The evil mother-in-law does not whitewash, she only abuses her children

"Boss, something bad has happened. It is said that Jufulai is selling charcoal." The clerk rushed into the shop and shouted to the boss.

"Jufulai is selling charcoal?"

"Yes, thirty-five cents a load."

"impossible?"

"Really, boss, if you don't believe me, you can go out and ask everyone."

The shopkeeper sneered, young people just don't resist.

How much charcoal does Widow Tong have to sell?

You should know that most of the charcoal on the market has been hoarded by the young master.

In the end, won’t everyone still have to come to Zheng’s house to buy carbon?

The shopkeeper cursed Tong Huaqiong in his heart for being stupid. Since he had charcoal, he didn't take the opportunity to make a fortune. Instead, he sold it for 35 cents a load. He must be crazy to act like this.

It was because the price of Tong Huaqiong's charcoal was beyond the knowledge of the owner of Zheng's shop, which gave him an illusion that Tong Huaqiong's charcoal must be very rare and that's why she dared to sell it like this.

Otherwise he really couldn't understand Tong Huaqiong's behavior.

Soon, the news that Jufulai was charging thirty-five cents per load of charcoal reached the ears of all the shop owners and employees of the Zheng family, and even Zheng and his son knew about it.

But no one took it seriously.

Firstly, they didn't believe that Tong Huaqiong had hoarded a large amount of charcoal. Secondly, they didn't believe that even if Tong Huaqiong had enough charcoal, the price would not always be this high.

Old Master Zheng ordered all the major shops in the Zheng family not to reduce the price of charcoal, and it all depended on how many households Tong Huaqiong's charcoal could supply.

Widow Tong wants to take advantage of the opportunity to step on the Zheng family to win people's hearts, but it is pure dreaming.

Three days later, with the intervention of Tong Huaqiong and County Magistrate Liu, almost every household had bought charcoal.

Magistrate Liu issued an announcement throughout the city, first refuting the rumor that the extreme cold weather would continue until May of next year, and severely punishing the rumormongers; secondly, he called on everyone to work together to overcome this difficulty and ensure that everyone had a supply of charcoal before the beginning of spring.

This move calmed the people.

The panic in the city gradually dissipated.

Tong Huaqiong gained fame, and County Magistrate Liu gained official reputation.

Soon Tong Huaqiong received news from Gu Jingzhe from the capital city that the Lu family and Tong Huaqiong sold charcoal on the same day, thus preventing the people of the capital city from panicking about charcoal shortage.

Tong Huaqiong was busy for three days and hardly slept a wink. Looking at the smiling faces of the people who were able to buy charcoal in the cold weather, Tong Huaqiong thought that she had done a good thing for this era after all.

She didn't know how many people had frozen to death in the extreme cold weather, but with her intervention, at least a group of people who had frozen to death due to lack of charcoal would be saved.

The Zheng family had not sold a single pound of charcoal in the past three days, and all the major shops could not help but panic.

Old Master Zheng and the Second Young Master Zheng were able to remain calm at first, thinking that Tong Huaqiong was just making a small fuss. However, when they learned that Tong Huaqiong had hoarded 200,000 kilograms of charcoal, they were so shocked that they almost collapsed to the ground.

All the charcoal in the Zheng family combined is not as much as the amount Tong Huaqiong has stockpiled.

A doubt arose in the mind of the Second Master Zheng: When did Tong Huaqiong stockpile the charcoal, and who gave her the news?

He began to suspect that Gu Ruinian was selling the information to two families, or that Gu Ruinian was joining forces with Tong Huaqiong to deal with the Zheng family.

"Dad, the 200,000 kilograms of charcoal from Widow Tong is only enough to sustain Pingchuan for one winter. We still have the capital city." said the second son of Zheng.

Just as the second son of Zheng finished speaking, news came from the capital that the Lu family had started selling charcoal three days ago.

Of course, the capital city is different from Pingchuan, so the price set by the Lu family is slightly higher, forty-five cents per load of charcoal.

What makes the Zheng family panic is that as the Lu family is the number one merchant in Ningcheng, no one knows how much charcoal the Lu family has.

All we know is that Mr. Lu promised Prefect Yao that he would never let the people of the city suffer from the cold this winter.

The capital city was never the base camp of the Zheng family, and now with the intervention of the Lu family, I am afraid that no one will buy the Zheng family's charcoal even if the price is reduced.

Mr. Zheng’s eyes were gloomy.

The second son of Zheng panicked and asked, "Dad, what should we do? Should we lower the price?"

Mr. Zheng said angrily, "Ridiculous! Lower the price? Can you lower it to thirty-five cents per load or forty-five cents per load?"

The second young master Zheng turned pale.

The Zheng family stockpiled charcoal after the first snow this winter, when the price of charcoal had already risen a lot.

What they didn't know was that Tong Huaqiong had already stockpiled some of the charcoal on the market in Pingchuan at a very low price in the summer, and in late autumn the Lu and Huang families stockpiled all of Ningcheng's charcoal.

By the time the Zheng family started hoarding charcoal, most charcoal merchants had run out of charcoal. In order to do the Zheng family's business, they had to get charcoal from other places, which increased their costs.

Therefore, the cost of each load of charcoal for the Zheng family was eighty to ninety cents.

This is what Mr. Zheng said. No matter how much the Zheng family lowers the price, it will never be lower than the price of charcoal from Tong Huaqiong and the Lu family.

The charcoal that the second son of Zheng had hoarded by emptying his family's savings was probably going to be wasted in his hands.

Thinking of this, Mr. Zheng broke out in a cold sweat.

Where should he get the 100,000 taels of silver that he promised to give to the fifth prince's mother's family?

The second young master Zheng hated Gu Ruinian for playing tricks on him, and hated Tong Huaqiong and the Lu family for cutting off the Zheng family's retreat. For a moment, he didn't know what to do.

Mr. Zheng slumped down in his chair, looking dejected.

Nothing good will happen if you meet Widow Tong.

He really wanted to slap his youngest son, fearing that he would lose all his family fortune.

When he thought about the death of his eldest son and his only son, he raised his hand and turned it to the face of the shopkeeper who was the first to increase the price of charcoal to ten taels of silver per load.

"Idiot, who told you to set the price of the charcoal so high?"

The shopkeeper looked at Mr. Zheng in disbelief.

How did he become the culprit?

It was obvious that he was following his boss's instructions and trying to figure out what was going on. Without his boss's approval, he would never have dared to raise the price of charcoal to ten taels per load.

When he told his employer the news that Jufulai was selling charcoal, he said that a widow was nothing to be afraid of, and that the Zheng family was unwilling to compete with a widow, and that the Zheng family would refuse to lower the price of their charcoal.

The other shopkeepers looked at the shopkeeper who was slapped with sympathy, and were thinking about how to escape.

"Well, I actually lost to a widow." Old Master Zheng gritted his teeth.

The Zheng family father and son vented all their anger at Tong Huaqiong at home. What they didn't know was that most of the charcoal stockpiled by the Zheng family came from Lu Zhaozhao.

When the Lu family took action, all the charcoal in the city flowed to the Lu family.

When the second son of the Zheng family learned from Gu Ruinian that this winter would be extremely cold, the Lu family had already stockpiled most of the charcoal on the market.

The news that the Zheng family was hoarding charcoal could not be hidden from the Lu family.

Lu Zhaozhao heard about the evil deeds of the Zheng family from Gu Taohua. In addition, when she went to Wanliu Academy to visit Gu Jingzhe, she saw with her own eyes that the second son of Zheng made things difficult for Gu Jingzhe. In a rage, Lu Zhaozhao tricked the Zheng family for the sake of her "beauty".

Lu Zhaozhao did some calculations and found that the major shops of the Lu family had stockpiled 500,000 kilograms of charcoal. She ordered her employees to set aside 200,000 kilograms and sell them to the Zheng family.

She was certain that the Zheng family would raise the price of charcoal to an outrageous level and make a lot of money from it, but Tong Huaqiong's 200,000 kilograms of charcoal would break the Zheng family's greed.

When the Zheng family's charcoal was in her hands, she teamed up with Tong Huaqiong to buy the charcoal from the Lu family at a very low price and gave it to the people of Pingchuan as charity.

It was only after Tong Huaqiong received Lu Zhaozhao's letter that she learned about Lu Zhaozhao's interference in the Zheng family's charcoal business.

She sighed with confidence, believing that she was worthy of being the daughter-in-law she had chosen.