It was evening, and the sun had not yet set.

A group of people are chatting under the banyan tree.

Some people were playing dominoes, some were watching others play dominoes, some were smoking hookahs or chatting, it was very lively.

Ye Xiniu and his friends had just sat down when Liu Decai rushed over: "Hey, Xiniu, Daqiang, what's wrong with your workshop? Have you been paid yet?"

Ye Xiniu got angry as soon as he heard this: "If you keep talking nonsense, our workshop is fine! It's all your fault for stirring up trouble, which made me go to find Caiping and made me look like a nobody."

"Where did I start trouble? I was just telling the truth." Liu Decai shrugged and sat down on the raised roots of the banyan tree.

"Come on," Chen Daqiang said. "Let's not even talk about whether that thing can be sold or not. Even if it rots there, she's still in the village, and her house is still there. Even if we sell her house, we can still get our wages back."

Liu Decai rubbed between his toes and scoffed, "How stupid! Do you even know what materials are in that packet?"

Ye Xiniu frowned: "It's just some medicinal herbs!"

He didn't know the names of the medicinal herbs; he only knew that once they were delivered to his location, he would take them over and grind them into powder.

"Several of those medicinal herbs are particularly expensive. The reason why Hu La Tang is called Hu La Tang is because one of the herbs is called pepper. It's very expensive." As he spoke, Liu Decai lowered his voice.

Ye Xiniu was taken aback: "Is it white, small and round?"

"Yeah, this thing is really expensive! Count how much you polished?"

Ye Xiniu was momentarily stunned. He couldn't read, but he could count. He specialized in grinding pepper. He'd ground at least five or six hundred jin (250-300 kg) of it in just the last few days!

"Besides this, there are a few other things that are also particularly expensive." Liu Decai, who only knew about pepper but didn't know what other medicinal herbs were in the spice packet, blurted out, "I bet the cost of the goods she's stockpiling in the warehouse is at least five or six hundred taels!"

"She's already spent all two hundred taels she swindled from Li Jiaojiao. Where did she get the money to buy more goods?"

Ye Xiniu and the others were taken aback.

Chen Daqiang stammered, "Isn't she selling spicy soup at a stall?"

"Tsk tsk, how much money can a small stall make! Earning two or three taels a month is already the highest! If it were that easy to make money, she wouldn't have suddenly started a workshop."

Ye Xiniu asked impatiently, "What do you mean?"

“What I’m saying is… she must have borrowed the money to buy the goods. But right now she can’t sell her stuff! When the creditors come knocking on her door, they’ll take her house first! Where are you going to get your wages?”

Ye Xiniu and Chen Daqiang's expressions changed slightly.

Liu Decai said, "I don't know what you're thinking. A woman should stay at home cooking and taking care of the children, but she's trying to run a workshop and do business! And you're all making trouble for her."

"Besides, she's always been a big braggart. Back when she was with the Li family, she had her family completely under her thumb, making them do whatever they wanted for her."

After saying that, Liu Decai withdrew his hand from between his toes and blew on it.

Ye Xiniu's face changed upon hearing this: "What do you mean?"

"That's exactly what I meant above! I was just trying to kindly remind you."

After saying that, Liu Decai stood up, turned around and left.

The Liu family and Ye Caiping's family had a feud, so the workshop would never hire him. Of course, he didn't sign up at the time.

Seeing Ye Caiping's thriving life, Liu Decai was filled with resentment and began to make all sorts of malicious speculations about her.

Yes, he was telling the truth! A woman like her can only manage a small stall at best; what ability does she have to run a workshop? She'd definitely lose everything!

Not far away, Granny Lai was full of schadenfreude.

So that shrew built such a big workshop by borrowing money? Now that she can't sell her goods, she's going to go bankrupt!

Thinking about it, Granny Lai felt a surge of excitement.

Luckily, her husband Lai Zi didn't marry her, otherwise he would have been dragged down by her!

Ye Xiniu returned home feeling extremely unwell.

He couldn't keep his mouth shut, and at dinner, he told his family what Liu Decai had said.

His parents remained silent, but his two sons kept echoing him.

His wife, Liu, said, "Anyway, there's not much farm work to do right now. If others can do it, so can you. Just bear with it and wait and see. If we really can't get paid next month, then it's not too late to leave."

Ye Xiniu slammed his hand on the table: "Listen to the stupid things you're saying!"

"Can't I work for her for free for another month? With that time, I could earn twenty coins a day carrying heavy loads in town!"

Ye Xiniu felt increasingly uneasy. After finishing his drink, he turned around and went to find Chen Daqiang and a few other people he was on good terms with.

...

Early that morning, Ye Caiping asked Ye Daquan to take her to the prefectural city.

"What are you going to buy, little sister?" Ye Daquan asked as he drove the oxcart along the village road.

"I went up the mountain yesterday and found some ginseng," Ye Caiping said in a low voice.

"Huh? Are there so many ginseng plants on the mountain?" Ye Daquan was stunned. Last year, his younger sister dug up a relatively young one, and later Li Jiaojiao dug up another one.

My little sister has dug it up again!

"Mmm. I dug up three!"

"How much?" Ye Daquan almost tumbled off the oxcart, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets in shock.

"Three! Really three, okay? Now let's go to the city to sell them." As she spoke, she lifted the cover of the basket, revealing three old ginseng roots.

Ye Daquan finally snapped out of his stammering and hissed, "My God! It's really... Little sister, how lucky you are! You got three at once. But it's a pity to sell them all. Why don't you keep one for yourself?"

Ye Caiping stroked her chin: "Exchange for money first. Keep it next time we dig it up."

Ye Daquan almost tumbled off the car again. "What if we dig it up next time? Is Niutou Mountain a ginseng nest? No way, I'll go dig it up tomorrow too!"

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