Pei Yuezhi patted Fan Mu's head and comforted her, saying, "There are many restaurants around here. Maybe they made a reservation in advance. It's okay, Mu'er."
Fan Mu nodded obediently after hearing this.
Although that's what they said, Pei Yuezhi knew in her heart that it was definitely the work of some rival. She just didn't know that this street was full of small shops, so who could affect the people selling vegetables and meat?
Luckily, I have my own online store; otherwise, I really wouldn't have anywhere to source goods.
However, this also made Pei Yuezhi truly realize just how influential people with a voice could be in ancient times.
Pei Yuezhi stopped thinking about it. She was considering doing something new recently. People who imitate can never surpass the first person to do it. In addition, she had a stable customer base and a fixed source of goods, so she wasn't too upset.
However, the person behind this is likely to disappoint them.
"Yueyue, I was wondering why no one's been bothering us lately. Turns out they've been using underhanded tactics." Liu Yuanyuan wasn't too angry, since it hadn't really affected her family much.
Pei Yuezhi pondered for a moment, still wanting to know who the real opponent was. After thinking for a while, she said, "Yuanyuan, you stay home and cook first. I'll go out and take a look. I still want to know who's behind this."
After handing some ingredients to Liu Yuanyuan, Pei Yuezhi went out.
When I came out, I didn't think about this at all. Now that I know, when I observe the vegetable vendors again, I find that they lower their heads and avoid my gaze as soon as I arrive.
The people doing small business here are all ordinary people. I haven't offended them, so there's no reason for me to stop doing business with them.
There's only one possibility right now: someone gave us some kind of instruction.
Although I had this guess earlier, now that I'm here, I'm even more certain.
They asked two older women for the dishes, and unsurprisingly, when they saw it was Pei Yuezhi, they both looked speechless.
"Come here, kid." A slightly familiar voice came from behind.
Pei Yuezhi turned around and saw that the person who came was none other than Grandpa Zhao, the candied hawthorn seller, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.
"Grandpa, it's been a long time! What are you doing here?"
Grandpa Zhao pointed to the butcher shop next door and said, "It's my eldest son's shop. I came to visit him."
Pei Yuezhi was a little surprised, but thinking about it, it made sense. An old man selling candied hawthorns didn't seem to care much whether anyone bought them or not, so he must have some conditions.
"Grandpa, please come to my shop for a meal sometime. You took good care of me when I was running a stall."
Upon hearing this, Grandpa Zhao smiled and agreed, but then he seemed to remember something: "Child, I called you over here to talk to you about something. Let's go to the shop and talk."
Pei Yuezhi nodded: "Okay, sir, let's go inside and talk."
This wasn't the butcher shop Pei Yuezhi had just visited; that one mainly sold mutton, while this one mainly sold pork. When the shop owner saw Grandpa Zhao, he smiled and called him "Dad." Seeing a customer arrive, he warmly asked, "Young lady, what kind of meat would you like?"
"Has your meat not been reserved?" Pei Yuezhi asked, somewhat puzzled.
The shop owner, Zhao Wen, who is also Grandpa Zhao's eldest son, laughed heartily: "Young lady, I've already put the pre-ordered meat away. Why is it still displayed in front of you?"
Pei Yuezhi was even more puzzled. Had she been imagining things? Were those other families really not willing to sell anymore?
Grandpa Zhao gestured for Pei Yuezhi to sit down over there, and Pei Yuezhi quickly went over.
"So it was Dad's guest. I thought he came to buy meat."
Grandpa Zhao nodded to his son, then turned to Pei Yuezhi and said, "I only knew there was a delicious and popular restaurant around here, but I really didn't know it was owned by you."
Pei Yuezhi replied with a smile, "I haven't been back to see you yet, and I haven't had a chance to tell you where my shop is."
"It's alright, we're just destined to meet," Grandpa Zhao said with a smile. "But..."
Grandpa Zhao then changed the subject: "What I wanted to talk about was your shop."
“I heard there’s a shop here that’s doing really well, and a while ago some people even caused trouble there.”
Pei Yuezhi nodded: "Yes, a few days ago someone came over and falsely accused me of eating food from my shop and getting sick, but I found a loophole in his statement and managed to defuse the situation."
“A few days ago, someone came to my son’s shop and said that if they saw you coming to place an order, they wouldn’t allow them to do business with you. At first, they only told these big shops.”
"Later, I didn't see you running out of stock, so here you are, threatening several other small stalls nearby."
Pei Yuezhi was a little stunned as she listened to these words. She had already thought of this matter, but she did not expect to confirm the truth so easily. She was really lucky. Not only did she trigger her cheat ability when she came to this world, but she also met so many people who helped her.
"Grandpa, do you know who it is?" Pei Yuezhi looked at Grandpa Zhao nervously, just as she was about to find out the truth.
"Of course I know, otherwise I would have come to tell you." Grandpa Zhao paused for a moment, seeing Pei Yuezhi's even more expectant expression, and continued, "It's the biggest restaurant in the area, 'Baiweiju'."
"Baiweiju? Such a big restaurant, going against my little eatery?" Pei Yuezhi was somewhat incredulous.
At this moment, Zhao Wen also came over. Seeing that Pei Yuezhi was a little confused, he kindly explained, "Baiweiju wouldn't go against you. The owner's nephew runs a shop here, the one that sells boxed lunches on the street."
As expected, it was that same company, which didn't surprise Pei Yuezhi at all.
However, perhaps because they didn't take him seriously, after threatening the people here to stop doing business with him, they didn't care about anything else.
"Brother Zhao, how could you still dare to sell me things?"
Before Zhao Wen could answer, Grandpa Zhao spoke up first: "My family doesn't break the law, and we run our business honestly. No one can threaten us casually."
Upon hearing this, Pei Yuezhi realized that this person had quite a background, and probably a significant one at that. Even ordinary people, who don't break the law and are law-abiding citizens, are not immune to threats.
If they don't tell us, we're too embarrassed to ask.
"Thank you, Uncle Zhao and Brother Zhao, for telling me this. Now I know who is making things difficult for me, and I can better guard against it."
After chatting with the two for a few more minutes, Pei Yuezhi went home.
"Yueyue's back! Dinner will be ready soon. How did it go? Did you find anything?" Liu Yuanyuan came out to greet Pei Yuezhi as soon as she saw her return.
Pei Yuezhi smiled mysteriously: "I know everything."
Then he told Liu Yuanyuan everything about meeting Grandpa Zhao and what the father and son had told him.
Upon hearing this, Liu Yuanyuan became a little anxious: "The big restaurant is making things difficult for us, what should we do?"
"Don't worry, there shouldn't be any problems for now. They threatened the people here again just a few days ago, so they won't take any other actions so soon."
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