An old man with white hair set up a small stall in the corner of the market.
In addition to two jars of honey, he also had a full basket of herbs, which happened to contain pinellia.
"Old man, I'll take all the pinellia," said Hong Shan.
"No," the old man shook his head, "I'm selling all these herbs together."
"You...Fine, fine," Hong Shan was in a hurry to try the recipe, so he didn't care about the money, "How much for everything?"
"10 taels."
"How much?" Hong Shan's eyes were about to pop out. "A whole basket of rotten herbs, and you dare ask 10 taels of silver?"
"Dear sir, you don't know," the old man took out a little polyrhachis from under the basket, "Look, this is a human-shaped polyrhachis. Eating it can prolong life and improve health. It's very valuable."
"Still not worth 10 taels!"
"Not a penny less."
Hong Shan had no choice. He had to buy it.
As long as he could make the green cream quickly, 10 taels, even 100 taels, he would pay.
"Then give me those two jars of honey for free."
"No."
"I'm spending 10 taels to buy your herbs, and you can't even throw in some honey?"
"Dear sir, you don't know," the old man suddenly looked sad, his eyes turned red, "These two jars of honey, my son risked his life climbing a cliff to collect. He broke his leg for it, and now he still can't get out of bed."
Hong Shan: "Then... how much do you want for them?"
The old man thought for a while, then said slowly, "5 taels. For one jar."
If this was in Yizhou Prefecture, Hong Shan would definitely have this wicked old man beaten to death!
5 taels for a jar of honey, you're worse than a bandit!
"Sold!"
Although it pained him to spend 20 taels on this junk, Hong Shan couldn't care less now. He hurried back to the inn and told his servants to prepare everything so he could start making the green cream.
"Boil all the ingredients in water, then add honey, and slowly cook into a paste over low heat..."
The servant followed the instructions in the recipe step-by-step.
Outside the inn, Zhu Yougui was happily dreaming.
He was going to strike it rich!
After getting the 500 taels and house, the first thing he would do is marry a beautiful wife!
And take three concubines!
Eat fish and meat every day!
...
On Hong Shan's side, the green cream was almost done.
But strangely, the paste in the pot smelled a little off, and the color also looked abnormal, not green at all.
After cooling, he tried some on the back of his hand - not a hint of coolness!
"Master, did we not make it right?" asked the servant.
"We followed the recipe exactly."
"Then how could this happen?"
"How could this happen?" Hong Shan sneered coldly, "This can only mean one thing - the recipe Zhu Yougui gave us was fake! And that old man who sold the herbs must have been arranged by him to swindle my money!"
"What?" The servant was shocked to hear this.
Usually in Yizhou Prefecture, he relied on Hong Shan's domineering ways. He didn't expect to come to this shabby Baichuan Market and get tricked by a country bumpkin!
"Master, I'll go beat him up right away!"
"Beat him up good!"
...
Before Zhu Yougui could finish his sweet dream, he saw Hong Shan coming out, so he went up to greet them.
"Mr. Hong, how did it go?"
"How did it go? Let me tell you how it went!"
Hong Shan's servant's expression darkened, and he took out a wooden stick from behind and started mercilessly beating Zhu Yougui over the head.
Zhu Yougui was no match for him. In an instant his face was battered and bruised, full of bumps.
"Why are you hitting me?"
"You tried to cheat our money with a fake recipe. Consider yourself lucky I'm not beating you to death!"
"Fake? Zhu Yougui's heart sank, realizing he had been tricked.
But he couldn't openly confront the Du family about this, so he could only swallow this silent grievance.
"Get lost!"
After chasing away Zhu Yougui, Hong Shan still hadn't vented his anger, so he went to the Zou rouge shop with his servant.
"Yo, Mr. Hong is here. What business brings you?"
"Zou Youcai," Hong Shan said coldly, "Let me ask you, didn't you secretly tell Li Yao?"
"Tell what?" Zou Youcai was puzzled. "Mr. Hong, what are you talking about?"
"Hmph, stop pretending!" Hong Shan said, "From today on, don't expect to get a single penny of goods from me! None of the rouge sellers in Yizhou Prefecture will sell you anything either! You can go ahead and close down this rouge shop!"
"Is that so?" Zou Youcai was not anxious at all. He smiled, "To be honest with Mr. Hong, I don't really want to keep this shop open anyway. Shop boys, hurry and take down the old sign and put up the new one!"
"You got it!"
The two shop boys set up a ladder and took down the "Zou Rouge Shop" sign, efficiently replacing it with an exquisite new signboard.
"Li's Finery Shop, Riverside." Zou Youcai looked at the sign happily, turned to Hong Shan and bowed with hands clasped, "Mr. Hong, my new shop will be opening in a few days. Will you stay and liven things up?"
Hong Shan's face turned green with anger.
One look at the sign and he knew Li Yao was involved.
That ungrateful wench, refusing to cooperate with him, actually took on this Zou guy as her partner instead.
"Fine, go ahead and slowly sell your green cream at Baichuan Market," Hong Shan said, "But if you want to sell to Yizhou Prefecture, it still depends on whether I allow it or not!"
"Oh my, I just realized today that apparently Yizhou Prefecture belongs to Mr. Hong's family," Zou Youcai said with a laugh. "I just wonder if the prefect knows about this."
"You... let's go!"
Watching Hong Shan stomp off angrily, Zou Youcai felt extremely satisfied.
He used to get condescending looks from Hong Shan when taking goods from him, and had swallowed the indignation. Today he finally got to spit it back out.
"Boss," a white-haired old man walked out from the back yard, "Here's the 20 taels of silver from selling herbs and honey. That guy was really dumb. He actually believed everything I said just like you told me."
Zou Youcai sighed inwardly. Was Hong Shan really that dumb?
It was precisely because of his insatiable greed that he was blinded by profit, falling right into Li Yao's clever scheme.
"Come here, Little Liuzi."
"Boss, shouldn't we give this silver to Ms. Li?"
"No need," Zou Youcai said. "Ms. Li said this is ill-gotten money that we shouldn't take."
"You can't mean to throw it away, can you?" Xiao Liuzi laughed. "This is 20 taels of silver!"
"Of course not," Zou Youcai said. "Use this silver to buy 500 jin of rice, 500 jin of flour, and 1000 eggs. Have it all bought before the day after tomorrow."
"Boss, we sell green cream. Why do we need so much rice, flour and eggs?"
"To give away."
Xiao Liuzi: ......
Zou Youcai looked at the old signboard, and steeled his heart: "Also, take this sign out and find an empty place to burn it."
From now on, there would be no more Zou Rouge Shop at Baichuan Market, only Li's Finery Shop, Riverside.
He knew he was starting over from scratch.
But this time, the future looked boundlessly bright.