Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 352

Zhao Tiesheng originally wanted money, so he took nine thousand yuan first and then let Zhao Chunqin pay it back slowly. But he couldn't understand why his wife listened to his daughter and bought this tea. What use was this tea?

Cheng Jinxiang hesitated for a moment, but when she glanced at Zhao Da'e and saw him nod firmly, she felt a little more at ease.

Zhao Da'e knew that the price of this batch of tea would skyrocket in the future, which is why she was thinking of saving it up.

In her past life, her aunt had this batch of tea leaves. She tried to sell some but found that no one wanted to buy them. In order not to lose money on the tea leaves, she planned to sell them all at a low price to at least recoup some of her costs. Unexpectedly, a month later, tea drinking suddenly became popular in the north, and the price of Lingyun Baihao tea skyrocketed. When her aunt heard the news, she burst into tears and returned to the Zhao family to complain bitterly.

Zhao Da'e heard about the tea because of this, and that's why he thought of buying this batch of tea, since it would last a long time and not spoil easily.

With her daughter's guarantee, Cheng Jinxiang felt more at ease. Her daughter must have her reasons for doing things, so Cheng Jinxiang said, "Uncle Li, you don't need to persuade me anymore. I'll take this batch of tea. I don't want to argue with Chunqin about money too much."

Seeing this, Li Yong could only sigh. After all, this was a family matter, and as an outsider, he couldn't say anything.

A short while later, Zhao Chunqin returned with the bankbook. Zhao Chunqin felt extremely distressed. This was nine thousand yuan, and giving nine thousand yuan to Cheng Jinxiang was worse than killing her. But compared to losing her job, she could just give up the nine thousand yuan. After all, it was a debt she had incurred.

When Zhao Tiesheng saw the small red booklet in Zhao Chunqin's hand, he realized that it was a savings account with probably nine thousand yuan in it. Zhao Tiesheng's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to take the savings account.

"Second brother and sister-in-law, this is the passbook. I put nine thousand yuan in it." Before Zhao Chunqin could finish speaking, Zhao Tiesheng snatched the passbook from her hand, patted her shoulder, and complained, "Chunqin, I asked you several times before, asking you to pay back the money, but you wouldn't. Now that things have gotten out of hand, you're finally willing to pay back the money. Do you have any extra money?"

Zhao Tiesheng was thinking that if Zhao Chunqin still had cash, he should tell her to take it all out and exchange it for some tea. After all, tea can't be eaten as food, and he really couldn't understand why his wife was so fixated on this tea.

Zhao Chunqin's lips twitched. Looking at the savings book that Zhao Tiesheng had snatched away, she felt an indescribable pain in her heart. The nine thousand yuan she had painstakingly saved was gone just like that!

The second brother tried to bargain and ask her to pay more money, which infuriated Zhao Chunqin. She said irritably, "This nine thousand yuan is all the money I have. I really have no other savings. We've already agreed on nine thousand yuan in cash and thirty-two thousand five hundred yuan worth of tea. Second brother, don't even think about going back on your word. I'll go and count the tea for you right now."

Zhao Chunqin led this group of people to her home. In addition to a bedroom, there was a storage room in the house, which contained thousands of kilograms of tea. The tea was packaged in cardboard boxes, about fifty or sixty boxes in total.

Zhao Tiesheng casually picked up the cardboard box. The box was very heavy, requiring two hands to lift it. He roughly estimated that the box weighed about forty or fifty pounds.

Opening the cardboard box revealed tea leaves compressed in compression bags. Opening one of the bags released a fragrant aroma. Li Yong leaned closer to smell it; having tasted Lingyun Baihao tea before, he could distinguish it from other teas.

After a while, Li Yongchao nodded to Cheng Jinxiang and said, "This is indeed Lingyun Baihao tea, and the quality looks pretty good."

Seeing how wary these people were of her, Zhao Chunqin couldn't help but twitch at the corner of her mouth. She explained, "These teas are all compressed and packaged. Each box weighs about fifty pounds. I personally went to the tea supplier to get the goods, so there's nothing wrong with the tea packaging."

Speaking of which, Zhao Chunqin took out another scale, which can weigh by weight. She took out a large box and placed it on the scale with some difficulty. The display showed 25kg, which is fifty jin.

Zhao Chunqin said unhurriedly, "Based on the price of tea at 25 yuan per jin, I need to give you 32,500 jin of tea, which is about 1240 jin. We'll weigh it now, and you can take the tea with you later."

Li Yong watched with amusement as Zhao Chunqin weighed the tea leaves, then suddenly remarked, "Chunqin, have you forgotten something? You haven't weighed the cardboard box of these tea leaves yet."

The tea leaves were weighed, including the cardboard box. The tea leaves cost 25 yuan per jin (500g), and the entire cardboard box looked to weigh about a jin, meaning the price of the cardboard box was roughly the same as the price of the tea leaves.

Li Yong immediately spotted the problem, and Zhao Tiesheng, realizing what was going on, exclaimed excitedly, "Well, Chunqin, what trick are you up to now!"

Zhao Chunqin felt ashamed; Old Li had seen through her little scheme again.

Li Yong looked at Zhao Chunqin with a half-smile, "I think Xiao Zhao didn't do it on purpose, she just didn't expect the weight of this cardboard box."

Li Yong didn't want to put Zhao Chunqin in a difficult position, so he gave her a way out. After realizing what he meant, Zhao Chunqin said, "Yes...yes, Second Brother, look at my silly brain, I even forgot about the weight of the cardboard box. If we added the weight of the cardboard box, wouldn't that mean we'd pay you less?"

As she spoke, Zhao Chunqin picked up an empty cardboard box from the side and weighed it to remove the weight. Then she picked up a cardboard box full of tea leaves and weighed it. The weight obtained in this way was the weight of the tea leaves after removing the weight of the cardboard box.

But Zhao Tiesheng was still not satisfied. He glanced at the vacuum packaging bag of tea and asked Li Yong, "Uncle Li, can you help me see how much this vacuum packaging bag weighs?"

Zhao Chunqin: "..." Sometimes I'm so angry I can laugh.

Li Yong and Li Qingfeng both sighed in exasperation. Li Yong was too embarrassed to say that even if the vacuum packaging bag were weighed, it wouldn't cost much. But since Zhao Tiesheng wanted to know the answer, Li Yong replied, "The vacuum packaging bag does take up some weight, but it's negligible."

Zhao Tiesheng only heard the first half of the sentence, "accounts for some weight," but didn't hear the second half.

Zhao Tiesheng felt uncomfortable at the thought that he would get less money if he weighed too much of the waste. He quickly said, "Chunqin, weigh the packaging bag too. Don't include it in the tea."

Zhao Chunqin: "..."

Soon, Zhao Tiesheng received 25 cardboard boxes, each weighing about 25 kilograms. This meant he had taken almost two-thirds of Zhao Chunqin's tea inventory.

Zhao Dage had already contacted Xiangzi, who had been waiting downstairs in Zhao Chunqin's apartment building in his van for quite some time. Now he was coming up to move the tea leaves.

Zhao Tiesheng, Xiangzi, and Li Qingfeng all came to move cardboard boxes. Even Li Qingmin was asked by Li Yong to move tea leaves. Li Qingmin was reluctant, but he moved the tea leaves for Li Yong's sake.

After all 25 cardboard boxes were moved, Zhao Da'e made a point of counting them to see if they were all filled with tea. Zhao Da'e couldn't afford to be careless; if there were any problems with the tea after this separation, such as missing or under-delivering, Zhao Chunqin probably wouldn't accept it if she tried to reason with her. It was better to be extra careful today to prevent the other party from tampering with the tea.

After checking it several times, Zhao Da'e finally felt relieved and nodded to Cheng Jinxiang, saying, "Mom, there's nothing wrong with the tea that Auntie gave us this time."

Zhao Chunqin breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. There were some things she needed to clarify today. "Second brother and sister-in-law, I've given you the principal of nine thousand yuan, and you've also taken the corresponding value of over thirty thousand yuan worth of tea. I've paid back everything I owed you. Now that Old Li is here as a witness, if you come to my workplace to cause trouble again, I won't acknowledge it."

She suffered a huge hemorrhage today, and she's heartbroken—it's all her money and her tea!

Cheng Jinxiang nodded and said, "You've paid back everything you owe us, so naturally I won't go to your workplace to cause trouble anymore."

After receiving the money and tea, Cheng Jinxiang was in a very good mood, with a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth, a smile she couldn't hide.

This scene was extremely painful for Zhao Chunqin to watch. She clenched her fists, thinking that once this storm passed, she would go back to the Zhao family and ask her parents to stand up for her. In the end, if her mother made a scene, it would be best to get back the tea and cash that she had given to Cheng Jinxiang. In any case, she couldn't let her second brother and sister-in-law live a good life.

Li Yong seemed to see through Zhao Chunqin's thoughts and advised her, "Little Zhao, don't try to force your second brother and sister-in-law to get the money back through other means. If the higher-ups find out, you'll be accused of going back on your word and being untrustworthy, and you'll lose your job."

Zhao Chunqin, embarrassed by her mischievous thoughts, said, "No way, Mr. Li, I've already paid back the money. Why would I want it back? You think too badly of me. Alright, it's getting late. I should go upstairs to cook. Now that I've paid off all my debts, Mr. Li, you promised me that if the higher-ups investigate, you'd have to protect my job and put in a good word for me."

Old Li chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Xiao Zhao, I'll definitely keep my word. Since you've returned the money, it means you know you've made a mistake and are correcting it. If the higher-ups investigate, I'll speak up for you." At least you won't lose your job.

Reassured after receiving the promise, Zhao Chunqin pulled Li Qingmin upstairs. She couldn't stand being there any longer. However, she felt a pang of pain after giving away the nine thousand yuan.

After Zhao Chunqin and Li Qingmin left, Cheng Jinxiang pulled Zhao Tiesheng and Zhao Dage to bow sincerely to Li Yong and Li Qingfeng, saying, "Uncle Li, thank you so much for your help today. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to get back the nine thousand yuan and the tea. I can't repay your kindness. It's too late today. I'll bring Tiesheng and Dage to visit you again next time to thank you properly."

Li Yong immediately helped Cheng Jinxiang up, then turned to Li Qingfeng and said to his own son, "You all don't need to thank me. In the end, it's all my son's fault. He misjudged people and easily believed what Xiao Zhao said, helping Xiao Zhao to smear you with people in the workplace. This time, I'm helping you, which is also helping myself and making up for the mistakes my son made."

Li Qingfeng lowered his head in embarrassment after hearing this; he had indeed misjudged people.

However, Cheng Jinxiang was clear about her grudges. She had some resentment towards Li Qingfeng before, but it was Li Yong who had always helped her. Li Yong had helped their whole family so much. Since Li Yong didn't want them to hold a grudge against Li Qingfeng, Cheng Jinxiang naturally wouldn't speak ill of Li Qingfeng. Instead, she changed her words and said, "Next time I have the chance, I'll bring a table full of good dishes so that Uncle Li can taste my cooking."

Li Yong was overjoyed to hear this, "Okay, then I'll wait."

After saying goodbye, Li Qingfeng helped Li Yong upstairs; they were staying next to Zhao Chunqin.

Xiangzi scratched his head. He didn't understand these social niceties very well, but he knew that there was a difficult problem to deal with.

"Little aunt, where should we put this batch of tea?" Xiangzi thought and thought but still couldn't figure out where to transport the tea.

Judging from their conversation, the tea should have been kept by Zhao Tiesheng's family. But the key issue is that if the tea is delivered to the Zhao family, since Zhao Tiesheng hasn't separated from the family yet and he only has one room in the Zhao family, it would be inconvenient to keep so many boxes in the room.

Cheng Jinxiang is currently living at her parents' home, and it's not appropriate to put these 25 cardboard boxes there; there's nowhere else to put them.

This raises the question of where these cardboard boxes ended up.

Cheng Jinxiang couldn't help but frown and start thinking about the problem. She really hadn't thought about where to put this batch of tea.

Fortunately, Zhao Da'e spoke up, "I've figured out where to put this batch of tea, Xiangzi. Do you remember the shop we rented at the intersection of No. 6 Street? It's not only big there, but it also has a small warehouse. We can put the cardboard boxes there."

Xiangzi suddenly realized, clapped his hands, and said, "That's right, Auntie, you're the one with the best ideas! How come I didn't think of that!"

Cheng Jinxiang nodded in agreement and said, "It's good that there's a place to put it."

But then something felt off. Wait a minute, a rented shop?!

Cheng Jinxiang and Zhao Tiesheng exchanged a knowing glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes. They looked at Zhao Dage together and asked in unison, "Dage, what shop did you rent?!"

Zhao Da'e scratched her head sheepishly. Oh dear, she let it slip. She had originally planned to open the shop secretly without telling her parents, but she hadn't expected to reveal that she had rented the shop.

Seeing that he couldn't hide it any longer, Zhao Da'e had no choice but to slowly explain, "To put it simply, I rented a shop in the center of the county town from the landlord. I plan to open a clothing store in the county town."

This was Zhao Da'e's current plan, but these words were like a thunderbolt to Zhao Tiesheng. He never expected that his seven-year-old daughter would buy a shop and even plan to open one. She was only seven years old! He was already surprised when he heard that Zhao Da'e had helped sell water and eggs and earned some money, but he never expected that there would be something even more surprising!