novelraw Chapter 217 Get rich overnight!
Chapter 217 Get rich overnight!
Chapter 217 Get rich overnight!
Ah Gou wasn't picky at all; he had no objections to whatever arrangements Gu Tang made for him.
In fact, he not only had no objections, but was also somewhat flattered!
Given Gu Tangdu's dislike for him, he was prepared to be kicked out, or perhaps bring some hay to sleep on the floor.
Unexpectedly, Gu Tang neither kicked him out nor made him sleep on the floor, but instead arranged a room for him and even provided him with bedding.
Ah Gou was very happy. Does this mean that their relationship has improved?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but run over and ask Gu Tang.
Gu Tang rolled her eyes at him: "You're not asleep yet. You can only dream about it when you're asleep."
After saying that, Gu Tang went back to her room on her own and ignored him.
After working all night, I'm so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open. I have no energy left to play along with him.
She didn't even bother to count or account for the loot she had plundered. After a quick wash, she climbed into bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
When I woke up, it was already late afternoon. I had slept for a little over four hours, so I had a good night's sleep and woke up naturally.
After getting dressed and leaving the house, I looked up and saw smoke billowing from the chimney on the roof of the kitchen in the second courtyard.
Gu Tang was startled. Who was lighting the fire in the kitchen?
Could it be her father?
Following the covered walkway, I hurried to the second courtyard and headed straight for the kitchen.
Gu Tang froze as soon as she reached the kitchen door.
The person tending the fire in the kitchen wasn't her father, but Ah Gou.
He lit the small stove and kept adding firewood to the firebox. Something was simmering in the pot, and steam kept escaping from around the lid.
Gu Tang took a sniff; it smelled like chicken soup.
"What are you stewing?" As I walked in, I smelled the aroma, which grew stronger with each sip!
When Ah Gou saw her coming over, he quickly got up, lifted the pot lid, and boasted to her, "I went to the street to check things out and saw some wild mushrooms for sale. I thought you would be hungry when you woke up, so I bought some wild mushrooms and a chicken to make soup for you."
"You can cook?" Gu Tang was a little surprised. How could a ghost messenger from the underworld cook?
"I don't even know if I can cook. When I see people selling vegetables on the street, cooking always pops into my head."
"Then you must have been a cook before you became a ghost messenger!" Gu Tang said with certainty.
what?
Ah Gou paused for a moment: "I don't remember what I did before I became a ghost messenger. If you put it that way, it might actually be true."
Gu Tang paused, then looked at him with a puzzled expression: "You don't know what you did before you became a ghost messenger?"
"I don't know." Ah Gou shook his head. "It seems to be a rule of the underworld. If you want to become a ghost messenger in the underworld, you have to forget some things."
Gu Tang gasped, "And yet, when I was in the underworld, I was even thinking that if I couldn't be resurrected, I could become a ghost messenger!"
I almost got myself killed!
Hearing this, Ah Gou was very surprised. Those who had their souls taken by mistake earlier, after entering the underworld, all thought about how to get benefits to be reincarnated or return to life. Not one of them thought about staying to be a ghost messenger.
She really is the first one.
Without the lid blocking the way, the aroma of the chicken soup and the umami flavor of the wild mushrooms instantly intensified, making one's mouth water.
"Is it cooked yet?" Gu Tang's stomach rumbled, and she picked up a pair of chopsticks and started poking the chicken.
The bamboo chopsticks pierced through the chicken easily, indicating it was cooked.
"It's been stewing for half an hour, it's ready to eat now." Ah Gou took out a new bamboo basin and scooped the chicken out of the pot and put it into the bamboo basin.
Then he placed it on a small table to the side and let Gu Tang sit there to eat.
Gu Tang remembered that she hadn't washed up yet, so she quickly went to the stove to get some hot water, poured it into a basin, added some cold water, mixed it up, and carried it outside to the veranda to wash up.
While she was washing up, Ah Gou skimmed the oil off the chicken soup, ladled out a full bowl for her, and placed it on a small table to cool so she could drink it later.
After finishing Gu Tang's meal, A Gou continued preparing his own.
There was still a lot of chicken soup in the pot, so he added some water and a few more pieces of firewood to keep the fire burning. Then he took out the dough he had just kneaded and prepared to make himself two bowls of noodles.
When Gu Tang returned from washing up, she saw him rolling out noodles.
She was stunned by what she saw, her expression somewhat dazed, as if she had witnessed something extraordinary.
Ah Gou didn't think anything was wrong. Seeing Gu Tang return, he asked her while rolling out the noodles, "Want some noodles? I'll make a lot and serve you a small bowl to try."
Gu Tang glanced at the chicken in the bamboo basin and shook her head: "I'll be full after eating a chicken leg and drinking some chicken soup. I don't need noodles."
Ah Gou paused for a moment; she didn't have a big appetite.
Sitting on the short stool, Gu Tang carefully tore off a chicken leg and kept blowing on it, as the chicken was still piping hot from the pot.
Gu Tang tentatively took a bite, grimacing from the heat. While eating, she asked Ah Gou, "Didn't you say you were going to scout out the situation on the street? What's the situation outside now? Has anyone woken up at the Cheng family's place?"
"I went to the Cheng family's house for a quick look, and they were still unconscious. I guess they were given too much hallucinogen."
"Not much. That's the effect of the hallucinogen. Whether you inhale it once or ten times, you'll sleep for a whole day before waking up. By the way, is the matter of the backflow incense still being discussed outside?"
"It's not just a discussion, it's getting more and more crazy. Even Headmaster Han of Changshan Academy has spread the word that he wants to buy the Backflow Incense at a high price."
At this point, Ah Gou asked her, "Are you still selling backflow incense?"
"Sell it!" Gu Tang said, his mouth greasy as he gnawed on a chicken leg. "I went to all this trouble to put on this show just to create hype for the Backflow Incense. Once the hype is built up and the price goes up, I can sell it whenever I want without worrying about not getting a good price!"
"Shall we go find Headmaster Han? He should be more reliable than the Cheng family; he wouldn't be thinking of lying to us."
Ah Gou held the knife, multitasking as he cut noodles while thinking about Han Shanzhang, whom he had met that day and who seemed like a virtuous gentleman.
Gu Tang disagreed: "When the Cheng family wakes up in the evening, there will probably be a bloodbath in the city. Let's leave it at this juncture and wait until things calm down. We should think about what to do with the wealth we plundered from the Cheng family."
Ah Gou had already cut the noodles, and the chicken soup in the pot had boiled. He put the noodles into the pot and stirred them a few times with bamboo chopsticks.
Only then did he say, "You can't keep all of the Cheng family's wealth in your hands; it will diminish your good karma. Take half of it out to do good deeds and accumulate merit for yourself."
Even if you don't tell me, I wouldn't dare keep it all to myself; there's too much!
Speaking of silver, Gu Tang recalled the silver box she had seen in the warehouse last night.
She told Ah Gou about it and asked him to inquire whether there were any wealthy families in the city with the surnames "Shen" and "Bai".
"I wondered if these two families had committed some crime and were trying to secretly transfer their assets? After all, the Cheng family has a daughter who is a concubine in the palace, so they have a strong backing and dared to accept these valuables."
Ah Gou also thought it was possible, "I'll give some copper coins to those beggars outside and ask them to help me find out."
Hearing him mention beggars, Gu Tang asked curiously, "How did you end up with beggars? What's the story with those little beggars? Did you pick them up?"
Mentioning this, Ah Gou, unusually, suffered a heart attack and couldn't speak. He extinguished the fire in the stove, ladled the cooked noodles into a bowl, and after a while, began to speak of the matter with a depressed expression. "After I possessed this body, I forcibly separated the otherworldly soul from me while it was weak. Then, I accidentally let it escape, and I passed out. When I woke up again, I found myself picked up by a few beggar children."
At this point, Ah Gou rarely showed a hint of helplessness, "I don't know what's wrong with those little beggars, they keep picking up people along the way! And they're all children!"
After I woke up, I helped them drive away some people who had ill intentions towards them, and they all wanted to call me their boss.
Because I haven't been able to find you, the world's rejection of me has become increasingly severe. I sleep for several hours every day, and those little beggars protect me while I'm unconscious, so I've decided to settle down with them.
Gu Tang pondered for a moment: "So, those little beggars are all kind and righteous?"
"He is indeed loyal and righteous." Ah Gou couldn't deny that.
An idea popped into Gu Tang's mind. Staring at Ah Gou, who was eating noodles with gusto, she suddenly said, "Didn't you just say that you wanted me to take half of my money to do charity? Why don't we start a 'charity hall'?"
"Charity hall?"
“Yes, a charity hall.” Gu Tang nodded. “It’s easy to get scammed when doing other good deeds. It’s better to open a charity hall and take in abandoned orphans, beggars, and elderly people without children. They can all be taken in.”
Ah Gou thought about it for a while and thought it was feasible: "If it can really be done, it will be a good deed that will accumulate merit and benefit you."
"Then it's settled. After we finish eating, we'll go to the main room to tally up how much silver we've looted. Half will be used to set up a charity, and the other half will be mine!"
Gu Tang spoke the last sentence very solemnly.
She's put in so many hallucinogens, she has to see a return on her investment!
Ah Gou knew she liked money, and had already told her that half of it would be hers, so he naturally wouldn't try to take it from her now.
After the meal, Ah Gou washed the pots and bowls, and also cleaned the kitchen.
Gu Tang slowly went to the main room to wait for him.
After cleaning the kitchen, Ah Gou went to the main room with a heavy heart, afraid that she would get impatient while waiting.
Fortunately, Gu Tang was in a great mood because she was about to count the money, and she didn't even notice how long she had been waiting.
She took out the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone and placed them on the table. She counted the silver and had Ah Gou keep track of the amount.
Let's start with gold and silver.
Last night, in addition to looting eighty boxes of gold and silver from the Cheng family's storeroom, she also took twenty boxes of gold and silver from the old lady of the Cheng family's yard, and a total of fifty boxes of gold and silver from the yards of the three sons of the Cheng family.
That's not all. The Cheng family has nearly thirty grandchildren, but only one grandson; the rest are all granddaughters.
That only son of a wealthy family was extremely rich; thirty chests of gold and silver were looted from his courtyard!
Even with all twenty-odd granddaughters of the Cheng family combined, they couldn't scrape together enough for a chest of silver!
Gu Tang ultimately refused their gifts and had Ah Gou return them all.
Gu Tang also didn't touch the Cheng family's daughters-in-law.
There are a total of one hundred and eighty boxes of gold and silver.
The main room has limited space and cannot hold 180 boxes, so they have to be released in batches of ten boxes each.
The first batch was gold and silver from the Cheng family's warehouse.
The ten boxes were opened, and they were all filled with dazzling snowflake silver.
These boxes are all wooden boxes with limited weight capacity. Although the boxes look big, there are actually things placed at the bottom, with silver on top, making them look like they are full of silver.
In fact, it contains a lot of water.
If the box is full of silver ingots, it is much easier to count them. The weight is engraved on the bottom of the ingots. Count the number of ingots first, and then calculate the total weight of the ingots. You can quickly find out how much silver is in the box.
The first batch of boxes were full of silver ingots, each box containing five thousand taels, ten boxes totaling fifty thousand taels!
After Ah Gou made a note of it, Gu Tang put the silver and the box into the system backpack separately, with the silver occupying one slot and the empty box occupying one slot as well.
Once all the gold and silver have been registered, Ah Gou will chop the discarded boxes into firewood and burn them all.
The second batch of boxes was much more troublesome, as it contained silver ingots and loose silver, making it difficult to calculate the weight.
After counting one box, Gu Tang refused to continue and insisted on switching places with Ah Gou. He would count while she kept track.
Ah Gou was very patient, counting the boxes one by one, and then quietly reported the results to Gu Tang.
Gu Tang wrote down the numbers that A Gou reported one by one.
As the silver was released in batches, the paper in front of Gu Tang was filled with writing.
The two of them worked until early 9 PM before they finally finished tallying up all the silver.
The total amount of silver was 490,000 taels. The total amount of gold was 410,000 taels.
The exchange rate between gold and silver was one tael of gold for ten taels of silver.
Four hundred and ten thousand taels of gold can be exchanged for four million one hundred thousand taels of silver.
Gu Tang clicked his tongue twice as he looked at the final figure. "The total is a whopping four million six hundred thousand taels of silver! That's all in cash alone, not even counting the banknotes. The Cheng family is no ordinary family!"
The Cheng family's banknotes were all of large denominations. Gu Tang didn't touch them during the search. Using large denomination banknotes in Bei'an City would be easily detected, and she didn't want to take the risk.
"Are there any other registrations?" Ah Gou asked.
"We don't have time today, let's stop here and continue tomorrow!"
Gu Tang folded the paper with the amount of silver written on it and put it into her system backpack. She patted her stomach and said she was hungry.
Ah Gou wiped his hands and asked her what she wanted to eat: "There's meat, eggs, and vegetables in the kitchen. You only ate one chicken leg from the stewed chicken this afternoon. How about I make you a bowl of shredded chicken noodles?"
Chicken noodles?
Gu Tang smacked her lips, drooling, and said, "I'll do as you say, I'll make shredded chicken noodles."
Having heard this, Ah Gou went to the kitchen.
Gu Tang followed along. She didn't eat for free; she could help with the fire.
Upon arriving at the kitchen, Ah Gou carefully washed his hands. After cleaning them, he added flour and water to the mixing bowl, preparing to knead the dough.
Seeing his extremely skilled movements, as if he had done it a thousand times, Gu Tang became even more certain that he must have been a chef before.
A thought struck her, and she asked Ah Gou if he could restore some of the food.
"What kind of food?"
"In my previous life, there was a widely circulated book that contained many kinds of delicious food."
Gu Tang started counting on her fingers: "Steamed lamb with milk, ham and bamboo shoot soup, lotus leaf and lotus seed soup, steamed cheese with sugar, goose breast with rouge... and finally, the unforgettable eggplant dish!"