Chapter 66: Humiliated

Lin Yuelan immediately went shopping with around 500 taels of silver in her arms.

The first thing that Lin Yuelan wanted to buy was definitely the food.

During the apocalypse, your family would stab you for a piece of bread. Rice became even as precious as gold once was.

Other than the high-ranking leaders of some bases, ordinary people could not even smell the aroma of rice, let alone eat it.

Lin Yuelan was a southerner. She had grown up eating rice.

However, in the five years of the apocalypse, the number of times she could eat rice was few and far between.

This was because she had to hand in the paddy grain that she obtained from almost every mission. The grain that she was awarded, she gave to the two bastards. As for herself, she continued to eat the slightly moldy bread. Whenever there was extra, she would have to secretly cook and eat them in her space.

In the apocalypse, many people’s sense of smell became more sensitive than a dog’s. Therefore, after each meal of rice, she had to wash her mouth a lot. Otherwise, she might be targeted.

Thinking back, Lin Yuelan felt extremely stupid. She had done everything for those two bastards, but in the end, they had joined hands to betray her.

However, she wouldn’t mistreat herself anymore. She would eat well, dress well, and treat herself well.

Lin Yuelan walked to the grain store and looked at the white rice. She swallowed her saliva. She really wanted to eat rice.

“Shopkeeper, how much is this rice paddy?” Lin Yuelan pointed in the direction of the rice grain and asked.

A fat man in his thirties walked out and looked at Lin Yuelan. She was thin and shabby. It was clear that she was poor, and she wanted to eat rice? What a joke!

A contemptuous expression immediately appeared on his face. He looked at Lin Yuelan arrogantly and disdainfully and said, “Shoo. You can’t afford it anyway. The poor don’t deserve to eat rice.”

When Lin Yuelan saw this man’s contemptuous look, a cold smile immediately appeared on her small face. Her childish voice carried a stern tone as she asked, “Boss, how can you tell that I’m poor? Also, why can’t poor people buy rice grains? Do you look down on all the poor people? But Boss, do you know that this Ning An Town has a more than 90 percent of poverty rate?”

Lin Yuelan said this loudly to grab the passersby’s attention.

Sure enough, a woman wearing a patched-up dress said loudly, “Shopkeeper Chen, I was wondering why the rice I bought from you the day before yesterday felt so light. You have given me less because you look down on me!”

A man came out and said, “I have bought japonica rice from you, but why does it taste so strange? Shopkeeper Chen, did you swap them out for indica rice and sell them to me at the price of japonica rice?”

Although both japonica rice and indica rice were rice, the taste of the two was different!

Generally speaking, indica rice was long and narrow, and its taste was rough and not very good. On the other hand, japonica rice was sticky, short, and round. It was very fragrant.

When the boss heard the complaints, his face immediately darkened.

He said sternly, “Who said I gave you less than usual? Why don’t you take it back so that we can weigh it?” He did give the woman less because she was poor, but he knew that her family would have eaten the price already, and this was an argument he could win.

The shopkeeper turned his head to look at the poor man. He also said with a bad expression, “How is it my fault that you can’t recognize the difference between indica rice and japonica rice? Plus, you’ve already eaten the rice! Now only you decide to come back to complain? Do you think I’m so easily fooled?

“Poor people will always be poor. Even on the issue of rice, you people want to extort me. You don’t even buy that much from me!”

The faces of the people turned green with anger.

They pointed at shopkeeper Chen and scolded, “So this is how you really think of us! In the future, I won’t come to your place to buy rice anymore. After all, you look down on us and like to scam us anyway!”

“That’s right. I’ll go to some other rice shop!”

“We came to frequent his store, but he still looks down on us. We are poor, but we are not without a backbone!”

“That’s right. We will not come here to buy rice again!”

The people around them said loudly.

Only then did shopkeeper Chen realize the seriousness of the situation.

Although he looked down on the poor, his business was supported by these poor people. After all, as Lin Yuelan said, there were only so many rich people in town. If these people all boycotted his store, he wouldn’t be able to do any business anymore.

Shopkeeper Chen flew into a rage and scolded Lin Yuelan, the main culprit of this incident, “You Little Brat, why are you trying to sow discord here? When did I look down on the poor people?”

Lin Yuelan curled her lips and said to Shopkeeper Chen innocently and aggrievedly, “Shopkeeper Chen, didn’t you just say, Shoo. You can’t afford it anyway. The poor don’t deserve to eat rice. Have you forgotten about it so quickly?”

Shopkeeper Chen pointed at Lin Yuelan and roared, “That was only my assessment of you alone. Looking at your shabby clothes and sallow and emaciated face, how can you have the money to buy rice? Am I wrong?”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, someone burst out laughing.

Shopkeeper Chen looked over and saw that it was the eldest son of the town’s Official Liu.

He immediately cupped his hands and said with a flattering smile, “Eldest young master Liu, are you here to buy rice too?”

Eldest Young Master Liu was a 16-year-old youth. Perhaps it was because he had been well-taken care of, his skin was fair, his face was fair, his face was round, and his eyes were big. When he smiled, he looked exceptionally cute.

Young Master Liu said to shopkeeper Chen with a smile, “Shopkeeper Chen, I’m not here to buy rice. I’m just following this little girl. Shopkeeper Chen, I’m afraid you don’t know this. This child sold a big tiger this morning and received 380 taels of silver. So, she is definitely not a poor person!”

Shopkeeper Chen felt as if he had been struck by lightning!

However, he was a businessman and had thick skin. He immediately went up to Lin Yuelan and apologized, “Miss, I was blind just now. Please be understanding and forgive me for my recklessness!”

Lin Yuelan shook her head and said, “Shopkeeper Chen, I’m just a child. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Then, her tone changed, “After all, this is a free market. Since shopkeeper Chen doesn’t welcome a poor person like me, I’ll go find a place that welcomes me!”

Then, with the crowd looking on stiffly and Shopkeeper Chen staring angrily, Lin Yuelan went to the shop opposite Chen’s grain store, Yun Xiang’s grain store.

To anger Shopkeeper Chen even more, the poor child, in his eyes, bought more than ten stones of rice grains from Yun Xiang’s grain store. In this era, one stone was equivalent to 53 kilograms in modern times. Therefore, Lin Yuelan had bought ten stones, which was equivalent to buying more than 1,000 catties.

This was Shopkeeper Chen’s sales volume for half a year.

However, Shopkeeper Chen didn’t reflect on his actions. Instead, he resented Lin Yuelan.

In the future, when Lin Yuelan had her own store, he gave her a lot of trouble.

But that was a story for another time.