The Trouble-Maker Just Won’t Let Up
After seeing the customer out, Jiang Wan went to the wine cellar in the back courtyard to find Sheng Zixu.
He showed no sign of reflecting on what had just happened. Instead, he lounged lazily on a long bench, with a book covering his face to block the nonexistent sunlight.
She walked over and kicked his lower leg, which was hanging off the bench. “You’re here to watch the wine cellar, dispense wine, and reflect on your behavior.”
“Get up, Sheng Zixu.”
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Three seconds…
The air remained completely silent. He did not move. Sheng Zixu continued lying on the dilapidated bench, showing no intention of paying Jiang Wan any attention.
Seeing this, Jiang Wan knew he was pretending to be asleep. She simply spoke without mercy.
“All the losses from earlier will be deducted from your wages this month. Every single penny.”
The moment her words reached Sheng Zixu’s ears, the man who had been lying down immediately sprang upright.
At first, he had intended to keep pretending to sleep and get up after she left. But upon hearing this, he instantly became dissatisfied.
“Why?! I’m not working for free!”
Jiang Wan shot back without hesitation. “You seemed quite happy provoking that customer earlier. Did you ever think about the consequences?”
“…”
Sheng Zixu was rendered speechless for a moment.
In the end, he defended himself in a small voice. “He was the one who deliberately made things difficult first. I was seriously doing my job, okay? Why should you deduct my entire monthly wage?”
Hearing his muttering, Jiang Wan let out a long sigh.
“I won’t deduct all of it. But you’ll only get one tael of silver this month. Also, you don’t have to work as a waiter anymore. You’ll be responsible for watching the wine cellar and keeping track of the inventory. Someone else will handle everything else.”
Sheng Zixu was still somewhat dissatisfied, but since he had indeed been at fault first, he could only accept it.
“Got it. Hurry up and leave. Hurry up and go. You’re disturbing me while I’m working.”
He pushed Jiang Wan toward the outside.
After pushing her all the way to the main entrance, Sheng Zixu immediately shut the door in her face, leaving Jiang Wan with no chance to say anything else.
Suddenly, a clear young man’s voice rang out.
“Shopkeeper! It’s that customer surnamed Chen from earlier. He’s urgently looking for you. Please go and take a look. The others can’t handle him anymore.”
Jiang Wan immediately recognized the young man. He was one of the waiters at Fuxin Restaurant.
As for the customer surnamed Chen, he was the very same man Sheng Zixu had nearly infuriated to death earlier.
Jiang Wan had already waived his bill, given him some gifts, moved him to a private room, and even told him that if he brought his friends next time, their meals would be free as well. Only then had she barely managed to satisfy him.
She had no idea what kind of trouble he was causing now.
She nodded and had the waiter lead the way.
The waiter brought her to the private room at the far right end of the second floor.
“Shopkeeper, this is the room.”
Jiang Wan took a deep breath and waved her hand at the waiter.
“Go take care of your work. I’ll handle this.”
The waiter acknowledged her and withdrew, leaving Jiang Wan standing outside the room.
She pushed open the door.
The furnishings inside were fairly decent, but compared with the other private rooms, this one looked rather ordinary.
The moment the customer surnamed Chen saw Jiang Wan arrive, he immediately began complaining.
“What kind of dishes are these? I thought your restaurant was sincere about making amends, but this is what you serve? It’s unbearably awful!”
“How about this? I know you want to make it up to me, and I won’t make things difficult for you. Just send over a few more dishes.”
Jiang Wan’s heart, which had just begun to relax, immediately tightened again.
“Bird’s nest, shark fin, camel hump, bear paw, shad, golden-sauce fish slices. Don’t try to fool me. I know you have all of these here. As long as you send them over, I’ll forgive you. I’ll even help promote your restaurant. After all, you’ve only just opened. What do you think, Shopkeeper?”
The arrogance on the customer surnamed Chen’s face grew more pronounced as he listed the dishes one after another.
Jiang Wan’s heart sank when she heard the list.
Each of these dishes cost at least ten taels of silver. Not only were their transportation costs high, but they were also difficult to prepare without wasting ingredients. The restaurant did not have much stock to begin with.
As for the bear paw, it was even more restricted—it could only be obtained with special approval from the authorities and was exclusively enjoyed by the nobility and powerful families.
This man clearly wanted a free meal while blatantly threatening her.
If she agreed, she would lose nearly a hundred taels of silver.
Jiang Wan’s expression darkened further.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we cannot provide those dishes. We don’t have them in the restaurant. We haven’t had the chance to purchase them yet.”
The customer surnamed Chen’s face immediately turned gloomy. He slammed his hand against the table and pointed at her nose.
“You don’t have them? Then don’t blame me for being rude! Your restaurant is so big, yet you don’t even have these dishes? You might as well close down sooner rather than later. And your cooking isn’t anything special either. It’s enough to ruin anyone’s appetite.”
Jiang Wan’s brows furrowed deeply.
“Sir, please watch your words. Do not slander us. As for why the restaurant doesn’t have them, I believe you know the reason very well.”
The customer surnamed Chen understood the implication immediately.
Why didn’t the restaurant have them?
Because he was deliberately taking advantage of the situation and trying to get expensive dishes for free.
He was trying to dine and dash without paying—simply in a more shameless form.
The customer surnamed Chen immediately flew into a rage.
“Your pathetic little shop? I’m not even willing to come here! If it weren’t for the fact that you just opened and I wanted to show you some support, who would come? Who even knows about your restaurant?”
“Not only are you ungrateful, but you look down on people just because I asked you to send over a few dishes. I certainly won’t come here again. I’d rather not be looked down upon!”
“Someone else was clearly at fault first, yet you’re treating your customers like this, exploiting and threatening them! I’ll make sure everyone outside knows exactly what kind of people you are!”
“…What a scam of a restaurant…”
“…”
Listening to his endless tirade, Jiang Wan did not even need her ability to read minds to know what was really going on.
In short, he had failed to get his free expensive meal, so now he was throwing a tantrum, having completely lost his composure, while continuing to threaten her.
The restaurant had actually been rather famous in the town. The previous owner had simply left because of other matters and thus decided to sell the establishment.
Jiang Wan was not particularly worried about her reputation being ruined. Everyone in the main hall had witnessed how the matter was handled. They were all clapping and praising the shopkeeper for being generous, saying they would definitely come again.
Jiang Wan simply stood there quietly and listened to him.
She waited until he became thirsty and stopped to pour himself some water before the room finally grew quiet.
The customer surnamed Chen seemed exhausted from his tirade. While drinking water, he sat down on a round stool and patted his chest as he gasped for breath.
He was rather plump, and his breathing was particularly loud. His face was bright red, resembling a pig’s head.
After drinking two cups of water, he once again pointed at Jiang Wan.
Before he could even speak, she interrupted him.
“Sir, if all you have to say is this trivial nonsense, then I won’t keep you company any longer. Please do as you wish.”
With that, Jiang Wan turned and walked away, seemingly deaf to the curses coming from behind her.
Seeing that she did not stop, the customer surnamed Chen became furious. He threw the teacup in his hand onto the floor beside Jiang Wan’s feet, forcing her to stop.
Jiang Wan was angry now as well.
Facing this relentless customer, she spoke bluntly.
“Sir, you’ll need to pay for the cup you broke. One tael of silver. Please settle the payment at the counter before you leave.”
“Pay for what? You were clearly in the wrong first! Why should I pay?”
“Besides, if you hadn’t angered me, would I have thrown it?”
The customer surnamed Chen stood up and lunged toward Jiang Wan.
His movements were slow, so Jiang Wan easily dodged to the side.
He lunged again, and she quickly moved to the other side.
After several rounds of this, Jiang Wan took advantage of an opening and secretly stuck out her leg, tripping him when he was not paying attention.
The man immediately cried out, “Ow!”
Jiang Wan pulled open the door and shouted toward the waiter at the corner.
“Someone, come quickly! Someone has fallen!”
Hearing her call, the waiter immediately rushed inside.
“Shopkeeper!”
“Go help him up,” Jiang Wan instructed.
The waiter cautiously bent down and helped the man off the floor.
But once the man was pulled upright, he threw his entire weight onto the waiter. The waiter nearly lost his balance and almost fell again.
“This restaurant is completely unscrupulous! You actually assaulted a customer! I’m going to make sure everyone knows what despicable people you are and ruin your reputation!”
The customer surnamed Chen continued shouting without restraint.
Jiang Wan could not be bothered to deal with him. She instructed the waiter, “Take him to the counter and make him pay for the cup he broke. Don’t let him get away with a single cent.”
The waiter acknowledged the order and forcefully “helped” the customer surnamed Chen to the counter to settle the bill.
“You’re forcing me to buy something I don’t want! I’m going to sue you!”
Seeing the situation, the waiter called over several more people, who firmly pressured him into paying.
After he paid, everyone surrounding him immediately dispersed. The waiters also returned to their work, leaving only the customer surnamed Chen standing at the entrance.
He could not swallow his anger. After thinking for a while, he seemed to come up with an idea. He left the restaurant and headed in the opposite direction from his home.
Aside from the unpleasant incident on the first day, the following few days were relatively peaceful, and nothing major happened.
Jiang Wan and Ye Yurong had agreed to report their findings to each other once every three days. If anything special came up, they could meet sooner. Jiang Wan tied the useful clues she had gathered to the leg of a carrier pigeon and sent it to the docks.
Because his wages had been deducted, Sheng Zixu worked sluggishly. The people working alongside him did not know what to say about him. Whenever someone got into a verbal argument with him, his mouth was sharp enough to make them want to die.
At noon, a sudden scream came from one of the private rooms on the second floor, which had been peaceful until then.
When a waiter rushed inside, he saw a well-dressed man lying on the floor, foam spilling from his mouth and his eyes tightly shut.
People nearby began screaming in panic.
“Someone’s been murdered! Someone’s been murdered!”
“Fuxin Restaurant poisoned the food!”
“This black-hearted restaurant is trying to kill someone and rob us!”
“…”
The scene instantly descended into chaos.
By the time Jiang Wan arrived, quite a few people had already gathered to watch. She hurried forward to check on the man.
The person lying on the floor was foaming at the mouth and convulsing all over.
The waiter said tearfully, “Shopkeeper, he won’t wake up! What should we do?”
Jiang Wan reassured him, “Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
She activated her mind-reading ability and looked at the people around her. Their thoughts immediately flowed into her mind.
【This time, I’ll make sure they’re completely ruined!】
【Serves them right for offending Steward Chen!】
【With so many people here, there’s no way they’ll ever be able to recover their reputation.】
【I doubt they’ll ever figure out that it was nothing more than alum water added to the wine and some breathing techniques to create the effect. I didn’t expect it to work this well.】
…
After hearing everything, Jiang Wan felt a wave of disgust.
She turned to the frightened, tearful waiter beside her and asked, “Has the physician been called?”
The waiter answered in a trembling voice, “We sent for one as soon as we found him collapsed. He should be here soon.”
Jiang Wan finally relaxed.
She turned to the surrounding crowd and reassured them, “Everyone, please rest assured. Everything served at Fuxin Restaurant is safe. If there really were poison in the food, everyone who ate here should have already been poisoned by now.”
“Let’s wait until the physician arrives before making any decisions. Please trust us!”
The crowd began whispering among themselves, discussing what she had said. They felt that her reasoning made sense.
Some people, however, were secretly thinking that if there really was poison, they could still get compensation. It would be an incredible bargain.
So everyone quietly waited.
In the back courtyard, Sheng Zixu was lying on a reclining chair, fast asleep.
Suddenly, a faint sound of footsteps startled him awake.
He did not move. He waited until he was certain that someone had entered the wine cellar before getting up.
While the intruder was busy putting something somewhere, Sheng Zixu immediately grabbed the small wine jar beside him and smashed it against the person’s head.
Back in the private room on the second floor, the people who had been there originally wanted to slip away as soon as they heard that a physician had been called.
However, they were stopped.
Several waiters blocked their path.
Jiang Wan said to them, “Since something happened to someone here, I will naturally take responsibility. Why don’t you wait until the physician arrives and hear what he has to say first?”
In less than half a quarter of an hour, the physician arrived. He immediately stepped forward and took the man’s pulse. His brows furrowed, and he shouted to everyone around him, “Are you people making a fool of this old man? This person isn’t poisoned at all! He merely drank some alum water.”
Jiang Wan looked at them indifferently. “You’re trying to swindle people. I’ll have someone take you to the authorities later.”
Seeing that the situation had turned against them, several of them tried to escape, but the guards hired by the restaurant quickly caught them and pinned them firmly to the ground.
Jiang Wan then said to the physician, “Doctor, could you check which item they mixed the alum into?”
Without another word, the physician began examining the items. He picked up another silver-colored wine jug from the table, opened it, and gave it a sniff before confidently answering, “It’s this jug of wine. They mixed alum into it.”
Jiang Wan said, “Thank you, Doctor.”
She continued, “These people attempted to swindle us and also damaged the reputation of my restaurant. I will send them to the authorities and have them severely punished.”
The onlookers immediately applauded and cheered.
“These people must be punished!”
“That’s right! They have to be punished. Give them a good beating with the paddle!”
The crowd moved aside, clearing a path for the guards to take the group away and report them to the authorities.
After everyone dispersed, Jiang Wan had someone pay the physician and escort him home. She then began investigating what had happened today.