Ye Zi’an saw this and pulled Yang Chuxia behind him, stepped forward, and bowed to the two young servants as a gesture of politeness. He then said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "We are here to buy servants." Speaking, Ye Zi’an took out a purse from his sleeve and stuffed it.
Ye Zi’an was smart and knew that the two were young and might not easily believe that they were here to buy people. He also guessed that they might think they couldn’t afford it, so he consciously took out his purse.
Seeing that Ye Zi’an’s purse seemed quite heavy, the two young servants knew there must be quite a bit of silver in it, and their faces immediately became more friendly.
"Since the young master and young lady are here to buy people, please come this way!" One of the young servants eagerly led the two of them inside, while the other one who was left behind murmured that it was strange for a wealthy family to have their master personally buy servants. Even if a servant were to do the buying, it should be a nanny, not two young children.
The young servant led Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an in, and a broker came out of the inner room. Seeing that the visitors were two children, he didn’t act like the two young servants.
He said kindly, "What kind of people do you want to buy? Laboring servants or attending maids?" The broker continued to introduce, "We just got a batch of people who have been sent down from above, and they are all good quality."
Yang Chuxia thought of the shadow she had just seen and whispered a few words to Ye Zi’an.
Ye Zi’an composed himself and said, "Lord Broker, we want to buy someone who can do some carpentry work. If there isn’t any, we hope to find some nimble young men."
Hearing him call him "Lord Broker", the broker’s smile grew deeper.
"You want someone who knows carpentry?" said the broker, stroking his chin. "It seems we don’t have one, but we do have one who knows how to forge iron. As for the nimble young men, we have quite a few."
Upon hearing this, Ye Zi’an said, "Then please have them brought to us, Lord Broker, along with the iron forger. Oh, that’s right, we also need two young maids, ones who are sensible and clever. Appearance comes second."
"That’s easy. Please wait here for a moment, and I will have them brought to you." With that, the broker went out, and shortly after, he returned with a dozen young men, a middle-aged man, and also about ten young girls.
"These young men have just arrived. How many of them do you want?"
Yang Chuxia spoke up this time, "We’ll choose first, we’re not sure how many yet."
When the broker heard her suddenly speak, he was slightly startled, but didn’t say much, only saying, "Then please choose."
Yang Chuxia then walked around in front of the group, asking each person a few questions, finally reaching the front of the familiar person. This person was no other than Aunt Caixia’s second daughter, Jinxiu.
Yang Jinxiu recognized Yang Chuxia and was visibly excited to see her, but Yang Chuxia did not linger in front of her.
Afterwards, she came over and spoke a few words to Ye Zi’an. Ye Zi’an then pointed at the group and said to the broker, "From left to right, the first, third, and fifth, and the uncle who can forge iron. As for the young maids, there aren’t any particularly good ones. That one in the middle looks a bit more gentle, so we’ll take her. Although she looks ordinary, her honesty is valuable. We, ordinary farmers, don’t need any cunning and slippery ones."
Hearing that the two were from a farming family, the broker’s expression cracked a little. In this day and age, even farming families were starting to use servants?