Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 16

The three of them had lunch in the county town and returned to the village, then went to Luhuacheng’s grave. There were burnt remnants of paper in front of the tomb, so Lihuazheng must have been there.

Back in the village, Tangtang wanted to find Niu Jiaojiao, so Qi Zhenshu carried her to the Niu family’s house. Lu Sheng was concerned about the herbs drying at home, so she didn’t follow them.

As soon as Lu Sheng opened the front door, a black shadow rushed towards her. She slightly turned her head and avoided it.

The shadow circled in the air and perched on Lu Sheng’s shoulder, flapping its wings and calling out, “Sister, you’re finally back! I missed you so much!”

She had never met such an overly slick parrot.

Pulling the bird off her shoulder, Lu Sheng asked with distaste, “Is your wing healed?”

“Thanks to Sister’s care, Little Yu recovered so quickly.”

Yuling tilted its bird head and rubbed its crest feathers against Lu Sheng’s hand.

Tsk tsk, its flattery skills were also top-notch.

Her finger brushed past the bird’s beak, and seeing the fragments of millet on it, she looked at it with a half-smile: “Is this how much you missed me?”

The parrot lowered its head and pecked at the fragments, “Oh dear, I felt sad when Sister wasn’t around, and when I’m sad, I can only drown my sorrows in millet. It’s all Sister’s fault for not taking me out with her and making me heartbroken.”

Lu Sheng couldn’t be bothered with it and walked over to check the drying herbs.

She selected the dried herbs, chopped them into small pieces, then crushed them in a stone mortar. Then, she mixed them with pre-ground glutinous rice flour and water to form small balls.

Next, Lu Sheng placed these wine yeast embryos on a bamboo sieve lined with rice bran that had been steamed the day before for disinfection to prevent bacterial contamination.

After arranging the wine yeast, she covered them with a layer of dry straw, also disinfected. Now, they would be left to ferment slowly for 3-5 days. When the yeast balls were covered with white mycelium, the wine yeast would be ready.

Lu Sheng was busy for nearly an hour, finally finishing the first batch of wine yeast.

Flap, flap, flap!

A small gray sparrow landed on the water well in the courtyard, chirping, “Sister Lu, something’s wrong!”

Lu Sheng stopped sweeping and looked at it, asking, “What is it?”

“The winery, the winery has bad, bad people!” the sparrow flapped its wings and chirped.

Hearing this, Lu Sheng immediately dropped the broom and walked out of the courtyard. “I’ll go take a look right now. Thank you, Little Gray.”

“Sister, wait for me, I’m going too!”

Yuling flapped its wings twice, trying to catch up with Lu Sheng. However, its wing hadn’t fully recovered, and it flew too slowly, crashing directly into the door that Lu Sheng had shut.

Dong!

“Ouch, pain, pain, pain, my head!”

Thump!

“Ouch, pain, pain, pain, my butt!”

Going down the slope, Lu Sheng ran into Qi Zhenshu, who was walking home.

Seeing her rushing, Qi Zhenshu quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Something happened at the winery, I’m going to check.” Lu Sheng stopped to speak to her. “Where’s Tangtang?”

“She fell asleep at Aunt Niu’s house.”

“Okay, I’ll go to the winery first.”

Lu Sheng said and was about to leave, but Qi Zhenshu followed her. “I’ll go with you.”

Although Qi Zhenshu tried to tell herself not to pay too much attention to Lu Sheng’s differences, the woman’s conduct was so vastly different from before that she couldn’t help but wonder and investigate.

The Lu family winery.

When Lu Sheng arrived, she saw a circle of employees gathered outside the main hall of the winery. Inside, Lu Hualin was talking to a middle-aged man.

“We agreed to deliver on the twenty-fifth, and it’s already the fifteenth. Now you’re saying the wine can’t be made. Boss Lu, that’s no way to do business!” The middle-aged man looked displeased, and his voice was impolite.

“O-originally, w-we w-would be able to deliver on t-time, but, but the winery was v-vandalized by e-evil people two d-days ago. All the wine w-we brewed c-couldn’t be used, so w-we had to r-re-brew it. Th-that’s w-why it w-was delayed.” Lu Hualin stammered again out of anxiety.

The man stood with his hands behind his back, looking impatient, and completely ignoring his explanation. “I don’t care what happened to your winery. I just want my wine. Just tell me if I can get the wine on the twenty-fifth!”

Lu Sheng saw Qi Nan in the crowd and quickly pulled her aside to ask, “What’s going on?”

Seeing Lu Sheng, Qi Nan felt a sense of relief for some reason and explained the whole story to her.

This Boss Liao was a traveling merchant who specialized in commodity reselling. At the beginning of the month, he ordered four thousand catties of rice wine from the winery, with delivery set for the twenty-fifth of this month.

According to the plan, the wine could have been delivered on time, but a few days ago, the hundred jars of wine went sour, and the four thousand catties of wine for Boss Liao were among them.

After dealing with the sour wine, Lu Hualin had the employees rush to brew a new batch of wine.

If the weather was good, the new wine could normally be ready in about ten days of fermentation, but this year the cold weather came early.

Given the current weather, the new wine would take at least fifteen days to ferment, so it couldn’t be delivered on the twenty-fifth.

“B-Boss Liao, please, please g-grant us some more t-time. This batch of wine w-will be r-ready by the th-thirtieth at the l-latest.”

“You say extend the time, and I should extend the time? If I give you more time, who will give me more time? My shipping schedule with someone else is set for the twenty-eighth. If you deliver on the thirtieth, what am I supposed to do? Are you going to pay the shipping costs?” Boss Liao raised his eyebrows, his words even more aggressive.

Boss Liao’s batch of wine was to be shipped to the capital city, traveling by canal transport, which would take a month. The shipping costs alone would probably be more expensive than the wine itself.

“Th-this, this.” Lu Hualin was too anxious to speak.

“Don’t talk about the shipping fee. This batch of wine I ordered also had a contract with someone else. If I can’t deliver on time, there will be double compensation! If you can’t deliver the goods, you’ll have put me in a terrible situation!”

“No! If you can’t deliver the goods on the twenty-fifth, I’ll go to the county yamen to sue you, and you’ll have to compensate me for the penalty I have to pay for breaching the contract!”

“Th-that, that m-might n-not be a-appropriate.”

“What’s inappropriate! You ruined my business, so isn’t it right that you should pay me back!” Boss Liao pointed a finger at Lu Hualin’s nose. “I’m telling you, you have to compensate me double the price of the wine as a penalty for breach of contract, which is two hundred liang. The shipping fee is one hundred and fifty liang, and my contract penalty is eight hundred liang.”

As he spoke, he started counting on his fingers, “A total of one thousand one hundred and fifty liang of silver, you all have to compensate me!”

“W-what?!” Lu Hualin exclaimed in disbelief.

The four thousand catties of wine Boss Liao ordered were only worth one hundred liang of silver in total, but now, because they couldn’t deliver on time, they had to pay a compensation of one thousand one hundred and fifty liang.

Hearing Boss Liao’s words, Lu Sheng was also stunned, but she wasn’t surprised by the one thousand one hundred and fifty liang—she was shocked by Boss Liao’s shamelessness!

“Th-this, th-this, th-this, there’s n-no such th-thing a-as th-that!” Lu Hualin was sweating profusely with anxiety, but the more anxious he was, the more he couldn’t form a complete sentence.

Lu Sheng couldn’t bear it, took a step, and was about to confront the man, but before she could step out, her wrist was grabbed.

The soft fingertips felt slightly cool. She looked back in confusion, only to see Qi Zhenshu slightly frowning and shaking her head at her. Her thin lips parted slightly, and she said calmly, “Leave it to me.”

Lu Sheng stared blankly at her, somewhat unable to believe it.

A person like Qi Zhenshu would also argue with people?!

After speaking, Qi Zhenshu released her hand, walked in front of Lu Hualin, and said, “Uncle, don’t worry.”

“Zhen-Zhenshu!”

Lu Hualin was frantic and saw Qi Zhenshu as a savior.

Qi Zhenshu turned around, gave a slight bow to Boss Liao, and greeted him, “Boss Liao.”

“Scholar Qi.”

Boss Liao’s expression froze for a moment when he saw her, then returned to normal.

“Boss Liao, when you signed the contract with the winery, was it written that if the delivery could not be made on time, the winery would need to compensate you for the losses of your subsequent business?” Qi Zhenshu’s voice was slow and measured.

“It’s all because you couldn’t deliver on time, causing me to breach my contract with others. So, you have to pay the penalty!” Boss Liao didn’t answer her question, just continued to shout.

“Boss Liao, according to the laws of the Liang Dynasty, a breach of contract requires the payment of a penalty, but that only compensates for the penalty of breaching your contract with the winery. The contract you signed with a third party is not within the scope of the winery’s compensation.”

Hearing Qi Zhenshu bring up the law, Boss Liao’s face turned very ugly.

“What? Scholar Qi! Are you trying to bully us common folk just because you’ve read more books? Even if you’ve read more, you can’t be unreasonable!”

“Your Lu family winery used to be trustworthy. What now? Old Lu the second is dead, and you’ve started acting shamelessly, not caring about the winery’s reputation anymore?”

Boss Liao became more and more agitated as he spoke, and as he got closer and closer to Qi Zhenshu, his saliva was almost spraying onto her face. Lu Sheng quickly stepped forward and pulled her away.

“The one acting shamelessly is you, isn’t it? We signed a contract, and we will certainly follow our contract. What does the contract you signed with your next party have to do with us!”

“You won’t pay, right! If you don’t pay, I’ll go to the county yamen and sue you, letting the people of Binhe County get to know the Lu family winery! Doing business without integrity—let’s see who will come to your house to buy wine in the future!”

Hearing his words, an idea suddenly dawned on Lu Sheng.

From the beginning, she felt this Boss Liao was unreasonable, even more stubbornly aggressive than Lu Huaying. So, this is what he was waiting for.

Threatening to sue them was fake; trying to ruin the Lu family winery’s reputation was the real goal!

Lu Sheng immediately dropped her fighting stance and instead asked, as if somewhat intimidated, “Boss Liao, please calm down, let’s talk this out properly.”

“What, you’re scared now?” Boss Liao raised his eyebrows, a smug look on his face. “If you quickly pay the money, we can still cooperate well in the future, and this lawsuit naturally won’t be necessary.”

Lu Sheng lowered her head and pondered for a moment, then looked up again, her expression serious. “One thousand liang is not a small amount. Boss Liao, please allow us some time to raise the funds.”

“A-Sheng!” Hearing her words, Lu Hualin was greatly alarmed.

Lu Sheng walked to his side and quietly whispered a few sentences to him. Lu Hualin’s surprise turned into joy, and he repeatedly agreed, “Good, good, good!”

Boss Liao had been observing their expressions and seized the opportunity to press the question, “Have you discussed it?”

“Boss Liao, we have reached an agreement.”

“What is it?” Boss Liao asked impatiently.

“Boss Liao, please allow us some time. It won’t be later than the twenty-fifth at the latest, how about that?”

Boss Liao was visibly delighted and laughed, “Good! Since that’s the case, I’ll give you a little more time. I’ll come to your house to collect the money on the twenty-fifth!”

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