Old Ding was annoyed by the smell of urine in the room. He didn't think he treated Meng too badly. Compared with Meng's cruelty, he felt that he was not even one tenth as cruel as her!
He ordered the eldest brother and his companions to move Meng to the firewood room, and asked the eldest brother's wife Liu to change the mattress on his bed. The eldest brother hesitated and said, "The old man in the side courtyard..." He swallowed the "fourth" in the fourth brother's name in time and changed his words, "There is an empty room in the side courtyard. Why don't we move there for the time being?"
Old Ding was furious. "I'm not even dead yet, and you can't wait to be my boss? From now on, you'll have the final say in this family."
The eldest brother shrank his neck and didn't dare to say anything else. He hurriedly asked the second and third brothers to go to the firewood shed to clean up first. The three brothers used two long benches to build a door panel, and then covered it with dry straw to make a bed for Meng, and then moved Meng over.
Meng had never dreamed she would end up like this. She clutched her eldest son's hand and wept bitterly, her tears making him heartbroken. But he didn't dare disobey Old Ding, so he called over Liu and had the third son call Gao, asking them to change Meng's dirty pants.
Liu and Gao were extremely annoyed, but they didn't dare to lose their temper in front of their men. However, their faces were unhappy, and they were very aggressive, which made Meng so angry that she started to curse.
After all, she was still their mother-in-law, and she was used to bullying them. She stretched out her hands and pinched them with all her might, cursing through gritted teeth, "When I get better, I'll skin you alive!"
Liu and Gao felt pain, but they didn't dare to get angry in front of the eldest and third brothers. However, they didn't want to get close to her either. They just put her pants on without pulling them up, covered her with the quilt, and left.
Meng was so angry that she started cursing, and her curses turned to Jian Ning. If it weren't for Jian Ning, how could she have ended up like this, and how could she have made Old Ding hate her so much!
The older brothers, unwilling to listen to her scolding, rushed to Old Ding's place to discuss the matter of the fifth son. Mrs. Meng again shouted at Ding Gui and Ding Quan, her two favorite grandsons, but how could Mrs. Gao allow them to visit her in the firewood hut? Not only did she not allow them to go, she also spat at them fiercely, wishing that Old Mrs. Meng would die in the firewood hut as soon as possible so that she could be rid of this big trouble.
Mrs. Meng cried out to heaven and earth in the firewood hut, but no one answered her call. She could only curse Jian Ning over and over again.
At this time, the old house of the Ding family was peaceful. Jian Ning and Meixiang were making dumplings. While making dumplings, she told Ma Xiaomai and the four little ones the story of Journey to the West, and Ding Youtian was taking notes.
In the yard, the group brought by Huo Jincheng sat in a row on the corridor, listening attentively to Jian Ning's story of Journey to the West; Ma Fuquan and Yang Jinyu were playing Liubo, Tian and Ding Yang and Ding Jian were still brewing wine, and Chang was in the kitchen making sobering soup for Blind Liu.
Huo Jincheng chatted with Xiao Shi in the east room. After a while, Xiao Shi felt tired, so he told him to get some sleep. Then he got up and prepared to go to the courtyard to watch Ma Fuquan and the others play chess. As he passed by Ding Youtian's desk, he had an idea and went to Jian Ning's room.
"Brother Ding, could you lend me your pen, ink, paper, and inkstone? I want to write a letter to my father."
Ding Youtian didn't even raise his head: "Use it."
Jian Ning glanced at him and said, "Pay the consultation fee first."
"That's right, a generous reward, you said it yourself." Ding Youtian then turned to look at him.
"I'm telling you two, can you please take a long-term view and stop talking about money all the time? Didn't I have to pay for the money your village spent on building glass houses, growing crops, and making lanterns? I've taken the lion's share, so I can't expect you to pay less."
As he finished speaking, Ah Man said, "Auntie, my father has no money left, and he said I'm going to be a beggar."
Dabao glanced at Ah Man and said, "You're still bragging. You even said you'd ask your father to send us a carriage."
Sanniu tugged at Ah Man: "You won't be a beggar. I can eat less and give you half."
The big girl nodded: "We will eat less and give you half, don't be afraid."
Erniu hesitated for a moment, then said, "I, I can give you some too."
"And us." Ma Xiaomai raised her hand and shouted.
"Yes!" The brothers Ma Xiaomi and Ma Xiaodou also raised their hands.
Ah Man looked at them and suddenly burst into tears. Huo Jincheng was so frightened that he rushed forward and hugged her. "Daddy was just joking with Ah Man. How could Daddy not have money? Daddy has plenty. If you don't believe me, just look..."
He took out a stack of banknotes from his pocket, feeling very guilty. He didn't expect that his unintentional words would make Ah Man really worried, so he hurriedly handed the stack of banknotes to her.
"Daddy won't let Man'er be a beggar. Daddy has plenty of money."
Ah Man burst into laughter, clutching a stack of banknotes tightly as she struggled to get off her father's body. She ran to Da Bao, waving the banknotes and saying loudly, "Look, Da Bao, I'm not bragging. My father has plenty of money. I can give each of you a carriage. Here, this one is for you, and this one is for..."
She happily distributed banknotes to everyone. Jane Ning looked at Huo Jincheng with a smile, and his face was almost rotten.
Damn it! Who told you to lie to the kids for no reason?
Jian Ning laughed, then wiped her hands with a handkerchief and took back all the banknotes Ah Man had distributed. "Ah Man, be good. You have to earn your own money and return it to your father. Otherwise, your father will faint in the toilet crying, and I won't have time to rescue him. Just return it to your father and ask him to give me the consultation fee."
"How much do you want?" Ah Man asked, tilting his head.
Jian Ning pinched her nose and said, "How much to give depends on your father's conscience. Give it to your father first. A child shouldn't have so much money in his hands."
Ah Man ran over and handed the banknote back to her father. Huo Jincheng put it in his arms and said, "I've already given the consultation fee to Jin Yu. Why didn't he give it to you?"
Ding Youtian said "Oh": "How much did you pay?"
Huo Jincheng turned to look at Yang Jinyu, who was playing chess, and sneered, "Five hundred taels, that's a lot of money, right?"
After he finished speaking, he went to the east room to write a secret letter to the prince.
After he finished writing, he called a clever attendant and sent him to deliver it to the capital overnight and hand it over to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
After the attendant received the order, he was about to go see if the dumplings were ready when Yang Jinyu rushed in. He grabbed his collar and dragged him outside. He slapped the 100 taels silver note he had given him earlier in his face and loudly questioned him, "Come on, tell me, is this 500 taels? Or do you, Master Huo, have the right to change the price from 100 taels to 500 taels? I didn't even know when you, Master Huo, became the Minister of Revenue and had such power!"
Jian Ning and Ding Youtian both came over. Huo Jincheng calmly pushed Yang Jinyu aside, straightened his clothes, and said calmly, "One hundred taels is for Madam Jian's consultation fee. The other four hundred taels..."
He turned his gaze to the energy-saving lamps hanging in the corridor. "These lanterns are extremely difficult to make. I spent a fortune on them. Jinyu pestered me to buy more than a dozen of them. I didn't expect to see them at Madam Jian's house today. I'm truly surprised that Jinyu was willing to give these lanterns to his master. Each lantern costs eighty taels of silver. I wonder if Madam Jian thinks these lanterns are worth four hundred taels?"
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