The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

After Shen Cao finished speaking, there was no sound in the room for a long time.

It was so quiet that even a pin dropping on the ground would be clearly audible.

Shen Cao looked around at the ground again and again.

Seeing that no one spoke, she slowly began, "Since no one is speaking, I will begin."

Shen Cao glanced at Butler Wei and said, "Butler Wei, please invite the person in."

After Butler Wei went out, he very respectfully welcomed a man in.

Some of the onlookers had already recognized him.

Isn't this Li Quan, the clerk from the government office?

Yes, yes, that's him.

Hearing the whispers of the crowd, Shen Cao nodded, relieved that she had been recognized.

She was also worried that no one would recognize the person she found, and then none of the stall owners would acknowledge the debt.

Shen Cao quickly stood up and welcomed Li Quan, the clerk, to sit down next to her.

"Master Li, it's been a long time."

Li Quan looked at the person and it took him a while to recognize that it was Miss Shen Cao.

Seeing that she was dressed in men's clothing, he didn't ask any further questions, just waved his hand and said, "Long time no see."

He never expected that he would meet Shen Cao again.

Moreover, Shen Cao specially sent someone to invite him today.

"I would like to trouble you, Master Li, to be my witness for today's events."

Li Quan was very puzzled, but he still nodded and said, "Okay."

"Gentlemen, today's matter involves the interests of both parties, so I have no choice but to ask Master Li to act as a mediator."

[We definitely should find a middleman to witness this; otherwise, things could get complicated later.]

[That’s right, that’s right. 】

[This Master Li is an upright man; the fact that he was summoned shows that the Shen family is not afraid.]

Yes, otherwise wouldn't that be like shooting yourself in the foot?

Hearing the murmurs at the door, some of the stall owners became uneasy.

Shen Cao pretended not to see anything. Coming here to cause trouble, there was absolutely no way she could get away unscathed.

She is the kind of person who holds grudges the most.

Some stall owners were restless and wanted to get up and leave.

Shen Cao certainly wouldn't give them that chance.

"At this point, it's impossible for anyone to leave."

"Let's let the facts speak for themselves to determine who is right and who is wrong."

"Besides Master Li, everyone here and the villagers at the door are witnesses. If you hear anyone distorting the facts after we leave today, please help us state the truth."

The onlookers immediately took it seriously. After listening to Shen Cao's words, they realized that they were not just watching the spectacle today.

They also bear the responsibility of spreading the truth.

After speaking, Shen Cao stood up and bowed towards the door.

She handed the account book that Butler Wei had taken out to Li Quan.

"Master Li, you can read. This is a record of the seasonings that each stall owner bought from the management office over the past month. Please take a closer look at the accounts of the stall owners who are circled."

Those who were circled are the stall owners who came to cause trouble this time. Of course, there are also some who were circled but did not come.

Shen Cao didn't want to pursue those who didn't cause trouble, since it wasn't her who was making money anyway.

Li Quan was still very puzzled, but he still opened the ledger and looked through the accounts of the several stall owners who had been circled.

After reading it, he handed the ledger to Shen Cao.

After placing the ledger beside her, Shen Cao began to explain to Li Quan.

"Master Li, it's like this. We made it clear on the first day of the rental that as long as the food is prepared according to the procedures we taught, it's impossible to lose money."

“If we lose money, we will waive the rent for that month and refund the deposit unconditionally.”

“These are all clearly written in the contract, please take a look.”

Shen Cao then handed another contract to Li Quan.

Li Quan carefully examined the various clauses on the contract.

The more he looked at it, the stranger it seemed. Almost every clause in the contract was written from the perspective of the stall owners, protecting their interests.

It could be said that many clauses in Shen Cao's contract were detrimental to themselves, but rather beneficial to the stall owners.

I can't understand why the stall owners have such strong opinions about these regulations.

After reading it, he also developed some respect for Shen Cao. This kind of businessman sacrificed his own interests to protect the interests of the stall owners.

"I've finished reading, Miss Shen... Young Master Shen." Seeing that she was dressed in men's clothing, he probably didn't want to hear him call her "Miss."

Shen Cao took the contract and continued, "The contract also states that the seasonings at the stall should be purchased every two weeks."

"If business is good at the stall, people will buy more frequently. Similarly, if business is bad, these seasonings will not last until the end of the month at most."

"However, most of the stall owners who have set up these enclosures have only bought seasonings once since they opened, most have bought them twice, and none of them have bought them three times."

"Let's assume their business is bad and there's no one at their stall. It's been more than a month, almost two months."

"Even if business is bad, the seasonings I bought twice have already been used up."

Of all those present, only vendor Zhao bought seasonings twice.

When Zhao, the stall owner mentioned by Shen Cao, heard himself being mentioned, he was startled and then lowered his head.

He was actually forced to come by his wife today, and he cut corners because he was ordered to do so by her.

His wife complained that the seasonings were too expensive, but she wasn't a good cook and didn't dare to cut corners too obviously, so their business was actually doing alright.

However, it wasn't as good as the first few days after the business opened when they didn't cut corners, so his wife called him to come and join the fun with these stall owners.

If things go wrong and the rent is reduced, that would save us money.

He was actually about to leave, but a moment's hesitation caused him to miss a good opportunity.

"In other words, every stall owner here has cut corners and has not prepared their food according to the methods we have taught them."

"Otherwise, the amount of seasoning used would not be so small."

Upon hearing this, the people below lowered their heads even further.

They definitely cut corners.

The onlookers immediately understood.

[So it turns out he cut corners to save money, which caused his business to fail, and he still has the nerve to come complaining.]

I really don't know what they were thinking.

Lai Lao Er didn't expect that Shen Cao knew the reason why their business had plummeted, but since things had come to this, he still wanted to cheat on Shen Cao one last time.

He stood up, agitated, and said, "You're just accusing us of cutting corners based on what's in the ledger."

"If we have something to do, we might not be able to sell enough for more than a few days a month, so it's normal that we can't use it all, right?"

Shen Cao nodded. "You're right, that's why I prepared a sign-in sheet from the beginning."

“Every day when you arrive, I have the supervisor in front of you draw the lines on this chart yourself.” As she spoke, Shen Cao took out a familiar notebook.

When Lai Lao Er saw the notebook, he panicked completely. So that's what the notebook was for.

He had been wondering why he had to draw a line on it every day.

But he still tried to argue, "Well... maybe our business wasn't doing well to begin with, and we couldn't sell our products, which is why we used less seasoning."

Seeing that they were still being stubborn, Shen Cao said, "Since that's the case, then we'll go to your stall and see if you've cut corners."

"How is it?" she asked rhetorically, then stared seriously at the stall owners below.

The stall owners didn't dare let anyone see; they had indeed cut corners.

"Alright, we won't bother you anymore. We have things to do, we need to go back and get busy." Several stall owners were clearly feeling guilty and wanted to find an excuse to slip away.

Shen Cao gestured to Butler Wei to have someone surround the entrance.

"I said from the beginning, let's keep things separate. We'll take responsibility if it's our fault, but if it's your fault, shouldn't you take responsibility too?" Shen Cao glanced down at the crowd and spoke coldly.

“This stall on the dock isn’t for just anyone to rent. If you’re not doing a good job, there are plenty of other people who can run it.”

"Butler Wei, write down all these names. We're terminating their contracts today."

"None of the deposits will be refunded. If they have any objections, feel free to report it to the authorities. We will fight them to the end."

"In addition, the stalls they vacated will be available for rent starting tomorrow."

Shen Cao glanced at the stall owners below and added, "Oh right, I forgot to tell you, the cost of these seasonings is already included in the rent. If you had just asked a little more when you bought the seasonings, you wouldn't have made such a stupid mistake."

Upon hearing this, stall owner Zhao slumped in his seat, deeply regretting having asked his wife to buy seasonings from the management office that day.

After receiving the seasonings, seeing that Butler Wei was quite busy, she assumed he had forgotten to ask her for the money, so she secretly slipped away while there were many people around.

When he got back, he happily boasted to himself that he had saved money on seasonings.

Although he felt something was wrong at the time, he did nothing about it.

He regretted it!

After saying this, Shen Cao sat down in a chair and began exchanging pleasantries with Li Quan.

The stall owners below panicked. They hadn't expected things to turn out this way. They had only wanted to claim some of their losses, but their stalls had been taken away.

And the deposit cannot be refunded.

The onlookers at the entrance were delighted; they had a chance. They knew all too well how good business was at the dock.

Many people couldn't rent a place before, but now that there are stalls available for them, they have a chance.

Shen Cao ignored the stall owners' pained expressions; they had only themselves to blame.

However, this incident also made her reflect on the current business model at the dock.

An idea popped into her mind.