"Village, Village Chief." After the Mo Family People ca in front of Village Chief He, Mo Dali started to negotiate with Village Chief He, as Elder Mo now wouldn’t have the face to speak out.
Village Chief He didn’t waste words with them, and directly said to Elder Mo: "Five taels of Silver, bring five taels of Silver, and the matter with your second granddaughter will be considered past."
"Why should our family give five taels of Silver? It’s Qiuyue who has suffered!" Mo Dakui’s wife was furious, looking at her daughter who had fainted, thinking of the grievances her daughter endured, she was so angry that she started to shed tears.
Her Qiuyue was supposed to marry Gu Jin’an and beco a scholar’s wife, but now because of He San Lai, the marriage with Gu Jin’an has fallen through, her reputation ruined, and the Mo Family hasn’t even settled the account with He San Lai yet, how could they reverse the situation and give money out?
"Not giving? Fine." Village Chief He said to He San Lai: "Today is a good day, suitable for marriage. Take Mo’s second granddaughter back ho now."
"Eh, thank you, Village Chief." He San Lai rubbed his hands, his face showing he couldn’t wait, as he moved toward the fainted Mo Qiuyue. This scared Mo Dakui’s wife so much that she threw herself onto Mo Qiuyue, shouting at Village Chief He: "We’ll give, we’ll give it!"
Their family wasn’t as poor as they seed on the surface, they had five taels of Silver.
Her father-in-law was smart, he always hid so private money and hadn’t taken it out. The family’s food and drink, including so of the expenses on the road during the famine, all were scrimped from Mo Kui’s family; it was Mo Kui’s family that was truly too poor to uncover their pot.
When Elder Mo heard what Mo Dakui’s wife said, he was so angry that he almost wanted to strangle her. But the face they had lost today was already too much, and with four villagers standing around enjoying the drama, Elder Mo didn’t want to lose more face. Trembling, he took out a small pouch from inside his clothes and took out five taels of broken Silver, handing it to Mo Dakui next to him.
Mo Dakui hurriedly took the Silver, and brought the Silver to Village Chief He.
Village Chief He took the Silver, waved his hand impatiently, and said to the Mo Family People: "Hurry ho, seeing you just upsets . Rember the lesson today. If it happens again, it won’t be settled just by paying a fine."
The Mo Family had suffered a big loss and lost face; how could they dare to stay any longer? Seeing the village chief let them go, Elder Mo imdiately turned around to leave.
Mo Dayong and his wife pulled their own Mo Dongyue, along with their eldest son Mo Xiangxi, and followed Elder Mo to leave quickly.
Mo Dali glared at Mo Chunyue, angry that she didn’t help her own family, but Mo Chunyue just snorted coldly, turning her head away, completely ignoring him. Mo Dali was fuming but didn’t dare to scold Mo Chunyue in front of Village Chief He, so he could only turn his head and leave.
Old Mrs. Mo and Mo Dakui’s wife carried the fainted Mo Qiuyue; Mo Dakui took Mo Xiangbei and Mo Xiangnan, scooting away in a dejected manner.
Village Chief He said to Gu Jinli: "Xiao Yu, rest assured, after today’s lesson, they won’t dare to trouble your family again."
As he said this, he handed the five taels of Silver to her.
Gu Jinli refused to take it: "My family shouldn’t take this Silver, Village Chief, keep it for the village."
Seeing she wasn’t accepting, Village Chief He put the Silver away and said to He Shiliu and the others holding congratulatory gifts: "Gu Family Workshop has guests, take the gifts there, get your bean cakes and go back. The Gu Family won’t forget your kindness."
County Captain Jiang had personally co; he didn’t want the villagers to lack tact and disturb Lord County Captain.
He Shiliu said: "Rest assured, Village Chief, we know how to behave. We’ll just deliver the congratulatory gifts and return."
He called to those carrying the congratulatory gifts: "Hurry up, follow to deliver the gifts, after that we still have work to do."
"Alright." The other three villagers imdiately followed He Shiliu.
He Shiliu was one of the few people in the He family with so savings, and he made a living by leading others to find stone materials.
Stone materials were important in ancient tis, used for millstones and building houses. But because stone is so heavy, they could get crushed by falling stones if not careful.
The reason He Shiliu managed to build up his wealth was that when he was young, he found a peculiar stone, which caught the eye of a rich household. They paid a hundred taels of silver for it. At the ti, He Shiliu was shocked; he only kept the stone because he thought it was pretty and couldn’t bear to throw it away, never expecting to make a fortune out of it.
Later on, He Shiliu learned that wealthy people in the Prefecture liked to display strange stones in their study rooms or courtyards, and those peculiar stones were worth much more than large chunks of stone material.
Over the years, He Shiliu would sell large stone materials to the stone material workshop while seeking out strange stones in hopes of making another large sum of money. But a person’s luck only cos once in a lifeti; once used up, it’s gone. After many years, he never encountered another strange stone and continued to lead his brothers and cousins in search of stone materials.
Now that he’s getting older, he finds it hard to continue this life-threatening work, so he wants to find so safer work for his family, which is why he ca to the Gu Family Workshop to present gifts.
Village Chief He and the others also headed toward the Gu Family Workshop.
Qin San Lang and Gu Jinli were walking at the end of the group, and soon they all returned to the workshop.
Gu Jin’an hurried forward to greet Village Chief He, then ca up to Gu Jinli and asked her, "Xiao Yu, what about the Mo Family?"
Gu Jinli, looking at Gu Jin’an with a glee of schadenfreude, said, "Big brother, it’s spring, and your peach blossoms are blooming, but the blossoms are too shoddy. I helped you pluck them."
Gu Jin’an, sharp as he was, frowned for a mont before understanding what Gu Jinli ant. His face flushed red with anger: "The Mo Family is really preposterous!"
No wonder Mo Qiuyue kept looking over frequently. It turns out this was their intention - how disgusting he felt even thinking about it.
"Don’t worry, Xiao Yu, big brother will be more cautious from now on," said Gu Jin’an, who, though he had already turned fifteen, didn’t plan on marrying so soon. Instead, he intended to study hard for a few more years to beco a scholar, and only after turning twenty would he consider marriage.
Because of the influence of the forr dynasty’s "Madman" style, in Great Chu, many scholars married late; so didn’t set up their own household until they were thirty.
While they were talking, there ca the sound of a mule cart from behind. Gu Jinli turned around and saw Zhu Ron, imdiately smiling and saying, "Uncle Ron, you’ve arrived."
"Ah, we’re here; are we late?" Zhu Ron stopped the mule cart as Doctor Wu, Doctor Du, Du Xusheng, and Du Dingxiang got off.
Gu Jinli replied with a smile, "Not late at all, we haven’t even unveiled our workshop’s plaque yet."
"That’s good, if we missed the auspicious ti for you families, this old man would be the sinner," said Doctor Wu.
Gu Dashan, hearing Doctor Wu’s voice, hurriedly ca out to et them: "Doctor Wu, Doctor Du, you’ve arrived. Please co in; everyone is waiting for you."
"We’re coming right now." Doctor Wu told Zhu Ron, "Get the gifts from the cart and bring them into the courtyard."
"Okay." Zhu Ron responded, taking down two baskets covered with red paper, and carrying them into the courtyard with a carrying pole.
Gu Jinli, seeing what was inside the baskets, was overjoyed, "Grandpa Wu, the gifts you bring really save us in a ti of dire need."
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