13. The lion opens a big mouth.
With Yang Hongjin, Cheng Yun had more time to spare and didn’t have to rush home to cook. They could also have lunch in town before returning home. However, it was only Cheng Yun’s second time in town, and he had to bring along Yang Hongjin, who was like a child. In just one morning, he experienced the feeling of being a mother.
“Sit down and wait for me. I’ll be ready soon, and then we can leave,” Cheng Yun said before leaving with Yang Hongjin. Yang Hongjin was overjoyed and followed Cheng Yun closely. With such a small space, Cheng Yun could easily bump into him, which annoyed him after a few times.
Even when Cheng Yun scolded him, Yang Hongjin remained happy and even held Cheng Yun’s hand, saying, “Wife, let’s go.”
Cheng Yun was amused and annoyed at the same time. After quickly finishing their food and leaving it in a corner to deal with later, Cheng Yun grabbed his money bag and said, “Alright, alright, let’s go.”
Although Yang Hongjin had followed Yang Hongcai into town before, it wasn’t often. Yang Hongcai was afraid that he might get into trouble and always told him to follow him closely. When he was in an unfamiliar place, Yang Hongjin was even more afraid of doing something wrong and being punished.
However, when he went out with Cheng Yun this time, he knew that Cheng Yun wouldn’t scold or punish him, so he was excited and happy all the way. He was like a child going on a field trip, and even when he saw a butterfly, he would shout, “Wife, come and see!”
Cheng Yun was both amused and annoyed, but he let him be happy.
After half an hour, they arrived in town, where the streets were already bustling with people. Yang Hongjin watched a candied hawthorn seller for a long time, even turning around to look after passing by. Cheng Yun teased him, “Do you know what that is?”
Yang Hongjin replied earnestly, “I know, it’s candied hawthorn. It’s delicious.”
“Have you tried it before?” Cheng Yun asked.
Yang Hongjin nodded, reminiscing about the taste. “My brother bought it once before, and it was delicious.”
Seeing that Yang Hongjin really liked it, Cheng Yun estimated that a string of candied hawthorn wasn’t too expensive and they will soon earn some money. So, after some thought, he took him hand and led him back jutted his chin and said, “Come on, pick your own.”
Yang Hongjin’s eyes lit up with excitement, and he happily picked the ones he liked. Then he handed them to Cheng Yun and said, “Wife, try them.”
Cheng Yun was taken aback, blushed a little, took a bite, and then waved his hand to let Yang Hongjin eat it by himself. The seller smiled and said, “You two have a great relationship.”
Cheng Yun quickly paid and nodded at the seller before pulling Yang Hongjin away. After walking for a while, Cheng Yun, embarrassed and annoyed, turned his head to look at the idiot again.
“Wife, want to eat?” Yang Hongjin thought that Cheng Yun wanted to eat candied hawthorn, so he generously offered his own to him.
Cheng Yun instantly lost his temper and took a small bite of it, feeling the sweetness in his mouth and in his heart.
The two of them then arrived at Liu Wen’s restaurant, which had a grand signboard above the entrance with the three big characters “Yueqiong Tower” written on it. Cheng Yun had only passed by outside last time and glanced at it, but upon closer inspection, he found that the decoration at the entrance was extremely exquisite.
There was a small pond to the right of the entrance with a small artificial mountain in it, and several ornamental carp swimming inside. On each side of the entrance were two small but imposing stone lions. On the left-hand side upon entering was the shopkeeper’s counter, where many auspicious items such as Pixiu and Qilin were placed. It seemed that Liu Wen was someone who had studied Fengshui.
Yueqiong Tower had only recently opened, but there were already people coming in to dine one after another, and business seemed to be doing well.
When Cheng Yun and Yang Hongjin walked in holding hands, the shopkeeper’s “Welcome” hadn’t even been completed when he saw their attire and appearance, as well as Yang Hongjin’s demeanor. The smile on his face faded in an instant, replaced with disdain, and the words that came out of his mouth even had a hint of impatience: “How many?”
Yang Hongjin seemed to have encountered similar situations before, so he immediately put away his smile and pulled Cheng Yun with one hand while holding the candied hawthorn in the other, subconsciously hiding behind her.
Cheng Yun frowned, his good mood dampened by the shopkeeper’s words. He said calmly, “I’m here to see Liu Wen. We have an appointment.”
The shopkeeper’s eyes flickered upon hearing this and he stared at Cheng Yun’s face for a while and he almost burst out laughing with a snort.
It was because Cheng Yun’s face looked too young, even if he had a straight face, he couldn’t put up a strong front. Yueqiong Tower was one of the biggest shops in town, and everyone here knew Liu Wen’s name. If anyone came and said they were looking for the boss, would they still be in business?
Blame it on Liu Wen for setting things up too hastily and not explaining the situation to the shopkeeper in advance. No matter how the shopkeeper looked at it, he felt that these two people were scammers, but he wasn’t stupid either. If there was that one-in-ten-thousand chance that these two were really here to see the boss, he couldn’t afford to delay them.
After weighing the pros and cons, the shopkeeper had the waiter lead them inside and arranged for them to sit in a corner that was the least conspicuous.
The waiter didn’t know about their hidden agenda and served them as usual. Cheng Yun had already had breakfast, so he didn’t order anything except for a pot of tea. He sat there with Yang Hongjin, waiting for Liu Wen to arrive.
When the shopkeeper heard from the waiter that the two had only ordered a pot of tea, his suspicions were further confirmed. These two were just here to take advantage of them. He stared at Cheng Yun’s table and thought that even if they left, they had to pay for the tea first!
Yang Hongjin held a half-eaten candied fruit skewer in his hand as he sat down next to his wife, pressing close to him. He looked like a child who had done something wrong, making Cheng Yun both distressed and helpless.
“Be good, we didn’t do anything wrong, don’t be afraid,” Cheng Yun rubbed his head and let him eat his candied hawthorn in peace. Seeing Yang Hongjin’s hesitant and troubled expression, Cheng Yun took the initiative to bite the skewer and said, “See, I’m also eating it.”
Encouraged by his actions, Yang Hongjin smiled again and offered him the skewer generously. “Wife, have some.”
Finally coaxing him back to normal, Cheng Yun was very glad he had bought the skewer earlier. Seeing him sitting obediently there licking and eating, he felt much better than he did just a moment ago.
As they sat there waiting, Cheng Yun had nothing else to do but to chat with Yang Hongjin, who took every question seriously and put down the skewer to answer each time. When he finished speaking and saw his wife wasn’t asking any more questions, he would pick up the skewer and continue eating.
Cheng Yun became addicted to teasing him and laughed at his reactions each time. Yang Hongjin didn’t mind and let him continue. After Cheng Yun pinched his face once, he stopped teasing and asked him to finish eating.
However, the shopkeeper seemed to completely ignore their conversation and no one went to inform Liu Wen. Cheng Yun sat there for almost half an hour and no one came to refill their water. If he didn’t understand what was going on soon, then Cheng Yun felt like he had been living his whole life in vain.
The sense of powerlessness from waiting made him restless and even the good mood from teasing Yang Hongjin was washed away.
On one side, there was anger from being toyed with, and on the other, there was irritation from being looked down upon. Mixed within this sorrowful anger was also a bit of confusion about the future path.
The journey thus far had been too smooth for Cheng Yun, causing him to take everything for granted.
Liu Wen might have just been putting on an act to save face for his father. It was already generous of him to show up and have a meal with them. Yesterday, he didn’t make it clear that they would definitely collaborate. Furthermore, looking at the attitude of the shopkeeper today, what was there still to be confused about?
It was just that he was humiliated for no reason, and the most frustrating thing was that he had no room to refute. This anger lay heavy in his heart, making him very uncomfortable.
He wiped Yang Hongjin’s face and hands, not wanting to waste any more time. He called the waiter over to settle the bill, but it turned out to be the shopkeeper who came.
“You want to settle the bill, is that it?” The shopkeeper walked over in a grand manner, with no sign of the proper courtesy one would expect when treating a guest. His chin was raised high, and the way he looked at Cheng Yun was like he was dismissing a beggar.
Cheng Yun was still hopeful that he could ask about Liu Wen’s whereabouts, but the attitude of the shopkeeper made him red with anger. He slammed his hand on the table and said, “Settle it!”
The shopkeeper snorted contemptuously, smirked, and took out an abacus, pretending to say, “You only drank one pot of tea, but you occupied our table for almost half an hour. We’re here to do business, and we can’t handle more people like you.”
Cheng Yun was humiliated and turned red and green with anger. He had no way to refute and could only glare at him.
The shopkeeper humiliated him and couldn’t be bothered to say much more. He casually said, “Ten yuan in total,” and opened his hand to ask for money from Cheng Yun.
Cheng Yun’s heart sank. Ten yuan was enough to buy a jin of rice. This person was clearly a swindler. However, he didn’t want to give the shopkeeper a chance to continue humiliating them. He gritted his teeth, took out enough money from his purse, and slammed it on the table before pulling Yang Hongjin up and walking away.
The shopkeeper laughed and shouted behind them, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” Some regular customers laughed along with him, and someone even joked that the shopkeeper was bullying people again. The shopkeeper shamelessly said, “Everyone wants to come here and stir up trouble. They don’t even look at themselves and see what kind of people they are.”
Cheng Yun was furious, thinking to himself that he would never come here again to be humiliated. However, just as he was about to leave the restaurant, he heard Liu Wen’s voice behind him.
“Hey, Cheng-Ge’er, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time!”
14. Punishing evildoers.
The appearance of Liu Wen quieted the surrounding sounds for a second.
Cheng Yun’s footsteps paused, he turned his head and looked at Liu Wen with an unclear expression.
Liu Wen walked up to him with his big belly, and his tone carried a hint of reproach, “Why didn’t you say anything when you came? I have been waiting for you upstairs for a long time. I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Cheng Yun glanced behind him and saw the shopkeeper’s expression of great alarm, and he didn’t need to explain anything.
It wasn’t Liu Wen’s fault. The world always favors the high and looks down on the low. This principle applies everywhere, let alone in ancient times where social status was clearly defined.
But the feeling of being unable to breathe and feeling stifled in his heart made Cheng Yun very uncomfortable, not to mention Yang Hongjin, who was cowering behind him. They were invited to come, why should they be humiliated for no reason?
He smiled sardonically and replied, “Mr. Liu, that’s not very kind of you. I came as scheduled but was left hanging in the shop for half an hour without even being able to drink water. If you didn’t want to see me, I wouldn’t have bothered to come and waste my time and money on tea.”
His words were full of sarcasm, and Liu Wen’s face changed when he heard them.
He was a smart man, how could he not understand what Cheng Yun meant? But it wasn’t appropriate for them to quarrel like this in front of others, so he apologized and promised to give him a satisfactory answer, finally persuading him to follow him upstairs to a private room.
Once the door was closed, Liu Wen immediately sent someone to investigate the situation. The person he sent was Li Fan, who had delivered a message to him on behalf of Dr. Liu.
Li Fan was very efficient and it only took him a cup of tea’s time to understand the whole situation. He reported everything to Liu Wen in detail.
As a businessman, Liu Wen valued honesty the most. If someone could do such a thing right under his nose, he couldn’t imagine how many customers and people he had offended in the past.
Moreover, the shopkeeper had been secretly overcharging customers for tea, and he had yet to settle the account with Liu Wen. If he hadn’t caught him today, and if news of such deceit were to spread, it would only bring shame to his Yueqiong Building’s reputation.
Whether it was to put on a show for Cheng Yun or to truly punish his subordinate, he ordered Li Fan to call the shopkeeper and tell him to confess everything in front of Cheng Yun.
The shopkeeper knew he was in trouble the moment Liu Wen appeared, but he had been working in the shop for so long and was much more experienced than the inexperienced Cheng Yun. After a moment’s thought, he suddenly knelt down with a “thud,” tears streaming down his face as he said, “Boss, I was wrong! I really didn’t know that this young master was here to see you. It was, it was him!”
“He pointed his finger at Yang Hongjin and said, “It’s that idiot. As soon as he came in, he started teasing the guests in the restaurant. Many people were scared away by him at the door, and I had no choice but to let them sit in the corner!””
“I have worked at Yueqiong Tower for so many years, and even if I haven’t done anything great, I have worked hard for the restaurant. Isn’t it just to make the guests eat more comfortably when they come here?” The shopkeeper said, moved by his own words, he even shed a few tears and crawled to Cheng Yun’s feet. “I’m sorry, sir, but please understand my hard work. I apologize, it’s all my fault…”
Cheng Yun was so angry that his face turned red. He stood up directly and said, “What nonsense are you talking about? It’s just infuriating!”
“Ah ah ah, sir, please don’t be angry. I won’t do it again. I apologize.” The shopkeeper acted as if he was the victim, making it seem like Cheng Yun was being unreasonable and bullying the people under him, taking advantage of his relationship with the boss.
Yang Hongjin, frightened by the boss’s gaze, kept moving towards Cheng Yun, and even his hand was trembling slightly as he held Cheng Yun’s hand.
Cheng Yun protected his own, the shopkeeper shouldn’t have brought up Yang Hongjin. He looked at Liu Wen and said, “Mr. Liu your manager is really capable. I cannot deal with such a person. I may be offended today, and I may not care what others say about me, but I cannot accept unfounded accusations against my family.
“Hey, Cheng-Ge’er, let’s talk things out.” When Liu Wen heard this, he became anxious and quickly tried to mediate.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Cheng Yun snorted coldly. “I didn’t know that Yueqiong Tower was such a bullying place. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come to you to discuss cooperation. I, Cheng Yun, conduct myself uprightly and honestly. We haven’t done anything that the shopkeeper said. Justice naturally prevails in people’s hearts. You can just ask anyone in the store to find out who is lying!”
Cheng Yun pulled Yang Hongjin and was about to leave. Liu Wen quickly stood up to stop him, and his expression turned cold. The shopkeeper was completely stunned. Liu Wen was always easygoing and friendly, and he rarely got angry at his employees. However, after so many years of ups and downs in society, how could Liu Wen be easily bullied? He rarely got angry, but once he did, it was unstoppable.
“Do you not take me, your boss, seriously? Or do you think I’m an easy target to be fooled? I asked you to come here to give you a chance to explain this matter clearly. If you need to apologize, apologize. But instead, you made up lies to shift the blame onto my valued customer and still want me to support you. Who gave you the face to do that?!” Liu Wen apologized to Cheng Yun while scolding the shopkeeper, “It’s my fault for not informing my staff beforehand and for not managing them well. I’m sorry for bringing such a troublesome thing to you. If it weren’t for you coming to me today, I might have been fooled by this shameless person for a long time.”
Cheng Yun looked at him skeptically, not knowing whether this was his soothing words or not, but he couldn’t deny that he felt much better.
Liu Wen looked at Li Fan and waved his hand, saying, “Now, you tell me. I can’t swallow this dirty water.”
Li Fan obeyed and told the truth about what he had found out. He did a good job and asked several people. Some of them had benefited from the shopkeeper’s favoritism and didn’t want to reveal everything, but most of them told the truth. Some even stood up for Cheng Yun and complained about the shopkeeper’s behavior. Even the employees who were not on good terms with the shopkeeper spoke out about what had happened.
Li Fan had first received the news from Dr. Liu and told Liu Wen about Cheng’s situation. Now, after seeing Liu Wen’s attitude today, he knew who was more important between Cheng Yun and the shopkeeper. He summarized everyone’s statements and told Liu Wen.
“As Cheng Yun said, both of them came to the shop early in the morning and didn’t cause any trouble. Instead, the shopkeeper was too aggressive, first by not properly welcoming the customers, then by overcharging them by charging ten times the price for a cup of tea. He was threatening in his words and everyone saw it.”
“You, you are lying!” The shopkeeper was shocked and crawled to Liu Wen, crying and pleading, “Boss, don’t listen to his nonsense! He has always disliked me and wants to frame me!”
Li Fan didn’t waste any more time with him and respectfully said, “I asked five or six customers in the shop, and A’Bing and A’Liang can testify too. There’s no possibility of false accusations against the shopkeeper.”
Liu Wen kicked him away and said seriously, “I’ll give you one more chance. Will you confess or do I have to bring everyone here to confront you?”
The shopkeeper’s face turned pale, and he alternated between blushing and paling. After thinking for a moment, he finally changed his tune and kept kowtowing, “I was wrong, boss, please forgive me. I will never do it again.” After that, he turned to kowtow to Cheng Yun while slapping himself, “Young master, you are a generous person. Don’t lower yourself to my level. I was ignorant and couldn’t recognize Mount Tai. I apologize to you.”
Cheng Yun had never received such a grand gesture before, but he could handle it. He stood there like a mountain, looking down at the shopkeeper as he acted like a clown, but he didn’t say a word of forgiveness.
Originally, Liu Wen wanted to have a good talk with Cheng Yun about their future cooperation. He was a businessman, and his first priority was profit. Although he had sympathized with Cheng Yun yesterday and wanted to ease their cooperation, it didn’t prevent him from maximizing his profit.
However, before they could begin their discussion today, this annoying guy challenged his authority time and time again, and he let his subordinates fool him. Not to mention Cheng Yun, even Liu Wen couldn’t swallow this insult.
He waved his hand and asked Li Fan to take the shopkeeper away. Then he ordered someone to bring paper, ink, brush, and inkstone, and before anyone could react, he quickly wrote a letter of dismissal.
“Our Yueqiong Tower has been in business until today, relying on nothing but the word ‘integrity’. Today, you charge customers at will, go against their word, and even lie. I, Liu Wen, cannot tolerate such a two-faced, shameless person in my small shop.”
“This is your letter of dismissal. Keep it yourself. Because of your improper charges and insults to customers, your salary for this month will be halved,” Liu Wen pointed at Li Fan, “Take him to get his money. Watch him carefully and don’t let him take our things. Write another notice and post it, so that everyone knows what he did. Our Yueqiong Tower never condones the wicked, and we cannot let anyone splash mud on us.”
The matter was handled properly, and Liu Wen’s words put the matter to rest. The shopkeeper’s crying and shouting was useless at this point. Only now did he realize how wrong he was earlier to belittle and bully others. But even if he regretted it now, it was too late. When Yueqiong Tower’s notice came out, no one would ever be willing to hire him again.