Chapter 92 Lost 15 taels of silver
Once Wu Xincao heard the whole story, she knew her father already knew. It seemed that it was Wang Ergou who had just knocked on the door. She had no choice but to tell the truth. She sobbed as she got out of her mother's arms: "Dad, listen to me. This is what happened. Originally, I wanted to sell Liu Ye, but who would have thought... this and that, and then she just disappeared. I was thinking of hurrying home, but who knew that, by sheer coincidence, we were seen by Lao Ba. If it weren't for Wang Tieniu, Lao Ba definitely wouldn't have let Da Ni and me go either. Dad, sob sob sob..."
When Village Chief Wu heard that it was true, and that Wang Ergou hadn't lied to him, he was so angry that he collapsed onto the kang (a heated brick bed). How could he have given birth to such a stupid daughter? He was furious.
Granny Wu was dumbfounded: "Xincao, how could you be so foolish? We're trying to avoid human traffickers, and you're actually getting closer! My goodness, how could you be so stupid!"
Village Chief Wu gestured for Granny Wu to shut up: "Wang Ergou said you took eighty taels of silver. How much exactly?"
Wu Xincao said guiltily, "Lao Ba gave me ten taels of silver, and I gave Wang Dani five taels. We spent it all on the market. I still have 500 coins left in my pocket. Wang Dani has a little more left than me, but not much..."
Upon hearing this, Village Chief Wu nearly ground his teeth to powder: "You idiot! You took eighty taels of silver, and now he demands a hundred taels in return, or he'll make our family miserable! You idiot, where am I supposed to get a hundred taels of silver?!"
When Wu Xincao heard that Lao Ba was asking her father to pay her one hundred taels of silver, she was terrified. She was in deep trouble. Where would her family get one hundred taels of silver? Even if they sold their whole family, they wouldn't be worth one hundred taels. Her family didn't have any, and neither did Wang Laopi's family.
Granny Wu also became anxious: "Husband, isn't he trying to extort money? Xincao took ten taels of silver from him, so we should just return ten taels to him. Why should he ask us for a hundred taels? Isn't this extortion? Husband, let's report this to the authorities. Lao Ba is a human trafficker, and the government should arrest him. That way, we won't even have to return the ten taels of silver to him!"
Village Chief Wu shook his head helplessly and said, "We can't report it to the authorities. Lao Ba has connections in the government. Before the officials can arrest Lao Ba, our family will be in trouble and we'll have to settle it with money."
When Granny Wu heard that they didn't have any, she said, "Husband, we don't have a hundred taels of silver. Even if we and Wang Laopi's family pooled our money, we still couldn't come up with a hundred taels. I'm afraid Wang Laopi's family can't even come up with 20 taels. You should think of another way."
"How about you have Wang Ergou go and plead with Wang Laoba on his behalf? We'll give him an extra five taels, so we'll give Laoba 15 taels of silver. Anyway, he didn't suffer any loss, so five taels of silver is already quite a lot."
Village Chief Wu nodded. It seemed that this was the only way. However, before going to find Wang Ergou, he had to go to find Wang Laopi. Xincao had been corrupted by Wang Dani!
Without wasting a moment, Village Chief Wu arrived at Wang Laopi's house under the stars, banging loudly on the door, waking the whole family from their sleep.
Wang Laopi hurriedly went out to open the door. When he opened it, he saw Village Chief Wu, whose face was even darker than the soles of his shoes, which left him a little dumbfounded: "Oh, it's Village Chief Wu. What happened?"
Village Chief Wu entered the courtyard with his hands behind his back and a dark face: "Something terrible has happened! Your eldest daughter has gotten into trouble!"
Wu Laopi exclaimed, "What?! Da Ni has gotten herself into trouble!" He quickly closed the door to prevent anyone from hearing.
"What exactly happened, Village Chief Wu? What trouble has my daughter gotten into?"
At this moment, Wang Tieniu also came out of the room. When he saw that it was Village Chief Wu, he quickly greeted him politely: "Uncle Village Chief."
Village Chief Wu nodded with a dark face: "Tie Niu is here just in time. It's good that you can hear how this matter is going to be handled. Alright, alright, blah blah blah, hmph, if it weren't for Tie Niu today, Lao Ba would never have let Xin Cao and Da Ni off the hook!"
After hearing what had happened, Wang Tieniu and Wang Laopi were shocked. Wang Laopi clenched his fists so tightly that they made a loud thud, wishing he could go into the house right now and beat Wang Dani to death: "You good-for-nothing! I'll beat her to death! That brat only knows how to cause trouble for the family!"
Wang Tieniu grabbed his father's arm: "Dad, calm down. What's done is done. Even if you beat Da Ni to death, it won't make a difference. We can't afford to offend Lao Ba, so we can only pay compensation. But we can't afford a hundred taels. Let's do as Uncle Village Chief said. Let's pool together 15 taels of silver and have Wang Ergou plead on our behalf. Or should we go with Wang Ergou? If Lao Ba doesn't agree and insists that we pay a hundred taels of silver, I'll fight him!"
When Village Chief Wu heard that this was a good idea, Wang Laopi also agreed. Village Chief Wu nodded and said, "Tie Niu is right. Then you and Wang Ergou will go to find Lao Ba tomorrow. I'm going to go and talk to Wang Ergou on his behalf now. I'm leaving first."
The father and son escorted Village Chief Wu to the gate and watched him walk away before they finally breathed a sigh of relief. Old Wang turned to go to Wang Dani's room to give her a good scolding, but Wang Tieniu grabbed him, saying, "Dad, what are you doing? What Xincao and Wang Dani did can't be spread, or Dani's reputation will be ruined. Who would dare to ask to marry her then? Do you want Dani to be stuck with this mess?"
Wang Laopi suppressed his anger. Tie Niu was right. Da Ni's selling people really couldn't be known, otherwise even his reputation would be ruined: "Alright, alright, I won't interfere anymore, I'll leave it all to you!"
After saying that, Wang Laopi angrily went back to his room. Aunt Wang was about to ask him what Village Chief Wu was doing here in the middle of the night when Wang Laopi covered her with the blanket and started punching her: "You son of a bitch, you spoiled brat! You've raised such a worthless thing, you've spoiled her rotten! I'll fuck your mother, I'll beat you to death today..."
"Ah! Ouch, stop hitting me...!"
Hearing the commotion from his parents' room, Wang Tieniu knew his father was beating his mother again. He shook his head helplessly, turned around, and went back to his room to sleep.
Village Chief Wu also came to Er Gouzi's house. After much persuasion, Wang Er Gouzi finally agreed to take Wang Tie Niu to find Lao Ba the next day.
Time flew by and the next day arrived. Wang Ergou and Wang Tieniu went to Village Chief Wu's house. Village Chief Wu handed over seven and a half taels of silver to Wang Tieniu, and the two went to town. When they returned, they brought good news to Village Chief Wu: the matter was resolved, Lao Ba accepted 15 taels of silver, and the matter was considered closed.
Wang Ergou didn't get any benefit at all. Lao Ba didn't even give him a tael of silver. Wang Ergou was so angry that he could only feel resentment. He held a grudge against Wu Xincao and decided to find an opportunity to get revenge on her!
When Wang Tieniu returned home, he told his parents that the matter was resolved. Then he went to Wang Dani's room, intending to admonish her not to do such foolish things again. He saw that Wang Dani's face was covered in injuries: "Dani, what happened to you? Did Dad hit you?"
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