My sister became the empress, but I'm still growing vegetables and raising chickens

Mr. Xu Si happily took his younger sister to the teahouse and asked for a private room upstairs, saying it would be more convenient for them to talk.

The younger sister said nothing, but she was secretly thinking, "The private rooms are more expensive than outside. This teahouse is so elegant, the prices must be expensive." Her pocket money was not much. When she got home, would her elder sister put this money on the public account?

Mr. Xu Si asked someone to bring a pot of tea and ordered four kinds of dim sum. Each of the dim sum was exquisite and small, and was definitely not an ordinary dish.

Seeing this made my younger sister feel even more distressed, and she knew it would definitely cost several hundred dollars.

She is really too poor. She is unwilling to even spend hundreds of dollars to treat people to tea. This is not good. She should earn more money and invite Brother Xu to a luxurious restaurant where a pot of tea costs more than ten taels.

"Miss Third, I invited you here, so it's my turn to treat you. Besides, I'm familiar with the owner of this restaurant, so it'll be cheaper for me to come here for tea." Fourth Master Xu was polite and pushed the snacks toward my younger sister. "This snack is what women love, Miss Third, please try it."

My younger sister was distracted and didn't really want to eat the snacks. She was a little relieved when she heard she wasn't required to pay, but she didn't feel much guilt. Although she had come to question him, it was not right for a woman to pay for the meal.

Just thinking about it, the younger sister felt that if the elder sister knew that she was thinking this way, she would definitely give her a lecture again.

Seeing her like this, Fourth Master Xu assumed she was worried about Fu Man Lou, so he stopped beating around the bush. "The Jin family doesn't have a good reputation in Lingnan, mainly because they love malicious competition. They had conflicts with many merchants, and later the Chamber of Commerce stepped in to mediate, and that's how things got back to normal."

The younger sister frowned. "Even though competitors often compete with each other, is it true that once we open our doors to do business, we can still do business without any problems? We businesspeople should engage in healthy competition, improving the quality of our products and providing our customers with better service and products."

Fourth Master Xu looked at his younger sister and felt that she was glowing all over. What she said was really great. If every businessman had such awareness, why wouldn't the business of the Great Zhou Dynasty prosper?

I don’t know what Mr. Xu is thinking. She is actually a selfish person. She wishes all the money of the people could be put into her own pocket.

It was her elder sister who taught her the principles of doing things, telling her that there is no end to business, that one should not rush into anything, that one should not be greedy, that one should take one step at a time, and that one should not care about the opinions and statements of those with malicious intent.

If she knew how great she was in the eyes of Fourth Master Xu, she would definitely say that this awareness belonged to her elder sister, not hers.

Fourth Master Xu continued, "I think the same as you, but that's what the Jin family did at the time. In fact, I think if the Chamber of Commerce didn't intervene in management, the Jin family would suffer sooner or later. On the contrary, because of the Chamber of Commerce's intervention, the Jin family's position has become more stable."

My younger sister asked, "But a small shop like ours isn't big enough for the Chamber of Commerce to regulate."

"Yes, before you, there were actually quite a few small shops that had problems," said Fourth Master Xu. "The established shops basically already had their own connections and customers, so the Jin family couldn't touch them. The fledgling small shops became the Jin family's targets. They started with negotiations, and if they didn't agree, they used threats and inducements. In short, they used all kinds of methods, so they didn't worry about the small shops not agreeing to merge."

The younger sister pursed her lips and said, "They even dare to commit murder and robbery? Aren't they afraid of being caught?"

"They can only be arrested if there's evidence. Actually, several families have had accidents and people have died, but the Jin family has been so clean that others are only suspicious and don't dare to conclude that it was the Jin family who did it."

The younger sister asked angrily, "They really are so capable of doing whatever they want. Is there no one who can stop them?"

Fourth Master Xu remained silent. Unable to obtain evidence against the Jin family, the Chamber of Commerce was unable to handle the matter, and the government could only follow the rules. Fu Man Lou was growing larger and larger, even becoming entangled with the Lingnan officialdom. Who else could control it?

The younger sister ate several kinds of dim sum with reluctance and thought that the dim sum tasted really good. If it weren’t so expensive, she would be happy to eat some every day.

Is it too expensive? What if you can make something similar but at a lower price?

The younger sister was dazed as she held the dim sum in her hand. She wanted to go back and talk to her older sister about making some dim sum. After all, her older sister had said that when the weather got warmer in the spring, their food shop wouldn't be as popular anymore.

Seeing that my younger sister liked the dim sum here, Fourth Master Xu simply called the waiter in and asked him to pack two bags of dim sum for my younger sister to take home: "If you like them, these two are also delicious. Take them home and try them too."

The younger sister wanted to refuse at first, but then she thought that she could take it back to her older sister and let her try to make something similar, so she didn't insist on refusing.

He only asked, "Fourth Brother, I also want to ask you, what happened to those small merchants who compromised and were willing to cooperate with the Jin family?"

"You want to cooperate with the Jin family?" Mr. Xu Si was not surprised. The two managers of the Si family restaurant were both young girls. It was not easy for them to take care of the business and a whole family at the same time.

For them, when something goes wrong, the best way to deal with it is not to confront it head-on, but to compromise and give in.

The younger sister shook her head. "No, I won't compromise. Even if there's no way to deal with the Jin family right now, I won't compromise. Not only will I not, but my eldest sister won't either. She'd rather die than live in disgrace!"

Mr. Xu Si looked at her determined eyes and was even more moved. He knew that she was different from other women and she was the most special one.

My younger sister said, "I just want to get to know the Jin family better. The more we know, the more prepared we can be. I guess people like the Jin family wouldn't be willing to give others soup even if they get to eat the meat themselves, right?"

"You're right," said Fourth Master Xu. "Even those families who compromised with the Jin family were eventually suppressed to the point where they couldn't survive. In the end, without exception, they all gave up their catering business."

My younger sister clenched her fists, thinking that the Jin family was extremely hateful.

After returning home with the snacks, the younger sister took out two snacks from each bag and asked Si Xingzhi, "Dad, where's my elder sister? Why isn't she at home making the base? I brought some snacks back, and I'm sure my younger brother will like them. Where's my younger brother?"

Si Xingzhi didn't even want to eat the snacks, he just said: "My younger brother stole something and made a scene, so your eldest sister came over. She was afraid that your mother would be upset, so she asked me to look after her..."

"what?"

The second and youngest sisters' voices rang out at the same time. They looked at each other and no longer cared about the things in their hands. They ran out together.

"Dad, put the snacks away for me. I want to leave some for my eldest sister to taste!"

"Aunt Jin, you take care of the rest. I'll go check on my little brother!"

The two men had to ask the villagers before they found out that the younger brother was in the Taoist temple.