The third son's wife quickly pressed, "Mother knows too?"
The second son's wife nodded.
Zhao Laosan frowned and asked, "Did Father and Mother agree?"
The old daughter-in-law, with her neck held high, like a fearless white goose in the village, charged forward with wings outstretched, breaking through the beliefs and rules in the hearts of Zhao Laosan and his wife: "Of course, our Zhao family lives a down-to-earth life, and we have absolutely no extravagant and dissolute style like Jiang Bai."
She first heard the term "extravagant and dissolute" at her parents' home before she got married. Her father, who had studied for a few years, used it to describe landlords.
She repeated the word to herself several times, whether out of disgust or longing, she remembered it firmly.
The third son's wife was both amused and exasperated: "My sister-in-law isn't indulging in extravagance; she's doing it for our own good..."
"For our own good?" The second son's wife scoffed. "She and the eldest brother are so rich, yet they won't even help pay for the milk tea shop."
“My eldest brother wasn’t here then, and my sister-in-law probably didn’t have any money either,” the third son’s wife patiently explained to her. “Besides, she’s already told us the milk tea recipe, isn’t that enough?”
The saying goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The third son's wife has always known this principle.
Jiang Bai was willing to let the Zhao family open a milk tea shop, and she even shared all the recipes with them. She also made all of her raw material suppliers provide milk tea for the Zhao family's milk tea shop. Her perseverance and determination impressed the third son's wife.
Although she was just a farmer's wife, she knew how difficult it was to master a secret recipe. It wasn't that no one wanted to open a milk tea shop and get a piece of the pie, but those people opened for a while, tried to imitate it, but in the end they all couldn't survive and went out of business.
Jiang Bai could easily keep this skill from the Zhao family; no matter what Zhao Yi did, she could live comfortably for the rest of her life thanks to the milk tea shop.
"The milk tea recipe?" The second son's wife's disdain was written all over her face. "I don't believe she told us everything, otherwise why isn't our business as good as hers?"
"First of all, the locations are different, so the customer traffic is definitely different." The county town is crowded with people coming and going, and Jiang Bai's milk tea shop is located on the busiest street. This place is less crowded, but it's just a necessary route for several nearby villages to get to the county town.
"Secondly, most people in the county town are wealthy and don't care about a few coins. Most of the customers in Jiangbai's shops are repeat customers. People in the countryside are short of money and shrewd. Most of them only buy one cup to try something new, and some are only willing to buy it for their children."
"Finally, your sister-in-law gave you the recipe, but you didn't follow it exactly as she said, did you?" The third son's wife explained her reasons one by one.
She had tried the milk tea from Jiangbai's shop, and the taste was indeed quite different.
She didn't know that Jiang Bai's milk tea contained spiritual liquid, which could strengthen the body and cure diseases. But in terms of taste alone, the milk tea in Jiang Bai's shop was more than twice as good as the milk tea in Zhao's shop.
She couldn't figure out the reason before and attributed it all to Jiang Bai hiding things, but now she understands that it was all her family's doing.
The second son's wife didn't understand the reasons, but she seized on the last sentence and couldn't help but say, "You think the milk tea isn't selling as well as Jiang Bai's because I didn't do what she wanted?"
The third son's wife pursed her lips: "Not really..."
"When we first opened the shop, we did exactly what she said, but business wasn't very good, was it?" the second son's wife added.
The third son's wife had a headache; she couldn't reason with this person. She tried to explain, "How could business suddenly become so booming when the shop first opened? There's always a process of accumulation."
"I think you've been brainwashed by her," the second son's wife waved her hand, ignoring her third brother's wife's words. "Now that we're following our own steps, business is doing pretty well, isn't it?"
The third brother's wife didn't want to argue with her second sister-in-law anymore, so she turned around and went to the front.
Zhao Laosan was talking to Zhao Laoer in front when his wife heard her husband ask, "Have Father and Mother arrived?"
Zhao Lao Er laughed heartily and said, "We came for a while, and seeing that there were no problems, the old couple went back."
The shop wasn't big, and the four of them were more than enough to keep the business running. But when Grandpa Zhao and Grandma Zhao arrived, there wasn't even room for them to turn around.
Zhao Laosan frowned, looking at his second brother's nonchalant expression, and was even more puzzled. He lowered his voice and asked softly, "Second brother, did no customers really notice anything amiss with the milk?"
Zhao Lao Er said, "No, nobody thinks that much about it."
As they were talking, Zhao Lao Er was slapped in the face.
An elderly woman in her sixties came over with her grandson and asked directly, "Zhao Lao Er, why is the milk tea so weak in milk flavor today?"
This milk tea was bought for her beloved grandson. The grandson loves it, and the wife and children are very filial. They have saved up a lot of money and bring their grandson over almost every day.
She usually wouldn't drink it; she's too old and her teeth aren't good, so she's not tempted. But today, her grandson insisted she try a sip. She's almost seventy years old, and she could tell something was wrong with just one bite.
Zhao Laosan looked grim and was about to apologize when Zhao Laoer calmly said from the side, "No, it must be your imagination. It was like this before."
"Was it like this before?" the old woman asked, puzzled.
Zhao Laosan nodded calmly, his face serious and earnest: "It tastes the same no matter where you go to the county town to drink it."
The old woman, looking puzzled, pulled her grandson away.
After the two men left, Zhao Laosan immediately turned to Zhao Laoer and said, "We can't just lie to people like this, can we?"
“Don’t worry,” Zhao Lao Er said confidently. “Country folks haven’t had any good food, they can’t tell the difference. As long as I don’t admit it, they can’t do anything about it.”
The milk tea was indeed less milky than before, but so what? Anyway, the customers wouldn't leave the milk tea from the previous day, so there's no point in comparing them.
As long as the sellers are confident enough, the customers will only wonder if they've misread it.
Old Zhao shook his head: "This won't work, it'll cause problems sooner or later. Today we can mix in the leftover milk from yesterday to make the milk a little thicker, but what if they deliver milk like this again tomorrow?"
"So, you went to see Boss Zhao, what was the result?" Zhao Lao Er glanced at him.
Zhao Laosan sighed, "There's no result. We haven't found anyone at all."
Zhao Lao Er also sighed, "Let's just take it one day at a time."
"Second brother," the third brother's wife leaned over and stood next to Zhao Laosan, "You want to let things slide, but my conscience won't allow it. I have to talk to our parents about this tonight, and we can discuss it as a family and decide what to do next."
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