Chapter 190
The inn business of the innkeeper and his wife has never been very good. They spend more than they earn, and now they are going to sell it to someone else.
Otherwise, they could keep Shen Jiao at home to work.
There is no need to worry that she will do a bad job and ruin the relationship between the two families.
Fortunately, none of those bad things happened. They sold the inn and went to live with relatives.
Tian Bajiao, who had no chance to repay their kindness, felt very sad when he went to see them off.
The shopkeeper and his wife were quite open-minded. "It was just a matter of convenience, so you don't have to take it so seriously. What's important is to live well and do your best in the future. If fate allows, we'll meet again someday."
The shopkeeper's wife also gave her some leftover items from the store and some old clothes.
These were the clothes she wore when she was a girl. Now they don't fit her anymore, but Tian Bajiao had them altered and they are still wearable.
Several people parted ways, and Mr. Shen, the boss of Dingxiangfang, was the saddest.
There's been no smile for several days.
It is said that she and the shopkeeper's wife started playing together when they were naked. They were originally neighbors. Later, the shopkeeper's wife got married and she inherited the family shop. Although they were only half a street apart, they still saw each other every day.
Now we are separated from each other and I don’t know when we will see each other again. The sadness is really like the separation of life and death.
However, after she took over a big business from a Buddhist temple outside the town, she recovered and was shocked when she counted the silver.
Like many people, Boss Shen also loves money.
However, there are not many opportunities to make money in Putao Town. It is a small place and few people use spices.
Even if there is a purse, it is mostly filled with worthless loose incense. Young men and women who like to be coquettish will buy it and wear it, and will not easily replace it.
Boss Shen set up two stalls outside the store, and hung these purse-shaped sachets on them.
Small profits lead to high sales, which is better than nothing.
The bulk of the money has to be found in Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, and wealthy families, as only those people will buy expensive spices. Incense sticks also sell very well during festivals and holidays when every family has to offer sacrifices.
Occasionally, traveling merchants would come here to purchase goods. Her family knew how to make rambutan perfumed dew, a skill passed down from ancestors that no other spice shop in town had.
Another business is with restaurants and food shops, which use spices in their cooking.
It sounds like it's quite lively, but after staying there for a few days, Tian Bajiao discovered that it's very quiet.
The idle boss would go to the embroidery workshop across the street to chat with someone, and then just hand the shop over to her.
Tian Bajiao sometimes feels that the purpose of her hiring someone is to find someone to look after the store.
But sometimes she was also very ambitious, rolling up her sleeves to figure out a fragrance recipe that would make her rich, and then... nothing happened...
She started thinking about it when she took over the shop when she was a teenager, but now she is in her thirties and still hasn't made a fortune.
But she was not completely clueless. She set up several small rooms for appreciating incense on the second floor of the shop, which were decorated in a quiet and elegant manner. Whenever she found something that smelled good, she would send a message to her regular customers. When people came, she would light the incense and make tea, which was fun. If they liked it, they would buy some.
It's just that there's no good scenery, and she can't bear to buy some good tea to give away for free...
None of that matters.
Tian Bajiao likes this kind of leisurely life very much. As long as the store can make money and pay wages, she doesn’t care whether anyone comes or not.
When no one was around, she would flip through two books and identify spices and herbs. At first, Boss Shen was worried that she would misuse the things in the shop, but she always knew the rules, so the boss felt relieved and went out more often.
That evening, when guests came, Tian Bajiao couldn't find her.
She was a woman about the same age as Boss Shen, well dressed, and followed by a maid. However, she had a rather fierce look on her face. She frowned and asked as soon as she came in, "Are you the new employee? Where is Shen Niao?"
It would be nice if Tian Bajiao knew: "I just went to chat with Madam Wang across the street, and now I don't know where she is. If you are not in a hurry, why not go upstairs and have a cup of tea and wait for a while. Judging from the weather, my boss will be back soon."
Boss Shen likes the food cooked by Tian Bajiao very much. He will come back to replace her when it is almost time for dinner so that she can be free to sell vegetables and cook.
Tian Bajiao, who doesn't like cooking, has some complaints about this.
It was agreed that she would be a maid, but now she has to do everything. In the first month after she came, the two of them took turns, but now, only two months have passed and her true colors have been revealed, becoming more and more lazy.
She does nothing except washing dishes. Yesterday she was too lazy to even wash her own clothes. She just left a basin of dishes to her. If she continues like this, Tian Bajiao will rebel. How can she just work harder but not get paid more?
Tian Bajiao was complaining in his heart.
The woman complained directly on her face: "It's already this late, what else can she do?"
"Then I don't know. Maybe he went to look for a friend he knew."
Tian Bajiao thought there was nothing wrong with what he said, but the woman's face became even gloomier, and she said in a domineering tone:
"I don't have time to wait for her, go get her now."
"ah?"
Why?
Tian Bajiao almost asked her, "Who do you think you are? Why do you ask me to listen to you?"
But she held herself back and said awkwardly, "But I still have to look after the store. If I go out like this, I'm afraid the boss will blame me..."
"If she wants to blame you, just say that Madam Liu from the Zhou family is waiting for her!"
This Lady Liu was really hot-tempered. Seeing that she was hesitating and not moving, she simply said,
"Why aren't you going yet? Are you still afraid I'll steal something from your shop? I wouldn't even want this shabby shop if it were given to me for free. Xing'er gave her a silver ingot as a deposit. If anything's missing, just deduct it from this amount. It's enough to buy all this junk in your room."
Fifty taels is really not enough.
"Mrs. Liu, you're being overly suspicious. I didn't mean that. Please sit down for a moment. I'll go find my boss."
Tian Bajiao took the silver, took out the stool from the counter, wiped it with a handkerchief and asked her to sit down. Then he went to ask about the whereabouts of his boss and asked Mrs. Wang from the opposite door to help look after the store.
But she refused, curling her lips and saying, "I won't go and provoke her. You don't know, that Madam Liu from the Zhou family is a mad dog that bites whoever she catches. Who knows how your boss has offended her? If you ask me, you'd better go find her quickly. Once you find her, tell your boss to hide outside. She'll get tired of waiting and leave on her own. She won't do anything to the shop. If you really find her, it will be bad news."
She spoke clearly and said, "Go quickly, I'll help you watch her. I'll go over when she leaves."
"Okay, thank you, Madam Wang."
Tian Bajiao bowed slightly and hurried to the market to look for someone.
It was also bad luck that she didn't go shopping for vegetables early or late, but today she heard that there were fresh longans and kumquats, so she went there eagerly.
I went back after buying it, and in a hurry I took a shortcut, and happened to miss Tian Bajiao.
By the time Tian Bajiao found the vendor who sold her things and hurried back, she had already started arguing with Madam Liu.
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