Chapter 129: I Have Money
Ms. Qian panicked when she heard Gu Zhong wanted to borrow silver. Over the past few days, Gu Zhong had told her repeatedly to stop thinking about taking advantage of others, especially the second household.
He said he didn’t want to become estranged from his brother.
’If he’s saying that, he’s definitely planning to pay back any silver he borrows.’
This was no small amount of silver. She couldn’t help but shout, "Xing’er is just a girl! Is it really worth spending ten taels of silver for her to enter the city?"
"We’d be better off selling her! At least we’d get some silver for it!"
Xing’er froze for a moment, then grabbed Gu Zhong and burst into sobs. "Dad, don’t sell me! I can do chores around the house! I—please don’t sell me."
A vein throbbed on Gu Zhong’s forehead. He pointed at Ms. Qian. "You, shut your mouth! Say one more word and I’ll sell you!"
Ms. Qian flinched and didn’t dare make another sound.
Gu Zhang suddenly felt like he was in the hot seat.
He gave a bitter smile and was about to speak when Aunt Liu cut in, "Zhang, I have a favor to ask as well. My family doesn’t have enough silver. Could you possibly lend me twenty taels?"
At the same time, his great-aunt was looking at Gu Zhang, hesitant to speak. Her family was also short on cash. Nine people meant ninety taels of silver; even if they were well-off, they couldn’t come up with that much!
They were still short thirty taels!
Gu Rong kept his head down, silent. With three people in his family, he needed thirty taels of silver. ’What am I going to do?’ he thought. ’Ask Second Brother for another loan?’
He was too ashamed.
He suddenly looked up. "Never mind my family. I’ll get a fake household registration. If we can pass, we pass. If not, I’ll just take the ten strokes of the plank for my wife."
Ms. Li, standing nearby, was on the verge of tears when she heard this.
Gu Zhang said helplessly, "My family... we have twelve people now. Just to enter the city, we need one hundred and twenty taels—"
The old matriarch at his side hurriedly interrupted, "Twelve? What twelve? Weren’t those two girls bought? Just sell them!"
Lan Zhi nervously grabbed the corner of Gu Fei’s sleeve. Lian’er lowered her head.
Gu Fei shot the old matriarch a cold glance.
Gu Zhang said in a deep voice, "We bought these two girls, so now they are part of the family. There’s no reason to abandon them here."
The old matriarch snorted. "If you ask me, what was the point of buying these people? Other than being freeloaders, they’re completely useless!"
"We’re just a family of farmers. Do some people really think they’re young mistresses who need servants to wait on them?"
Gu Fei sneered, "It’s my own silver. I’ll spend it however I want!"
’Is it any of your business?’
The old matriarch jabbed her cane furiously on the ground. "Look! Everyone, look at this! Is that any way to speak to an elder? I’m her biological grandmother, and I’ve never seen her spend ten, or even eight, taels of silver on me! Yet she’s so generous with outsiders!"
"I, this old woman—"
Nearby, Su Chen watched the old matriarch with disgust. He suddenly spoke up, interrupting her. "How about this: however much silver everyone is short, I will lend it to you. I’ll trouble Second Uncle Gu to help draw up the IOUs."
’If I don’t step in now, who knows what else that old hag will say about Little Fei.’
No one had expected such a pleasant surprise.
Shanzimama quickly said, "Young Master Su, my family doesn’t have enough silver either. Can we borrow ten taels from you?"
’She actually had enough silver to enter the city, but it was always good to borrow a little more. Wouldn’t they need silver to get settled once they reached East Sea County?’
Su Chen couldn’t care less about a few taels here or there. He gave a casual nod. "Anyone who needs to borrow silver can come over and sign an IOU."
Gu Zhang hurried to the mule cart and rummaged around for a long time. Gu Fei walked over, pretended to help him search, and handed him a small bundle. Inside was a half-worn-out writing brush, an inkstone, a small piece of a pine-soot inkstick, and a few sheets of yellowed, rough-edged paper.
These were all things that Mrs. Chen had gathered up in a hurry and stuffed into her space.
Once the items were out, Gu Qing poured a few drops of water into the inkstone and helped grind the ink.