Qiao Qiao, drenched in rain and beside herself with worry, left Dr. Yu Xianyi's clinic and headed towards the Medicinal Cuisine Hall. Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind and covered her mouth.
Before she could struggle, a sack was thrown over her, a sharp pain hit the back of her neck, and she passed out.
Half an hour later.
Qiao Qiao was woken by a basin of cold water, finding herself in a dilapidated room surrounded by several menacing-looking men.
Seeing them, her already pale face instantly turned ashen. She cowered in a corner, her eyes filled with dread as she looked at them.
"Qi Qiao Qiao, do you know why we've brought you here?" The one-eyed leader scraped his right thumb against the blade of his knife.
Qiao Qiao eyed the cleaver, swallowed hard, and pleaded, "Brothers, can you give me a few more days? Once I sell this batch of medicinal herbs, I'll pay you back immediately."
That's right, the deposit she'd taken for the herbs was from a loan shark.
"You're three days overdue! You know our rules if you can't pay!" The one-eyed man slammed the cleaver onto the chopping board.
At the same time, one man grabbed Qiao Qiao and forcibly pulled out her right hand.
"Ahhhhh—" Qiao Qiao screamed in terror, fearing they would chop off her hand, and desperately clenched her fist.
The man lost his temper and slapped her across the face, "Still screaming! You dare to scream when you can't pay!"
Qiao Qiao fell to the ground, her left cheek swelling alarmingly, blood trickling from her lips.
She clutched her face and knelt on the ground in disarray, "Please, just give me three more days. In three days, I will definitely pay you back."
"What if you can't?" the one-eyed man asked ominously.
Qiao Qiao immediately blurted out, "I definitely can! I have four kinds of medicinal herbs that the anonymous divine doctor is collecting at twenty times the market price. As soon as she buys them, I'll have the money."
The one-eyed man had heard about the anonymous divine doctor collecting herbs, but he didn't know the full story. He spat, "If you can't pay in three days, you're dead!"
With that, the men swaggered out.
Qiao Qiao got up and found a wet patch beneath her. She had wet herself in fear.
But she couldn't afford to linger. She fled back to the Medicinal Cuisine Hall in a sorry state, not daring to waste another moment.
Just as she was about to open the door, a group of people suddenly surrounded her. Having been threatened earlier, Qiao Qiao instinctively took to her heels.
But she hadn't run far before she was caught, her hair being yanked.
"Qi Qiao Qiao, why are you running! Your payment isn't finished yet! When will you give us the remaining balance?"
"Don't think of welching! We signed a contract!"
"Otherwise, don't blame us for taking you to court!"
Qiao Qiao shrieked, utterly dejected. The suppliers exchanged glances, but none showed pity. Some even cursed:
"What are you screaming about? Pretending to be crazy won't help, you still have to pay!"
Only then did Qiao Qiao realize they were the suppliers from before, not loan sharks, but her heart was already collapsing.
She wasn't cut out for business. She also knew that Yu He had driven up the price of those four herbs so high, and since she wasn't buying, she had nowhere to sell them.
With that batch of herbs unable to be sold, hundreds of millions of yuan would be tied up. If she couldn't repay the money, the loan sharks would kill her before these suppliers even got a chance.
The thought of how the loan sharks had treated Granny Yu last time made her tremble uncontrollably.
She thought she could handle it, but instead, Yu He had outmaneuvered her, making her hoist herself by her own petard.
She had no money, so she decided to give up. "I don't want your goods anymore, you can take them all back!"
If she returned the herbs to the suppliers, they could resell them, and her losses wouldn't be so great.
However, the suppliers wouldn't budge.
"Don't want them? Even if you don't want the goods, you still have to pay us!"
"Exactly! We could have offended the anonymous divine doctor because of you. You have to take these goods, whether you want them or not!"
"Quickly, tell us when you'll pay! Otherwise, we'll smash your shop!"
"You, you!" Qiao Qiao felt like she was going to spit blood from anger.
These people weren't reliable suppliers at all. They were thugs, no different from loan sharks!
They were the ones who had come to demand their goods back earlier, and now that they couldn't sell them, they were demanding money from her!
Despite her anger, Qiao Qiao tried her best to explain, "Listen to me. You don't need to return the deposit I've already paid. Consider it interest for borrowing the materials for a few days. The remaining goods, you can take them back, and I won't pay the balance."
The suppliers overheard and began whispering amongst themselves. After all, they were businessmen driven by profit. Earning a deposit for free was a good deal. If they got the herbs back, perhaps they could resell them to the anonymous divine doctor…
Just as Qiao Qiao thought there was hope, a nurse rushed out of the Medicinal Cuisine Hall, saying anxiously, "Second Miss, it's not good! Because of the typhoon and heavy rain, the warehouse is leaking, and the herbs are all wet."
Qiao Qiao was shocked. "What!"
"The water that flooded the warehouse wasn't drained in time, and many herbs are waterlogged and rotten! We're currently counting to see how many are still usable," the nurse added.
Hearing this, Qiao Qiao's vision blurred, and she collapsed onto the ground, her mind buzzing.
"Second Miss, are you alright?" The nurse rushed to help her up and noticed her right cheek was injured. "What happened to your face? Second Miss?"
Seeing this, the suppliers, who had been about to agree, immediately retracted their words. "We've already delivered the goods to you. You must pay the full amount according to the contract! We're not taking the goods back!"
"We'll give you another week. If you still haven't paid, we'll see you in court!"
With those harsh words, the suppliers left.
Qiao Qiao remained slumped on the ground, unresponsive for a long time. Passersby cast strange glances, and some onlookers even took photos and posted them online.
The Medicinal Cuisine Hall had not even officially opened, and it was already facing the threat of bankruptcy.
Just then, Qiao Qiao's phone rang. It was an unknown number. She answered.
"Qiao Qiao? I heard you're in trouble and need money?" a man's voice came from the other end of the line.