“There are plenty of shops called Chen’s, Li’s, and Zhang’s. Who knows which Chen’s you got it from?” Mrs. Chen shouted, sticking out her neck.
The man in the lead, enraged, pointed at Chen's nose and said, "Fine, let's invite these two doctors and the village head to settle this." "If I lose, we'll compensate your Chen family and this doctor."
"If you lose, you'll not only have to compensate us, but also these two doctors for delaying their treatment! Go to their shop and get their pickles; ask this doctor to examine them for us."
Soon after, the township head was invited to the scene.
The township head's surname is Zhen.
The township head is two ranks lower than the county magistrate, and is a low-ranking official of the ninth grade. A county has dozens of towns, so there are dozens of township heads.
After examining the patient, Dr. Hu and Xue Huaimin unanimously concluded:
"The pickles they got from Chen's Pickles Shop are inedible; they're all spoiled. Besides, the Chen's pickles weren't diluted in the excrement that everyone just excreted."
Township Head Zhen also tasted a little of the two jars of pickled vegetables:
"These are clearly the same, ugh."
Not daring to vent her anger on Township Head Zhen, Chen pointed at Xue Huaimin's nose and cursed:
"Everyone knows you're the brother-in-law of the Niu family across the street. His family runs that Weixiangzhai pickle shop, and my family also runs a pickle shop. They're jealous because my business is better than theirs, so they've come to suppress us!"
Some of the onlookers couldn't stand it anymore: "When did your business ever surpass Weixiangzhai's? Even if their pickled cabbage sells for thirty coins a jar, they still have several times more customers buying pickled cabbage, sauces, and braised dishes every day!" "Dr. Xue is an extremely fair and just doctor. Your own dishes are no good, so don't blame others."
Zhenxiang Changdao:
"If you think there's nothing wrong with your pickles, I'll personally go with you to your shop. Each of you can eat a jar of pickles. If there's nothing wrong with them, then you don't have to pay me back."
Niu An whispered:
"Mom, why don't we just accept the loss and wait for things to calm down before making changes? If you keep being stubborn now, the situation with our pickle shop will only escalate, and we might have to close it down."
Ms. Chen had no choice but to come up with money, and it wasn't even enough to cover the losses. She would have to sell all her land to make up for the shortfall.
Zhenxiang Changdao:
"Go back and throw away all those pickles in your house. If this happens again, I'll report it to the magistrate, and your whole family will go to jail."
Niu An nodded and bowed, saying, "Yes, yes, yes, we'll definitely throw it away, we'll definitely throw it away!"
The Chen family lost money and ruined the reputation of Chen's Pickles Shop, and for several days no one went to buy pickles from Chen's Shop.
Chen's two sons had to go out and find work again, and the rented shop was left to be looked after by their younger daughter-in-law.
When Mrs. Yuan found out that her husband had stolen money and given it to his mother, she made a huge scene and forced her to get the money back.
This time, Niu Anjia lost even his initial investment.
Chen cursed and swore at her second daughter-in-law, Yuan:
"You shameless slut, all you do is open your mouth and stuff it in from above and below!"
Despite her scolding, Chen still took out the pair of silver bracelets she had worn at her wedding and sold them, raising more than ten strings of cash as capital.
I didn't ruin the vegetable leaves.
Instead, they picked up some old vegetable leaves. Farmers often use old leaves to make pickled vegetables, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Chen's Pickles Shop's business has recovered considerably because of its low prices and the fact that some people who were unaware of the incident came to buy from it.
However, Niu Dajia's Weixiangzhai is becoming more and more popular. Many repeat customers are afraid of going to the wrong shop. If they accidentally walk into Chen Ji Pickles Shop, they will go to Weixiangzhai instead.
Seeing that Weixiangzhai sold more than just pickles, Xiao Chen followed suit and said to Chen:
"Mom, why don't we do what Niu Da and the others do and add some braised dishes and cold dishes to sell? Business has been better lately than last month anyway."
“Let’s not even talk about cold dishes, but where do we get any meat?” Chen said.
“Buy it! We’re buying a lot, so we can ask for a discount. It should be possible. We’ll buy cold dishes too,” said Ms. Chen.
"Cheng," Chen said.
Xiao Fubao followed Niu Cuihua to do the accounting in the shop. Last month, the shop's net profit was 60 guan and 446 wen.
After settling the accounts, he and his two partners took the money back to Niushan Village and distributed the profits at ratios of 100 to 100, 200, 100, and so on.
Then, the wages were distributed among the four people who worked in the store, including Niu Da and Shen Yu.
The Niu family invested the most, so naturally they took the lion's share.
Xiao Fubao took the most; she took thirty strings of cash by herself.
Thirty strings of cash are only enough to buy three gold leaves.
The little guy was extremely worried: "I'm so poor, I need to make money!"
After more than a month of feeding, Zhao Caijing has grown quite a bit, and the little guy can no longer reach it.
Zhao Cai shook the tree.
That night, Xiao Fubao had a strange dream.
The next morning, Xiao Fubao begged Niu Da to find two people who were excellent swimmers, looking very mysterious.
"Why do you think there's something at the bottom of the lake?" Niu Cuihua asked. "What exactly is it?"
Little Fu Bao shook her head and said, "I don't know, I just dreamt that there was something yellow and glowing at the bottom of the lake."
At the same time, she instructed:
"Tie him up by the waist and give him a short knife. If he gets tangled in something at the bottom of the river, use the knife to cut it off."
The two went underwater for about fifteen minutes, then surfaced and said, "There's nothing at the bottom of the river, just two sea snails."
It's extremely rare to find conches in a river, especially two super large ones that are still alive. Even if a river connects to the sea, conches rarely survive in it.
Unfortunately, Xiao Heng, Niu Yong, and Niu Meihua had gone to school at the time, and Sang Zhen and Sang Rong were also in the school.
Niu Da, Shen Yu, Ji Duo, Ji Ying, Niu Baozhu, and Niu Baolan gathered around.
Little Fu Bao said:
"These should be them. Give them to me! I'll give you the money."
The two people expressed their deepest gratitude, saying "Thank you."
Little Fu Bao spent a long time scooping up two huge conch shells. Niu Cuihua asked, "Fu Bao, what treasures do you think are inside?"
Little Fu Bao said in a clear voice, "Sister, I don't know either! I just feel like there's something inside." Then she scooped it up again, and a pink, oval-shaped phoenix pearl appeared.
Little Fu Bao tried to scoop out another conch, but couldn't because the meat was too firm and hard. Getting angry, Little Fu Bao grabbed a hammer and smashed it open, pulling out a perfectly round, flawless, orange-yellow flame pearl from inside.
"Daddy, Daddy, let's go to the shop later today, let's go see Manager Baili first!" Little Fu Bao said.
Niu Da looked at the two very beautiful pearls, nodded, and said, "Okay!"
We arrived in town.
Manager Baili carefully held the pink oval pearl and said:
"In my more than 20 years in the industry, I have never seen such a fine pearl. This one is priceless!"
He picked up the Flame Pearl again and exclaimed, "Ten years ago, someone else of ours had a pearl like this, which sold for ten thousand taels of silver. Its quality wasn't even as good as this conch pearl! Girl, your family's Flame Pearl is worth at least twenty thousand taels of silver."
The last time Xiao Fubao came to sell pearls was a year ago. She was only three years old then, and she came with the oldest sister. But Manager Baili remembered this clever and quick-witted little girl immediately.
"I'll buy these two pearls from your family for 50,000 taels of silver," Manager Baili said to Niu Da.
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