Lin Ruoshan seized the right opportunity and successfully obtained 50% of the tavern's profits from Lin Fu. When Lin Yaozu found out, he made a scene. Wang Shi pulled him back into the room and talked to him for a long time. After that, he was still unconvinced when he saw Lin Ruoshan, but he didn't argue with her anymore.
Lin Ruoshan was smug and felt that this was the life she deserved. Having been reborn, she was determined not to suffer any injustice. Whatever they owed her, she would make them pay back tenfold.
Lin Ruoshan's brewing method was very simple; she just added a certain proportion of spiritual spring water to other people's brewed wine. She easily completed the order for the wine placed by the county magistrate, and simply waited for it to be delivered to his residence on time.
She was overjoyed to receive her first banknote from Lin Fu. Thinking of Lin Ruonan and Xu Zifan, she deliberately dressed up in a glamorous manner and asked her girlfriends to walk past the cloth shop to buy clothes at the clothing store next to the Xu family's house.
To their surprise, when they arrived at the fabric shop, it was packed with people, with long queues of customers. Lin Ruoshan exclaimed in astonishment, "What's going on? When did the Xu family's business become so successful?"
The girl said, "You didn't know? I heard it was your sister... oh, it was Lin Ruonan who came up with this idea: buy fabric and get free fabric scraps, purses, shoe soles, and even custom-made clothes with no labor fees. She said it was to celebrate Xu Zifan's great recovery, a one-month discount."
Lin Ruoshan chuckled, "How could she even come up with this idea? How much will she lose? The Xu family just lets her do whatever she wants, aren't they afraid she'll ruin the shop?" She tugged at her friend's sleeve and said, "Come on, let's go buy some clothes next door."
The young woman said awkwardly, "Um... Ruoshan, you know my family isn't well-off either. My mother has already made a set of clothes for each of us at the Xu family's house, so I... I won't buy any more."
Lin Ruoshan's eyes widened. "What? You bought clothes at the Xu family's house? Aren't you my sister? How could you buy clothes from them?" She flung her friend's hand away, angrily saying, "You've gone too far! Didn't I give you two sets of clothes before? Are you that short of clothes?"
A passerby glanced over, and the young woman, losing face, immediately became angry. "Lin Ruoshan, you're the one who's gone too far! Everyone knows you're a gold digger, a traitor who broke off the engagement, and you even pushed your sister out to marry in her place to protect your reputation. You just want her to be a widow; your heart is rotten to the core. Do you think anyone but me would want to talk to you? Who cares about those two sets of clothes you're tired of wearing? I'll bring them back to you right now, and from now on, we'll go our separate ways!"
Lin Ruoshan was stunned by the meaning behind her words. Before she could react, her friend had disappeared, leaving her alone to face the strange looks and pointing fingers of passersby.
She took a deep breath to remain calm, but then she heard someone behind her say, "It's her? She doesn't look that great. She's not as pleasing to the eye as the young mistress of the Xu family."
"Who says otherwise? Ruonan is so open and generous, it's a pleasure to see her. Look at her, she's so thin and beautiful, and her eyes are all crooked, otherwise she wouldn't have done that kind of thing."
"They were raised by the same father and mother, so how come there's such a big difference? I heard that she personally agreed to the engagement, but now that her family is rich, she turns her back on them and even pushes her own sister out to take her place in the marriage. She'll definitely get her comeuppance in the future."
"Tsk, she even betrayed Grandpa's savior, and her own sister. She's no good. Her brother looks down on the villagers, but isn't their family from the village?"
"Saying that Mr. Xu is about to die, I really don't know what he's thinking, how can he be so wicked."
Lin Ruoshan was shocked to hear people talking about her like this for the first time. But when she looked around, it seemed that everyone knew the reason. She couldn't even ask, her mind was buzzing and blank.
What happened to her while she was hiding at home these past few days?!
Lin Ruoshan stood at the entrance of the fabric shop, and soon the customers inside noticed the commotion. Upon seeing Lin Ruoshan, they gathered around and joined in the condemnation.
Lin Ruoshan's face paled. She lowered her head and tried to leave, but couldn't squeeze through the crowd. The stares of the crowd made her feel ashamed as if she had been stripped naked, and she panicked.
She should have been admired and loved by everyone, so how did she end up in such a state? What happened?
In a flash, Lin Ruoshan recalled Lin Yaozu's guilty look and immediately found her reason. She clenched her fists, and her hatred for Lin Yaozu surged to its peak in that instant!
In the fabric shop, Lin Ruonan took the measurements for an elderly woman and said with a smile, "Alright, Grandma Li, don't worry, the clothes will be made according to your preferred style. Come and pick them up in five days."
"Oh, good girl, I remember you." Grandma Li glanced outside and said with a smile, "She can't compare to you. You and Boss Xu are a perfect match. Live a good life."
Lin Ruonan glanced at Xu Zifan, who was keeping the accounts, and nodded, "I will."
After seeing Grandma Li off, Lin Ruonan walked to Xu Zifan's side and wrote down the measurements. She whispered, "Zifan, Lin Ruoshan is at the door. Do you want to go see her?"
Xu Zifan raised an eyebrow indifferently, "What does she have to do with us? We don't need to pay attention to her, she's just an insignificant stranger. You can rest for a while and have some water, we'll be busy when the guests come back."
"You drink too." Lin Ruonan poured two glasses of water, and seeing that Xu Zifan's hands were busy, she raised the glass to his lips and fed it to him. Xu Zifan drank it naturally.
Lin Ruoshan was shocked to see this scene and felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
How could Xu Zifan smile so gently? How could he be so close to Lin Ruonan? How could the two of them become intimate? They seem like a perfect couple in love! But clearly… in their past life…
Xu Zifan didn't give her a friendly look at all!
A fire ignited in Lin Ruoshan's chest, an indescribable resentment rising within her. She stormed into the shop, shouting, "Why are you all talking about me? Who spread these rumors? Look at Lin Ruonan and Xu Zifan! Do they look like they were forced? Do they look like they were tricked? They clearly have a very good relationship; they insisted on being together!"
Everyone fell silent, and Xu Zifan and Lin Ruonan both looked over with indifferent gazes.
Just as Lin Ruoshan was about to continue speaking, a young woman spat and sneered, "You really can spout nonsense and throw mud at anyone you want. If we didn't know that Boss Xu and his wife didn't know each other before their engagement, we would have really thought there was something going on between them."
"Exactly, that's really a dangerous thing. Now that he's been exposed, he's trying to pin the blame on others. Ha, he'd better keep putting the blame on himself; everyone knows what's going on."
Lin Ruoshan trembled with anger, "You ... you're being unreasonable ..."
"Hey, we're upright and honest, and we've always lived up to our conscience. But what you did was completely unreasonable, and I'm ashamed of you just thinking about it. Everyone remember her, don't be so blind as to marry her. She thinks she's some kind of fairy who has descended from heaven and expects to be waited on hand and foot."
"We can't afford to serve such people. We should stay as far away from them as possible. They're terrifying. How can they even show their face in public? Their reputation is completely ruined."
Lin Ruoshan then realized how serious the situation was. Outsiders actually knew so much. She had no chance of turning things around, and her reputation was completely ruined!
She turned sharply, glaring at Xu Zifan and Lin Ruonan with hatred. "Was it you? You've been spreading rumors everywhere, deliberately ruining my life, haven't you?"
Xu Zifan looked at Lin Ruonan and said, "Is your cousin out of her mind? She said I was dying, then she said she was going to take over our family's cloth shop, and now that things have been exposed, she's blaming us for everything. So everything she does is right and everything we're wrong is wrong."
"Take over this fabric shop?" The crowd exclaimed in surprise, looking at Lin Ruoshan in disbelief. They had no idea about this!
The Lin family is truly ambitious! The Xu family saved Old Master Lin, helped Lin Fu establish himself in town, and gave Lin Ruoshan so many good things during holidays. Yet they're actually eyeing the Xu family's cloth shop and cursing Xu Zifan to die young?
Just as everyone was discussing it, Lin Ruoshan's friend squeezed through the crowd, threw two nearly new pieces of clothing at Lin Ruoshan's face, and shouted, "Here's your clothing back! I don't want your charity! Before, when I moved to town and you were in the village, you were always coming to fawn over me. Now that your family is making money, you treat me like a lackey. You made me watch whether Xu Zifan drank your family's wine at the Xu family's wedding banquet, and you dragged me to the Xu family's cloth shop to show off how well you're doing. You're just a snob, a vain person to the core. From now on, we'll pretend we don't know each other!"
Lin Ruoshan screamed in alarm, "You're talking nonsense!"
"I'm talking nonsense? Back when you were engaged to Xu Zifan, you bragged about it to all the girls in the village, saying you were going to marry the son of the cloth shop owner in town. Can you honestly say you didn't? Once you learned how to brew wine, you said Xu Zifan was a sickly man, a walking pharmacy, and that whoever married him would be unlucky. Did you say that?"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Lin Ruoshan rushed over to pull her away, but the young ladies nimbly dodged her and shouted even louder, "You want to hit me? Who do you think you are? You think you're some kind of fairy just because you brewed a few jars of wine? Do you think everyone has to respect you? You just beat up your brother a few days ago, didn't you? Your mother was so angry that she cursed you outside your door, and the neighbors two rooms away could hear it. Oh, and you also took half of the tavern's revenue. Your brother was furious and cursed you in front of outsiders. And you still think you're so special? Let me tell you, no one likes you. Everyone hates you! You're just a troublemaker. The Xu family's prediction was right, you're a jinx. Maybe Xu Zifan's illness was caused by you!"
What kind of person could be best friends with someone like Lin Ruoshan? In just a few words, she exposed Lin Ruoshan's most despicable side to the public, allowing everyone to criticize her and successfully destroying the good reputation Lin Ruoshan wanted.
Lin Ruoshan's face turned deathly pale, and she was drenched in cold sweat. She looked around and saw only indifferent faces and eyes full of disgust.
They pointed at her and criticized her relentlessly, even pulling her friends aside to ask about the hurtful things she had said. Her friends got more and more excited and spilled all the dirt on her.
She wanted to salvage the situation and explain herself, but she couldn't get a word in edgewise.
Lin Ruonan stepped forward with a cold face and said, "Lin Ruoshan, everyone knows what kind of person you are. We're just being polite by calling you cousin, but in reality, our Xu family has no dealings with your Lin family. What are your true intentions in keeping such a close eye on our Xu family?"
Even a clay figure has some backbone, let alone me. If you push me too far, we'll settle all the scores from all these years and see who's the one who's been humiliated!