In the Qing Dynasty, there was a Derentang pharmacy in the old city of Yingzhou, which was a century-old brand. Sun Shaozu, the owner of the pharmacy, took over Derentang from the age of 30 and worked hard to operate it, and the business was booming.
This winter, Old Manager Ma of Derentang passed away due to illness. Old Manager Ma had worked in Derentang for decades and was loyal to Derentang. Now that he was gone, Sun Shaozu only felt that he had lost an arm, and his heart was full of grief. But grief is grief, but Derentang cannot be without a shopkeeper for a day, otherwise no one will bear the responsibility for such major events as purchasing and shipping, and things will go wrong.
Although Derentang's store was not large, there were a lot of trivial chores every day, especially the fine things of gold and silver expenditure, which should be handled with caution and not sloppy at all. When Shopkeeper Ma was alive, he worked hard and diligently to take care of all transaction accounts in an orderly manner. Now, where can he find a loyal and capable shopkeeper like Shopkeeper Ma?
After thinking about it, Sun Shaozu finally decided to open the list to recruit talents. He asked his son Sun Zhong to write a list, to the effect that the old shopkeeper of Derentang had passed away, and the boss wanted to recruit a shrewd and capable new shopkeeper. The new shopkeeper must be proficient in the management of medicinal materials, have a loyal character, and have an annual salary of 200 taels of silver. As soon as the list was posted, there was an endless stream of people who came to compete for the job, but no one could satisfy Sun Shaozu. Seeing that the business was not managed by the shopkeeper, the business was greatly affected, and Boss Sun was worried that he could not eat.
It was Xiaoxue solar term, the weather was gloomy, and the northwest wind blew on the face like a knife. Sun Shaozu, who was frowning about the new shopkeeper, was drinking tea and roasting the fire in the back hall when he saw Sun Zhong bring in a middle-aged man in his thirties. The man was wearing a jacket made of cotton wool, a sheepskin hat, and a burlap over his shoulders. Although he was not beautiful, his eyes were bright, and at a glance he could tell that he was a shrewd and capable person. Sun Shaozu hurriedly asked, "This gentleman is..."
The middle-aged man clasped his fists and said, "My surname is Liu Mingren, and I am from Sanlipo outside Yingzhou City." I followed my father to do the medicinal herb business since I was a child, and I have been wandering around for several years. Recently, I heard that Derentang is going to recruit a new shopkeeper.
Sun Shaozu immediately asked someone to serve tea, then looked at Liu Ren carefully before saying, "Mr. Liu has done the medicinal herb business, so he must be well versed in the medicinal herb market, right?" When Liu Ren heard it, he knew that Boss Sun was testing him, so he talked and talked, and Sun Shaozu couldn't stop nodding. Then Sun Shaozu asked him a few more things about the medicinal herb business, and Liu Ren answered them all, but Sun Shaozu didn't decide immediately, but pointed to a book on the cabinet and said, "After the death of Shopkeeper Ma, the account on the cabinet has not been cleaned up. Please do Mr. Liu a favor." When Liu Ren heard it, he immediately took the account book and found that the entries in the account book were messy, and there were also several income and expenditure accounts that were very vague. So he took the abacus and fiddled with it for a while, and soon he made a clear account of the bad account. After Sun Shaozu took the account book and looked at it carefully, his heart was happy, and he immediately ordered the servants to prepare wine and food, and decided to hire Liu Ren as the new shopkeeper.
In less than a stick of incense, the wine and food were placed, and as soon as the two of them sat down, someone outside the door slammed on the door. When the man opened the door, he saw a carriage parked at the door, and two strong men helped out a pale one-eyed man from the carriage. After the one-eyed man entered the house, he lifted up his cotton-padded clothes, revealing several wounds on his back. Each wound was six inches long, and his flesh and blood were turned out, which was very scary. A thin black man next to him who supported the one-eyed man said, "We are businesspeople from other places. We met robbers on the way. Not only did we rob our goods, but we also hurt our people. Thank you very much."
Sun Shaozu immediately asked the Langzhong in the shop to treat the one-eyed man's injury. After the diagnosis, the Langzhong cleaned up the injury for the one-eyed man, and then wrote a prescription for the man to grab the medicine according to the prescription. Liu Ren, who didn't want to be on the side, grabbed the prescription from the man and said with a smile, "Let me come down." After saying that, without waiting for Sun Shaozu to nod, he went to the medicine cabinet, according to the prescription, weighed them one by one, and handed the package to the black and thin man.
Sun Shaozu was very happy to see that Liu Ren could still grab medicine. But when he accidentally glanced at Liu Ren's right hand, his face suddenly became gloomy.
The skinny black man thanked him, paid a silver ingot, and helped the one-eyed man get into the car and leave. At this time, Liu Ren turned around and was about to say something, but Sun Shaozu said first, "Mr. Liu, Shuiqian does not dare to tolerate Jiaolong, and my little medicine shop does not dare to submit to Mr. Liu's great talent. Please find another job." After saying this, he didnot wait for Liu Ren to answer, and went straight back to the inner hall coldly.
Why did Sun Shaozu, who had just met and hated each other too late, suddenly turn his face? Sun Zhong was confused and hurried to the inner hall. Seeing his father sighing, he couldn't help but ask, "Father, Mr. Liu is exactly the talent our Derentang needs. Why did you reject him?"
Unexpectedly, Sun Shaozu said, "Zhong'er, you only know one, but you don't know the other. You only see Liu Ren shrewd and strong, but you don't realize that he is actually a dishonest person."
Sun Zhong found it incredible. Sun Shaozu said, "When Liu Ren weighed the medicine just now, I noticed that every time he weighed the medicine, he would gently flick the little finger of his right hand holding the weighing rod. Although his movements were fast and light, he could not escape my eyes. The method of flicking the weighing rod is a common method used by ordinary traders. As the saying goes, a scale weighs a thousand catties. When weighing something, a little movement of hands and feet can make a few taels of customers from the scale. And this method of flicking the weighing rod is even more dirty in the pharmacy. You think medicinal herbs are used to treat diseases and save people, and you can't be sloppy with a few cents. When Liu Ren weighed the medicinal herbs, he was short of weight.
Sun Zhong suddenly realized that he had to admire his father's old-fashioned eyes, and it was a pity that Liu Ren was so talented but not loyal.
Soon after, in the middle of the night, the sleeping grandpa was dragged out of the quilt and dragged into the yard. Sun Shaozu panicked and took a closer look. He saw more than a dozen big men in black in the yard, all holding shiny steel knives and looking murderous. The leader was the skinny black man who helped the one-eyed man treat his wounds that day. The skinny black man said viciously, "What a profiteer, my eldest brother took your medicine, but not only did he not recover, but he almost died. Today, I will take the lives of your whole family and export evil anger for my eldest brother."
Sun Shaozu secretly cried out in his heart, but there was nothing he could do in the face of more than a dozen steel knives. The thin black man shouted, raised his knife and stabbed. Sun Shaozu had to close his eyes and wait for death, but only heard a loud "clatter" sound, followed by the howling of ghosts and wolves. Sun Shaozu opened his eyes and saw that more than a dozen big men were covered by an iron net that fell from the sky, and the net was covered with barbs and thorns, and dozens of catchers jumped out around them, tying them firmly.
Escaping death, Sun Shaozu recognized that the leader was the yamen's captain Wang, and hurriedly came up to thank him. Captain Wang waved his hand and said, "No need to thank me, if someone hadn't revealed the news in advance that these bandits were coming to Derentang to commit murder, they wouldn't have been able to kill them all. Boss Sun didn't know that the court had already issued a strict order to arrest them within a time limit. Fortunately, the news that person said was true, otherwise it would be really difficult to catch them." Hearing this, Sun Shaozu quickly asked who had revealed the news, and Captain Sun said, "This person's name is Liu Ren, and he is from Sanlipo outside the city." Sun Shaozu was stunned and remained silent for a long time.
The next day, Sun Shaozu and Sun Zhong entered the carriage and went to thank Liu Ren for a generous gift. Liu Ren seemed to have guessed that the Sun family's father and son were coming, so he was already waiting outside the door. Seeing the father and son of the Sun family, he hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "Boss Sun must have come because the police caught the bandits, right?"
Sun Shaozu was surprised: "Mr. Liu is really a god, how did you know that some bandits came to treat the wounds that day?
Liu Ren smiled: "That day, those bandits said that they were injured by robbers, but I have some medical skills, and the injuries suffered by the one-eyed man are not ordinary wounds, but wounds made by the iron ruler who was arrested quickly. In addition, those people said that they were businesspeople, but they all looked fierce and murderous, not the slightest bit of merchant appearance, but they had cocoons on their wrists and mouths because they used to hold knives all year round, so I concluded that they were bandits, and they were injured because they were pursued by the government. Therefore, when I gave them medicine, I deliberately weighed two less for each medicine, which made them more injured. I think since ancient times, bandits have been extremely vicious, and they will be vengeful. If they find out that it is because I have caused trouble, they will do everything possible to seek revenge. I wanted to tell Boss Sun to be on guard at that time, but Boss Sun misunderstood me as a greedy person and didn't listen to my explanation, so I had to go to the official residence by myself and let them wait around Derentang day and night, and finally waited until they fell into the net. "
Liu Ren shook his head and said, "The bandits kill people without blinking an eye. You and I are both powerless people. If we expose them in person, I 'm afraid they will turn their backs.
Sun Shaozu nodded in approval, but he still didn't understand: "Since they are bandits, we commoners can't afford to provoke them, why doesn't Mr. Liu pretend not to know, forget about grabbing medicine for them, why do you still provoke such a dangerous thing?"
Liu Ren solemnly said: "According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, treating a bandit's injuries is a crime of fornication and rebellion, and the crime should be beheaded. If the bandit is caught in the future, and it is confessed that Derentang treated their wounds and took medicine for them, Derentang will inevitably suffer unjust injustice. Instead of suffering injustice in the future, it is better to remove the bandit, first, to avoid future troubles, and second, to eliminate harm for people. Third, the government will not pursue the crime of fornication. Why not?"
When Sun Shaozu heard this, he seemed to have been enlightened. He was both grateful and ashamed in his heart. He couldn't help but clasp his fists and bow to Liu Ren and say, "Mr. Liu is very kind, and my Sun family will never forget him. Mr. Liu was so clever in the face of the evil bandits that he captured the bandits with a few herbs. What a genius.
Later, Sun Shaozu graciously hired Liu Ren as the head shopkeeper of Derentang. Derentang's business was more prosperous than before, and the business had been done all over Nanyang. And Sun Shaozu often taught his children and grandchildren: "Things in this world are often not like what we see on the surface, and sometimes what we see is not necessarily true. When you encounter something, you have to think thrice before acting, and you can't make a conclusion lightly!"