great authority, "Who?"

“Really, no one else, it’s just…” Ge Ermazi said, reaching for the three coins, weighing them in his hand before putting them away, and continuing, “That time when we rode the oxcart to the village together, didn’t we meet the county magistrate? You even got to talk to him, which definitely means you two have a good relationship! So I thought…”

"So you blocked my way and said you wanted to marry me?" Shen Zhiyi suddenly realized. At the time, she thought he was just a hooligan, but it turned out there was such a reason behind it.

"Cough cough." Zheng San, who was drinking water, choked and coughed repeatedly. He looked at Ge Ermazi, then at Shen Zhiyi, and became even more silent.

Ge Ermazi felt guilty for a moment, then retorted, "What else could it be?"

The atmosphere suddenly quieted down. After digesting these rumors, Shen Zhiyi said, "Then we'll be going now. We still need to go to the clinic to check on San Tou's condition."

"Oh, don't forget you're going to treat me to dinner," Ge Ermazi called out.

"I won't forget!" Shen Zhiyi replied, leading Zheng San away from the "teahouse" and back to the previous fork in the road, heading towards Huichun Medical Clinic.

The five days I've been away have long passed the three days' worth of medicine money I left for the clinic. I wonder what's going on with San Tou and Uncle Gouzi.