Wu Ziya was very thirsty after talking for a while. She picked up the tea, took a sip, and looked at everyone.
Lu Yan was speechless. What could he say? His wife had been responsible for preparing the festival gifts for his father-in-law's family. He had completely lost face today and was too embarrassed to speak.
But the craftsmen had something to say: "You have money to prepare festival gifts for this one and that one, but you have no money for us?"
"Yes! Take the silver!"
"We have to celebrate the festival too! We have to give gifts too!"
Wu Ziya didn't even look at the craftsmen, but only stared at Lu Yan and asked, "My Lord, these craftsmen are building houses for the young ladies in the mansion. Who should get the money? Just tell me, I won't say no."
Lu Yan turned his head. From his angle, he could just see Wu Ziya behind the screen. She smiled gently and virtuously, and looked like she put her husband first. But it was this smile that prevented him from asking to take the money from Wu Ziya.
The craftsmen don't care about this:
“Whoever of you takes the money, give us what is ours.”
"Why don't you just sell one of the rare antiques in your warehouse? Why are you making things so difficult?"
Lu Yan came back to his senses and said in a deep voice, "I'll send someone to get the silver. Please wait a moment."
Of course there was no silver. Lu Yan had looked at the accounts and found that there were only three to five hundred taels of silver in the account. The mansion needed daily expenses for the holidays, so they couldn't just leave the money like that.
Since the silver could not be moved, he had to think of other ways. Just as the craftsmen said, Lu Yan asked the housekeeper to go to the warehouse and take out two rare antiques to pawn. It was New Year's Day, so only the pawnshop would be open.
Since he wanted to pawn something, he naturally had to choose something valuable. Lu Yan went over to select it personally.
Wu Ziya was a woman in the inner palace, so it was naturally not appropriate for her to stay here with a few strange men. As soon as Lu Yan left, she immediately stood up and wanted to leave.
The craftsmen refused to do so and hurried forward to stop the people:
"Don't go!"
"I haven't paid you the money yet, what's the point of you leaving?"
"Are we going to be left here hanging?"
Wu Ziya was startled and quickly stepped back. The maids and servants surrounded her. The servant who was waiting outside the door also hurried in to stop the craftsmen:
"Back off!"
The craftsmen were angry and aggrieved: "You rich people are just playing with us like this? You haven't paid us yet, and now you're leaving us here. Are you planning to leave us here until dark, until we can't afford it anymore, and then just leave us on our own? Don't even think about it!"
"Right! Don't even think about it! The worst that can happen is we'll just crash into a wall and die here!"
The craftsmen were extremely angry. They had done work for many wealthy families and had never been owed money. They would get paid upon completion of the work. However, the Pingyang Marquis' Mansion delayed the payment for several months, from the twelfth lunar month to the New Year!
Who would want to come and collect debts during the Lunar New Year if they hadn't had to? Before the Lunar New Year, not to mention the gifts from their families, they also paid their employees' wages with all their might. In previous years, they even made two sets of clothes for their apprentices and gave them some gifts. This year, they didn't even give them clothes, just some gifts. How shameful!
Wu Ziya hid behind the crowd, shielding her face with a fan, and said, "The Marquis said he would give it to everyone, so he will definitely give it to everyone. I don't know if you have eaten yet, I will have someone prepare a table of wine and food for you. After you finish eating, they will be back."
Wu Ziya spoke in a soft voice and was very pleasant to the ear, but the craftsmen had been teased for a month and did not believe her at all.
"We don't believe you! Where are you going to get the silver? Either let us follow you, or stay here! Stay with us!"
Wu Ziya's face was grim, tears welling up in her eyes. She fought back the tears and sat back behind the screen. "Then I'll stay here. Someone, serve the food."
The wet nurse felt sorry for the child she had raised and was afraid that she would suffer any harm, so she quickly asked someone to call some servants in to watch the front and back doors, for fear that these craftsmen would suddenly attack and hurt someone.
The food and wine were served quickly. Even the food and wine in the Marquis' Mansion, even if it was for the servants, was very decent.
The craftsmen were starving. When they saw the food, they looked at each other and said, "Let's eat first!"
I didn't drink a sip of the wine, and the food was so clean.
After eating and drinking, the butler came with silver.
Wu Ziya saw that only the butler was there and frowned, "Where is the Marquis?"
"The Marquis has been called away by the Fourth Prince." The butler saluted Wu Ziya behind the screen.
Wu Ziya nodded and raised her hand, saying, "If that's the case, give me all the money first."
"yes."
The housekeeper gave each family the silver according to the bill, and then gave the pawn ticket and the remaining silver to Wu Ziya: "Madam, this is the remaining silver. The marquis said to keep it for family expenses."
Wu Ziya looked at the pawn ticket, then counted the banknotes, and sighed softly. A famous painting by a great man of the past dynasty, two rare antiques, this is really...
Wu Ziya didn't know if she would have the chance to redeem these things in the future, so she just gave the things to the wet nurse to keep and got up to leave.
Even though the item has a pawn ticket and you know you will come back to redeem it, you won’t just leave the item in the pawn shop.
In less than half an hour, the three things were placed in front of Qin Wan.
"This is……"
Qin Wan looked at her third uncle Qin Bai in surprise, then looked at the three items. She had been the head of the Marquisate for eight years, so of course she recognized them. "Third Uncle, it's New Year's Eve, and the Pingyang Marquisate is in trouble, right?"
Qin Bai lifted his skirt and sat down opposite Qin Wan, saying with a smile, "Three items, a total of three thousand taels of silver. This painting is the most valuable. I'll give it to you first."
"But what if they redeem it?" Qin Wan asked. Although she liked the painting, if the other party came back to redeem it and the pawnshop couldn't pay for it, wouldn't that ruin its reputation?
Qin Bai's face was filled with confidence. "Once you start pawning things, you have no choice but to keep doing it. Pawning something alive will slowly turn it into pawning something dead. Just keep it. If they come to redeem it, I'll ask you for it. I still trust you."
"Then I'll enjoy it for a few days." Qin Wan immediately had the two antiques taken away and unfolded the painting to look at it carefully.
Seeing Qin Wan's delight, Qin Bai took the opportunity to ask, "Wan'er, Uncle San heard you got something new? Come, show it to Uncle San."
Qin Wan asked someone to bring the things over and said with a smile, "It's also freshly made."
It is a cylindrical object less than a foot long. When the lids on both ends are opened, the two sides of the crystal clear glass are revealed.
Qin Bai put the thing in front of his eyes, took a look, and quickly put it away: "Hey, why can't I see anything?"
Qin Wan smiled and said, "This is called a telescope. If you look far away, if you look close, everything will be magnified. Isn't there nothing?"
Qin Bai didn't understand: "What do you mean by magnification? What do you mean by telescope? What mirror? Shouldn't a mirror reflect people?"
Qin Wan handed him a magnifying glass and moved the painting closer to him: "Take a look."
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