Chapter 14 Chapter 14 This is what the Gu family owes you
Gu Jiayue was startled, her expression showing a bit of surprise. She didn't expect Hua Qingzhu to agree so readily.
"Qingzhu! The Gu family owes you this!" Hua Pozi quickly spoke up to stop him. "If you don't marry a girl from the Gu family, who will marry you in the future?"
Hua Qingzhu smiled faintly, took Hua Pozi's rough hand, and comforted her: "Don't worry, grandma, I'm just lame, not dead. I will meet the right person eventually. A forced melon is not sweet, and you don't want to see your grandson unhappy, right?"
"But..." Mrs. Hua wanted to say something else.
Hua Qingzhu interrupted, "Okay, grandma, I've made up my mind. Please stop making a fuss. We're all from the same village, and it's not good to make a scene."
Mrs. Hua looked at her grandson in front of her and felt so distressed that she could hardly control herself.
She knew very well what kind of personality the grandson she had raised for so many years had.
The grandson lost his parents at a young age and was a bit introverted. He didn't like playing with the children in the village and wasn't very close to his peers. But every time he saw the girl from the Gu family, his eyes would always sparkle.
When he was a child, the girl from the Gu family said that she wanted to marry a hunter so that she could eat meat every day. He even knelt for three days and gave three taels of silver to the old hunter in the next village so that he could learn the skills of hunting.
What a pity, the man has feelings for me, but I am not interested.
The girl from the Gu family was completely absorbed in herbal medicine and only treated her grandson as an ordinary companion, with no romantic feelings at all. And the grandson, with low self-esteem, didn't dare to express his feelings.
As a grandmother, she saw it all and felt anxious.
Therefore, even if it means sacrificing his old face and having to be humble in front of that vixen Liu Cuihua, he must help his grandson marry the girl from the Gu family.
But before she could find a matchmaker, word spread that her grandson and the girl from the Gu family had spent a night in the mountains.
Isn’t this a match made in heaven?
Mrs. Hua hurriedly brought the matchmaker to the door, but the girl from the Gu family refused to marry her grandson no matter what.
She really doesn't know what's good for her. Her grandson is so outstanding and it's her blessing that he likes her. How dare she refuse?
For the sake of her grandson, she tried her best and finally forced Gu Yatou to agree to get married.
Just when she was looking for someone to calculate the wedding date, someone came from Kyoto.
That girl Gu Wangshu is actually the daughter of some rich family in Kyoto!
I don't understand, but just by listening to the front row, I know that they are either rich or noble.
Although her grandson was good, he was not even worthy of carrying shoes in front of the nobles in Kyoto. In desperation, Hua Pozi had to give up.
Unexpectedly, the real second daughter of the Gu family actually came back. It was said that she was very pretty and rich.
They are all girls from the Gu family, so it doesn’t matter who you marry.
The grandson was just young, and because he saw Gu Wangshu was handsome, he couldn't forget him.
Now that he has a prettier girl, as long as he marries her, he will naturally forget about Gu Wangshu after a while.
It was for the sake of my grandson that this farce happened today.
"Alright, your Gu family is well-connected, and my Hua family can't even reach him. But you must remember, missing out on such an outstanding grandson is a loss for your Gu family! Since you're not willing to repay me with your body, then take the money! One thousand taels! Give me one thousand taels, and our relationship will be over."
There was a loud bang, like a sudden thunderclap. When Hua Pozi said this, the crowd of onlookers was instantly in an uproar.
"One thousand taels? This old woman is really asking for too much!"
"We could work ourselves to death farming for three lifetimes and still not earn a thousand taels. This Hua family kid can earn so much money just by saving someone. It's really a good deal!"
"One tael of silver can buy two dan of fine rice and four dan of unpolished rice. How much rice can one thousand taels buy?"
One thousand taels, this figure is an astronomical sum of money that the villagers of Taohua Village could not even dream of.
However, at this moment, Hua Pozi said it so easily.
It is not difficult to guess what she is thinking; there are only two points.
First, she was sure the Gu family couldn't come up with the 1,000 taels of silver. However, if the Gu family wanted to live a stable life in Taohua Village and even Annan County, they had to find a way to repay the favor. If they couldn't pay, they could only use their daughter to pay off the debt.
Secondly, if the Gu family could really come up with a thousand taels, then she would naturally be more than happy to do so. As the villagers said, even if they worked their entire lives to the bone, they might not be able to earn that much money.
After understanding and learning for a period of time, Gu Jiayue has realized that the level of economic and cultural development in this world is quite similar to that of the early Ming Dynasty in her original world.
One tael of silver is roughly equivalent to one thousand coins, which can buy two dan of fine rice (one dan is about 94.4 kilograms), or four dan of brown rice, or fifty catties of pork, or one piece of silk (about 12.8 meters).
In the Jiangnan region, a farmer with five mu of land could harvest about 12 to 15 dan of grain a year. If he grew fine rice, his annual income would be around six taels of silver.
However, Taohua Village is located in the southwest, and its grain production is far from comparable to that of the south, so the annual income has to be discounted further.
What's more, this is just the total income.
Excluding the head tax, grain fee, other taxes, etc., the income per person is only one or two taels of silver per year.
The above examples only cover the situation of self-cultivating farmers.
Farmers who rented land from others to cultivate it had to pay half of their grain or income to the landowner. This left them with very little, barely enough to make ends meet, let alone save money.
Therefore, one thousand taels of silver is really an astronomical figure that is out of reach for farmers.
"You! Aunt Hua, don't go too far!" Grandma Gu could no longer bear it and shouted angrily.
One thousand taels! Even if one sold the entire Gu family, including the three old hens in the house, it would still be far from enough.
This old woman, however, made light of the matter and tried to extort a large sum of money with just a few words. "It's just a leg, isn't it? I, an old woman, will compensate you!"
As Grandma Gu spoke, she bent down, picked up a stone from the ground, and was about to hit her legs with it.
Seeing this, Gu Jiayue hurriedly grabbed her and said anxiously, "Grandma, don't worry, don't worry."
Oh my god, they really are a family, they are both so straightforward and reckless!
"Jiayue girl, you must not agree to this! This Hua Po is a shameless shrew. She just wants to blackmail you because you are rich. Yes, our Gu family does owe their family a favor, so we should pay it back. Is one leg enough? If not, my old man still has one!"
Grandpa Gu: Why are you involving me?
However, in front of so many people, Grandpa Gu couldn't refuse the old woman's face, so he responded: "Yes, if it still doesn't work, everyone in our Gu family will compensate you with a leg!"
We are all family, so we must act in an orderly manner!
Gu Jiayue couldn't help but feel ashamed, secretly reflecting on herself, wondering if she had set a bad precedent. After all, she was the one who first threatened to hang herself in the Hua family.
What a sin.
"Alright! Such a commotion is outrageous!"
The village chief of Taohua Village finally arrived.
Seeing the situation about to get out of control and bloodshed, the village chief rushed forward, snatched the stone from Grandma Gu's hand, and pointed at Grandpa Gu and scolded him, "Uncle Gu, you are already in your forties, why are you so careless? What are you talking about with one leg or two legs? Can you solve the problem with that?"
The village chief's attitude is really not good.
But it wasn't his fault. The situation between the Gu and Hua families had been going on for almost half a year. The village had mediated the dispute countless times, but each time, it failed to satisfy both parties.
He didn't want to get involved in such bad things, but whenever they made any noise, someone would come to find the village chief.
After all, he is the village chief. He has to take care of all the big and small matters in the village.
The village chief is only in his early fifties, which is the age when he should be working hard, but these trivial matters really make him feel like he is almost in his seventies or eighties.
No, I have to go to the county tomorrow and talk to them about letting someone else be the village chief. If he continues like this, he is really afraid that he will lose his life.
"We are all aware of the grudge between your two families. We are all from the same village, so let's not make things too awkward. I think, how about we each take a step back?"
Although the village chief is not a member of the Gu family, he has been conscientious and fair in major matters since he became the village chief, so everyone in the village trusts him.
After hearing what the village chief said, Grandpa Gu stopped talking.
But Hua Pozi had no scruples. As the saying goes, those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes.
The Hua family had moved from out of town, and they had no land or support in the village. It was just the two of them, the grandfather and the grandson, with only one life left, so who cares? "That's a nice thing to say, but what do you mean by each taking a step back? My son Qingzhu has a lame leg, and he can't go into the mountains to hunt anymore. What are we going to eat? How are we going to survive?"
"Don't think you can bully us just because we're outsiders. I'm not afraid. My demands are here: either give me one thousand taels of silver, or marry a girl from the Gu family to me. I don't care if it's Gu Wangshu or Gu Jiayue, as long as she's a girl from the Gu family!"
There was some truth to what Mrs. Hua said. The Hua family had no land in the village, and their daily food and clothing depended entirely on Hua Qingzhu's hunting.
Now that Hua Qingzhu can no longer go into the mountains to hunt, life is really hard for the grandfather and grandson.
"I don't have any money, but I have my life. Besides, Mrs. Hua, check your conscience. How many things has my Gu family sent to your house since this happened? There must be at least fifty eggs, right? And those herbs, although I didn't spend any money, they were picked one by one by my daughter Wangshu, who washed and dried them. Did my family pay for sending Mr. Hua to the clinic?"
The village chief was now in an even more difficult situation, as what the Gu family said made sense.
From the time of the accident until now, the Gu family has indeed done their best.
Apart from anything else, the eggs and herbs alone are quite generous.
You know, an egg can be sold for one penny, which is very precious.
Seeing that the two sides were about to argue again, Gu Jiayue quickly stepped forward and said, "Elders, can you listen to what I have to say?"
The village chief looked at the strange girl in front of him and thought that this must be the child that the Gu family had reported wrongly.
I didn't expect her to be so pretty and not shy in front of so many people. She's really a nice girl. "Girl, if you have anything to say, just say it. After all, you're half a party involved."
After receiving approval, Gu Jiayue said, "It's pointless for us to continue arguing like this. If arguing could solve the problem, this matter wouldn't have dragged on until today. So I suggest that everyone calm down first. I've already sent someone to the county town to invite a doctor. Everything will be settled after the doctor arrives and sees the patient."
What Gu Jiayue said was true. The two families had been arguing about this matter for almost half a year. It all came down to two things: marrying off their daughter or paying her.
But the Gu family had never been able to do these two things before.
But things were different now. The girl who had returned from Kyoto seemed different. She spoke clearly and logically, and she wasn't shy in front of so many people. More importantly, she was wealthy, which satisfied at least one of the Hua family's requirements.
After all, Gu Jiayue drove two horse-drawn carriages into the village, and the whole village knew about it.
In this way, this problem is not unsolvable.
"Okay! Just do as the girl from the Gu family said and wait until the doctor arrives before we discuss anything else!"
Seeing that Mrs. Hua was about to speak, the village chief hurriedly spoke first.
Hua Pozi was full of resentment, looking at everyone angrily, thinking to herself: Okay, you are ganging up on me, right?
Just wait and see. If I, Hua Pozi, am not having a good time, you guys won’t be able to have a good time either!
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