Chapter 33 Provocation
The advertisement previously given to Mrs. Li became more and more famous. Early in the morning, a long queue formed in front of Mrs. Li's cloth shop. At the same time, "female fans" from various villages came to watch, from women to young girls, all crowded together.
Mrs. Li was grinning from ear to ear. She had put down her work in the store and came here to ask Hu Xiner and Mu Qing for help!
This is undoubtedly a timely help for the young couple.
But looking at the tile-roofed house, Mrs. Li hesitated. Erdong said that Mu Qing had found a new place to live, and she thought it was another shabby thatched house. But then she thought that Hu Xiner might still have some money, so it would not be surprising to rent a tile-roofed house.
But she originally wanted to find two cheap laborers, but now it seems that she will have to raise their wages.
Upon hearing what Mrs. Li was up to, Hu Xin'er agreed without hesitation: "Mrs. Li, of course I'll help you. But as for the wages... for every extra piece of cloth I sell, I'll take 10% of the profit. How about that?"
Seeing that Sister Li was hesitant, she smiled and asked Sister Li to come closer to her ear.
…
At the door of Mrs. Li's cloth shop, Hu Xin'er was sitting on a chair and banging the gong loudly. Next to her was a wooden board with a cloth shop flyer posted on it. Inscribed in exaggerated fonts was: Exclusive channel for fans.
"Take a look! Just line up in the fan-only channel. Every time you buy a piece of cloth, you can get up close and personal with Mu Lang. For every ten pieces you buy, you'll get a custom-made 'heart' portrait of Mu Lang!"
"What? Mu Lang is here?" fanatical fans screamed.
"Mu Lang will only appear if we line up properly!" Hu Xiner continued to beat the gong.
Hearing that Mu Lang was coming soon, the young girls and wives all straightened their hair and clothes, and lined up in a row in an extremely dignified and quiet manner, as if they were not the ones who had just been squeezing and shouting for the cloth shop to open.
Good order was quickly restored at the entrance of the cloth shop. A girl with pigtails asked loudly, "Who are you? Why do you represent Mu Lang?"
"I'm his agent!" Hu Xin'er said righteously, "I'm the one who helps Mu Lang take care of all the mundane matters."
In the eyes of fans, their idols are all otherworldly, and Hu Xiner's words were quickly accepted by everyone.
Soon the cloth shop officially opened, and normal cloth buyers received good service from the waiter, while fans waited for Mu Lang to really appear and immediately paid enthusiastically.
The order in the fans' queue was inevitably a little chaotic, but fortunately Hu Xin'er had anticipated this and asked Uncle Sun, who had distributed flyers before, to maintain order. This era was not as open as modern times, and in order to maintain their good image as ladies, the fans were still quite orderly, but they kept flirting with Mu Lang.
Hu Xiner was so happy when she heard the sound of money that she couldn't stop smiling.
Mu Qing stood aside with a frown on his face, trying his best to avoid the dirty hands.
When the gray-haired old lady fan looked at his features closely and praised him, saying, "Mu Lang is really handsome," he became even more stiff.
Just when Hu Xiner was happy, something unexpected happened.
A group of people came and surrounded her. It turned out to be Madam Zou from the rouge shop who brought people to provoke her.
Madam Zou shouted, "Hu Xin'er! You take people's money but don't do anything. You are so morally corrupt, and you dare to come out and cheat people out of their money?"
Without waiting for Hu Xin'er's response, she turned to the guests and said, "Fellow villagers! This Mrs. Li is Hu Xin'er's shill, and they are in cahoots with each other! They cheated me out of all my wealth. I'm such a poor girl, I've been working hard to earn money, but now..."
She said pitifully, "They are both evil-hearted and rotten-hearted. The cloth looks fine, but when you wear it, it will cause sores, a foul odor, and pus. I really don't want you to be deceived!"
This wonderful performance of singing, reciting, acting and fighting made many people hesitate. Her subordinates were scattered among the crowd, threatening the customers with ferocious looks, scaring everyone away and destroying most of the good business!
Hu Xin'er then remembered that the ten taels of silver deposit given by Madam Zou had been snatched away by her elder sister, and she had been injured these days and had not had time to draw the advertisement. She hurriedly said, "Madam Zou, what are you doing? Something happened at home, and I accidentally owed you the advertisement, but I will expedite the production starting today!"
Everyone knew that the thatched cottage had caught fire. Even if Madam Zou was in a hurry, she shouldn't have disrupted Mrs. Li's cloth shop's business and spread rumors without asking for the manuscript.
Hu Xin'er's attitude was already very good, but Madam Zou changed her previous attentiveness and insisted: "You cheated me of my money. If you want me to settle the matter peacefully, you must compensate me ten times the loss!"
Ten times the loss, that is one hundred taels!
It's simply taking advantage of someone's misfortune!
"He's full of lies and greedy!" Mu Qing stepped forward to protect Hu Xiner.
The murderous coldness immediately stunned the entire audience, and was more than ten times more terrifying than Hu Ronger that day.
Madam Zou was so frightened that her legs went limp and she said in a trembling voice, "You, you!"
Looking around in confusion, he found that none of his men dared to come forward, and some even fled secretly, while most of the customers had already left.
She gritted her teeth, stood up tremblingly, and actually ran back.
"Where are you running to!" Butcher Li Sangui heard that Hu Xin'er and his group were being bullied, so he rushed over with a big meat-chopping knife.
Madam Zou rolled her eyes.
Li Sangui sneered: "If you dare to faint, my knife will not have eyes."
Madam Zou asked angrily, "What do you want?"
"I also want to ask why you slandered me and Sister Li." Hu Xiner stepped forward.
Madam Zou said stubbornly, "Yes, you cheated me out of my money first. You evil-minded people are trying to harm me now...ah!"
Hu Xin'er rolled on her feet expressionlessly.
"Bah! I think it's you who are crazy about money and want to extort a hundred taels from Hu Xin'er!" Li Sangui spat.
Mu Qing looked at Madam Zou with a cold gaze.
Madam Zou was timid again: "What do you want?"
"You chased the customers away, so you and your men each bought a few rolls of Mrs. Li's cloth!"
"How is that possible!" Madam Zou thought to herself, I just said that the cloth was rotten, and now I go to buy another one, isn't that contradicting myself?
Li Sangui raised his knife and said with a forced smile: "Now, go get your guys."
Madam Zou immediately cried out in anger, "Are you all dead? Come over here and buy some cloth!"
Only after seeing that everyone had bought cloth did Li Sangui let them go.
Mrs. Li cursed, "You're so blinded by greed that you'll do anything! You've run your own shop for so many years, what grudge do I, a cloth seller, have against you? You've lost your mind, actually blackmailing a little girl!"
Madam Zou lowered her head, but her eyes were full of resentment.
After everyone left, Hu Xiner always felt that something was wrong. Although the rouge shop owner had been sharp-tongued and a bit snobbish before, she was not that bad.
She looked at Mu Qing: "Tell me, she is suddenly looking for trouble like this, does it seem like someone is behind this?"
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