Reborn Concubine, Be Respectful First

"It's okay, he's just a teacher. Like I said just now, Zhang Pingxiao is just bluffing. Just wait and see what happens. Besides, the Marquis and the mother-in-law are here. We didn't say anything wrong!"

"Okay, okay, don't worry. You've already done it. What are you afraid of? I was quite optimistic about you just now. You've been sensible since childhood just like my elder brother. But now you look timid, but you're not like that anymore. After all, my elder brother has never admitted his mistakes to anyone, or been afraid of anyone!" Song Hejing said indifferently.

"Hey, why is there no food again? I've already gone to the third store. I want to ask you how you do business? You're a rice store. What else do you sell if there's no food?" the middle-aged man shouted angrily.

But before the shop owner could say anything, the man left cursing.

"Third sister-in-law, what happened? Is there another disaster somewhere? How come there is no rice, flour, grain and millet? Isn't this new grain that has just been harvested? I also heard the manager of the farm say that the harvest this year is still good. How come there is no food before the New Year?" Chu Mingzhu looked at the rice shop outside in confusion.

After the middle-aged man left, several more people came.

Once again, when he saw the sign "No Rice Yet" that had just been hung up by the waiter at the door of the rice shop, he started arguing unwillingly.

"How do you do business here? Yesterday, I saw grain being shipped in from outside the capital. There were more than ten carts of grain. Why is there no grain today? Are you deliberately hoarding grain and not selling it to us? Are you trying to drive up the price of rice? Is it easy for us to do small business? How can we open our door to do business without rice? Woohoo... This is really too much. I went to every grain store in the capital early in the morning. If I can't buy rice to take back, our small business will have to close. What will our family eat and drink?"

"It's the same in my family. My ancestors have passed down the art of brewing wine. How can we brew wine without grain? We have been buying rice from the Jiang family's rice store for more than ten years. Even in years of disaster, the price would at most go up. Why won't they sell us a single grain of rice or a pound of grain today?"

"Yes, yours is the only rice and grain store on our street. How come it's suddenly gone? There weren't many yesterday? I saw it with my own eyes. Hey... Don't leave, explain it clearly?"

The young man who was surrounded by several people was also confident: "It's gone, it's gone, why do you have so many excuses? We have run out of rice for the Jiang family, no, there are also the Zhang family, the He family, and the Wang family. There are more than just our family selling rice in the whole capital, so get out of the way..."

"No more rice, all gone. I just went there. Don't lie to us. You guys just want to drive up the price. I tell you, you must give us a deadline today when to have rice. Otherwise, don't even think about leaving!" The middle-aged man was aggressive, but his eyes were full of helplessness, letting himself be bullied.

But he couldn't retreat like this. He had a big family at home to support. How could he retreat?

"Hmph! When the shopkeeper says it will be that time, just wait!" The young man's frivolous and arrogant attitude immediately aroused the anger of more people.

Soon, several people started fighting on the street.

The noise outside naturally quickly attracted the attention of the people in the shop. Soon, five or six servants, along with two strong men, rushed out of the shop.

"Boss, boss, help... help me... they are trying to steal the rice in our store... find someone to catch them..." The young man had no idea how many times he had been hit on the back and stomach during the struggle. He was in so much pain that he couldn't utter a word.

He just wanted the bailiffs to arrest all these people and avenge him.

"What are you doing? Get out of the way, get out of the way. What are you still standing there for? Pull the people out quickly. This is really lawless..." The owner of the rice shop had gray hair, but he looked in good spirits, and his long gown was spotless.

He didn't look like a shopkeeper, but his attire was very similar to that of the county magistrate in the government office. However, the county magistrate's clothes were black with wide sleeves, while the shopkeeper was not so bold and wore navy blue with narrow sleeves.

Su Xinqing looked at the fourth-rank official at the prime minister's door, the owner of the Jiang family's rice store, and couldn't help but sigh: It's true that a big tree provides good shade!

There were only two groups of people, and before they could argue for a few words, a group of yamen runners came over.

"What are you doing here? Disperse, everyone..."

"Don't you even know where you are? You don't want to live anymore... Just disperse, all of you..."

"Don't you see that the nobles' carriage is blocked by you? Quickly disperse. You are hindering the nobles' important business and you will be in trouble."

"But, sir, we..."

"What are you talking about? Get out of the way. There is no rice here. Other shops have it. What are you blocking here for? They don't want to sell it to you, and you still want to force them to do it? Get out of the way, everyone..."

With a clang, someone drew his official sword.

Sure enough, after a short while, the road was open.

Song Hejing was stunned when he saw the faces of the yamen runners outside.

She wanted to go down, but was stopped by Su Xinqing: "Cousin, there are too many people outside. If you get hurt, your uncle and aunt will be worried about you, not to mention that there are men outside. Besides, we don't have a rice store at home, so we can't help them." At this point, she couldn't help but think of the small teahouse at her aunt's house: "If my aunt and uncle don't have food supply during this period, it's better to stop for a few days. It happened under the feet of the emperor, and it should be healed in a few days."

"He Jing, don't worry. Those people in the Censorate are not pushovers. They will probably scold these families to pieces tomorrow." After all, Chu Mingzhu is the legitimate daughter of the Marquis's mansion. Yuan did her best to cultivate her, so naturally, Chu Mingzhu was not spared in any matter, big or small, in the capital.

"Are you sure?" Song Hejing asked unconvinced, and turned back to look at the crowd who were still arguing behind them.

"Well, if you don't believe me, you can ask Third Sister-in-law. Last year, the son of the Minister of Works went to a brothel to drink wine the night before. When he left, I don't know if the servant forgot to pay or deliberately didn't pay. The next morning during the court session, he was reported by the Censorate for not disciplining his children and was fined half a year's salary. And the year before last, a concubine in the backyard of Duke Zhang's mansion suddenly died. She was also reported. The mansion was reported to be Duke Zhang's mansion. They disregarded human life. Duke Zhang was reprimanded and compensated the concubine's family with 2,000 taels of silver..."

Not only Song Hejing was listening attentively, but even Su Xinqing was not very clear about some things.

It was also the first time she had heard such details.

However, there is no grain proofing service in rice stores in the capital.

Sure enough, at the morning court the next day, all the households with rice stores were reported to the Censorate.

No one is left behind.