Idle courtiers

Chapter 39 Zhou Xiucai, You Are a Pit
The light in the room was dim, and I saw Zhou Nan's ferocious face, like a rakshasa. Sister Su suddenly remembered that the man in front of her had killed her husband before, and immediately retreated a few steps with a low "ah" in fear.

Seeing the ironic smile on the corner of Zhou Nan's mouth again, she suddenly became angry.

Taking a breath, he calmed down his floppy heart, and shouted: "Zhou Nan, what do you want to do? That's right, you thief can do anything, I don't care about you, but I'm not afraid of you. Left and right have one life Anyway, I don't feel much alive anyway, and it's all over if I die. But, so what if you kill me. Naturally, I will inevitably have to go to the vegetable market, but the debt is still inextricable, and it will still fall on your wife. "

Zhou Nan said in a hoarse voice: "What a vicious woman, it's just 300 taels of silver. Okay, I will find a way. If there is anything, you will do it to me, and I will follow."

"Well, since you said so, I will wait for good news." Sister Su looked at Zhou Nan's furnishings again, and suddenly smiled: "Looking at the situation of your house, don't say 300 taels, I'm afraid you won't be able to get 30 taels ...However, you are not a heartless person, at least you know how to protect your family. Ten days, after ten days, I will go to Mr. Zhou with the IOU. If you can't get it out by then, I don't want your family The lady pays the bill, I am a woman, and now I am going back to the Mei family to be the young mistress, and some of them are ordered by maids, what do you want a rough country woman to do? I only want you! ”

She pointed at Zhou Nan: "Master Zhou is very literary and romantic, especially the sentence you wrote at the poetry meeting 'How much hate the west wind can blow your eyebrows away' is really amazing! The second girl of our family spends all day They all talk about your song "Linjiang Immortal". I have heard it a lot, and I have memorized it by heart. It's so good, so good. I didn't expect that someone in my dynasty could write such a masterpiece, even Yang Sheng'an The "Rolling Yangtze River flows eastward, and the waves scour the heroes" is nothing more than that. Since the second girl likes it so much, then I will bring you into the Mei family to pay the debt as a slave. Hehe, a generation of poets has become a slave of the Mei family , it’s interesting to think about.”

She laughed like a silver bell, and the brows were full of pride and hatred: "Zhou Zimu, you are a student of my Andong County, and you have such talents and learning. You have a bright future. But you were expelled first, and then Distributed to Liaodong. Now, you are going to be my servant of the Mei family again, and the situation is really going from bad to worse. By the way, my father-in-law said that once Master Zhou enters our house, he will definitely make out with you. Haha, when the time comes, Mr. Zhou, can you How much I hate Xifeng."

These words were so vicious that Zhou Nan couldn't help taking a breath.Taking a breath, he calmed down after a while, and said lightly: "It seems that everything today was written by you?"

Sister Su nodded: "Yes, I meant it all. Master Zhou, you are not blind. You must have seen that these IOUs were written by you to your ex-husband just now. Why didn't you take them out sooner or later? Choose at this time. To tell you the truth, you killed your husband back then, thinking that you paid the price of ten years in prison, and the enmity between our two families is nothing more than that. But you did that to me in Huai'an that day. Bullying, I will naturally reciprocate. You are a scholar, and you should understand the truth of a gentleman repaying a grudge, but you can't blame others."

It turned out that Sister Su's husband was only seventeen or eighteen years old when Zhou Xiucai killed her.A big family like the Mei family has very strict control over their children. In addition to the large academic expenses that are borne by the family, they are only five or six taels of silver a month on weekdays, and they don't have much money.

When Zhou Xiucai borrowed money from Mr. Mei, he used Sister Su's private money.Among scholars, a gentleman has the friendship of making money, and the 300 taels of silver are not planned to be returned.However, Zhou Xiucai, a scholar, also wants to save face and insists on writing IOUs.Mr. Mei couldn't resist him, so he could only laugh it off, and let Sister Su accept the IOU, but didn't take it seriously.

Sister Su will be caught by Zhou Nan from Huai'an and brought back to Mei's house. Naturally, she will be humiliated by her mother-in-law for a while, and she is already angry.He also remembered that Zhou Nan deliberately pretended not to know him that day, and promised to make his sister-in-law prostitute twice in a row.If you don't repay such a deep hatred, you will be a son of man in vain.

Immediately, she found out the IOUs from that year, reported it to her father-in-law, and in order to avoid suspicion, she came to Zhoujiazhuang with Weng Chun to press for the debt.

"Okay, I've finished my words, Master Zhou can take care of himself." Seeing Zhou Nan's depressed face, Sister Su felt a big heart, giggled, and was about to leave.

Suddenly, Zhou Nan said: "Sister Su, I still have one thing I don't understand, please clarify. Yes, your mother-in-law is not good to you. But these ten years have passed, why do you suddenly want to run away from home? In fact, life Just those few decades, just bear it and pass. Besides, in the Mei family, you can at least ensure that you have no worries about food and clothing. You are a weak woman wandering in the rivers and lakes, and you do that kind of business. Why bother to seek hardship and be contemptuous ?”

These words were plain, but they hit Sister Su's dead point.She turned her head abruptly, her face was pale with anger, and her body was trembling slightly: "My surname Zhou, you think I'm that kind of shameless **** slut, are you going to scold me for being a whore who can do everything she can?" To tell you the truth, I was also the daughter of an official family back then, but my family was in trouble, so I joined the Jiaofang Division. However, I have been in the museum for many years, but I have always had a pure and clean body. In my life, my husband and you Two people. Originally thought that you were a person worth entrusting for a lifetime, but I didn't want to be blind and misread you as a beast."

"As for why I left the Mei family." She clenched her fists: "Freedom...freedom is more precious than anything else, I am free...surnamed Zhou, we will meet later."

After finishing speaking, she pushed open the door and went out. Just as she was about to get into the sedan chair, she suddenly stopped and took Yunniang's hand, and smiled: "Sister has a good appearance, she is really a lovely person like a fairy."

Seeing her being so affectionate, Yunniang froze.

Sister Su whispered in her ear again: "Sister is really lucky to be married to such a good man. Zhou Lang is handsome and unrestrained, he knows coldness and hotness, and he is fierce. Sister must take good care of her husband, Hugh asked someone to snatch it away. Hehe, hehe!"

Yunniang's face became even paler.

What a scam, Zhou Xiucai was a cheat!At this moment, sitting on the edge of the canal, Zhou Nan really wanted to jump into the water and finish it off.

300 taels of silver, paid off within ten days, isn't that terrible?If he was really captured by the Mei family and made a domestic slave, he would not have the protection of a yamen official.With the deep blood feud between himself and them, there will be one more name on the missing persons list in Andong County within a few days.

Even if the Mei family didn't want Zhou Nan's life, they would definitely make their life worse than death after being tortured.

What's the point of being alive when people reach this level?
In the midst of confusion, Yunniang held her warm hand: "Master, there is no difficulty in the world. No matter what happens, I believe you will be safe and sound. Have you encountered any obstacles that you cannot overcome? I really can't." Go to your mother's house and ask your father and elder brother to think of a solution." She didn't understand why the woman came to find Zhou Nan just now, but it was obviously not a good thing.

"Looking for father-in-law... I think it's better to forget it, don't worry, it's okay." Zhou Nan smiled wryly, jokingly, Yang Liuye is just an ordinary family, and he can't afford such a huge sum of money.Besides, it's not about money.This is a life-and-death struggle, even if you pay back the money, people will still find you bad luck.

"It's good that you're fine. I believe that you can overcome this difficulty, my husband. When a man walks outside, it's inevitable to greet and socialize. I can understand that." Yun Niang comforted softly.

What Sister Su and Yunniang said earlier, Zhou Nan happened to be beside them, so he naturally heard it.Immediately embarrassed: "My lady, I..."

"Needless to say, it's okay, it's okay. I'm not a jealous woman either. If my husband takes a fancy to a woman and wants to bring it home, I won't treat her poorly."

Zhou Nan was in great embarrassment: "Where are you thinking, my lady? How could I have that kind of thought? Don't mention it again. Just who is that woman just now, I can't tell you clearly. But don't worry, I will It has nothing to do with her."

Yunniang only sighed slightly, Sister Su even talked about the bed, obviously she and her husband have spent so much time.She is not a fool, how could she not understand: "Okay, don't mention it. By the way, Mr., it seems that you have encountered some things recently, so I will not go to the city for the time being."

Zhou Nan thought about it, and she was right, there are still more than 100 folks in Zhoujiazhuang.If something happens, shout out and everyone will come to help.If he goes to the city, it is impossible for him to guard Yunniang all day long. It is indeed not safe: "Okay, I will pick you up after I settle down. Ten days, ten days later."

Ten days, the ten-day deadline is not so easy to pass.

After bidding farewell to Yunniang and returning to the county seat, Zhou Nan decided not to be decadent, but to cheer up and think about where to get some money back.

Therefore, our master Zhou was brave enough to do things like never before, and took the initiative to take on the important task of collecting the taxes owed by the people in previous years.If you want to make money, you have to do things.Otherwise, sitting in the delivery room all day long, the money will not fall from the sky.

Although the Shizhi County has accepted the new policy of changing agriculture to mulberry, the imperial court will not approve the reduction or exemption of previous years' arrears until the head of the official department comes to verify on the spot.

Whether or not this matter will come to fruition is another matter, so the money that should be called still needs to be called.

Whenever things in the world involve interests, contradictions and conflicts are inevitable.According to the rules of the country, the two taxes in summer and autumn will be implemented on the head of the local government and let them collect it on their behalf.After the grain is stored in the warehouse, the grain chief in the village has to organize the delivery of the imperial grain to the designated place.For example, the grain in summer and autumn in Andong County will be sent to Jinan Prefecture in Shandong Province.Then the food chief over there will take over and send it to the capital, so that it will be relayed one by one.

When the imperial grain and national taxes cannot be collected, the Yamen will activate the state violence machine and dispatch the government servants to beat those who should be beaten, those who should be forcibly expropriated, and those who should be arrested.

It has always been a thankless task to settle outstanding debts.It is your duty to collect the owed money, if you can't collect it, you are useless, just wait to be reprimanded by the county magistrate.Therefore, this kind of thing is avoided by everyone.

This time Zhou Nan took the initiative to invite Ying, the masters in each room were overjoyed, and they threw this hot potato over, and even assigned two fast-shift yamen servants to order him.

It's a pity that Zhou Nan ran outside for a few days, and finally realized that he was still too naive.In this agricultural society of the Great Ming Dynasty, Jiajing Jiajing, every family is no joke.

(End of this chapter)