"Dahu, why are you back again?" Lin Sanshui’s surprised expression was no less than when Little Hu saw Dahu just now.
Dahu sighed and stepped forward to ask, "Dad, someone has replicated our family’s smoked sausage, and they’ve approached the restaurant offering a lower price. The Young Master sent me back to ask, hoping we could lower our price."
Although the Young Master didn’t say it outright, it was evident that if we didn’t lower our price, they’d have to use someone else’s.
"What?" Lin Sanshui’s initial smile froze on his face, eyes full of disbelief, "What do you mean? Has someone stolen our family’s smoked sausage recipe? That’s impossible. This courtyard is closed every day, and no outsiders have come in!"
"The smoked sausage brought by that person was tested by a master, and it tasted exactly the same as ours." Dahu was also indignant, but there was nothing he could do.
To catch a thief, you need to catch them in the act. Without catching the person, you can’t claim they stole it.
At most, we can only say they imitated.
"So what’s going on? We use quite a few spices, and since the taste is the same, it means they must have stolen our recipe." Lin Shui, although only paid wages for his work, envied Lin Sanshui’s luck in having such a big income, but more than that, he was happy for his brother.
Saying this, Lin Shui looked at Mrs. Jiang, "Third sister-in-law, you and Lin San personally mix the spices; we don’t know them. Quickly think, was there anyone you might have accidentally told?"
These smoked sausages make quite a bit of silver. Just him and the second brother’s family helping out, a month’s wages is worth a few taels of silver. Just imagine how much more the third brother makes. If the business fails, it’ll be a complete waste.
Lin Sanshui also asked Mrs. Jiang, "Did you accidentally mention it while chatting with someone outside?"
"How could that be? I’m not stupid. Would I casually tell someone about our family’s money-making thing?" Mrs. Jiang replied.
Suddenly, she remembered something, "Right, a few days ago while I was working with the spices, Daniu’s wife was standing next to me and asked me a lot of things. Could it be that she accidentally mentioned it to someone?"
"Is the eldest sister-in-law from Little Xizhuang?" He seemed to remember so but wasn’t entirely sure.
"Yes, it was my elder sister-in-law from my mother’s side who suggested this marriage," Mrs. Jiang responded.
Lin Shui noticed something unusual in these few sentences, "Dahu, why are you asking about your eldest sister-in-law now? Do you suspect she leaked the recipe?"
Lin Shui’s tone was not good. After all, Mrs. Wang was his daughter-in-law.
He didn’t believe his family could do such a thing, and at the same time, he blamed Mrs. Wang for being meddlesome. She should have kept her distance when Mrs. Jiang was working with spices, instead of asking questions.
"That’s not what I meant. It’s just that the person who approached us from the restaurant to sell the smoked sausages is from Daxi Village, so I wanted to ask the eldest sister-in-law if she’s been back to her mother’s place recently or heard anything about someone in their village making sausages!" In reality, Dahu did indeed suspect Mrs. Wang a bit.
Lin Shui’s face turned dark.
Because he suddenly remembered that not long ago, Mrs. Wang indeed went back to her mother’s house, saying her mother was unwell and she was going back to check on her.
"Brother?" Read full story at 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⁂𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⁂𝓷𝓮𝓽
Lin Sanshui called out in a hurry as he watched Lin Shui turn and walk away.
Lin Ershui stepped forward, patted Lin Sanshui on the shoulder, and said helplessly, "Brother is probably very angry this time."
They all knew about Mrs. Wang going back to her mother’s house because they had borrowed Lin Sanshui’s family’s ox-cart at that time.