flstandardbreds Chapter 136 The Duel Between a Fool and a Fool
Chapter 136 The Duel Between a Fool and a Fool
"Master, we are willing to try. This servant thanks you for remembering us." Uncle Ma was full of excitement. After being here for several months, he finally stopped kneeling down at the drop of a hat.
"Aunt Ma, sit on the little chair, I'll put the drops in your eyes." Xia Yu took out the small porcelain bottle and helped Aunt Ma sit on the little chair next to her. She carefully covered Aunt Ma's mouth and nose with a handkerchief to prevent too much medicine from spilling everywhere, especially not dripping onto the ground.
"Miss, I can do it." Uncle Ma saw Xia Yu helping Aunt Ma to put in eye drops, so he quickly stepped forward to take it from her.
How could Xia Yu possibly give him that small bottle? She quickly dodged Uncle Ma's hand as he tried to take the bottle.
"Uncle Ma, let Xiaxia do it. It's just a small bottle of medicine; don't spill it if your hand slips," Zhang Youtie said, pulling Uncle Ma aside.
"Yes, yes, Master is right." After saying that, he nervously stared at Xia Yu and Aunt Ma, wishing he could see Aunt Ma's eyes right away.
Xia Yu was being very careful, but the bottle opening was too big, and some water still spilled out uncontrollably. She quickly grabbed a handkerchief and wiped the water from Aunt Ma's face. She also applied some drops to both of her eyes.
"Aunt Ma, how do you feel?" Xia Yu asked nervously, staring intently at Aunt Ma's face.
"The cool feeling is very comfortable, and my eyes don't feel so dry anymore." Aunt Ma carefully savored the sensations coming from her eyes.
"Then open your eyes and see if you can see anything."
Hearing Xia Yu's words, Aunt Ma couldn't help but sneer, "Miss, how could it be so fast!" But she still opened her eyes in cooperation, and it was still pitch black, like a night without lights, and she couldn't see anything.
Seeing Aunt Ma shake her head, Xia Yu, unwilling to give up, waved her hand in front of Aunt Ma's eyes again.
"Aunt Ma, can't you still see anything? Is there even a glimmer of light?"
Aunt Ma felt a warmth in her heart seeing that Xia Yu was even more nervous than she was. She gently comforted Xia Yu, saying, "Miss, even the most miraculous medicine takes time. It won't be that fast. You're not better today, but maybe you'll see results in a few more days."
"Yes, I was too hasty. Maybe a few more days would have been better." After saying that, she looked at Aunt Ma and said to her, "Aunt Ma, I'll come and give you another one tonight."
"Oh, thank you, Miss. You've gone to so much trouble for an old woman like me." Aunt Ma said with a smile, her eyes lifeless as she looked at Xia Yu.
"Alright, let's go back. Let Aunt Ma get some rest; it's good for her eyes." Zhang Youtie called to his daughter, preparing to leave. He was afraid she would give herself away if they stayed any longer; she had seemed too eager earlier. Luckily, Uncle Ma was even more anxious than she was and didn't notice her lapse in composure.
However, something interesting happened at home that evening. Just after dinner, as dusk fell, Zhang Youjin and Wang Shi arrived, carrying a purse, insisting on returning the silver ingots Zhang Youtie had given him the day before. While the two brothers were arguing, Zhang Youyin also arrived furtively, also wanting to return silver. Zhang Youtie and Liu Shi naturally refused to accept it; they had given it to him out of kindness to help their brother, how could they possibly take it back?
In the end, the two brothers didn't repay their debt, and Zhang Youtie dragged them out for another drinking session. The snacks were braised dishes brought by Wang Shi, and the wine was a good liquor that Zhang Youtie bought from town for 300 coins a pound. They drank until their tongues were practically slurred before Zhang Youtie drove them back to their old house in a mule cart. The next day, when the brothers sobered up, their wives naturally teased them a bit. Details will not be elaborated here.
In the following days, Xia Yu went to give Aunt Ma eye drops three times a day. Her actions deeply moved the elderly couple. When Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma talked privately, they expressed their gratitude for the kindness their employers had shown them, saying they could never repay it in eight lifetimes.
However, Madam Shen was right. Just two days later, a carriage entered Zhangjia Village and, after asking around, arrived at Zhang Youtie's house. Actually, they didn't need to ask much; once they entered the village and asked which family sold prawns, several children running around in the village led them there.
Zhang Youtie had nothing to do these past two days. When the carriage arrived, his family was in the vegetable garden in the backyard catching caterpillars. Hearing the commotion in the front yard, they turned around the corner of the house and returned to the front yard. They saw several richly dressed people standing outside their gate, looking around. Seeing Zhang Youtie and his family come out, one of them laughed...
"We're here to buy prawns, a lot of them, and we'd like to talk to you about the price."
Hearing the man speak, Xia Yu unconsciously frowned. Although the man was smiling, there was a sense of arrogance in his words. Zhang Youtie opened the courtyard gate and invited the person outside in.
"Please come inside and rest for a bit." Zhang Youtie didn't plan to sell shrimp to anyone else, but guests are guests, and he couldn't just turn them away and send them away.
The men followed Zhang Youtie into the house and saw that the main room contained only an old square table and four peeling stools; there was nothing else. They couldn't help but show expressions of disgust. However, they still remembered why they had come, so their facial expressions were managed fairly well.
The house was practically bare. The group exchanged glances, realizing that the matter was almost certainly settled.
Liu took out the teapot and cups used for entertaining guests, brewed some wild chrysanthemums that Xia Yu had dried himself, and served them water.
"My humble abode is simple and unadorned, I hope you will forgive my lack of refinement. We are a country family and we don't have the habit of drinking tea. These are chrysanthemums that we dried ourselves. Although they are simple, they are just right to drink at this time of year. Please do not find them offensive."
"You're too kind. These chrysanthemums have a natural fragrance, and brewing them into tea is a refined affair." The other person held the teacup to their nose, smelled it, and then actually took a sip.
"We are the owners of several restaurants in the county. We've come today to ask you to supply our restaurants. We'd like to know the price?" the man who had spoken at the door said with a smile.
"We sell it for thirty-three coins a pound," Zhang Youtie answered honestly.
"Brother, that's not very sincere of you to say. We checked before we came, and it's not this price," the man said, somewhat dissatisfied.
"Yes, this is the price for individual items. There's a discount of a few coins if you buy more."
"Oh, we need a lot, what's the best price?" the person continued.
"Thirty coins a pound."
"My friend," Zhang Youtie said, "I don't think you understand what an opportunity our presence represents for you. We own one of the largest restaurants in Ming'an County. Together, we can consume a hundred catties of shrimp every day. And give me a fair price." The man thought Zhang Youtie was a fool. What did a hundred catties mean? How much silver was that in a day? How much in a month? Wasn't he afraid they'd get angry and stop buying from us?
In truth, Zhang Youtie wasn't afraid of angering them, because he didn't have that many shrimp to sell; supplying just the Shen family was already more than enough. The reason he was still willing to sit down and talk with them was to soften his refusal a bit.
"This is the lowest price we can offer. These shrimp are difficult to raise; they need to be fed several times a day, and they're incredibly hard to take care of." Zhang Youtie wasn't exaggerating. They couldn't rely on his daughter's magical water to raise shrimp forever, so the shrimp in the pond now were all raised by Xia Yu in her spatial pool until they were almost fully grown before being released into the pond on the wasteland. Without the support of the spatial spring, they definitely need to be fed. This is also part of Uncle Ma's daily work.
"I think twenty-five coins per pound is enough. What do you think? Our usage might even exceed one hundred pounds." The man stopped beating around the bush with Zhang Youtie and directly quoted their expected price. To compete with Zuixiaolou for customers, besides the menu, they were preparing for a price war. Therefore, the lower the cost, the better.
Xia Yu wondered if these people hadn't found out that her family was supplying Zuixiaolou with goods? How could they offer such a despicable and shameless price?
Actually, Xia Yu misunderstood them. Since they were able to find this place, they must have found out that they were also the suppliers of the shrimp to Zuixiaolou. However, their spies at Zuixiaolou said that Zuixiaolou only sold fifty catties of shrimp per day. That's why they came together, thinking that together they would want a hundred catties of shrimp, twice as much as Zuixiaolou sold daily, and that they could negotiate a lower price.
However, these people didn't expect that the scout was only a half-baked amateur. He could remember the cooking tips they were given, but gathering information on other matters was definitely not his forte. He didn't know that Zuixiaolou delivered ten catties of shrimp to the Shen residence every day, nor did he know that the shrimp sent to the prefectural city every three days were delivered directly to the docks by Zhang Youtie. They simply assumed that Zuixiaolou was just selling the shrimp they saw in the shop each day.
So, the visitor treated Zhang Youtie like a simpleton, and Zhang Youtie and Xia Yu treated the visitor like an idiot. They just talked like chickens and ducks, finding it difficult to communicate.