Volume 2: A sudden change in the prison, a red-clothed man goes out to find a thief Chapter 174: Cheap labor is the most popular wherever it is
"I object."
As the old scholar's voice fell, there was silence in the hall.
The shopkeeper glanced at him sideways, then forced a smile and said to Banjiexian.
"Lao He, we may need to discuss this further. How about you take your cousin to the backyard to take a look?"
"Oh, okay." Banjiexian nodded quickly and pulled Li Si up and said.
"Come on cousin, I'll show you the backyard."
"Okay then." Li Si naturally noticed the atmosphere in the hall and could only smile bitterly and follow Banjiexian.
The backyard was not big, divided into a woodshed, a kitchen, a utility room, and three servants' quarters. An empty rack for drying clothes, a stake for chopping firewood, a bench with a broken leg that had not been repaired, and a pile of miscellaneous items made the yard seem a bit crowded.
"Business is not good during this period. Everyone is thinking too much and their attitudes are a little bad. Please don't mind."
Standing under the eaves, Banjiexian touched his forehead and said.
"Well, I know that." Li Si raised his eyebrows and nodded, indicating that he didn't care about it, and then asked Banjiexian.
"Hey, but aren't you the boss behind this? Why are you just standing there and not helping?"
"Aren't I here?" Banjiexian rolled his eyes.
"As for the money, I opened the store to make money, not to lose money. If I spend money to help them settle the matter this time, what will happen in the future? Since they are doing business outside, there will inevitably be bumps and bruises. They have to learn to stand firm on their own."
"That makes sense." Li Si pursed his lips in a serious tone and put his hands in his sleeves. After a while, he nudged Banjiexian's arm with his elbow and smiled.
"So you have a pretty good insight."
"Of course." The half-immortal patted Li Si's shoulder with great satisfaction.
"Don't you see how long I have been in this world? Is there anything I don't understand?"
After saying this, he looked up at the sky with weathered eyes, as if he had seen through the world and understood everything.
Well, with some color you can open a dyeing factory.
Li Si tactfully stopped talking and just looked at the rain in the yard, letting out a sigh and asked.
"Speaking of which, how long are we going to stand here?"
It's still quite cold on a rainy day in October.
"I don't know either. We probably have to wait for them to call us." Having said this, Banjiexian lost his spirit. He stood by the wall and rubbed his palms.
…
In the lobby, seeing Banjiexian and Li Si walk into the backyard, the shopkeeper immediately lay down beside the table, looked around at everyone and asked.
"Okay , now tell me what you think."
"Hehe." The girl who did odd jobs hurriedly came to the shopkeeper, grabbed her hand and asked.
"That new guy is quite handsome. Is he married?"
"Why do you only look at people's appearance?" The shopkeeper rolled his eyes at the girl, then touched his chin and thought.
"But in that case, he is fair-skinned and can be used to support the appearance. Well, Xiao Cao, you have provided a useful suggestion."
"Yes!" The girl named Xiao Cao excitedly gestured to herself when she saw that Li Si had the possibility of staying.
As for what she said, it was taught to her by a merchant from the Western Regions, and it seemed to have good intentions.
"Why do you act like you've never seen a man before?" The cook looked at her with disdain and continued to eat his steamed buns while sitting aside.
"Hey, can you blame me for this?" Having said that, Xiao Cao put his hands on his waist and said to the cook.
"Look at our store. After the layoffs, there are only a few men left. One is old, one is young, one only knows how to eat, and one doesn't even know when to leave. I just want to marry someone. Do I think it's easy?"
" No, who do you think only knows how to eat?" The cook finished the steamed bun in his hand in a few bites, sat up straight, and looked like he was going to confront Xiao Cao face to face.
"Alright, alright, stop arguing." Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, the shopkeeper quickly waved his hand to stop the dispute , then looked at the accountant sitting next to him and asked.
"Tell me, Lao Luo, what do you think? Why don't you want him to stay?"
The accountant named Lao Luo raised his drooping eyes, tapped the abacus on the table twice and then spoke.
"To know a person, one must know his roots. One's eyes, body and mind must all hear..."
The old scholar had only said half of his words when he was interrupted impatiently by the other three people present.
"Speak human language!"
"Huh." With a helpless sigh, Lao Luo put down the account book in his hand, looked at everyone and spoke again.
"That Li Si doesn't look like an ordinary person, whether in his manners, speech, or the look in his eyes. And his hands are too white, he shouldn't be a laborer."
People on both sides fell silent.
I have to say that although Lao Luo speaks in a roundabout way, he is really good at judging people. With just a few glances, he noticed details that others had not noticed.
"In addition." Lao Luo briefly flipped through the account book in front of him.
"Our accounts are in the red again this month, and we can't hire any more people. If things don't improve next month, I don't know if anyone here will be able to stay."
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became heavy. Xiao Cao stopped laughing, the cook was no longer annoyed, the shopkeeper lowered his head, and the waiter sitting in the corner also had red eyes.
"Then, let's forget about it." After a long time, the shopkeeper finally made a decision.
"Call Lao He and the others."
When Li Si and Banjiexian sat back in the hall, the atmosphere was obviously more depressing than before, and the expressions of several people around the table were not very good.
Li Si didn't know how to ease the atmosphere, but he understood that he probably wouldn't be able to stay.
"Old He." The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment and said to Banjiexian.
"As for the store's situation, you know that we can't hire any more people right now. Tomorrow I'll ask a few shopkeepers on the neighboring streets to see if they need any more people."
The shopkeepers on the neighboring street are none other than those who run the rice shop and the rouge shop. In the past, the relationship between the shopkeepers was quite good, so they should be able to help with this small favor.
"Okay then." Banjiexian was about to agree.
But at this time, Li Si suddenly said.
"Boss, the main reason I came this time is to seek refuge with my cousin. After all, we are unfamiliar with the place, and we can take care of each other. I have heard from my cousin that the store has been having a hard time recently. So how about this, I won't get paid for the next few months, but I will just have food and shelter. It won't be too late to pay me when the store gets better."
"Bang!"
As soon as Li Si finished speaking, there was a sound of clapping the table. The shopkeeper was sitting at the table, looking at Li Si with sharp eyes.
She didn't hear clearly what Li Si said, she only heard the words "I don't want any wages".
What she lacks now is someone like this, a good boy!
"We want this person. Who is in favor and who is against?"
The cook licked his lips. It seemed that he would have to prepare an extra pair of chopsticks next time.
The accountant, Lao Luo, started calculating again, as if he was calculating how many months it would take to pay Li Si his wages.
The waiter looked at Li Si with bright eyes. In his opinion, Li Si was really a good person.
Xiao Cao's eyes lit up again, and she seemed to have hope of getting married again.
Banjiexian lowered his head helplessly. He knew that he could not get rid of this trouble.
