"What happened?"
"Scam? Impossible! Aunt Xiao's tailor shop has been open for several years, and Aunt Xiao has always been a good person."
"Yes, I come here every year to make clothes for my family, and I've never been ripped off."
"..."
Faced with the woman's accusations, many regular customers chose to believe Aunt Xiao and her tailor shop. However, the woman did not give up. She looked around at the customers with a serious expression and solemnly said, "You have all been deceived!"
Everyone was surprised: "What are you trying to fool us about?"
The woman asked, "Have you ever bought fabric from this store?"
The crowd didn't answer: "We've bought them."
"Have you taken your measurements at home?"
"I just bought it and had it made at her place. Why bother taking measurements?"
Have you calculated the amount of fabric?
"...Really, no." The crowd's confidence waned, and they wondered if there was something fishy going on.
The woman slapped her thigh: "I told you rich people, you don't know how you treat money like it's nothing, do you? The other day, at her house..." The woman pointed to the doorway: "This house, I bought eight feet of acrylic fabric and had her new young lady at her house make clothes for me, what was that girl's name again?"
"Wen Qing".
"Yes, it's Wen Qing!" the woman said through gritted teeth. "It's her!"
At that moment, Wen Qing was not far away, frowning and quietly watching the situation. She believed that she and Aunt Xiao were both honest and upright in their dealings with others, so how could they have earned a reputation for "tricking people"? Even in her past life, she was a bit domineering, unreasonable, and short-tempered, but she would never stoop to tricking others.
Unlike in her previous life, she no longer rushed to fight without considering the consequences. Instead, she stood quietly and watched, wanting to understand the facts before making any plans.
The woman described the scene vividly: "That little girl may look pretty and always smile at everyone, but she's actually quite cunning and always trying to scheme against people."
"How do you describe scheming against someone?"
"The woman who measured my fabric that day was Wen Qing. She charged me eight yuan and eighty cents for eight feet of acrylic fabric to make a set of clothes, just a T-shirt and capri pants. The labor fee was one yuan and twenty cents. That was all I was relying on for the whole summer. So I gave her ten yuan. And then guess what happened?" The woman's tone suddenly changed, drawing everyone's attention to her.
"What's wrong?"
"There's not enough fabric," the woman said. "You know, I'm so thin, I only need a t-shirt and capri pants, eight feet of fabric is more than enough. But she still made me pay an extra fifty cents. She charged me ten dollars and fifty cents to make a tattered outfit, and didn't leave me with a single scrap of fabric!"
Upon hearing this, Wen Qing frowned even more deeply.
The others finally understood what was going on.
"You mean Wen Qing stole the cloth?" someone asked.
The woman's eyes lit up.
Just then, someone in the crowd said, "Oh, now that you mention it, I just remembered something. Last time my husband was getting a Zhongshan suit made, Aunt Xiao clearly said there was enough fabric, but Wen Qing insisted it wasn't enough. Later, she added another piece of cotton fabric from the waistband and charged me two extra yuan."
"Also, I have a skirt. They gave me nine feet of fabric, but not an inch was left over. They charged me three yuan for the workmanship."
"..."
No one knows who started it, but everyone present couldn't help but wonder if they had been ripped off when they had been getting clothes made at Aunt Xiao's tailor shop for so long.
For a moment, there was a constant chatter at the scene.
Regardless of whether Wen Qing stole the cloth or not, she seems to be suspected of stealing it.
The woman wasn't finished with her revelations; she continued, "This matter was originally just over, and I didn't want to dwell on that one foot of cloth." The woman appeared to be benevolent.
"How could I not care?"
"That's right, a foot of cloth costs a dollar!"
"..." Before they knew it, the passersby had switched sides to the woman's side.
"I really didn't want to make a fuss about it. After all, she's a young girl, so pretty and delicate. It wouldn't sound good if people talked about her doing something like this." The woman said helplessly, then changed the subject: "But, the other day my cousin came here to buy shoes. They were cloth shoes for four yuan a pair. When I got home, I saw that the uppers were made from the same piece of acrylic fabric I had that day. There was a little bit of ink on the acrylic fabric, I remember that very clearly! Wen Qing used my acrylic fabric to make shoes!"
"They actually stole cloth to make shoes!" someone in the crowd shouted, which immediately resonated with everyone.
"So, Wen Qing really did use the extra cloth to make shoes?"
"One foot of cloth is enough to make a lot of shoes. I heard that the shoes she makes sell for quite a high price, five or six yuan a pair."
"So the fabric was all ours, and she didn't pay a cent for it, yet she sold it for five or six dollars?"
"I knew it! Last time I came to buy fabric, I saw a pair of shoes that were made of the exact same fabric as my clothes. It seems they were made by stealing fabric from my clothes."
"Aunt Xiao never used to be like this."
"That's what happened when she came."
"That's outrageous! They're taking my money and making money off us, don't they have any conscience?!"
"That girl is so ruthless!"
"..."
More and more people gathered at the entrance, all pointing their fingers at Wen Qing. They accused Wen Qing of stealing fabric and using their materials to make shoes that were sold at high prices. They were waiting at the entrance of Aunt Xiao's tailor shop to demand an explanation, to send Wen Qing to the police station, to make her return the money, and to kick Wen Qing out of Aunt Xiao's tailor shop. Otherwise, they would never let Aunt Xiao's tailor shop off.
Wen Qing stood quietly by the roadside.
Just then, an old man repairing shoes nearby recognized Wen Qing and whispered a reminder: "Little girl, quickly hide and ignore them. Wait until Aunt Xiao comes back before you talk to them."
Wen Qing looked at the shoe repairman and smiled.
Hide? Why should she hide? This person is clearly targeting her. She has never been afraid of trouble, and besides, she is innocent. It should be the other person who should be hiding.
"Thank you, sir, it's nothing." Aunt Wen Qingxiao walked out of the tailor shop.
The shoe repairman called out softly, "Wen Qing, Wen Qing, don't go over there. There are too many of them. Hey, why don't you know how to avoid trouble, kid..."
When Wen Qing arrived at Aunt Xiao's tailor shop, a group of people were maliciously speculating about Wen Qing's various actions.
Women tend to magnify every little detail.
When Wen Qing appeared, the entire room fell silent, and everyone stared at her.
Immediately afterwards, people whispered among themselves, "Wen Qing must have heard some bad things just now."
"Of course I heard it."
"Then you should be angry."
"..."
However, Wen Qing was not angry. Looking at everyone, she acted as if she hadn't heard anything, took out her key from her pocket, and said with a smile, "Sorry, something came up, I'm late."
Everyone was puzzled. Logically speaking, Wen Qing should have heard the gossip, so why didn't she react at all?
Wen Qing stepped forward to open the door, and as she opened it, she turned around and said, "Grandma Wu, the embroidered cotton-padded jacket that your daughter asked me to make for you is finished. You'll be warm this winter."
Grandma Wu chuckled.
The others turned to look at the woman.
The woman's face was pale. She had just seen Wen Qing and knew that Wen Qing had overheard everyone's gossip. She knew that Wen Qing had a fiery temper and would definitely come forward to yell at her after hearing all this. But she wasn't afraid at all. When she got angry, she was fearless and wouldn't be afraid of anyone, including Wen Qing.
However, Wen Qing didn't get angry at all. Instead, she smiled and treated everyone as if she hadn't heard what she had just said. She showed even less respect for women.
The woman immediately felt a burning sensation on her face.
But she wasn't one to give up so easily. She quickly stepped forward and said, "Wen Qing, you've come at the right time. I was just about to ask you that. You've shortchanged my family on fabric. What do you want to say?"
Wen Qing had already opened the three wooden doors of Fugu and turned around unhurriedly: "Sister Liu, explain yourself clearly, how much fabric is missing?"
Sister Liu?
Sister Liu was taken aback. She had only been to Aunt Xiao's tailor shop once, and she didn't expect Wen Qing to remember her. She immediately felt guilty, but in the blink of an eye, she became tough again: "Wen Qing, stop pretending! Don't you know how short they are?" Sister Liu pointed to the pairs of cloth shoes and sandals on the counter and said, "Can you say that these shoes weren't made with the fabric from this shop?"
Sister Liu's voice was loud and forceful, making the customers next to her suspect that Wen Qing was indeed behind it.
Wen Qing looked at Sister Liu and replied, "That's right, all the shoes I make use fabric from this store."
Upon hearing this, Sister Liu immediately became smug and turned around to get more people to agree: "Did you hear that? Did you all hear that? She admitted it herself."
A murmur immediately rippled through the store.
"It really is made with materials from the store."
"So that means she really did shortchange us on the fabric?"
"This is too much."
"..."
Hearing everyone speaking up for her, Sister Liu became even more smug, waiting to see what Wen Qing would do next.
Wen Qing asked, looking completely bewildered, "What did I admit to?"
"You admit you shortchanged us on fabric! Wen Qing, we'll let it go because you're young. Just give us the money back for the shorted fabric and we won't hold it against you. Otherwise, what you're doing is illegal, and you'll go to jail at the police station."
Wen Qing remained calm and looked directly at Sister Liu, her tone becoming serious: "Sister Liu, you need evidence to support your claims. How did I shortchange you on fabric? Why don't we call the police now and have them come and set the record straight: did I shortchange you on fabric, or are you just making things up and slandering me based on someone else's words?"
Sister Liu was taken aback. She had thought that Wen Qing was only sixteen or seventeen years old, so how could she have such a strong aura that made her want to back down?
The other customers in the store were also confused.
"Call the police?"
"what is going on?"
Whom should we believe?
"Sister Liu is probably right. How can Wen Qing prove that she stole the fabric? She definitely can't explain it clearly."
"If word gets out, how will Wen Qing face people? Will Aunt Xiao's tailor shop still be able to stay open?"
"But Wen Qing is willing to call the police."
"Calling the police is just a pretext, just an attempt to suppress Sister Liu. I bet Wen Qing doesn't dare to call the police at all."
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