"Isn’t that Brother Qiu from Mahwanzi Village?" Lu Gao hurried down from the kang, "I have an honored guest here, your timing is perfect. Come join us for a couple of drinks... let me introduce you to..."
"I won’t be drinking, Old Lu..." Brother Qiu waved his hand to interrupt Lu Gao, looking somewhat guilty, "I came today because..." he paused, hastily setting down the basket, "this is twenty chicken eggs and a packet of brown sugar your sister-in-law kneaded together..."
"Brother Qiu, what is this about?" Lu Gao frowned, "Take it back. If there’s something up, just talk about it."
"No, listen to me," Brother Qiu shook his head, "about those shrimps you wanted last time, I can’t give them to you anymore, I..."
Lu Gao’s expression immediately darkened.
"I know it’s not decent of me, but someone else is offering twenty copper coins per jin for the shrimps..." Brother Qiu sighed, "You know my family is struggling..."
"If someone else is willing to pay a higher price, we shouldn’t stand in their way of making a profit," said Yang Ruxin, seeing that Lu Gao was about to get angry. She quickly waved her hand, "Uncle Lu, it’s alright."
Brother Qiu couldn’t help but look at Yang Ruxin.
"Take your things and go," Lu Gao ended up just sighing and then waved his hand, "Since Lady Xinxin has spoken, go sell them for a higher price in the future. But let me say this, if one day they don’t want them anymore, I won’t be taking them back either. I can’t always let you have all the good things, can I?"
"This..." Brother Qiu suddenly felt like he was going to miss out on something but thinking about earning an extra hundred copper coins at once, he ultimately couldn’t resist the temptation and just nodded in agreement.
"Alright, I understand your difficulty, we won’t hold it against you," Lu Gao turned around and climbed back onto the kang, "Zhuangzhuang, see off Brother Qiu... and take one of the snacks Lady Xinxin brought to give to the kids to try..."
"Brother Qiu," Lu Zhuangzhuang briskly grabbed a pack of snacks and placed it in the basket, "these snacks were bought from the county town, they even smell delicious."
"Old Lu..." Brother Qiu glanced at Lu Gao, but Lu Gao didn’t look back at him, leaving Qiu to walk away dejectedly with his basket.
"Alas!" Lu Gao sighed, "Anyone can go back on their word, but I didn’t expect it from him..." he paused, "Back when his wife was sick and they were nearly out of food, he couldn’t go to Yuanhai and could only catch small fish and shrimps nearby, but he couldn’t sell them at all. It was I who bought all of his shrimps, and I’d always give him a few more copper coins. It wasn’t much, but it amounted to about fifteen coins a day, which was enough to buy medicine and rice. He almost kneeled to me at the time..."
"Isn’t it quite normal for human hearts to be inscrutable?" Yang Ruxin just smiled.
"Twenty coins a jin?" Lu Gao smiled bitterly, "Those shrimps aren’t worth that much on any account; they used to only be good enough to feed to chickens. If it weren’t for Xinxin collecting them, where would they get that kind of income? And this man is obviously doing it on purpose, yet they can’t see through it..." he paused, "Xinxin, are they targeting that ’Divine Sauce’?"
"Yes, I knew someone would come to make trouble, and I even knew who it was, but I didn’t do anything or warn you," Yang Ruxin spread her hands, "See, doesn’t this test reveal people’s hearts? So Uncle Lu, there’s no need to hurry or to be upset, the ones who want to leave, let them go. Those who stay, I won’t fail to reward them in the future..."