Lin Qiuniang nodded heavily. "Then what should I do now?"
Meng Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "Don't reject her directly yet. After all, we don't know who's behind this. Just tell her that I keep a close eye on things and you don't have a chance to make a move. Remember to be natural and don't arouse her suspicion. If you have the chance, you can also try to find out who contacted her."
Meng Zhao paused, then added, "But you also need to be careful. Don't anger them easily, or you'll get yourself into more trouble."
Seeing how considerate Meng Zhao was of her, Lin Qiuniang felt a surge of warmth in her heart. "Okay, then I'll go back to work first. I'll let you know as soon as I hear any news from over there."
After Lin Qiuniang left, Meng Zhao went out to inspect the area. Only Lin Qiuniang had come to her to talk about this matter. Whether the person behind it only approached Lin Qiuniang or others had already been persuaded, she had no way of knowing. All she could do now was to be more careful.
Meng Zhao locked her room and first drove the donkey cart back to Tongfu Street. She couldn't just be careful herself; she also had to inform Madam Gu.
After listening to Meng Zhao's words, he said angrily, "Those heartless bastards have no ability of their own, but they only think about stealing other people's things. They will get their retribution sooner or later."
After venting her anger a little, Madam Gu looked at Meng Zhao anxiously, "What should we do, Zhao Zhao? We can't let them ruin the business we've worked so hard to build."
Meng Zhao comforted her, "Mother, don't panic. Even if they took the ingredient package, they can't make the same thing. I came back this time mainly to ask you to pay more attention to the workers. Losing the ingredient package is a small matter, but if someone puts something dirty into our food, that would be a big problem."
Although Meng Zhao didn't grind some seasonings into powder because it might affect the effect, even if you could roughly distinguish a few, the proportions were hard to control. Without her recipe, it would be impossible to make the same thing.
But she never even wrote down the recipe on paper; she memorized it all. So Meng Zhao was relatively reassured about the recipe being leaked, but she was more worried about being framed.
Gu recalled the situation over the past two days, saying, "Everyone has been working as usual these past two days, and we haven't noticed anything different."
Gu was always meticulous and very diligent. Every day when she braised meat, she would weigh and add the spice packets herself. However, the braising time was very long, and she couldn't keep an eye on it all the time. Nevertheless, she would collect the used spice packets at the right time every day and destroy them herself. The quantities were always accurate.
"That's good. However, although we need to be more careful, we can't be too obvious. Most of the people in the shop are honest and law-abiding. Don't wrongly accuse them or hurt the workers' feelings."
Madam Gu nodded. "Yes, Mother knows."
"Zhaozhao, are you going back today?"
"No, I've been staying at my shop on Xishui Street for the past few days."
Currently, in the shops on Xishui Street, Aunt Feng'e needs to collect vegetables from the village, Shen Yun has an elderly grandmother at home, and the other three are from the county, not far away. It's not convenient for anyone to stay in the shops indefinitely, especially since we need to be extra careful these days. So, she has to stay there by herself to keep an eye on things.
But she couldn't stay here forever, so she had to find a solution. That's when Madam Gu made a suggestion.
"Zhaozhao, why don't you go and buy two people too? People bought from the market have contracts with their wives, so it's safer to use them."
"Buy people?" Upon hearing this, Meng Zhao was slightly taken aback, and a hesitant look appeared on his face.
In fact, she had seen people being sold before when she bought the donkey, but she couldn't accept this practice in her value system. A contract of servitude could lock a person's entire life in prison, ruthlessly binding their freedom and dignity. In her view, this was far too cruel.
So after opening the shop, she always chose to hire people and never thought about buying people.
Madam Gu nodded. "Yes, some workshops and shops buy people from a young age and raise them, so that they can be used with more peace of mind when they grow up. Besides, there are a lot of people at the city gate who can't enter the city and are waiting to be bought by someone. Going there now will make the prices more reasonable."
Although buying people went against her core beliefs, Meng Zhao did not refuse outright, but instead went to the city gate to take a look first.
In the beginning, the refugees fought for resources, and there were many bloody incidents. Every day, the number of people who died from fighting was no less than the number who starved to death. After all, when a person is driven to the brink, there is nothing they will not do.
Later, thanks to the efforts of many parties to maintain order, and the fact that most of the initial instigators of the riots had died, the initial chaos and looting subsided, and order gradually improved.
The government only provides porridge once a day in the morning to give them the most basic means of survival, with the aim of preventing them from starving to death and helping as many people as possible.
The wealthy households in the county usually distributed porridge in the afternoon, but because there were too many people, it didn't last long. If a refugee could receive porridge twice a day, he was considered to have had a good day.
These past few days have passed, and most of the businesses in the county that were hiring have already done so. Those who are still coming now are mostly looking for cheap temporary workers. After all, these migrants only need two bowls of rice to work for you all day.
Another type is the brokerage firm. Every business involves buying and selling, and brokerage firms are no exception. However, they buy and sell people, and people are the cheapest commodity during years of famine.
Meng Zhao happened to see a man carrying a peddler's bag. He saw a ragged couple trying to push their son toward the man, pleading, "Please take him away. We don't need money, just give him something to eat."
The broker, with an eye for appraising merchandise, coldly glanced at the little boy before him. Seeing his tattered cotton clothes, his bones practically bursting out of the fabric, and his somewhat vacant gaze, he immediately shoved the boy aside.
"Get out, get out! Don't push just anyone onto me. You're as skinny as a bamboo stick. How are you going to work if I take you back? You're just eating my food for nothing."
Pawnbrokers aren't charities; they buy people to resell for profit. They won't take in people who are old or obviously in poor health.
Seeing this, Meng Zhao let go of her reservations. In fact, as long as she pretended that the indenture didn't exist, she could treat this trip as a job recruitment. Whoever followed her would at least be able to eat and stay warm, which was better than suffering outside.
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