"Hitting someone?! What I'm beating is a dog!" Mr. Xia's momentum is not diminishing, and he is very interested in beating shopkeeper An together. "Don't think about Wu Niang's matter!"
Chen Lin saw the dispute and couldn't go out for a while, so he stopped and waited for the situation to subside.
The rich and powerful are using their power to bully others, and slapping a few guys is really nothing. The clerks in the store are the first to get angry. From the time they became apprentices, being beaten, scolded and bullied is commonplace. No matter how you are bullied, insulted or even beaten, you should always greet them with a smile.
Although Shopkeeper An was born as a businessman, he had learned business since he was a child. When you open your shop to do business, it is common to encounter unreasonable customers. In business, people pay attention to being friendly and making money. When encountering customers, they always give good advice and endure a small loss without conflict with the customers. But today's incident is too deceiving. He sneered:
"Wu Niang is not from my family. She has long legs and can go wherever she wants. Who do you want when you come to my place? Mr. Xia should go out to find someone quickly. Don't waste time here and miss your home." It’s my business!”
Mr. Xia was furious and yelled: "You old bastard! You think I don't know! Without that slut of yours seducing and kidnapping, Wu Niang would have run away? If you don't have an explanation today, you can't even think about this shop." Keep driving!"
When Shopkeeper An heard the word "slut", he looked angry and snorted coldly, saying: "This is not the land of the Ming Dynasty. It's not your turn to run wild! Eighteen, blow the whistle!"
The clerk responded and immediately ran to the street. After a while, a sharp whistle came from outside.
Mr. Xia's expression suddenly changed, and he turned around to go out. Shopkeeper An turned sideways to block the door and sneered: "Mr. Come on! These two slaps are not in vain!"
Mr. Xia pushed and shoved him and wanted to leave, but shopkeeper An refused to let him go. He became anxious and shouted: "Do it quickly!"
The servant's hand slapped the shopkeeper An, beating him to pieces and causing him to fall to the ground. Mr. Xia got this opportunity and rushed out of the door. The servant also jumped out and fled.
When Chen Lin saw this, he ran out quickly, helped Shopkeeper An up, and said with concern: "Shopkeeper An! Don't be anxious, right?"
Shopkeeper An shook his head, blinked twice, and when he saw it was Chen Lin, he said, "It doesn't matter to me, thank you very much, brother..."
At this time, the clerk Shi Shi also came back, and the two of them helped Shopkeeper An up. Eighteen said: "The patrol will be here soon..."
Before he finished speaking, the sound of running iron-clawed leather shoes could be heard outside. Two patrol policemen came in from the door of the store and asked: "What's going on?!"
Shopkeeper An immediately explained the matter briefly. The leading policeman said: "He ran away?"
"Yes, but I know who he is..."
"In this case, you go to the police station to make a record first. We will summon the person tomorrow and then deal with it." The policeman looked at the situation in the store. "Who was beaten? Is it him?" He said with his chin One pointed at Chen Lin.
Chen Lin hurriedly said: "It's not me."
Shopkeeper An hurriedly said: "He is a guest, coming to see the goods. This matter has nothing to do with him. The person who was beaten was a clerk in the store who was resting in the back. He was knocked unconscious and could not get up."
"Send the person to the health center, ask the doctor to take a look, and issue a diagnosis. Bring it to the police station tomorrow."
Chen Lin has met many Australian police officers in Guangzhou, but this is the first time he has directly watched the police handle a case. Quite fresh. I saw two policemen working in an orderly manner. They first inspected the scene, then questioned the people present one by one and took notes. It's just that the policeman who took the notes was not very clever. He often asked shopkeeper An how to write a certain word.
After taking notes on the people in the store, the police called Chen Lin for questioning. Shopkeeper An said: "He is a passing guest. He was talking to me in the locker room just now and didn't come out. He didn't see anything..."
Chen Lin knew that this was Shopkeeper An's good intentions and didn't want him to get into trouble. But what happened today, the person named Xia really went too far. Chen Lin claimed that he was a "guest of the elders" and knew a little about Australian police affairs. He said with emotion: "I saw it all at the door when I was young. I will just serve as a circumstantial witness." Having said that, he also made a mark on the transcript.
"I'll hear the news tomorrow." The policeman put the documents into the bag. "Come to the police station to handle it then. You, this..."
"My surname is Chen."
"You live in the Jasmine Hotel, right? If nothing happens, I won't come to you. I will send you a notice if you want to go to court - you have been in Lingao recently, right?"
"I'll definitely be there within three to five days." Chen Lin didn't know that such a matter would have to be "heard in court", so he was a little nervous, "I'll definitely be there if I'm called."
The patrolman left. Seeing that it was getting late, Chen Lin quickly left. Shopkeeper An felt a little guilty: "...the disagreement brought you into it."
"Don't say anything to outsiders. We are all members of the same family. How can we let them bully us for nothing! Besides, this is under the rule of Australians, and we cannot tolerate them trying to show off our master's dignity!"
Shopkeeper An smiled and said: "Okay, okay, I didn't expect that even though I came from the mainland, my ideas are very new! It's true that a hero comes from a boy! Please come to the store to talk about it when you have time."
Delayed by this incident, Chen Lin did not dare to stroll around anymore and went straight to the Friendship Department Store along the street.
This Friendship Department Store is one of the two major department stores in Lingao. Follow the map and follow the road, and soon you will arrive near Bobu Bay. Suddenly, you will see a circular square in front of you, which is paved with bricks and stones. It is very It is flat, with a statue standing in the center, but it is a leaping statue of a general on horseback and in military uniform. Chen Lin was secretly curious, who is this person? Could it be a famous general from the Song Dynasty? When I walked over and saw the inscription below, I realized that this was the statue of Ma Yuanzhi, General Fubo of the Han Dynasty.
By the way, the Australian army is the Fubo Army. This Qiongzhou Prefecture was first naturalized by Ma Yuan who crossed the sea. The Australians also erected his statue for this reason.
This department store is in the southeast corner of the square. From a distance, there are crowds of people in front of the building, which shows that business is booming. The main building is only three stories high. From architectural style to volume, it is roughly the same as the county department store in the 1970s. However, in the eyes of most people in this time and space, this is already a "giant villa". Standing on the top of the building is a huge line of Song characters: "Develop production and prosper the market." The huge font, which is as tall as a person, and the bright red color give people a strong visual impact from a distance.
The positioning of the Friendship Department Store is "popular", which according to Li Mei, is the positioning of the "township gang" business. Because of Bopu's geographical location in the middle of the county and close to the sea, most business travelers from other counties and the mainland come to Gao to transfer trains and ships here. The flow and gathering of large numbers of people naturally create unlimited business opportunities.
Since we want to position our business as a "rural gang", we can't pay too much attention to "taste". It must have a shocking feeling that "this is a big city", and it can't be too luxurious and modern, making people think, "This is not the place I should go in." place”. Therefore, Li Mei rejected various lofty design plans during the planning stage and chose the simplest rectangular building with only three floors. Various structures favored by the Senate's public buildings, such as high-ceiling atriums, walking towers, roof gardens, and curved stairs, are not used. Except for some decorations with broken glass sandblasting patterns on the walls, the whole building can be called Unpretentious. This made Chen Lin, who had seen the big world and Longhao Bay Hotel, somewhat disappointed - it was too ordinary.
He was walking leisurely in the building. The layout here is different from Guangzhou World. Guangzhou World is actually more similar to the shopping mall of the old time and space or the lower-end "market street". The Friendship Department Store is still a traditional counter store. The first floor is the tallest and brightest, with a floor height of nearly 5 meters. Although there is a large gas chandelier installed here, due to the large crowds of people, it is necessary to minimize safety risks, so large glass windows are used on the first floor. Each of the large floor-to-ceiling glass windows, which are made up of countless grids, covers an area of nearly ten square meters, bringing in as much natural light as possible and reducing dependence on artificial lighting.
However, this also brings side effects. For engineering reasons, a considerable portion of these huge windows cannot be opened. Therefore, in summer, a large amount of scorching sunlight will enter the room, but the amount of ventilation is not enough to lower the indoor temperature. Given the huge size of the department store, the various air conditioning systems available to the Senate were far from adequate. Therefore, in most seasons of the year, awnings must be propped up outside the windows.
Only at this season does the sunlight streaming in through the huge windows feel comfortable.
Chen Lin didn't know what "fast-moving consumer goods" were among the high-frequency consumer goods sold on the first floor of the department store, but from the counter layout and corresponding signboards, he could roughly see that the first floor sold food, alcohol, tobacco, and candies. , toiletries, hardware and daily necessities. Although there are many varieties, it can be said that some high-end consumer products such as "Australian products" that are familiar to Guangzhou people, such as "Guo Shi Wushuang", "Nanhai Cigar", "Li Mushan Oolong"... are nowhere to be found. Most of the products sold on the counter are mid- to low-end products.
Even so, Chen Lin was still "shocked" by the wide variety of products here. Needless to say, there are more than ten different varieties of fermented bean curd sold at the food counter here alone. There are the simplest fermented bean curds, those wrapped in vegetable leaves, those made with distiller's grains, those with chili peppers, fragrant, spicy, smelly, sweet... there are all kinds of them. And it’s very convenient to buy. You don’t need to bring your own containers for retail sales. There are special small bamboo paper baskets in the store. There are also special gift packages, and a delicate box is placed outside the basket. There are many types of paper, wood, and bamboo. They look beautiful, but the price also goes up.
This Australian really puts a lot of effort into doing business, and he has to spend every penny he has.
(End of chapter)
