Chapter 23 The Huang Family’s Shocking Change

When Er Gouzi returned to Shexi Village, he first went to his uncle's house to look for Xiao Ezi.

He didn't want to visit his uncle's house, and didn't want to see his aunt's face again, so he could only wait outside.

But he didn't wait long before he met Xiao Ezi.

"Xiao Ezi, look, I bought you some good things!"

The two squatted under an inconspicuous corner, and Er Gouzi took out the pair of hair flowers.

"Ah! So beautiful!"

"Is it for me?"

When Xiao Ezi saw the pair of hair flowers, she obviously liked them too, and her dimples smiled.

"Of course it's for you, I don't need it."

"Thank you, Brother Gouzi!"

Xiao Ezi took the hair flowers, and she didn't use a mirror, she just put them on her hair, and shook her head, feeling very satisfied.

"There's more, look!"

Then Er Gouzi took out the candied haws, maltose, and osmanthus cloud cakes one by one, like offering treasures.

At first, Xiao Ezi was very happy, and her eyes were shining when she saw so many delicious things.

But soon she seemed to realize that it would cost a lot of money to buy these things.

"Brother Gouzi, don't buy so many things next time. What will you do if you have no money and go hungry in the future?"

"Just yesterday, Sandouzi from the west end of the village died of starvation. They died because they were lazy and had no surplus food at home."

Xiao Ezi reluctantly rewrapped the osmanthus cloud cake.

"You can return it. It's not delicious."

When Xiao Ezi said it was not delicious, her attitude was firm, but her little tongue still couldn't help but licked the residue at the corner of her mouth quietly.

"Don't worry, Xiao Ezi, I won't go hungry now."

Er Gouzi stuffed all the cakes into Xiao Ezi's arms.

"Huang Laocai has sold the land in Shekou Mountain to me, and allowed me to pay back the money slowly in the future."

"Really?"

Xiao Ezi widened her eyes, a little bit unbelievable.

"Of course it's true."

"My eldest brother has always wanted to buy that piece of land. I heard that Huang Laocai was unwilling to sell it. I didn't expect that he was willing to sell it to you."

Now it was Er Gouzi's turn to be a little surprised.

"Your family has dozens of acres of good farmland, why did your brother insist on buying that barren mountain?"

"Hehehe... You may not know that my eldest brother recently bought some more land, and now my family has more than 100 acres of good farmland."

The two were talking aimlessly when the door of the uncle's house creaked open.

Er Gouzi quickly shrank back, not wanting to meet other people from the uncle's family.

The door opened, and an official came out first, and Zhang Youliang followed him out.

The two chatted for a while at the door, and the official said goodbye and left.

"Why did the official come to your house?"

Er Gouzi asked curiously. When ordinary people see the government officials, they are like mice seeing cats, and they dare not deal with them.

"This Captain Wang is my brother's friend. He came to the village to arrest someone and came to chat with my brother."

"Arrest someone? Who offended the government?"

Shexi Village is too far from the county town. It takes a day to walk there. Generally, the government will not intervene unless it is a particularly big deal.

The local gentry and security chiefs get together to discuss and deal with the matter. There is no need to alarm the county government at all.

I still remember that last time Wang Bald stole Li Longzi's wife, the gentry later fined Wang Bald a stone of grain and put Li Longzi's wife in a pig cage.

Everyone praised the gentry for being law-abiding and fair.

On the day of the pig cage, all the men, women, old and young in the village went to the river to watch the excitement, which was more lively than the Lantern Festival.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you."

"Huang Laocai's eldest son beat someone to death, and the family reported it to the county government."

Xiao Ezi remembered the big news in the village today and added this.

"Something happened at Huang Laocai's house. I have to go and see. I still owe Huang Laocai several hundred taels of silver."

Er Gouzi said as he stood up and ran to Huang Laocai's house.

The officers who arrested the people had already left. There was still a large group of tenants watching the excitement at the door of Huang Laocai's house. They gathered together and talked a lot, pointing and talking, but no one dared to approach.

Er Gouzi squeezed through the crowd and walked in.

The house had been turned upside down, the boxes and cabinets were overturned and opened, and all kinds of clothes and items were scattered on the floor.

The second daughter sat at the door crying, and there were several footprints on her clothes.

Huang Laocai sat on a stone with his eyes dull, letting the women of all ages in the house cry.

This is also the reason why ordinary people are most afraid of the officers.

The officers will not just arrest someone and leave when they come to the door. They must make enough money after running a long way.

They often take the opportunity to sweep away all the valuable items in the prisoner's house.

Therefore, when villagers usually scare children, as long as they say that the officials are coming, the children will stop crying immediately, and dare not cry anymore, and dare not even move.

"Master Huang!"

Huang Laocai heard the call, and after a while, his eyes gradually came back to his senses.

"Er Gou... woo woo woo..."

Huang Laocai was like a child at this time, hugging Er Gouzi and sobbing.

"Master Huang, don't worry, let's think of a way."

"I still owe you 800 taels of money, and I'm here to pay it back today."

After the officials came to the house, there must be no valuables left in the house.

The money that Er Gouzi returned may help Huang Laocai out of an emergency.

Hearing that Er Gouzi was here to pay back the money, Huang Laocai was probably stimulated and finally calmed down.

"Do you want me to think of a way to return all 800 taels of silver to you in advance?"

Now that Huang Laocai is encountering difficulties, Ergouzi thinks that if he makes some Dali Pills and sells them, he should soon be able to save 800 taels.

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

Unexpectedly, Huang Laocai would be in this situation, but he showed rare stubbornness.

"Still according to the original agreement, 40 taels per year, repaid in 20 years."

"We will go to the county government office tomorrow to stamp the seal."

Generally, private land sales contracts must be stamped with a large seal at the Yamen and completed before they can be officially recognized.

Since Huang Laocai insisted on this, Ergouzi didn't say much, and immediately took out 40 taels of silver and handed it to Huang Laocai.

"I have to go to the county government tomorrow to make some connections, and I just need some silver."

The two agreed to set off tomorrow morning, and Er Gouzi said goodbye and returned to his Shekou Mountain.

Back on the mountain, two big geese and a group of little geese had gathered around him, asking for food.

After he bought these two geese back, they were often fed with fodder rich in spiritual energy, and they grew extremely strong.

Some time ago, I laid an egg and hatched several goslings.

Ergouzi enlarged the gourd, poured some fodder from it, and sprinkled it on the trough.

Several geese immediately gathered around the trough and devoured it.

After feeding the geese, I watered all the crops on the mountain and then made Dali Pills overnight.

This time, almost one stone of Dali Pill was sold for more than two hundred taels of silver, so I tasted the sweetness.

He planned to make all the two hundred stones of grain in the gourd into powerful pills and sell them.

After rubbing it for most of the night, I only made a handful of Dali Pills.

Early the next morning, Er Gouzi and Huang Laocai rushed to the county government together.

At the gate of the county government office, Huang Laocai bowed with a bright and flattering smile on his face, and presented two packages of broken silver with both hands.

The two gatekeepers had cold faces, took the broken silver, weighed it, and put it into their sleeves.

"Come in!"

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Huang Laocai bowed and thanked the two of them, as if the two gatekeepers had done him a great favor.

Next, whenever Huang Laocai met, he put on a bright smile, bowed and presented silver coins.

Even if he was sarcastic, ridiculed and insulted by people in the yamen, Huang Laocai always responded with a bright smile.

Er Gouzi followed Huang Laocai silently and saw that he had given money 16 times and said thank you 106 times. Finally, he got through all the joints and saw Huang Fugui in the dungeon.

In just one day, one of Huang Fugui's legs was already broken, his cheeks were swollen, and there was blood on the corners of his mouth. He had obviously suffered a lot.

"Son!"

"father!"

"Dad, I didn't kill anyone, I just pushed the beggar..."

Huang Laocai didn't know the specific cause of the incident, but now that Huang Fugui told it, it felt a little strange.

That day, Huang Fugui was eating a bowl of wontons at a wonton stall in town. A beggar spat a mouthful of yellow pus into his wonton bowl.

Huang Fugui was so angry that he cursed and pushed the beggar several times, knocking him to the ground.

The beggar didn't say anything, laughed and got up from the ground, picked up Huang Fugui's bowl of wontons and ate them all.

Then Huang Fugui left.

Who knows, now the beggar’s family has filed a lawsuit with the county government, saying that he beat someone to death.

Originally, if one or two beggars died, no one would take them seriously.

On their way here, they saw several beggars freezing to death.

Anyone who digs a hole to bury them can be considered kind.

Not to mention beggars, even ordinary villagers usually fight to death one or two. As long as they don't go to the county government to file a complaint, the county magistrate doesn't bother to take care of these messy things.

But this time, because of a beggar, Wang Captou and his men braved the wind and snow to go all the way to Shexi Village to get him.

"Dad! I was wronged. Please get me out. I can't bear it anymore. They beat me, didn't give me food, and forced me to drink urine..."

Huang Laocai also said a lot of good things to the jailer and cell leader, and gave away some money.

The prison boss accepted the benefits and promised to give Wang Fugui two prison meals a day.

After leaving the prison, Huang Laocai and Er Gouzi went to complete the Shekou Mountain transaction procedures.

This procedure is relatively simple, but it was completed with a smile on my face and after sending money three times.

If you go to the yamen to do things, if you don't send money to help, you can't get anything done.

Ergouzi took the land deed of Shekou Mountain, which was stamped with the red seal of the county government. From now on, he would officially become the owner of Shekou Mountain.

However, Shekou Mountain needs to pay a tax of 20 shi of grain to the county government every year.

This is just the price of barren hills. If he reclaims the land, the taxes will increase.

On the way back, Huang Laocai remained silent.

"Master Huang, if you don't have enough money, I still have some money in hand that I can lend to you."

Ergouzi saw that Huang Laocai spent twenty or thirty taels of silver just to visit the prison.

If you want to spend money to fish out Huang Fugui in the future, you will need to spend a lot of money.

Huang Laocai smiled bitterly.

"Don't call me master from now on. I'm the same generation as your father. If you respect me, just call me Uncle Huang."

"There's no need to borrow money. If I have extra money, I can sell you the fields at the foot of Shekou Mountain."

"Why?"

In the past, Huang Laocai valued land more than his life.

Only with land can we take root and grow. Only with land in our hands can we have the opportunity to make a comeback.

"The legacy that our Lao Huang family has saved for several generations can probably no longer be maintained."

"If I had known this, I would have sold the pot and offered it to the rich and powerful to practice martial arts and become a scholar."

Huang Laocai raised his head and sighed. Although he was rich, he was still as humble as an ant in front of the government. A few officials could destroy his family.

"Ergou, when you make money, I advise you to be willing to spend money to practice martial arts and take the imperial examination. Studying is useless. The status of a scholar is far inferior to that of a martial scholar."

Huang Laocai regretted it when he said this.

As we all know, martial arts training consumes a lot of energy. Not only do you have to eat enough food, but you also have to eat meat and eggs, and even buy some expensive medicines to assist.

The price of a pill of Peiyuan Guben Pill is equivalent to six or seven stone of grain.

Even as the richest man in Shexi Village, he can't bear such consumption.