Lu Qiqi sighed softly and said, "I saw him among that group of people. He was the man who came with Hou Si to chase us away from the noodle stall last time."
Liu Tong clenched his right fist and slammed it heavily onto the wooden table, making a loud thud.
Liu Tong gritted his teeth and said, "That damned Hou Si!"
Lu Qiqi watched as Liu Tong slammed his hand on the table, opened his mouth but didn't say anything.
In fact, among the troublemakers, there were not only Hou Si's men, but also Zhang Shiqiang's men.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have dared to smash up the shop but not report it to the authorities.
Ultimately, it was out of consideration for Old Madam Hao, who came to support their noodle shop that day.
Unable to gain any advantage elsewhere, the two conspired at some point to use such underhanded tactics to make Lu Qiqi's noodle shop go out of business.
Lu Qiqi snorted inwardly. To think that she would be forced to back down like this was to underestimate her! If she had the chance in the future, she would definitely make them taste what it was like to be wronged.
On Wednesday, she walked out from behind Dunzi, came to Lu Qiqi's side, tugged at Lu Qiqi's sleeve, and said, "Sister Lu, I'm sorry, I asked a few too many questions and offended them."
Lu Qiqi looked down at the hand that had been tugging at her sleeve on Wednesday, then looked up at Wednesday's apologetic face.
Although Zhou San is thirteen years old, he is developing slowly and is about the same height as Lu Yao. Lu Qiqi can reach Zhou San's head with a simple gesture.
She patted Zhou San's head and said, "This is not your fault. They came prepared. No matter what you do, they will not let the noodle shop go."
On Wednesday, he nodded as if he understood but not quite.
Lu Qiqi felt that the little guy needed to be affirmed, and said, "You did well today. You weren't scared and made a mistake. You were also very brave in facing the problem."
On Wednesday, Lu Qiqi's praise made him a little embarrassed, and he smiled shyly and scratched his head.
Lu Qiqi thought for a moment that she couldn't show favoritism, so she praised Zhuzi again, saying that he was smart and understood things quickly.
There are no coffin shops in the east of the city, of course. That's a wealthy area, and a business like that, considered unlucky, would never be opened there.
Lu Qiqi told Zhu Zi to call more people to carry the coffin, which meant she wanted him to call more government officials to arrest the person.
It's not bad that Dunzi can protect Zhou San and face the scarred face all by himself.
When it was Liu Tong's turn, Lu Qiqi praised him for teaching two good apprentices. Liu Tong was very happy to hear this, and even his anger from before was greatly reduced.
...
Because Scarface and his gang caused a scene at the noodle shop that day, those who knew the inside story were fine, but those who didn't thought the noodle shop had really poisoned someone.
Lu Qiqi didn't offer any further explanation. As long as their noodle shop continued to operate as usual, she believed the rumors would fall apart on their own.
To her surprise, a week passed and the noodle shop's business remained stagnant.
The scene is vastly different from the long queues that used to be. Now, the noodle shop can only sell a maximum of fifty bowls a day, which is just a fraction of what it used to sell.
For this, Liu Tong cursed Hou Si and his gang countless times.
At noon, Lu Qiqi sat at the cashier's counter, her right hand supporting her chin, watching the few customers in the noodle shop eating their noodles with their heads down, and sighed inwardly.
Feeling bored, Lu Qiqi turned her head to look at the customers coming and going outside and saw Zhu Zi, who had been called by the government office to sign documents, walk into the noodle shop with a red paper in his hand.
Lu Qiqi asked, "Zhu Zi, what are you holding in your hand?"
Zhu Zi walked a few steps to the cashier and handed it to Lu Qiqi to look at.
Lu Qiqi looked down and saw that it was the job posting she had written, which looked like it had been blown away by the wind.
"Zhu Zi, how did the government judge those people?" Lu Qiqi asked again.
When Liu Tong saw Zhu Zi return, he came out from behind the desk. He was also eager to know how the government had judged those people.
Zhu Zi smiled and said, "The government has punished them by sending them to remote areas to reclaim wasteland for a year."
"They should be punished with hard labor to teach them a lesson and prevent them from harming others." Upon hearing that Scarface and his men had been punished with hard labor, Liu Tong felt much better.
Lu Qiqi didn't have any opinion on the punishment. As long as she knew that the bad guys had received the punishment they deserved, that was enough for her.
"How did this job posting fall down?" Liu Tong noticed the red paper on the cashier's counter.
Then Liu Tong added, "Since it's fallen down, let's not bother with the plaster. Business hasn't been good these past few days anyway, and everyone's bored. There's no rush to find another woman to wash the dishes."
Lu Qiqi thought Liu Tong's words made sense, so she put the job advertisement into the cashier's counter.
...
A few days ago, Lu Qiqi went to buy tarpaulins, but she didn't expect that there were none in Qingshui Town, so she had to go to Luzhou Prefecture to buy them.
Since today was a good day to pick up the goods, Lu Qiqi handed over the cashier duties to Zhou San early and rode her horse to Luzhou Prefecture.
Upon arriving at the city of Luzhou again, Lu Qiqi did not see any soup kitchens, guessing that no more refugees were fleeing to this area.
This is good, so the refugees can settle down and no longer have to live a life of hunger and cold.
Lu Qiqi hid in a corner and put the horse into her spatial storage. As soon as the horse entered the space, it began to gallop excitedly.
While the horse was still galloping freely in the air, Lu Qiqi had already arrived at the shop where she had ordered the tarpaulin.
Lu Qiqi handed a bill to the shop assistant.
After checking the order, the waiter went to the back room and brought out a large brown bundle, saying, "This is it."
Lu Qiqi thanked them and left the shop carrying her large bundle.
Lu Qiqi ordered two tarpaulins; she planned to use one to cover the sewage pit and the other to provide a canopy for Lu Dahai and the others to use in the fields.
The two tarpaulins were quite heavy, and Lu Qiqi had some difficulty carrying them.
Lu Qiqi walked a hundred meters before finding a secluded alley. She quickly went in, checked that no one was there, and then put the tarpaulin into her spatial storage.
Even so, Lu Qiqi was still covered in sweat from the pressure of the tarpaulin.
Lu Qiqi tidied the sweat-dampened stray hairs at her temples and left the alley.
Passing by the ink shop, Lu Qiqi thought of her family, Lu Yao and the Zhou brothers, who would be going to school after the New Year, but their family didn't have any paper, ink, brushes, or inkstones.
Lu Qiqi patted her money pouch and then walked towards the ink shop.
As soon as Lu Qiqi reached the entrance of the ink shop, she smelled the fragrance of ink, which smelled much better than the ink that Zhu Zi had bought for her to use for painting.
Lu Qiqi made up her mind to buy good stationery for Lu Yao and the others, since she had plenty of money in her pocket!
With that thought in mind, Lu Qiqi stepped into the door of the Ink Studio.
The shop assistant was smiling obsequiously as he saw a customer out. He noticed that Lu Qiqi was dressed in coarse cloth and her hair was wet with sweat, making her look like a refugee who had fled from war.
The waiter, who was used to seeing richly dressed young men and women, frowned and muttered, "Where did this beggar come from? There's no leftover food for dogs here!"
Lu Qiqi's attention was focused on the scented ink in front of her, and she didn't hear what the shop assistant said. She stepped forward and asked, "Shop assistant, do you sell scented ink here?"
The waiter ignored what Lu Qiqi said, waved his hand impatiently, and shoved Lu Qiqi out, saying, "Go away, there's no leftover food for you here. Don't you know where you are!"
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