June 21
The Luo Family Clinic had been open for three days, but not a single patient had come in, which made Zhiwan a little anxious.
She paced back and forth in the room, thinking and thinking, but couldn't figure out what the problem was.
At this moment, Jiawang rushed back.
"Sister, I just went to check, and other clinics in the city are all quite busy, with patients starting to line up."
Hearing this, Zhiwan became even more suspicious.
Other clinics have patients queuing up, but she doesn't charge consultation fees and even offers a 20% discount on medicine. How come she doesn't have any patients? This is really strange.
"Jiawang, you watch the shop, I'm going out for a bit."
"Big sister, where are you going?"
Let's go out for a walk!
There's been no business for three days; something must be wrong. She needs to go out and find out what the problem is.
Her first stop was Hu Dake, who had provided her with the medicinal herbs.
A few days ago, when she came to talk to Hu Dake about the poor business on Caishen Street, Hu Dake seemed hesitant to speak, as if he had something to say.
Upon seeing her enter, Hu Dake, as if he had anticipated it, greeted her and helped her sit down.
"Miss Luo, how's business after three days of opening?"
She picked up her teacup, took a small sip, shook her head, and smiled bitterly.
"Manager Hu already knew the outcome, didn't he?"
Hu Dake is a young man in his early twenties, but he gives off a mature and capable vibe.
He squinted at Zhiwan and said, word by word:
"There's no business, is there?"
"Please excuse my poor attempt to impress Manager Hu..."
Hu Dake shook his head and chuckled, "It's normal to have no business to do on Caishen Street. Last time you came to buy medicinal herbs, I saw how confident you were, and I thought you had some connections in Yong'an City. Now it seems you're just relying on your enthusiasm."
His words left Zhiwan completely bewildered. Did she need a powerful backer to do business in Yong'an City?
She raised her hand and clasped her hands in a fist salute, saying:
"Please give me your guidance, Manager Hu."
Hu Dake took another sip of tea, and as he put the teacup down, he spoke:
"Since you're new here and seem like a genuine person, I'll speak frankly with you. Do you know what the other name for Caishen Street is?"
Zhiwan immediately shook her head.
Hu Dake frowned and said very seriously:
"Dead Street..."
"What?"
She stared at him in astonishment. "Dead Street? Why is it called that?"
Hu Dake looked back at her with great surprise.
"Before you came, didn't you really ask around? The houses on Caishen Street have become rotten meat in Yong'an City, and no one dares to take them. Do you still think you've gotten a great deal?"
His words immediately made Zhiwan's face darken.
"Why do you say that? What happened on Caishen Street? What's wrong?"
Hu Dake sighed and shook his head.
"Business was pretty good on that street three years ago because the merchants paid their protection money to the government on time, and the government wouldn't bother them and allowed them to operate normally."
"But three years ago, a father and son came there. They opened a pork stall on Caishen Street. The government officials came to collect protection money several times, but the father and son always came out with knives and refused to pay. They even threatened to kill anyone who dared to come to collect protection money. Most importantly, after the father and son arrived, everyone on the street started to resist paying the money and began to follow their example in opposing the government officials..."
"Later, the government directly issued an order that any citizen of Yong'an City who dared to shop on Caishen Street was defying the government, and the street was renamed 'Dead Street'..."
Upon hearing this, Luo Zhiwan felt as if all the blood in her body rushed to her head.
The government took the lead in drying all the shops on the street?
This is truly unheard of and appalling.
However, she still asked out of curiosity.
"The government is charging shops protection fees? How much? Is it reasonable and legal?"
Hu Dake chuckled lightly.
“Miss Luo, you still don’t understand the rules of Yong’an City. In Yong’an City, there is no such thing as reasonable or legal. The government can collect as much as it wants.”
Luo Zhiwan looked at him with disbelief.
"How can a mere official in Yong'an City wield such power? And the power to exploit merchants?"
"They don't just cheat merchants; everyone who comes to Yong'an City doesn't leave unscathed. But I'm curious, how did your pharmacy manage to open so smoothly? Did Sun Dachuan not give you any trouble?"
When the topic of Sun Dachuan was brought up, Zhiwan shook her head somewhat awkwardly and replied casually:
"It cost me some money, but they didn't make things difficult for me."
At this point, she casually raised her handkerchief to wipe the corner of her mouth, and gave a bitter smile.
"No wonder such a good shop only costs a few taels of silver. I thought I got a great deal, but I never expected that I would suffer a great loss for trying to get a small advantage."
Hu Dake sighed helplessly. Zhiwan asked again,
"Manager Hu has been in Yong'an City for many years. Do you have any solutions to this problem?"
Hu Dake's eyebrows twitched slightly, then he frowned and shook his head.
"This is a difficult problem to solve. This place is far from the capital, a remote area where the emperor is far away. The prefectural government of Yong'an City is like a local tyrant. Who would dare to disobey his orders? Besides, every household doing business in Yong'an City has to pay protection money. The butcher father and son refused to pay, which implicated all the shops on the street. The only way to resolve this is to find them, make them apologize to the prefectural government, and pay back the protection money they have paid over the years. Otherwise, even if the emperor himself came, it wouldn't make a difference."
Zhiwan was skeptical of Hu Dake's words, but at least she learned some information about Caishen Street from him, which would be helpful for her to learn more about it when she got back.
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