Chapter 084

Chapter 84: F*ck your mom, refund the money!

You Bing Yue glared coldly at Yu Zhi Yi, saying: “You had better truly have nothing to do with this, or I will never let you go!”

Yu Zhi Yi dug at her ear and said: “But what can you really do to me?”

On the stairs, You Bing Yue’s foot slipped and she almost tumbled down. Shame burned in her chest. For a moment she truly could not think of a way to deal with Yu Zhi Yi. She could win a fight, yes, but the other woman stayed curled up inside that so-called defense array, so she could not even touch her. She felt countless mocking eyes at her back and did not want to look at those fence-sitters again. [If I look back, I might rush over and start a massacre. I might even dig out every pair of eyes that keeps sneering at me.]

Red Luan tugged her hand and said, bright with excitement: “Come on, let’s go see the commotion!” She pulled her downstairs and headed straight for Nan Feng Bookstore.

Seeing her companion so eager, Yu Zhi Yi could only give a helpless smile. She already knew the cause and effect of this mess, but she let Red Luan go as she wished.

Red Luan was familiar with the area and quickly found a great spot to watch.

By then, You Bing Yue had already reached the front of Nan Feng Bookstore.

Inside the shop, the shopkeeper and staff were hiding behind the door boards, shaking. Faced with the angry townspeople, no one dared go out and risk it.

The shopkeeper looked at a clerk and asked: “Why isn’t the young master here yet?”

The clerk grimaced and said: “We already sent word. He may take a while.”

The shouting outside did not stop. Seeing the store still playing turtle made the crowd even angrier. Someone lost patience and began to smash at the door.

The shopkeeper and the others could only scramble to hold the door. But there were only about ten of them, and outside stood hundreds, maybe thousands, of furious people. Ten people were not enough.

That was when You Bing Yue arrived.

She barked, voice cold and ringing, and the crowd actually stopped: “Stop!”

Red Luan pulled out a handful of sunflower seeds, split them and offered half to Yu Zhi Yi, saying: “Didn’t expect it, that woman really has some skill.”

Even putting aside other things, the way she faced a sea of people without blinking was rare. Many women of this era would go weak in the knees at the sight of so many troublemakers, let alone step forward to face them.

Yu Zhi Yi accepted the seeds, but did not want to eat. After a while, a small palm held out neatly shelled seeds to her. She paused, then took them this time and did not waste the kindness. Red Luan also took back the unshelled ones from Yu Zhi Yi’s hand and started cracking them herself.

The uproar at the bookstore continued.

After stepping out, You Bing Yue kept a frosty face and asked why they were making trouble.

The leader was a burly young man. He wore a scholar’s robe, but his bearing did not look like a reader’s. Still, he was one.

He snapped: “Are we making trouble, or are you cheating people?”

You Bing Yue had already filled her belly with anger at Splendid Brocade Workshop earlier. Now she could not hold it down and shot back, sharp and hard: “Where did we cheat you?”

“You cheated us poor people out of our money and still try to act like you did nothing wrong,” the young man shouted, face flushing red. “Black-hearted bookstore! Black-hearted steward! Do you deserve all the praise folks in the Capital gave you?”

Red Luan grew anxious at all the circling words and said: “So what exactly did Nan Feng Bookstore cheat them of? Stop hemming and hawing and give the point!”

Watching her friend itch with curiosity, Yu Zhi Yi’s lips curved in a small smile. She explained, soft and clear: “Money.”

She went on: “It will happen any moment, so saying it now is fine. I already knew this, and not because I cast lots. You Bing Yue wanted to draw customers, so she launched a set of perks. Free tea and snacks. Poor scholars could copy books for free, and more. All of that was to attract guests. It was losing money to build buzz.”

Red Luan nodded and said: “I heard some of that.” Then she frowned. “But if that’s true, weren’t people the ones getting a bargain?”

She had been swamped recently and had no time to follow gossip. Splendid Brocade Workshop was not far from Nan Feng Bookstore, but she still did not know much.

Yu Zhi Yi said: “Those were the bait. There were ways to earn too. The people making a scene came because of that. You Bing Yue launched a membership plan. Pay two taels of silver and you become a member. The free tea and snacks had a time limit. From seven days ago, they have not been free. Students who came to read or buy books had to join as members to keep enjoying free service.”

She added: “But not many students can spare two taels. More people came only for the word ‘free,’ and plenty who were not students slipped in to enjoy the free service.”

“During that time, to pull in guests, the tea and snacks were unlimited. The daily cost ran around ten taels.”

“Because guests surged, the store bought four to five times more books.”

“In less than a month, the store spent over five thousand taels.”

“But they only collected just under five hundred taels in membership fees.”

Red Luan hissed and said: “That gap is huge!”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded and said: “Tea and snacks are not the main weight. Ten taels a day is two to three hundred a month. A store can bear that. The real cost is books. A cheap volume costs about one tael wholesale. Costly ones two or three taels. They brought in two to three thousand books at once. Costs shot up.”

Red Luan clicked her tongue and said: “So she burned over five thousand taels to earn just five hundred. You Bing Yue really is Du Zi Heng’s little spendthrift saint, a friend of the common folk.”

Yu Zhi Yi smiled and continued: “Most of the people making a fuss are the ones who paid the membership fee. You Bing Yue promised that if they paid, they could read all the books in the store for a month for free, even the rare ones, and also enjoy tea and snacks.”

“But after more than half a month of that, the bookstore was bleeding money. They could not even afford the custom pastries and tea leaves.”

“So they had to close the doors.”

She thought: if You Bing Yue had done this before Du Zi Heng’s injury, the store would not be collapsing so fast. The bad part was her timing. Du Zi Heng’s private stash was already dry. Madam Yao had watched his foolish behavior and would not give extra funds.

Red Luan laughed and handed Yu Zhi Yi another little pile of shelled seeds, saying: “What a show.”

By then, the young man out front finally laid out his charge: “What did your people say at first? If we paid the membership fee, we could read whatever we wanted in the store, drink tea and eat snacks as we liked. If we won first place in the contests the store held, we would even get prize money.”

“Then after we paid, you shut the door right behind us?”

“Cheaters. Either let us in, or refund the money.”

“Yeah! Refund the money!” the crowd roared.