Cotton shoes made by veteran shoemaker Zhou Licheng cost sixty-eight a pair, with the promise 'if it breaks, it's on me.' However, Chen Guangli across the way sold his for thirty-nine point nine with a buy-two-get-one-free deal, snatching away the business, the cleaning company's order, and even failing to protect the shop Lao Zhou had guarded for twenty years. After a freezing rain, Lao Duan, wearing the new shoes, fell and fractured a bone, while Lao Zhou's earlier warning was dismissed as jealousy of a peer. Facing buck-passing and suppression, he pursued the matter to the end with the broken sole and inspection report. From being disliked for being expensive to regaining trust, Zhou Licheng proved with a pair of shoes that prices can be pushed down, but a person's conscience cannot shrink along with it.