Yang Cui laughed and said, "Of course I believe that my uncles and aunts are not gossipy, and I, Yang Cui, am not unreasonable. I will stay in Anjia Village for a long time in the future. When my duck farm expands, I would like everyone to help me dig for earthworms."
A slap followed by a sweet treat, a combination of kindness and severity, will surely deter anyone from spreading these false rumors in the future.
Yang Cui then said to Old Lady Qian, "I can let you go this time, but you have already caused me a lot of trouble. It's not unreasonable for me to ask for some compensation for my emotional distress."
When Old Lady Qian heard that she was asked to pay compensation, her eyes widened: "You're not injured or sick, what compensation do you want?"
"What are you saying? Doesn't it take me time to go to the yamen to report to the authorities? I don't have to pay for borrowing the village chief's donkey cart? You two officials have come all this way, shouldn't you have some wine to quench your thirst? You can spread rumors with a single word, but I'll run my legs off to refute them. I won't ask for more, just give me thirty eggs."
"What? Thirty?"
"If you don't want to settle this privately, that's fine too. Come on, let's go to the yamen and talk it out properly." After saying that, Officer Tan reached out and grabbed Old Lady Qian again.
"Give it to me, I'll give it to you," Old Lady Qian quickly changed her mind.
Although I was extremely reluctant, compared to going to jail, it was obviously more worthwhile to settle the matter privately with thirty eggs.
"Then go get it, I'll wait here."
Old Mrs. Qian then stood up shakily, ran back and packed thirty eggs for Yang Cui. Only then did the Qian family realize that Old Mrs. Qian had offended Yang Cui, who had called the officials to arrest her, and they were all too scared to come out.
Even though they were reluctant to part with the thirty eggs, the Qian family didn't dare to blame Yang Cui for making a fuss over nothing, for fear of getting into trouble. They could only complain about Old Lady Qian. After this incident, the Qian family was in chaos again, but that's another story.
After accepting the eggs, Yang Cui declared in front of everyone that the matter was over. Old Lady Qian, fearing that Yang Cui might change her mind, ran away as fast as she could.
"Thank you both so much for today, officers. I am very grateful." After saying that, Yang Cui took out a string of copper coins from her body and gave them to Constable Tan. "This is a small token of my appreciation. Please take it and have a cup of tea."
Officer Tan was surprised that Yang Cui had money to give. They had come here entirely because of Manager Yu's influence. They had thought that country folk were stingy and didn't know manners, but they didn't expect Yang Cui to give them so many copper coins.
Officer Tan didn't stand on ceremony and was quite pleased with Yang Cui's tact. He smiled and said, "Then I won't stand on ceremony with Miss Yang. If you have any difficulties in the future, just come to the yamen to find us."
She spoke loudly enough that almost all the villagers present heard her. Now, everyone was even more wary of Yang Cui and secretly decided that they must be on good terms with her in the future and not offend her.
Once the officials left, the villagers finally had a chance to speak to Yang Cui: "Xiao Cui, are you still going to buy earthworms? Buy them from us?"
"Yes, a restaurant as big as the Star Gazing Tower, a few hundred ducks are not enough! I will buy ducklings in a while, and I will definitely need to buy a lot of earthworms then."
"So when do you plan to need earthworms?"
Yang Cui: "Let's wait until the next batch of ducklings arrives."
Three hundred ducks were far from enough. When Yang Cui asked An Dafu to buy ducklings, she made him negotiate with the other party that Yang Cui would first need one thousand ducks, eight hundred males and two hundred females, to be delivered once a month, in three installments. Otherwise, Yang Cui would not have enough funds, and the other party would not have that many ducklings at once.
As for how many ducklings the An family wanted, Yang Cui didn't care. However, judging from An Dafu's words, he would raise two or three hundred, and would also have them delivered in three installments.
The villagers were overjoyed.
These past two days, seeing those families earning a dozen or so copper coins a day, they were so envious. Finally, such good fortune was about to fall on their own, which was truly exciting!
When Yang Cui returned home, her three children had already prepared dinner and cooked earthworms, which were drying in the yard.
"Mom (godmother), you're back!" The children ran over excitedly when they saw Yang Cui.
"Take the eggs and leave them there. We'll have egg noodles for dinner tonight." Yang Cui handed the eggs to Er Ya.
The three kids were thrilled when they heard they were having egg noodles for dinner.
"Xiao Cui".
Yang Cui did not expect Wang Dachun to come.
"Uncle Wang, is something the matter?"
"I do have something I'd like to ask you for a favor," Wang Dachun said with an embarrassed smile. "My family digs up earthworms to sell to you, right? We originally agreed to give you grain in return, but now we've changed our minds. We want money."
“That works too,” Yang Cui nodded. “However, I can’t afford to pay so many copper coins every day. I’ll settle the bill when I have a tael of silver. Is that alright?”
Wang Dachun's expression changed immediately.
Wang Dachun was a compulsive gambler, and Yang Cui suspected that he wanted to use the money to gamble, so she couldn't easily give Wang Dachun money, at least not money that came from her own hands.
"Can't we give Uncle an advance of two taels of silver? I'll have Xicai, Ximei, and Xile dig up earthworms to pay off the debt later."
"Sister Cui, don't give it to him! Don't give it to him!" Wang Xicai ran over breathlessly, shouting to stop him, "Sister Cui, don't agree."
Wang Dachun was furious that his son was undermining him and ruining his plans. He was so angry that his veins bulged, and he wanted to slap him: "You little brat, do you even know where you're supposed to talk? Get out of here, or I'll beat you up!"
"You've gambled away our entire family, we can't even afford to eat, what else do you want?" Wang Xicai roared. "Xile is sick, we don't even have money for medicine, the whole village knows I have a gambling addict father, they all avoid us when they see us, we can't even borrow money for medical expenses, are you only satisfied when we all starve to death or die of illness!"
After yelling, Wang Xicai couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
"You little brat, how dare you talk to your father like that?" Wang Dachun was furious and slapped Wang Xicai across the face, leaving a bright red handprint.
"What are you doing?" Yang Cui immediately pulled Wang Xicai behind her. "What kind of father are you? Get out of here!"
Despite being scolded by Yang Cui, Wang Dachun remained unperturbed, still smiling obsequiously: "Xiao Cui, about this money..."
"I have no money!"
Wang Dachun's face was as black as ink as he glared at Wang Xicai, believing that Wang Xicai had ruined his plans. He had originally intended to recoup his losses with those two taels of silver!
"I'll deal with you when we get back!" With that, Wang Dachun left.
"Sister Cui, you absolutely mustn't agree to my father's request," Wang Xicai repeatedly urged.
Yang Cui nodded: "Yes, don't worry, I won't agree. Is your sister sick?"
Wang Xicai nodded.
Yang Cui handed a string of coins to Wang Xicai: "Take this to your sister's medical treatment. Consider it as me pre-ordering 100 jin of earthworms from you."
"Thank you, Sister Cui, I...I..."
"Stop talking to me, hurry up and take your sister to see a doctor. You are the man of your family, your father is now... You need to stand up for yourself, and keep the money safe."
Wang Xicai returned to the dilapidated temple and immediately carried seven-year-old Wang Xile on his back to Ji'an Village to find Doctor Qi.
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