soul
Shopkeeper Xu shuddered, his legs fixed in place. He tried to move back a few steps, but his limbs had remained in that position for so long that he could no longer move at all.
The cold gaze in the distance only appeared for a moment. When Manager Xu wanted to hold his head and shrink further into the crowd, he looked up quietly and found that Duke Xiao, who had been standing there just now, had disappeared again.
His pupils were startled, and he looked around for a long time, but he didn't see any trace of Xiao Yingzhu.
Are you dazzled?
How could the renowned Duke come here to watch a competition in a small city? It didn't make sense no matter how he thought about it... but he couldn't be sure if the person he had just seen was the Duke.
While his mind was in a mess, the crowd surrounding Jiang Nian turned around, saw that he was already awake, and stretched out their hands to beckon him: "Come on, Shopkeeper Xu, you are the only one missing here."
"Yes, yes, we all came here to watch the competition. Now that you're awake, come up..."
The voices calling him came like a tide, and the crowded heads turned towards him and looked over.
Shopkeeper Xu was frozen in place by this gaze, unable to move, as if the day had suddenly dawned and all the light was focused on him.
He could not hear any sound, and could only feel the heads of people moving with his movements. Their eyes were all fixed on him coldly, and their black pupils were like dry water, revealing his coldness.
Shopkeeper Xu moved stiffly. Forced by the gazes of the crowd, he walked to the other side. He could only look straight ahead. He had to treat the audience around him as wooden figures to avoid feeling afraid.
Until he reached the only destination in sight.
Shopkeeper Xu relaxed a little, and moved his peripheral vision to the side for a moment, and saw Jiang Nian, wearing a dark blue cotton and linen dress, standing in the rice field in front of him. Her hair was jet-black, and her hair was tied up high, leaving only two strands hanging down on the sides of her face. She turned her head and smiled at him.
It was clearly a beautiful scene facing the sun, contrasting beautifully with the lush greenery behind. However, Shopkeeper Xu was terrified by Sun Dun's head yesterday, and seeing this scene was like seeing a ghost trying to kill him, and he suddenly dared not move.
I could only stand there blankly, holding the insect repellent.
When everyone saw that he had gone crazy and then became stupid, they were momentarily speechless and stepped forward to pat him on the shoulders.
"What's going on? A nightmare?"
"It's time to compete!"
Before Manager Xu could say anything, a young servant in the distance jumped up among the crowd of onlookers.
"Boss! Boss! I'm coming!"
The servant in charge of the insect repellent competition arrived late. When everyone asked what happened, they found out that there were too many people watching here, and people and cars were blocked on the country road.
At this moment, the servant came from a distance and saw that his boss was surrounded by other people. Fearing that something had happened, he quickly squeezed out of the crowd, ran to the boss, bent down and looked at the boss Xu's face.
Shopkeeper Xu's face was dull, and no one knew what was going on in his mind. His eyes were lifeless, and he was standing there timidly, almost curled up.
This is nothing like the usual shifty Shopkeeper Xu, it's like he's become a completely different person!
The servant was afraid that Shopkeeper Xu would punish him for being late after he came to his senses, so he raised his hand and carefully pushed Shopkeeper Xu away from where he was standing, pulling him aside and settling him down. "Don't worry, Shopkeeper. I'll take care of this competition."
After he finished speaking, the servant lowered his head and opened the cloth bag in Manager Xu's hand to take a look. He saw that there was nothing special inside, just some commonly used insect repellent powders.
He thought the shopkeeper would bring new ones.
After all, he said a few days ago that after bringing the spy back, he would improve the recipe a few times, and maybe he could use it during the competition.
I haven't seen any in the bag yet, so I guess those new insect repellents have other uses.
Without thinking too much, the servant reached into the cloth bag and grabbed one at random, then walked to the rice field. He first let everyone see how many insects there were in the rice field for competition, then raised the insect repellent in his hand, poured out the powder inside, and scattered it in the rice field.
The crowd of onlookers withdrew their gaze from Shopkeeper Xu and looked at the insect repellents from Liangdu Pharmacy and Xu's Pharmacy. They then lowered their heads and began to memorize the number of insects on the competition field, preparing to make a before-and-after comparison on the last day.
Jiang Nian was a step faster than Xu's servant, delivering the insect repellent to the rice fields according to the prescribed amount. She could have asked Guizhi or Fuling, two trustworthy people, to do this.
But in order to maximize the effectiveness of the insect repellent and also worried about any mistakes along the way, I finally chose to do it myself.
On this side, Jiang Nian was concentrating on the insect repellent in his hand with his eyes downcast. The servant behind him shook the insect repellent powder in his hand, thinking about what the shopkeeper Xu said to him last night.
"Remember to go see what kind of insect repellent the Jiang family girl put in the rice fields. When you're not at the exhibition, you can borrow their insect repellent."
This sounds easy, but it is not that easy to do.
The first thing was how to transfer the insect repellent from Jiang Nian's hand to his own, and then how to prevent Jiang Nian from finding out after the transfer?
Shopkeeper Xu had made all sorts of calculations but he had never expected that Sun Dun would end up with his head cut off, so the person who took part in the competition in previous years was temporarily replaced by someone who didn't know much about medicine and usually just worked as an errand boy.
If Sun Dun were still alive, he would have discovered that the anti-insect formula that Jiang Nian was using this time was very similar to the one they had, and he would have mistaken them if he wasn't careful. He would have only made some minor changes, such as replacing arsenic with other minerals, or using medicinal herbs that looked similar in color but had different ingredients.
Even if someone who knows about insect repellent wanted to understand the insect repellent she displayed at the exhibition, it would take some time to figure it out, let alone this servant who knew nothing.
In the eyes of the servant, this subtle difference is almost non-existent.
More and more people gathered around, and although there were some other pharmacies participating in the competition, the most interesting ones were still the two major pharmacies in Pingzhou.
The more eyes there are watching, the more people will pay attention to their every move.
The servant took the insect repellent out of the bag and sprinkled it evenly on the rice, while looking up at what was happening over there with Jiang Nian.
Jiang Nianzheng in front was still slowly applying insect repellent to the rice, and the poured liquid immediately dissolved into the water.
While the servant was busy pouring the white powder in his hand into the rice field, he suddenly realized something.
Wait, the insect repellent at Liangdu Pharmacy is liquid, and Xu's is powder. How can I steal it? Then I scoop a spoonful and pour it into my rice field?
Before he could figure out what to do, Jiang Nian in front of him had already filled an entire row of rice fields with insect repellent and came ashore carrying the small bottle.
When the people around compared the time when the insect repellent was arranged in the two rice fields, it became clear at a glance, and they began to talk to each other.
"I used to think the insect repellent from Liangdu was better, but now when I compare it to Xu's, I find that it's also faster, which saves a lot of time for other things."
"That's not right. Didn't Liang get the insect repellent earlier than Xu? It's only natural that he got it earlier than Xu, right?"
"My dear, what you said is not right. If Xu's was fast, it would be impossible for her to be only halfway through the deworming process. She should be almost finished."
"And I think the people over at Liangdu are more responsible. Look at the one who puts the insect repellent, but what about the young lady from the Jiang family? I heard she just took over the management of the pharmacy recently, right? She's so motivated."
When the people around heard what this person said, they all exclaimed in admiration: "Yes, that's true. Then Shopkeeper Xu asked the servant to help."
Before he finished speaking, some people's attention shifted from the rice fields in front of them to Shopkeeper Xu who was still standing in a daze in the corner, and they couldn't help but whisper to each other again.
"Do you think Shopkeeper Xu was frightened by that head yesterday? He hasn't recovered yet. Could it be because of that head..."
Some words don't need to be spoken out loud to understand what they imply.
"I guess Xu must have provoked someone he shouldn't have, so that's why the corpseless head ran to the counter and waited for him at noon. It was noon! I wonder what terrible mistake Xu made in the past."
"Besides, weren't Liangdu and his family the only ones in power at the beginning? Then, halfway through, the Xu family suddenly appeared. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to become rich without anyone noticing using that insect repellent formula.
Now that Liangdu is gradually returning to its former prosperity, I'm afraid he's jealous, so he's looking for some shady people to perform some rituals, and then pay the price."
This man spoke so logically that everyone nearby pricked up their ears and listened attentively: "And now the time has come. It's time for the Xu family to pay the price."
"So those filthy people released some dirty things and went to the Xu's pharmacy in exchange for what they wanted from the Xu family."
Everyone was intrigued by what this man said, and they stretched their necks to look where Manager Xu was standing.
Shopkeeper Xu was still huddled in fear, not knowing what he had just seen. His face was pale, and under the scorching sun, one could even feel a hint of chill coming from it.
The people around them felt more and more that what the man had said just now made sense and was correct, so they began to keep their distance from Shopkeeper Xu, fearing that getting close to him would expose them to something they shouldn't. They secretly wondered whether they should go to Xu's pharmacy to buy things in the future.
Following the old rules of the competition, Jiang Nian placed the insect repellent on the stage to show everyone how good the insect repellent was.
Some people who came to watch the competition and wanted to learn more about insect repellent asked:
"In previous years, during the competitions, some information related to insect repellent would be disclosed, such as being harmless to food and grass, and harmless to humans. How effective is your bottle of insect repellent? Will it harm our hands and grains?"
Jiang Nian had already prepared an official answer to other people's questions. After replying word for word, he poured the remaining insect repellent in his hand into a bowl on the table.
The colorless and odorless insect repellent is like a bowl of clear water.
She held the bowl and showed it to the people around her one by one, and then placed the insect repellent on the table, as if she was not afraid at all that someone would steal her insect repellent and put it in their own rice fields.
The purpose of this competition is to put your own insect repellent in the same rice field. Whoever's insect repellent is more effective in killing insects will have fewer insects in the rice field. The result will be that whoever has fewer insects is the better and will be the first in this competition.
In order to make their own insect repellent look better, some small drug stores may steal from others.
No matter how diverse or how little variety there is, as long as you steal the insect repellent, you will quickly add it to your own rice field in the competition, and the fewer insects there are, the better.
Some drugstore owners who had just poured insect repellent into the rice fields but no one came to watch became jealous when they saw so many spectators surrounding Jiang Nian. They stood not too far away from the crowd, waiting for a suitable time to see how their insect repellent worked.
Jiang Nian put the bowl of insect repellent back on the table. When she turned around and looked down, she subconsciously raised her eyes to the place where Manager Xu had just stood. When her vision was empty, she paused and suddenly realized something.
As for Shopkeeper Xu, will he cause any trouble again?
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