The people following him were three candied hawthorn vendors who were sending messages to others while tracking Han Fei.
They contacted vendors who sold candied hawthorn berries.
Because Han Fei's candied hawthorn business was booming, many people saw the business opportunity in selling candied hawthorn. Based on their observations and guesses, they estimated that this little old man, Han Fei, could earn at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan a month.
Money is a powerful motivator, so they set up a stall, but their business was not booming and was quite bleak. They tried to imitate, but their flat candied hawthorns were only similar in appearance and tasted completely different. Some people would try them because they were cheap, but they would not come back to buy them.
More and more stalls selling flat candied hawthorn berries are appearing, but none of them can imitate the style.
These stall owners, sharing a common plight and a sense of kinship, banded together.
Seeing that the candied hawthorn grandpa's stall only had one old man, they thought that he might be too busy to handle everything and would need to hire someone to help him, so they could learn his tricks from him. However, the old man was very tight-lipped and they couldn't get any information out of him. He also refused to hire anyone. Every day after school, a young boy would come to help him, so he really didn't need anyone's help. Their plan failed.
However, they did not give up, thinking that as long as they took turns guarding and secretly watching, they might be able to find out something someday.
I've been looking at it for so many days, but there's still no progress.
The hawthorns here are about to rot. If there's no progress, they'll have to pay for the new shipments, and they can't afford to lose money, so they've started to think of crooked ways to make money.
I originally thought that since the old man was alone, I could surround him and threaten him to get the prescription. But then another old man showed up today, and the two of them are not so easy to deal with.
They were just wondering what to do when they saw another old man leave alone, saying he was going back to make candied hawthorns. Wasn't this a stroke of good luck? The opportunity had come!
If this old man really goes back to making candied hawthorn skewers, they can easily watch and learn from him.
At the crossroads, Han Fei suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Someone's stealing hawthorns!"
Every household opened their doors, and the head of the household ran out with a shovel.
The three were startled and turned to run away.
"The three of you, why are you running away? Since you're here, stay and have a chat." Han Fei's smile was kind, but his eyes were icy cold.
The three of them shuddered.
They can't run away now; they've been surrounded by a group of people.
"Old Han, are these the three who are trying to steal the hawthorns?"
"Uncle Han, we've caught him for you!"
"Old Han, shall we take him to the police station?"
Han Fei smiled and shook his head: "Thank you everyone, just send it to Old Xu's courtyard."
The three were pushed and shoved by the villagers, not daring to run or fight back, and were forced into the courtyard.
Han Fei chatted with the villagers with a smile on his face, appearing kind and benevolent.
Since Han Fei started collecting hawthorns and oranges from door to door, the price of hawthorns, which the villagers had previously taken for granted, has skyrocketed, bringing them considerable income.
As Han Fei's business flourished, the money he paid was comparable to that at the vegetable market. The villagers, no longer needing to pick the hawthorns themselves, still enjoyed such a good income, naturally starting to value them highly.
Therefore, they became especially vigilant when they heard that someone was stealing hawthorns, which was exactly what Han Fei had expected.
"Old Han, shall I tie him up?"
"Yeah, what if they gang up on you after we leave? You won't be able to beat them."
"Old Han, shall we stay outside the courtyard?"
Han Fei thanked them, saying, "Then I'll trouble everyone to stay outside. I'll talk to them and try to reason with them. I'll see why they stole the hawthorns. If they had no choice, we don't need to send them to the police station. After all, they're young people, and we should give them a chance."
"Old Han is right. These three kids are quite young, I never expected them to do something like this."
"How much are hawthorns worth? Before Old Han came here to buy hawthorns, no one would pick them up if they fell on the ground. They must be in trouble to come and steal hawthorns. It's pitiful."
"Old Han, have a good talk with the three kids. Give them a chance if you can."
"Alright, I'll leave it to you all to stand guard outside." Han Fei closed the courtyard gate, walked to the wicker chair in the courtyard, sat down, and lazily looked at the three of them: "Should I invite you to sit down?"
The three of them held their breath and found a place to sit down.
"Since you've followed me here, you must be trying to peek at me making candied hawthorns, right?"
The three men pursed their lips, and the slightly older one stepped forward to tell the whole story.
Just as the villagers said, the three were not old, only in their early twenties.
They didn't do well in school and didn't get into university. They've been doing manual labor all these years. When they saw that hawthorns were profitable, they started selling candied hawthorns. At the time, they thought they could make a lot of money in business. Seeing Han Fei making money made them feel like they could make money too. When they got to the wholesale market, they paid a deposit and signed a contract without thinking too much.
Seeing that the hawthorns were about to rot, and that they hadn't received their final payment yet, while a new batch of goods was about to arrive, they were about to incur a large debt. That's why they panicked and did something irrational.
"Grandpa, we...we were forced into a corner."
"We saw that your business was doing so well, but we never expected that when we tried to do it ourselves, we couldn't sell anything at all."
"We must have been out of our minds to sign that kind of contract. We were only tempted by the low price offered by the wholesale market owner."
“The old hawthorns are about to rot, and new hawthorns are about to be delivered. If this continues, it will be like a snowball rolling downhill, and our debt will only keep increasing. We really don’t know what to do.”
"Old man, please have mercy on us and let us go. Don't send us to the police station."
"My parents are getting old, and I have a younger brother to support. Please, have mercy on me."
"Old man, we really know we were wrong!"
"Grandpa, if you just let us go, we'll go and talk to those people for you. They pushed us out to steal their knowledge because we're young and easy to bully. They're the ones who came up with all the bad ideas."
"Look, this is my text message chat history with them; it was all their idea."
Han Fei roughly understood the situation. These three young men were just there to take the blame; if anything went wrong, they would be the ones to take the fall, while the other stall owners would hide behind them.
"Call them all over here."
"ah?"
"Old man, are you sure?"
"Sure."
The three men looked at each other in bewilderment. In the end, the older one made the phone call and summoned all the people.
A large group of people, all selling candied hawthorns, numbered roughly over two hundred. It was probably every candied hawthorn vendor in front of every primary school in the city who had come.
What brings you here?
"Huh? What brings you here too?"
"Wasn't the plan to send those three youngsters to learn the technique, so that they could take the blame if anything went wrong?"
"Anyway, they'll take the blame, and we've got the recipe."
"But why are we all here now?"
What's the situation now?
Just as a group of people met at the crossroads, discussing amongst themselves and hesitant to move forward, Han Fei arrived with three young men.
"He called and said he had received the prescription and wanted to give it to me first, so I came."
"Me too."
"That's what he told me too."
When everyone laid it all out, they realized that they had rushed over because they were eager to be the first to know the recipe, but in the end, they had all been fooled by the three young men and tricked into coming.
Why did you trick us into coming here?
"Are you in cahoots with this old man?"
"Aren't you afraid that all of us will unite?"
Seeing their bickering, Han Fei waved his hand and said, "Gentlemen, if you could truly work together, I would respect you. But you've put forward three young people while you hide behind the scenes. With your personalities, do you really think you'll unite? Are you going to gang up on me or force me to hand over the formula? If something goes wrong, are you really going to take responsibility?"
Silence fell instantly.
They made a lot of noise, but when it came to actually doing something, no one dared to step forward, all afraid of taking responsibility.
They hope that impulsive individuals will act as pawns, while they remain behind the scenes to reap the benefits.
Unfortunately, these people were all too shrewd. When they met, they became timid and ineffective.
Han Fei smiled and said, "We're all businessmen. If you want the recipe, you can just ask me directly. Why play so many tricks? Aren't you tired?"
"Ask you?"
"If you ask me, will you give it to us?"
"Sure, you can try."
"Really?"
"Old man, can you give me the prescription?"
Han Fei nodded: "I can give it to you, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. How much are you willing to pay?"
“What money could we possibly have? We’re just street vendors. If we had money, we wouldn’t be out here braving the wind and rain to set up stalls.”
“I have money, I’m willing to pay.”
Are you stupid?
"I'm not stupid, I think there's a profit to be made! I've observed that his business is very successful. Even if I spend a little money to buy the son, I'll still make a profit!"
"I'm willing to pay too!"
“I want to buy them too, but I really don’t have the money. I was ripped off by the wholesaler. The hawthorns are all rotten, and new stock has already arrived. I still owe a huge amount of money.”
Han Fei smiled and said, "Those with money have their ways, and those without money have their own ways of cooperation."
"Old man, tell me quickly, I have no money, how can we cooperate?"
"Yes, how can we cooperate without money?"
Han Fei held up one finger: "The first cooperation method is for those who don't have money. They will get the recipe through a profit-sharing model, similar to a chain store. From now on, the shop will have a sign that says 'Grandpa Candied Hawthorn.' For every flat candied hawthorn sold, I will be paid one yuan."
Han Fei then extended a second finger: "The second cooperation method is for those with money. They can directly buy out the formula, paying 30,000 in cash per formula, and sign a confidentiality agreement, ensuring it will never be disclosed to any third party for commercial use."
"We've already told you the methods of cooperation; now it's up to you to choose."
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