Chapter 188 - Bullying
“That won’t happen.” Lin Yi said calmly. “Look at how hot their stand was earlier- they definitely prepared more for tonight, they’re not gonna sell out that fast.”
“I guess so.” Xiaobo said, calming himself down after hearing Lin Yi’s analysis.
Lin Yi, on the other hand, mainly didn’t want Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu seeing him looking for Tang Yin again- he didn’t want the Miss accusing him of hitting on girls again. Lin Yi would rather have less trouble to deal with, after all, that was the attitude he approached this with, and also why he’d waited for the girls to leave first.
Lin Yi glanced at the street not far away from him, sighing in relief internally after seeing that Li Fu’s Bentley wasn’t there. With that, he left for the food street along with Xiaobo beside him.
“Eh? Seriously? Look, boss- look at how many people there are!!” Xiaobo said, stunned as he pointed in the direction of Mrs. Tang’s stand. “Did the customers of other stands go to the Tangs’ too?”
Lin Yi frowned as he spotted many vendors surrounding Mrs. Tang’s barbeque stand- Lin Yi clearly didn’t think they were Mrs. Tang’s customers.
“Tang Yin might be in trouble- let’s go take a look.” Lin Yi said, quickening his steps.
They heard a man yelling as they neared the place. “I say, missus!! Isn’t this a little too much? We’re all from the same food street, what’re you doing is taking our jobs from us!!”
It was Zhang Biaogan speaking, pissed enough already from the explosion in popularity Tang Barbeque enjoyed earlier in the afternoon. Displeased with his loss of customers, he had decided to cause Mrs. Tang trouble with some fellow barbeque related vendors that night.
From what Biaogan could see, Mrs. Tang was no different from a widow, with a man sick and bedridden and basically dead- they were a weak family to begin with, and it should be pretty easy to scare her with just some yelling.
“We’re not looking for any trouble, mister… We’re not stealing any customers……” Mrs. Tang said, a little frightened at the people with Biaogan. The other vendors around them didn’t look like they’d be helping her anytime soon, either.
“Not stealing any customers?? Who were we supposed to sell our food to when all the students went to your stand?!” A woman in charge of another barbeque stand called out. “How is this not stealing customers?? Will it be stealing customers when all of us starve to death??”
“That’s right!! You’re selling more than all of us combined!! You’re basically killing us off!” Another voice sounded, coming from a skinny male vendor.
“I……” Mrs. Tang wasn’t sure what to do- she hadn’t expected that she’d be pissing this many people off with better sales.
“Stealing your customers? My mother’s doing business legally and properly!” Tang Yin said, frustrated as she stood up for her mother. “The customers come to our stand because our food tastes good, is that our fault? You guys want better business, you can improve your recipes too!!”
“Well said, little girl!” Biaogan said with a chuckle. “We wanna improve our recipes too- now that you said it we’ll take you up on that offer! Give us your recipe, let us all learn from it and we’ll let things slide!”
“It’s my family’s recipe, why on earth should we give it to you?” Tang Yin said, not expecting Biaogan to be this unreasonable, going as far as to ask for their recipe! Her family would lose all their advantage if they did that!
“Why on earth? Because you stole our customers! It’s for the communal good! Don’t you guys agree?” Biaogan said, turning to the vendors who came with him.
“That’s right! Giving us the recipe lets us all be better off! It’s not a good thing to hog everything to yourself!” The barbeque woman said.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to- either that or you change the recipe back to your old one, and we earn less together!” The skinny man said shadily.
“What if we don’t give or change the recipe?” Tang Yin said, so pissed off that tears might start welling up soon- this was bullying! Where was the justice? How could a bunch of people just gang up on her and her mom like this?
“Not giving or changing the recipe?” Biaogan chuckled coldly. “Then you’ll have to stop setting up your stand here!”
“You-!” Tang Yin’s tears were welling up at that point- these guys were trying to force them out!
“Yin……” Mrs. Tang embraced her daughter, worried that she might do something she’d regret in the heat of the moment. She raised a trembling finger at Biaogan. “You… You’re all bullying us because we don’t have a man in the family? What kind of people are you, picking on a mother and daughter like this!”
Mrs. Tang reckoned that the they wouldn’t be this cocky if her husband wasn’t bedridden.
“Don’t say it like that- this is for the communal good.” Biaogan had actually confronted the Tangs because of that fact- he was completely aware of their situation, after all.
Mrs. Tang was pretty frustrated herself as she held her daughter in her arms- all she wanted to do was do business and earn some money, was that too much to ask? Weren’t these people being too absurd, bullying them because their business was good?
Tang Yin, on the other hand, resented that she wasn’t a man- these people wouldn’t be acting so cocky if she were! She looked at the other vendors who were only interested in watching, and Tang Yin couldn’t help but fall into despair…
They’d just seen a new glimmer of hope in dire times, too……
“Communal good my ass!!” Lin Yi said as he pushed the crowd aside, charging right at Biaogan- the guy was too much!! What did he think he was doing, bullying the two women like that? Didn’t he know they were under his protection?
The vendors Lin Yi had pushed aside were just about to yell at him when they saw his face, shutting their mouths instantly- it was the new Big Four from Songshan’s First School!! He was someone even a tyrant like Zou Ruoming feared, leaving without uttering a single word after he’d slapped him across the face!
Lin Yi held Biaogan’s collar from behind and pulled him up. “You’re the leader, right?”
“Who the fu-” Biaogan was about to curse at the dude pulling his collar when he saw Lin Yi’s face, freezing instantly with wide eys.
After all, Lin Yi had left a strong impression for him- only a true monster could get Zou Ruoming cowering away with a single slap!!
Biaogan used to be a seafood vendor when Ruoming got a stomachache from his food, thrashing his stand the second day and even put him in bed for a couple of days! He never sold seafood again, switching to barbeque instead when his injury healed up… His fear towards Ruoming was quite an extreme one.
It was a well known fact that Ruoming’s brother was a gangster in the northern side of the city, and the thought of revenge never even crossed Biaogan’s mind after learning that. It wasn’t a difficult thing in the slightest for Ruoming to destroy him.
Yet even Ruoming feared this Lin Yi, who was right in front of him looking to mess him up!!! Biaogan was that much away from pissing his pants- if this man could beat Ruoming with no effort at all, then wouldn’t it be even more of a breeze for him to beat him up?