IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Two Hundred Taels Plus Two Hundred Taels, Creating a Win-Win-Win Situation

“Our family’s affairs, and you…” Cheng Que’s second sister-in-law rolled her eyes, seemingly thinking of something, and her attitude suddenly made a 180-degree turn. “Oh dear, Young Master Gu is truly righteous. It was I who was short-sighted. Please forgive me, Young Master.”

The burly man took out a silver ingot from his pocket and threw it into the ruffian’s arms, “Take these ten taels of silver first, and the rest of the money I…”

“No need.” The leader waved his hand, cupped his fist at the burly man, but his eyes looked behind him. “Lord Gu is back. We’ll just go to Lord Gu to ask for the money.”

The people beside him immediately understood. They took the IOU and ran to Lord Gu, who had just finished his shift and was humming a little tune. They gave a shallow curtsy, “Lord Gu, your son owes us four hundred taels of silver. Will you pay in cash, or…”

Lord Gu, who had been suddenly saddled with a debt, was dumbfounded. He quickly found the culprit in the crowd, “Gu Zhan, get over here to me!”

Gu Zhan, who had been unstoppable just a moment ago, immediately cowered, “Father, Father, let go of my ears!”

“Explain yourself to me…”

“It’s…” Gu Zhan covered his red ears and whispered next to Lord Gu.

The anger on Lord Gu’s face gradually dissipated. He looked at Cheng Que, who was being shielded behind Gu Zhan, and gently shook his head, “Four hundred taels is not a small amount.”

The woman who had been assessing the situation from the side exclaimed in surprise. She grabbed the child who was wiping his snot on his sleeve, squeezed out a few tears, and gave a delicate and affected bow to Lord Gu, “Lord Gu is truly kind-hearted and can’t bear to see our mother and child wandering the streets, redeeming the shop so that we have food to eat…”

Lord Gu suppressed his discomfort, narrowed his eyes slightly, and pointed to the plaque of the shop behind him, “When did this shop become yours?”

“Knowing that you would ask, Lord,” the woman said, prepared. She took out a booklet from her bosom and handed it over with some smugness, “My husband was afraid that I would suffer, so he left this document before he left.”

This kind of thing might fool others, but Lord Gu had worked in the Capital City for more than ten years. He had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of official documents of all sizes. He could tell whether this thing was real or fake with just one glance.

He threw the document back to the woman and snorted coldly, “You should keep such exquisite waste paper for yourself.”

The woman’s face paled, and then she began to sob softly. She carefully dabbed the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, looking every bit like an innocent woman being bullied by corrupt officials and tyrannical thugs. “Lord Gu, you can’t slander my innocence for no reason. I know my background is not good, and I know you look down on us, but you can’t…”

The common people, who didn’t know the inside story, only saw the beauty in tears, and their gazes towards Lord Gu became increasingly unfriendly.

Lord Gu had seen many of these “man-eating flowers.” He brushed away the woman’s hand that was reaching towards him and said quietly, “I remember that Cheng Xiu Cai was in good health. How could he suddenly…”

The woman’s crying stopped abruptly, and then she cried even louder, “What do you mean by this, Lord Gu? Who doesn’t know that my husband died of a sudden illness…”

“Oh.” Lord Gu nodded, not continuing to argue. He turned to Gu Zhan and twisted his ear, “You stinky brat, didn’t you go to the Study Hall again? Forget it, forget it, you can’t amount to anything in this state. My lord has recently hired a new coroner. Tomorrow, I’ll send you over there.”

Gu Zhan successfully received the signal. He broke free from his father’s hand and acted out this scene very cooperatively, “I’m not going! What abilities could those people possibly have?”

“That person really has skills. There was a case of a husband being murdered. It was about to be closed, but Lord Wang went to look at the body, and the case was overturned.” Lord Gu looked at the woman and said, word by word, “It was discovered that the man was killed after he found out that his wife was having an affair.”

The woman, who was putting on a show of beautiful tears, quietly pulled the child over and pinched his butt. The child burst into tears with a loud voice that could be heard even outside the town.

“Xiao Bao, Xiao Bao, what’s wrong with you?” The woman hurriedly picked up the child, pushed through the crowd, and rushed out, “His asthma has flared up. We have to hurry and find a doctor…”

With the shop and the debt settled, Cheng Que breathed a sigh of relief. He turned around and bowed to Lord Gu, “Thank you, Lord. I’ll go get the land deed now. I’ll entrust the shop to you in the future.”

Gu Zhan looked around, leaned close to Lord Gu, and tried to lower his voice, “Dad, did you hide four hundred taels of private money?”

“Where would I get private money? All the money in the family is managed by your mother.” Lord Gu rolled his eyes, unhumbled and a little proud.

“You mean that two hundred taels.” Gu Zhan immediately locked onto the target and turned to go home, “I’ll go find Mom. Mom likes A-Que so much. She’ll definitely agree…”

Two hundred taels of the four hundred tael debt had been resolved. The remaining two hundred taels… the remaining two hundred taels would come to their door on their own.

Yun Qi ignored Lin Yan’s obstruction and squeezed out of the crowd, cupping his fist at Lord Gu, “Lord Gu.”

“You…” Lord Gu looked at Lin Yan, who was chasing after him, and felt that these two looked somewhat familiar.

Yun Qi pulled Lin Yan to his side, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly, “My husband and I came to town to do business, and we also took a fancy to this shop.”

Yun Qi’s attire when he entered the town was too eye-catching, and Lin Yan was truly delicate and adorable, so it was hard for Lord Gu not to be impressed. He looked at Lin Yan, then looked at Yun Qi, who was completely different from what he remembered. He turned to Lin Yan and asked with difficulty, “This is your husband?”

“Ah, yes.” Lin Yan glared fiercely at Yun Qi and frantically tried to make up for it, “I made him shave his beard.”

These two clearly had secrets. Lord Gu was unwilling to cooperate with such people, but he was really anxious to get money now, and… Lord Gu also remembered the taste of that cake.

With such skill, the Cheng family’s shop would definitely be resurrected from the dead, and although these two had secrets, they didn’t seem to be slick.

Looking at the IOU, Lord Gu finally made up his mind, “How much can you come up with?”

“Two hundred taels,” Yun Qi slapped the purse into Lord Gu’s hand.

Gu Zhan emerged from who knows where, with a slightly plump woman behind him. Gu Zhan snatched the purse from Lord Gu’s hand. After a quick count, he put his arm around Yun Qi’s shoulder, “Oh, brother, your husband is really discerning. You’re also lucky. This can be considered an investment. In the future, the restaurant’s profits will be split equally between our two families.”

“Lord Gu…” Cheng Que came out of the shop holding a box. When he saw Madam Gu behind Gu Zhan, his eyes turned red again. He sniffled and presented the box to Madam Gu, “Aunt, this is the land deed for the house.”

“Oh dear, the poor thing, how could you be bullied like this?” Madam Gu casually tossed the box to her son, gently smoothing Cheng Que’s somewhat disheveled hair. She turned her head to complain to her son, who had no sense, “Why didn’t you come to me sooner? You just let that shrew bully A-Que like this?”

“Mom is right.” Gu Zhan lowered his head and admitted his mistake. He casually threw the silver to the ruffians, and roughly shooed people away, “Four hundred taels of silver, take the money and get out of here!”

“Yes, yes, yes.” With the money in hand, the ruffians exchanged glances, preparing to slip away.

Madam Gu was at her wit’s end with this good-for-nothing son. She glared fiercely at her son and stretched out her hand to the people who were about to escape, “Where’s the IOU?”

The people who were preparing to slip away stopped in their tracks and reluctantly handed over a piece of paper, “Here it is, here it is.”

Gu Zhan carefully examined it, then tore the IOU to shreds. He waved his hand magnanimously at the trembling thugs, “Alright, get lost.”

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