Chapter 319 This is absolutely infuriating!
Lou Yue's eyes were red with anger, and she was gripping an iron spoon, as if she was about to use it to smash the man's head open.
"Miss Lou Yue, please don't hit him!" The waiter beside him pleaded, but then forcefully snatched the man's rice bag away, nearly causing him to fall to the ground. The waiter calmly poured the rice back, then smashed the empty rice bag onto the man's head as he got up. "Get out!"
"Tch, what's with the jerk? If this place doesn't sell rice, can't I just buy it from somewhere else?" The man grabbed the empty rice bag, shook his head, and walked away in a cocky manner, not feeling embarrassed at all.
His mouth was still foul: "At least other people's rice is clean. It's not like a prostitute selling her body to get it. Eating it won't make you sick..."
As soon as he spoke, the other customers buying rice showed embarrassed and hesitant expressions, as if the rice could really transmit some disease. Some even turned around and left without hiding their disgust.
One by one, several more people left.
The only people left in the shop were the poorest, the lowest-class people who could only afford broken rice mixed with sand.
Then, numbly and cautiously, they carried the bag of rice away, oblivious to the joys and sorrows of others.
Qingling looked at the empty shop. Half a month ago, it wasn't like this. Back then, it was bustling with people, and most of the residents of West Street came here to buy rice.
Lou Yue was startled when she saw Qing Ling and quickly stepped forward to bow, "Miss, why are you back?"
Yao Qingling looked at her.
She returned home after her eye injury had healed. Normally, this girl should be so excited that her eyes would sparkle, but now, her reaction is nervousness and panic.
Qingling stared at her, then slowly walked to a chair and sat down.
She asked, "With business so bad, how can you manage?"
Lou Yue stammered, "Miss, no, it's not that I don't know how to do business, it's...it's..."
What is it?
Yao Qingling: "What is it?"
She turned to look at the man who had snatched the rice bag.
He was also a bandit back then, and after obtaining household registration, he was assigned to work in a rice shop.
The shop assistant hung his head, not daring to utter a sound or offer any explanation, seemingly intending to take the blame for his incompetence in business.
Tao Ye retorted angrily, "What is it? Tell me! What, just because Miss has been away from the city for half a month, you no longer consider her your mistress?"
"No...no, how could we dare?" Lou Yue hurriedly denied, but when asked to explain why, she stammered and pretended to be mute.
Yao Qingling knew Lou Yue's personality.
She's a straightforward person who can't keep secrets; she always speaks her mind and never holds back until tomorrow.
If we're talking about hot-tempered, audacious, and murderous bandits, they're even more arrogant. But just now, it was actually a former bandit who held down Lou Yue.
That's very strange.
This shows that Lou Yue's acceptance of this matter is much lower than that of her partner.
Qing Ling stared at Lou Yue, her gaze growing increasingly somber. Lou Yue's head drooped lower and lower, her lips clenched so tightly that they seemed impossible to pry open even with a shovel.
Taoye said, "Louyue, you've gotten yourself into trouble, but you're too ashamed to say it in front of Miss?"
Lou Yue shook her head vigorously, like a rattle-drum.
Qingling took a deep breath, stood up, and called to Taoye, "Let's go."
She had barely turned halfway around when she saw Lou Yue visibly relax, frantically giving the waiter meaningful glances, trying to signal something to him.
Qingling narrowed her eyes, then turned back and stopped walking.
Lou Yue blinked and pretended her eyelids were twitching. "Ouch, it feels like I got sand in my eye."
Yao Qingling sat down and ordered tea to be brought up. She said, "It's alright, there are more guests than just those few. I'll ask them later what kind of painting it is."
Lou Yue stiffened, realizing that she couldn't outsmart Yao Qingling.
Rather than letting her hear those unpleasant things from outside, I'd rather say them myself.
Lou Yue said heavily, "Miss, let's go inside and talk."
She gave the shop assistant a wink, telling him to watch the shop from the front, and then led Qingling to the inner room.
Once inside, she poured tea and served water, then began to speak slowly.
"Not long after the young lady left, a picture suddenly appeared on the streets and alleys of the city."
Yao Qingling felt that the key point was not the painting itself, but the specific content within it.
A sense of dread rose within her: "What painting?"
Lou Yue gave a brief description: "There are wisteria flowers and a large rock. A woman is sleeping on the rock, and she looks somewhat like Miss."
Yao Qingling and Tao Ye exchanged a glance, their hearts sinking.
His fingers gripped the chair armrests tightly, as if he wanted to crush the wood.
When Zhan Xingzhuo painted that picture of her at the Duke's mansion, Lou Yue and Xia Chan had not yet entered the new mansion. Therefore, they were unaware of the inside story.
Lou Yue looked at Yao Qingling's ashen face and was terrified.
Could the woman in the painting really be a prostitute?
She and Xia Chan, along with everyone else, had always believed that it was a competitor deliberately smearing her while the young lady was away from the capital, preventing her from obtaining the official management rights for grain.
Lou Yue cautiously called out, "Miss?"
Yao Qingling took several deep breaths to suppress her anger and fear.
At this moment, she must not panic; she needs to figure out the situation as soon as possible in order to come up with a solution.
She asked coldly, "And then?"
Lou Yue said, "After that painting appeared, rumors suddenly spread in the city that the woman was Miss. They also said that Miss used her body to serve the powerful and wealthy in order to obtain the title of Lady of the Imperial Decree."
"They also said that the young lady's departure from the capital wasn't for recuperation, but rather to secretly serve a powerful minister. She'll then be granted the status of a royal merchant..."
Lou Yue spoke softer and softer.
Yao Qingling remained expressionless.
Taoye asked, "What happened to those paintings? What was done with them afterward?"
Lou Yue said, "After the paintings were finished, Sister Xia Chan immediately mobilized everyone in the shop to go through the streets and alleys and tear up all the paintings."
"But the next day, the painting was put up again. Later, the censor's wife intervened and asked Prefect Gao to arrest the person who painted the painting and the person who put it up, and the matter was suppressed."
"However, the rumors have spread throughout the city, and everyone from princes and nobles to ordinary children has heard about them."
"Ordinary people are alright; they just want to buy cheap things to make ends meet. But those who are neither rich nor poor believe whatever others say and gossip along with them."
"They don't even realize that if our shop didn't sell things so cheaply, they wouldn't have any spare money to buy anything else, not even children's shoes."
"Hmph, it's their loss if they don't buy our rice. They'll just have to buy other people's expensive rice and let their kids walk barefoot. It's alright, the weather's starting to warm up anyway..."
Lou Yue became more and more aggrieved as she spoke, her voice trembling with tears, yet she stubbornly insisted on saying a few words of comfort to herself.
At the same time, she also expressed her concerns: "Miss, the weather is getting hot. If the rice doesn't sell, it will get infested with insects, and then even the best rice will have to be sold at a low price."
The shop had a lot of unsold stock due to the closure during the Chinese New Year, which was later sold at a discount. Now they're doing this again; they're deliberately trying to force the shop to close down!
“Besides these few grain and oil shops, Hui Ba Fang is also having a hard time.”
In fact, Hui Ba Fang was in even worse shape than the grain and oil shops.
Previously, Yao Qingling only had some gossip, which didn't have much impact. But now that such a painting has appeared, it's a complete disaster for Yao Qingling!
Those powerful and wealthy families value their reputation the most, and they claim they are unwilling to buy unclean things, saying that buying them would dirty their homes.
It's absolutely infuriating!
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