Chapter 156: Chapter 156 Refund Chapter 156: Chapter 156 Refund Su Yunjin was drunk and asleep in the room, while Gu Ya sat in the yard drinking with his father-in-law, Su Zhongshi. Suddenly, a ruckus erupted, and Su Ningxiu instinctively looked towards the neighboring Tao family’s residence. She saw a group following the Tao family into the yard with a menacing air, clearly there to make trouble.
“Hurry up, hurry up! Make it fast for me. You need to return our Master Huang’s silver. If you don’t have the money, we’ll take you to report to the officials.”
Mrs. Tao was so frightened she wet herself and hastily agreed, “I will return it, return it. Please wait, gentlemen, I’ll go get the money right now!”
“Make it quick. I’m not a patient man! Don’t make us wait too long,” said the men, obviously impatient.
Mrs. Tao didn’t dare to speak out and inwardly lamented. She had already spent half of the silver Master Huang had given her. She had bought a set of jewelry for Su Xiaofu and cloth for clothes for herself and her sons. Now, she had only ten taels of silver on her, not the twenty that were required.
Mrs. Tao had no idea where to gather another twenty taels of silver to repay Master Huang, but she couldn’t bear the thought of her precious granddaughter, Xiaofu, becoming a concubine in the Huang Residence. Even if it meant clenching her teeth, she had to find a way to repay the twenty taels of silver.
Having been taken to the Huang Residence once already, Su Xiaofu was terrified at the prospect of being taken there again. She pleaded with Mrs. Tao to repay the money, her voice trembling, “Granny, hurry, please pay back the silver. Xiaofu doesn’t want to go to the Huang Residence, doesn’t want to become Master Huang’s concubine.”
When Su Xiaofu saw Master Huang at the Huang Residence, with his wrinkled skin, white hair, and a mouth mostly devoid of teeth save for two or three big yellow ones, she almost couldn’t keep herself from vomiting.
The thought of becoming a concubine to Master Huang made Su Xiaofu feel profoundly disgusted.
The commotion at Mrs. Tao’s attracted quite a crowd of villagers who came to watch.
After observing for a while, Su Ningxiu surmised that her step-grandmother, Mrs. Tao, must be unwilling to let Su Xiaofu marry Master Huang as a concubine, and the people from the Huang Residence were there to force Mrs. Tao to return the money.
“Xiuxiu, what’s happened?” Mrs. Shen walked from the kitchen to Su Ningxiu’s side and looked towards Mrs. Tao’s house, asking.
“Mother, I went to see. People from the Huang Residence have come to ask Granny for money,” said Su Xiaobao as he ran over. He had just sneaked to the periphery of Mrs. Tao’s yard and witnessed the visitors from the Huang Residence acting violently and frightfully, smashing whatever they saw in the yard.
Su Ningxiu and Mrs. Shen exchanged looks, neither of them planning to go over. In Su Ningxiu’s view, the whole incident was caused by Mrs. Tao’s own mischief. If Mrs. Tao hadn’t had the heart to sell her, none of this would have happened.
Gu Ya and Su Zhongshi also didn’t go to take a look; the two continued drinking in the yard.
No one in Su Yunjin’s family had any interest in what was happening over at Mrs. Tao’s.
Mrs. Tao searched the house for quite a while but couldn’t gather the full twenty taels.
She came out hesitantly with ten taels of silver and tried to negotiate with the people from the Huang Residence.
“Gentlemen, I truly don’t have twenty taels of silver on hand! How about this—I have ten taels right here. Could you please go back and ask Master Huang to give me a few more days’ extension? Once I gather enough silver, I will immediately deliver it to you.”