When the Cannon Fodder Meets the Love-Brained Female Supporting Character - Episode 20

The moment the black object fell, Wei Ming gloated, “See? I told you—” His words abruptly cut off mid-sentence.

He, along with the onlookers, fixed their gazes on the bowl.

Inside wasn’t the hideous corpse of a cockroach, but a large, perfectly round black pearl, about the diameter of an adult’s finger, its surface gleaming with luster.

The middle-aged man held his breath. “This is…?”

Jiang Nan glanced around at the curious faces of the crowd. “This is today’s new promotion at our shop. A black pearl is randomly placed in one of the teapots as a prize.”

The pearl was large, flawless, and of exceptional quality. Worth at least twenty taels of silver.

Most of the patrons on the first floor weren’t particularly wealthy, and at this revelation, they collectively gasped in astonishment.

Wei Ming stared at the black pearl in disbelief before suddenly lunging forward to grab it.

It was a genuine black pearl.

His face turned darker than the pearl itself.

He had been tricked!

Wei Ming glared hatefully at the middle-aged man.

After weighing his options, the middle-aged man plastered an ingratiating smile on his face. “Then I—”

“Sir, your prize eligibility has been revoked. We’ll be taking the pearl back,” Fang Rui interjected, snatching the pearl from Wei Ming’s grasp and wrapping it carefully in a handkerchief. She then turned to the middle-aged man. “You disrupted our business and drove away several customers in just this short time, costing us several taels of silver. Consider yourself lucky we’re not making you compensate us.”

The middle-aged man slammed the table in anger. “You never mentioned this promotion! Isn’t it normal for customers to make mistakes? I’d say you deliberately misled people!”

“Who said we didn’t mention it?” Jiang Nan chuckled lightly. “You just didn’t look, did you? It’s clearly written in black and white at the entrance. Feel free to go check for yourself.”

Fang Rui walked to the entrance and returned moments later with a sheet of paper. As she brought it back, it slipped from her hands and fell to the ground. She picked it up, dusted it off, and held it up for everyone to see.

Written plainly on the paper was: One black pearl, randomly placed in a teapot. The finder keeps it.

Jiang Nan froze momentarily upon seeing the notice.

The others, too, began murmuring among themselves.

“Now that I think about it, I did see a notice like this when I entered Cangfang Lou, but I didn’t pay much attention.”

“I saw it too.”

“So these two were just causing trouble for no reason? They were given a black pearl and still weren’t satisfied?”

“I know why! Isn’t the man on the right the owner of that newly opened teahouse next door?”

“I tried that place yesterday, it was terrible. This place is much better. The tea is fragrant, and the atmosphere is comfortable. That’s why I came back early today.”

“He was trying to smear Cangfang Lou’s reputation. How despicable.”

The two men paled under the barrage of accusations. Wei Ming turned to leave but was intercepted by constables arriving to investigate a case.

Several officers blocked the exit. “No one leaves yet. There’s been a report of attempted poisoning here.”

Wei Ming sensed impending disaster and quickly said, “Officers, I have customers waiting at my teahouse. I need to return and attend to them. Please.”

“Denied,” the constable cut him off, eyeing him suspiciously. “Are you trying to obstruct justice?”

Wei Ming shook his head frantically, sweat dripping down his back. “No, no, of course not.”

Fang Rui signaled a few burly men to bring out a bound figure from the back kitchen.

“Officers, this is the man! He climbed over the wall into our kitchen and tried to tamper with the tea.”

The bound man’s eyes were filled with terror as he shook his head, whimpering through muffled cries.

Fang Rui yanked the silk scarf from his mouth and kicked his back with her knee. “Speak properly!” she snapped.

The man had already been thoroughly intimidated by Jiang Nan’s guards in the back kitchen. The moment he was brought out, he spilled everything, implicating both Wei Ming and the middle-aged man.

Thus, it became clear that Wei Ming had bribed the middle-aged man and his lackeys to smear Cangfang Teahouse.

The tea patrons, furious at having been deceived earlier, began denouncing the two men.

The middle-aged man had been trying to slip away unnoticed ever since he saw his lackey being captured, but the patrons caught him red-handed.

Tears and snot streamed down his face as he pleaded, “Honorable patrons, it was all Wei Ming’s fault! We’ll return the money to him, alright? We only released cockroaches, not poison! We didn’t even succeed in our scheme…”

His words were immediately met with curses and jeers from the crowd.

“Earlier, the boss said the only pests in this teahouse were you two. Turns out she was absolutely right,” someone remarked.

The constables hauled away Wei Ming, the middle-aged man, and the lackey, all trembling in fear.

After they left, the teahouse gradually settled back into calm.

One timid patron asked Jiang Nan, “Boss, will there be more events like this in the future?”

Jiang Nan smiled faintly. “Of course. I’ll post notices outside whenever we have one. Just don’t mistake them for cockroaches again.”

The crowd burst into laughter.

Jiang Nan stepped outside and noticed a crowd of onlookers still lingering.

Wei Su emerged from Wei Ji Teahouse, traces of anger still flickering in her expression.

“What did Wei Ming do to Cangfang Teahouse?” she asked.

Jiang Nan recounted everything in detail, and Wei Su rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“Wei Ming sent people to my place too,” she said. “But most of my customers are regulars, and the ones he hired were obviously shady. I recognized them immediately and threw them out.”

Jiang Nan chuckled, typical of Wei Su’s style.

After a moment’s thought, Wei Su suddenly added, “I don’t believe someone as sharp as you didn’t see this coming. Did you let it play out just to ensure he’d face harsher consequences? Ah, now his teahouse is doomed. He’ll lose everything.”

She laughed gleefully at the thought.

When Fang Rui returned, she handed Jiang Nan a basket of fruit and another of pastries. “These are from that beauty you kindly rescued last time.”

The pastries were exquisite, familiar, and still warm, their aroma lingering in the air.

“Xiao Ran, she came by?” Jiang Nan asked.

“You even know her name now, Boss!” Fang Rui teased. “The handwriting on that paper on your desk is hers, by the way.”

Jiang Nan glanced at the notice and motioned for her to continue.

Fang Rui explained, “The commotion at Cangfang Teahouse drew all the neighbors. That man was so loud they could hear him outside. The notice we posted earlier was torn down in the chaos and disappeared. While I was searching for it outside, that beauty Xiao Ran said it had fallen to the ground and handed it back to me.”

She paused, thinking. “Actually, now that I recall, I saw her when I first stepped out. She was writing something in a hurry, but I didn’t pay attention. Turns out she was fixing the notice for us. At the time, I really thought it had just fallen. But when she gave it to me, I noticed the ink wasn’t even dry. I had to shake it a bit to let it set.”

Jiang Nan lowered her gaze.

She really was clever.

“I originally wanted to invite her in for tea, but she said she had other matters to attend to and couldn’t stay. She just asked me to pass these snacks to you.”

Jiang Nan glanced at the vermilion-lacquered food box.

This seemed to be the same one Xiao Ran had used when she first “bullied” her.

Jiang Nan opened the box and took a bite of the pastry. It was crispy and delicious, just as tasty as the first time she had tried it.

A sweet aroma wafted through the air.

Fang Rui sidled over with a grin. “That smells amazing. I want some too.”

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Soon, it was the fourth day of the fifth month, the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Dawn was just breaking, the mist not yet fully dispersed, as the rising sun scattered seeds of warmth.

The fresh fragrance of bamboo leaves filled the streets and alleys. Some vendors had already set up steaming baskets filled with savory meat zongzi and plain rice dumplings.

Xiao Ran hurried by, clutching a jug of fruit wine. A light sheen of sweat glistened on her face, her usually pale cheeks tinged with two streaks of pink.

To fulfill her promise to that “person,” she had risen early in the morning, planning to quickly bury the wine beneath the century-old locust tree in the northern part of the city while there were few people around.

It was a massive tree, its gnarled branches twisting and turning, its trunk so thick it would take ten people to encircle it.

Pedestrians were scarce, with only the occasional hurried passerby.

After glancing around and confirming no one was nearby, Xiao Ran took out a small shovel she had prepared, dug a shallow pit, and buried the wine jar before covering it with soil. Finally, she picked up a twig and discreetly drew the agreed-upon mark on the ground.

The entire task took no more than ten minutes. Wiping her sweat with a handkerchief, she finally felt a sense of relief.

Without lingering, Xiao Ran turned to head home.

On her way back, a sudden thought struck her, stirring unease in her heart. Earlier, she had noticed a few large yellow dogs playing and roughhousing near the locust tree.

Regret washed over her. She had buried the jar too shallowly. What if the dogs, with their habit of digging, unearthed the wine and someone else drank it?

At this thought, she immediately turned back, intending to pack the soil more firmly around the jar.

When she arrived, she saw a familiar figure yawning while squatting and using a shovel to dig up the very jar she had just buried.

Xiao Ran froze in place, her autumn-water eyes filled with disbelief.

“Sister Jiang…?”