Chapter 353: Drive Out

The waiter led Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Yutian to the Qingfeng Teahouse opposite, which looked quite old. On the way, he said, "Originally, the shopkeeper wanted to invite you two to have tea in the shop, but the shop has not been renovated yet, so it is a bit messy and a bit stuffy, so we arranged it here."

"This teahouse has been here for some time. There are booths on the second floor. It's quite quiet, and you can see what's going on inside the shop from the window."

The waiter helped Zhuang Qingning pull a seat and said, "Please take a seat, both of you. Wait a moment. My shopkeeper will be here soon."

"I am still taking care of the renovations in my shop, so I won't be with you for long. I hope you will forgive me."

"Just take care of your business first." Zhuang Qingning said with a smile, "We'll just wait here for Manager Cheng."

"Yes." The waiter bowed to Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Yutian, then hurried downstairs.

Soon, Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Yutian saw the young man enter the shop and start to get busy.

Apparently the waiter had helped order tea and snacks. Not long after, a waiter came up with a pot of tea and four small plates of exquisite delicacies.

Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Yutian each took a cup of tea to drink.

The tea is green tea, very fragrant and even slightly sweet.

Zhuang Qingning found the drink delicious and poured himself another glass.

"Does this tea taste good?" Zhuang Yutian asked with a smile.

"Well, it tastes very comfortable. The water is not bad." Zhuang Qingning nodded.

"This water comes from a well in a village east of the county. Only the water from that well is sweet. You don't need to make tea. It's delicious to drink. And this teahouse uses tea from Cheng's Tea Shop. It's called Rain and Mist Tea. It's only available in teahouses in the county and not sold outside. Only a few shops of the Cheng family have frequent business dealings with them, and they send some to us during festivals."

Zhuang Yutian said, "A few days ago, Shopkeeper Qian asked me if I wanted to drink tea. When the new Rain and Mist tea arrives, send some to me. If you like it, I'll save some for you."

"If there is too much, please leave some for me." Zhuang Qingning felt that the tea tasted really good, so he didn't be too polite and accepted it directly.

"Okay then. I'll bring it back to you when I get there." Zhuang Yutian replied.

"Get out! Get out!"

As the two were talking, they heard a commotion downstairs.

"If you keep making trouble, I will take you to the police!"

The voice was high-pitched and mixed with anger. It could be heard that it was the voice of the waiter who had just served the tea.

"You are the one who bullies customers because of your big store. It is obvious that I can win the first prize. You gave the silver to others. There must be something fishy going on. You just want to keep it for yourself."

The sound of argument rang out and Zhuang Qingning raised his eyebrows.

The voice sounds very familiar...

Is it Zhuang Yuanren?

Zhuang Qingning looked down from the stairs and saw Zhuang Yuanren arguing with the waiter downstairs.

He was wearing a brocade robe, but his attire was not neat and his hair was a little messy. He was loudly scolding the waiter: "You are bullying people like this, and you always bring up the county government office. Are you trying to collude with the county government to bully scholars?"

"You still know that you are a scholar, then do what a scholar should do instead of confusing right and wrong here." The waiter was not a soft persimmon. He just put his hands on his waist and looked Zhuang Yuanren up and down. "Just now I thought you looked very familiar, and now I remember you."

"Two days ago, news about the Kong family spread in this county. You must be the son of that evil man who pushed his own daughter to death for money. I saw you at the gate of the county government office. You are the beast who kept saying that he didn't know and pushed everything onto your own father."

"Tsk tsk, no wonder he could do such a thing. No wonder he is so greedy for money and is causing trouble here just for a few ounces of silver!"

"Then I won't be polite. I'll take you to the county government office right now and shout along the street so that everyone can see what you look like!"

After saying that, the waiter rolled up his sleeves and grabbed Zhuang Yuanren by the collar.

Zhuang Yuanren was obviously startled, and his face turned pale because of what the waiter said. He didn't bother to argue anymore and turned around and left.

He was in a hurry when he left and tripped over the steps leading out of the door. He staggered for several steps before he could steady himself. He was afraid that the waiter would catch up with him, so he ran away in a hurry.

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The waiter spat twice, cursed a few more times indignantly, and then went to appease the customers in the store.

Seeing that Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Yutian both stretched their heads to look, he quickly brought the kettle over to add some hot water for them, and said with a smile on his face, "Sorry to bother you two."

"In order to attract customers, the shop owner had someone write a couplet and put it downstairs, saying that anyone who could answer it and was rated as the best would receive one tael of silver, plus a free cup of tea, and the deadline was one month."

"That guy left a pair earlier, but his pair was not the best, so he gave the silver to someone else. He should feel ashamed for not being as good as others, but he is so arrogant and blames us."

"But it's true. This person has bad character, so it's not unusual for him to do such a thing. I wonder if you two have heard about the Kong family's incident a few days ago. The Kong family is quite wealthy in the county. Originally, the only son in the family was going to get married. This was supposed to be a big happy event, but on the day of the Kong family's wedding, someone reported it to the authorities, saying that the Kong family was openly planning to marry off the only son, but in fact, they were planning to hold a silver wedding for the only son who had died."

"You probably know that this is strictly prohibited by the laws of our dynasty. When County Magistrate Ding heard about this, he took people to investigate. The investigation showed that the Kong family had this idea. What's infuriating is that the family that sold the daughter did such a shameful thing, but still said that the daughter was his own and he had the final say on whether she lived or died."

"What's even more infuriating is that girl's eldest brother, who was adopted by the Kong family as a son. He used to be very poor, but now he's wearing silk and satin. He just said that this matter had nothing to do with him and he didn't know anything about it. He also said that he was deceived by his family. He simply wants to climb up the social ladder by stepping on his sister's life."

"When Lord Ding heard this, he became even angrier. He beat the Kong family's master and his wife, as well as the family that sold their daughter, with a stick and sentenced them to one year of hard labor. As for the eldest brother, he refused to admit it and there was no way to prove that he knew about it, so he could only beat him with a stick. He was also kicked out of the official school."

"Here, that person just now..."

"I guess he has nowhere else to go and no money to spend, so he came to the store to scam people."

The waiter probably couldn't control his emotions just now, and he talked on and on for a long time. After he finished speaking, he felt that he had said too much and smiled awkwardly.

Today I finally have time to write, so I can finish it early~ 　　(。-ω-)zzz 　　 　 (End of this chapter)