"No, no, everyone who comes is a guest, a lucky charm for our shop. We're not afraid of a lot of people, just follow me." The fat owner said as he led the way. After entering the shop, he went through a small door, then went out to the backyard, opened a door, and gestured for them to enter.

Hong Xiaoduo stepped inside and saw that the room was filled with robes, with men's robes occupying two walls and women's robes on both sides.

"I wonder which young master this is for?" The portly shopkeeper asked with a smile, inviting Hong Xiaoduo to sit on a chair nearby.

Hong Xiaoduo pointed at the children and said, "It's almost Chinese New Year, so we all need to buy an outfit. Something in a moderate price range would be fine. Could you please help us pick one out?"

"This is a big deal!" the fat owner thought happily. He thought to himself, "Why is the Shen family turning away their cash cow? They're so busy trying to please the young lady of Prefect Wu's family. Don't they realize they dare to make money off the Prefect's family?"

They only dared to take the cost money from others, and then they would try to please them by giving them other gifts.

The portly owner quickly beckoned a woman in and instructed her to help choose a robe.

When Quan Jinghuai saw that the fat boss was still looking for clothes for him, he quickly said to Hong Xiaoduo, "You can buy them, I don't need them." He didn't care about wearing new clothes for the New Year.

"Listen to me, we should all wear new clothes for the New Year." Hong Xiaoduo said domineeringly, signaling the fat shopkeeper to continue choosing, while she led the two girls to find women's clothing.

She realized it was someone else's warehouse, and to avoid being crowded, she was led directly to the warehouse to choose her items.

Meanwhile, across the street, at Shen's clothing shop, after what had just happened, Wu Jinyao was in no mood to choose new clothes. With a tense expression, she hurriedly left the shop and got into her family's sedan chair to return home.

The maid, feeling uneasy after being reprimanded, hurriedly followed behind the sedan chair.

The other young ladies from wealthy families also lost interest in choosing new clothes and hurriedly left with their maids.

The shop suddenly became deserted. The female shopkeeper, seeing that she had been busy for so long but had not made a single sale, thought that the young lady from Prefect Wu's family probably would not come to her shop again.

Feeling remorseful was useless; she had no other choice in that situation.

Looking back at the counter and the clothes racks, which had been tried on and were all messy, as well as the clothes that the young ladies had chosen but hadn't paid for or taken away, he felt so frustrated he wanted to vomit blood.

"Boss, those two adults and seven children just went into Bian's shop. I saw it clearly. That fat Bian watched the commotion at our door for a long time, then happily welcomed them into the shop." The shop assistant came over to complain.

Upon hearing the waiter's words, the female shopkeeper felt dizzy and almost fainted. She quickly leaned against the counter and sat down on a chair.

Another waiter, being a bit more quick-witted, immediately brought over a cup of water.

The female shopkeeper drank some water and felt a little better. She patted her forehead to clear her head, cheered herself up, and continued operating her business.

You know, this is the most profitable time of the year, so you can't miss it.

However, she was being too simplistic.

Pedestrians on the street originally wanted to go into the shop, but when they saw that there was not a single customer inside, they felt a little strange. Other clothing shops were always crowded with people. What was going on with Shen's shop?

Looking at the female shopkeeper's expression again, something seemed off.

"Buying clothes? Please come in." Seeing that the person was not entering the shop, the female shopkeeper quickly stood at the door to invite them in.

However, the more she acted this way, the stranger the customers outside the door felt, and they quickly turned around and left, entering the Bian family's shop diagonally across the street.

The others followed suit, and seeing that no one else was going into the clothing store, they didn't go in either.

The story spread quickly, and it became increasingly bizarre, eventually becoming the rumor that something ominous had happened to the Shen family. As a result, people stopped buying clothes from her family for the New Year, fearing they might be tainted by bad luck.

The female shop owner heard the rumor two days later. Even though she stood outside the shop shouting for discounts, no one paid any attention, and she fainted from anger.

Meanwhile, Hong Xiaoduo and the others went to the Bian family shop and each of them chose new clothes, shoes, and socks from head to toe.

When it came time to pay, the fat owner said he would give her a 20% discount, but Hong Xiaoduo, who was always careful with her money, refused, saying that she only needed to pay as long as the price wasn't higher than what she would pay to others.

Then, the plump shopkeeper let them choose handkerchiefs, purses, and the like as gifts.

Hong Xiaoduo didn't stand on ceremony and let the children choose a few purses. The purses that the clothing store used to give them weren't enough to share with the children, but this time there were enough.

Since it's almost Chinese New Year, Hong Xiaoduo plans to give each child a little money.

After leaving the clothing store with my small bags packed, I planned to return the new clothes I bought to the inn before continuing my shopping spree and buying some food.

But then two young men came over: "Miss Hong, are you going to continue shopping? How about we take these things back?"

Hong Xiaoduo recognized them immediately; they were the waiters from Anping Inn.

"Then I'll have to trouble you two young men." Hong Xiaoduo agreed with peace of mind and thanked them.

The innkeeper's staff helped carry the nine people's belongings and headed back to the inn.

Hong Xiaoduo felt relaxed as she looked at the shops along the street, searching for a dried fruit and pastry shop. Quan Jinghuai, however, was looking at the young man following not far away.

He remembered seeing this young man outside the inn when they left.

However, they didn't look like bad people.

Hong Xiaoduo led the children into the pastry shop, picking out pastries they had never seen or eaten elsewhere.

Upon seeing this, the shopkeeper quickly instructed his assistant to take a little of each item for her and the children to try. A moment later, each of them had several packets of pastries.

I bought several kinds of candy along the street, including roasted chestnuts.

As he bought more and more things, Quan Jinghuai felt sorry for his newly accepted disciples and took all the oil packets, big and small, from their hands and put them into his own.

When they turned back to the inn, Quan Jinghuai had the most things among the group of nine. He didn't feel tired, but the frequent glances from both sides of the road made him a little uncomfortable.

There was no way around it; his seven disciples and their "mother" each had a candied hawthorn stick in their hands, and they were eating it as they walked. It was no wonder they attracted attention!

"This candied hawthorn is delicious, it doesn't stick to your teeth," Hong Xiaoduo commented to the children as she ate.

"Mother, the person in the blue robe behind us has been following us all the way," Tian Shu whispered to Hong Xiaoduo as he walked over.

Upon hearing this, Hong Xiaoduo turned around and looked over. Sure enough, about five or six meters away, a young man dressed in a blue brocade robe smiled when he saw her looking over.

His smile wasn't lewd at all; in fact, it was kind of pretty, and he even had dimples?

"Don't worry about it for now." After saying that, Hong Xiaoduo realized that they had already arrived outside the inn.

The two adults and seven children stepped into the inn. Hong Xiaoduo caught a glimpse of the man in the blue brocade robe, and sure enough, he followed them in...