Chapter 369 You're the debt collector!
The snow, heavy as goose feathers, continued to fall without stopping, but inside Jiang Nuanzhi's two-story house, it was warm and cozy.
Li Rong sat at the table beside the bed, on which lay a pile of silver notes of various sizes. He frowned and once again rummaged through the package he had brought back.
"Hey, Li Rong, how many times have you counted this little bit of silver? Are you going to go to sleep or not?"
Chi Heng lay on the bed, idly shaking her sleeves, which had grown quite long, and asked, with a hint of unbearable frustration.
Li Rong ignored him completely, and instead took out another ten-tael silver note from the package, neatly placing it among the pile of silver notes he had just found. He frowned and said, "This man claims to be the nephew of the richest man in Jiangnan, but he only has a little over two hundred taels of silver on him. I've been trying to scrape together this for so long, and I still haven't managed to get fifteen hundred taels."
As he said this, his gaze turned to Chi Heng.
Chi Heng somehow understood the intention in his eyes, and immediately glared at him: "Why are you looking at me like that? I've given you all the money I have on me!"
As she said this, she was momentarily amused by Li Rong's words: "Why don't you examine your own conscience and ask yourself why you stole someone's money and then complained that it wasn't enough? How can you be like this?"
Li Rong frowned slightly, picked up the silver in his hand and waved it at Chi Heng: "Isn't that a lot? How am I supposed to give such a small amount to A Nuan?"
As she spoke, she let out a soft sigh, then carefully picked up the bills one by one and put them away: "Looking back on those days now, it feels like a dream. When I was spending money like water, Ah Nuan never spent a single day with me. When she met me, I was penniless, and we didn't even have a proper wedding ceremony. The dowry was only ten taels of silver. Besides, I was a cripple, and she cured me, but then I went out again. This big house, the children, and Uncle Xin—Ah Nuan took care of everything. Now I'm back, and all I have left is this little bit of silver... Sigh."
Chi Heng looked at his large frame, sitting there sorting through those few hundred taels of silver, and suddenly felt a tightness in her chest for no reason. Compared to the silver she had previously handled by the two of them, this thousand taels of silver really was nothing.
After all, even adding the previous two thousand taels, it would only amount to three thousand taels of silver, which is just the price of a good horse, and not even enough to buy a decent-looking courtyard in Kyoto. He simply went out to Tianfanglou for a cup of tea.
Chi Heng sighed repeatedly, glanced at him, and frowned, saying, "Why are you looking so dejected? Is it really worth it for such a small amount of money? Keep the money for yourself and don't send it away yet. I'll send you ten thousand taels of silver later so you can at least buy your sister-in-law some decent gifts. Besides, there's no wedding ceremony yet. We can have a grand wedding when we return to the capital."
"Ah Heng, it has to be you again!"
No sooner had Chi Heng finished speaking than Li Rong, who had been frowning, suddenly appeared in front of her with a big smile on his face.
"I told you, only you are my true brother! But please hurry, I'm in a rush."
Chi Heng's lips twitched: ".!"
Come and see! The God of War has gone shameless!
He even suspected that his earlier dejection was all an act, a trap set for him to fall into.
He took two deep breaths, telling himself to get used to it, and the next second, he reached out and said, "Give me fifty taels; I don't have a single tael left."
As he spoke, he went to get a fifty-tael silver note.
To everyone's surprise, the next second, Li Rong pocketed all the silver.
Chi Heng's eyes widened: "Hey, Li Rong, I already promised to give you ten thousand taels, can't you even give me fifty taels first?"
Li Rong frowned: "Aheng, what are you doing with the silver in the village?"
Chi Heng jumped out of bed: "I have to move around, right? I can't avoid giving tips!"
“There’s no need for tips. What time is it? Where would we get extra money to tip you?” Li Rong said, patting Chi Heng’s shoulder. “Aheng, believe me, you won’t need any money in the village.”
Chi Heng's lips twitched: "What about when I want to eat?"
Li Rong patted his chest and said, "When you come here, do you need to spend money? Just tell me what you want to eat. I'll ask your sister-in-law. Her food is guaranteed to be better than what you had at Tianxiang Pavilion in the capital. Don't you like instant noodles? I'll definitely find a way to get you some."
As he spoke, he stuffed all the money into his pocket.
Chi Heng was so angry she laughed: "Li Rong, I only realized today that you're the one who's collecting debts!"
Li Rong patted the silver coins on his chest, and the next second, his gaze suddenly sharpened, shooting towards the doorway.
Chi Heng also stood up abruptly, squinting as she looked outside. She silently uttered two words: "Someone's here."
Li Rong gently pushed the door open a crack, and the two quickly looked over. Sure enough, they saw two dark figures moving furtively toward Jiang Nuanzhi's door.
The two exchanged a glance, and the next second they flipped over and stepped forward.
Li Rong's hand was clamped around the neck of one of them.
Chi Heng's knee struck the back of another person's head.
"General, General, spare my life!"
The visitor suddenly exclaimed, and Li Rong turned to face the candlelight, frowning involuntarily.
"Zhang Xiaohu?"
"General, it's me."
At the same time, Chi Heng also saw the people clearly. They were all familiar faces, and he unconsciously let go of the people who came.
"What are you two doing here sneaking around in the middle of the night?"
The two men knelt on the ground, heads hanging low. They looked at each other and Zhang Xiaohu finally said, "General, well, we are actually...we are..." But he couldn't finish the sentence, as if he was too embarrassed to say it.
Li Rong: "Why are you stammering? Speak clearly if you have something to say."
Seeing that Li Rong's expression was not good, Zhang Xiaohu disregarded everything else and said with a forced smile, "General, we actually just want to pay our respects to Physician Jiang."
Upon hearing this, the soldier beside him nodded vigorously and added, "Yes, we live quite close by, and it's our first time meeting you in person, so we can't help but want to pay our respects. General, we really don't have any bad intentions."
The moment those words were spoken, the air seemed to freeze.
Zhang Xiaohu and Li Rong were so anxious that sweat was beading on their foreheads. In fact, fearing that Li Rong wouldn't believe him, Zhang Xiaohu took out the honeysuckle he had prepared in his pocket and said, "I still have honeysuckle with me."
Li Rong rubbed his temples in frustration and glanced at the two of them: "Do you know that such behavior will frighten Anuan?"
"General, we know we are guilty, please punish us."
Upon hearing Li Rong say that he had frightened Doctor Jiang, both of them immediately showed expressions of regret. They even seemed to avoid looking at Li Rong.
“Now that you are living under the same roof as Ah Nuan, she will naturally take care of you if you fall ill. Why bother with further prayers?”
Li Rong found it absurd. He glanced at the two idiots and waved his hand dismissively, "Go back to sleep. I don't want this to happen again."
"yes!"
Zhang Xiaohu and his companion only heard the first half of Li Rong's sentence. Even though they were being kicked out, they couldn't stop smiling. They apologized as they retreated.
Chi Heng was completely bewildered: "Hey, you're just letting them go like that?"
"You actually believe this nonsense about praying?"
Chi Heng looked at Li Rong as if he were an idiot: "Don't you suspect that these two are up to no good?"
"What normal person would come to pray to a doctor in the middle of the night?"
(End of this chapter)
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