Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The First Customer and Accusation

The twins glanced at each other as they passed by Shun Zi’ store. He really made use of the men under him well.

In just a span of a day, the shop was already cleaned up, becoming a completely new shop. Even two signs respectively placed on the tree in front of the shop and on the shop itself had changed.

However, the number of people who could read in this remote village was too few, so Shun Zi must have included the travelling merchant as his target.

"High-quality rice seeds, high-quality rice seeds. Come to our store to buy high-quality rice seeds! Guaranteed, you won’t be disappointed!"

A worker with a loud voice was in charge of advertising the product.

Unfortunately, besides a certain familiar person and his people, the shop was completely deserted of any customers. Indeed, most farmers would consider using the seed from their own harvest.

They consider it a waste spending money on seeds unless they had no other choice—the quality of their own harvest was too bad due to a total harvest failure.

On top of that, they were also afraid of being cheated! What if the seeds they buy aren’t sprouting at all? They would lose money.

"Welcome, Mr. Han." Shun Zi was beaming when he saw Han Tingxun entering his shop.

Han Tingxun nodded in acknowledgement, recognizing him as one of the Merchant Yang’s people.

Alas, the twins couldn’t hear what these people were talking about. They were already walking far away, and soon, they arrived at their stall.

"Heavens!" Xiao Yuxi nearly dropped the scented sachets on her hand into the ground. She sighed and patted her hand on her chest. "Auntie, you really scared me!"

It was the same auntie who had been arguing with Shun Zi two days ago. She had been standing beside her like a hawk, and for the dazed Xiao Yuxi, she had appeared almost without sound at all.

"Xiao girls, do you remember me, right? I am your aunt, Aunt Tian." Aunt Tian glanced around the surroundings before she called out in a low voice.

The twins looked at her in puzzlement. They were sure they never had an aunt with the surname Tian. Why is she suddenly recognizing them as relatives?

"Do you still have a few jin of paddy rice left from your fields?" Aunt Tian asked. "Your harvest is so good. I want to use them as seeds."

Xiao Yuyan instantly understood. She responded in an equally low voice. "Aunt Tian, do you want to buy our paddy rice?"

Aunt Tian’s eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, you still have some left and haven’t sold all of them to that unscrupulous market scout, right?"

Coughing softly, Xiao Yuyan asked directly. "How many do you want, Aunt Tian? We will ask our mother later."

A look of contemplation mixed with hesitation crossed Aunt Tian’s face. "Do you have ten jin? I will try that amount first. How much is it per jin?"

Xiao Yuyan bit her lip. "Aunt Tian, we will give you an exclusive price. Twenty-five copper coins per jin."

They appreciated her help a few days ago. Aunt Tian was still trying to help them to the best of her capacity, considering a lot of honest farmers were sometimes cheated by unscrupulous merchants.

Aunt Tian seemed to be taken aback, and she fell silent for a moment before she nodded, understanding something.

She had seen that market scout going out of a certain shop selling paddy rice seeds even though the shop keeper wasn’t him.

When she came over to ask, the price was as high as thirty copper coins!

"Is the price fine, Aunt Tian?" Xiao Yuyan asked, snapping the middle-aged woman out of reverie.

"Yes, yes, I will still take ten jin... no, make it to twenty," Aunt Tian decided. She had yearned to have such a harvest ever since she saw the Xiao family’s paddy rice stalk two days ago. "How should I fetch the seeds? I can go to your house."

"No need, Aunt Tian. We will bring it with us tomorrow." Xiao Yuxi smiled.

Shun Zi was quick-witted enough to send his men early in the morning when it was still dark to fetch the paddy rice from their house. He really took their words to heart that the Xiao family didn’t want anyone finding out they were the seed supplier.

"Oh right, Aunt Tian. Please don’t tell anyone about this..." Xiao Yuyan bit her lip and said. She didn’t forget to promote Shun Zi’s shop—it was the last time they would open their back door.

"Actually, we won’t have much rice left after this, Aunt Tian. If you still need more..." Xiao Yuyan gestured to the direction of Shun Zi’s shop. "There is a shop over there that’s also selling high-quality paddy rice seeds."

Aunt Tian was still grateful. "Thank you, Xiao girls. I will wait for the paddy rice seeds tomorrow."

Xiao Yuxi was more straightforward compared to Xiao Yuyan. "Auntie, can you keep this a secret? We don’t want people to come to us."

Readily agreed, Aunt Tian patted her chest. "Of course, I am best at keeping secrets."

Xiao Yuyan beamed. "Thank you, Auntie. We will add one more jin as a bonus. You just need to provide us with the original price."

Upon hearing that, Aunt Tian was smiling ear to ear. She chatted with the Xiao twins for a while before she left after buying one scented sachet.

Xiao Yuxi turned to her younger sister worriedly. "Yan’er, Aunt Tian won’t tell anyone, right?"

In a sure tone, Xiao Yuyan nodded and said, "Aunt Tian won’t tell anyone."

Instead, she would keep it a secret just like they requested. Their family had indirectly told her that most of this paddy rice batch had been bought by a paddy rice shop.

If the harvest from the seed was decent, Aunt Tian definitely would want to buy the seeds again. According to their youngest sister’s words, the effect from the pesticide was still there.

Although it was impossible to have the same quality as their paddy rice which had received the direct full effect of the magical pesticide, the harvest would definitely be better compared to people who didn’t use their paddy rice seeds.

If Aunt Tian told everyone, what if the Xiao family refuses to let her buy more seeds? She would be the one losing! Moreover, once the seeds’ efficacy was revealed, more people definitely would flock to buy more.

Aunt Tian definitely would want to keep this back door a secret.

After the twins sold all of their small batch of scented sachets, they both went to buy some snacks before they headed home.

Now that their family earned more money, Zhou Anran had given them some pocket money, ordering them to buy snacks.

On the way to the snack’s stall, they suddenly noticed a commotion. They recognized the two people surrounded by the angry masses.

It was Chen Huayun and Liu Hua.

"What is happening to them?" Xiao Yuxi widened her eyes. Avoiding someone who almost bumped into Xiao Yuyan, she was quick enough to drag her younger sister closer to her side.

"Are you going to take responsibility for what has happened to us?!" Similar angry shouts came from around them.

"You two vicious women, you actually dare to sell poison to people! Today, you are even shameless enough to sell more!"

"Who are these two people? From which village are they? They actually make poisoned drinks and even ask us to pay for them. Are they not a pair of spies sent by the enemy country?!"

The last one was a super vicious accusation.

Chen Huayun and Liu Hua’s faces had gone deathly pale. They were sure that they had gotten the right formula.

They had fed the drink to mice as an experiment to determine whether the drink was toxic or not. After a few days passed, the mice were still kicking around healthily.

"N-no..." Chen Huayun stuttered, losing her usual fierceness when she scolded people. After all, there were too many of them, and most of them were men.

Compared to men, they were still physically weaker.

Liu Hua was as quiet as a quail, shivering beside her mother-in-law, trying to shrink her plump figure as small as possible.

"Let’s just bring them to the yamen for our magistrate to judge! I am sure he will judge this case fairly!"

Once a person brought up this topic, others clamored the same.

Just as the twins were about to slip away, they suddenly heard a loud shout. "It’s them! You must have recognized them, right? They were the ones who sold the recipe to us! Arrest them instead of us!"

Chen Huayun was pointing at the twins.