Minglan is reborn, this time with no regrets!

"Mr. Bai" was gone for an hour.

The mother and son of the Sun family wandered around the deserted "Bai family" house, discussing which room should be used as a study and which should be used as a bedroom. Sun Zhigao even drew up a list of concubines he would take in again, all of whom were the top courtesans with whom he had had in-depth exchanges in Qianjin Pavilion.

The mother and son chatted about their bright future until they were thirsty and realized that it was already dark. Grandma Sun couldn't help but mutter, "Isn't Qianjin Pavilion next door? Why hasn't Mr. Bai come back after being gone for so long?"

Sun Zhigao: "I guess the madam wants to use the engagement letter to extort money."

Granny Sun nodded: "Yeah, it's so hard to come across a fat sheep, we have to slaughter him hard." When she heard how Mr. Bai spent his money, she wanted to kill him herself.

Sun Zhigao glanced at her and said, "Mother, please don't say such humiliating words in front of Mr. Bai. What if he deducts money from the dowry? We have already given him two thousand taels!"

"Yes, yes, my son is right!" Soon after she stopped talking, Grandma Sun muttered again, "Mr. Bai is so rich, why doesn't he hire a few maids? It's dark and there's no one to light the lamp."

Sun Zhigao was still immersed in the beautiful dream of having a golden house in his left hand and a beautiful woman in his right hand. He said to Grandma Sun, "She just came here, how can she handle so many things at once? When we move in, can't we just buy some servants ourselves?"

Grandma Sun said, "Yes, yes, my son is right! When we get the money, we will buy a hundred servants. That way, we won't have to worry about anyone running away."

The mother and son waited for more than an hour, but could not wait any longer and ran to Qianjin Pavilion to look for someone.

Madam Fei asked curiously, "Where is Mr. Bai? I haven't seen him all day today."

Sun Zhigao shouted, "Impossible! He clearly said he came to ask you for the engagement letter."

Madam Fei: "Why did you ask me for Hua Niang's engagement letter? Mr. Bai must have found out everything already, otherwise how could he have come to me to find his sister?"

Sun Zhigao suddenly felt something was wrong and pulled Fei's mother: "You are lying, he was clearly here!" He didn't dare to imagine another possibility.

Mother Fei shook off his hand and said, "Xiucai, if you want to talk, just talk nicely. Why are you pulling and tugging?"

Grandma Sun couldn't stand seeing others being rude to her son, so she yelled, "Who are you yelling at, you damn old procuress?"

Madam Fei: "Old lady, when you were doing laundry, our Qianjin Pavilion gave you business. Why do you feel like giving up now that life is better?"

Sun Zhigao: "How can you speak to my mother like that?"

"This is Qianjin Pavilion, my own business place. If you don't do business, don't come and cause trouble for me."

"You try yelling at my son again!"

"..."

Several people were fighting each other.

In the end, the mother and son of the Sun family were "invited" out of the house by Qianjin Pavilion's thugs.

They ran and shouted in the streets, asking people everywhere if they had seen Hua Niang and Bai Yuanwai. But the small county town seemed to have turned into a deep mountain and sea, and the two living people disappeared just like that, and with them also disappeared the two thousand taels of silver notes that Sun Zhigao borrowed from the Sheng family.

"Yes, isn't there a house? Let's go occupy it first. They can run away but they can't run away with the house!"

The Sun family's mother and son wanted to move to the Bai family's house immediately, but it turned out that a new family had already moved in there: "This was originally bought by my family! We completed the transfer half a month ago, but it took some time to move in so it was delayed. It has only been vacant for half a month. Where is the Mr. Bai?" This family had a hot temper and had several thugs with superb martial arts. They drove the Sun family's mother and son out of the house without any explanation.

Sun Zhigao was dumbfounded.

He still owed the Sheng family two thousand taels.

It's written in black and white, and so many people are watching, you can't deny it.

Two thousand taels. Even if they sold both mother and son, they still couldn't pay off the debt.

"Impossible! The Bai family is a stranger, and strangers should have a pass. Let's go to the government and the county magistrate for help!"

Sun Zhigao took the complaint to the county government office, saying that he was tricked into paying his bride price, and asked the county government office to check the people who had been in and out of the county in the past few days. The clerk helped him check on the spot, but where was the "Bai Yuanwai" and "Hua Niang"?

Sun Zhigao sued Qianjin Pavilion again, saying that Qianjin Pavilion used its girls to set up a marriage scam. After all, the incident was indeed related to Qianjin Pavilion, so Fei Mama had to close down the business and let the government officials turn Qianjin Pavilion upside down. She also showed the accounts of the past two years to the officials to prove that she had nothing to do with the incident. Sun Zhigao could not produce evidence that Qianjin Pavilion was involved in the case, but instead let many people see his records of prostitution in the past few years. Several leading figures in the county government were old friends of the Sheng family, and they also needed Sheng Hong's help. They hurried to the Sheng family to ask what was going on and how to deal with it. Only then did they know that the Sun family and the Sheng family had divorced, so they vented their disgust for this Sun Pocai in the past few years. Not only did they not help him find Bai Yuanwai, they also reprimanded him for lingering in brothels despite his academic achievements, and threatened him that if he made trouble again, they would go to the Education Administration Office to revoke his academic achievements.

The mother and son of the Sun family were dissatisfied and went to the government office to complain. However, the government office was fully engaged in suppressing the rebels and had no time to pay attention to him, so they just told him to go home and wait.

The entire Sun family had lived a good life for many years relying on the power of the Sheng family. Now, they suddenly lost the support of the Sheng family. No one could stand up to smooth things over for Sun Zhigao and uphold justice. Sun Zhigao's two thousand taels really disappeared along with "Mr. Bai" and Hua Niang.

The mother and son of the Sun family, who had lost both their money and their lives, returned to the Sun residence and looked at the empty house and the mess on the ground.

Grandma Sun cried, "Son, what are we going to eat from now on?"

Sun Zhigao fell to the ground. From then on, the days of having everything provided for them were gone, and they, mother and son, had to go back to a life of poverty, with one meal full and ten meals hungry.

“And bloodstone!”

Sun Zhigao suddenly remembered that Mr. Bai had left behind a piece of precious jade, and the Shi family pawnshop said that the jade pendant was worth one thousand taels!

He rekindled his hope and went to Shi's pawnshop. The shopkeeper took the jade pendant and looked at it for a long time, but said that it was not the chicken blood jade he had seen that day, and asked Sun Zhigao why he used fake jade to blackmail him. Sun Zhigao wanted to hit him on the spot, but was "asked" to leave by the shop servant. Sun Zhigao ran to the county government to sue Shi's pawnshop. This time the county magistrate sentenced him on the spot. Because Sun Zhigao had no evidence and had not prepared the complaint, and falsely accused Shi's shopkeeper and delayed the county's handling of the case, he was sentenced to the crime of disrupting the court. Combined with his previous false accusation of Qianjin Pavilion and continuous prostitution, he was really stripped of his reputation and beaten with ten big boards!

At this point, Sun Zhigao completely changed from a scholar with many wives and concubines to a commoner with huge debts. None of his former drinking and eating friends would associate with him anymore, and his reputation also changed from "Sun the Scholar" to "The Ghost-Seeing Worry" - no family wanted to marry their daughter to him anymore, for fear that they would have to repay the huge debt of two thousand taels with their mother and son in the future.

……

A prosperous house.

The Sheng family was stunned by the several boxes of things sent by the Shi family pawnshop.

Nanny Chang stood in the hall with a smile on her face and said to Sheng Wei, "Someone bought these boxes of items and asked them to be sent to the Sheng family."

Sheng Changwu opened the alley and looked around, and found that they seemed to be the things that his eldest sister had brought as a dowry to the Sun family. He hurriedly asked the eldest lady of the first house and Shulan to come out from the inner room.

After the mother and daughter confirmed that it was indeed their own thing, they were so scared that they thought it was Sun Zhigao who came to visit again. All the members of the Sheng family in the room looked at Nanny Chang in surprise and suspicion.

Nanny Chang took out an envelope from her pocket, handed it to Shulan, and said, "That person also asked me to bring this to you."

Shulan opened the envelope with trembling hands, took out a piece of paper first, and when she opened it, she saw that it was a silver note for two thousand taels!

She held the banknote in her hand for a long while before she remembered to hand it to her mother. She asked anxiously, "This... this is..." The eldest lady in the first house hurriedly took a closer look and exclaimed, "This is the one we lent to the Sun family that day! I went to get it myself, there's no mistake!"

Shulan's heart was pounding. She took out another letter from the envelope. It read:

"The affairs of the world are like clouds, so it is better to lie down and have a good meal."