Seeing this, Yang Chuxia had no choice but to return home. Afterward, Ye Zi’an gave his house key to Yang Qingrui and followed Yang Chuxia home.
Once home, Yang Chuxia quickly finished her meal and then went to the town with Yang Dachuan, Uncle Old Gen, and some others. Arriving in the town, Yang Dachuan drove the oxcart and sent Uncle Old Gen and the others to the shop. Then he drove Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an to the pawnshop.
"I’ll stay outside to keep an eye on the oxcart and wait for you two, so I won’t go in," Yang Dachuan said as the two children disembarked.
Those two servants outside the pawnshop clearly remembered Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an. They had heard that these two teenagers had bought five people in the pawnshop. Even though they were from a landlord’s family, they were still a wealthy landlord’s family, probably landowners. With this in mind, the two servants approached eagerly, "Old Master, Miss Yang, Young Master Ye, the oxcart can be driven into the pawnshop!"
"If that’s the case, Dad, you can drive the oxcart in."
Once inside, Yang Chuxia gave each servant several dozen wen as a tip. Though it wasn’t much, it was still their daily wage. The two servants were naturally delighted with the free money.
Inside the pawnshop, the servants led Yang Dachuan to find a place to park the oxcart, while Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an went to find Broker Liu. "Oh, Young Master Ye and Miss Yang have arrived?" Broker Liu greeted them with a smile.
"Uncle Liu, I’m really sorry. We were supposed to come and pick up the people yesterday, but we couldn’t free up any rooms in our house, so it was delayed."
Yang Chuxia thought it was not very appropriate to call him "Broker Liu," as the two characters "broker" seemed a bit opportunistic. Moreover, she guessed that even if he was a broker, he probably wouldn’t like these two characters. So she addressed him as "uncle" considering his age.
As expected, this "uncle" title and Zi’an’s previous comment worked their charm, and Broker Liu’s smile deepened. He thought to himself that these two country kids really knew how to talk.
"It’s no big deal. I have plenty of space here. It’s just giving a few people some food and water, and a place to stay for a day," Broker Liu said, waving his hand hurriedly after hearing Yang Chuxia’s explanation.
"We still need to thank you for taking care of them." Yang Chuxia said and took out two hundred wen, "Uncle Liu, this is for the food and lodging of these people in the past two days. I hope you don’t think it’s too little."
"Hey, are you trying to make me lose face?" Broker Liu pretended to be unhappy, "Just letting them stay for one or two days doesn’t cost two hundred wen, right? Besides, I told you the other day that I wouldn’t take your money. Although I’m a broker, I keep my word. So put this money away quickly, or I’ll get angry."
Seeing Broker Liu wasn’t just being polite with an empty gesture, Yang Chuxia put the money away and said, "Alright, I won’t be polite with Uncle Liu then. But one of these days I’ll come to the pawnshop and bring you some sauce from our house to try."
What Yang Chuxia meant was their homemade bean paste, but Broker Liu thought it was some common rural food, so he didn’t take it to heart.
After finishing speaking, Yang Chuxia gently nudged Ye Zi’an, who nodded and took out the land deeds and household registers that Yang Chuxia had given him on the road.
"Uncle Liu, I need your help to transfer the land and house deeds, as well as the household register. Please remove these people from it."
Broker Liu took a look and found out they were from Yangshu Village. He often frequented the county and naturally heard about the events that happened in Yangshu Village a few days ago. He also knew something about the two human traffickers.
Now that he had seen the household register, he understood even more.