sbdcsierra Chapter 149 The Old Lady's Decision
Chapter 149 The Old Lady's Decision
Faced with her shrewd and sharp nephew's wife, old lady Guo ran away from her parents' home in disgrace without getting a penny. If she had not run fast, she, as an aunt, would have had to take on the job of arranging several nephews and grandchildren from her parents' side to work in the processing workshop.
The old lady, who didn't even have time to have lunch at her parents' home, hurried to the county town accompanied by Dalang. She planned to go door to door to look for some of the old man Ye's friends.
I don't know whether these people had discussed it in advance or what, but they all said in unison that it was the end of the year and the pressure on capital turnover was enormous, and they had no extra money at all.
There were even a few people who said that they were running out of cash at the end of the year and had gone to money houses to borrow money, but they were really unable to help.
It was getting close to evening. After a busy day, the old lady, who was tired and hungry, stepped into the Ye family's old house with the help of Dalang. She saw that everyone was covered in dust, sitting in the chairs with droopy heads, looking at her with lifeless eyes.
The old lady had a bad feeling in her heart, but she forced herself to ask.
"How much silver have you raised this day? Let's hear it. Dalang, can you summarize it and see how much is still missing?"
Everyone remained silent as they listened to the old lady's words. Helplessly, the old lady thought that her daughter would definitely do her best to help her parents' family, so she mentioned the eldest girl's name.
When the girl heard the old lady call her name, she stammered and spoke.
"My eldest aunt said that she was arranging marriages for cousin Yiming and cousin Yitong. The little money in the family had to be used as a betrothal gift for cousin Yiming and a dowry for cousin Yitong. My eldest aunt was also very tight on money, so she gave us ten taels of silver."
As he spoke, Silang took out a five-liang silver ingot and five one-liang silver ingots from his pocket.
The old lady never expected that her beloved daughter would only take out ten taels of silver, and it was some loose change, at such a critical moment.
Hearing that Ye Xiaolian only took out ten taels of silver, Xu suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard Xu say.
"Mom, you know that when I first mentioned the marriage between Da Niu and Er Lang from my eldest sister's family to my mother, I still have no contact with my eldest sister's family because of this matter. My brothers from my mother's family have always supported my eldest sister since she was a child. When I went back today, it happened that my eldest sister also went back to her parents' home. As soon as I mentioned the matter of borrowing money, my eldest sister and her sister-in-law drove me out."
The old lady knew that Xu had fallen out with her eldest sister because she proposed marriage to her eldest daughter, but she was still surprised that Xu was kicked out without getting a penny. Seeing Xu's aggrieved face, the old lady turned her gaze to Liu.
Then Liu took out a purse and started talking.
"My brother from my mother's side went to learn how to do business from his eldest brother-in-law a few months ago. He invested a lot in it, and my sister-in-law has collected this much."
As she spoke, Liu handed the purse in her hand to the old lady.
The old lady took the purse and weighed it. It was not very heavy. When she opened it, she saw that it was full of silver ingots, about fifty taels in total.
The old lady was really panicked as she had worked so hard all day but hadn't raised a penny.
The old lady began to regret not listening to Ye Changyan's advice and making preparations early. The repayment deadline was tomorrow, and she didn't know where to raise such a large sum of money.
The next morning, just after the hour of Chen, people from Baotong Money House drove a horse-drawn carriage to the Ye family's old house.
The two gangsters from that day came down from the carriage, supporting Tang Laizi, who had a gauze towel wrapped around his head. Then two more people got off the carriage. One was Huo Chong, the second manager of Baotong Money House, and the other was the accountant brought by Huo Chong.
When everyone in the old house saw the debt collector coming to their door, they were a little panicked for a moment.
The old lady knew that it was time to make her own decision. Right now, the best option for this family was to sell the land to Zhong Yunfeng.
Since she had made up her mind, the old lady ordered Silang to go to the farm and call the people from the third house over.
Hearing the old lady asking someone to look for Ye Changyan, Huo Chong was quite patient. He had already found out some relevant information about Ye Changyan in the past few days. Although he was just a new scholar, he was very close to the Zhong family in Yuzhou Prefecture, and was also familiar with several officials in the county government.
Huo Chong naturally knew that it was best not to have any conflict with such a person, but today he brought the promissory note and collateral to collect the overdue debt. This was only natural and he felt confident.
Seeing Silang running out, Huo Chong calmly talked to the old lady about the purpose of his visit today, while Tang Laizi and the two gangsters on the side did not look very happy.
No one in the old house dared to look at Tang Laizi's fierce eyes. They just listened to the old lady responding to Huo Chong in a few words.
Soon everyone in the third branch of the Ye family entered the yard of the old house, and everyone in the old house subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Ye, you are polite."
Hearing how Huo Chong addressed him and seeing him bowing towards him, Ye Changyan knew that the other party was probably trying to inquire about his situation, so Ye Changyan politely returned the greeting.
The old lady, who had already made a decision, gestured to Ye Changyan and walked towards the backyard. Ye Changyan nodded to Huo Chong and followed her to the backyard.
"Grandma, what do you want?"
Seeing that the old lady seemed to have made a difficult decision, Ye Changyan began to ask.
"Sanlang, I won't hide it from you. So far, we have only managed to collect a little over 200 taels of silver. But your uncle and Erlang have been detained in the county government for so many days. Grandmother is really at a loss. She plans to sell the land to Mr. Zhong to settle the matter first. However, Tang Laizi previously demanded a compensation of 100 taels of silver before he would withdraw the lawsuit. Do you think you can negotiate with him?"
When Ye Changyan heard the old lady's decision, he felt a little sad. His grandfather had just passed away, but the ancestral property left by his grandfather was squandered by his second uncle. He didn't know how sad his grandfather would be if he knew about it.
Ye Changyan negotiated with Huo Chong for some time, and Ye Changyan agreed to pay off all three debts in one go today in exchange for the withdrawal of the lawsuit against Erbo and Erlang.
Huo Chong was also calculating in his mind that the remaining two debts were not small amounts either. It would be best if they could be paid off all at once. Moreover, there was still some time before these two debts were due, especially the third debt, which was due in less than a month.
These debts will be paid off today. The two debts added together are equivalent to paying one more month's interest on one debt. Although Tang Laizi was seriously injured, people in this line of work will encounter such things to some extent. So Huo Chong comforted Tang Laizi and agreed to Ye Changyan's proposal.
After Ye Changyan received the letter of withdrawal of the lawsuit, he arranged for Wulang to go to Yunfeng Tower to see if Zhong Yunfeng had returned, and asked Liu and Silang to take the letter of withdrawal to the county government to pick up Ye Xiaowu and Erlang.
Huo Chong was very considerate and asked his carriage to take these people to the county town.