"Are you all here to order meat?"
Fang Yan stopped what she was doing and looked at the group.
There were more than one person who came; there were five people in total.
“We’re all from the other side of town. Last night we heard that you could order braised meat for the Mid-Autumn Festival here, so we decided to come over together since we live nearby,” said an older woman among the five people with a smile.
Fang Yan had her suspicions; either they didn't come at all, or five people suddenly came to order meat.
Is it because of her rule that if one person orders more than five kilograms, the deposit will not be refunded?
That's why so many people came all at once. They plan to order five kilograms each so that it will be easier to get a refund later.
Fang Yan wasn't without her doubts, but the old woman had spoken so succinctly that she couldn't just decide against the business based on her intuition alone.
"That's true," Fang Yan thought for a moment and said, "However, starting today, no matter how much meat you order, if you can't pick it up for your own reasons, the deposit will not be refunded."
She used a little trick to test these people—were they genuine customers, or...?
"How could this be? Didn't you say yesterday that you'd refund the deposit if the meat weighed no more than five pounds?" the old woman exclaimed anxiously.
Fang Yan slowly continued packing her things, saying, "Yesterday is yesterday, today is today."
"Boss lady, are you bullying us?" The old woman's face turned ugly.
Fang Yan maintained her polite smile, "If that's what you all think, then you don't have to order meat from me."
If you don't order meat from me, you won't get bullied, right?
The five of them huddled together, whispering amongst themselves, talking in hushed tones.
Finally, it was the same old lady who spoke up again, "Could you let us order meat according to yesterday's rules?"
Fang Yan was extremely direct: "No."
"We'll give you an extra two cents," the old woman said through gritted teeth.
Fang Yan: ...
Do you think I'm out of my mind?
If you don't come, I'll lose at least the cost of several dozen kilograms of meat.
Do you think I look like the kind of person who would throw hundreds of dollars into something for a mere two cents?
The five of them whispered among themselves for a long time, but probably couldn't come to a conclusion.
The old woman pretended to go to the toilet and ran to the corner, while the remaining four seemed to stay behind to guard Fang Yan.
Fang Yan wasn't in a hurry. After tidying up her things, she simply sat down to play with Xiao Yuzai and Qibei, and also to see what kind of trouble they could cause.
The old woman who had pretended to go to the toilet but actually made a hasty escape returned.
No one knows where she ran to meet the person behind her; she was panting heavily the whole way.
Upon arriving at Fang Yan's stall, she and her companions whispered a few words to each other.
Then she sat down on the ground and started yelling like a shrew, "Oh dear, come quick! This little whore is bullying us country folk!"
Fang Yan: ? ? ?
What's going on here?
She wasn't in a hurry, watching them act like an outsider.
There are several small shops around the market selling dried goods, salted and pickled products, etc.
At this moment, there were still a few people buying groceries.
Hearing the commotion, they all gathered around.
"You all be the judge, see who does business like this?"
Seeing that people were gathering around, the old woman pointed at Fang Yan and began to scold her, "We rushed from the other side of the mountain to the county town before dawn, just because we heard that we could order braised meat for the Mid-Autumn Festival here."
“That’s right, that’s right, we got up and set off before dawn.” The other four quickly chimed in.
"Oh my, you're up and traveling before dawn? That must be quite a distance," someone in the crowd remarked.
When the old woman saw that someone had responded to her, she became even more animated. "That's right! We live far away, so we had to get up early and travel over to order meat. But this little harlot actually said that from today onwards, if we can't pick up the meat we ordered on Mid-Autumn Festival, we won't get a refund! Listen to this! How can anyone bully honest people like this?!"
"Yeah, that little slut is bullying us too much!"
"That's right, she's bullying us!"
...
The other four quickly echoed this sentiment.
Fang Yan almost burst out laughing when she saw this. Good heavens, who hired this actor?
With such terrible acting skills, it must be because the pay wasn't good enough, right?
With such poor acting skills, Fang Yan didn't even need to step in; her fans were already criticizing her. "Heh! Has the world really sunk to this level? Since you keep calling Xiao Fang a prostitute, let me think about it: which eye of yours saw Xiao Fang go out and sell herself? That's why you dare to insult her like that?"
The speaker was an elderly woman in her seventies who loved to buy pig's head meat from Fang Yan.
Ever since she told Fang Yan that her husband had lost all his teeth and had great difficulty eating, Fang Yan would specially stew two bundles of pig's head meat separately every day until it was very tender and soft, melting in the mouth without needing to chew.
With the added braising sauce from Fang Yan, her husband could eat two large bowls of porridge in one meal.
Since she started buying braised food from Fang Yan, she and her husband have been getting healthier and healthier.
Now, the old lady is Fang Yan's most devoted fan.
She had come to buy braised food earlier today, and was just thinking of buying some dried mushrooms to stew with the braising liquid Fang Yan gave her. It smelled so good!
Unexpectedly, this happened as soon as I came out.
The old woman, who was spewing vulgarities, was rendered speechless by the old lady's question. After a long while, she stammered and whispered in defense, "I just... I just... I always just casually curse like that, don't I?"
When rural people hurl insults, they don't usually care about evidence.
Aren't they all just saying whatever comes to mind, whatever vicious words come to mind, and then they just hurl those insults?
The old lady immediately seized on her words, saying, "You can curse people so easily, who knows if you're just making things up and framing Xiao Fang?"
"Grandma, I didn't wrong her. She said it herself. She could get her deposit back when she ordered meat yesterday, but we who came to order meat today can't get our deposits back."
The old woman persisted, "How can a business owner treat its customers like this?"
"Let me answer this question."
The woman walking out is the owner of the salted and pickled goods shop next door. She's in her forties and really enjoys selling braised dishes.
She walked up to the old woman and her accomplices. "What you care about most, what you think is that Xiao Fang is bullying you, is the issue of whether you can get your deposit back, right?"
"Yes!" The old woman thought to herself, if this little prostitute were willing to refund her deposit, wouldn't all this trouble be avoided? Without thinking, she nodded.
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