"We also want to get along well with our neighbors." Zhou Chengkang said in a serious tone, "Min Rui and I get along pretty well. Honestly, I am closer to him than my brothers."
"It's not our problem that we don't get along with your family." Zhou Chengkang continued, "You owe so much silver to the villagers. The things my wife and I don't like the most are lending money to others and people asking to borrow money from us. No matter what relationship it is, as long it comes to money it will always leave a bad taste. So if we want a good relationship with others, it's best not to involve money."
But if the relationship is not good between them, he will not lend the money.
This conversation reached a dead end. In fact, the purpose of Mr. Yang coming to their house was nothing else than to borrow money. Zhou Chengkang's words directly stopped him from asking about it.
Mr. Yang was dumbfounded for a moment. He then looked at Li Qinghe and frowned slightly, "Speaking of this, when you two were yet to get married, Li Qinghe saved my son-in-law. I remember when Li Qinghe asked for a thank you gift, it was my daughter who helped pay the silver." He scanned the courtyard, "It seems that you bought this land with that money."
"That's right." Li Qinghe said calmly. It was originally supposed to be a thank-you gift. She almost lost her life to save Xu Changjie's life, compared to which, receiving 10 taels of silver was nothing at all. And as for Yang Lanrou paying her the silver, it was what she was willing to do herself. Li Qinghe didn't ask for it.
"When you saved my son-in-law back then, was it because you liked…" Mr. Yang paused for a moment, "So you don't like my daughter, which is why you don't like interacting with our family."
His words implied that Li Qinghe still hated his daughter and hence held a grudge against them.
How can Mr. Yang be so confident to think that she was still hung up on his son-in-law even after getting married and having a child?
"I'm not saying this to ask you to repay the 10 taels of silver, but I just hope that this can be the beginning of a relationship…"
Zhou Chengkang interrupted him, "Even if you ask us to return it, we will not be returning it. We didn't blackmail you to give you the money. Paying 10 taels of silver to buy a life, where can you find such a good thing? Besides, my wife saved him once again later. The Xu family didn't even give a thank-you gift and had been playing dumb about it. They have a problem with their character and are ungrateful. If we don't want to be associated with the Xu family at all."
How can they accept this?
Mr. Yang was dumbfounded.
Zhou Chengkang was already impatient with him. In fact, the Yang couple was not allowed to enter their house. But when they came to their door, someone else happened to come to buy the fish. As a result, the couple also got to enter the courtyard. The person who came to buy fish has left but they stayed behind to chat.
Looking at their posture, it seemed that they were not done yet.
"Don't go!" Seeing that he was about to leave, Mr. Yang hurriedly said, "We came here because we have something we want to ask."
"I know the reason It must be to borrow money." Zhou Chengkang replied, "Needless to say, we don't have money. I have recently paid the wages and now our family only has a few copper coins left."
"If it was a normal matter, I wouldn't open my mouth to ask." Mr. Yang had an ugly expression on his face as he spoke, "Originally, my son was a good boy. A master said that he is very smart and is likely to become a scholar. But I never expected him to steal things last year… After the incident, he stopped going outside and he may have suffered a blow. After the spring of this year, I originally intended to send him to the county to let him take the county exam, but I didn't expect…"
Li Qinghe looked at him suspiciously, and asked curiously, "Did he steal something again?"
Mr. Yang sighed, "He got addicted to gambling and lost all his money. He borrowed ten taels of silver with interest and now the interest had accumulated to 20 taels. A message for us from the county saying that if we don't repay 30 taels of silver in ten days, they will cut my son's hands."
"As you know, hands are the most important thing for a scholar. And if he has any disability, he can't study. If he doesn't have hands, he will become a useless person. You have also become parents, so you should understand how it feels when such a thing happens to your son.." His eyes turned red.
He was really…a prodigal son!
"But you're also embarrassing us when you come to our door." After hearing enough stories, Zhou Chengkang had enough and sighed, "Our family really has no money. If it was last year, we would still be able to give out ten taels, and we paid wages just two days ago."
If the fish was not stolen and Mr. Yang had not gone to the villagers to raise money like last year, he might have been able to borrow money and pay back more than pay back at least 10 taels of silver. But now…not to mention the wages for the building hadn't been paid to workers yet. And on top of that, he borrowed a lot of money from the villagers last year, which also hadn't been paid back yet.
To Mr. Yang, a few taels of silver was nothing much. But to the villagers, it was their entire family's savings. Now they had lent it out and couldn't even get it back. There was no way they didn't regret doing that.
They have now learned their lesson. So now even if Mr. Yang requested to borrow money, no one would be willing to lend the money to him.
Seeing off the Yang couple, Li Qinghe felt quite emotional. In fact, in the beginning, she didn't think that the Yang family would be in ruins. After all, no normal would dare to owe so much money to the villagers, would they?
But in fact, Mr. Yang really was a person who didn't worry when there were too many debts. He owed so much money to others but still, he and his family led a fine life with a peaceful mind. Of course, their lifestyle was not as lavish as it used to be like eating fine floured buns, but still, compared to the villagers, they were living a good life.
It was the most common thing to take others' money and live a good life with peace of mind.
However, it was all coming to an end.
Within two days, Li Qinghe heard that Mr. Yang went to pick up his son from the county. After Li Qinghe heard it, she couldn't help but lament about the Yang family's foundation and how they knew to pretend to be poor.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Yang Lanhong was picked up from the county, a quarrel happened in the Xu family. It turned out that Xu Chnagjie stole his family's savings and gave them to his father-in-law to rescue his brother-in-law.
The Xu family had been living these years diligently. Xu Changjie had been working as a shopkeeper in the town earlier. The salary was good and it was seldom spent. Mrs. Xu managed the house and saved as much money as she could. According to her, she saved more than twenty taels. She intended to use the money for Xu Changjie's younger siblings' marriage and build a few houses. In fact, many girls in the village secretly liked Xu Changjie, not only because of his good looks but also because of his salary and the foundation of the Xu family.
Unexpectedly, he stole all the savings of the Xu family and gave them to the Yang family this time.
The entire Xu family went to the Yang family's house and were forcing them to pay back the money.
Mr. Yang was in debt, so how can he pay it back?
They were in no position to return soon and Mrs. Xu was in a hurry to get the money back. She had been jumping all day and yelling at Yang Lanrou. She called her a vixen, and broom star, and said that marrying her son to her had brought bad luck for eight lifetimes.
Even though there was an acre of land between the houses, Li Qinghe could still hear most of their quarrel. She felt a little bit happy and was in a good mood all day long.
In her previous life, Mrs. Xu praised Yang Lanrou many times in front of Li Qinghe. She used to say that Yang Lanrou was gentle, courteous, and good-looking. She also said that her children must also look good in the future. She also said that even though the Yang family was rich, they didn't pamper her excessively and that the decline of the Yang family was only temporary and it would get better sooner or later. She even called Li Qinghe narrow-minded when she fought with Xu Changjie because of Yang Lanrou.
It was true that people were always compared with one another. Now without her ignorant daughter-in-law, it turned out that even Yang Lanrou was unbearable in Mrs. Xu's eyes.
However, the only thing that remained the same was the deep relationship between Xu Changjie and Yang Lanrou. He gave up all the money from his family to save his brother-in-law. It was indeed true love.
It was more genuine than Li Fu's feelings for Mrs. Qian!
No matter how much Li Fu liked Mrs. Qian, he would not allow her to use the family's money to save her brother. Seeing her in a daze, Zhou Chengkang asked, "What are you thinking?"
"It is true love." Li Qinghe said casually.
Seeing her eyes, Zhou Chengkang immediately understood that she was talking about their neighbors. He approached her and with a low voice, asked her, "Am I not true to you?"
Hearing this, Li Qinghe couldn't help laughing, "We're not the same."
"Yes, not the same." He agreed, "I'm more true to you."
Just as he was about to say something, he saw Xiyu running towards them and saying, "Mother, let's eat…"
Li Qinghe's eyes softened and before she could answer him, she saw him slip and fall on his butt on the ground.
The soil in the backyard was not as flat as the front yard and Xiyu was less than two years old, so he would fall easily. She stepped forward to pick him up and said, "Slow down and walk steadily. Don't run…"
When the child fell, he didn't cry previously, but now that he was up, he started wailing. His little face got wrinkled, "Mother, it hurts…"
At first glance, Li Qinghe could tell he was pretending to cry as there were no tears, "..." Does this brat dislike her nagging?
She picked up the child and stuffed him into Zhou Chengkang's arms and said, "Father and son have the same virtues, and they both dislike me for nagging."
"No." Zhou Chengkang said with a serious look on his face. While holding Xiyu, who had now stopped crying, he walked towards her and said, "Madam, if you say something, I will remember it carefully and never do it again!"
Li Qinghe couldn't help but chuckle, "Teach your son well. Even if he dislikes his mother, he shouldn't run so fast."
Xiyu said, "I don't dislike you. I will take care of you in the future."
Mrs. Zhou must have told him this. Li Qinghe wasn't really angry and after listening to his words, she couldn't help but laugh. She stretched out her hand and pinched his face, "I'm waiting for you to take care of me when I'm older. Right now, you are still young and we have to wait."
During meal time, Mrs. Zhou heard the yelling from next door and said, "I used to think that the Xu family's son was an intelligent one. But I didn't expect him to steal his family's money to save his wife's brother."
After a while, she said, "However, saving people was like putting out a fire. He couldn't just sit and watch his brother-in-law's hands being chopped off. After all, he is still kins."
Zhou Chengkang couldn't bear hearing his mother praise Xu Changjie and said, "How is it called generous? If your son took all your money that you saved up for your retirement…"
Mrs. Zhou shouted, "How dare you!"
Zhou Chengkang shrugged his shoulders and said, "Will still praise him as generous? How about I also be generous ......"
Mrs. Zhou was dumbfounded and glared at her son. She could actually understand Mrs. Xu's mood at present very well. As she fed Xiyu, she said, "Little boy, don't steal your mother's money when you grow up or she'll die out of anger."
Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang quietly looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.
Mrs. Xu jumped and cursed outside the Yang family house for three days. Her voice turned hoarse from shouting that afternoon and no one tried to persuade her anymore. But all she could do was curse them, as the Yang family really had no money.
Mrs. Xu cried and whimpered for a long time but to no avail. Seeing that the Yang family was indifferent, she gritted her teeth and went to the magistrate's house to sue her son for stealing the family's money.
Everyone who heard the news was dumbfounded. They didn't expect Mrs. Xu would become so ruthless that she would sue her son!
It was a family matter, and the magistrate didn't want to interfere, but Mrs. Xu threatened that if he didn't help resolve the matter, she would hang herself at the door of the magistrate's house.
The magistrate had no choice but to send people to arrest Xu Changjie. They would only release him if he paid back the money within five days or else he would be handed to the county government.
The maximum imprisonment for stealing 200 cents was two years. And as for 20 taels, it would be at least 8 or 10 years of imprisonment.