Madam Wu was all prepared to negotiate with Qi Qingyao.
She had even come up with an entire repertoire of cunning comebacks.
To her surprise, however, Qi Qingyao just said calmly, “If you’re so certain, madam, let’s call the village head over as a witness. That way, we won’t have to keep quarreling over debts like this.”
Madam Wu paused and then said, “Yuanxiu, go call Ma Sanye!”
While they were waiting for Ma Sanye, the visitors from the Qi family stood at the door while Qi Qingyao told everyone else to go back to their meal. They finished up the remaining snake stew.
The whole house smelled like meat, making everyone from the Qi family hungry. All of them drooled at the aroma, but they could not say anything.
After the meal, Qi Qingyao calmly washed the bowls and just sat there, looking at the visitors with a smile on her face.
Five minutes later…
Ma Sanye arrived in a hurry. “Why are you calling me over again this early in the morning?”
He sounded hasty, but once he saw Qi Qingyao standing there, pretty as a picture, Ma Sanye felt his temper fading away. Qi Qingyao quickly gave Ma Sanye a brief recap of the events.
As the village head, Ma Sanye immediately flew off the handle.
“Ten taels? That’s daylight robbery!”
After a pause, he said, “Qi Boli, Madam Wu, you two are far too greedy! It’s one thing if you want to stop raising your daughter, and yes, this land belongs to you. But now you’re demanding ten taels for raising her! Everyone will laugh at you if this gets out. You’d better think it over carefully.”
Madam Wu gave him a sideways glance, not taking his words to heart. She said boldly, “Village head, I asked for ten taels, so ten taels it is! This is a matter within the Qi family. We only asked you here to be our witness, not for you to lecture us.”
The village head nearly choked on his rage at Madam Wu’s snide comment, his head hurting from his anger. “Everyone knows your family only ever fed her leftovers! And now you’re asking for ten taels. Your family has never seen ten taels in your lifetime!”
Madam Wu snapped back, every word she said aiming to infuriate.
Ma Sanye wanted to argue back, when…
“Thank you, Ma Sanye.” Qi Qingyao smiled and patted his shoulder before pulling him aside, her tone negotiatory. “Could I borrow ten taels from you first? I’ll sign an IOU, and we’ll make the interest another 100%. In other words, I’ll return twenty taels to you. What do you think?”
Ma Sanye was the village head, but as a villager in the mountains, even he did not have ten taels. Instead of rejecting Qi Qingyao outright, though, he thought it over and said, “Hang on for a moment, I’ll go collect some money for you. Once the contract is written up, don’t hand it over to her immediately. We’ll discuss this when I get back.”
“Thank you, Ma Sanye.”
After he left, Qi Qingyao did not sit back down. Instead, she calmly began to pack her things. As she was about to pack up their clothes, however, Madam Wu immediately said that their Qi family had bought those clothes for them. She was not going to let Qi Qingyao take anything away!
Qi Qingyao was silent for a moment.
After that, she told Jiang Yeqian to tie up the unsold pork and the remaining few fishes up with rope.
The three children did not make a sound the entire time.
They were young, but even they knew that things were looking back.
Mommy had fallen hard for a dastardly scheme.
The entire family surrounded her and demanded ten taels…
Ten taels!!
Last night, the three of them had been in awe over her two taels… Yet now, all of them agreed that two taels were so little, barely anything at all.
Not even enough to pay back the family with!
An hour later, Qi Qingyao heard footsteps. When she glanced at the road, she saw that Ma Sanye was back with a posse of villagers.
Madam Wu was stunned by their numbers.
Even Old Man Qi quivered slightly.
When Ma Sanye and the villagers walked past the fence, Madam Wu launched her offensive first, screeching,
“Ma Sanye, why did you bring all these people? Are you trying to beat us up? I’m warning you, I, Wu Yulian, have proof of everything! Qi Qingyao came from our family, and she’ll need to repay her debts to us if she wants to cut ties with us. If you dare to do anything to us, I’ll sue you in court! You won’t stay village head for long!”
Ma Sanye could not be bothered to deal with her nonsense.
Instead, he stood in front of Qi Qingyao with all the villagers in tow.
He had a tea tray in his hands.
The elmwood tray was stacked with a small pile of copper coins.
Ma Sanye wiped the rims of his eyes.
“Here you go, girl. The entire village came together to gather these funds for you! I noted down exactly how much each family offered, so settle your debt with the Qi family first!”
Qi Qingyao blinked. When she looked at the mountain of copper coins, she felt moisture welling in her eyes.