Shen Mianmian and Lu Siyuan left the area but didn’t immediately go back.
Lu Siyuan still wanted to buy clothes for Shen Mianmian, so he pulled her to another street to continue shopping.
They hadn’t been shopping long when Shen Mianmian found a stall and picked out two outfits. She tried on a top and it fit well; she even had the vendor measure her waist and picked out two pairs of pants that suited her.
As Lu Siyuan was paying, a middle-aged lady came by, saw them, and greeted them with surprise, "It’s you guys!"
Shen Mianmian and Lu Siyuan exchanged bewildered looks; they didn’t recognize this person.
Seeing their confusion, the lady said with a laugh, "I was right there watching the fun when you guys were arguing with someone else just now."
Before they could say anything, she continued, "I live nearby and often shop here. Let me tell you, you should never go to her stall again. Everyone around here knows what kind of person she is; normally nobody shops with her."
"Auntie, have you been cheated by her too?" Shen Mianmian played along and asked.
"You bet!" The lady got excited and spoke even more fervently, "I bought a pair of pants for my granddaughter from her not too long ago. We agreed that I could bring them back for an exchange if they didn’t fit. I bought them in the morning and came back in the afternoon to exchange them, but she flat-out denied they were from her stall."
"I may be old, but I’m not that forgetful! Such people will sooner or later run their own business into the ground. Our entire neighborhood knows what she’s like; no one wants to buy clothes from her."
Shen Mianmian blinked. No wonder Wang Erfeng’s business wasn’t doing well; it seemed she had pulled this kind of stunt more than a few times.
Offending these aunties was akin to driving one’s business into the grave.
It was like now, as the woman had followed them all this distance just to gossip about the incident. In layman’s terms, it was a way of reminding Shen Mianmian not to shop at that stall again.
However, even if the auntie hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have gone back there again anyway.
She feigned regret, "If I had known she was that kind of person, I would never have gone to her stall."
"You did the right thing by not going." The delighted auntie replied, "With money, are you afraid you can’t buy things? Look at what you’re buying now; it’s way nicer than what she has." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⟡𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
Shen Mianmian nodded with a smile.
Hearing their exchange, the stall owner couldn’t help but chime in, "Are you talking about Wang Erfeng from the street over there?"
"That’s her," the auntie said. "I heard people calling her Erfeng. To look at her, you’d hardly think she’s anything like a phoenix, more like a wild chicken."
"She’s known around here as a real tricky one to deal with," the stall owner continued. "Speak of her, and there’s hardly anyone who doesn’t know. Just a few days ago, she was fighting with a young woman over a clothing purchase."
"She acts so high and mighty because she has two sons, and the younger one is a good student; it’s said he might even go to college. So she struts around like she’s all that."
Talking about Wang Erfeng, the stall owner had a belly full of complaints. She used to sell clothes on the same street as Wang Erfeng, right across from her. Because she had more business, Wang Erfeng got jealous and created trouble until she was pushed out to this other street.
If it weren’t for the belief that harmony brings wealth, she wouldn’t have put up with Wang Erfeng’s antics.
Shen Mianmian could tell that the stall owner also harbored resentment toward Wang Erfeng and, feeling a stirring of curiosity, she deliberately said, "She’s to her customers; she must be even worse to her peers, right?"
"Ah, if we start on that, it would be a long story; you have no idea, this Wang Erfeng, she’s just a pest around here." The stall owner wasn’t in a rush to do business anymore and started spilling a bunch of grievances like pouring out beans.