Zhao Laosan and his wife rushed back in a huff, just as Wang Mazi's small restaurant opened.
When Zhao Laosan and the other person bumped into each other face to face, Wang Mazi yawned and greeted Zhao Laosan with a nonchalant expression.
Zhao Laosan said, "Wang Mazi, I happen to have something to ask you."
Wang Mazi raised an eyebrow: "What is it?"
Zhao Laosan jumped off the donkey cart, took down the wooden bucket full of milk, opened the lid and showed it to the other person: "Look at the milk that Boss Zhao sold me."
Wang Mazi squatted down and examined the milk closely, then asked Zhao Laosan with a puzzled expression, "What's wrong with the milk?"
"Are you pretending not to see it?" Old Zhao's chest heaved with anger. "This milk is diluted with too much water; it's unusable."
Wang Mazi then realized what was going on and explained, "I rarely drink milk, so I'm not very familiar with these things."
Zhao Laosan said, "I don't care if you know him or not. Give me Boss Zhao's address, and I'll go talk to him myself."
Wang Mazi exclaimed in surprise, "How would I know where he is?"
“He’s your brother-in-law. You might not know where he is, but surely you know where your sister is?” the third son’s wife chimed in from the side.
Wang Mazi explained with a guilty look, "To be honest, my sister was sold by my parents when she was young, and we only recognized each other in recent years, so I know very little about her."
"You know so little, yet you dare to guarantee and recommend Boss Zhao's milk to us?" Zhao Laosan's tone was sarcastic. "Now that something's happened, we can't find anyone on Boss Zhao's side. Shouldn't you take responsibility?"
"Me, take responsibility?" Wang Mazi pointed to himself incredulously and said, "If you two really got scammed, it's your own fault for being foolish. I just acted as an intermediary; am I supposed to take responsibility for both of your families for the rest of your lives?"
"Furthermore, how come you only noticed now that so much water was added to the milk? Are you trying to extort money from us on purpose?"
"How dare you talk like that?" Zhao Laosan immediately became agitated. "What good will it do for the business if I dilute it with water? The shop is waiting to open!"
"Who knows?" Wang Mazi said with an indifferent expression. "Anyway, it has nothing to do with me. If you want me to solve it for you, I have two words for you: Dream on."
The third brother's wife stopped Zhao Laosan from rushing forward, took a deep breath and said to Wang Mazi, "Brother Wang, we're all from the same village, we'll run into each other all the time. Please help us find Boss Zhao, we really have no other choice, we can't open the shop without milk..."
"Why can't it open?" Wang Mazi interrupted her, pointing in the direction of Zhao's milk tea shop. "Isn't it open now?"
Zhao Laosan stopped what he was doing, and the two of them turned around in surprise. They saw that the milk tea shop was indeed open, and several customers were walking out with their milk tea in their hands, smiling broadly. They would take a sip of milk tea from time to time, and there was nothing strange about their expressions.
Zhao Laosan and his wife didn't bother arguing with Wang Mazi anymore. They grabbed the bucket, led the donkey cart, and hurried into the milk tea shop.
They tied the donkey cart to the grass next to the back door and hurried to the small kitchen, where they found the second son's wife making milk tea.
The third son's wife wiped her forehead, which was covered in what looked like sweat or water, and hurriedly asked, "Why did you open a shop?"
The second son's wife glanced guiltily at the ground before stammering, "It just started normally."
"What about the milk?" Zhao Laosan pressed. "Did you manage to buy better milk from another brand?"
Without waiting for a reply, he stepped forward, opened the lid of the milk container, and peered inside. The milk was thicker than before, but it was still clear that it had been diluted with water.
The third son's wife peeked over from the side.
Zhao Laosan was furious: "Where did this come from?"
The second son's wife didn't answer, but simply said, "As long as it can open the door normally, it doesn't matter where it came from."
The third son's wife thought for a moment and then questioned, "Second sister-in-law, didn't you throw away the leftover milk from yesterday?"
Yesterday, there was about half a bucket left over, and we really couldn't finish it, so the third son's wife gave it to the second son's wife. They've had similar situations before where they couldn't sell the leftovers. Because milk doesn't keep for long and spoils very easily, they usually finish it on the same day.
Grandpa Zhao and Grandma Zhao didn't want this. Every morning, everyone in the family had a bowl of it, and everyone except the children drank it until they didn't want to drink it anymore.
Last time, there was half a bucket left over, which was taken by the third son's wife. Her family home is in the next village, a 15-minute walk away. After closing the shop, she took the bucket directly back to her parents' home to help her parents, nephews, and nieces recover.
There were leftovers again, and the third son's wife, adhering to the principle of fairness, didn't take them and gave them directly to the second son's wife.
When the second son's wife was asked this question, she couldn't hide her expression. She didn't know whether to tell the truth or lie, and her eyes darted around.
Seeing this, the third son's wife became even more confident and said, "You didn't throw away the milk left over from yesterday. Pour it into this diluted milk today and continue selling it."
When Zhao Laosan saw that his second son's wife did not refute him, he immediately knew the answer in his heart.
The second son's wife is very straightforward and can't hide her thoughts. If her husband's wife had wronged her this time, she would have jumped two feet high and pointed her finger at him, crying out that she was innocent. Her current behavior proves that her husband's wife was right.
Thinking of this, Zhao Laosan couldn't help but raise his voice: "How could you do this? Didn't your sister-in-law say that leftover ingredients from the previous day can't be kept for sale the next day?"
Mentioning Jiang Bai, the second son's wife couldn't help but curl her lip and say disdainfully, "She's just being pretentious. How come I've never heard of something only being able to be eaten for one day?"
Rural people cherish food and will hoard any good things to eat for a while. Jiang Bai's view was indeed quite modern. Although the Zhao family listened obediently at the time, several of them disagreed.
The third son's wife sighed: "Second sister-in-law, we're in the food and beverage business, so we should always be careful about what we put in our food. What if our customers have a problem with it? I don't think there's anything wrong with the eldest sister-in-law's request."
"It's winter now, food spoils slowly, what could be wrong?" The second son's wife clicked her tongue and said defiantly, "To tell you the truth, sometimes I don't throw away leftover seasonings. I use them again the next day, and they're still fine. Nobody gets sick from them, right?"
Upon hearing this, the third son's wife's eyes widened: "How could you do this in private?"
"This wasn't just my own idea; my mother knows I'm doing this, and she fully supports me," the second son's wife said proudly.
Zhao Laosan and his wife felt their vision go black, and they almost fainted on the spot.
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