Lin Lan was confident in her products. She looked at the woman squarely and said decisively, "Impossible. I make everything with my own two hands. There’s no way it’s unhygienic."
Xu Huan crossed her arms and scoffed at Lin Lan. "Of course *you’d* say your food is hygienic! I had one of your rolls and ran to the bathroom a dozen tis last night. What do you have to say about that?"
Lin Lan tried to reason with her. "If the bean rolls really were unhygienic, I sell so many of them every day. It’s impossible that you’re the only one who got diarrhea. Think carefully. Are you sure you didn’t eat sothing else that upset your stomach?"
Xu Huan thought Lin Lan was scared. "The only thing I ate last night was your roll! You’re going to compensate , or else I’ll make sure you can’t do business here anymore!"
Li Xiangyang and Lin Lan exchanged a look, certain that she was here today just to cause trouble.
The buyers and sellers in the Eucalyptus Forest all gathered around. Zhou Xiaohong looked at Xu Huan and said, "Miss, Little Lin has been selling her kidney bean rolls here for over half a year. I get them from her, too, and no one has ever complained they were unhygienic or gave them diarrhea."
"I don’t care about other people. All I know is that I ate it and had diarrhea all night." Xu Huan glared at Zhou Xiaohong. "You’re on her side, so of course you’d stick up for her!"
"You..." Zhou Xiaohong was so stunned by the retort she was left speechless.
Li Wu also chid in, "Miss, Sister Zhou is telling the truth. We often buy and eat her food. In all this ti, no one’s ever gotten diarrhea from it."
Xu Huan said coldly, "Like I said, I don’t care about anyone else. All I know is that *I* ate it and got diarrhea."
Seeing how unreasonable she was, Li Xiangyang felt he hadn’t been wrong about her. ’Anyone mixed up with Li Jing is definitely not a good person.’
He whispered to Lin Lan, "Look at her. She doesn’t look at all like soone who was up all night with diarrhea. I’ll go get Dongzi to handle this."
Lin Lan smiled faintly. "No need. I have a way to deal with her."
Seeing how close the two of them were, Xu Huan was so angry her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
Li Xiangyang nodded, stepped aside, and after shooting Xu Huan a cold glare, went to unload the items from his bicycle.
Lin Lan faced her. "You keep insisting you got diarrhea from my kidney bean rolls, but I don’t accept that. The only solution now is for us to go to the police station and file a report. We’ll ask an officer there to be an official witness, then go to the city hospital for a stool analysis. That will tell us what really caused your diarrhea."
"If my food proves to be unhygienic and caused your diarrhea, I will compensate you imdiately and cover all the expenses. If, however, you’re falsely accusing , I don’t want any compensation from you. You will pay for the examination, and you must return to the Eucalyptus Forest and formally apologize to in front of everyone!"
Xu Huan tried to act tough as she stared at Lin Lan. "Fine, let’s go!" ’I’m panicking,’ she thought. ’How could I forget they can do a stool test? How would a country woman like her know about these things? Li Xiangyang must have told her.’
Lin Lan said to Li Xiangyang, "When Third Sister gets here, leave the stall for her to watch."
"I’ll go with you," Li Xiangyang said, shooting a cold glance at Xu Huan, who was gripping her bicycle’s handlebars tightly.
"No need. You just help set up the stall." Lin Lan gave him a smile, then turned to Xu Huan. "Miss Xu, shall we go?"
"Let’s go, then!" Xu Huan shot Li Xiangyang a hateful glare, pushed her bicycle ahead, and grumbled, "A pair of shaless wretches, making eyes at each other in front of so many people. We’ll see how long you can stay so pleased with yourselves."
Lin Lan pushed her bicycle and watched Xu Huan approach the tractor path. She counted in her head, ’One... two...’ but before she could even get to three, she saw Xu Huan jump on her bike and speed away.
She shouted after her, "Hey! Miss Xu, don’t run off! Weren’t you up all night with diarrhea? I’ll take you to the hospital for that examination!"
Without a backward glance, Xu Huan pedaled away as fast as she could.
Yang Liying and Zhao Dehai ca over, carrying their wares on shoulder poles. Seeing Lin Lan shouting, they looked at her curiously. "What happened?"
They had been grinding beans at ho today, so they hadn’t co with Lin Lan to set up their stalls.
"We had a troublemaker..." Lin Lan briefly explained what happened as they pushed their bicycles into the woods together.
Back in the Eucalyptus Forest, Zhou Xiaohong and Li Wu stared, dumbfounded by the scene.
"Pah!" Zhou Xiaohong spat. "What a wretched girl! And what a waste of the pretty face her parents gave her!"
"I heard her demanding compensation from Lin Lan again and again. I’d say she was deliberately trying to extort her!" Li Wu said, patting Xue Bing. "Lin Lan had the right idea. If anyone tries to swindle us in the future, we’ll just take them to the hospital for an examination."
Zhou Xiaohong waved her hand. "Alright, break it up, break it up. Back to your stalls."
Once the farce was over, everyone went back to their own business.
Li Xiangyang helped Lin Lan set up her stall, then turned to Zhao Dehai, who was pushing his cart toward Vegetable Market Street. "Brother Zhao, how much longer until that area is finished?"
Zhao Dehai thought for a mont. "Probably another ten days or so. All the rafters, purlins, and tiles on the roof that needed replacing have been replaced. But there’s still the collapsed courtyard wall, the broken door panels, and the walls still need to be plastered."
Li Xiangyang smiled. "Take your ti. I reckon it won’t reopen until right before the New Year at the earliest."
Zhao Dehai nodded. "I’ve seen so of the nearby property owners starting to repair their houses, too."
Li Xiangyang thought that was perfectly normal. ’The commune has already held a eting. In a few more days, more and more people will have heard the news.’
Yang Liying knew Lin Yuezhen had gone to the doctor, so when it was ti to pack up, she said to Lin Lan, "I’ll take my things ho, then I’ll co over to your place to help."
Lin Lan didn’t refuse, smiling as she said, "Great! I’d be more than happy to have your help."
When Li Xiangyang got ho, he told Old Li about Xu Huan trying to extort Lin Lan in the Eucalyptus Forest and announced that he was going to Lin Lan’s house to help.
Old Li looked at him in surprise after hearing the story. "I didn’t think Little Xu was that kind of person!"
Li Xiangyang said quietly, "You can know a person’s face, but not their heart." He thought about how no one could have predicted Li Jing would do sothing so heartless and cruel, but he held his tongue, afraid of upsetting Old Li.
Old Li sighed and waved a hand at him. "If you’re going to help, then hurry up and go. Just be back early!"
"Dad, so you approve!" Li Xiangyang looked at Old Li, his heart bursting with joy.
Old Li shot him a glare. "You’ve been over at Lin Lan’s house so much the whole neighborhood knows. If I didn’t agree, I’d be ruining the reputation of a mother and her child. I’m telling you, you made this choice, so you’d better treat them well from now on." ’He’d had ti to think about it these past few days. Everyone has their own destiny, and he had fulfilled his duty as a father.’
Li Xiangyang nodded solemnly. "Dad, we will. And Little Lan will be a good, filial daughter-in-law."
Old Li gave him a light smack. "Now get lost. Don’t stand around here being an eyesore."
"Yes, sir!" Li Xiangyang snapped to attention before pushing his bike out the door and rushing to Lin Lan’s house as fast as he could. His eyes were shining as he looked at her. "Little Lan, Dad told to treat you and Douzi well."
Lin Lan looked at him happily. "Thank Uncle Li for !"
A little while later, Wang Zhixue and his brother arrived, as did Yang Liying. They all helped Lin Lan peel pumpkins, trim broad beans, and mash bean paste and red bean filling. With their help, the work beca much easier for Lin Lan.
Li Xiangyang and the Wang Zhixue brothers were strong and efficient workers. By a little after nine o’clock, the three n had finished mashing all the bean paste, red bean filling, and pumpkin puree. The bean pastes were put into large wooden basins, and the pumpkin puree was put into a wooden bucket.
They then helped Lin Lan press and pack the mung bean cakes and pea cakes for the next day’s morning and evening markets, as well as fry and bag the crispy broad beans.
Lin Lan smiled and waved her hand dismissively. "You all didn’t have to co so late. I would have been fine on my own."
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