Chapter 165
Tao Tao put away the medicine in her hand, her movements slowing as she heard the sound, thinking about what to say.
"I had to go out on some business. I was thinking of opening a branch in Suizhou or something."
"Tao'er, you're amazing! You've opened branches all the way outside the capital, while I'm still stuck with this tiny pork shop."
Tu Miaoling looked up at her, her eyes sparkling, her face full of envy and happiness for her.
She forced a smile, took off the gray purse from her waist, took out all the money, and stuffed it into Tu Miaoling's hand.
"This is all I have right now, you can have it all."
Tu Miaoling looked at the silver coins in her hand, and suddenly her eyes became moist. She smiled slightly.
"Thank you, Tao'er. I will definitely pay you back." Her voice choked slightly as she spoke.
Seeing her like that, Tao Tao took a deep breath helplessly and instructed, "You're not allowed to give this money to that bastard, understand?"
"How can someone so handsome be called a bastard?" she muttered to herself.
"I'm really fed up with you," Tao Tao said with exasperation, then quickly added, "By the way, how much money do you owe outside? So much that you mortgaged your house."
"It's not much, I'll pay it off soon."
When asked, she wouldn't answer, instead changing the subject and insisting that it wasn't much. But how much is "not much" anyway?
Tao Tao frowned: "Don't say anything else, just tell me how much you owe. Don't beat around the bush, and don't try to... deceive me. Since you want to borrow money from me, shouldn't I know how much you owe?"
Seeing that she couldn't avoid it, Tu Miaoling exclaimed and had no choice but to grit her teeth and raise her hand to show a number.
She frowned and asked suspiciously, "Fifty taels?"
Tu Miaoling didn't speak, keeping her head down and refusing to look at her.
Tao Tao suddenly had a bad feeling and exclaimed, "Five hundred taels?!"
Hearing the sound, she buried her head even deeper.
"You...I...you..." Tao Tao didn't know what to say for a long time. Even now, five hundred taels of silver was not something she could easily come up with.
She said that Tu Miaoling's house wasn't even worth five hundred taels of silver, so what did she do to spend five hundred taels of silver?
This amount of money is enough for an ordinary family to live on for ten lifetimes, and there would even be money left over. So, did she go to borrow money from loan sharks?
She calmed down and asked, "Who did you borrow the money from?"
Tu Miaoling looked up at her, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Her throat was dry, and she said with difficulty, "First, I lent money to Wan Guirong. At that time, I didn't borrow much, only ten taels of silver. Later, I didn't repay it on time, and the interest compounded to fifty taels."
“I used the family’s money to pay off the debt, but my father found out and wouldn’t let me touch the family’s pig slaughtering business. Just then, Qinglin wrote to me saying he was short of money, otherwise he would have to entertain customers. There was no other way, Wan Guirong’s interest rate was too high.”
“I was thinking of using the property deed to pawn some money for emergencies, but I didn’t have the funds. The repayment date was fast approaching, so in a panic, I went to the Five Fortune Casino to see if I could win some money back.”
"As a result, I kept losing more and more, and now I have a lot of debt, which I don't know why it turned into five hundred taels."
In the end, she couldn't help but cry. At first, she cried softly, but after being comforted by Tao Tao, she suddenly cried loudly and wailed like a child.
"It's okay, it's okay, don't cry... What are you afraid of with me here? We'll figure something out together."
Tao Tao stepped forward and hugged her, patting her back.
She looked down at Tu Miaoling's heartbroken expression, frowned, and felt that something was amiss.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt it might be some kind of elaborate scheme, with one thing leading to another, all aimed at making her owe even more money.
She took out a handkerchief and handed it to Tu Miaoling, "Look at you, you're crying your eyes out, quickly wipe your tears."
"Waaaaah...Are you disgusted with me...disgusted...disgusted that I'm useless, disgusted that I'm stupid, but I really didn't...I didn't mean it...waaaah..."
"I'm really doomed... So much money... I'll never be able to pay it back in my lifetime..."
Tu Miaoling took the handkerchief from her hand and cried as she blew her nose.
They looked both pitiful and funny.
"Alright! Stop crying, it's not a big deal! What's the use of crying? The most important thing right now is to pay back the money, don't think about anything else, especially that Qinglin guy."
Seeing that she wouldn't stop, Tao Tao couldn't help but scold her to bring her to her senses.
Tu Miaoling was stunned by her reprimand and stared blankly at her, her hair disheveled and her face covered in tears, clearly in a bad mental state.
Tao Tao was also helpless. She didn't expect that she would be tricked like this after only a few days of not contacting her.
That Qinglin was definitely plotting against her with others. She didn't believe there was such a coincidence. Suddenly, everything rushed towards Tu Miaoling.
But Qinglin is one of the top courtesans at Chufeng Pavilion, so she shouldn't be short of money. Moreover, most of the people at Chufeng Pavilion are of low social status. Even if they leave there, how can they make a living?
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Come out and eat! What are you hiding for? Do you think hiding will erase all the shameful things you've done?!"
Boss Tu was cursing and swearing outside, but he was a typical softie with a sharp tongue when it came to his daughter. Tu Miaoling was no less aggressive towards him; they both had fiery tempers. If Tu Miaoling hadn't really been unable to clean up this mess, they would have definitely argued back and forth without any hesitation.
In short, the two are in a love-hate relationship.
Tu Miaoling was standing on one leg, about to limp to open the door, when Tao Tao couldn't bear to watch and stepped forward to open it.
When Boss Tu saw her, he paused for a moment, then sighed heavily in frustration, feeling utterly helpless, and turned to leave.
"Uncle Tu, I'll be going now. I've already applied medicine to her foot."
"Let's have dinner together! Don't blame me for my attitude towards you just now. It's just that my stupid daughter is too stupid. She's been completely fooled by a pretty boy."
Just as Tao Tao was about to leave, she turned around and asked, "I heard you say before that you saw that person come to see her, is that right?"
He frowned. "Yeah, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, I was just asking." Then she turned and went inside.
"Miaoling, have you met with him privately before?"
Tu Miaoling shook her head: "He said he was very strict. I met with his servant before, but he wrote to me saying he wanted to meet with me."
"Show me those letters."
She nodded quickly, went to the dressing table to get a box, opened it herself, looked inside, and then hesitantly handed it to Tao Tao.
Tao Tao was surprised to see a box full of letters, wondering if the two of them were truly in love.
But Qing Lin is really quite free. Isn't he best at dancing? It seems he still doesn't have enough customers.
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