397 Rouge (Part 1)
“You over there, pack this, this, as well as the boxes of rouge and hair fragrance in the cabinet next to me and calculate how much silver you need.”
This person’s tone was rude and unreasonable. When she spoke to the shopkeeper, she spoke with a sense of familiarity.
Yue Jiaojiao didn’t want to argue with the other party to avoid getting caught up in trouble. She shifted her gaze to the rack with some fragrant bottles. “Shopkeeper, could you please take this out for me to take a look?”
This thing smelled like perfume, but at the same time not.
“Shopkeeper, I see that the quality of your shop is getting lower and lower. It seems that anyone from anywhere can enter.”
These words were really sharp and mean.
Even if Yue Jiaojiao was generally a calm and forgiving person, she still turned her head around with a slight anger on her face. When she saw the other party’s face clearly, her eyes were filled with surprise.
“Based on your reaction, I’m sure you know who I am. Is there anything else you’d like to say?”
“Not really.” Yue Jiaojiao’s face had a perfect smile on it, as if she was a close friend of the other party. “I just happened to see your heroics of riding a horse at the city gate yesterday.”
“Y-you!”
The smug smile on Liu Qinqin’s face instantly froze. “How dare you?! Do you know what this place is?!”
“Shangjing, of course, the city that everyone envies. I know that I’m from the countryside, so I had to learn it from the nobles of Shangjing.
“It just so happens that just now, you were right beside me. I should be learning well. As a country bumpkin, how dare I compare myself to someone like you?”
Liu Qinqin was so angry that her eyebrows were raised. “Of course, you can’t compare to…”
Halfway through her sentence, she snapped out of her daze, and the whip in her hand was about to touch the tip of Yue Jiaojiao’s nose. “Are you calling me rude?!”
The shopkeeper was afraid that they would smash his items and hurriedly came over to comfort the two women.
“M-miss, there’s no need to get angry. I have a new batch of rouge here. The color is light and beautiful. When applied on your face, it’ll look absolutely natural on you! There are only ten boxes of rouge in stock. Why don’t you come upstairs with me to take a look?”
“Shopkeeper, it’s really an eyesore to have people like them around. Why don’t you kick them out? Even if they come to your shop everyday for a year, it can’t be compared to the money I will be spending on this one trip here.”
“T-that…” The shopkeeper looked troubled. “I can’t make that decision since she’s already here, right? Miss, I’m sure you know how strict the Ministry of Finance is with our shops. If this young lady were to report it, how else will I get to sell you quality rouge in the future?”
“You’re not the only one in Shangjing. I’ll just have to go to other people’s shops in the future then!”
Yue Jiaojiao had been waiting for the shopkeeper’s reaction. Once she saw that he wasn’t trying to curry favor with the powerful, she opened her mouth and said, “Shopkeeper, could you bring out the ten boxes of rouge that you mentioned earlier for me to take a look at? I have many family members. I’d like to buy a few more boxes to give to them.”
As she spoke, she took out a thick stack of silver notes from her purse.
In order to avoid being targeted, the silver notes were only waved in front of the shopkeeper before being taken back.
Even so, the shopkeeper still saw the face value of the silver note.
Each note was 100 silver pieces and it was such a thick stack …
“Young lady, please follow me. They are upstairs.”
Liu Qinqin, who originally wanted to ask the shopkeeper to kick Jiaojiao out, heard this and stopped in her tracks. “Wait! I want to see it too!”
There was a trend of competition in Shangjing. She could only show off such a novel thing by buying it.
Now that she hadn’t bought anything, this country bumpkin from God knows where was about to surpass her. How could the usually proud Liu Qinqin tolerate this?
The shopkeeper subconsciously glanced at Yue Jiaojiao.
“You should always open the door to welcome guests. You don’t have to mind me.”
As soon as Yue Jiaojiao finished speaking, she and Li Xiangjun were already walking up the steps.
The balance in the shopkeeper’s heart started to tilt, but he still invited Liu Qinqin up respectfully.
“Ladies, please take a look over here.” The shopkeeper carefully held the rouge and opened it. “This box of rouge is very fine. We only get one box of this every month. In fact, the nobles in the palace also use type. If I didn’t have connections, I wouldn’t have been able to get these boxes.”