It's the busy farming season, and we have a lot of land. Without the ox, we don't know if we can finish the work. We absolutely can't just give up like this.
“No matter what, the cow was lost in your hands,” Old Yang said seriously, “you all deserve an explanation.”
“We don’t intend to renege on our debt,” Qin’s father said with a pained expression. “We are prepared to pay compensation.”
Upon hearing this, the Yang brothers' anger subsided somewhat.
As long as they don't intend to default on their debts, that's fine.
Since they didn't lose the cow on purpose, and they aren't unreasonable people.
After thinking for a moment, Old Yang said directly, "This ox cost twenty-two taels when it was bought. It was only a little over a year old at the time. It has been fed for five years and is now in its prime. In addition, it is spring plowing now, so I won't ask you for more. Thirty taels. Once you pay, this matter will be over."
Yang felt that he really hadn't asked for more.
A cow of this age is at its prime for work, and you can't buy one for less than twenty-five taels. Now that it's the busy farming season, every household needs a cow, so the price is one or two twenties higher than usual. It's still the kind of precious item that you can't necessarily buy even if you have money.
He felt he hadn't asked for much, but the Qin father and son didn't think so.
"Thirty taels? You're robbing me!" Old Qin exclaimed incredulously.
A cow weighs at most twenty-five or twenty-six taels, why would it need to weigh thirty taels?
“It’s fine if you don’t take the money,” Old Yang’s face darkened. “You can go to town tomorrow and buy a strong ox to bring back.”
“You’re making things difficult for us,” Old Qin said, his face turning sour. “It’s busy farming season now, all the cattle have already been sold, where are we going to buy any more?”
Besides, we don't have that much money at home!
"This won't do, that won't do," Yang Lao Er said bluntly. "Are you trying to renege on your debt?"
"No, absolutely not," Qin's father quickly interjected, sensing that the Yang brothers were about to lose their temper. "How about this, we'll buy the cow in a while and return it to you immediately."
"Old Qin, are you joking?" Hearing this shameless remark, Old Yang laughed heartily. "Now is the time to use oxen. Do you think it would be more appropriate to give them oxen later?"
I initially thought it was kind of Qin family not to renege on their debt, but now it seems they are clearly shameless.
They didn't ask for more than thirty taels of silver, yet these people still wanted to haggle. Were they just too easy to talk to?
“That’s right,” Yang Lao Er immediately chimed in, “Brother, don’t waste your breath on them. If all else fails, we’ll just report it to the authorities. Anyway, the ox is already registered with the county government. It’s gone for no reason, so the Qin family can’t escape it.”
These words were spoken by Yang Lao Er to deliberately scare the Qin family father and son.
After all, although the ox was lost, there were extenuating circumstances, and the government would not punish the Qin family for it.
"Report to the authorities! No!" Old Qin cried out in fear. "We'll compensate, we'll compensate, that's not enough, Dad, please say something!"
If the authorities find out, the entire Qin family will be implicated, and people in the village will surely laugh at them.
He had always felt that his family had been too high-profile lately and that people hated them, but he thought that there was still a long way to go and he could just tone it down in the future. Who knew that the accident would happen so quickly.
I was careless after all!
“Yes, we’ll compensate you,” Qin’s father said, taking out all thirteen taels of silver and handing it to Yang the eldest.
"Why is it so little?" Boss Yang asked, frowning. "This is less than half the money."
"This is all the silver we have at home," Qin's father said, feeling bitter after handing over the money. "We'll try our best to raise the rest and pay you back right away."
"When is 'soon'?" Yang Lao Er didn't believe Qin's father's excuse at all. "What if you can't raise the money and just never pay it back?"
"No, no, it definitely won't be more than a month."
“No way,” Old Yang refused outright. “We’re going to take the money to the county town to buy cattle. We can’t wait that long. Three days, three days at most. If you can’t raise the money, don’t worry about us brothers being ungrateful.”
"Three days is too short, how about ten days?"
"Don't act innocent after getting a good deal," Yang Lao Er said unhappily. "The family needs an ox to pull the plow. We're already being lenient by not blaming you for wasting time, but you're still trying to delay. That's just too much."
Yang Lao Er was unwilling to give the Qin family even three days; his family had too much land and couldn't afford to waste any more time.
However, the Qin family didn't do this on purpose, and they can't go too far. Giving them some buffer time is very necessary.
This is the perfect time to prepare the fields for planting crops, as land sells very well, and three days is more than enough time.
“That’s right, only three days,” Boss Yang warned. “If you don’t have the money ready in three days, don’t blame us for tearing your house down.”
After saying that, he left with his men, completely ignoring the dark faces of the Qin father and son.
After seeing the Yang brothers off, the two returned to the hall and recounted what had happened.
Upon learning that her family was burdened with a debt of seventeen taels of silver, Qin's mother flew into a rage, "How could you be so stupid? You gave the Yang family whatever amount they wanted. Thirty taels? What kind of cow is so expensive? You're clearly trying to extort money."
"So what if it is?" Qin's father sighed. "What can we do?"
Having committed a crime and having no way to buy cattle, they could only lose money.
"The Huang family has two cows, why don't we take theirs as collateral first?"
"Are you crazy?" Mr. Qin looked at Mrs. Qin incredulously. "We've been trying to avoid and pressure the Huang family by treating Nizi like this, and you still want to get involved!"
“That’s right,” Qin Lao Er chimed in. “Let’s not even talk about whether the Huang family will give it to us. What if they get suspicious and ask us for the people? We can’t afford to offend the Huang family right now.”
If it weren't for the allure of wealth, Qin Lao Er felt he would never have betrayed his sister in his entire life.
It wasn't out of conscience, but because they dared not offend the Huang family.
They used to be so arrogant because they were dirt poor and had nothing to be afraid of. But their methods were no match for the Huang family. If the Huang family came looking for them with the villagers, the clan would punish them to prevent the two villages from becoming enemies.
"Then what should we do? Sell the land?"
“We can’t work too hard,” Qin the eldest retorted. “Mother, we don’t have much land to begin with, and selling two more acres would mean even less. Besides, if we sell now, it will be difficult to buy it back later.”
“That’s what I mean too,” Qin’s father nodded and said. “The family is just temporarily short of money. Things will be fine in a few days. Nizi can earn one or two taels a day. It’s just a matter of ten days or so.”
“That makes sense, but the Yang family won’t wait for us,” Qin Lao Er said, spreading his hands. “If we can’t raise the money in three days, the Yang family won’t be so easy to deal with.”
"How about borrowing money?" Qin suggested. "Let's borrow some money first, and pay it back when we have the money."
"Brother, you must be joking. Seventeen taels of silver, who can come up with such a large sum of money? Even if they could, they wouldn't be willing to lend it to us."
Qin Lao Er knew very well that his family had a bad reputation in Qin Family Village. They would be polite to each other, but lending money was simply impossible.
"We can't borrow money or sell land, what else can we do?" Old Qin slumped dejectedly in his chair. "We can't just wait for the Yang family to tear our house down, can we?"
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