Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 350

In Li Yong's words, Zhao Tiesheng was honest but a bit foolish. He sometimes couldn't see things clearly and only realized who was good to him and who was bad to him after hitting a wall.

Zhao Chunqin was always looking for shortcuts, spoiled and incapable of doing any hard work. All she did was complain. When Li Yong was still alive, he could keep Zhao Chunqin in check and prevent her from doing anything out of line. But once he retired, Zhao Chunqin started causing problems every few days, and even got into these kinds of trouble.

Li Yongxin was a bit annoyed; how could he have ended up with these people causing him trouble!

But the matter is not yet resolved. Li Yong brought Zhao Tiesheng's family here this time to resolve the issue.

Thinking of this, Li Yong said, "Xiao Zhao, if this were investigated thoroughly, you would be dismissed. Moreover, you have tarnished the reputation of the unit. If the higher-ups blame you, I can't protect you."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Chunqin's anger towards Li Qingmin vanished; all she could think about was that she was finished and she couldn't afford to be fired!

Zhao Chunqin was educated, and she understood that if she were laid off, she would have no say in the family without a salary. Her family had worked hard to send her to university and find her an enviable civil servant job, and she absolutely could not afford to lose it.

Zhao Chunqin knelt down before Li Yong, choking back tears, and said, "Old Li, you said that if I take the initiative to admit my mistakes, you can speak up for me, and the unit won't have to investigate my responsibility further. You can't go back on your word!"

Li Qingfeng said irritably from the side, "Xiao Zhao, what did you say when I asked you before? You swore that your second brother and sister-in-law borrowed money from you, causing me to wrongly accuse them. But now, you're panicking."

Li Qingfeng felt guilty towards Zhao Tiesheng's family, because it was his arrogance that caused them to suffer such injustice and be misunderstood.

If you're wrong, you have to admit it. Li Qingfeng stepped forward and bowed to Zhao Tiesheng and Cheng Jinxiang respectively. "I'm sorry about what happened just now. I didn't carefully distinguish right from wrong and easily believed what Xiao Zhao said, which caused you trouble."

Zhao Tiesheng shook his head and said with a wry smile, "It's alright. Even without your involvement, given Chunqin's character, she would still make up lies to others. Even if you don't believe it, someone else will. I haven't done anything wrong, so naturally I'm not afraid."

Seeing Zhao Tiesheng like this, Li Yong pointed at Zhao Tiesheng and then at Zhao Chunqin, and sighed, "Chunqin, look at your second brother. They were born to the same mother, but how come they are so different!"

"Let me put this into words: if you want to stay at the company, you'd better pay back the money you owe your second brother. That way, your reputation will look better, and if the higher-ups blame you, I can speak up for you. I don't want to be helping a dishonest person when they ask about it. Even if I try my best to speak up for you, if the higher-ups really blame you, I can't help you. If you don't properly negotiate with your second brother and sister-in-law, and they cause trouble again, this matter will reach the higher-ups again, tarnishing the company's reputation. Then you can forget about getting your job!"

Li Yong's meaning was simple: he would speak up for Zhao Chunqin, but only if she returned the money to Zhao Tiesheng's family; otherwise, he couldn't help her. Even if he helped her this time, if Zhao Tiesheng's family caused trouble again, and the matter escalated, Zhao Chunqin would lose her job, and her employer would have grounds to fire such a misbehaving person.

Zhao Chunqin wasn't stupid, and she naturally understood Li Yong's unspoken meaning: if she wanted this matter to pass, she had to appease Zhao Tiesheng's family and at least ensure that they wouldn't cause trouble at her workplace again.

Zhao Chunqin immediately turned to Zhao Tiesheng, grabbed his sleeve, and choked back tears as she apologized, "Second Brother, I was wrong, I was really wrong! I shouldn't have lied to you, please forgive me!"

Zhao Tiesheng ruthlessly shook off Zhao Chunqin's hand and said coldly, "If you really want to admit your mistake, then take some concrete actions and pay back the money first."

Zhao Tiesheng had been deceived by Zhao Chunqin several times, but this time he had learned his lesson and now only cared about money, not people.

Zhao Chunqin knew she had to pay some money now, so she said, "Second brother, I only have four thousand yuan right now. I really have no money left. I can only repay four thousand yuan. Any more than that, I really don't have any more."

In fact, Zhao Chunqin told a little lie. She had more than 8,000 yuan in her hands, but she could only accept giving away half of it. She really couldn't bear to give up any more. Once she got through this, she had to go back to the Zhao family and make a scene.

Four thousand yuan is a considerable sum for an ordinary family. Zhao Tiesheng looked at Cheng Jinxiang and said, "I'm not sure about this either. Chunqin, you should discuss it with your second sister-in-law. If she agrees, I'll agree too."

Zhao Tiesheng was tongue-tied and couldn't say much, but he had a wife, so he could just let her handle the situation.

Cheng Jinxiang thought for a moment. Da'e had recently spent five thousand yuan on building materials, but that was far from enough. Moreover, there would be the cost of hiring workers later, so four thousand yuan wouldn't be enough!

Cheng Jinxiang subconsciously shook her head and refused directly, "Four thousand yuan is not enough. I just want my forty thousand yuan back, every single penny of it."

Zhao Chunqin was stunned. The man asked for 40,000 yuan. Where was she supposed to find 40,000 yuan for Cheng Jinxiang? She knew that her savings plus her salary for the month only amounted to 9,000 yuan. She couldn't even scrape together 10,000 yuan, let alone 40,000 yuan.

Seeing Zhao Chunqin's predicament, Cheng Jinxiang kindly offered a solution: "If you don't have any money on you, you can borrow from others. You can always borrow money. Or you can go home and borrow from our parents. Anyway, I only need this 40,000 yuan. If you can't pay it back, I'll come to your workplace and make a scene in a few days."

Zhao Chunqin was on the verge of tears. This was hardly a good solution. Her affair had become a huge scandal, and everyone knew that she had borrowed money from her second brother and sister-in-law and hadn't paid it back, and had even slandered them. At this critical juncture, if she went to ask for money back, no one would be willing to take the risk of lending her any more.

Go find your family. If your parents knew that the money was being returned to your second brother's family, they definitely wouldn't stand for it.

"Second sister-in-law, do you think I can borrow money in this situation? Even if I wanted to, no one would lend me that much. I can only scrape together nine thousand yuan to pay you back. I really don't have any more money. Could you give me some more time to save up? I'll send you the money as soon as I have it. Look, you've already made a scene, and everyone at work knows about it. If I don't pay you back, you'll cause trouble at my workplace, and I'll lose my job. I don't dare not pay you back. Aren't you sure you trust me?"

Zhao Tiesheng was somewhat tempted. Nine thousand yuan! This amount of money would be more than enough to build a new house in the early stages. When the money ran out, Zhao Chunqin would have saved up enough, and he could just go to her to ask for the money back. With the nine thousand yuan in hand, he wouldn't need to borrow money from others to build the house in the early stages.

Zhao Tiesheng looked at Cheng Jinxiang with shining eyes. Zhao Chunqin breathed a sigh of relief when she saw this. She knew that her second brother's expression meant he was extremely satisfied. After all, nine thousand yuan was five thousand yuan more than the four thousand yuan she had just asked for!

Besides, she really can't raise that much money right now. Now that things have gotten so big, she has no choice but to pay back the money. She can pay back the money after she sells the tea she has. Right now, her task is to appease her second brother and sister-in-law's family and prevent them from causing her any more trouble, otherwise she will really lose her job.

Surely she'll agree to the nine thousand yuan she asked for this time.

Cheng Jinxiang lowered her head and pondered deeply. It was clear that she was also very tempted by the nine thousand yuan that Zhao Chunqin had proposed. After adding the five thousand yuan subsidy from the goose for the house materials, there would still be four thousand yuan at her disposal. This amount of money would be enough for her family to live a more comfortable life, but it was still far from enough.

"No, we have to pay this debt off today. If you keep dragging it out, I don't trust you. If you try to play any tricks on me, I can't fight you without Uncle Li's help. If you keep delaying the payment or make up some lies about how you paid me back a long time ago, then I'll be the one who suffers."

It's no wonder Cheng Jinxiang overthinks things; these are indeed things that Zhao Chunqin would do.

Zhao Chunqin was on the verge of tears. Nothing worked, and she really couldn't come up with any money this time!

Li Yong was a little embarrassed. Seeing that Zhao Chunqin was in a difficult position, he said, "Jinxiang, you can't get Xiao Zhao to come up with 40,000 yuan right now. How about this, every time Xiao Zhao pays you back, you can come to me to be a witness, or you can have Xiao Zhao mortgage her job. In a few years, she will be able to pay off the money."

Zhao Chunqin's expression changed. If she was asked to use her salary as collateral, and she had no money and no savings, how was she supposed to survive? How could Li Yong be so biased towards Cheng Jinxiang!

Cheng Jinxiang felt a warmth in her heart. Li Yong had truly helped her family a lot today, and she could never repay such kindness. She would definitely visit him with a gift next time she had the chance to thank him properly.

Now that things had come to this point, Cheng Jinxiang directly stated her purpose: "I can pay you back nine thousand yuan first, but for the rest, Chunqin, you can use tea of ​​the corresponding value as collateral. That way, we'll be even, and your second brother and I won't cause trouble at your workplace in the future."

Zhao Tiesheng was stunned. He stared wide-eyed at Cheng Jinxiang, never expecting her to make such a demand—to use tea as collateral? She wouldn't take money? She wanted tea? Could tea be eaten as food?

Just as Zhao Tiesheng was about to say something, Cheng Jinxiang seemed to have anticipated it and gave Zhao Tiesheng a look. Zhao Tiesheng shuddered and swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Zhao Chunqin was also dazed and seemed to have not yet recovered. Li Qingmin nudged Zhao Chunqin and whispered, "Chunqin, Second Brother and the others want us to use tea as collateral. I think we should agree."

Li Qingmin wholeheartedly agreed to the idea of ​​using tea as collateral. Who knew how much the tea was worth? His second brother and sister-in-law were from the countryside, so he could just cheat them out of the tea for fifty yuan a pound. In the end, they would even make a profit!

Li Qingmin had thought of this, and Zhao Chunqin naturally could as well. She was a little excited. Cheng Jinxiang had indeed put forward a good idea, and Zhao Chunqin couldn't help but smile.

At this moment, Cheng Jinxiang bowed to Li Yong and pleaded, "Uncle Li, I'll need your help to check out this tea later. I can't read many words and haven't been to school for many years. I'm afraid Chunqin's asking price is too high, which is like selling the tea to me at an inflated price. So I'll need you to check out this tea for me."

Zhao Chunqin was stunned. Seriously? Was Cheng Jinxiang really that shrewd? She actually thought of asking Old Li for help! She really wasn't willing to suffer even the slightest loss!

Li Yong nodded in agreement, but then looked at Li Qingfeng and said, "You tell me the price of this tea."

Li Qingfeng, being the leader here, had some understanding of the prices his partners charged for the tea. He slowly said, "Lingyun Baihao tea is a specialty of the South. There are almost no places in the North that produce this kind of tea. Moreover, Lingyun Baihao tea is precious and difficult to cultivate, so its price is several times higher than ordinary tea. Currently, the market price is 38 yuan per jin (500g), and the partners are quoting 30 yuan per jin. However, I don't know the exact price they paid when they partnered with Xiao Zhao. But Lingyun Baihao tea is very popular with the wealthy, so selling it to them at a high price is not bad."

The wealthy like expensive teas because these teas can represent their different status. Sometimes, the more expensive something is, the more they like it. However, there are very few people like this, but the profit from selling them is high.

Li Qingfeng told Cheng Jinxiang everything he knew so that she could avoid being taken advantage of.

Cheng Jinxiang only grasped the key phrase: 30 yuan per jin (500g) of tea. She felt a little dizzy. She knew tea was expensive, but she didn't expect it to be this expensive! Thirty yuan per jin! She knew that sometimes she could only earn a dozen yuan a day. All her hard work in a day couldn't even earn her a third of the price of tea. Tea can't be eaten, so how could it be so expensive? If Li Qingfeng hadn't told her this himself, Cheng Jinxiang wouldn't have believed it and would have thought that he was trying to trick her again.

But the task of buying the tea was entrusted to her by Da'e. She only understood that it was 30 yuan per catty. As for how much to buy and whether to buy it at all, Cheng Jinxiang felt that it was better to leave it to her daughter to decide. After all, her daughter would not betray her.

So Cheng Jinxiang turned her attention to Zhao Da'e, who was also deep in thought, resting his chin on his hand.

According to Li Qingfeng, Zhao Da'e knew that the highest price quoted for this batch of tea was 30 yuan per jin, but Zhao Chunqin would probably bargain down the price and buy the tea at a lower price.

She can quote prices in the range of 25 to 30 yuan per kilogram, and there is room for negotiation if the price is lowered.

No! Zhao Da'e thought about it and realized there was no need to overcomplicate things. She could just quote 25 yuan per jin. After all, Zhao Chunqin had done such a terrible thing to her family, so how could she not get any compensation?