Contentment with modest wealth

Chapter 19 The pot my aunt gave me was too heavy
"Madam Zhang! Is this the justice you speak of?!"

Madam He, who usually had a round, smiling face, now had a gloomy expression and questioned He Shi angrily.

In fact, business people are aware of these tricks, and when they resell to others, they can't guarantee that they haven't used these methods.

But we've been doing business for a long time, so if the price is pushed down too much occasionally, a little more or less is understandable.

The Zhang family has gone too far. There's more than one, three or four, weights on their backs. They're trying to profit from both sides!
Because they are all businessmen, meticulous in their calculations and eager to make money off each other, how could they tolerate the Zhang family using such despicable methods to infringe upon their interests?

Furthermore, the Zhang family is currently stealing business from others and treating new customers this way. Is this considered sincerity? How can this not infuriate people?
"Madam He, please let me explain..."

"You'd better not explain!"

Mrs. He was sweating profusely with anxiety, but before she could utter a single word, a loud female voice came from outside the door:
"Your Zhang family has been two-faced for a long time. This is the accountant who used to work for your grandfather. Last December, you didn't even pay him his wages. Listen to what he has to say about your Zhang family!"

As the voice faded, several people stood at the door. The woman at the head of the group was around forty years old, slightly plump, with a gold hairpin in her hair and wearing a silk shirt. She was followed by several people who looked like accountants and managers, and they all appeared shrewd and capable.

When Madam He recognized them, she was stunned: "Liu Xiyu?! What does this have to do with you? What are you doing here?! Trying to cause trouble?!"

The man who arrived was the owner of the Hongtai ship across the street. Originally, the two sides had no interaction, but since Madam He, who had been taken over by Madam He, was present, the two sides had obviously become enemies!
The manager of the Hongtai ship completely ignored her and only sent out the accountant beside him.

The accountant was full of resentment: "Ever since the Zhang family's patriarch passed away, they've started using yin-yang scales in their shop! Your business has been getting worse and worse these past two years, isn't that to be expected?"

"You're dishonest, stingy with your subordinates, and treacherous to outsiders. You don't even pay us old buddies, leaving me without a single penny for the New Year! My whole family is eating pickled vegetables and tofu for the New Year. Where is your conscience?!"
"You guys are stingy in business, which has caused those cargo ships to come back every few days to argue! Whenever something goes wrong, you blame us. With so many of you, how can you still do business with them!"

As soon as the accountant said this, a chorus of boos erupted throughout the shop.

Madam He's face contorted with rage. She snapped at He Shi, "Our business is off! Let's go!"

She turned around and saw the manager of Hongtaihao at the door. A hint of embarrassment appeared on her face, and she walked away silently with her head down.

The merchants inside the shop scattered in a panic, leaving one after another cursing and swearing.

"Hey, don't go! Let me explain! Those are all rumors, they're framing us!..."

But with hundreds of grain shops at the entire dock, who would want to stay with their Yufeng shop? After a flurry of activity, Mrs. He couldn't retain a single one.

Looking again at the group from Hongtai, the guys who had been chasing the dog earlier were gone, but their boss was still at the door, scoffing before leaving, "Serves you right!"

The huge shop was completely empty in no time, leaving only the Zhang family members.

Mrs. He was so angry that her face turned blue!

With a trembling finger pointing to the door, he shouted, "Go and find out who's targeting me! And go and fetch the master back here, now!"

……

Lu Jia and Li Chang sat under the tea stall, finishing half a jin of melon seeds. First, they watched Madam He walk past with a disheveled face, then they watched the people from Hongtai leave in a huff, and finally they heard Madam He shouting angrily in the empty shop. They each handed the other a cup of tea.

Li Changdao said, "You've really brought this upon yourselves! You should just be good, unscrupulous merchants, instead of being such a gossip! I'll make sure you get what's coming to you."

Lu Jia stared at the departing figure of the female manager of the Hongtai Ship, who was walking away with her head held high: "This female manager has some tricks up her sleeve."

Li Chang followed her gaze and said, "Of course, I heard that she became a widow after giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Her husband's surname is Feng, and she took care of the business left by the Feng family. At that time, a bunch of relatives wanted to take advantage of the family's business and pressured her, a woman, in all sorts of ways, both openly and secretly. But she managed to keep the two shops of the family afloat."

"Over the past ten years, not only have the two shops been operating normally, but they also opened another one last year. In terms of financial resources, they were not as good as the Zhang family before, but because of their good reputation, they have accumulated a group of regular customers."

"But this time, He's actions have taken the He family away from her, and several of the He family's landlord relatives have also left, which is a great loss."

Lu Jia gazed at the Hongtai ship not far away and took a small sip of tea.

Merchants are driven by profit, and the He family, envious of the higher profits of the He family, chose the He family over the Feng family, which is quite understandable.

Unfortunately, she made a fatal mistake. She thought she had gotten a good deal and could earn more than if she sold to the Feng family. However, the He family had already dug a pit for her before the deal even started. She fell right into it, and in front of the head of Hongtai Company, it was very undignified.

With the head of Hongtai Company directly confronting her, Madam He certainly wouldn't be able to swallow her pride and go back to the Feng family. She could only turn around and find another buyer, temporarily selling the grain to another merchant.

Lu Jia put down the cup, paid the bill, and then walked past the entrance of Yufeng Hotel with her basket on her shoulder.

As she passed by, she turned her head to look into the shop, which was seen by Mrs. He.

Still angry, Mrs. He suddenly saw Lu Jia walking slowly past and jumped up as if she had been pricked by a needle!
"What's she doing here?! Jia'er! You stop right there!"

Mrs. He lifted her skirt and rushed out.

Lu Jia was waiting for her on the road between Yufeng and Hongtai: "Aunt, did you call me for something?"

Madam He gritted her teeth and looked her up and down: "Did you do it? Did you collude with Hongtai to harm me?"

Lu Jia looked at the crowd that was gradually gathering around her and said slowly, "Aunt, what you're saying makes no sense. I was just passing by, how did I get blamed for this?" "If it wasn't you, then who was it?!" Madam He pointed at her nose, "Only you would go against the Zhang family!"

Lu Jia slowly raised her voice: "That makes even less sense. You are my uncle and aunt. Even if we want to make things difficult for you, you have to have offended us first, right?"
"Oh, I forgot, a while ago you tried to marry me off to a thug to buy a warehouse, which caused me to fall into the water and get sick. Our Xie family would never sell our daughter, so we had to argue with my uncle and aunt, which made you lose face. No wonder my aunt is trying to pin the blame on me."

"But there was nothing we could do last time. We were an orphan and a widow, and even my mother's family members were bullying us. If we didn't argue back, we couldn't go on living like this."

"Fellow neighbors, don't you agree?"

"The Zhang family has done something like this? I can't believe they could do such a thing!"

"Exactly! That Zhang couple is truly despicable! They can't even do business properly, let alone be relatives!"

When the Yu Feng ship malfunctioned earlier, many people gathered in the streets to watch. Now, before that initial uproar has even died down, this latest incident has caused a surge in the barrage of insults.

Enraged, Mrs. He screamed at the top of her lungs, "Shut up!"

Lu Jia lifted her eyelids: "Auntie is so funny. You rushed out in a hurry to stop me and question me. I was just answering your question, so why did you tell me to shut up?"
"I didn't intend to stay; it's you who's preventing me from opening a shop and renting it out."

"I don't know which heartless bastard is spreading rumors and slandering our Xie family behind our backs, causing my shop to be neglected by everyone."

"I, Xie Jia, hereby declare that our Xie family, from top to bottom, is clean and upright, with a clear conscience before heaven and earth, and we have never overstepped any boundaries."

"Rumors stop with the wise. If anyone thinks my Xie family can't bear these words, we live next door to the Zhang family. Bring it on, we'll present the evidence and confront each other face to face."

"Those scoundrels who gossip behind our backs and smear us orphans and widows are not human! I, Xie Jia, can let you suffer once, and I can let you suffer a second time!"

The girl spoke in a clear and loud voice, with an air of daring to discuss the universe. Li Chang mingled in the crowd and shouted "Good!" which immediately drew a large cheer.

He pointed at Lu Jia, her nostrils barely letting out any air.

Lu Jia turned to her and said, "Oh, Aunt, of course I wasn't scolding you."

"Although we called all the neighbors to our house that night to witness my uncle beating the dog, my uncle ended up getting beaten black and blue by the dog. He lost face in front of everyone, and my uncle and aunt must have been furious."

"But after all, you have already emptied the Xie family's wealth, making it difficult for us to make ends meet. Considering how sincerely we have treated you, I don't think you would be so shameless as to spread rumors about your own sister."

She kept calling him "uncle" and "aunt" so sweetly, but it would have been better to just slap Mrs. He across the face!

Each word was uttered with such force that it felt like a whip was being lashed across He's face, and she couldn't even get a word in edgewise!

Two men in the crowd who were watching exchanged a glance and immediately returned to the Hongtai ship behind them.

In the backyard of Hongtai, the shop's head manager was reprimanding the customers: "Such a big thing happened, and no one even told me! You were appointed as the head manager, is this how you handle things?!"

The woman slammed her hand on the table, and a set of blue and white porcelain cups jumped up.

The servant replied, "Master, please calm down. We only just found out about this ourselves. We were going to inform you at your residence a couple of days ago, but we heard that your wife's childbirth was not going well, and we were worried about disturbing you, so we kept quiet."

"I never expected someone to deliver something on the Zhang family's doorstep today, so I immediately had someone invite the head of the family over."

"Who handed this leverage over to us?"

"We don't know either. The waiter at the door overheard people whispering about the Zhang family having a yin-yang scale. So I had someone ask him about it, and he gave a very detailed account, which is pretty much the truth."

The shopkeeper then cupped his hands to the head of the household, saying, "The head of the household is truly resourceful. Without knowing the details, he rushed in under the pretext of beating a dog and caught her red-handed, leaving that Madam Zhang with no way to deny it! That money-grubbing Madam He has fallen into a trap this time and lost face as well."

"Big Boss!"

The woman was deep in thought because of the shopkeeper's words when the waiter rushed in from outside: "Madam Zhang of Yufeng is causing trouble with someone again!"

The leader looked up: "What's going on?"

"Just now, Madam Zhang caught Master Zhang's niece, the Xie family girl who returned from the capital, and insisted that today's events were caused by the Xie family girl behind the scenes."

"As it turned out, that Xie family girl was no pushover. She calmly and quietly rebuked Madam Zhang, and even indirectly cursed them out!"

The head of the gang stood up at this moment: "What right does a niece have to curse her aunt?"

"The boss doesn't know that the Zhang couple are utterly despicable. A while ago, in order to seize the warehouse, they secretly planned to force their beautiful niece to marry into the Li family, who own an oil shop. They even caused the girl to fall into the water and almost lose her life."

"When Miss Xie's mother went to the Zhang family to argue, Madam Zhang spread rumors behind her back, making up all sorts of unfounded things about Madam Xie. It was shameful, and outsiders believed it to the point that the Xie family couldn't even rent out one of their shops, which they relied on for a living!"
"You think Miss Xie wouldn't dare to scold her?"

The head of the gang paused for a moment, then rushed out the door: "Is that so?"

(Second larger chapter, please vote!)

(End of this chapter)