Chapter 87 - 87: Is It The Taste We Want?
She said seriously, “Mother, you know that the Ruyi Clothing Shop has been selling the little tiger you embroidered previously in the past two days, right? However, when I went to the streets today, I actually saw another cloth shop selling it too.”
“Logically speaking, that shouldn’t be the case. Even if they learned from the Ruyi Clothing Shop, it shouldn’t be so fast. Moreover, do you know that those people’s actions are similar to the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant? They deliberately lowered the price and went against the Ruyi Clothing Shop.”
Madam Song did not care at first. However, as she listened to her daughter speak, she slowly remembered that Second Aunt Ning had come uninvited, snuck into their house, and even opened her door.
Seeing that Madam Song had stopped what she was doing unconsciously, Xiaoxiao added, “Shopkeeper Liu was very angry when 1 went to the Ruyi Clothing Shop today. She said that she would definitely find the person who leaked the designs and punish her severely. It sounds quite serious.”
Madam Song’s heart was pounding. She thought that although Second Sister-in-law was usually a little irritating, she shouldn’t be so shameless, right?
However, deep down, she was getting more and more worried.
At this moment, in the county, the shopkeeper of the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant was sitting on the second floor and looking at the account book. The business during the first few days of sour bamboo shoots’ launch was so good that he smiled until his eyes narrowed. However, for some reason, the more he went on, the fewer people ordered sour bamboo shoots.
What he didn’t know was that a few days ago, most of the customers went there because the dishes of the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant were high-quality imitations of the Fragrance Restaurant and were cheaper. However, only when these two conditions were met at the same time would the customers feel that they had a good deal. After eating, they realized that they were not the same thing. Moreover, the taste of the sour bamboo shoots of the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant was strange and difficult to swallow. They would only try it for a day or two. If they did it too many times, how could they be suckers?
Just as he was feeling puzzled, Shopkeeper Lei saw the servant’s complicated expression when he came to invite him to the kitchen.
As no one ordered, the sauce jar filled with sour bamboo shoots was placed alone in the corner. Shopkeeper Lei couldn’t help but cover his nose when he got someone to open it. After opening it with the chefs to check, he raised his foot and kicked over the jar. “Good, Ning Fengcai and the Ning Family!”
The taste of the bamboo shoots was secondary. The key was that the things in the jar had already molded and deteriorated! If the customers ate them, wouldn’t their restaurant be destroyed by them?
However, there was a servant adding fuel to the fire. “No wonder the two families sell the same bamboo shoots. So they deliberately framed us! Could it be that they colluded with the Fragrance Restaurant?”
Shopkeeper Lei felt that what he said made sense, but after walking around the kitchen twice, he felt that he could not confront the Fragrance Restaurant righteously. He slapped the table. “The Ning Family is so bold!”
Not long after, the courtyard door of the Ning Family’s old residence was kicked open. A few fierce-looking burly men held wooden clubs and smashed their things with a wave of their hands.
Old Madam Ning screamed, “Who are you?! What are you doing?!”
Old Sir Ning hugged his pipe immediately and shouted with bravado, “Aren’t you afraid that we’ll report you to the authorities for trespassing?”
The leader of the burly men was called Wang Biao. He placed the wooden club on his shoulder and put his hand on it. He took out a contract in a sloppy manner. “Report to the officials, right? Sure.”
He pointed at a line of words on the contract. “Today, a farmer, Ning Youcai, sold sour bamboo shoots to the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant for 180 copper coins a jar… If the sour bamboo shoots provided by Ning Fengcai don’t meet the requirements of the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant, he has to pay 10 times the compensation.”
He said to Ning Youcai, whose face was already swollen after being punched a few times, “What is our request? There’s no need to tell you, right?” Then, he got his lackeys to carry up a sauce jar that still had half a jar left. He pressed Ning Youcai’s head and pressed him in. “Smell it yourself. Is this the taste we want?”
There was a sour and rotten smell in the sauce jar. It was already unbearable outside. Ning Feng’s face was covered in sauce and he vomited.
Wang Biao stepped on him again and scolded, “Is this something a human can eat?”