Chapter 54 The man from Yipinzhai looked utterly disdainful…
The man looked disdainful and remained silent.
The woman holding the child sighed deeply before speaking, "If I'm not mistaken, it's Yipinzhai on Changxi Street. Yesterday, my husband came back with two taels of silver in his hand and told me that if I cooperated with him this morning, he would help me make a lot of money. When I asked him, he only said that he already knew about it this morning."
The woman looked at the weak child in her arms and cried with guilt, "Who knew that his method of making money would involve using my own son as bait... Waaah, I was so foolish! I should have noticed sooner when he kept feeding the child snacks yesterday..."
The two men behind her couldn't sit still any longer. The idiot's father pointed at the woman and angrily shouted, "You damned woman, what nonsense are you spouting!"
Another man hurriedly shouted, "That's right, sister-in-law, don't wrongly accuse someone... ah!"
The man had barely finished speaking when he was stomped hard on the back, causing him to scream in pain.
Another person was treated the same way, but this person was more tolerant; he grimaced so much that his face was distorted, but he didn't utter a single word.
The woman held back her tears, choking as she looked at Lin Qing'an and the others, her eyes filled with endless guilt and gratitude.
"I'm so sorry, I was threatened by that idiot's father. Thank you for saving my child. I'm so sorry..."
Seeing the woman's sincere apology, Lin Qing'an, who was never one to be a saint, finally couldn't bear it. He turned to the village head and asked, "Uncle Village Head, why is Yipinzhai acting like this? We're not even on the same street as them, nor are we in the same league!"
The village head stroked his beard and said earnestly, "This matter is probably related to interests."
A single sentence reveals the secret of heaven.
The village head added, "Although Yipinzhai's products are expensive, they are available not only to the wealthy but also to the general public. Now that you've opened a shop here at a lower price, you've stolen their business."
The group was furious.
"Damn it, you're bullying people with your power, aren't you!" Abao, who had been standing quietly, suddenly became furious. He went up and dragged the idiot's father to Yipinzhai for a confrontation, but the man was too heavy.
He can't move it!
"Fine, fine, now he's even angrier." He glanced at the kitchen knife he had just thrown on the ground, and like an eel, he slipped past Chen Gengnian, quickly picked up the knife, and was about to rush out the door.
"Don't even think about bullying us!" Abao gritted his teeth, making Lin Qing'an both laugh and feel gratified.
Lin Qingan and Chen Gengnian both admired A Bao's ruthlessness.
Regardless, their kids are good!
"No, no, no." Lin Yanfeng didn't care about anything else and quickly pulled the person back, advising, "Don't worry, don't worry, my brother and brother-in-law are here, let's see how they handle it."
"How can we handle this? There's no way to handle it!" Lin Qing'an looked at the village head and said, "Uncle Village Head, we need to go to Yipinzhai. You shouldn't go. After all, if you're involved in this, it won't be easy for you to face people in the future."
The village head didn't answer; his face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
Chen Gengnian didn't try to persuade them; he and the servant each dragged one of them toward the door.
As he passed by Lin Qing'an, he said, "Let's go, Qing. The village head has his own reasons. You don't need to worry."
Since Chen Gengnian had already said so, he couldn't say anything more. So, the group of people went to Yipinzhai early in the morning.
There were almost no customers when the store opened in the morning. When we arrived at Yipinzhai, the staff were arranging freshly baked pastries.
The waiter glanced up and saw several people rush in, all with hostile expressions. He was so frightened that he asked, trembling, "What brings you here, gentlemen?"
"Bring your manager out here!"
Chen Gengnian's voice was quite loud, and since it was a quiet morning, the shopkeeper in the back heard him and came out on his own without anyone having to call him.
Upon seeing the two men restrained with their hands behind their backs, he paused briefly for two seconds before casually walking over with a smile, still wearing his sign, and asking, "Excuse me, gentlemen, what is the meaning of this?"
"Are you the manager?" Chen Gengnian asked.
The man nodded and introduced himself: "I am Manager Wu of Yipinzhai."
"Fine!" Chen Gengnian threw the two men in front of him, startling Manager Wu into taking several steps back.
"Then please take a good look, Manager Wu. Do you recognize these two people?"
"I don't know him," Manager Wu denied without even thinking.
Lin Qingan stepped forward, his eagle-like eyes fixed on Manager Wu, and asked, "Manager Wu, do you really not recognize me, or are you afraid to?"
Manager Wu was about to speak with a forced smile when the village head interrupted him.
"Alright, alright, Manager Wu, stop making excuses. These two have already told the whole story. It was your Yipinzhai people who sent them to frame Brother Lin's shop. I heard it with my own ears, it's true."
Before Manager Wu could even open his mouth, Chen Gengnian pointed at him and asked the two men, "Tell me, did he instigate this?"
The two looked up at the fifth shopkeeper, stared for a few seconds, then shook their heads simultaneously and said in unison, "No."
"Please have Wu Changgui bring everyone in the shop here. If they can't find the person who instigated them, we won't bother them anymore. But if the shopkeeper refuses, don't blame us for disturbing your business."
Lin Qing'an spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly, and even his expression remained calm.
But Manager Wu knew that this was the kind of person you absolutely couldn't afford to offend.
So he had no choice but to gather all the staff in the store and assign them tasks.
After searching the crowd twice, the two still shook their heads.
That's strange, Lin Qing'an thought.
Chen Gengnian left the crowd when the two of them shook their heads. Lin Qingan knew that his brother Nian must have discovered something, so he had no choice but to keep him occupied for the time being.
Soon, Chen Gengnian, who had left, returned.
This time, however, he was holding a skinny, short man with his head drooping. Chen Gengnian placed him in front of them, grabbed the man's hair from his forehead, and forced him to raise his head. As soon as he raised his head, he saw that the skinny man's face was covered in black grime.
Lin Qing'an frowned, spat and walked over, lifted the man's shirt and wiped it on his face.
"This is a classic case of protesting too much!"
Sure enough, as soon as he wiped one side of his face, the idiot's father shouted, "It's him! It's him! He has a black birthmark on his left eyelid."
Just then, Lin Qing'an also saw the birthmark.
The father of the fool became even more agitated, and another man shouted, "Yes, it was him. He was the one who told us to cause trouble at your shop. He even gave us two taels as a deposit, saying he would give us three taels after the matter was settled."
"It wasn't me, it really wasn't me, I'm innocent!" The man with the birthmark kept waving his hands and shouting his innocence.
But the two men on this side kept pointing at him, as if they were glued to him.
“Alright, then I’ll take him away and hand him over to the county government so they can find out what happened.” The village head stroked his beard and said meaningfully, “After all, he’s just a lowly waiter, he has neither the motive nor the money.”
Upon hearing the village head's words, the waiter became even more agitated. He cried out, "Please, don't report this to the authorities! I have elderly parents and young children to support. My entire family depends on me for survival. If I'm gone, who will take care of my family?"
The waiter kept glancing at Manager Wu as he spoke, but Manager Wu didn't even give him a second glance.
The waiter was heartbroken and blurted out, "I didn't do this, it was..."
"Liu Xing!"
Just as he was about to reveal who was behind it, Manager Wu immediately interrupted him.
"Back then, I took you in out of pity when you joined Yipinzhai. Over the years, I've come to regard you as my own child." Manager Wu approached the man step by step with cold eyes, questioning, "Did you go to such lengths to curry favor with the boss by spending a fortune just to squeeze me out of my position?"
Liu Xinggang wanted to say no, but Manager Wu's eyes were too dark, and he couldn't utter a sound.
"If it really was you who did it..." Manager Wu sighed with a pained expression, "Then I'll pretend you didn't do it, but the law is impartial. A real man should admit what he did. I will help you take good care of your family."
The waiter's excited expression vanished instantly, and he collapsed to the ground as if he had lost all support.
Manager Wu's words were so clumsy that anyone with a brain could understand what he meant.
Lin Qingan and Chen Gengnian exchanged a glance, and after understanding what was going on, Chen Gengnian handed the person over to the village head, saying, "Uncle, thank you for your trouble."
The village head nodded and said earnestly, "Don't worry, the county government will definitely give you the truth."
After saying that, the village head and his men took the "culprit" away. Lin Qing'an glanced at Manager Wu, who then clasped his hands in a fake gesture and said, "It was our fault for not disciplining him properly. We are very sorry for this. We will definitely come to apologize after I report this to the owner."
Lin Qing'an ignored him completely, turned around and followed Chen Gengnian out.
But before they could even step out of the gate of Yipinzhai, they heard a scream.
"Ah—someone's dead!"
Lin Qingan and Chen Gengnian exchanged a glance, a bad premonition instantly washing over them, and they rushed out.
As soon as they went outside, they saw the man who had been escorted out by the village head and his men lying on the ground with a gruesome gash on his neck, from which blood was still gushing out.
Chen Gengnian quickly covered Lin Qingan's eyes, but it was too late.
Lin Qing'an had seen everything clearly long ago.
"Uncle, what happened?" Chen Gengnian asked.
The village head sighed deeply and said, "He hanged himself as soon as he came out."
Just then, the people from Yipinzhai came out to see what was happening, including Manager Wu.
He pretended to be sad beside Lin Qingan and Chen Gengnian, saying, "Alas! This child has always been responsible and has a strong sense of self-respect. He probably chose this path because he realized he had made a mistake and was afraid he would have no face to face others in the future."
Lin Qingan abruptly pulled Chen Gengnian's hand away, turned around and stared intently at Manager Wu, saying each word clearly, "Don't let me catch you red-handed!"
Shopkeeper Wu didn't reply, but covered his face and continued to feign sadness.
Human nature is utterly disgusting.
When a person dies, there are no witnesses left, and everything is forced to end.
Lin Qingan sternly warned the two men being escorted, "If I ever see you doing anything bad again, I'll kill you!"
"Yes, yes, I won't, I won't."
Lin Qing'an was too lazy to look at his face. He knew that this kind of person was rotten to the core. After all, even tigers don't eat their cubs. He even schemed against his own child. How could such a person be any better?
Lin Qing'an suddenly disliked this place and discovered that the minor disturbances in the village weren't so scary after all.
A life of mutual abuse and deceit is truly exhausting and tragic.
Lin Qing'an looked unwell all the way to the shop, and almost tripped several times. Chen Gengnian helped him back.
A few more days passed, and Lin Qing'an was not affected by that incident. However, he and Chen Gengnian secretly devised a plan.
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