Chapter 504 You offended someone again. " If this matter didn't escalate now then I am certain that the next complaint would have been something more serious," said Shen Zizhen as he avoided all the curses and peanuts flying in his direction since he was sitting beside Shen Junxi. He seriously looked at Lin Chen and said, " The normal reaction of any shopkeeper when he notices a flaw in his product is to try his best to look for the source of the problem while suppressing the news of something bad happening in his shop, he wouldn't want others to know that there are problems in his products since it will bring bad publicity. Weren't you trying to do the same?"
Lin Chen was stunned for a moment before he looked at Shen Zizhen with a frown and said, " that's right. I indeed wanted to keep thins under wraps for the time being until I could find the source of the problem."
Shen Zizhen took a sip of his wine and shook his head. " Such a rookie mistake, almost everyone makes it. They all try to suppress the news but the thing about being targeted is that your opponent doesn't want the matter to be wrapped up and thrown under a rug, that's why they start with the smallest of the problems something that most shopkeepers ignore and while they are busy looking for the crux of the matter- bang! Your opponent will make a big ripple so that you can't hide it under the wraps."
" You mean to say-"
" You are lucky brat, that Wang mistress was a spoiled little girl and came to find trouble with you before something serious happened." said Shen Zizhen putting down his wine cup and sighing, " if she came a day later even Lord Fei wouldn't have been able to save your neck, mark my words."
Lin Chen frowned, he wasn't a businessman so he couldn't understand this underhanded tactic but Su Wan once ran a restaurant by herself, how can she not understand something so simple. Even if it was the smallest drop it can still cause big ripples in the ocean, this matter wasn't as simple as it looked, their shop has been functioning for so many months, and it was bound to be targeted by someone sooner or later. If they didn't deal with this matter properly, Zhimei would have to stop functioning!
" But all the workers that we hired are slaves, how can they do something as betraying their master?" This was what Lin Chen was the most surprised with, the workers' life and death contracts were in his hands, if they did something like this, he could always have them punished by the yamen and no one would say a word about it.
" Because they were not the ones who betrayed you," said Lin Yu from the end of the table, he has been thinking about the situation for a very long time. They have spent hours interrogating the girls who worked in their shops and only now did Lin Yu come up with a plausible explanation, " Brother Chen, do you remember a lot of girls saying that a few girls from the shop are seeing a few men from the village?"
Lin Chen thought about it carefully while his brows were getting more and more scrunched up until they were so tightly scrunched that he could squeeze a fly with his brows alone. " You mean to say that this is something to do with the men they are seeing?"
Lin Yu nodded. " Those girls are slaves and they all dream of getting rid of their slave status and starting a new life. I think it would have been too easy for those men to fool those girls in the shop and then mess around with the cream perfumes stocked on the counter. It's not like the girls will doubt them and since the other workers knew those men, they wouldn't doubt them either."
Lin Chen was stumped, he had thought of many schemes and even executed them but when he realised that he was actually trapped in someone's else scheme and that too so pitifully that he couldn't even get a hang of what happened to him, Lin Chen couldn't help but roar after finally realising what kind of dirty scheme the other person has pulled, " Gahhh!! Damn that bastard! I curse him! I hope his eggs dry up and his itsy bitsy thing shrivels up! You bastard!"
Lin Chen has always been uncouth and he started spouting even more vulgar words when he was angry thus, after hearing him curse. All the women especially Fang Tao who was still unmarried blushed, they wanted to say something but didn't know what to say… he was angry, it was right for him to curse…so do they need to leave?
Su Wan who sensed the discomfort of the ladies, pulled Lin Chen's ear causing him to shout in pain. She glared at him and lightly slapped his arm, " This why you are in trouble because you keep offending people left and right like this, at least watch where you are before you start cursing."
Lin Chen noticed the fading blush on the cheeks of the women who were sitting around him and sheepishly grinned before apologizing.
Lin Rui cleared his throat and tried to ease the awkwardness that was settled upon everyone, " I think that whoever it was, he must be familiar with Brother Chen because Zhimei was the only shop that was targeted when it was- I am really sorry to say this third brother" giving Lin Chen an apologetic smile, Lin Rui continued. " The one with the least profit, when compared to Second brother's restaurant and Yu's boutique. Don't you think that instead of targeting that shop for a profiteering reason, this seems like a personal feud? Like why else they will target only brother Chen's shop and not anyone else..or did they?" He turned to look at Lin Yu and Lin Yan who shook their heads.
" my restaurant is working fine."
" I don't think that there is anything wrong with my shop either."
" Then" Lin Rui turned to look at Lin Chen with a smile as he said, " it could only mean that you offended someone again, third brother."
Lin Chen: "….." Wahhh!! What do you mean by again? Don't look at me like I am a fool while you smile like that!!