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As soon as she entered, Lin Yuan saw Mo Sanniang with red eyes angrily throwing several bolts of cloth onto the shelves.

Her gaze swept over the ten taels of silver ingots lying crookedly on the counter. Lin Yuan bit her lip and softly called out, "Sister Mo, are you, are you okay?"

Only then did Mo Sanniang realize someone had entered the shop. She unconsciously wiped her eyes, and when she looked up and saw it was Lin Yuan, she paused slightly, then let out a bitter laugh, "Did you see everything?"

I did see, but I just don’t know what happened between you all.

Lin Yuan nodded, silently helping her place the cloth onto the shelves.

The cloth that was lying on the counter was the same that Lin Yuan had left there before she left, which meant that during this whole time, there hadn’t been any other customers.

It couldn’t be that the store was doing poorly; Lin Yuan guessed that it was more likely Mo Sanniang had issued an order to send away customers, temporarily closing for business.

Who knows what they both said, but why did Xie Zhiyuan leave in such a hurry? And why was Mo Sanniang both tearful and furious?

After putting away the cloth, Mo Sanniang collapsed onto a chair as if all her strength had left her, with tears that seemed to have run dry, leaving only a stinging dryness in her eyes.

She pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers, then let out a sigh, laughing at herself somewhat mockingly, "Sister, do you know? It’s been over two months since we last met.

I thought that when he came today, everything would be.

.. Oh, I did not expect that as soon as he entered, he would accuse me of swindling his mother’s silver! "

Lin Yuan had indeed heard this when she was leaving, and as she had guessed, it had angered Mo Sanniang. If there was any swindling of silver, it shouldn’t have been Mo Sanniang he was looking for, but her instead.

"Sister Mo, I’m sorry, it was me..."

Mo Sanniang grasped Lin Yuan’s hand, patting it reassuringly, "It’s not your fault.

That old woman has been taking things from my shop without paying for a long time, far more than ten taels of silver.

Even if you didn’t ask her for it, just the fact that she came here bragging with her future daughter-in-law, trying to intimidate me, means I can’t let her off without paying! "

"You don’t know, yesterday my plan was to charge them double the price for whatever they picked out. After all the distress she’s put me through, I was going to give her a lesson!"

Lin Yuan watched Mo Sanniang’s indignant manner, and couldn’t help but curl her lips in secret. She didn’t believe that; if she hadn’t shown up yesterday, that old woman would likely have swindled Mo Sanniang out of quite a few valuable bolts of cloth again.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Mo Sanniang’s nature, but yesterday, she still harbored illusions about Xie Zhiyuan, so she couldn’t be too harsh on his mother. But today was different, it seemed Xie Zhiyuan truly had let her down.

Although thinking this, Lin Yuan still nodded in full cooperation, giving Mo Sanniang her due respect.

"So you returned the silver to him?"

Lin Yuan asked this knowing full well the answer; the ten taels of silver ingots were clearly lying on the counter.

As expected, Mo Sanniang let out a cold laugh, "I was so angry with him, I threw the silver right into his chest. Sister, don’t be fooled by his scholar appearance.

His mother looks down on me for running a shop, but back when their family was struggling terribly, if it weren’t for me secretly supporting him with the silver I earned, he would have probably never been able to read anything of substance! "

Mo Sanniang scoffed, her eyes full of scorn, "Doesn’t his mother hate business? Didn’t she say I wasn’t good enough for her son? What happened in the end? Didn’t she still end up getting a brick-burner as a daughter-in-law for her son?"

Lin Yuan almost laughed out loud. A brick-burner; that was indeed an apt description, for Ma Xiaoqian’s family did earn their living by selling red bricks. It was just that they were wealthier than Mo Sanniang.