Back To The 80s-Chapter 445 - 455: Fraud_1

Gu Xiaobei hurriedly set about arranging for Li Fengmei to join her for a meal.

Since the children needed to head to school after they finished their meal, they didn’t bother with formalities and sat down to eat.

After the meal, Gu Xiaobei saw Li Fengmei off. Off to the side, Li Fengmei said softly, "Li Juan came to see me a couple of days ago. She said Xiangmin wants to make peace with us."

Gu Xiaobei found this odd. What was this all about? Perplexed, she asked, "What did she tell Li Juan?"

"I didn’t ask her in detail, but Li Juan said that Xiangmin came to see her dressed very formally, wearing brand-new clothes. Do you remember what she was wearing when we encountered her in the hospital before? I ran into her in Li Juan’s market once, and her clothes all had patches on them. How did she suddenly become so prosperous?" wondered Li Fengmei.

Gu Xiaobei didn’t pay it much mind. She had no plans to socialize with that woman in any case, so whether she was doing well or not concerned her very little.

Seeing that Gu Xiaobei didn’t respond, Li Fengmei sighed, "I’m afraid there’s something fishy going on here. Why did she suddenly think to come and find us? Before, when we encountered her, she would avoid us."

Gu Xiaobei agreed: "For now, let’s just be careful. You should hurry and take the children to school, or else you’ll be late."

Meanwhile, Dadong and Xiaodong were insistently inviting Chen Gang and Jiujiu over. "Come to our house this Sunday," they said.

"We live in the No.15 courtyard of the Armed Forces Department’s family housing. Big brother Chen Gang, bring sister Jiujiu over. Our courtyard is full of ripe apricots," Xiaodong said, a bit reluctant to leave.

It took Li Fengmei a while to usher the two away, as they were reluctant to leave.

When Gu Xiaobei next went to see the newly renovated tea shop, she found it selling various loose leaf teas. Surprisingly, they even had premium Tieguanyin and Dahongpao for sale, which made her wonder about the shop’s positioning strategy. The absence of Shaanqing tea and jasmine tea, consumed by the locals on a daily basis, struck her as odd. Scrutinizing each type of tea carefully, she then turned and left.

From the corner of his eye, Yang Tianhua, who had been in the backroom, watched the whole thing unfold. He gave a disdainful laugh. "She is nothing special – I don’t believe she could notice anything unusual."

Third Brother, who was sitting on the rattan chair sipping tea, shook his head. "Don’t underestimate her. She and Ou Ruoshui are both shrewd women. If these two were ever to go at it, it would be quite the spectacle, much more entertaining than a brawl in the streets."

A puzzled Yang Tianhua asked, "Third Brother, what do you think Ou Ruoshui is up to? Why did she go back and not return, but only kept sending all this tea?"

Third Brother lit up a cigarette and stared into the drifting smoke. His gaze turned somber, and he said coldly, "The longer she takes to come back, the more she will regret it."

After Gu Xiaobei left the shop, her mind began to race. Was it a wise strategy to market a tea shop in downtown area to high-end consumers without considering mass market? At this point, people had just started addressing their basic needs and were on their way to achieving modest prosperity. Many wouldn’t even know what Dahongpao, Tieguanyin, and Jinjunmei teas are, nor would they be able to distinguish Oolong tea from black tea. Even when it comes to gifting, locals seem to prefer local green tea.

Gu Xiaobei stopped across the street and squinted at the non-descript tea shop on the other side. Everything about it seemed peculiar.

Holding back the rising unease within, Gu Xiaobei started seriously looking for a shop.

After several days of hard work, Gu Xiaobei found a suitable rental property near the provincial government. With three units in a row, it was located across the street from the Silver Market. Further down the street, there were various government offices.

The rent wasn’t cheap — a thousand yuan a year and they required a three-year upfront payment since the property was managed by the street office. Gu Xiaobei didn’t mind. Paying for three years would save her from an annual rent increase.

Once she had taken care of the rental, Gu Xiaobei began to think about the style of the decoration that would attract more people. She also planned to advertise on TV when the renovation was done. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Before Gu Xiaobei could start working on revamping the place, Bai Xiaolan went into labor.

Bai Xiaolan woke up early in the morning with a stomachache. Zhou Siping was beside himself with worry. "Wasn’t the baby supposed to come next month? Why has her pain started now?"

Wen Xiuqing also panicked. She rushed Lu Songyuan to the neighbor’s to borrow a cart to take Bai Xiaolan to the hospital.

Bai Xiaolan, already in too much pain to speak, lay half-crouched on the ground, leaning against the edge of the bed, gritting her teeth.

Zhou Siping was distressed to see his daughter like this. He held Bai Xiaolan’s arm and complained, "What good is Xiangdong? He isn’t even here when his wife is giving birth. My poor daughter has to suffer alone." Saying this, he squatted down and joined Bai Xiaolan in crying.

Bai Xiaolan, already in too much pain to speak, tried to comfort her mother when she saw her crying. "Mother, don’t cry. When you gave birth to us, wasn’t father also absent? I’m okay...Ah..." A contraction hit, and the rest of Bai Xiaolan’s words turned into a muted groan.

Gu Xiaobei, pulling two children along, was anxious but felt helpless.

When Lu Songyuan returned with the cart, he put a mattress on it and urged Wen Xiuqing and Zhou Siping to help Bai Xiaolan onto the cart and rushed to the hospital.

Once Bai Xiaolan was comfortably situated on the cart, Wen Xiuqing turned to Gu Xiaobei. "Close and bolt the front door, look after the kids. There are hot buns and boiled eggs in the pot for them. Make sure they eat."

Gu Xiaobei nodded and saw them off, then she took the children back inside and bolted the front door to keep the children from running outside.

After feeding the two children breakfast, Gu Xiaobei found she had no appetite. She let Xiaopang and Mo Wang play on the kang under the grape trellis while she agitatedly paced around, unsettled.

Close to midday, Qin Li arrived, sweaty and panting.

Gu Xiaobei was surprised. "What has happened?"

An excited Qin Li replied, "Sister Xiaobei, we’re in luck. A big client came in today and placed a 50,000 yuan order."

Frowning, Gu Xiaobei asked, "50,000 yuan? Why so much?"

Qin Li nodded. "It’s the boss from Ning Province, Huang. He has been here to place orders several times. This time, it’s for Three Cannon tea, which is very popular there. Several of his local markets have already given him deposits."

A sense of dread filled Gu Xiaobei. "Did you sign a contract? Ask for a deposit?"

Qin Li nodded. "He said he was in a hurry to catch a train at eleven, so he quickly wrote a contract and gave a 3,000 yuan deposit."

Gu Xiaobei’s heart sank. What a blatant scam. Her voice shook as she asked, "Do you have the contract with you?"

Qin Li quickly brought out the handwritten contract and handed it to Gu Xiaobei.

Once Gu Xiaobei had read over it, she felt her vision go dark. The contract stated: if the delivery date is exceeded, twice the amount due would be demanded as compensation!

Twice the amount... that was 100,000 yuan!