Upon hearing Jiang Bai's words, two women felt compassion and gave him a wink. Jiang Bai nodded slightly.
The woman next to them, whose husband worked at the dairy farm, didn't see their little actions and waved her hand, saying, "How would we know where she is? If there's nothing else, hurry up and leave."
Jiang Bai readily agreed and left.
As they watched her carriage drive away, her interruption dampened their spirits, and soon they all said their goodbyes and went home.
The two women who had been giving Jiang Bai meaningful glances lived very close to each other. Half an hour later, they came out of their houses in unison and walked side by side toward the village entrance.
Jiang Bai instructed the coachman to stop the carriage in a secluded spot not far from the village entrance.
The two women breathed a slight sigh of relief when they saw Jiang Bai. One of the plump women said, "Sister Li is not living at her parents' house right now. She is secretly staying at an empty house in my parents' house in the next village."
The thin woman gave a bitter smile: "Her brothers and sisters-in-law didn't want her to stay at all, after all, she had five children to support..."
Putting yourself in the shoes of the older brother and sister-in-law is understandable; after all, having six more mouths to feed is an immense burden for an ordinary farming family.
But putting yourself in Li's shoes is too heartbreaking. If a woman is not treated well by her husband after marriage, she will have nowhere to belong in this world. Even her parents will try to persuade her to abandon the child and reconcile with him.
Boss Zhao is now like someone bewitched; they don't think about how difficult it will be for Li to return, they just want to get rid of her as soon as possible and lighten their own burden.
As Jiang Bai listened, he helped the two women onto the carriage. Under the direction of the plump woman, the driver slowly drove towards the neighboring village.
Li had no money to buy kerosene, and the house was pitch black. If the fat woman hadn't said anything, no one would have known that someone lived inside.
Jiang Bai knocked on the door. When Li saw her, she looked surprised: "Master Jiang, what brings you here?"
Jiang Bai said, "Let's go inside and talk."
Li nodded, exchanged a few pleasantries with the two women, who vaguely guessed that Jiang Bai's identity was not simple, and left after only a few words.
Jiang Bai quickly had the driver take the two of them back, and then went into the house himself.
The children were also awake, staring intently at Jiang Bai in the darkness.
The two older brothers had met Jiang Bai while herding cattle and knew her identity, so they respectfully bowed to her. Seeing their two older brothers do this, the three younger children followed suit.
Li hurriedly put the last bit of oil into the kerosene lamp, and the room was lit with a dim yellow light.
Jiang Bai sighed and sat facing Li Shi: "I went to see Boss Zhao today."
She briefly recounted what had happened, and Li was already clenching her fists in anger.
She stammered, "How could he... how could he do this? Boss Jiang, you have been kind to us. That Zhao fellow has been bewitched by that woman. I'll go over tomorrow and give him a good scolding to wake him up."
Her eyes were resolute, and Jiang Bai believed that this was what she thought, and that she would really do it.
Jiang Bai quickly stopped her: "I didn't come here for you to persuade him. In fact, I've already canceled our cooperation."
Jiang Bai and Li Shi both knew the consequences of this. After all, the dairy farm was built up by the couple from the ground up. Hearing this, Li Shi felt a mix of emotions.
She asked, "But, Mr. Jiang, what will you do if we cancel the cooperation?"
Jiang Bai smiled and said, "Actually, I'm not too comfortable with having raw materials controlled by others, let alone milk, which is so difficult to preserve. I used to have this idea of starting my own cattle farm, but because we've had such a pleasant working relationship, I haven't taken any action yet."
"This incident presents both challenges and opportunities. If I were to open a cattle farm, would you be willing to come and help me?"
Ms. Li thought she was hallucinating. She opened her eyes wide and said, "But I'm a woman, and I'm not very educated. I don't know how to help..."
“I’ve seen you herd cattle; you’re very meticulous and experienced. What I need is someone as conscientious and responsible as you,” Jiang Bai said. “I’ll provide the capital, and you’ll manage everything at the cattle farm. We’ll split the profits 50/50.”
Li quickly waved her hand: "No need for profit sharing, just pay the wages."
“Of course,” Jiang Bai said, taking her hand. “It’s not easy to find an experienced cattle herder, and besides, you have to support five children.”
She whispered, "You must really want to send them to school, right?"
Women help women.
Li's eyes welled up with tears.
She turned and called the five children to kneel down, then knelt before Jiang Bai herself, saying, "Thank you, thank you so much, Master Jiang, for your great kindness."
Jiang Bai quickly helped the people up, looked around at the surroundings, pondered for a few seconds, and immediately said, "You'll come with me to the county town today. Tomorrow, you'll be with us to choose a location and buy dairy cows."
After much hesitation, Ms. Li finally nodded.
She packed her luggage with her five children; the six of them could only manage to pack two small packages.
Fortunately, the carriage Jiang Bai brought was large enough. The two oldest boys and the coachman sat outside the carriage, Li Shi held one in her arms, and the other two sat on her left and right sides, with Jiang Bai sitting opposite them.
The coachman slowly drove the carriage forward, sighed, and looked at the horse's strained appearance, thinking: Old friend, you've suffered today!
-
The next day, the milk tea shop announced that it would be closed for three days.
A dozen or so regular customers gathered outside the store, and suddenly everything went black.
Now that the weather is cold, everyone relies on a cup of hot milk tea to keep them going before going to work. Now that the store is closed for rectification, Jiang Bai will not make money for three days, but these customers have lost the motivation to live!
Even though they knew there was no hope of opening the store, a group of people still stood at the store entrance and refused to leave.
Someone spoke up: "Something's not right about what happened today."
"Nonsense, do you need to tell me?" The person next to him rolled his eyes. "If she wanted to take a break, she would definitely give us many days' notice so we could prepare. The fact that she's suddenly closing down doesn't seem right."
"I have inside information that milk tea shops have run out of milk supply and can't do anything but close down."
"Is your inside information reliable?"
"It's reliable; the young lady at their counter is my own niece."
"Wow, no wonder I always felt like you bought more taro paste in that cup. You've got pretty good connections!"
"Do you know why they're not selling anymore?"
"I don't know," the person who secretly added the ingredients through his niece shook his head. "I only know that the other party's boss is a bad person. Boss Jiang directly terminated the cooperation and is probably looking for a new milk source partner these days."
"Bad character?" someone else chimed in. "That milk supplier from before is related to Zhao Yi. He just made money off the reputation of the milk tea shop. He's gotten arrogant now that he's made money, hasn't he?"
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