Jiu Zhang Ji: The Daily Life of the Reborn Daughter

Chapter 11: Extravagance

"In the past four years, our store has supplied a total of 2,357 taels of raw meat to the Bai family..."

"We also need to settle the grocery store bill. We don't have much, only 3,264 taels..."

"The cost of the food in my restaurant is three hundred and sixteen taels..."

"My store has the least money, just over a hundred taels. Give us ours first."

......More than a dozen people holding the bills in their hands squeezed in front of Bai, refusing to give way to each other.

Facing this group of debt collectors, Bai cursed Qiao Lili a thousand times in her heart. But when she was at Duke Dingguo's Mansion, she heard Qiao Lili lightly saying that they should pay the bill themselves, but she actually didn't take it to heart.

I really didn't expect that after she played such a trick on me, how could I possibly come up with so much money at once? This is tantamount to putting the Bai family on fire.

Bai Rouer, who was thrown behind the crowd by her mother, was very angry when she saw so many people coming to collect debts. She shouted loudly, "This is all owed by Qiao Lili. You shouldn't come to us to collect the debt. You should go to the Duke Dingguo's Mansion to ask Qiao Lili for it."

The man in brocade clothes, who was standing at the front and on the steps of Bai's house, heard someone talking behind him. He thought that she was not worthy of calling her young master by his name. He turned back to look at Bai Rou'er who was talking with a sullen face, "You signed the account, you took the clothes, and even the clothes you are wearing now are from our Nishang Pavilion. Tell me, if I don't ask her for it, who should I ask for it from?"

"These were all given to us by Qiao Lili." Bai Rouer said loudly.

"Since she gave it to you, you can ask her to settle the bill." said the man in brocade clothes.

The shopkeeper of Zhenbaozhai continued, "I have seen people giving one or two pieces of clothing to others, and I have also seen people giving one or two sets of jewelry to others, but I have never seen anyone giving away all their food, clothing, and daily necessities for four years, including raw meat, cooked food, and even vegetables. They all need to be given and paid for by others. Have you ever seen this?"

"No, I haven't seen it. You are asking others to pay for your living expenses. Do they owe you money?"

"Yes, you ate, wore, and put on these things, but you still refuse to pay and ask others to pay for them. You are really shameless."

"If you don't have money, just live frugally. Look at how much money you've spent in the past four years. It's not even enough for a first-rank official to make. And you're asking others to pay for it. Who are you taking advantage of?"

"How shameless! He buys food, drinks and clothes on credit and never pays them back. There are still people like this in the world. Isn't it shameful to live like this?"

"And you said it was General Bai's residence. Ha, it really brings shame to General Bai."

"Don't you think General Bai knows nothing about this?"

"It's impossible that he doesn't know. Even if he's not at home, he'll always write. How does his family live? He doesn't ask? He's just pretending not to know."

When Bai Rouer heard everyone start talking about her brother, she couldn't help but yell, "Why don't you believe it? These were all sent to our house by Qiao Lili. She is engaged to my brother."

"Oh my god, this is possible. In our Great Yan Kingdom, it is illegal to use a daughter-in-law's dowry. Before they even get married, they are asking someone to support their entire family. I'm afraid you will be arrested and sent to jail."

"He will definitely go to jail. Calculate how much money he spent. Wow, tens of thousands of taels. I'm afraid he will have to spend several years in jail."

"Then General Bai will be a general in prison. Haha."

"The iron general who locked the prison door?"

When Mrs. Bai heard everyone's discussions, her head buzzed and she almost fainted. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything for the whole morning, and had been walking and exposed to the sun. She had lived a life of luxury in recent years and had never experienced any of this before. She was dizzy.

"There must be some misunderstanding here. Fellow shopkeepers, can we all go into the mansion and talk?" Mrs. Bai wanted to call these people into the mansion now, instead of doing it in public, as it would embarrass her son.

However, no one responded to her words. She could not enter the mansion now. She had to destroy the reputation of the Bai family and make it stink beyond belief.

"You don't want to pay back the money, so you want to pretend to be unconscious?" said the shopkeeper of Nishang Pavilion, looking at Bai who was obviously in a bad state.

The shopkeeper of Zhenbaozhai was not willing to be left behind. He threw a stack of papers in his hand into the crowd. They were dozens of bills copied by the shop assistants.

"Everyone, take a look. This is the record of the head ornaments they took. Do you see a jade hairpin in the record? It is now inserted in the head of this lady. Look at the kingfisher hairpin, the pure gold necklace, and the imperial green bracelet on the young lady's head. They are all on the bill."

Seeing the shopkeeper of Zhenbaozhai doing this, the other shopkeepers followed suit and distributed the pre-copied bills to the crowd. People took them in their hands, and those who could read explained them to those who couldn't, sighing from time to time that the days of buying on credit were really comfortable.

Seeing the bills flying everywhere, Bai really couldn't hold on any longer. She was about to fall down. At this time, a doctor with a medicine box on his back came forward, and with a needle, Bai's eyes became clear again.

The old doctor put away the needle and said, "I am a doctor from Huichuntang. For four years, your Bai family has been seeing doctors, taking medicines and taking supplements from us. We have used two hundred-year-old ginsengs, which cost more than 10,000 taels of silver in total. I have had many patients these days and have not had time to sort out the bills. I will ask my apprentice to bring them to you tomorrow. Please settle the bill as soon as possible, after all, you have owed me for so long. I will not charge you for the acupuncture this time."

In fact, among these people, only Nishang Pavilion, Zhenbaozhai, and Huichuntang are Qiao Lili's properties. For the other shops, Qiao Lili regularly lets Yunwen and Yunwu, who are working outside, settle the bills.

But before that, she asked Yunwen to inform all the shops that supplied the Bai family to come to the Bai family to ask for money, and all the money they asked for belonged to them. Who of these small vendors would not be tempted to receive double the payment?

Yunwen and Yunwu are the two managers left to her by her mother, who are responsible for handling business matters.

There was a commotion in front of the Bai family's door. Mrs. Chen's maid quickly found out what was going on and brought back a few pages of bills. After hearing the maid's reply and reading the pages, Mrs. Chen couldn't help but smile.

There will be a grand court meeting tomorrow. If nothing unexpected happens, the emperor will summon Bai Junzhe to the court to report on his work and reward him based on his merits. That will probably be her husband's highlight moment. With her husband's mouth and the evidence in her hands, she can perform the duties of the censor.

If the censor does not criticize others, then this will be the end of his career. However, if he criticizes others indiscriminately, he will be beaten with a stick. Now that the reasonable and well-founded criticisms have been delivered to his door, he will criticize everyone accurately, so how can he let it go?

The owner of Zhenbaozhai was still collecting debts at the door of the Bai family, so there was no rush for cooperation. She would just watch the excitement for a while so that she could tell her husband in more details when she returned.

But Mrs. Chen also had doubts in her heart. Things had gotten to this point, so why didn’t Bai Junzhe come out to solve the problem?