Proud Farm Girl With A Space

Chapter 19 - 20

Su Tang did not know that someone had noticed her leaving at all. She just dragged Su Nuo away from Fuxing House and began to stroll along East Street.

There was always a lot of foot traffic around the academy so there were many shops on this road. She looked around for a while before she finally made a decision and approached a certain noodle stall.

The owner of the stall was a young couple and while Su Tang was walking over she saw that they looked a little depressed. But when the two saw the siblings walk inside, the young woman quickly stood up and greeted them. "Little girl, do you and your brother want some noodles?"

Su Tang shook her head. "I have some business I want to discuss with you two."

Su Tang was very young, so the couple thought it was pretty funny when she spoke so seriously with her childish face. They didn't take her words seriously, instead, they just tried to coax the children who walked in their store, "What do you know about business? If you don't want to eat noodles, you should go back to your family at home."

Although there were many poor children in the world it was rare for them to be out and making a living on their own at the age of eight, so the couple thought that Su Tang and her brother should go back to their family.

Su Tang shook her head and said. "Big brother, big sister, don't you two want to make your business better?"

When they heard those words the young couple seemed a little surprised. "How did you know..."

Before the woman finished speaking, she cut herself off mid-way because she was vigilant of the other nearby stalls. But Su Tang hadn't spoken loudly and her words hadn't attracted any attention. After all, she and her brother were just two children, so no one really paid them any attention. Only the couple inside the stall heard her words and they were a bit stunned, because Su Tang seemed to be able to see through their worries with a single glance.

The man firmly told his wife to look after the stall first, and then followed Su Tang into a nearby deserted alley with a serious look on his face. "Little girl, how did you know that our business is doing badly?"

"Isn't it very easy to see? There are three noodle stalls on this road alone, and the things they're serving inside the noodle stall right next to yours are exactly the same as the things you are serving. With that being the case, could your business be good?"

Su Tang had just finished walking around and she had clearly seen that the stall next to their stall was obviously about the same. They both made things like shredded chicken noodles, shredded meat noodles, plain noodles, and so on. But the other stall sold their noodles a bit cheaper.

Making noodles did not involve much technical skill, so if the noodles were all made from the same base ingredients, the taste would not be very different, and the customers would naturally go to the slightly cheaper stall. She had also seen the distressed look on the faces of the couple just now, so they were obviously being affected.

The couple who set up the stall were originally from a nearby village called Jiang Jiawa. The man's name was Jiang He and the woman was his wife, Madam Qian. The couple had come to town to make a living after they separated from their family last year and nowadays they could only rely on their own diligence and perseverance to run their noodle stall to make a meager living.

Their days had been slowly getting better but then Madam Qian's older brother had seen that they were making money and insisted that the couple bring him to town so he could do business and make money too. Naturally, they didn't want to do that, so Madam Qian's older brother brought his wife to town to open a stall of his own right next to their stall.