Chapter 26: Provoking Trouble "I will have people continue to smash the stalls." ...
In the early morning, the rooms of the mountain village seemed to tremble, and the birds that had just landed on the roof to rest looked down in panic, spread their wings and fled.
"Lan'er, what is this!"
A few minutes ago, Xie Zechuan put his hand on his forehead, shook his dizzy head slightly, and then slowly opened his eyes.
He stared at the bronze mirror that suddenly appeared in front of him in a daze, mumbling what it was.
When he saw the face in the mirror clearly, Xie Zechuan was horrified. He looked at Zhou Tinglan behind the mirror and exclaimed.
This pattern... uh, why does it look so much like a Yuan turtle?
Zhou Tinglan heard Xie Zechuan's exclamation and laughed so hard that she couldn't breathe. She pointed at Xie Zechuan and said, "Xie Zechuan, you... you look so cute right now."
You drank so much last night, and now you're in my hands.
"Lan'er." Xie Zechuan called out helplessly: "Don't be like this next time... too..."
He hesitated at the end of his words.
Zhou Tinglan knew that he was trying to save face at the moment, so he picked up the hot water and towel that had been prepared long ago, walked closer to Xie Zechuan, and reached out to wipe off the turtle drawn with charcoal.
She acted as if she was coaxing a child: "Okay, okay, I know our General Xie is shy. Don't worry, no one except me will see you like this."
"You still want others to see us." Xie Zechuan gritted his teeth. He held the hand that was wiping his face, threw the towel aside, turned over and pressed it under him.
He pinched Zhou Tinglan's cheek, lowered his head and whispered in her ear, "Lan'er, who do you want to see this, huh?"
Zhou Tinglan pushed Xie Zechuan away, her face slightly red. "No one! Hurry up and pack up! Xiao Ruo and the others have already gone to the town to sell knives."
Just at this moment, there was a loud knock on the door of the wing room, and an anxious voice was heard outside the door.
"Miss Zhou, something happened at the stall!"
It’s only been a few days, how come something happened again?
Zhou Tinglan frowned, got out of bed and opened the door to the wing room: "What happened?"
"This morning, when I was selling knives, someone came to my stall to cause trouble. When they saw Brother Xiao, they started beating him up. I realized things were going badly, so I quickly ran back to the village to call for help. I don't know what the situation is now."
"Hurry! Let's go to the town now!"
Zhou Tinglan was about to run towards the town after she finished speaking, but Xie Zechuan quickly stopped her: "Lan'er, please be careful. We still have to hide our identities."
After calming down a little, the two of them put on simple disguises again, covered their faces with veils, and walked out of the village.
When Zhou Tinglan arrived in the town, the stalls were crowded with people, and she and Xie Zechuan squeezed in with great effort.
Xiao Ruo had blood on the corner of his lips and was fighting with a middle-aged man. The other people in the village were trying to separate them but to no avail.
"What are you talking about? Did anyone allow you to set up a stall here? They let you set up a stall to block my business!"
Zhou Tinglan understood.
It was probably because the knives at the small stall were selling too well recently, and there were only a limited number of people buying knives in the town. As a result, the number of people buying knives at the nearby blacksmith shop dropped sharply. The shopkeeper was dissatisfied and specially hired someone to cause trouble and beat people up.
In order to verify what he thought, Zhou Tinglan pulled the old lady next to him to ask about the whole process.
The old lady seemed to have witnessed the whole process. When she heard that Zhou Tinglan still didn't understand what was going on, she kept talking to him.
The exaggeration of the words made Zhou Tinglan gasp in surprise.
What does it mean to beat someone from one end of the street to the other with one punch, and for two people to fight to the death?
Although it was a bit exaggerated, Zhou Tinglan still learned the whole story. She was thinking about how to maintain a balance between the two.
Suddenly, inspiration came to his mind, and Zhou Tinglan clapped his hands, yes, let’s do it!
She walked around the two people who were fighting and went to the back of the stall to find the gongs and drums.
Zhou Tinglan handed the drumstick to Xie Zechuan, signaling him to cooperate with her in hitting the drum. The most urgent thing was to separate the people so that she could discuss the next plan properly.
The deafening sound of gongs and drums suddenly rang out, drawing all of Bai Xin's attention to it.
Zhou Tinglan banged the gong with both hands and shouted, "Stop fighting! Are you trying to attract the government officials?"
The common people did not dare to say anything. The middle-aged man seemed to be afraid of attracting the officials, so he stopped. However, he was still unwilling to give up. He kicked Xiao Ru hard, spat on the ground, and cursed a few times.
Seeing this, Xiao Ruo wanted to rush forward, but was stopped by Zhou Tinglan.
He retracted his action, ran to Zhou Tinglan, and complained, "Miss Zhou, look at our stall, it was smashed by this guy!"
Xiao Ruo pointed at his bruised face and said, "And my face! Now that it's been beaten like this, how can I go out and see people?"
Xie Zechuan calmly placed his hand on Zhou Tinglan's waist and stood beside her, listening to Xiao Ruo's words.
Zhou Tinglan comforted Xiao Ruo, "Xiao Ruo, don't worry. I've heard about it. Let's sit down and talk it over."
Xiao Ruo became anxious when he heard this. He retorted dissatisfiedly: "Miss Zhou, what can we talk about with him?"
Zhou Tinglan patted Xiao Ruo and turned to look at the middle-aged man: "This person may be in charge. I have something to discuss with you."
"What do you want to discuss?" The middle-aged man was puzzled. He had beaten the person at her stall, but the girl in front of him actually wanted to discuss something with him.
He looked up at the sky. The sun didn't rise from the west today. The middle-aged man shook his head. This girl was really weird.
"Of course it's about selling knives." Zhou Tinglan smiled and said under the guise: "You can see how well our kitchen knives are selling."
"I don't understand what the girl said."
"If you don't understand, ask the shopkeeper who's in charge there to come out and talk to him, and then you'll understand."
Xiao Ruo was shocked when he heard this. He advised, "Miss Zhou, don't do that!"
"Don't worry, I won't let you suffer any loss."
The middle-aged man nodded towards somewhere in the crowd, and soon a blacksmith in a leather apron walked out of the crowd.
"I'm Yang, the owner of the blacksmith shop on the street. I wonder what the young lady wants to talk to me about."
Zhou Tinglan glanced at the onlookers and asked, "Since this is a collaboration involving swords, do you think it's okay for us to discuss it here?"
"I understand what you mean, young lady. If we can reach an agreement, I will pay for the brother's medical expenses."
"It seems that Manager Yang is a smart man."
She saw the middle-aged man whisper something into the shopkeeper's ear, and then Shopkeeper Yang waved his hand and said, "Nothing, I have something to consider."
Manager Yang invited Zhou Tinglan to a nearby restaurant to discuss business, and Xie Zechuan, Xiao Ruo and their brothers in the village followed her.
**
Everyone sat down at the table in the restaurant's side room.
"Girl, you can always tell me what you want to talk to me about now."
Zhou Tinglan leisurely poured himself a cup of tea.
"Before we talk, I'd like to ask a question. How many other blacksmith shops are there in this town besides yours?"
Shopkeeper Yang suddenly remembered what the middle-aged man had just said to him.
"Shopkeeper Yang, I think this girl is a powerful character. Be careful of any tricks."
Thinking of this, he put the teacup down heavily, and the bottom of the cup hit the table with a bang.
"Miss, if you don't want to talk, you can leave. But you can't open your stall anymore. Otherwise..." Shopkeeper Yang's eyes were dark: "I will have people continue to smash the stall."
Zhou Tinglan was surprised. Could it be that the people in the town were so confident in smashing the stalls?
Before Zhou Tinglan could say anything, Xiao Ruo exploded with rage. He stood up, rushed to Shopkeeper Yang, and grabbed him by the collar: "If you have the guts, tell me again, Miss Zhou asked you which other blacksmith shops there are in town, and you answered honestly!"
"Brother Xiao, don't be anxious. Listen to what Miss Zhou says." Other people from the village came up to persuade him.
Zhou Tinglan looked at Xiao Ruo and laughed out loud: "Xiao Ruo, let go of Shopkeeper Yang."
When Shopkeeper Yang was released by Xiao Ruo, he was glared at fiercely.
"Shopkeeper Yang, it was my people who started it. I'm giving you tea as an apology." Zhou Tinglan picked up the teacup and drank all the tea in it.
Xie Zechuan filled the empty teacup on the table. He remained silent and just sat beside her, listening quietly.
He always felt that the situation before him was familiar. Wasn't it the same when Miss Zhou asked him to cooperate with her... It was so intriguing.
Shopkeeper Yang accepted Zhou Tinglan's apology. He straightened his collar and said impatiently, "You seem sincere, young lady. There are two other blacksmith shops in town besides mine. I wonder why you're asking this?"
"Since you all own blacksmith shops in this town, I'm sure you all know each other very well. Could you please ask Manager Yang to invite the other two managers over as well? I have something to discuss with you."
When he heard that the other shop owners were going to be invited, he said in dissatisfaction, "Who knows them well? Don't they know that fellow blacksmiths are enemies?"
However, not long after, Zhou Tinglan saw the other two shopkeepers entering the wing room.
"Go ahead, I'll have them all called over!"
A shopkeeper who had just walked in said, "Who said you asked us to come? If we hadn't heard that the shopkeeper wanted to discuss business with us, who would want to come?"
"Manager He, do you think I wanted to call you here? If it wasn't her." Manager Yang pointed at Zhou Tinglan and said, "It was her! She insisted that I call you here before she would talk to me!"
"Manager He, please talk less." Manager Zhang, who came in at the same time, said.
The three of them sat down. Zhou Tinglan looked at the three blacksmith shop owners across from him and said, "I called you here today to discuss an important matter. Shopkeeper Yang, you don't need to explain. Since you've come to smash my shop, I'm sure Shopkeepers He and Zhang have heard about it too."
Shopkeeper He put his hands on the table in front of him and replied with a smile, "Of course I heard about the arrogant thing that our shopkeeper Yang did today. He has such great power that he dared to go out on the street and beat people up."
"Manager He, what do you mean?" Manager Yang was angered by Manager He again and stood up to fight with Manager He.
Shopkeeper Zhang, who was in the middle, tried to persuade the man from both sides and finally persuaded him to return to his chair.
Zhou Tinglan held her forehead and took back what she had said before. They were indeed familiar with each other, but their relationship was really bad.
Finally, it was Shopkeeper Zhang who spoke up and asked, "What is the important matter that the young lady is talking about?"
"As you can see, our kitchen knives are indeed better than yours. I've called you here to discuss a possible cooperation with you, the shopkeepers."
Shopkeeper Yang sneered, "Miss, do you want to give the kitchen knife to the three of us?"
Zhou Tinglan ignored Shopkeeper Yang and continued, "If we were the only stall making money, the other shopkeepers would definitely be unhappy. Besides, they've been in this town for many years and have many more ways to sell knives than us newcomers."
A look of approval flashed in Shopkeeper Zhang's eyes.
"So I want to sell this kitchen knife to you guys. Are you willing?"
Just at this moment, the door of the wing room was violently pushed open. Everyone was surprised and looked towards the door.
"Where is the shopkeeper? Didn't they say he's in this room?"
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