12dz Chapter 296 Thief
Chapter 296 Thief
Manager Xu told the workers to inform the owner and ask him to come as soon as possible.
Xiao Jiu, who had been silently accompanying them, suddenly remembered that they had come together to supply braised pig's trotters to Fuqing Restaurant, and then went directly to Baicaotang to discuss the sale of turmeric. None of them had eaten breakfast yet.
He's going through puberty, his voice is changing, he's growing taller, and he gets hungry easily; his stomach is already rumbling.
Xiao Jiu looked a little embarrassed and asked in a low voice, "Xiao Tang, how about I go buy some breakfast? We haven't eaten anything this morning, and it's not good to talk business on an empty stomach."
Upon hearing Xiao Jiu's reminder, Shui Sheng realized that everyone hadn't eaten breakfast.
He couldn't help but feel annoyed. "Look at my brain, how could I forget about this? I'm an adult, it's okay for me to be hungry for a while, but you two are still growing. What if you don't grow taller because you're hungry?"
"How about this? While the clerk's gone to call the boss, let's go to the stalls outside the pharmacy and buy some food to tide us over. It's getting late, the breakfast vendors might have already closed up shop. Let's just grab something and eat our fill, okay?"
Xiao Jiu nodded, "I'm not picky, I'm fine with anything, it depends on what Xiao Tang wants."
Since Uncle Shuisheng and Xiao Jiu weren't picky, she wouldn't be coy either. After all, her mind was focused on the price of turmeric, and she was just hoping that when the client arrived, they could negotiate a price that satisfied her.
"Oh dear, it's already this late, what are we still picking and choosing? Let's stop dawdling and hurry up and see what else they have for sale outside the pharmacy. We can eat a few bites of whatever we can find, and once we sell the turmeric, we can go home."
Manager Xu was somewhat surprised that these people hadn't eaten yet. However, he knew that he ran a pharmacy, not a restaurant, and although he wanted to help them, he couldn't offer them any food. So he told them to go out for breakfast.
Manager Xu reminded them, "Since you haven't had breakfast yet, you can eat first. When our boss arrives, I'll send a waiter out to find you."
Shui Sheng waved his hand, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "No need to trouble the waiter, we'll eat breakfast quickly and definitely won't keep your employer waiting."
To be able to open such a large pharmacy, the owner, who has yet to be revealed, must be quite powerful. A pharmacy is not like a pig's trotter shop. Pig's trotter shops buy fresh ingredients, and even if some are stored in the cellar of a restaurant, they are sold individually and are not worth much money, so they don't take up much silver.
But opening a pharmacy is different. The medicinal herbs in a pharmacy are sold by weight, and everything is very valuable, especially ginseng and deer antler, which are incredibly expensive. A single ginseng that has been aged for many years can sell for hundreds or even thousands of taels.
Therefore, the owner behind the largest pharmacy in Pingding County must be very powerful.
Lin Xiaotang couldn't help but feel envious. If only she could open a restaurant or pharmacy with a wave of her hand someday, she could live a life of making money effortlessly.
Ugh!
Thinking about it is one thing, but we're just getting started, and we need to take it one step at a time and work hard.
Shuisheng led Lin Xiaotang and Xiao Jiu out of the pharmacy, intending to buy breakfast.
To their surprise, when they turned around, they saw a shifty-looking man, crouching on tiptoe, peering into their carriage through the curtain, clearly up to no good.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Jiu immediately shouted, "Who is spying on our carriage? Get out of the way!"
Shui Sheng roared, "You audacious thief, come with me to see the officials!"
The thief was so frightened by Xiao Jiu and Shui Sheng that he almost wet himself.
He turned around in a panic and saw a man leading two children. He visibly breathed a sigh of relief, but his wicked thoughts immediately returned.
A man with two children, driving two horse-drawn carriages, carrying a bunch of ginger-like lumps, was heading into a herbal medicine shop. Who knows what good stuff was in the carriages that he was going to sell to the shop? He was really itching to get his hands on the money that was right in front of him.
In a moment of urgency, his mind raced, and he leaped onto the carriage, grabbing the reins and ready to run.
Shuisheng reacted quickly, rushed forward, moved his feet to the side, and grabbed the thief's sleeve tightly.
The thief didn't expect that this man would block his way while he was driving the carriage away at high speed. He suddenly swung his arm, trying to shake Shui Sheng off, but the man was strong and pulled him off balance.
In his panic, the thief used his other hand to vigorously swing the whip, first lashing the horse's rump, then immediately pointing the whip at Shui Sheng and lashing it hard across Shui Sheng's chest, the end of the whip striking his face.
Shui Sheng's clothes were instantly torn open, and red marks and swelling appeared on half of his face, a shocking sight. Fortunately, there was no broken skin or bleeding.
"hiss--"
Shui Sheng felt a burning sensation on his chest and face. He let out a muffled groan and quickly ran after the carriage, but he kept clinging tightly to the thief's sleeve.
At this moment, some passersby noticed something amiss, and someone exclaimed, "My God, what's going on?"
"Tsk tsk tsk, isn't it obvious? It must be the man who was grabbing her sleeve who had malicious intentions and wanted to rob her. The world is going to the dogs!"
Someone across from them scoffed, "You know nothing! You jump to conclusions without even seeing the cause and effect. I think that's all you're good for. Take a closer look at their appearances. The one in the carriage looks shifty-eyed, while the man clinging to him from under the carriage looks neat and honest. If I'm not mistaken, the man in the carriage must have stolen it, which is why the other man is holding on so tightly."
"What you're saying seems to make some sense. What good person would swing a whip at someone's face?"
"That's right, look what you've done to their face, they're vicious and cruel..."
"If you ask me, we should catch that thief, pin him to the ground and beat him up, teach him a lesson, and see if he dares to have such thoughts of robbery again."
"Brother, don't you see? This is a horse-drawn carriage! Who dares to step forward to help stop it? What if they get trampled by the horse?"
"Coward..."
"Aren't you scared?"
"..."
The pedestrians were talking amongst themselves, and the thief, in a panic, cracked his whip, trying to urge the carriage to run away as quickly as possible.
Lin Xiaotang and Xiao Jiu saw that Uncle Shuisheng had been injured by the thief, and the two rushed to Uncle Shuisheng in a hurry.
"Uncle Shuisheng, are you alright?"
Shui Sheng was busy catching the thief off the carriage and didn't have time to go back to Xiao Jiu. Lin Xiao Tang saw that the thief was determined to steal the carriage this time, so she quickly shouted loudly.
"The soldiers are here! The soldiers are here! Catch the thief!"
The pedestrians looked around but did not see any soldiers, and some began to question the situation.
"Where are the soldiers? I don't see any."
Someone nearby whispered, "You idiot, that little girl is obviously just trying to scare the thieves. Don't be a burden, you moron." After saying that, he immediately echoed Lin Xiaotang and shouted, "They're here, they're here! The soldiers are really here. They definitely can't escape now."
For some reason, the more the thief whipped the horse, the less it ran. The horse neighed a few times, reared up its front hooves, and became agitated, even swaying from side to side.
In fact, ever since the Lin family bought the horse, apart from using it to drive the carriage to deliver supplies to the restaurant a few times a day, they haven't let the horse do any other work. They take very good care of the horse.
Lin Qingchuan and Shuisheng would often bathe the horses and brush their coats to make them feel comfortable. On their way back from delivering goods, they would also cut grass by the roadside to feed the horses well. The horses were already familiar with the routes to the restaurants, and Lin Qingchuan and Shuisheng were reluctant to whip them. So when the thief suddenly whipped the horse's rump hard, the horse became dissatisfied and agitated.
The more the thief whipped the horse, the less it ran. It was intelligent and knew who its master was. It was very angry that a stranger was whipping it and making it run, and it wanted to throw the person whipping it off the carriage.
"You beast, run! Why aren't you running anymore?"
The thief, in a state of extreme panic, cursed angrily, thinking that the soldiers had arrived and if he didn't run away, he would surely die here.
However, after working so hard for so long, just when the carriage and its contents were about to be within easy reach, the soldiers arrived, and he was unwilling to give up!
The thief's eyes suddenly turned fierce. Taking advantage of Shui Sheng's unpreparedness, he kicked Shui Sheng hard, making him stagger.
Lin Xiaotang and Xiao Jiu immediately helped Uncle Shuisheng up. Xiao Jiu lunged at the thief by the carriage, lowered her head and bit him hard. The thief howled in pain.
"Ah, they're letting go..."
At this moment, the manager and clerk of the pharmacy heard the commotion and all ran out. They saw that Shuisheng had been kicked away by a thief, and the manager immediately ordered the clerk to go and help.
Shui Sheng realized what was happening and, with the help of Lin Xiaotang and Xiao Jiu, he and several other workers dragged the thieves off the carriage and pinned them to the ground.
It wasn't that he couldn't beat the thief; he was a farmer with plenty of strength. It was just that the thief was holding a horsewhip and had heartlessly whipped his face with it. He couldn't just charge head-on and confront the thief directly. Besides, the horse didn't run fast after the thief whipped its rump.
The thief was pinned to the ground, still struggling desperately, trying to break free and escape.
"Pah! The soldiers didn't even come! Damn it, I've fallen for their trap!" The thief spat, cursing and swearing, his words filled with resentment.
Shui Sheng snorted coldly and said in a deep voice, "Whether the soldiers come today or not, you can't escape. Our horses are intelligent; how could they be carried away by just a couple of whip cracks?"
Then they raised these horses for nothing, didn't they?
The passersby clapped and cheered, "Haha, this is truly gratifying! Drag him away to the authorities, so he won't harm others in the future."
"Yes, yes, drag him to the authorities, he must be sent to the authorities, teach him a lesson so that he will never dare to steal or rob in broad daylight again."
Manager Xu waved to the passersby and said, "Don't worry, everyone. I'll have my men take him to the authorities right away. I won't let him continue to harm others. Everyone, please disperse."
The pedestrians dispersed, leaving only the few of them and the thief pinned to the ground.
Shui Sheng said, “Manager Xu, I’ll have to trouble the staff to accompany me to take this thief to the government. I’m afraid he might escape on the way if I escort him alone. This thief is very cunning and quite strong.”
Manager Xu thought for a moment and said, "You should wait here for our boss. Go have breakfast first. I'll have the waiter escort him to the government office. That way it won't be troublesome."
"Oh, wouldn't this be too much trouble for everyone?"
Manager Xu shook his head and said, "Oh, it's no trouble at all. Our boss will be here soon, and we'll need to discuss the price."
If this deal goes through, we can still be partners. Besides, they came to the pharmacy to sell medicinal herbs, and it was only because they parked their carriage outside the pharmacy that the thieves targeted them. Taking the thieves to the authorities is also to prevent other customers from being harmed in the future.
The thief's capture is a good thing for the pharmacy and everyone else!
Seeing that Manager Xu insisted, Shui Sheng did not refuse and agreed to let the men escort the thief to the authorities.
As the thief was dragged away, he struggled violently like an eel, perhaps because he was truly frightened this time.
Having just experienced the near theft of their carriage and turmeric, Shui Sheng and Xiao Tang naturally dared not let the carriage out of their sight. So they decided to wait for the owner of the pharmacy to come and negotiate the price.
Xiao Jiu said, "Uncle Shuisheng, Xiaotang, you two wait here first. I'll go buy some sesame cakes so we can have something to eat first."
Shui Sheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, patted Xiao Jiu on the shoulder and praised, "It was thanks to you suggesting we have breakfast that we ran into that thief. Otherwise, we would have lost a carriage and a whole cart of turmeric today. That was close!"
"It was just a coincidence," Xiao Jiu replied modestly.
A smile appeared on Shui Sheng's face. He gasped in pain from the whip marks, but dared not touch or rub them. He gritted his teeth and said, "If I had known, I would have slapped that thief a few times before the guy took him away. It's only because I'm kind that I did this. If it were anyone else, I would have beaten him half to death before sending him to the authorities."
As he spoke, he took out a few copper coins from his pocket and stuffed them into Xiao Jiu's hand, saying, "Take these copper coins and buy some sesame cakes."
Xiao Jiu had brought money with him when he left. He quickly stuffed the coins back to Shui Sheng, saying, "Uncle Shui Sheng, I have money, just a few sesame cakes. I really admire your courage in stopping that thief today. I'll treat you both to sesame cakes today."
After saying that, he ran off in a flash.
Shui Sheng shook his head and sighed, "This kid is just being polite."
How can an adult let a child treat him to sesame cakes? Isn't that going backwards as he gets older?
Lin Xiaotang took a closer look at the whip marks on Shuisheng's face and said with some concern, "Uncle Shuisheng, while we're at the pharmacy, let's ask the clerk to get you some ointment to reduce the swelling?"
"Oh, there's no broken skin or bleeding, why buy any ointment? It's nothing serious, the swelling will go down in a couple of days."
He was used to being frugal, and even if he occasionally got a scratch, he wouldn't care. The scratch would scab over in a few days, and he never bought any ointment to apply. He was a man who lived a rough life.
Lin Xiaotang thought that Uncle Shuisheng was reluctant to waste money, so she walked towards the pharmacy to buy him some ointment, but Uncle Shuisheng, who saw through her intention, stopped her.
"You silly girl, I already told you there's no need to apply medicine. What are you doing? If you really had to apply medicine, how could I let a junior like you buy medicine for your uncle?"
Isn't this absurd? If word gets out, he'll lose all face.