Chapter 193: Would you like to do the work?
These words touched the hearts of Mr. Gu and Mrs. Feng, and their expressions softened. "Then listen to my daughter. Pay half first, and send the other half after you get Si Ya."
"Don't worry, I will personally give you the silver when the time comes!" Li smiled.
Gu Liansheng felt that Li's smile was very dazzling. He didn't want to take the silver in two installments, but his parents agreed to it. If he spoke up to object, he would seem petty.
He squeezed the small silver ingot in his hand. These five taels of silver were just enough to host a banquet at a restaurant, invite classmates and friends to get together, write poems and drink. Wouldn't that be wonderful!
It has been a long time since he last met with his classmates and friends. It just so happens that he got these five taels of silver today, so he can find a day to have a good reunion.
Gu Liansheng's mind was constantly filled with thoughts of writing poetry and drinking, and he paid no attention to the flattery of several people in the room.
After talking for a while, Li kept looking towards the door, "Your fourth daughter has been out for a long time. Why hasn't she come back yet? Could it be that the shopkeeper is not here and the accounts haven't been settled yet?"
After hearing what Li said, Feng also realized that something was wrong and wanted to send her daughter to ask the shopkeeper, but suddenly someone knocked on the door.
Li's face lit up with joy, "Fourth girl?"
No one in the room answered her, and no one knew if it was Si Ya outside the door.
As the knocking stopped, Li Shunzi's loud voice rang out from outside the door: "Uncle Jin? Uncle Jin? Have you packed everything? It's getting cloudy outside. I'm afraid it's going to rain. We have to go back quickly."
Hearing the wrong voice, Li was very disappointed. She turned around and said to Feng, "Send someone to look for her. Your fourth daughter is too outstanding. I hope she has met with something wrong."
In the past, Feng would have refused to go look for the person, but now there was still five taels of silver hanging in front of her, so she couldn't say no, so she winked at her daughter and said, "Go open the door, and by the way, go out and look for the shopkeeper and ask him if he has settled the bill."
Gu Zhier responded and quickly went to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, Li Shunzi looked inside anxiously, "Where's Uncle Jin?"
"My father is inside, go in. By the way, when you came here, did you see the innkeeper? Si Ya went to find him to settle the bill, and it's been a while, and she hasn't come back yet."
Li Shunzi paused, looking surprised: "Si Ya left a long time ago! She said she had a quarrel with Uncle Jin and the others again, saying that Uncle Jin chased her away and wouldn't let her ride my ox cart back, so she spent her own money to hire another ox cart to go back."
"Ah?" Gu Zhier was dumbfounded, then turned around and called Feng: "Mom! Si Ya ran away!"
Li Shunzi had a loud voice. Everyone in the room heard what he said and their expressions changed.
Li was even more panicked, and whispered to Feng: "Why did this girl leave alone? Could it be that she overheard something..."
Feng's heart skipped a beat, thinking this was possible, and her face turned pale immediately.
"Don't panic." Old Master Gu soothed him with a calm expression, "With Si Ya's bad temper, if she really overheard something, she would immediately make a scene and ruin our reputation. She won't sneak away on her own. She is not a tolerant person. She will vent her anger on the same day and won't stay overnight."
This is indeed Gu Tang's temper. It must be said that after so many days of "getting along" with him, he has figured out Gu Tang's temper a bit.
Li didn't know Gu Tang well. When she heard this, she was skeptical and urged, "Go back quickly. After you return to the village, see if she has returned home."
“Yes, yes, yes, let’s go back and check!” Gu Liansheng on the side was also anxious. In his eyes, Si Ya was no longer a human being. She was a walking five taels of silver!
"Zhi'er, the shopkeeper is not here anymore. Come and carry your mother out. Your elder brother is weak and his head wound is barely healed. He can't carry anyone."
Old Master Gu habitually ordered his daughter around, completely forgetting Feng's current physique.
With Gu Zhier's frail body, let alone carrying Feng on her back, even if Feng sat on her, she would be crushed half to death!
The corner of Li's mouth twitched. She glanced at Gu Zhier, and seeing that she really agreed with a foolish look on her face, she trotted to Feng's bed, squatted down, and planned to carry Feng out.
Seeing that Feng was about to climb onto Gu Zhier's back, Li showed some kindness and pulled Gu Zhier up, pointing at Li Shunzi and saying, "Let Brother Shunzi help carry her out. Look at your body, you're almost falling apart!"
As soon as these words were spoken, Mr. Gu and the others all looked embarrassed.
Fortunately, Li Shunzi was easy to talk to. It was just an old lady on his back. How heavy could it be?
"Sister-in-law Wang is right. Let me carry it. It's not that far."
Hearing this, Mr. Gu breathed a sigh of relief and praised the man with a grateful look on his face.
It sounded easy to say this, but when Feng really climbed onto his back, the obvious overweight weight almost crushed the unprepared Li Shunzi to his knees.
He hurriedly tried to steady his body, secretly gathering strength, feeling bitter in his heart.
His aunt is too heavy!
She doesn't look like an old lady, but more like a middle-aged man!
I remembered that Si Ya had said before that her grandmother ate fish and meat twice a day. Although I believed it on the surface at that time, I was still skeptical in my heart and felt that it was unlikely.
Now under this heavy pressure, Li Shunzi no longer dared to doubt.
A sick old lady was gaining weight instead of losing it, and he could think of nothing else to do except eat meat at every meal.
Taking a deep breath, Li Shunzi gritted his teeth and stood up. He suddenly stumbled two steps, which frightened Feng so much that her face turned pale. Old Man Gu hurriedly supported her and helped Li Shunzi to steady himself.
After stabilizing himself, Li Shunzi carried the person on his back and walked out with difficulty.
"Your eldest brother and I will follow, you stay here and take a good look to see if there is anything left behind."
Old Master Gu casually told his daughter not to leave in a hurry.
Gu Zhier agreed obediently and began to look around the house.
Li didn't leave either. After Mr. Gu and his party left the house, she stopped Gu Zhier and said, "You can see everything clearly in this room. What could be left behind? Stop rummaging around. Hurry up. We have to go back. If it really rains later, we will have to go home in the winter rain!"
Gu Zhier stopped and glanced around the room. It was true. The room could be seen at a glance. There was nothing inside except a bed and a table. If there was something left behind, she would be able to see it without looking for it.
"There is indeed nothing left behind. Let's go back."
By the time Li and Gu Zhier left the inn, all the Gu family members had already boarded the ox cart, and everyone was wrapped in quilts for fear of catching a cold.
Seeing Gu Zhier coming out, Old Man Gu asked nonchalantly, "Did you leave anything behind?"
"No, I've looked everywhere."
"Okay! Then let's all go back. Your mother is so sick, you should come back to see her. If you can drive on the road tomorrow, ask Dagui to drive you home to see her."
"Oh!" Gu Zhier responded happily, while Li behind her rolled her eyes.
I thought I valued sons over daughters, but I didn't expect that the Gu family was even better than her!
This is really... The girls who were born into the Gu family must have done something bad in their previous life!
When Gu Zhier got on the ox cart, the Wang family's ox cart did not follow Li Shunzi's ox cart out of the city.
This time they came here, in addition to wanting to see Gu Tang, they also wanted to buy some earthenware jars to take back.
In winter, when it is cold and snowing, the family only provides one meal a day. Each room is given a clay pot. Whichever room has the ability to add extra food can eat more. The two elders of the Wang family don't care about these.
Li's room already had a clay pot, but she thought that the two boys in the family were both studying, and it would not be a good idea to just make some porridge as a snack. She wanted to buy another clay pot for stewing meat to provide supplementary food for the two boys in winter.
Therefore, after the Gu family left, the Wang family's ox cart went straight to the shop selling clay pots, thinking of buying them quickly and going back immediately after making the purchase. It was indeed a very gloomy day.
As the sky darkened, not only the Gu and Wang families were anxious, but Gu Tang's side was also having some troubles.
She asked three people in a row at the place where ox carts could be hired at the city gate, but none of them were willing to go to Shanghe Village to help her bring the letter. They said that the weather was cloudy and it was going to rain, and there was even the possibility of snow, so they didn't want to go.
Gu Tang became stubborn and tripled the price of delivering the letter. He soon found a strong man who knew Shanghe Village.
Sometimes when the man was driving a carriage to pick someone up, he would pass by Shanghe Village and was very familiar with the road, which made Gu Tang feel at ease. He asked him to ask people when he entered the village and said he was looking for Gu Wancheng (the name of his third uncle).
After sending the strong man away, Gu Tang found a shop selling oil cakes, bought a dozen oil cakes and wrapped them in a piece of sackcloth, then walked west along the city wall.
The further west they went, the more beggars there were under the city wall. They seemed to have smelled the fragrance of the oil cakes, and they all stared at the oil cakes in Gu Tang's hand with eyes like hungry wolves.
Gu Tang knew when to stop and stopped not far away.
She didn't know which of these beggars were good and which were evil. She glanced at them casually and walked towards the group of little beggars.
There were about twenty little beggars, all of them had complete limbs and looked neat.
Because of this, these little beggars are particularly conspicuous.
Normally, little beggars with intact hands and feet and a neat appearance, regardless of gender, are in high demand. Human traffickers will not miss this profit-free business and will kidnap and sell the beggars as soon as possible.
But now, there are actually twenty little beggars hiding safely under the city wall. Anyone with a little bit of common sense would know that there must be someone behind this.
Gu Tang first made sure that the anti-wolf spray and stun batons were all worn, and then threw the oil cake in his hand over.
This operation, which was like a drop of delicious food from heaven, startled the little beggars. They were silent for a moment, and then they scrambled for it.
After the oil cakes were distributed, Gu Tang took out a shiny silver coin from his sleeve and said, "I want to ask you to do some work. You will start work at 9:00 pm every day and settle the bill at 0:00 pm. You will be settled once a day. Do you want to do it?"
The little beggars quieted down and looked at Gu Tang stupidly, then looked at the silver in Gu Tang's hand, not knowing whether he was making fun of them or trying to cheat them away.
The oldest of these beggars was about the same age as Gu Tang, and the youngest was only five or six years old. Although they knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch and that the man in front of them might have ulterior motives, they were still tempted.
There were two little beggars in their teens who moved their feet and tried to stand up, but were held back by the older beggars next to them.
They were silent. The beggar who was holding the man pointed to the alley to the west with a stern look.
The little beggar who was pulled back changed his expression. When he saw the alley, he obviously thought of something. He lowered his head and sat back in his original seat, continuing to eat the biscuit.
Gu Tang took in the whole scene and also looked at the alley. There was nothing special about it, just an ordinary alley. People who lived in such alleys usually had poor family conditions and their houses were crowded and small.
But this should not be the reason why the little beggars changed their faces. Could it be that the people behind the little beggars live somewhere?
Retracting his gaze, Gu Tang calmly handed the silver in his hand to them: "The silver in my hand is three taels. If you come to work for me, in a few days each of you can earn this three taels of silver."
As soon as these words were spoken, the little beggars' eyes became more and more enthusiastic. Anyone who was not blind could see that the little beggars were really moved and seemed to be willing to agree at the next moment.
But the strange thing is that no matter how passionate their gazes were, these little beggars remained unmoved and still shook their heads cruelly to refuse.
They were obviously moved, but they refused again and again. It was obvious that these little beggars had no choice.
Gu Tang took the silver back and said, "I know you can't make the decision, so go find someone who can. I'll come back to find you at the beginning of the morning tomorrow. If you really don't want to work here, I'll find someone else."
The little beggars didn't expect that even though they had been rejected twice, the man in front of them would still give them a chance. Faced with such temptation, the little beggars who had suffered so much could no longer hold back. The older ones led the younger ones, and the group ran away quickly.
Gu Tang stared at where they were going for a while, and saw a group of people heading straight for that alley.
Obviously, the person behind them was in that alley.
Withdrawing his gaze, Gu Tang planned to go back first and come again tomorrow.
When she was about to turn around, she found that there were more than ten beggars surrounding her, all of them adult men, some of whom were lame, some were blind, and some had all four limbs intact.
Tsk!
It seems that this is caused by financial leakage.
Gu Tang reached into the bag slung over his arm, took out the anti-wolf spray, and preemptively sprayed it at the beggars around him.
The anti-wolf spray that Gu Tang drew was made of highly concentrated water-soluble chili essence. It was very effective. It was okay if it sprayed someone accidentally, just wash it off with water.
The red chili essence quickly sprayed in all directions, with a range farther than Gu Tang had imagined, and landed very accurately on the beggars' eyes, causing screams to ring out instantly.
Soon, the beggars who were surrounding them lay on the ground one after another, covering their eyes, kicking their legs everywhere, rolling left and right, in excruciating pain.
There were still three beggars left that she didn't spray because after the first beggar won the bid, the three of them knelt down and kowtowed to beg for mercy, while the remaining beggars still refused to give up and wanted to continue to come forward to surround her.
Gu Tang ruthlessly killed all the remaining beggars, leaving only three kneeling beggars.
Gu Tang took two steps forward, impatiently told them to shut up, and asked them about the little beggars: "Do you know those little beggars just now? Who do they usually hang out with?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
