Chen Zhuang urged anxiously, "Are five or six too many? Our family is in a different situation from Chen Yi's. Can we afford to feed so many more people?"
Xu glared at him unhappily. "Five or six are not too many? Our family has so much land now. We have to work hard every year to finish it. Look, your body is almost broken. What's the point of making money if you don't have a life to spend it!
I have thought it through. I will see what the situation is tomorrow. If there are men who can work in the fields, I will buy two to replace them in doing farm work. I will also buy a woman to cook and clean for the house. This way, my daughter-in-law doesn't have to take care of the house after finishing her work outside.
Also, I think the children that Xiaotai bought for Yuezhang and the others are good. They are obedient, sensible and have good sense. We can also buy a few of them and use them as servants now. If the girl is good, our grandson may also like her and marry her in the future.
They can also help with work and earn money, and they won’t be eating for free, so we won’t lose out anyway.”
After listening to Xu's plan, Su Tai gave her a thumbs up and said, "Second Aunt is indeed Second Aunt. This is a really good idea! However, most of the people who are willing to sell themselves in Qiongzi are orphans and widows. Usually, few people will buy the elderly. The ones brought here tomorrow should be orphans and women.
You guys should open your eyes and see, as long as the person is nice, it doesn’t matter even if he or she brings a baby, you can still earn gratitude from him or her if you buy something for him or her.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Liang said to Shen Zhuang, “Dad, since my cousin’s wife and my mother have made their plans, we just need to listen.”
The other side.
When Yu Xinghai's wife saw the silver, she couldn't help but whispered to Yu Xinghai, "I saw it all today. The things Yu Mei wore were not available here, and they were clean and tidy. She was prettier than the belle in our village. She didn't look like she used to be.
You think selling yourself into slavery is so good? I'm tempted!"
Yu Xinghai rolled his eyes in annoyance, "If it's really that good, why aren't people scrambling to sell themselves? The reason why Yu Mei and the others are living well is because they followed the right master. Not everyone has such good luck!
Besides, you see she is living well now, but it may not be the same in the future. What if something happens to the master's family, what will they do? You only see the good things and don't think about the others!"
Yu Xinghai's wife curled her lips and said, "I don't have much experience, why are you angry with me?"
Early the next morning.
The village chiefs of several nearby villages came with their people.
There are more than a dozen people in almost every village, all women and children, both big and small. The oldest woman is about thirty-five years old, and the youngest is only eighteen or nineteen.
Although she is still as young as a flower, she has been worn away by time and has lost her vitality.
Several village chiefs and villagers could not speak Langya dialect, so Yu Xinghai had to act as an interpreter.
With Yu Xinghai's introduction, Su Tai and his team learned about the situation of these women and children.
Yesterday, Xu was still excitedly looking forward to buying someone today.
At this moment, he felt so sad that tears were about to fall. He wished he were the richest man in the world so that he could buy all these poor people.
Su Tai had the experience from last time, so she was calmer. She looked at their eyes and reactions one by one and selected more than thirty people.
The remaining people gave one or two taels of silver to the village chief and asked him to take them back.
One of the girls, about 12 or 13 years old, protested in dissatisfaction, "Why do you want me to go back? She was the one who said she wanted to buy someone, why didn't she choose me?"
Yu Xinghai's face darkened instantly, and he looked coldly at the old village chief who brought the little girl over. "Have you forgotten what I told you? People like this have nothing to do with being honest!"
The old village chief turned pale and kept bending over to apologize, "I'm sorry, it was she who said she wanted to sell herself and said she would be obedient. She is the best-looking girl in our village, and I thought you would like her, so I brought her along."
Yu Xinghai frowned, "Why don't you get rid of them quickly? Don't anger the nobleman, or he will take away all the fishing boats in your village!"
The old village chief was shocked and quickly knelt down and kowtowed to Su Tai and begged.
Su Tai didn't understand a word he said, "Village Chief Yu, what is he doing?"
Yu Xinghai hurried over to explain, “Mrs. Shen, he took the initiative to bring the girl who didn’t meet the requirements here. He was afraid that you would be angry, so he begged for mercy.”
Su Tai waved her hand and said, "I'm not angry, just take me away."
"Mrs. Shen is kind, I'll go and tell her right away." Yu Xinghai winked at his wife and several women in the village.
Then he whispered a few words to the old village chief.
The old village chief was as if pardoned. He got up from the ground and scolded the girl.
The little girl was very unconvinced and refused to leave. Finally, she was dragged out of the village by Yu Xinghai's wives.
Listen to the girl's angry shouts gradually fade away.
Yu Xinghai looked very unhappy, and turned to apologize to Su Tai, "Madam Shen, that child must be too careless. He didn't want to stay in the fishing village, so he used sweet words to coax the village chief. When people get old, their brains tend to be confused. Please forgive me, Madam Shen."
Su Tai didn't care. "That's it. These people will stay in your village today. We will leave early tomorrow morning."
Ruan Haizhu, who was driven out of Xiaogang Village, returned to the village with a lot of anger.
Her parents didn't expect their daughter to come back, and the smiles on their faces disappeared.
"You stupid girl, didn't you say you were willing to sell yourself? Why did you come back?" Ruan's mother looked at Ruan Haizhu with such a look that she wanted to kick her out with a broom.
Ruan Haizhu was so angry that she cried, "Do you think I don't want to sell my body? It's just that people don't like me at all! And you still blame me!"
Ruan's father and mother looked at each other in surprise and were furious. "Why do they look down on you? How are you inferior to those widows and bastards? No, I have to ask the village chief. I have to force you in even if I have to!"
The Ruan family raised four daughters, each of whom was good-looking, but they developed a proud and arrogant personality.
Ruan's father and mother originally wanted to get a high bride price by marrying off their daughter, but their place is poor and there are not many families willing to spend a lot of money to marry a daughter-in-law.
The eldest daughter's marriage gift was only 800 wen, the second daughter's was the same amount, but when it came to the third daughter, no one was willing to spend 800 wen, so in the end she was married off for 660 wen.
Ruan Haizhu didn't want to become as cheap as her sister. After all, she was the best looking among the sisters.
But she also knew that in such a small place, no matter how good-looking she was, she would never be able to make a name for herself.
When she heard yesterday that a noble from Langya Kingdom was coming to buy a servant, she immediately became interested and discussed it with her parents. They also felt that it would be better for their daughter to sell herself.
After all, they could get two taels of silver by selling their daughters, which was almost enough to cover the dowry for marrying off their three daughters.
Ever since their daughter was taken away, the couple had been looking forward to the two taels of silver coming into the house. However, instead of seeing the silver, their daughter came back!
Ruan's mother came to the old village chief's house in anger and started to make a scene as soon as she entered the door, "Village chief, it was you who said that the nobleman wanted to buy the servant. My daughter worked so hard to come here, why do they just say no? How can they bully me like this?" (End of this chapter)
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