Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 148 We Are Not Suckers

Zhou Dalang's face flashed with embarrassment, but he also knew that if he didn't explain things clearly, the Shen family would not trust him, let alone buy his shop.

Zhou Dalang lowered his head, unwilling to look at anyone in the yard, and stared at the ground.

There was silence for a while. Just when Shen Yu's family was getting a little impatient, Zhou Dalang cleared his throat and spoke with some difficulty.

He whispered, "That day I begged the county magistrate in public at the county office to allow me to separate and live on my own. My parents thought I was an unfilial son and embarrassed them in public. The next day after I was beaten with a stick in the county office, my parents lay on the bed and called relatives to be witnesses, and the family was divided."

Family disgrace should not be made public. When Zhou Dalang, who had revealed his own family disgrace, said this, his face turned red with embarrassment and he stammered and could not continue.

Shen Yu was helpless: "These are your family affairs, why are you telling me these?"

Zhou Dalang lowered his voice: "My parents only gave me three taels of silver in cash, and also gave me this shop as a deposit."

Shen Yu, Li, and Jiang looked at each other and sighed in their hearts: "The rumors outside are actually true. This old lady Hu is really cruel."

Zhou Dalang continued, "It sounds like I'm not losing out. If I run a shop like this well, I'll make some money every day. But the county government still has 520 taels of silver to pay for my crime, and I don't have any money, so I had to borrow from my relatives. But I ran around all day yesterday, and my relatives knew that my parents and I had separated, so no one was willing to lend me money."

Shen Yu asked in confusion: "This silver is for your parents' crimes, why do you have to pay it?"

Zhou Dalang had been hitting a wall all day yesterday, and finally someone was willing to say a fair word for him.

He glanced at Shen Yu gratefully, then lowered his head and said, "Because my parents said that I went to ask the county lord to pay the penalty with money. No one forced me to do so. I promised to pay it myself. The money in their hands should be kept for retirement."

Shen Yu's family was stunned. This old lady Hu changed her attitude faster than turning the pages of a book.

At that time, Zhou Dalang did plead for mercy, but later on, Mrs. Hu said in person that she would pay exile with money, and so many people heard it at the scene. How could she push all the blame on Zhou Dalang so blatantly now?

After Zhou Dalang finished talking about the situation at home, he felt better and his speech became more fluent.

He went on to complain, "The seven-day deadline is almost up, but I have no money at all. After the separation, my wife, Xiaobao and his family of three will also need to eat. The only place that can exchange money is this shop."

Shen Yu understood the reason why Zhou Dalang wanted to sell the house. After a long pause, he asked, "After talking for so long, you still haven't explained it clearly. Why did you only sell it to me?"

Zhou Dalang seemed to have been exposed. He glanced at Shen Yu guiltily and said hesitantly, "I found several buyers. The buyers knew that I was in urgent need of money, so they only offered 500 taels of silver at most. This price was too low. Before the incident, someone in this bakery offered 1,000 taels of silver, but my parents refused."

Zhou Dalang rubbed his hands and said with a stiff face, "My family's bakery has been open for more than ten years. Although it is an old house, the location is good and the house is well maintained. If I move in, it is a shop in front and a residence in the back, which is very suitable for opening a shop. If this house is only sold for 500 taels of silver, I can't even pay the amount of silver for the sin."

"My parents did something shameful here and became a laughing stock. After they recover from their injuries, they plan to move away. We, a family of three, don't plan to stay here any longer. When the time comes, we will leave this county and need money for the journey. If, if we can sell it for 600 taels, I can pay the county government's penalty and still have some money left for our moving expenses."

Shen Yu shook his head and said directly: "You think too highly of me. How much money can a small bun stall make? My family doesn't have 600 taels of silver."

As soon as she finished speaking, Li slammed the table angrily, startling everyone in the room.

Zhou Dalang was so frightened that he trembled and looked at Li with fear.

Li said "Pah" to the ground and rolled her eyes. "Are you taking advantage of us? It's not enough that you put my daughter Yuzhi in jail. Others only offered 500 taels of silver for a shabby shop. Why do you raise the price to 600 taels when you sell it to us? Don't say we don't have 600 taels of silver. Even if we did, we wouldn't give it to you. Go away now."

After Li finished speaking angrily, she lifted Zhou Dalang up from the stool without saying anything and pushed him out of the house.

Zhou Dalang begged for mercy again and again, holding the door frame with his hands, and kept shouting: "Madam, Madam, please talk nicely. I can also give you a little less money. I think my shop is in a good location. I would rather sell it to you than to others."

Li didn't care what he said. She twisted his fingers hard and shouted, "Dun Dun, Yu Cheng, come and help me get this bad boy out."

Zhou Dalang was too frail to stand the three men carrying him out, so he could only yell, "Madam, I'll tell you the truth, those people are my mother's relatives, they colluded to lower the price. I'm waiting for money for an emergency, so I can't wait to sell it at a good price, but I don't want to let them get away with it."

After hearing this, Li stopped what she was doing. Seeing that Li was no longer chasing people away, Dun Dun and Yu Cheng also stopped what they were doing and stood on both sides.

Zhou Dalang awkwardly pulled at the clothes that were twisted into a mess by Li and others, and said with a begging face: "Madam, even if you don't think about yourself, you should think about Miss Shen's children. You set up a stall in the open air at the entrance of the market every day. If the weather is cold, the children will suffer. But if you have a shop, it will be very different. Not only do you not have to get up so early to cook breakfast, but you won't be blown by the wind or hit by the snow, and you don't have to close the stall at a certain time. Wouldn't the income be higher?"

Li's heart moved, and she lowered her head to think secretly: After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the nights are getting colder and colder. In a few days, I will have to get up in the middle of the night and push a cart to set up a stall in the open air, but it will not be as comfortable as when the weather is warm.

If only there was a shop here...

Just as I was thinking about it, I heard Zhou Dalang helplessly say, "My bakery can't continue because my mother is unwilling to change the style and use good ingredients, so the business is getting worse and worse. With Miss Shen's good craftsmanship, she will definitely make money."

After saying that, he looked eagerly at Li, and then at Shen Yu.

Shen Yu had been sitting in the room without moving. She quickly calculated in her mind how much money she had, but it was never more than two hundred taels of silver. No matter how she counted, it was impossible for her to get six hundred taels of silver.