Chapter 168 Chapter 168 Update.
The redemption price is usually ten times the purchase price, but Shopkeeper Hu wants thirty times.
"Old wife, where are we going to get three hundred taels? Poor Tiger Boy was tortured by her so badly that we barely even remember him."
Jin was wiping away tears at home, and Ji Yuan and his sister were also feeling depressed. But when Du Xian came back from his work, Ji Yuan asked:
"How is it? Have you convinced the Household Department?"
Du Xian shook his head. He had just invited the officials from the Household Department to have a drink. He wanted to ask them to make the decision and ask Manager Hu to release the tiger boy who had been abducted as a slave.
According to current laws, anyone who kidnaps and sells someone as a slave or a concubine will be hanged.
Those who were sold as slaves could be restored to commoners; if a woman was sold to someone else as a concubine, her master should let her go if she wanted to leave.
For someone like Tiger Boy, the victim should be released if he is found.
But the whereabouts of that thief Xiao are still unknown, and this is thousands of miles away. The kidnapping and selling case in Wu has implicated several places and is not under the jurisdiction of the Sanfu region.
Besides, the Hu Cao brothers said that if it was an ordinary family, they would go to their house and scare them, and they would not have the courage to refuse to let them go.
It just happened to be the shopkeeper Hu from Manxianglou. Shopkeeper Hu had a backer, who was said to be a eunuch in the palace. People called him Cao Nei Shi, so they didn't dare to offend him easily.
"Aunt Liu, go buy some groceries and come sit in the house."
That day, when Jin saw Liu Laogu coming back from the trading store, she changed her usual sour and stingy attitude, brought a plate of fragrant beans and invited Liu Laogu in to eat.
As the days were long and the nights were short, an old lady like Liu Laogu would come to her house to sit down when she had nothing to do. She drank tea with fragrant beans and saw Jin's red eyes and asked her:
"But the wind blinded you?"
Jin nodded, and then she started talking about something else, saying:
"I haven't seen your big yak in a few days."
"He's always been a mess, always wanting to be wild. Luckily, Xu Niang didn't mind his age and hired him to work as a handyman at the Ping'an Restaurant, washing dishes and chopping wood. He could earn thirteen cents a day.
He came back and said the food there was good, and that a young man like him could have three meals a day, and the boss didn't mind his big appetite. I said, this would save the family a lot of food, and the money saved would be used for him to get married in the future."
Jin laughed for a moment, but when she heard her say the word "menial work", she started to cry again. Aunt Liu was surprised.
"Okay, what's wrong?"
Only then did I hear from Jin that Ji Huhai had been found and was now in Manxianglou.
"Looking for someone all over the world is like finding a needle in a haystack, and now you've finally found him. This must be due to the good deeds you accumulated in your past life. This is a good thing, so why are you still crying?"
"That old woman demanded three hundred taels before she would let him go."
Jin spat,
"My family scraped together a hundred taels, but we're still two hundred short..."
The one hundred taels she collected were not only earned from working day and night selling rice and meat soup, but also from the monthly salary Du Xian paid to her. She also borrowed from Da Jin in Handan by sending an urgent letter. She borrowed from every vendor who could lend her money to her, and only then did she manage to raise this one hundred taels.
There was really no other way, so I thought of asking the nuns in Mulberry Lane for help, hoping to borrow some money.
But when she lowered her head to wipe away her tears, she looked at Liu Laogu's basket. There were no good vegetables in it. They were just rotten vegetable leaves that the vegetable vendors in the store didn't want.
Aunt Liu didn't mind, she picked them up, washed them and made pickles to eat, but she couldn't open her mouth anymore.
Unexpectedly, there was a rustling nearby. Aunt Liu took out a handkerchief that was close to her body and wrapped it with some loose change. It was still warm when she handed it to Jin Shi and said,
"Here's a hundred coins. I was going to save them for rice, but now that the yak isn't home to eat, there's no rush to buy rice. You can use it, but I can't take out any more."
Here he sighed,
"You know my live-in son-in-law is a real worry. He's obsessed with cockfighting all day long. He's not as promising as your Du Xian. Even if we have some money, we have to be careful that he takes it away and loses it. Our family can't give you much more in an emergency."
When Jin sent her away, she grabbed several handfuls of fragrant beans into her hands.
"Give it to your little flower to eat."
Du Xian's skinny horse was also sold, but it was not fat enough and was an old horse, so he only got fifteen taels of silver, which was not even half of the amount.
At Manxianglou, Ping'an Restaurant has been very popular recently and has taken away a lot of business. Manager Hu is angry and his subordinates have also become irritable.
"Chaihe, where's Chaihe? Why hasn't he come yet?"
The fat cook was asking for firewood, and Tiger Slave put down the slop bucket and hurriedly carried it in.
Unfortunately, he was too small and weak to carry so much food at once, which was not enough for the kitchen to cook at once. The cook twisted his ear and scolded him:
"You little bastard, why don't you hold me more?"
"He has a mother. She came here a few days ago to redeem him. You bullied him and I will settle the score with you."
The other cook was speaking in a sarcastic tone. They had all sold themselves to this vicious woman and had been slaves for many years, with no relatives at home to come and look after them. When they saw the family coming to look for this tiger slave that day, they felt so jealous.
Tiger Slave's ears were pulled into dough by him, and he twisted them while venting his anger and saying:
"You are the only one who has a mother. You are the only one who has a mother, right?"
When he was released, his ears were red and swollen. In fact, he could hardly remember his mother and sister.
But there was a shadow in his mind: a woman carrying a load, who brushed the dirt off his body, held him in a basket filled with naiguo, and said:
"If you keep asking for a clay dog, I won't bring you to sell fruit next time."
He and Naiguoer stayed in the basket together. It was a long road from the city to their home, with golden rice fields on both sides of the road.
Sitting in the basket, he still remembered people calling him Tiger Boy:
"Tiger boy, you're so grown up and still need your mother to carry you around. Oh, what a shame."
He forced himself to get down, and as he walked, he was hooked by the overbearing aroma of meat.
"Meat, meat, meat, there's a piece of dead flesh on your uncle's heel. When he comes back, just gnaw on it!" The woman scolded him...
But what I remember more clearly is pouring slop, cleaning the slop bucket, and carrying firewood in Manxianglou... I had to do all these tasks but had no food to eat, and the feeling of hunger was even more profound, so I took my anger out on the big slaves and went to carry firewood while crying.
Mulberry Lane,
After a while, Jin walked forward, grabbed the bronze turtle-snake-shaped door knocker on the courtyard gate, and without knocking on the door, put it down and walked away. After a while, she walked closer again, and repeated this process over and over again.
Suddenly he heard some noise inside and went out, then quickly returned home.
I saw Yindou driving an ox cart coming out. On the cart were the belongings from the stall in Huai City, as well as Feng and Zhu, who were being carried to elementary school, and waving to Tian, who had come to see them off.
"Be careful on the road and don't compete with those fast horses."
Tian watched the ox cart gradually leave the alley and was about to lock the door and go in when suddenly someone held the door open.
It was my old enemy, Jin, standing there with her head lowered.
Tian loosened her hand and let her in, as if she was not surprised that she would come. At this time, Jindou had not gone out to sell braised food yet, so she served tea to entertain guests as usual. Unexpectedly, the person sitting at the table was Jin.
Tian spoke in a low voice because Ji Xu was still sleeping in the east wing. She had been busy with the restaurant business lately and had not been able to rest.
The restaurant serves lunch and dinner, and it was still early, so it hadn't opened yet. Tian woke her up and had her eat breakfast, then told her to sleep a little longer.
When she started cooking in the restaurant, she became crazy and obsessed, and had no time to rest.
"I can't lend you any money."
Tian ignored Jin's vagueness and spoke directly.
She heard from Aunt Liu about the money needed to redeem Ji Huhai, and also heard that Jin had borrowed money from all over the place. Jin lowered her head and listened, then said:
"I knew that, but I didn't hear you say it yourself. I was still worried about it, but now that I've heard it, I've stopped thinking about it."
Jin's face flushed, and she couldn't sit still and wanted to leave. Tian added:
"I understand your desire to redeem the child, but instead of asking a sister-in-law like me who has such a deep grudge against me, you might as well ask Wuyan for a loan.
You own a rice stall in Jiaomen, so a loan of two hundred taels shouldn't be a problem. It all depends on whether you have the heart to earn enough money to pay it back."
"Yes, thank you."
Jin stopped to listen with her head down, then went out.
Ji Yuan was waiting next door. Seeing Jin coming back and shaking her head, he was not surprised that he could not borrow the money.
In the past, when the sisters Xu, Feng and Zhu were living in a thatched hut with earthenware windows and having to eat coarse food, they did not help. Instead, they wanted to watch the fun after they won the competition. Now that the two sides have switched sides, there is nothing to blame.
Tian loved her daughters as much as her life, so it would be unusual for her to lend them the money. However, she was worried about Tiger Boy suffering there, so she said:
"Let's just sell these two rooms. Redeeming the person is more important. My husband has agreed to do this."
"No, this is my son-in-law's house. If you sell it, you and your wife will no longer have a family. I can't let you be dragged down by redeeming the tiger boy.
"My son-in-law has borrowed money and sold his horse, and he has already contributed money and effort. If he even sells this eaves that protects us from the wind and rain, we will have a hard time in the future, and it is inevitable that there will be a rift between us."
Jin made up her mind and decided to go to Wuyan to borrow money, just like her neighbor did to buy a house. Although her rice and meat stall was not as popular as their braised food, she should be able to get a loan.
In the past, I laughed at people who borrowed money and were beaten up for not paying it back. I never thought that this day would come for me.
She couldn't help but feel that she was inferior to Tian Guinv. The strong nature in her heart came back, and she thought that she had to pay back the money no matter what.
This day.
Ping'an Restaurant welcomed a distinguished guest, who looked around the restaurant as if he was looking at his own private property.
Qiu Gu led the people to the elegant room on the second floor, and took the reward money. Then she went to the kitchen and said to Ji Xu:
"Mrs. Yu is here and wants to see the boss."
Ji Xu untied his sleeves and gave some instructions to Tian and Candou, then took the time to go upstairs. Yu was standing in front of the lattice, looking at the vase above.
"This is a gift from Madam Yu on the opening day. I told them to keep it outside this elegant room for you to admire."
Yu turned around and took her hand, saying:
"This is a gift I carefully selected. Do you know what it means?"
Seeing that Ji Xu didn't understand, he patted her hand and said, "Vases are common, but vases with daylily patterns are not common."
Ji Xu suddenly remembered that daylily, also known as Yi Nan grass, was a grass that women often used to weave Yi Nan cicadas during the Chinese Valentine's Day to pray for having children.
Seeing her expression, Yu smiled, knowing that she had regained consciousness, and said:
"My eldest son has you in his heart. He's the only one you say that he's willing to listen to. Why don't you just become a member of my family? I'll make the decision and take you as Quan Ye's second wife. Is that okay?"
A lower wife, also known as a concubine.
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