Chapter 28
The young man inside the carriage smiled gently.
The bamboo-embroidered carriage curtain was lifted, and the young man smiled and glanced at her, "Miss, you want to compensate me fifty strings of cash? That's quite a generous offer."
Seeing that he was a handsome young man, not the kind of unreasonable person who would try to extort money, Zhuang Yan breathed a sigh of relief and added, "I didn't know the market price. How much money do you think I should pay, sir?"
Half of the carriage had collapsed, and it was parked crookedly by the roadside. The young man was accompanied only by a coachman and a servant, whose faces were unfamiliar, and it was unclear which family's young master he was.
When the coachman from Zhuang Yan's household who had bumped into Zhu Zijin's carriage heard about the fifty strings of cash, his eyes widened in shock, almost popping out of their sockets.
Fifty strings of cash—that's more than an average family earns in a year.
The compensation for today's accident will definitely be deducted from his monthly salary. The chubby driver trembled slightly. He had elderly parents and young children to support. If his monthly salary was cut off, how would he support his family?
"Two strings!"
The driver's lips trembled as he suddenly opened his mouth, his eyes sweeping across the faces of his two masters, Zhu Zijin and Zhuang Yan, before forcing himself to lower his voice: "It's like this, only half of the wheel is damaged. Find a carpenter in the city to repair it, and it will cost at most two strings of cash."
Zhuang Yan remained silent. She had not yet become involved in household affairs and only knew about the prices of cloth and gold and silver in Anyang City; she was unaware of other matters.
This silent reaction, in the eyes of others, means tacit agreement.
The coachman following Zhu Zijin looked fierce and had a muscular build. Perhaps the journey from Jijing was too difficult, and he was just about to rest after entering the city when this incident happened. He must be furious.
Hearing this, he pursed his lips and said coldly, "What nonsense are you spouting? The carriage is half smashed to pieces, and you think you can just send them away with two strings of cash?"
Beneath the thin brown summer shirt were bulging, muscular arms; one punch from them could probably kill a person.
The driver swallowed hard, feeling short of breath and unable to catch his breath. His once straight back was suddenly pressed down by some pressure, causing it to hunch slightly.
Even for just two or three strings of cash, he had to risk it all. He wiped the sweat from his brow, his face flushed, and said, "You're obviously from out of town! You don't know the going rates here. This is how prices are in Anyang!"
After saying that, looking at the driver's blank face, he thought to himself that such a person was arrogant and not afraid of ordinary people, but would certainly respect officials.
With a sudden thought, the driver took a deep breath and hardened his tone: "You're new to Anyang, you probably don't want to offend the Prefect of Anyang, do you? Our Zhuang family and the Wen family are old friends—"
Bullying others by abusing one's power?
The coachman beside Zhu Zijin spat out a mouthful of saliva. Let alone Anyang, who in the entire capital would dare to make things difficult for the young master protected by the Pei and Zhu families?
"Are you looking for death?!" the driver roared, rolling up his sleeves to demand an explanation.
"Enough!"
Zhuang Yan shouted sharply to stop them. In the tense atmosphere, a soft female voice suddenly appeared, stopping both sides from acting.
This usually introverted and quiet girl rarely lost her temper, and her tone left no room for argument: "The farmers pay you to do things, do they expect you to be competitive and bully good people outside?"
The sound wasn't loud, but Zhu Zijin and the others could hear it.
The latter was already slightly surprised when the coachman said that the Zhuang family and the Wen family were old friends.
According to unreliable internal sources, his uncle should have been in the Wen residence at that time.
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