Chapter 30 Chapter 30 Anointing Ring.
Because nothing happened that day, Mr. Chen did not go with them the next day. Instead, Chen Che'er went with them.
He went to work at the kiln in Shengchangli. He was wearing a short shirt and had a thin, dark figure. He was still talking happily to Ji Xu:
"Sister Xu, I can now carry 20 bricks at a time! But I can't compare to my grandfather back then. He could carry 30 bricks at a time. Wang Dianji praised me for being hardworking and down-to-earth, just like my grandfather."
He was dancing and gesticulating while talking, making people laugh. Ji Xu gave him a steamed bun stuffed with meat, but he stubbornly refused to eat it. His grandfather did the same thing yesterday.
Che'er muttered, "Sell it for money. It would be a shame to eat it. I've already had breakfast."
Zhuang also said the same thing.
Ji Xu said, "I'll grab this with my hands. It's hard to sell it to others. Che'er, take it and eat it."
Zhuang knew this, and she was also told not to touch the steamed buns with her hands when doing business.
Chen Che'er was actually very greedy, but he was embarrassed to eat such an expensive steamed bun. Hearing this, he was at a loss for a moment and looked at his mother Zhuang. Zhuang was also at a loss and felt sorry for the steamed bun.
Ji Xu then stuffed it into Chen Che'er's hands.
Chen Che'er hesitated for a moment, and his eyes lit up as he ate. He broke off half of the rice and stuffed it into Zhuang's hand. She was reluctant to eat it and wanted to leave it for him.
Chen Che'er refused, so Zhuang began to eat it carefully. Thinking that it was just a penny, she enjoyed the food more and more.
After entering Shengchangli, Chen Che'er went deep into the mountains. The kiln was at the foot of the mud mountain.
Ji Xu was walking along the shallow fields and alleys. She remembered clearly which family had ordered steamed buns and went to their house first.
With the map drawn by Bao Yu in her mind, she knew which way was shorter, and it did not delay her from selling her goods door to door.
"Look, here comes the steamed buns.
Go open the door."
Cai Gaohuan couldn't afford to gather vendors to help her drive people outside, so when she thought of Ji Xu's hot sales of steamed buns, she stayed up all night without sleeping, her eyes bloodshot, and pushed a wheelbarrow to the market to sell Gaohuan.
The local market is divided into big market and small market. The big market is held every three days and there are many buyers and sellers. The small market is usually open and is much quieter.
Today was the small market day, and seeing that no one was interested in her stall selling ointments and rings, she couldn't suppress the anger in her heart.
She just waved her hand, and two young men wandering around the city came over.
One is Lai Zi, the other is Sheng Lang, both are local scoundrels who carry bullets and pills and specialize in doing things like extorting money from people in the neighborhood.
They are actually all from Shengchangli. They have houses and land at home and are not poor, but they like this business because it makes money faster than doing regular jobs.
"What?"
Cai Gaohuan smiled and handed each of them a piece of freshly fried ointment, but her heart ached so much that it bled. She said:
"You don't know? There's a stranger in Shengchangli, selling steamed buns with meat fillings from door to door."
They were both eating the greasy rings, which were fried hard and made their teeth crackle.
Lai Zi asked, "What does this have to do with us?"
Cai Gaohuan cursed these two people in her heart. They were so sincere in extorting money on other people in the past, so why were they so stupid now?
She lowered her voice and said, "She's here, she's unfamiliar with the place. If you get diarrhea from eating her steamed buns, won't she pay you as much as you ask for?"
After muttering for a while, she watched with satisfaction as the two scoundrels walked out of the city arm in arm.
I wonder if I can stay here any longer. These two guys are just trying to extort money from you. No ordinary person would not be fooled by them.
Sun Linlang, who was fiddling with the stove next door, didn't hear it clearly, but he guessed her plan and felt very proud.
You know, his Hu Bing is also a meat-stuffed noodle dish. When Ji Zhengbing came to sell it, his stall was the first to be sold. After everyone ate her meat-stuffed steamed buns outside, who would come into the market to buy his mutton Hu Bing?
Both of them were waiting to see the show, and soon they turned back.
Cai Gaohuan was delighted: Did I succeed?
But Lai Zi and Sheng Lang came to the ointment and ring stall, holding their stomachs and bending over, their faces pale and full of pain.
"Ouch, ouch, my stomach hurts after eating your ring..."
Cai Gaohuan was startled and became angry. She pointed at them with her hands on her hips and cursed:
"What nonsense are you talking about! I've been selling this ointment ring for over ten years, and you dare to blackmail me?!"
She was extremely anxious, not knowing what was going on with these two people. Could it be that after extorting Ji Zhengbing, they became greedy and wanted to extort her again?
"Ouch! There's a worm crawling in my stomach!"
The two of them rolled around on the ground, attracting people from the inner city to come and watch the fun. They were covered in cold sweat, and their bodies were twisted and twitching in pain.
"Her ring is not clean."
"I had a stomachache after eating it."
"Look at the pain these two people on the ground are in."
"That's strange. I was having dysentery the other day, so I bought her ring that day."
When Cai Gaohuan saw that this group of people believed him, he jumped up and cursed:
"Bah! You got dysentery because you were greedy for something bad, don't try to get involved with my ointment ring!"
"Oh my... It's terrible, he's foaming at the mouth!" Someone pointed at Lai Zi lying on the ground and shouted.
I saw him foaming at the mouth, and even his burping was as soft as a mosquito's, as if he had fainted from the pain.
"They're eating her jelly rings! I just saw them eating them in front of her stall!"
"Yes, quickly find the village head to solve the case! Arrest this woman!"
"We need to ask Yao Gu to come and see us!"
There was a lot of chatter in the crowd.
In fact, it was Lai and Sheng who had a special kind of pill that would make people foam at the mouth and sweat on their forehead. They made a living by defrauding people with this pill.
Even among this crowd, there were their shills who were here to stir up trouble and scare people. Some people were inevitably frightened and, fearing punishment, paid the money to settle the matter.
Cai Gaohuan, a local resident, was sweating from the accusation and even suspected that it was because he blew his nose without washing his hands?
It took me a long time to come back to my senses. It was impossible to ask her to pay.
She packed up the iron cauldron, pushed the wheelbarrow, and dejectedly emerged from the crowd, leaving the market and heading home.
Fortunately, the group of people did not stop her. She was in a gloomy mood and met Ji Xu head-on. He was carrying an empty basket and selling about a hundred meat-filled steamed buns. His eyes immediately became so fierce that they could nail two holes in her.
It turns out that those two people were blackmailing her!
It is said that Lai and Sheng only do such things outside, and most people in Shengchang don't know much about it, so Ji Xu has no way of finding out.
This was Bao Yu's fourth brother, notorious for his debt-collecting and extortion business. He was the leader of a gang of scoundrels in Shengchang. That's why Bao Yu got to know the two main culprits of the blackmail and told her about them the other day, which made her wary.
Ji Xu brought Bao Yu's message yesterday and wrote to Bao Sitong near Bao's house.
"Don't worry, Lai and Sheng will never blackmail you after hearing what I said." Bao Si said.
Ji Xu gave him some money, but Bao Si refused to take it and said, "You helped my sister, so I will help you in return."
After hearing what was said, Lai and Sheng, although they were greedy for this piece of fat meat, did not dare to make any plans.
Since they had no sheep to slaughter, they wandered around the market and were called by Cai Gaohuan. They happened to have eaten her Gaohuan, and when they left the market, they came up with a plan and started to blackmail her.
But Cai Gaohuan knew their intentions and was not intimidated, so he just slipped away.
Cai Gaohuan spat and said, "If you know what's good for you, get out of Shengchangli. You'll suffer the consequences if you stay here."
"aunt,"
Ji Xu shouted, "I won't go to the market, I'll just buy some salty noodles.
Your ointment ring is sweet, we all rely on our own abilities, there is no need to rush at all, right?"
Cai Gaohuan said, "I can handle the noodle business in Shengchangli! You can't! If you do, you'll be stealing my business!"
Ji Xu was not annoyed, she just said: "Aunt, have you ever thought that the poor business of your ointment and ring business is also due to your own reasons?
Your ointment ring is too rough to be fried, and it will be hard. It won't taste good."
"Pooh, pooh, pooh, your steamed buns are not good!" Cai Gaohuan thinks his Gaohuan is unique.
Ji Xu smiled and said, "I have an idea for you, Auntie. You can mix half of it with sorghum flour, and it will taste soft and sticky."
"I, Cai Gaohuan, have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice. Do I need a girl like you who has only a hair incomplete to teach me?" Cai Gaohuan said unhappily, pushing the wheelbarrow away with a clang.
When she returned home, her son ran in panting and said to her:
"Mother, I finally found out from Bengu that Ji Zhengbing was made while a slave in the Chang'an Palace for three years. I'm afraid he learned the craft there!"
Cai Gaohuan couldn't help muttering this. After thinking for a long time, she asked her son to get the sorghum rice flour from home.
The next day, Cai Gaohuan set up his stall nervously.
She brushed the iron cauldron inside and out with a broom and wiped the stall clean, for she was extremely worried that her ointment business would be ruined by those two scoundrels.
Sun Linlang was quite happy about it, but he still said politely, "It's been more than ten years. How could it be possible? Just put your mind at ease!"
It was a big market day, and many residents came to the market to shop, as well as those from outside. The market was busier and more lively than yesterday.
"Did your family change their craft?"
"This ointment is better than before, soft and sticky, give me another piece!"
Cai Gaohuan slipped away yesterday, so not many people saw the troublemaker. After all, it is an old business, and there are still familiar faces patronizing it today.
Cai Gaohuan couldn't help but be delighted, kneading the dough with her round arms. Everyone who came to eat it praised her for her improved cooking skills.
Sun Linlang, who was so lonely and desolate, was very jealous. After finding a chance, the monkey went over and said:
"I'll call my two sons, and you call your two. If those people don't want to go, we can go by ourselves to get the steamed buns."
Cai Gaohuan wiped his sweat and said: "Look at my business, I am so busy that I can't handle it.
That steamed bun is outside, it doesn't bother you or me, why bother chasing it away?"
What a good Mrs. Cai! When her business was doing well, she just stopped doing business!
Sun Linlang cursed inwardly, but on the surface he was still trying to negotiate.
"We both eat noodles, but she sells them door to door. Who would come in here to buy ours?
In my opinion, kick her out as soon as possible. The strong men roll up their sleeves and scare her. Let's see if she comes back in!"
"I say, Sun Linlang, you should do some good deeds."
Cai Gaohuan waved his hand and said, "Aren't we all human beings? Don't blame others if your business is not doing well."
Sun Linlang rolled his eyes in anger, "I don't know who instigated this the day before yesterday or yesterday..."
Cai Gaohuan had business coming in again. She was busy and happy, muttering to herself:
"She likes salty food, and I like sweet food. There's no point in clashing with her. I won't chase her away."
Well, they are both salty, so isn’t Sun Linlang’s Hu Bing the only one left?
He was the only one who was filled with anger, so he went back with his hands in his pockets, leaving the cold stove in vain.
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