Upon hearing this, Su An frowned and carefully examined the person.
The other person was thin and short, with the brim of his straw hat pulled down to cover his face, but his voice was inexplicably hoarse and sounded somewhat malicious.
How long has it been before milk tea has been targeted?
Her smile faded, and she flatly refused: "Not for sale."
The man was taken aback, seemingly not expecting Su An to raise the price so quickly without any negotiation: "Three times!"
"Not for sale."
"...Five times!!"
Su An raised his voice impatiently, "I'm not selling them for any price. Customers, please buy your buns and leave. Don't block the way for the people behind you."
"Exactly! What are you doing up there? We're in a hurry to buy milk tea after we finish buying the steamed buns!"
The man was furious, but with everyone watching, he couldn't say anything. He angrily grabbed the steamed bun and ran away.
Su An snorted. In her previous life, when she was a private chef, she had seen all sorts of storms, and this kind of poaching was something she had long expected.
Therefore, she didn't take it to heart and continued to greet the guests behind her with a smile.
After a busy day, Li Guihua did the math in the evening and found that her income had increased rather than decreased. She had sold three liang (a unit of weight) more than usual, and she and Sanwa couldn't stop smiling.
On the first day of the milk tea's sale, to celebrate, they invited Uncle Lin over for dinner.
Uncle Lin, beaming with excitement, brought over two chickens. After tallying up the day's milk tea earnings, he was surprised to find that he had sold thirty-seven taels of milk tea on the first day, with the earnings almost matching those of the steamed bun shop!
After deducting the cost of seven taels, the remaining 40% profit that Su An received was twelve taels.
Another source of income!
Su An was also happy and happily cooked several delicious dishes: spicy diced chicken, braised fish, and sweet and sour pork.
A portion was delivered to the neighbors, and the whole family chatted happily until the night watchman's call, before finally going to sleep after saying goodbye.
However, the family, exhausted from their work, did not notice that shortly after they returned to their room, a "thump" of footsteps echoed in the yard.
Su An, who wasn't quite asleep yet, suddenly opened his eyes. This was... a thief had broken into the house?!
After her initial surprise, her heart tightened instantly, and she quickly groped for her clothes to put on and get up.
He cautiously approached the door, held his breath, and peered out. Sure enough, a thief dressed entirely in black was sneaking into the house!
Su An's gaze suddenly turned cold, but before she could come up with a solution, suddenly—
Another figure appeared out of nowhere behind the thief, covered his mouth tightly, and then quickly abducted him to the next room.
"This..." Isn't that the highly skilled guard from next door?!
Su An was stunned. After she came to her senses, she didn't disturb the rest of the family. She quietly went out of the yard and knocked on the door next door.
"Young boss?"
It was Zhou Li who opened the door. Su An nodded, glancing inside furtively as she said, "I think I just saw a thief break into my house..."
Alright, no need to say more, that little thief is right here, all tied up!
Fu Zhun sat in his wheelchair with a normal expression, and the guard he had just seen stood beside him.
The petty thief was still begging for mercy in front of Fu Zhun, saying, "Sir, please spare me! I was just blinded by greed and wanted to steal some valuables. I didn't mean to harm anyone!"
Zhou Li hurriedly invited Su An in, "Young master, you've come at the right time. My guards were protecting their master at night when they saw a thief break into your house and caught him on the spot. Do you recognize this person?"
After Su An entered, he first nodded gratefully to the master and servants in the courtyard, and then frowned as he sized up the little thief.
I've never seen it before.
She had some doubts at first, but upon closer inspection, the thief was tall and thin, not the person who had failed to buy the formula during the day. Her brows furrowed even more.
This little thief had to come at the worst possible time, but of all times, the milk tea seller targeted her shop today. I'm afraid his goal is also to steal the milk tea recipe.
But the other party stubbornly insisted that he was only there to steal things.
Fu Zhun then turned to Su An and asked, "What do you intend to do with this thief?"
Su An didn't believe the thief's words and said directly, "Take him to the authorities!"
However, seeing the thief's seemingly indifferent attitude, she suddenly curled her lips into a chilling smile, "It seems the law is clear: if the thief doesn't cause significant damage, he'll be given a lenient sentence, right?"
"That won't do."
Su An then took out his purse from his pocket and calmly stuffed it into the thief's pocket. "This guy is obviously a repeat offender. I have to rid the world of this scourge!"
"There are one hundred taels in this purse, which is my family's monthly income. If I send it to the yamen like this, there will be witnesses and physical evidence. I could be sentenced to at least twenty or thirty years in prison!"
After speaking, she blinked her innocent, questioning eyes at Fu Zhun.
Fu Zhun subtly curled the corners of his lips and nodded in agreement: "That's right, stealing a hundred taels of silver is a serious crime, and one will be punished with a beating."
The thief was dumbfounded. Zhou Li couldn't help but admire the young boss's wit once again. He quickly suppressed his laughter and exaggeratedly added, "Oh dear, with county magistrates being so incorruptible these days, they might even be exiled!"
"You, you guys..." The thief was furious, anxious, and scared. His face turned red and his neck bulged instantly. No, how come these people are even more shameless than thieves?!
Fu Zhun narrowed his eyes and waved his hand wearily, saying, "So noisy, send him to the government office immediately."
Seeing the guard rushing towards him, the thief's pupils constricted sharply, and he was utterly terrified: "Wait, I'll confess! I'll confess, okay?!"
"I didn't go to steal the silver. I was instructed by Wang Mazi to kidnap the boss and force him to reveal the milk tea recipe!"
What? It wasn't even stealing, they wanted to kidnap her!
Fu Zhun and his servant's expressions suddenly turned cold. They had just caught the thief but hadn't had time to interrogate him yet when Su An arrived, making it difficult for them to question him.
Who knew it would have such a purpose?
The guards immediately stepped forward and, sure enough, found a rope hidden under the thief's waist.
Upon seeing this, Su An's eyes instantly filled with anger, and he demanded, "Explain yourself clearly, who is Wang Mazi!"
"Yes, yes..." the thief said, his face ashen, "He's the brother-in-law of Boss Liu from the Xinxiang teahouse!"
Teahouse owner, well, you really are a rival. Unable to buy the recipe, you try to steal it.
Su An was furious. After taking back the silver, he decisively chose to report it to the authorities. The county magistrate was alarmed and, upon hearing about the case, sent men to arrest both Boss Liu and Wang Mazi.
But the subsequent interrogation went surprisingly smoothly. Boss Liu, heavily pregnant, looked completely bewildered and unaware of the situation, and directly pinned all the blame on Wang Mazi.
Su An also recognized Wang Mazi as the man who had come to buy the formula during the day. He readily admitted it, but only said that sending someone to steal the formula was a petty thief trying to be clever by kidnapping someone, and that it had nothing to do with him.
Lacking further evidence, Wang Mazi was imprisoned for three years, while the petty thief was sent to hard labor for five years.
This result dissatisfied both Su An and his servant Fu Zhun.
After leaving the courtroom, Mr. Liu walked past them with a smug look on his face.
His gaze fell especially on Su An, and he lowered his voice to say disdainfully, "Hmph, some people really overestimate themselves. If they know what's good for them, they should just hand over their things themselves, so that no one will ever climb over the wall into their house again in the middle of the night!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
