Chapter 145: Fool

I originally thought some people would go to Delicious Hall to buy rice, but strangely, its shopfront remained desolate.

There wasn't a single person.

By contrast, the long queue on the opposite side remained orderly, and the people didn't even give her a glance.

Meng Qinghe was completely stunned.

This… what is going on?

I've already lowered the price, so why can't even a single grain of rice be sold?

At this moment, in the Minister's Residence, Lady Jiang was eating fruit while a maid massaged her shoulders and legs.

Jiang Mama hurriedly ran in.

"Madam, something's wrong."

Lady Jiang opened her eyes and said gravely, "What is it?"

"Outside Delicious Hall…"

"I've already heard that our Delicious Hall is surrounded by crowds; no wonder my own daughter is so quick‑witted. If she can sell all the grain, we could earn at least a hundred‑plus thousand taels, and then the deficit of the Minister's Residence would be fully covered. This time I will have the Minister properly praise He Er."

Jiang Mama, hearing this, grew even more anxious: "Madam, that's not true; there isn't a single person outside our shop."

"What? Not a single person?"

Yes! Not a single person. Except on the first day, a dozen people bought a bit of rice; these past two days not a single grain has been sold.

"What's happening?" Lady Jiang's face darkened: "How can there be no one at all?"

Jiang Mama recounted everything that had happened over the past two days.

"The young miss still hoped to salvage the situation by other means, so she didn't tell you, but now the young miss has raised the rice price to forty wen, and those fools would rather stand in line than go to Delicious Hall to buy rice and flour."

Lady Jiang swept the fruit platter off the table onto the floor and shouted loudly, "What? This fool!"

"Indeed! Those people are truly foolish!"

"I am talking about He Er! She's an absolute fool!" Lady Jiang shouted angrily. "Didn't she claim that only she had that much grain in Jingcheng? Then what's up with the shop across the street? Foolish! Unthinkably foolish! Ever since she returned to the Meng Family, no good thing has happened to the Meng Family! Now I've given all my silver to her, and even borrowed pawn money from outside; if everything is lost inside, what will become of us?"

Jiang Mama was also terribly worried.

"If it were Yi Er, she would never be so reckless and foolish!" Lady Jiang closed her eyes slightly, her brows knitting together.

"Madam… Miss probably didn't anticipate it either; she meant well!"

"What good is kindness? It's the most useless thing! You need a brain, a brain! Without a brain, what's the point of kindness? Kindness that causes trouble is better left undone; it only drags people down."

Jiang Mama, seeing her angry, didn't dare to speak.

"Bring that fool back to me!"

"Yes."

After Meng Qinghe returned to the Minister's Residence, she was taken straight to the matriarch's courtyard.

"Mother."

Meng Qinghe called timidly, "Mother," and Lady Jiang turned and slapped her.

"Kneel!"

"Mother, I know I've erred," Meng Qinghe cried, "I really don't know what's happening, I…"

"I've been clever all my life, how could I give birth to such a foolish thing! Fifty thousand taels of silver—do you realize how crucial those fifty thousand taels are to the Meng Family now?"

Meng Qinghe covered her face, tears brimming in her eyes: "Mother, there has never been any rumor in Jingcheng of anyone hoarding grain in large quantities; I truly don't know, but I will find a way to sell all this grain."

"'Find a way?' What way could you possibly have?" Lady Jiang shouted angrily. "If it were Yi Er, she would never do something so foolish."

Yi Er?

Chi Nan Yi?

Mother still thinks of her!

"Mother, I am your daughter, why…" In the past, when she put on a pitiful demeanor, her mother would hug her with guilt; now she repeats the same trick, expecting Lady Jiang to react as before.

But this time, she miscalculated.

"Daughter? You are my daughter? I wish I had never given birth to you!"

Meng Qinghe felt as if struck by lightning; she could no longer keep her composure: "Mother, what are you saying?"

Lady Jiang sat in the chair, her chest heaving violently.

She looked at Meng Qinghe: "Get up."

Jiang Mama hurried forward and helped her up.

Meng Qinghe sat beside Lady Jiang, deliberately turning the side of her face that had been slapped toward Lady Jiang.

Looking at the reddened, swollen slap mark, Lady Jiang felt no remorse; at that moment she wished she could return to the day she first recognized Meng Qinghe.

If she could start over, she would never acknowledge this fool.

She had painstakingly raised Yi Er, nurturing her to be well‑educated, refined, and the most beautiful and talented in Jingcheng; yet that day she seemed as if her mind were clouded by pork lard, stubbornly insisting on recognizing her.

"Now that things have come to this, we can only quickly sell the grain in the storeroom."

"Mother's meaning is to find someone who can eat it all?"

"Exactly."

"But if that's the case, our loss in silver will increase; the daughter thought, if they won't buy at forty wen, someone will at least buy at thirty‑eight wen."

Lady Jiang shook her head. "We can't wait." She said irritably, "Of the silver I gave you, twenty thousand taels are pawn money I borrowed from outside; the daily interest is substantial. If you buy all that grain, we might not even cover the interest."

"Then what should we do?"

Lady Jiang narrowed her eyes slightly and whispered a few words into Jiang Mama's ear.

Before long, Shopkeeper Hao was escorted to the Minister's Residence.

"Shopkeeper Hao."

"I, a humble servant, have the honor of meeting you, Madam."

Jiang Clan said lightly: "I don't need to keep dealing with you; you might be able to buy all the grain in my storehouse?"

Hearing her say that, Shopkeeper Hao's heart stirred.

As expected, the landlord had guessed correctly; Madam Meng really intended to have herself buy all the grain in the storehouse outright.

"Replying to Madam, I can afford to buy it."

"When I originally bought this grain, I spent fifty thousand taels; now I'm selling it to you for forty thousand taels—how does that sound?"

"Madam, right now I sell a catty of fine rice for only forty cash; according to the price you mentioned, I would even lose my capital. At this price, I certainly wouldn't buy it! Besides, there's still plenty of grain in the shop; even after surviving the snow disaster, there's plenty left over." He said with a smile: "This is also thanks to Delicious Flavor Hall—our shop's business has been dwindling day by day; otherwise we couldn't have stockpiled so much grain."

Jiang Clan heard this and frowned tightly.

"Then how much silver do you want to collect?"

"Twenty thousand taels." Shopkeeper Hao said with a smile: "Twenty thousand taels, and I'll take all this grain."

"What? Twenty thousand taels? Even if this grain were just sitting in a grain shop, it would be worth more than twenty thousand taels!"

"Madam, you don't know this, but currently several grain shop owners in Jingcheng are all at our restaurant! Since the people of Jingcheng have eaten our rice, ordinary rice has become hard to swallow, so now those grain shop owners all want to buy rice from our shop."