Jiang Yanyi couldn’t help but reflect on herself.

If she had just bet silver from the beginning, even if it was just one tael per game, she would only owe Feng Shuo one hundred taels of silver now…

Ah, one hundred taels of silver?

No, no!

Jiang Yanyi shifted her thoughts, wondering why she had to foolishly challenge him to a game of Go…

If she hadn’t played Go, she wouldn’t have ended up in this miserable situation.

As she wallowed in self-pity, she flipped through the accounts with her eyes darting across the lines.

When she saw today’s accounts, she suddenly noticed that someone had bought ten portions of roasted lamb at noon.

Her supply of chili powder had already been used up during the barbecue a few days before opening, and now when grilling, she could only brush on a layer of oil and vinegar sauce to add some spice.

The only two dishes that could be grilled without chili and still taste quite delicious were garlic eggplant and garlic vermicelli.

As two of the restaurant’s signature small dishes, some customers avoided garlic at all costs, while others came back for several days just to enjoy these two dishes.

While roasted lamb was favored by many nobles, the lack of the fragrant chili flavor led to a drop in sales.

Some nobles even mentioned that the flavor of the roasted lamb in her restaurant was not as good as it had been before.

Rumors quickly spread throughout the town, criticizing her restaurant’s food for being subpar and the ingredients not fresh…

There were certainly some people behind the scenes guiding these comments.

But no matter what people said outside, the ingredients in Jiang Yanyi’s restaurant came from a few reputable suppliers in Xizhou City.

If anyone claimed her ingredients were poor, the butcher selling lamb would be the first to disagree.

If they wanted to use such tricks to bring down her restaurant, they would have to offend those supplying her ingredients first.

After all, Jiang Yanyi’s hot pot restaurant was well-known, and the patrons were mostly prominent figures.

Their reputation was elevated just by saying they sourced ingredients from her restaurant.

Jiang Yanyi occasionally introduced new dishes, ensuring her restaurant was never lacking in business.

Old customers frequented her restaurant, and they knew well how good the food was.

The reputation among the nobility was far more important than the rumors spread by those in the town.

Jiang Yanyi’s clientele consisted of the middle and upper classes, not those who had secretly received money from others without ever setting foot in her restaurant and then spoke nonsense.

Only occasionally would a wealthy merchant, trying to show off, swagger in and ask, “I heard people say your restaurant’s food isn’t good?”

At such times, Jiang Yanyi would smile faintly and reply, “Dear guest, you’ll know whether it’s good after you try it. As for those claims, our little restaurant hasn’t received any of those guests, so I don’t know how they found out it wasn’t good.”

With more inquiries like that, sometimes without Jiang Yanyi needing to step in, Qiu Kui could directly reply, “Those who say such things haven’t even set foot in our restaurant; how would they know whether our hot pot is good?”

Any customer with a bit of sense would realize that her restaurant had likely provoked jealousy from others.

It was the first time Jiang Yanyi had seen someone buy ten portions of roasted lamb all at once since opening, which piqued her curiosity.

She couldn’t help but ask, “Qiu Kui, do you remember which guest ordered the ten portions of roasted lamb?”

Since the time was nearing closing, there were hardly any customers left.

The account manager from the Feng Manor and two guards had already left, and Aunt Guo was busy in the kitchen, so she could only ask Qiu Kui.

Qiu Kui gestured, “Three men, all with big beards, ordered a lot of meat and played drinking games.”

Since most of the patrons who came in since the restaurant opened were respectable people, Qiu Kui had a particularly deep impression of those three wild-looking customers.

Just hearing her description of their big beards and drinking games made Jiang Yanyi picture the scene vividly.

She stared at the account book for a while and noticed they had also settled the bill without any fuss, casually asking, “Did they cause any trouble when they paid?”

Qiu Kui shook her head. “No.”

Since their behavior didn’t resemble that of local ruffians, Jiang Yanyi felt reassured and considered them to be carefree ruffians.

She said, “We still need to hire two waiters who know some martial arts.”

Today had been lucky; the guests didn’t cause any trouble, and there were two guards from the Feng Manor around.

But what if they happened to encounter trouble another day?

With only three women in the restaurant, it could easily give others the impression that they were easy to bully.

Before closing the restaurant, Jiang Yanyi habitually checked every corner to ensure there were no issues before locking up.

The next day, after waking up, she prepared breakfast as usual while Qiu Kui opened the front door.

The pickled vegetables Jiang Yanyi had prepared were now fermented, and she planned to make pickled vegetable shredded pork noodles.

Before she even started kneading the dough, a sudden scream from outside made her heart race.

“What happened?” Jiang Yanyi quickly hurried outside.

Qiu Kui stood at the door, her face pale as she stared at something on the steps.

Jiang Yanyi walked closer and discovered a dead mouse and a wild cat at the steps outside the shop.

The mouse was half-eaten and covered in blood, while the wild cat’s condition was even more tragic, surrounded by a pile of vomit, its eyes rolled back like a dead fish.

Even though she was somewhat prepared for it, Jiang Yanyi was still startled, a wave of physiological discomfort rising within her.

She glanced down the street and saw that the shops were gradually opening up. Several vendors selling breakfast used to set up stalls in front of her shop, as they only did business in the morning, while her hot pot restaurant opened for lunch.

Jiang Yanyi had a good temper; she wouldn’t say anything when she saw them. Occasionally, they would even send her a portion of breakfast, and she appreciated it because if they set up stalls in front of someone else’s shop, they would definitely be driven away with shouts.

However, today those vendors kept their distance from her shop, clearly wary of the dead cat.

Jiang Yanyi asked a woman selling wontons, “Auntie, did you see this cat dead in front of my shop when you set up this morning?”

The wonton seller hesitantly nodded, as if afraid Jiang Yanyi would ask her more, and hurriedly got back to work.

Jiang Yanyi looked at the other vendors, who also mostly avoided her gaze.

She understood that they were afraid of being implicated themselves; after all, they had no solid backing, and now that she had become closely associated with the Feng family, if someone dared to resort to such underhanded tricks against her, it meant their strength was not to be underestimated.

Jiang Yanyi was aware of their concerns, but she still felt a hint of the world’s coldness in her heart.

She didn’t ask anything further and simply said to Qiu Kui, “Let’s take care of this dead cat and mouse first and clean up the entrance.”

Qiu Kui nodded and went to the back kitchen to get some ashes.

The mess from the dead cat’s vomit was easier to clean up when wrapped in ashes.

He Xingniang, the owner of the jewelry shop across the street, came out with a pancake roll for breakfast.

Upon seeing the dead cat in front of Jiang Yanyi’s shop, she waved her hand in front of her nose in disgust several times.

“Manager Jiang, is the food in your shop unclean? The wild cat ate the mouse from your shop and died of poisoning. Can anyone still eat the food you cook?”

Someone was clearly trying to tarnish her reputation.

Jiang Yanyi replied without holding back: “Auntie He, I don’t appreciate what you’re saying. Not to mention, we don’t even know if the wild cat died from eating the poisoned mouse. Just because a mouse is found in front of my shop doesn’t mean it belongs to me!”

She was afraid of attracting more mice, so she hadn’t dared to smoke any cured meat.

The meat she used in the shop was fresh, bought every morning, and everything edible was neatly stored in the cabinets.

He Xingniang, over thirty years old and able to run a jewelry shop on Duhu Street, had a decent family background and was quite well-groomed, a woman with a flirtatious figure.

No matter how she spoke with sarcasm in the past, Jiang Yanyi would still maintain some face, addressing her as “Sister He” as a courtesy.

Today, however, she directly called her “Auntie He,” which infuriated He Xingniang.

She couldn’t even eat her pancake roll and, hands on her hips, scolded, “With so many families on this street, why did that wild cat happen to bring a mouse to die right in front of your shop?

Are you saying that the mouse isn’t yours and that someone else set you up?

Among all the shops on the street, apart from your old soup shop, there’s only the Laifu Restaurant at the end of the street.

What a joke! Laifu Restaurant has such a big business; they wouldn’t even look down on your small operation!”

Her voice was sharp and shrill, drawing the attention of many passersby.

The sight of the wild cat’s tragic condition made people uncomfortable.

Jiang Yanyi found an empty basket to temporarily cover the corpses of the wild cat and mouse.

Her voice wasn’t as penetrating as He Xingniang’s, but she spoke clearly and enunciated every word, so everyone could hear her distinctly:

“By your logic, Auntie He, a few days ago, I saw a girl from the Jinyu kiln enter your shop to buy jewelry. Should I also assume those girls are from your shop?”

This implied that He Xingniang was running a brothel.

The crowd burst into laughter.

He Xingniang was so furious that she couldn’t hold back. “You’re shameless! Don’t drag me into your filth! It’s clear you weren’t raised properly, saying whatever comes to your mind!”

Jiang Yanyi hated it most when others insulted her parents.

She smiled mockingly and said, “Yes, it’s a pity your parents passed away early, or they could have taught you well.”

He Xingniang’s eyes turned red with anger.

She threw down her pancake roll and lunged at Jiang Yanyi, ready to fight. “You little brat, I’m going to tear your mouth apart today!”

As a scuffle seemed imminent, neighbors rushed over to intervene, with several women pulling He Xingniang back, all speaking at once to persuade her.

He Xingniang, throwing a tantrum, was dragged back, crying that Jiang Yanyi had insulted her deceased parents.

Jiang Yanyi calmly responded to her wailing, “That wasn’t my words; you said that yourself.”

After being finally calmed down by the women, He Xingniang’s cries began to subside.

However, provoked by Jiang Yanyi, her wailing grew even sharper, making it unbearable for the women comforting her.

Unable to swallow her anger, He Xingniang took a stool and sat at her shop’s entrance, cursing loudly at Jiang Yanyi, spewing all sorts of insults.

Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui dealt with the bodies of the wild cat and mouse, then fetched water to wash the steps in front of the shop, pretending not to hear.

When He Xingniang finally tired of her curses, Jiang Yanyi intentionally provoked her a few more times.

With He Xingniang already riled up, her temper flared, and she continued her tirade of insults like a fighter jet.