Free Web NovelChapter 375: Chapter 148: Buying People and Planting Medicinal Herbs
Purchasing the twenty people cost a total of over four hundred taels of silver.
Although these people were worth only six or seven taels each—some as little as three or five—when first sold to the traffickers, their prices skyrocketed after changing hands. When sold by the traffickers, each person cost at least twenty taels.
Among them, only the girl with the persistent fever, her younger brother, and the four who were maimed were cheaper. The rest averaged twenty-five taels each.
In consideration of Zhao Jing being a new Scholar and Chen Song being the assistant magistrate of Qingshui County, the broker gritted his teeth and offered a very favorable price, ultimately collecting a total of four hundred and twenty taels of silver.
Chen Wanqing’s heart bled at spending such a large sum of money.
She had originally planned to go to the Prefecture to buy a house. Instead of a house, however, she had acquired a different kind of ’property’.
Seeing Chen Wanqing’s furrowed brow and tightly pursed lips, Zhao Jing knew she was upset about the silver.
He was amused. He secretly slipped a silver note into her hand. "Here, take this. I found it last night in a hidden compartment inside a gift box. It’s not much, just a hundred taels. I wonder if these hundred taels are enough to buy a smile from you?"
Chen Wanqing unfolded the silver note and looked at it, retorting playfully, "What do you take me for? A courtesan who sells her smiles?"
Seeing the bright red inscription "One Hundred Taels" on the silver note, Chen Wanqing frowned. "This is so much. Who sent it? A lavish gift always comes with a request. Jing, we should return this."
"It’s from Mr. Wang," he explained. "I think he was worried we wouldn’t accept it if he gave it to us directly, so he put it in the box’s hidden compartment."
When Chen Wanqing heard the silver note was from Mr. Wang, she felt it would be difficult to refuse.
’Both of them had benefited from Mr. Wang’s kindness, and their relationship with him had grown increasingly close. If we return the silver note, would that mean we want to sever ties with him?’
"Let’s keep it. In the future, if his family has any business, we can just be more generous with our gifts."
So, Chen Wanqing had no choice but to accept the silver note.
With money coming in, Chen Wanqing’s heartache over the expense eased significantly.
She made a special trip to take the girl with the persistent fever to see a doctor. By the time she came out with the medicine, Zhao Jing had already found two ox-carts and had everyone else climb aboard.
The group bid farewell to Xu Su Ying and headed back to the Zhao Village.
A place to house them was readily available: the vacant Chen family home.
The courtyard had been thoroughly trashed before, and even though it had since been cleaned, Xu Su Ying felt uneasy about it and refused to move back in.
The couple had been planning to sell the property, but the crops still hadn’t been harvested.
They had originally thought that after the harvest, they would give the farmland to Chen Wanqing and sell the house. Now, there was no need to sell it; it was perfect for housing the new workers.
Chen Wanqing had already figured out how to accommodate them. The larger east wing would house the women, while the slightly smaller west wing would be for the men. She would remove the partitions in the central hall, set up tools, and turn it into a workshop for everyone.
Conveniently, there was still firewood left at the house, and the kitchen was fully functional. She would have the cook she’d bought start preparing meals, and just like that, all the immediate problems were solved.
Later, she would decide whether or not to build up the backyard, depending on the circumstances.
However, she most likely wouldn’t. The demand for her spices was already enormous—so much so that even the two neighboring county towns couldn’t keep up.
Besides, shipping goods back and forth to the Prefecture was too much trouble. Chen Wanqing was thinking of moving her entire operation there directly.
’But, as the saying goes, there’s no rush. One step at a time. Take it slow. If you take too big a step, you might pull something... ahem.’
When the two cartloads of people were brought to the main Chen family residence in the Zhao Village, all the clansmen who worked for Second Aunt were alarmed.
Seeing so many people disembarking from the ox-carts, they came over curiously. "Who are all these people? Why bring them here?"
"Are they refugees? They don’t look like it. Good heavens, why are some of them maimed? And what’s wrong with that young woman? Her face is so flushed. Don’t tell me she’s passed out from a fever?"
Before Chen Wanqing or Zhao Jing could answer, Xiang’er and Dashan began explaining, one speaking after the other.
"Since all you aunts quit, my sister-in-law couldn’t hire anyone to do the work. The business couldn’t afford the delay, so she just bought people instead."
"Wanqing was backed into a corner; she had to take anyone she could get. Just look, she even bought those who are maimed. All of you... what you did wasn’t right."
"My sister-in-law didn’t have enough silver, so the auntie from the Chen family had to front a large portion of it."
"All the silver Wanqing earned went toward buying spices. Sigh... if Dasong’s family hadn’t helped out so much, she wouldn’t have been able to buy these people at all. At the end of the day, what you all did was truly disheartening."
