Daming female local tyrant

Shen Wan then told Jing Lan that if you push people like Liu Zhuangtou and Qi Zhuangtou too hard, they will simply jump over the wall and tear their skin apart, and will never admit to stealing the Shen family's food. ?

Jing Lan said: "If it comes to the court, maybe they will be really scared. It's more than 2000 taels of silver. It's strange if it's not sentenced to ten or eight years."

Shen Wan heard the words and smiled: "In that case, our Shen family will lose face, and we won't get any benefit. You must know, we are asking for money, and it is serious to get a sum of money to change the predicament."

"Because of this, the girl didn't force them to say that they are ugly today?"

"Correct."

"The girl guesses what kind of solution they will discuss when they go back?"

"They... probably will find someone to check my tone and see what I mean? Do they want to hand over all the money they have embezzled in the past 15 years, or do they want to hand over some."

"...Does the girl want them to hand over all or some?"

"I've thought about it a long time ago. Ask Liu Shiming to pay 550 taels, and ask Qi Yunping to pay 250 taels. This only accounts for about 800 to 90 percent of the value of the grain they embezzled from the Shen family over the years. With [-] taels of silver in hand, we can arrange a lot of money." It’s over. After that, I asked the two of them to collect [-] taels of silver every year, and we will have enough food and clothing in Suzhou.”

After hearing this, Jing Lan thought that Shen Wan had considered it properly, which meant that it was convenient for others and also for herself, so Liu Zhuangtou and Qi Zhuangtou would not be difficult to accept it.

Since you are asking for money, you must be harmonious and not offend.

Isn't there a saying that harmony makes money, whether it's in business or in interpersonal communication, it's the same.

"Does that girl think they will bring money in the future?" Jing Lan continued to ask.

"Most likely, I think the middleman they sent will come tomorrow to find out and go back. They will send money the next day. After all, the date I set is the day after tomorrow."

"Why does the girl want to set a future date? This day is neither tight nor loose?"

"Have you ever heard that the night is long and the dreams are many, and the late life is changed? I didn't even give it to them for three days, just because I was afraid that they would go to the Shen family in Jinling to find out how I was sent to Suzhou by the Shen family. Does the Shen family have one?" What about my father, the person who doesn't deal with me. I'm worried that Liu Zhuangtou and Qi Zhuangtou will find him, and he will support them and prevent me from getting money from the two Zhuangtou. In that case, the Shen family Although the head of the village in Suzhou Tiandi will be replaced, we will lose 800 taels of silver."

"Second Master?"

"Yes, he really wants me to be poor. I only give Liu Zhuangtou and Qi Zhuangtou two days. Even if they send someone to inquire about it, and then find my second uncle, it will take three or four days. It is impossible within two days. When we accept their filial piety, even if they hook up with my second uncle, my second uncle can't ask me to spit out the money. Besides, I guess as long as I accept their filial piety, they won't dare to hook up with me Second Uncle’s, otherwise I’ll be annoyed, I’ll take the money for free, and I can also drive them away from the head of the village and find someone else to replace them. In short, I must get the 800 taels of silver they honored.”

Jing Lan applauded, saying that Shen Wan must have thought of this while lying in bed at noon today.

Shen Wan did not deny it, and told Jing Lan that if Zhao Siniang took her out to meet the middleman invited by Liu Zhuangtou and Qi Zhuangtou tomorrow, she would reveal the 800 taels she had just mentioned.

"Zhao Siniang..." Jing Lan probably understood why it was Zhao Siniang who came to find her. Zhao Siniang was a local and a servant who guarded the Shen family's old house. She knew some local people, and even the newcomer Jing Lan and others.If Liu Zhuangtou and Qi Zhuangtou want to find someone to talk about, Zhao Siniang is the most suitable person.

"Okay, then I'll wait."

"Lan'er, come here, accompany me for a walk outside, let's see where we can put some potted plants. We will have money in two days, let's decorate this house as well."

Seeing that Shen Wan was in high spirits, Jing Lan readily agreed to accompany her out for a walk around the yard.

Cuizhu felt inexplicably that she couldn't get in. Shen Wan and Jing Lan treated her as if she didn't exist. The weeds in the yard were all pulled out.

She told them, this is what the girl meant.

In fact, she was afraid that Shen Wan would ask her to do this job of pulling weeds when the two boys left.

In the past, Jing Lan was favored by Shen Wan, and now in Suzhou, Shen Wan has asked Jing Lan to be the head of the family to arrange everything.

Now that Jing Lan is the housekeeper, she will naturally do less or even no chores. Cuizhu thinks that if she catches the two young men who will follow Mr. Yan back to Jinling tomorrow to pull out the weeds in the second courtyard, After that the job must be hers.

As for her, she is most afraid of pulling weeds, because there are many rats, reptiles and snakes in the knee-deep grass. When she sees it, her scalp becomes numb and she is frightened to death.She was absolutely afraid of doing this job.

The two young men happened to have nothing to do, and the old steward Yan didn't take them out, so they listened to Cuizhu's command until dark, pulling out all the weeds that entered the courtyard.

Cuizhu went to get a broom to sweep again, and asked them to pick out the garbage and weeds.

While eating dinner, old steward Yan came back and went to see Shen Wan, saying that he was going back to Jinling with two servants tomorrow morning, and asked her if she had anything to bring back to her parents.

Shen Wan said: "You just say that everything is fine with me, and let them not worry about me."

The old steward Yan nodded and said with a smile: "It depends on the girl's work today. Let the girl rest early after eating. Tomorrow, the old servant will take a boat early in the morning, so I won't come to say goodbye to the girl."

Shen Wan: "Okay, the old steward will go."

-

The next day, Zhao Siniang woke up early, made breakfast for old steward Yan and the two boys, and made a pot of porridge by herself, and sent it to Shen Wan and the others inside.

Then she came out to have breakfast, and took a vegetable basket to buy vegetables.

Shen Wan and the others came, and the vegetables she and Qiu Liu grew in the backyard were not many, which was too monotonous, so she went to the street to buy some vegetables to add.Also, the hens at home are not laying too many eggs, so she plans to buy dozens of them back.

After shopping for vegetables, when she passed the Qijia cloth shop in the town, she was stopped by Mrs. Zhou, the owner of the cloth shop inside.

This Mr. Zhou is about thirty years old and can speak well. Whenever Zhao Siniang passes by Qi's cloth shop to see floral cloths, she often chats with Mr. Zhou, and the two know each other very well.

Today, when Zhao Siniang bought vegetables and passed by Qi's Cloth Shop, Mrs. Zhou called her, so she walked over to talk to her with a smile on her face.

Seeing that she had so many vegetables in her basket, Mrs. Zhou asked her if she had a visitor at home today and bought so many vegetables.

Zhao Siniang said honestly that someone from Jinling's Shen family came and gave her money to cook, so of course she wanted to buy more vegetables to cook for her master.

Zhou then asked who they were, what they were here for, and so on.

Zhao Siniang also told the truth, and the Zhou family asked if she could take her to meet the Shen family from Jinling.While talking, she also cut out the three-foot cloth of the color that Zhao Siniang had seen and was not willing to buy last time. She wrapped the cloth and stuffed it to Zhao Siniang, asking her for help.

After getting the three-foot floral cloth, Zhao Siniang was of course willing to take Mrs. Zhou to see it.

When they arrived at the Shen family's old house, Mrs. Zhou followed Zhao Siniang in, and then told Zhao Siniang that she was not looking forward to seeing Shen Wan, as long as she could see Shen Wan's capable maid and say a few words.

When Zhao Siniang heard this, she said it was easy, the capable maid in front of Shen Wan was An Lan, so she called An Lan to come out to see Mrs Zhou.

Mrs. Zhou said yes, she will wait.

After a while, Zhao Siniang went back and forth, and brought Jing Lan back.

She pointed to Mrs. Zhou and introduced to Jing Lan: "This is Mrs. Zhou from the Qi family's cloth shop in the town. She heard that someone from Jinling's Shen family has come, so she wanted to come and take a look. She said she would leave after seeing the capable maid next to the girl. .”

Mrs. Zhou hurriedly came forward and blessed Jing Lan, and Jing Lan returned the gift.

Jing Lan stood still, then turned to leave, but Mrs. Zhou called Liu Bu, and begged Jing Lan to go aside, she had something important to say to Jing Lan.

"What's the matter? You said the same here?"

"It's...it's really inappropriate to say this for everyone to know."

While talking, Mrs. Zhou looked at Zhao Siniang, and Jing Lan immediately asked Zhao Siniang to avoid it.

Zhao Siniang just felt strange, what was this Zhou family going to do, and what words she couldn't listen to.But since Jing Lan asked her to avoid her, she had no choice but to go out.

Zhou waited for Zhao Siniang to go out, then went to close the door, and then came back and whispered to Jing Lan that she was one of the heads of the village who came to see Shen Wan yesterday, and the daughter-in-law of Qi Yunping's son Qi Zhong.

Entrusted by her father-in-law and husband, she came to ask Jing Lan about what Shen Wan wanted to do when she came to Suzhou this time to check the accounts of Shen's Xuetian and Yitian.

Jing Lan asked her what she meant by pretending not to understand, and explained clearly.

Zhou Shi bit her lip and said, "I don't know how much money your eldest lady wants from my father-in-law to expose this matter?"

Jing Lan was silent before saying: "Thirty percent, my girl said that if she is willing to hand over 250% of the silver value of the food that she has embezzled over the years, then it will be taken away. My girl has already settled the account, and the specific amount is 550 yuan that your father-in-law took out. Two, Liu Zhuangtou 90 taels, not less than a penny. It will be delivered at the hour of tomorrow, and the Shen family’s school field and righteous field will still be managed by them in the future, but after the grain is harvested every year, an additional [-] taels of silver will be handed over.”

After finishing speaking, Jing Lan turned around and left without waiting for Mrs. Zhou to speak. She went straight to open the door and walked out.

As for Mrs. Zhou, she hurriedly followed her and said flatteringly: "Sister, go slowly, I'll go back and tell my father-in-law."

Jing Lan didn't answer her, and went straight back to report the matter to Shen Wan.

Shen Wan was sitting at the table in the middle of the bedroom at the west tip of Xiulou, reading some letters.

The four flower-and-bird screens were moved into the bedroom again, and placed in front of the south window, because the craftsmen Qiu Liu had found to repair the roof, doors, windows and build the stove would all be here today.The screen was placed in front of the window to prevent outside men from looking in.

Jing Lan went straight to the table and announced the good news to Shen Wan. She said: "As the girl expected, Qi Yunping sent his daughter-in-law Zhou to find Zhao Siniang today and asked her to help see us. After I went out, she really asked What exactly is my girl going to do, and how much money does it take to expose this matter. I told her what the girl told me, and she said that she would go back and pass on the message. "

"Thank you, come sit down and drink tea." Shen Wan pulled the chair beside Jing Lan and sat down, rolled up her sleeves and poured her a bowl of tea.

When Jing Lan was drinking tea, she saw Shen Wan's letters on the table and asked her, "Girl, who wrote this letter to you? I just arrived in Suzhou. I haven't seen anyone writing to you?"

Shen Wan smiled slightly and said: "This letter was not written to me by someone else, but it was written by my parents before I came to Suzhou from Jinling. My father wrote to some of his friends in Suzhou, and my mother wrote I gave it to the relatives of the Yu family in Suzhou, and asked them to help me when I came to ask for help. I opened this letter to read it, because I wanted to know who my father's friends were, what they did, and what There are relatives from my mother’s natal family, and what are they doing in Suzhou.”

"Could it be that the girl is going to ask for help now?"

"Of course not. I just want to see, which of these people should visit and make friends, and which ones will never ask for help until the last moment."

"What's the explanation for that?"

"People who are of great use will never use this relationship easily, while some people with less use can move around for no other reason. If you get to know them, you will be able to get to know more of their relatives and friends in Suzhou. Get to know more He is a person who will be useful for our business and affairs in Suzhou in the future. I don’t want to spend ten or eight years living on 800 taels of silver, waiting for the old lady to recruit me back.”

"Miss wants to flex her muscles and do business in Suzhou? Can I ask you how much money you want to earn?"

"Not much, just about the same as the dowry I received from the Shen family before."

When mentioning the future of Shen Wan's dowry, Jing Lan remembered that when she was in the Shen family's other courtyard, she heard that Shen Wan's dowry was worth tens of thousands of taels of silver for a year.

She blinked and asked Shen Wan mischievously: "Girl, what is your dowry's profit for a year?"

Shen Wan stretched out an index finger, and then made a gesture of three.

Jing Lan guessed, "More than 3000 taels?"

Shen Wan nodded and said yes, she said that she made money, and the first thing she did was to renovate the old house of the Shen family, so that Shen Wan would have a good reputation no matter whether she was in Suzhou or Jinling.

She wanted to let the Shen clan members take a look at Shen Wan's ability.

The Shen family exiled her to the dilapidated Shen family's old house, but she renovated the Shen family's old house with her own skills, which is called repaying a grudge with virtue.

"I thought about it. It takes 2000 taels of silver to renovate the old house of the Shen family. After getting 800 taels of silver, let's buy two servants and a sedan chair, and then find someone to replace the gate of the old house and paint the outside. A new one. Then we can visit some of my dad's friends and my mother's natal family."

"Then girl, have you already decided which people to visit first, and have their relationships not changed for the time being?"

"Lan'er, go and get a pen and paper. I'll write down the order right now. In the next afternoon, you ask Zhao Siniang to buy some invitation cards for me. I'll write down their names."

"Yes, girl."

Jing Lan happily went to get a pen and paper, and watched as Shen Wan wrote a few names: Tao Yuanxin, Cheng Haoran, Jiao Ziyan, Huo Jiakai, Yu Jinyun.

Then write the addresses of these people in small letters next to them.

-

Mrs. Zhou went back to Qi's cloth shop. In the hall behind her shop, not only her husband and father-in-law were there, but also the fat Liu Shiming.Everyone was looking forward to Zhou's return.

As soon as he saw her coming in, Qi Yunping didn't wait for her to salute and asked her what Shen Wan's personal servant girl had said.

Mrs. Zhou replied: "The maidservant of Miss Shen's family named An Lan said that she said that her eldest lady wanted her father-in-law to pay 250 taels, and member Liu to go out for 550 taels. This matter is considered to be over. In addition, From now on, I will give her 90 taels of silver every year, and I will keep my father-in-law and Yuanwai Liu in charge of this trick."

Liu Shiming punched his hand as soon as he heard it, and said: "Sure enough, I guessed it right. She wants us to give 550% to honor her. It's just why I gave 250 taels, and Brother Qi only gave [-] taels."

Mrs. Zhou thought that Liu Shiming suspected that she helped her father-in-law reduce the amount of money and added to the money he paid, so she hurriedly said: "Mr. Liu doesn't believe that tomorrow you can ask the personal maid of Miss Shen's family. She said so."

Liu Shiming snorted and stopped talking. He thought, of course he had to ask clearly tomorrow before he could take out the money.

Qi Yunping stroked his goatee. He was very satisfied with his daughter-in-law's outing to find out the true intention of Miss Shen's family. He was even more satisfied with the 250 taels he paid. A year's wages for working at home.

He said: "Daughter-in-law is doing very well. By the way, apart from this, did Miss Shen's maid say anything else?"

Mrs. Zhou: "That's right, she said, at tomorrow's hour, wait for Dad and Liu Yuanwai to send the money, don't miss a penny."

"Okay, you go and rest." Qi Yunping waved his hand.

When Mrs. Zhou retired, he said to Liu Shiming: "Since Missy means this, then let's do it. Tonight, I will send my nephew to the Shen family in Jinling to find out what's going on with the Shen family recently." .”

Liu Shiming said: "Then I will bother Brother Qi to worry about it, and we will see you tomorrow."

After finishing speaking, he bowed his hands to Qi Yunping, turned and left unhappy.

He thought, Qi Yunping had taken advantage of 50 taels, so of course he should be responsible for sending someone to the Shen family in Jinling to inquire about the news, and he would not pay a penny for his nephew.

The next day, at about Chen's hour, Liu Shiming and Qi Yunping came to the Shen family's old house as promised, and met Shen Wan in the hall of the last embroidered building.

Only after a day had passed, the two found that the dilapidated door and window of the third entrance of the Shen family's old house had been repaired. In addition to the repairs on the roof, a little maid was already in the tea room in the left side room. There is tea in it.

The author has something to say: I participated in the daily activity.