Niu Da stared at them coldly and said, "I've said it before, I only have one younger sister. I don't know where you came from." "Why don't we go to the clan chief and have a clear discussion about whether I should have broken the rules of Niushan Village for your sake!"
Chen Yu angrily slammed a laundry mallet against the doorframe: "If you want to establish a marriage alliance, we're not afraid to sue you for extortion! You keep talking about two hundred taels of silver, as if it grows on trees!"
Her tap, though not hitting Zhao Yiming, certainly startled him. Shen Yu was only twenty-six, considered a young wife, but she had grown up doing farm work and possessed considerable strength.
"If you don't get out, I'll beat you all out with this big stick!"
It wasn't that Chen Yu and Niu Da were unwilling to mediate for their two nephews. First, their family wasn't worth the Niu family's money for their tuition. Second, if this broke the rules for collecting tuition fees, and every married-out daughter who hadn't contributed to the construction got involved, then no family in Niushan Village could afford to support the hundreds of students in the clan school, including their food, drink, and the teachers' hard-earned money.
Little Fu Bao pulled out a small box from somewhere. The little boy, about the size of a radish head, looked up at the blind Niu Jinhua and said:
"Auntie, Auntie, here's twenty taels of silver, and three silver notes inside. Take them and give them to my eldest and second cousins! The rules of the clan school can't be broken, or my father will get scolded!"
Upon hearing that there were twenty taels of silver and one hundred and eighty taels of silver notes in the small box, Zhao Yiming's eyes lit up. He dropped the toothpick in his hand and jumped up.
Little did they know that their actions today were tantamount to poking a tiger in the nose with a straw.
When Zhao Yiming and his two sons opened the box, they indeed found it filled with gleaming silver and banknotes. Zhao Lei said:
"Father, so much silver!"
"We're rich! Son!"
The people present had different expressions. Xue Huaimin also took a sip of tea with a strange expression, watching the family of four make a fool of themselves.
Zhao Yiming and his family, however, were enjoying themselves and didn't notice anything amiss. The four of them drove off triumphantly in their rented oxcart. Zhao Si, driving the oxcart, watched as Zhao Yiming's family happily carried a small box, completely baffled.
Niu Jinhua touched the silver and banknotes in the box and said, "Master, I've never seen so much silver before!"
Zhao Si frowned slightly, then his eyes darted around and he said, "Yiming, it's not safe to keep this money at home. Why don't we deposit it in a money exchange?"
Zhao Yiming said, "It's not safe in the money exchange either!" But then he thought again, that scoundrel Zhao Si knows he got such a large sum of money, and he might be eyeing it too. Keeping it at home is even less safe, so he said:
"A money exchange is safer than home! Let's use a money deposit station!"
There are no money shops in Niushan Town, but there is one money shop.
When Zhao Yiming arrived at the money exchange, he shoved the box in his hand in front of the money exchange manager and said, "Manager, please deposit these two hundred taels of silver for us!"
The shopkeeper was an old man in his seventies. Although he was dressed decently, his eyesight was not very good. He was accompanied by a young man.
The shopkeeper opened the box and looked inside, saying:
"This is clearly not silver, it's a box of stones and paper!"
Zhao Yiming was startled and said, "Impossible! You must be seeing things, shopkeeper! This is clearly silver and banknotes!"
The young man said, "But these are clearly stones and white paper. My grandfather's eyesight is not so bad that he can't tell the difference between silver notes and stones and yellow paper!"
Zhao Yiming and his two sons rushed over to take a look, and sure enough, it was a box full of stones. They were furious. Zhao Lei pointed at the old shopkeeper's nose and cursed:
"You two must have stolen our silver!"
Zhao Lei and Zhao Yiming are father and son, and Zhao Lei's shamelessness surpasses even his father's. It's obviously impossible for him to secretly switch out the contents of this box in front of others.
Zhao Lei understood that his family had probably been blinded by the wind and mistook the box of stones for silver. Seeing that the money shop was unattended, they thought of using this as an excuse to extort two hundred taels of silver from the old shopkeeper and his grandson.
"You are being utterly unreasonable. You gentlemen, did you see it yourselves? Did they bring a box of stones and yellow paper to deceive my grandfather?"
The young man said.
Niu Jinhua shouted, "Nonsense! This is clearly a box of silver and banknotes. I've touched it; how could it be fake?"
"There's only one box of stones. It's hard to switch the stones and silver in one box. This family is just trying to swindle money from the shopkeeper because he's old and blind and there's hardly anyone watching the shop!"
Outsiders are unaware that this shop employs seven or eight strong and skilled thugs.
The old shopkeeper's face turned red with anger, and he said coldly:
"Though my eyesight is failing, my mind is not blind. I've eaten more salt in my life than you've walked roads. Throw them out!"
Suddenly, seven or eight burly men appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Zhao Yiming and his family, and threw them out. Coincidentally, two piles of hot feces were left on the street by stray dogs that appeared out of nowhere.
It must have been when Zhao Yiming's family was trying to extort money from the old shopkeeper that they pooped out. And coincidentally, Zhao Yiming and his son Zhao Lei were thrown onto that pile of dog poop by those four burly men, right in front of them.
This disgusted many passersby.
Several burly men stepped on the four men again, stomping on their hands and knuckles. The knuckles cracked, and the pain made Zhao Yiming and his family of four turn pale.
"Hero, spare my life! Hero!"
"Trying to extort money from our bank? Don't even look at who you are!" These eight men were all skilled fighters, with plenty of strength and skill. With each kick, the hands of the family of four were broken instantly!
Immediately, Zhao Yiming, Niu Jinhua, and Zhao Lei screamed in pain. Niu Jinhua cried out in a shrill voice, "My finger! It's murder! It's murder!"
Perhaps because those burly men saw that Zhao Yun was only a seven or eight-year-old child and her fingers hadn't been broken, they only said to Niu Jinhua, who was howling beside them:
"If you keep howling, I'll break your legs!"
Niu Jinhua immediately shut her mouth. These people were once wandering vagrants who intimidated the surrounding areas with their excellent martial arts skills.
Zhao Yiming and his family scrambled to their feet and fled in Zhao Si's carriage.
After the group got into Zhao Si's carriage and returned home, Zhao Si plopped down in front of Zhao Yiming's house as soon as they arrived.
Zhao Yiming said, "Didn't I already give you two coins?"
"Zhao Yiming, the car rental fee is fifty coins! Two coins? You're giving money to a beggar!"
"Fifty coins?" Zhao Yiming, forgetting all about wiping the dog excrement from his mouth, asked in astonishment, "Zhao Si, are you taking advantage of my misfortune?!"
"Who doesn't know that my oxcart, Zhao Si's, costs sixteen coins to go to town and back? I wasted a lot of time and business waiting for you, so you have to compensate me for that loss!" "Zhao Yiming, let me tell you, don't expect me to say anything nice!"
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