novelraw Chapter 213 Tie him up and send him away!
Chapter 213 Tie him up and send him away!
Chapter 213 Tie him up and send him away!
The waiter's words calmed Gu Lianshan down. He glared at Gu Lai'an, telling him to behave himself later.
"You only think about your own unwillingness to go, but you don't consider whether they want you! I won't lie to you, in order to send you there, your old man paid your master six taels of silver!"
Six taels of silver will cover you for three years. For the next three years, as long as you are not killed, it doesn't matter if you lose an arm or a leg.
"Three years from now, if you repent, your master will begin to teach you skills. If you remain incorrigible, I will bring you back, break your legs, and raise you like livestock!"
Gu Lianshan spoke through gritted teeth, which sent chills down Gu Lai'an's spine.
But these words did not move Gu Lai'an; instead, they made him even more resentful!
Just now he said he had no money, but now he says he spent six taels of silver to find him a master. Wouldn't it be better to give him those six taels of silver than to find him a master?
What father would let a stranger take advantage of his son with money?!
They just wanted him dead, but didn't dare to do it for fear of damaging their reputation, so they simply gave money to outsiders to kill him!
Gu Lai'an grew increasingly resentful as he thought about it, his gaze turning sinister as he watched his father step forward to open the door and welcome in an elderly man with gray hair.
"Master Wei! Please come in, please come in..." Gu Lianshan greeted the old man with a smile and respectfully welcomed him into the house.
Behind Master Wei were two middle-aged men and two young boys, each carrying a bundle, who followed Master Wei closely.
Gu Lianshan pulled Gu Lai'an over and introduced him to him one by one.
The two young men were Master Wei's apprentices, and the two middle-aged men were bodyguards hired by Gu Lianshan. Their purpose was twofold: to protect Master Wei and his party on their way to Mo City, and to prevent Gu Lai'an from escaping along the way.
Hearing these words, Gu Lai'an's face darkened, his eyes filled with malicious provocation. Despite his father Gu Lianshan's urging, he stubbornly refused to say a word.
Gu Tang didn't join in the fun inside. While her father was talking, she went out and called the young waiter back, handed him a few copper coins as a delivery fee, and asked him to bring over some good tea and snacks, as well as some dry food for the journey. They would settle the bill together when they left.
The young waiter, having received the bribe, smiled and readily agreed, then quickly ran towards the kitchen.
Gu Tang didn't go inside, but waited at the door. After a short while, the waiter brought over some good tea and snacks.
"The dry rations are still being prepared and will be ready soon. I'll bring out the tea and snacks first, so as not to neglect our guests."
"You're so thoughtful, bring it in." Gu Tang pushed open the door and led the person into the house.
The atmosphere inside was not good, but Gu Tang pretended not to notice and continued to speak with a smile: "I asked the waiter to bring some hot tea and snacks. It's not easy for you to come all this way in this cold weather, so have some hot tea to warm up first."
She personally placed the snacks on the small table in front of Master Wei, and then poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to him.
Master Wei looked serious. He smiled slightly at Gu Tang as he accepted the hot tea, then turned back to continue scrutinizing Gu Lai'an.
"Master Wei... what do you think of this child?" Gu Lianshan was not very confident; his son was truly useless at everything.
In order to find a suitable craftsman, Gu Lianshan had treated many people to meals and drinks over the past few days. Finally, with the help of the clan leader, he met Master Wei.
Although Master Wei has a serious face, he is a good person and a good teacher. As long as his apprentices are hardworking and diligent, whether they are smart or stupid, Master Wei treats them all the same and teaches them everything he knows. He never deceives his apprentices or holds back anything.
A skilled craftsman with such good character is selective in accepting apprentices; he won't accept just anyone.
Gu Lianshan wanted Master Wei to take his son in, so he couldn't hide Gu Lai'an's temperament from him.
Since the guarantor in the middle is Chief Gu, if this is kept secret, wouldn't we be putting Chief Gu in a difficult position?
Therefore, when Gu Lianshan first met Master Wei, he told Master Wei everything about his son's character.
In order to prevent Master Wei from refusing to accept him as an apprentice, he dragged Chief Gu along and pestered him relentlessly, using all sorts of sweet talk. He also took out six taels of silver and sent it over, saying it was for his son's food and drink expenses for three years.
Finally, Master Wei, fed up with the nagging, agreed, saying he would try it for three years first, and if it didn't work out after three years, he would let Gu Lianshan take the person back.
Now that the two sides have met, Gu Lianshan wants to know what kind of evaluation Master Wei, who always has a sharp eye, will give his son.
Since entering the house, Master Wei's eyes had been fixed on Gu Lai'an. When he heard Gu Lianshan ask this question, he looked away and his gaze fell on Gu Lianshan. He hesitated, unsure whether he should tell the truth.
Gu Lianshan sensed that Master Wei had something to say, but seemed to have some reservations.
He casually wiped his face and said, "Just say what you want to say. I know my own son well. He's definitely not a good person. I just want to know if he can be reformed?"
Master Wei didn't hesitate this time: "Nine times out of ten, you can't change your mind. You can still back out now that I'm still here, but once I'm gone, you won't be able to back out."
Gu Lianshan paused, understanding the meaning behind his words.
He hasn't set off yet, and if he changes his mind, he will return the six taels of silver he gave him in full.
If we wait until they set off, the money will not be returned.
Gu Lianshan didn't back down: "I really had no other choice, so I came to you, sir. No matter what happens in the end, this is the best way out for him right now."
Let’s do it.
Since the father has said so, there's nothing more for me to say.
Master Wei could understand his feelings. Who wouldn't be angry after having such a bastard?
Let's just take it in and raise it for three years. If it doesn't work out, we can let someone else take it back.
Feeling rejected by both his own father and outsiders, Gu Lai'an could no longer hold back and shouted, "I'm not going! I won't learn carpentry! I won't be an apprentice!"
"Pah! Who said they'd teach you carpentry? You want to learn carpentry if you don't obediently follow your master around and work for free for three years?"
Gu Lianshan spat at him, not taking his words to heart, and invited Master Wei to have tea and snacks, telling him not to pay attention to this bastard's words, since he didn't have the final say.
Halfway through their hot tea, the waiter's voice came from outside again, saying that Gu Tang's ordered dry rations were ready.
Gu Lianshan looked at Gu Tang: "Dry rations?"
"Yes, this is for my elder brother and Master Wei." Gu Tang stepped forward, opened the door, and took the tray from the waiter, bringing it in.
The tray held about a dozen tightly wrapped oil paper packets, each containing a fried dough stick that had been slowly fried in oil.
"Take food with you on the road, so you won't have trouble finding a place to eat when you get hungry."
Gu Lai'an looked at the fried dough sticks with hatred in his eyes, and raised his hand to throw them away!
"You little brat, you've gone too far!" Gu Lianshan kicked the man, knocking him to the ground.
Master Wei glanced at it, said nothing, and continued to drink tea and eat snacks.
After he had filled his stomach, he put down his teacup and stood up: "It's getting late, and the journey is long, so let's set off quickly."
The bodyguards and their apprentices also got up, but Gu Lai'an remained on the ground, refusing to get up.
Gu Tang ignored him and distributed the dry rations to the bodyguards and apprentices, telling them to put them into the bundles on their backs.
Faced with Gu Lai'an's shameless tactics, Gu Lianshan completely lost patience with him, pulled out a rope, and tied up his hands and feet before he could react.
"Dad! What are you doing?! Let me go!"
Gu Lai'an cried out in terror, his voice trembling. Gu Lianshan ignored him and called over the two bodyguards, instructing them to carry Gu Lai'an onto their oxcart.
"Don't untie him easily, he'll definitely run away halfway. Remember, if he runs away even once, let him go hungry for a meal, don't be soft on him."
"Oh, I got it."
The two bodyguards, one lifting the head and the other the leg, easily carried the person away.
Gu Lianshan and Master Wei followed closely behind, followed by Master Wei's two apprentices.
Gu Tang stayed behind to settle her bill with the innkeeper.
The shopkeeper was in the lobby, and when Gu Tang came to settle the bill, his smile never stopped.
He grabbed the abacus and swung it around for a while, and the bill came out quickly, totaling two and a half taels of silver.
The bulk of the meal was the one ordered by Gu Lai'an.
A meal and a pot of wine cost one and a half taels of silver!
After settling the bill, Gu Tang hurriedly left the inn and saw her father loading things onto Master Wei's oxcart at the entrance.
Those were Gu Lai'an's clothes and bedding.
Her father secretly packed up all of Gu Lai'an's clothes and brought them over.
Gu Lai'an glared viciously at her father, her mouth gagged with a cloth, and a bodyguard was watching her closely. If she made any unusual movements or showed any intention to run away, she would be punished immediately.
After unloading the last bundle, the oxcart quickly started moving and headed straight for the city gate.
Watching Master Wei and the others walk away, Gu Lianshan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling no worry, only relief.
Once the oxcart was out of sight, he turned to Gu Tang and asked, "Didn't you say you were going to Changqing Gate? Father will take you there now."
Gu Tang wasn't in the mood to go right now. She whispered, "Let's go back. All I can think about right now is all this money. I need to go back and think about how to sell the incense safely without getting caught."
"This is something we really need to think about."
Thinking of everyone's frenzied enthusiasm, Gu Lianshan felt a chill run down his spine. He had to come up with a good plan and absolutely could not expose himself.
With a flick of the whip, the oxcart slowly moved forward.
Gu Tang sat on the oxcart, his body swaying slightly with the movement of the cart, a vague idea forming in his mind.
In the past few days, she has been guiding people towards weapons during the daily check-in, and quite a few self-defense weapons have appeared.
She felt that two of the weapons were very suitable for her plans.
One is tear gas, the other is poison gas.
She only got ten check-ins for tear gas, but she got two hundred check-ins for poison gas.
The poison gas bombs given by the system were somewhat special; the poison inside the bombs could be changed at will. She used up all the lottery chances she had accumulated and drew a poison gift pack, which contained two or three kinds of poisons and gases that, in small amounts, were not lethal but could quickly make people faint and lose consciousness.
Gu Tang planned to make a switch, stuffing the bullet with poison or gas that could knock people unconscious, then find a good location and have someone notify the Cheng family to bring cash for the transaction.
That's right, she only wants cash, not banknotes!
When the time comes, she will hide in the shadows and wait for the Cheng family members to show up before releasing a poison gas bomb to knock them out.
Once she has the money, she can gracefully retire.
As for the backflow incense, don't worry, it will be given to the Cheng family. One backflow incense costs ten thousand taels of silver. She took the silver, but she still has the most basic professional ethics.
However, there is one problem: her father cannot be involved in this matter, otherwise she will not be able to explain the poison gas bomb.
Back in the courtyard, Gu Tang told her father that she hadn't figured out how to sell the incense without exposing them.
Fortunately, the fragrance had already spread, so there was no worry about selling it. She thought to herself, no rush. If her father had something to do, he could go ahead and take care of it. She didn't have anything to do for the time being.
Gu Lianshan really did have something to do.
He said, “Yesterday when I went back, Tianbao came to my house looking for me with a limp. He had a money bag in his arms with more than ten taels of silver in it. He said he wanted me to help him find someone to go to the village on the mountainside in the north to look for Wei Shi.”
"You agreed?"
Gu Lianshan shook his head: "I would like to agree, but when I went back yesterday, something happened in the village, and after that, Father hesitated and didn't know whether he should get involved."
This piqued Gu Tang's curiosity: "What happened in the village?"
"What happened? The Gu family has embarrassed themselves again! That bastard Gu Liansheng held a funeral for Wei Shi in the village and invited a lot of relatives and neighbors. By the time I returned to the village, the coffin had already been buried."
Gu Tang: "...Does the Gu family know that Wei Shi might still be alive?"
“I know. Father told them himself, and the moment Father told them, they immediately started holding a funeral for Wei Shi. It’s obvious that they despise Wei Shi and want to make her a dead person. I heard from Tianbao that that bastard Gu Liansheng has already found a matchmaker and said he wants to take another wife.”
"What did the Wei family say?"
"The Wei family? They didn't even utter a peep!"
"It seems the Wei family isn't going to get involved. If they're not going to get involved, then it's not appropriate for us to get involved either. Don't get involved in this. Let Gu Tianbao lead the way to Shanyao Village himself. You can help find a few people to go with him. Don't ask any other questions."
Gu Lianshan meant the same thing.
"Since you're not in a hurry to sell incense, why don't you come back to the village with your father?"
Gu Tang paused, then shook her head: "Although we're not in a hurry to sell, we still need to keep an eye on things and not just ignore them."
Gu Lianshan didn't believe her. He guessed that the girl had something else on her mind.
Knowing that she was full of ideas and stubborn, and that no one could persuade her once she made up her mind, Gu Lianshan did not force her to go back.
After resting in the courtyard for a while, Gu Lianshan went back by himself.
After seeing her father off, Gu Tang immediately got busy.
She took out ten poison gas bombs and replaced all the poison gas inside with a high concentration of hallucinogens.
These hallucinogens can knock someone unconscious within five breaths. They're not good for robbery... ugh! They're great helpers in eliminating evil for the people!
She hadn't forgotten what Mrs. Han had said yesterday.