Baozi Xishi's Struggle

As she spoke, He clasped her hands together and said with a look of relief, "Luckily, the fourth son of the county lord was also on the riverbank that day, helping to maintain order. He is from the south and is an excellent swimmer. He jumped in to save people without saying a word. It was also thanks to our Qiqi's good fortune that you, my sister, happened to be there, so Qiqi was able to save her life."

Shen Yu and He walked slowly, while Li was listening from the side. Knowing that this was not a matter she could interrupt, she just listened silently.

He said with some self-blame: "Later Qiqi said that someone pushed him and that's why he fell overboard. I thought Qiqi was afraid that I would punish him for running around and falling into the water, so he made up a story and put the blame on others. I just didn't believe it in my heart."

He's face showed worry. "After hearing what my sister said, I think about it now. The stones on the river bank are very high. It takes a lot of effort for a child to climb up. Qiqi disappeared in a blink of an eye. How could she climb over the stones in such a short time? No, I really need to talk to your brother-in-law about this matter and ask him to check if there is anything wrong."

As they were talking, they had already arrived at the entrance of Willow Alley. Yu Cheng didn't have the key to his house, so he and Captain Xing were standing at the entrance waiting.

When He saw the entrance to the alley, she was knowledgeable and tactful. She looked at the narrow alley and knew that Shen Yu's house must be narrow and shallow, which was not convenient for entertaining guests. So she said to Shen Yu, "Today I just came to get acquainted with the place. I will send you here. Your brother-in-law still has to work in the government office. When you have more time in the future and you are free, I will take you to my house to sit down."

When Shen Yu heard that Captain Xing had official business, he hurriedly said, "Why didn't Third Sister tell you earlier? You even asked my brother-in-law to help me pull the cart for half a day. How can I feel good about this?"

He smiled and said, "Don't worry about it, sister. I specially asked your brother-in-law to pull the cart today. If he helps you pull the cart, I guarantee that no one will gossip about you tomorrow, and no one will dare to bully you."

Shen Yu said gratefully: "Thank you for your concern, Third Sister. You are really thoughtful."

The head of the criminal police department smiled and said, "Miss Shen, you are too polite. The two yamen runners you met yesterday are my brothers. I will ask them to take good care of your stall when they inspect it."

Shen Yu nodded in thanks, and the head of the criminal police waved his hand and continued, "One of them is called Zhao Dayong, and the other one who recognized you is Liu Sanjiang. During the Ghost Festival, Liu Sanjiang was assigned to work temporarily on the river bank. He is usually in charge of the ground in the east of the city. He happened to be on duty to patrol the market these days. If it weren't for Liu Sanjiang, we wouldn't have found the girl."

He said angrily, "Why are you still calling her Miss? You should call her Fourth Sister."

After hearing this, the head of the police slapped his forehead, laughed and said, "It's my fault, please don't blame me, Fourth Sister."

He hurriedly told Captain Xing what Shen Yu had just reminded him of. Captain Xing frowned and said, "Thank you for your reminder, Fourth Sister. I know about this matter. I will go back and investigate. If someone really wants to harm my son, I will never let him off."

As they spoke, the couple said goodbye to Shen Yu's family, called over a horse-drawn carriage that had been following them, and the couple took Qiqi into the carriage, turned around, and headed towards the south of the city.

Shen Yu saw the carriage going away, and then his family came in. Li yelled at Yucheng to close the gate quickly.

After closing the gate, Li sat on a small stool in the courtyard, rubbing her waist with one hand and her chest with the other, and said in fear: "I'm finally home. This morning was like a dream. It started as a nightmare, but ended as a sweet dream. Yuzhi, pinch me, do you really have a sister who is from an official family?"

Shen Yu smiled, went into the room and brought a glass of water to Li, and said with a smile: "Mother, of course it's true."

As he spoke, he raised his wrist, shook it, and said mischievously, "Mom, look, what is this?"

On the slender wrist, the twisted white jade bracelet reflected the rising sun, emitting a warm and soft light.

Bad news spreads fast, and good news spreads fast as well. When delivering meals at noon, Shen Yu could clearly feel the change in the attitudes of the people in the store.

The shopkeeper became more friendly, while the waiters became cautious and watched secretly.

Shen Yu was still as graceful and cheerful as usual.

Two days passed like this, and as expected, when he set up the stall, there was no more gossip or secretive stares, and the green-clothed Qian Yinhu did not come to cause trouble again.

Although Shen Yu didn't say anything, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It was the day to settle the bills with the grain and meat shops. After delivering lunch at noon and packing up the equipment on the cart, Li was counting the money collected that day. Shen Yu sat down at the table and said to Li, "Mother, today is the day to settle the bills with each shop. The shop assistants came here yesterday to report the figures. I checked and the accounts are all right. Let's prepare the money that each shop should pay today."

Li agreed and said worriedly, "This is not a small amount of money. How are they going to get it?"

The buns stall had been open for more than ten days, and two more earthenware jars for money had been added under Li's bed.

Since Shen Yu came here, apart from the three gold and silver ingots he got when making flower cakes, he had only seen copper coins.

She asked Li about silver, and Li said that it was something only rich families needed. Farmers usually bought rice and noodles for dozens or hundreds of coins, so they didn't need silver. If they had silver, they would quickly go to the bank to exchange it for copper coins.

When selling buns, since a few buns cost only a few dozen coins, everyone used strings of copper coins to buy them. A few dozen coins might not seem like much, but when accumulated together, it was quite a lot.

The end result was that Li saved the money he collected every day and filled three large earthenware jars. Now that he had to pay the bills to the shops, he realized the inconvenience.

Shen Yu looked at the three big-bellied earthenware jars that Li pulled out from under the bed, and felt troubled. It turned out that having money also has its troubles.

Shen Yu laughed at himself in his heart, and then discussed with Li: "How about we take the money to the bank to change it first. It will be much more convenient to pay the bill with silver. We can't let the shopkeeper push a pile of silver back in a cart, it will be too heavy and too conspicuous."

Li also thought this was a good idea. The market required a lot of money for trading goods, and there was a bank nearby. But he had little money in his hands before, so he only passed by the bank but never went in.

Shen Yu did what he said. He asked Yutao to take out the string, and the whole family started to string the money into strings of one thousand coins. Such a string was a standard one-string coin.

Although the copper coins here are thin and small, when one thousand coins are strung together, they are quite heavy in the hand.

Shen Yu counted out the corresponding amount for each household and put them in a pile. The remaining amount was the net profit after deducting the expenses in the past ten days.

When Shen Yu arranged the money in piles and told them the result, Li, Yutao and Yucheng looked at the largest pile of silver and money silently without saying a word.