novelraw Chapter 194 Are you going to do the work or not?
Chapter 194 Are you going to do the work or not?
Chapter 194 Are you going to do the work or not?
These words struck a chord with Old Master Gu and Madam Feng, and their expressions softened. "Then let's listen to our daughter. We'll pay half first, and then send the other half over once you've got Siya."
"Don't worry, I'll personally deliver the money to you then!" Madam Li said with a beaming smile.
Gu Liansheng found Li Shi's smile very irritating. He didn't want to take the money in two installments, but his parents had agreed to it. If he objected, 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, inviting his classmates and friends to gather, compose poems, and drink wine. How delightful!
He realized it had been a long time since he had met up with his classmates and friends. Now that he had received five taels of silver, he could find a day to have a proper get-together.
Gu Liansheng was preoccupied with composing poems and drinking wine, completely ignoring the mutual flattery among the people in the room.
After talking for a while, Madam Li kept glancing towards the door. "Your fourth daughter has been gone for quite a while now. Why hasn't she come back yet? Is it because the shopkeeper isn't here and the accounts haven't been settled?"
Upon hearing what Li said, Feng also sensed something was wrong and wanted to send her daughter to ask the manager, when suddenly someone knocked on the door.
Li's face lit up with joy, "Fourth Sister?"
No one answered her from inside the house, and no one knew if it was Siya outside the door.
As the knocking stopped, Li Shunzi's loud voice rang out from outside: "Uncle Jin? Uncle Jin? Is everything ready? It's getting cloudy outside, it looks like it's going to rain, we need to hurry back."
Hearing that something was wrong, Li was very disappointed. She turned to Feng and said, "Have someone go look for her. Your Siya is too outstanding in appearance. I hope nothing bad has happened to her."
In the past, Madam Feng would have refused to go looking for the person, but with five taels of silver hanging over her, she couldn't very well refuse. So she gave her daughter a wink: "Go open the door, and while you're at it, go out and look for the shopkeeper and ask him if he's settled the accounts yet."
Gu Zhier responded and quickly went to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, Li Shunzi peered inside anxiously: "Where's Uncle Jin?"
“My father is inside, come in. By the way, when you came, did you see the innkeeper? Siya went to find him to settle the bill, and it’s been quite a while, but she hasn’t come back.”
Li Shunzi paused, his eyes wide with surprise: "Siya left on her own a long time ago! She said she had another argument with Uncle Jin and the others, saying that Uncle Jin chased her away and wouldn't let her ride in my oxcart back, so she spent some copper coins to hire another oxcart to go back."
"Huh?" Gu Zhier was dumbfounded, then turned to call out to Madam Feng, "Mother! Siya has run away!"
Li Shunzi had a loud voice, and everyone in the room heard him and their expressions changed.
Li looked panicked and whispered to Feng, "Why did this girl leave all by herself? Could it be... could it be that she overheard something..."
Madam Feng's heart skipped a beat, realizing it was possible, and her face immediately turned deathly pale.
"Don't panic," Grandpa Gu reassured her calmly. "With Siya's temper, if she really overheard something, she would immediately make a scene and ruin our reputation. She wouldn't sneak away on her own. She's not one to hold grudges; she'll vent her anger on the same day and won't let it linger overnight."
This is indeed Gu Tang's temperament. It has to be said that after spending so many days "getting along", he has come to understand Gu Tang's temperament quite well.
Li didn't know Gu Tang well, and when she heard this, she was half-believing and half-doubting. She urged, "You should go back quickly and see if she has returned home after you get back to the village."
"Yes, yes, hurry back and check!" Gu Liansheng, who was standing to the side, was also anxious. In his eyes, Siya was no longer a person, but a walking five taels of silver!
“Zhi’er, the shopkeeper is not looking anymore. Come and carry your mother out. Your older brother is weak and his head injury has just healed. He can’t carry anyone.”
Grandpa Gu habitually bossed his daughter around, completely forgetting about Madam Feng's current physique.
With Gu Zhier's thin and frail body, let alone carrying Feng Shi on her back, even if Feng Shi sat on her, it would be enough to crush her half to death!
Li's lips twitched. She glanced at Gu Zhier and saw that Gu Zhier really agreed with a silly look on her face. She ran to Feng's bedside, squatted down, and prepared to carry Feng out.
Just as Feng was about to climb onto Gu Zhier's back, Li Shi, unusually kind-hearted, pulled Gu Zhier up and pointed at Li Shunzi, saying, "Let Brother Shunzi help carry her out. Look at your body, be careful you don't break down!"
Upon hearing this, Old Master 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 she be?
“Sister-in-law Wang is right. I’ll carry it back. It’s not far anyway.”
Hearing this, Grandpa Gu breathed a sigh of relief and praised the person with gratitude.
It was easy for her to say, but when Feng climbed onto her back, her obviously excessive weight almost crushed the unprepared Li Shunzi.
He hurriedly steadied himself, secretly gathering his strength, his heart filled with bitterness.
His aunt is so heavy!
This weight doesn't look like that of an old lady, it's more like that of a strong young man!
Remembering what Siya had said before, that her grandmother ate fish and meat twice a day, I thought that although I outwardly believed her, I was still half-believing and half-doubting, thinking it was unlikely.
Now, weighed down by this weight, Li Shunzi dared not doubt it anymore.
An elderly woman who was ill was gaining weight instead of losing it, and she couldn't think of anything else to eat besides meat at every meal.
Taking a deep breath, Li Shunzi gritted his teeth and stood up. Suddenly, he stumbled two steps, which startled Madam Feng, who turned pale. Old Master Gu quickly supported him and helped Li Shunzi steady himself.
Once he had regained his balance, Li Shunzi carried the person and struggled to walk outside.
"Your older brother and I will go with you. You stay here and keep a close eye on things to see if you've forgotten anything."
Grandpa Gu casually told his daughter not to rush off.
Gu Zhier obediently agreed and began to look around the room.
Li didn't leave either. After Old Master Gu and his group left the house, she stopped Gu Zhi'er: "You can see everything in this house at a glance. What could you possibly miss? Stop rummaging around. Hurry up, we have to go back. If it really rains later, we'll all have to brave the winter rain to get home!"
Gu Zhier stopped and glanced around the room. Indeed, the room could be scanned at a glance. Apart from a bed and a table, there was nothing else. If anything was missing, it could be found without searching.
"We didn't leave anything behind, let's go back."
After Li and Gu Zhier left the inn, the entire Gu family had already boarded the oxcart, each wrapped in a quilt for fear of catching a cold.
Seeing Gu Zhier come out, Old Master Gu asked casually, "Did you leave anything behind?"
"No, I've searched everywhere." "Alright! Then go back home. Your mother is so sick, you should come back and see her. If there's a carriage on the road tomorrow, have Da Gui drive it to take you home."
"Sigh!" Gu Zhier responded happily, while Li Shi behind her rolled her eyes.
She thought she was biased towards sons over daughters, but she didn't expect the Gu family to be even more biased than her!
It's true... the girls who were born into the Gu family must have done something terrible in their past lives!
After Gu Zhier got on the oxcart, the Wang family's oxcart did not follow Li Shunzi's oxcart out of the city.
Besides wanting to see Gu Tang, they also wanted to buy some earthenware pots to take back with them.
In the cold winter, when it snowed, the family only provided one meal a day. Each room was given a clay pot, and whichever room had the ability to get an extra meal could eat more. The two elders of the Wang family didn't care about these things.
Li already had a clay pot in her house, but she thought that since her two sons were both in school, it wouldn't be enough to just make some porridge for them as a snack. She wanted to buy another clay pot for stewing meat so that she could properly supplement her sons' diet during the winter.
Therefore, after the Gu family left, the Wang family's oxcart went straight to the shop selling earthenware pots, thinking they should hurry over and buy some, then return immediately, as the day was indeed very gloomy.
As the sky darkened, not only were the Gu and Wang families anxious, but things were also not going well for Gu Tang.
At the place where she could hire an oxcart at the city gate, she asked three people in a row, but none of them were willing to go to Shanghe Village to deliver a message for her. They said that the sky was overcast and it was going to rain, or even snow, so they didn't want to go.
Gu Tang, stubborn as ever, tripled the price for delivering the message and quickly found a strong, middle-aged man who knew about Shanghe Village.
The man sometimes passed through Shanghe Village when he was driving people around, and he knew the road very well. This reassured Gu Tang a lot. He told Gu Tang to ask people as soon as he entered the village and to say that he was looking for Gu Wancheng (his third uncle's name).
After seeing the strong man off, Gu Tang found a shop selling fried dough cakes, bought about ten cakes, wrapped them in a piece of burlap, and then walked west along the city wall.
The further west they went, the more beggars appeared at the foot of the city wall. As if they had smelled the aroma of the fried dough, they all stared at the fried dough in Gu Tang's hand with eyes like hungry wolves.
Gu Tang knew when to stop and stopped after walking a short distance.
She didn't know which of these beggars were good and which were evil. She glanced at them casually and walked towards a group of little beggars.
There were about twenty of these little beggars, all with complete hands and feet and neat appearances.
That's why these little beggars are so conspicuous.
Normally, a young beggar with all his hands and feet and a neat appearance, regardless of gender, is in high demand. Human traffickers would not let go of this risk-free business and would kidnap and sell him early on.
But right now, there are twenty little beggars huddled intact at the foot of the city wall. Anyone with a brain knows that someone must be behind this.
Gu Tang first made sure that the pepper spray and stun gun were on, then threw the fried dough stick in her hand over.
This unexpected treat stunned the little beggars, who fell silent for a moment before bursting into a frenzy of grabbing.
After the fried dough cakes were distributed, Gu Tang took out a gleaming silver coin from his sleeve. "I'd like to hire you for a job. We'll work from 9 AM to 5 PM, and you'll be paid daily. Are you interested?"
The little beggars quieted down, staring blankly at Gu Tang, then at the silver in his hand, unsure whether he was making fun of them or trying to trick them out of their money.
These little beggars ranged in age from about five or six to about the same age as Gu Tang. Although they knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch and that the person in front of them might have ulterior motives, they were still tempted.
Two beggars, around ten years old, tried to stand up, but were pulled back by the older beggar beside them.
They remained silent. The little beggar who had grabbed the man pointed to the alley to the west, his gaze stern.
The little beggar who had been pulled away changed his expression. Seeing the alley, he obviously realized something, lowered his head, sat back down, and continued to eat his pancake in silence.
Gu Tang took in the whole scene and glanced at the alley a few times. There was nothing special about it; it was just an ordinary alley. People who lived in alleys like this were usually not well-off, and their homes were cramped and small.
But this shouldn't be the reason for the little beggars' change of attitude. Could it be that the person behind the little beggars lives somewhere?
Withdrawing her gaze, Gu Tang calmly handed the silver in her hand to them: "What I have here is silver, three taels. If you come to work for me, you can each earn three taels of silver in a few days."
Upon hearing this, the little beggars' eyes burned even brighter. Anyone who wasn't blind could see that the little beggars were truly moved, as if they would agree at any moment.
Strangely, no matter how ardent the gazes were, these little beggars remained unmoved and resolutely shook their heads in refusal.
They were clearly tempted, yet they refused once or twice. It's obvious that these little beggars had no choice in the matter.
Gu Tang took the silver back and said, "I know you can't make the decision, so let's find someone who can. I'll come back to find you again at the beginning of the morning tomorrow. If you really don't want to come work for me then, I'll find someone else."
The little beggars never expected that this person would give them another chance after they had already refused twice. Faced with such temptation, the little beggars, who had suffered so much, could no longer resist. The older ones led the younger ones, and the group quickly ran away.
Gu Tang stared at their direction for a while, and saw a group of people heading straight for that alley.
Clearly, the person behind them is in that alley.
Turning her gaze away, Gu Tang decided to go back first and come back tomorrow.
As she turned around, she found herself surrounded by about a dozen beggars, all of them adult men, some lame, some blind, and some with all four limbs intact.
Tsk!
It seems this is caused by financial loss.
Gu Tang reached into the bag slung over his arm, pulled out pepper spray, and preemptively sprayed it at the beggars around him.
The pepper spray that Gu Tang drew was made of highly concentrated water-soluble capsicum extract. It was very effective, and even if someone accidentally sprayed it, they would be fine; they could just wash it off with water.
The red chili extract sprayed rapidly in all directions, with a range farther than Gu Tang had imagined. It landed very accurately on the eyes of the beggars, instantly eliciting screams of agony.
Soon, one by one, the beggars around them lay on the ground, covering their eyes, kicking their legs wildly, rolling around in agony.
She didn't spray the remaining three, because after the first beggar won the lottery, these three beggars immediately knelt down and kowtowed to beg for mercy, but the remaining beggars were still not giving up and wanted to continue to surround her.
Gu Tang mercilessly dealt with all the remaining beggars, leaving only three kneeling beggars.
Gu Tang stepped forward, impatiently telling them to shut up, and asked them about the little beggars: "Do you know those little beggars from earlier? Who do they usually hang out with?"