At this point, Mrs. Tao curled her lips in disdain. "Everyone says foreigners are powerful! Pah! For land like this, we have to use the methods passed down by our ancestors. Foreign methods won't work. Wanzhen, who do you think is powerful?"
Huang Wanzhen sighed helplessly, "I would like to farm, but I don't know how. No matter who I am, I am better than them. Cousin, you have to know that we can't win against the powerful. It seems that trouble is about to happen. The only thing we can do is to make plans early and not let ourselves and our loved ones starve to death."
Mrs. Tao reached out and patted Huang Wanzhen's arm. "I know, I'm just gossiping with you. I think you've been hanging out with those masters for too long, and you've become paranoid and afraid to say anything. I'm your cousin. If you say a few more words, will I report you?"
Huang Wanzhen didn't want to bother thinking about whether to sue or not. None of this really happened, so overthinking it was pointless. If she didn't want to bother thinking, then why not just keep it to herself? That way, there would be no consequences. Isn't that better than anything else?!
When Mrs. Tao saw that Huang Wanzhen said nothing, she curled her lips in boredom.
Huang Wanzhen saw Xiao Shiyuan through the window and waved to him, "Come in, let your aunt see if you have grown taller."
Little Shiyuan smiled and called out "Auntie," then added, "I won't go in, for fear my mother will beat me."
Mrs. Tao said angrily, "When did I hit you? You just say bad things about me in front of your aunt! When your aunt leaves, I will definitely spank you!"
Little Shiyuan cried "Wow-wow" twice, then turned around and ran away.
Huang Wanzhen pulled out a small jade Buddha from her bosom and stuffed it into Huang Dongshi's hand. "This is for little Shiyuan. I wanted to put it on him myself, but you, his mother, scared me away. Oh! I really don't know why you mothers are so arrogant!"
Mrs. Tao took the jade Buddha and laughed, "Haha," and asked Huang Wanzhen, "Is my fifth aunt being rude to you? Why?"
Huang Wanzhen said angrily, "Why? Mothers are unreasonable. If you want to act tough, then do it. You're all the same!"
After the work was done, Huang Wanzhen didn't plan to stay any longer. She chatted with Mrs. Tao for a few minutes and then said goodbye and left.
Huang Wanzhen started to get busy before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Fortunately, the yard where she practiced shooting was still rented. Huang Wanzhen found a place to arrange food and cloth, and started to busy herself with orders from the shop and bulk shipments to the women's school.
In addition, as more and more orders came from Su Jingyi, Huang Wanzhen prepared to increase Su Jingyi's dividends, so she re-drafted a contract and sent it to her.
Besides business matters, there were also gifts to be exchanged between friends and family. Huang Wanzhen was familiar with all of this, so she simply pulled out last year's list, made some additions and subtractions, and then handed it over to her subordinates to help with the shopping.
Afterwards, Huang Wanzhen also held a series of activities in the store, with various combination discounts, which not only digested the inventory, but also boosted the store's sales, keeping Huang Wanzhen very busy for several days.
After seeing this, Xiuqing suggested that they hold an event at Linglong Pavilion after the holiday and invite some old customers to come and experience the new products.
Huang Wanzhen nodded in agreement without blinking.
But before the event was held, news that the Japanese had sent troops to occupy the three northeastern provinces reached Beijing. Prices in the market soared faster than cars, especially food, causing panic among the people.
Jixiangtang had just held an event and entered a period of 'post-consumption stagflation'. In addition, everyone was now buying food, which led to a sharp drop in the number of customers at Jixiangtang. The staff were already worried about food, and now that business was not good, they were afraid that their income would shrink further. It was inevitable that they would be distracted at work.
After Huang Wanzhen found out, she held a meeting and told everyone clearly that their salaries would not change. If everyone was afraid of going hungry, they could use part of their salary to buy food from the company.
The company can sell some to them based on the grain price before the increase.
However, the amount of food they purchase must not exceed 40 percent of their salary, and it can only be used for their own family consumption and cannot be sold to others privately.
If an employee violates these company regulations, he/she will be dismissed directly after investigation and verification.
"Don't think that you don't need to stockpile food just because you can buy it from the company. We've fought wars before, so you should have experience. Food will only get more expensive." Huang Wanzhen couldn't help but remind them.
Sure enough, within a few days, the newspapers reported that Marshal Zhang of the three northeastern provinces had not resisted, but had led his troops to withdraw directly from the three northeastern provinces. For a time, the newspapers were full of criticism, and even Mrs. Huang, who was far away in Shanghai, called and asked Huang Wanzhen to seek refuge in Shanghai.
Huang Wanzhen comforted her over the phone and brought up the Liu and Song families. "Mom, don't you think about it? Aren't those officials more informed than us? If something happened in Peking, they would definitely arrange for the younger generation to move elsewhere. Now they are all safe and sound. I think when they want to leave, that will be the real problem!"
Mrs. Huang was temporarily calmed down. Huang Wanzhen hung up the phone, turned around and left.
The situation in Peking was not as bad as everyone imagined. There was no news of Japanese soldiers entering the country, but there was an influx of businessmen who went to the Northeast to do business, as well as some refugees.
The government is familiar with organizing various donation activities. Based on previous experience, Huang Wanzhen and the store staff did not trust the donation activities very much, so they took the initiative to organize a porridge distribution.
Huang Wanzhen asked Zhang Dongqian to hire a carriage, and took three people to Beiguan, set up a simple pot rack, and started.
In order to prevent people from pretending to be refugees and taking advantage of them, Huang Wanzhen directly cooked whole grains of wheat and corn. Not only were they hard to eat, but they also tasted bad. Fortunately, the real refugees did not mind. They had not eaten for several days, and now they could eat not only whole grains of food, but even grass.
This went on for a week, with six large pots of soup cooked every morning. Huang Wanzhen frowned as she watched the queue getting longer and longer.
As Huang Wanzhen thought, one sunny morning, several people started fighting for the last bit of porridge at the bottom of the pot. The big iron pot on the shelf was overturned to the ground, and the last bit of porridge in the pot was offered to the earth.
Huang Wanzhen hurriedly asked Zhang Dongqian and others to pack up their belongings, "Don't worry about them, pack up and leave!"
In their haste, they didn't even take the sacks of food with them. The food inside had already been cooked, but Huang Wanzhen didn't feel bad about the bags. Zhang Dongqian, on the other hand, was hurt by the fighting and said with a sad face, "There must be something hateful about pitiful people!"
Huang Wanzhen comforted him, "Okay, we've tried our best, and we won't go there anymore."
Having said that, someone from the police station came to her door the next day and said that the leader wanted to see her.
Huang Wanzhen said calmly, "I haven't broken any law. You have no right to detain me."
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