After hearing Wen Ye’s words, the eldest and second branches of the family rushed out the door, hitched up the donkey cart, and whipped the donkey toward Xin Dong County.
They had traveled less than fifteen minutes when they happened to see the two slave traders returning.
The family hurriedly blocked their path. After much begging and crying, they finally persuaded the traders to come back with them.
When the Wen brothers and the two slave traders got off the cart in the courtyard, the traders firmly held on to Wen Mei and Wen Liyue inside the cart and refused to let anyone take them away.
‘Master Qian, you’ve got the wrong people. This is my daughter…’ Fang Shi cried.
Qian San laughed. ‘Bah! I was wondering why they looked uglier than when I inspected the goods last time. So you grabbed the wrong girls.’
Fang Shi and Wen Lao’er stiffened. He had actually called their daughter ugly.
‘Then where are the girls we wanted?’
Fang Shi’s expression changed. She couldn’t sell them now even if she wanted to.
‘Master Qian, we’re not selling them anymore… We’ll return the money to you!’
As she spoke, she tremblingly offered the pouch containing seventy taels of silver.
Because Wen Ye and Wen Lan were beautiful, and because they were being sold to a brothel, they had been worth an exceptionally high price.
Zhao Qiang stroked his chin and said viciously, ‘You think you can just cancel the deal because you say so? I don’t care who they are. They’re daughters of the Wen family, right? You took the money, so they’re my goods now. If you want to redeem them, the price has doubled!’
Old Madam Wen and Luo Shi gasped. Double?
Qian San grinned and tapped his whip against his palm. ‘Two girls—one worth thirty taels, the other forty. That’s seventy taels total. Double that, and you’ll have to pay me one hundred and forty taels!’
Fang Shi nearly fainted. She clung tightly to Wen Liyue on the cart and wailed, ‘We’re just honest farming folk! Where can we possibly get another seventy taels? You’re taking our lives! Boohoo…’
Qian San spat at her. ‘Honest farming folk? Bah! If you were so honest, why did you use sleeping drugs and trick your nieces into the mountains to sell them?’
Zhao Qiang spat as well. ‘Shameless!’
Fang Shi was speechless.
Qian San impatiently asked, ‘So are you redeeming them or not? If not, we’re taking them away.’
‘Don’t! Of course we’ll redeem them!’ Fang Shi screamed, clutching the cart. ‘But we really don’t have that much money! How about two extra taels for each girl? Please let us off!’
‘Two taels? Are you treating us like beggars? Double the price, not one coin less!’ Qian San sneered and cracked the whip. ‘Let’s go! Sell them to the brothel!’
‘No! You can’t leave!’ Luo Shi and Wen Lao Da hurried to stop them.
Zhao Qiang kicked both of them aside.
People who made a living doing this kind of work were never kind-hearted, and their martial skills were naturally good.
The couple from the eldest branch were sent sprawling.
Old Madam Wen and Wen Lao’er sucked in a breath and didn’t dare step forward.
Seeing this, Fang Shi’s eyes turned red. She knew exactly how these slave traders operated.
‘Fine! Double it is!’ she cried.
She ran back to her room and soon returned with a money pouch, stuffing it into Qian San’s hands.
‘Here’s the money! This is to redeem my daughter! My daughter was worth thirty taels, doubled makes sixty!’
Luo Shi clutched her aching chest and rushed over. ‘What do you mean, redeem your daughter? You’re not redeeming my Mei?’
Fang Shi anxiously replied, ‘I’ll give you the money from selling Mei! Forty taels—take it!’
She stuffed several silver ingots into Luo Shi’s hands.
Luo Shi stared at them, stunned. Then she roared, ‘Bah, you old witch! I may not be as crafty as you, but I’m not stupid! You redeemed the cheaper one first and gave me forty taels, which means I’d still have to pay another forty myself! Dream on! You sold her, so you redeem her!’
Fang Shi gritted her teeth. ‘I don’t have any money left! Really! My husband only earns eight hundred copper coins a month in town, and I earn four hundred in the kitchen. Together that’s only one tael and two mace. We have to send seven hundred coins home every month, and the remaining five hundred barely covers our family’s expenses.’
‘Don’t lie to me! If you can suddenly produce thirty taels, how can you say you don’t have money? I don’t care—if you don’t redeem my daughter, I’ll report you to the authorities for selling her!’
At the mention of the authorities, Fang Shi grew frightened, but she still shook her head stubbornly.
‘Heavens above, I really don’t have any more money. I’ve already taken out all my savings.’
‘I don’t care!’ Luo Shi pounced on her and grabbed her by the throat. ‘If you don’t redeem my daughter, even if I end up in prison, I’ll kill you!’
Fang Shi rolled her eyes from being strangled. Wen Lao’er rushed forward to help, but Wen Lao Da knocked him to the ground with one punch.
‘If you don’t redeem my daughter today, I’ll beat your teeth out!’
Looking at his red-eyed elder brother, Wen Lao’er was too frightened to make a sound.
Fang Shi, nearly strangled unconscious, begged Old Madam Wen for help.
‘Cough… Mother! Mother! I really don’t have any money left… Please, have mercy and pay the forty taels!’
Old Madam Wen had already been driven nearly to vomiting blood by the matter of dividing the family. Now Fang Shi wanted her to pay as well.
‘I don’t have any money! Not a single copper coin!’ she roared.
‘Then what do we do? What do we do?’ Luo Shi collapsed and cried as if the sky were falling.
Wen Ye and Lin Shi were packing their belongings in the thatched hut. Seeing the commotion in the courtyard, they couldn’t help but gasp.
Especially when they saw Luo Shi’s pitiful appearance, Wen Lao San and Lin Shi felt waves of sympathy.
Wen Ye suddenly laughed and walked out.
‘Eldest Aunt, seeing as you’ve been tricked too, let me give you an idea.’
‘Throw the forty taels in your hand back to Second Aunt. Then the money the slave traders just received will count as the ransom for Mei. After all, Second Aunt was the one who sold someone, and if anyone should be sold, it should be her own daughter.’
Then Wen Ye looked at Qian San and Zhao Qiang and smiled.
‘You two should think this through as well. The people who accepted the money and put their fingerprints on the contract were Fang Shi and Wen Lao’er. If one girl must be sold, naturally it should be their daughter. Otherwise, if this reaches the authorities, you’ll end up in legal trouble too.’
Qian San and Zhao Qiang exchanged glances. Somewhat wary, they nodded.
‘You’ve got a point. Then these sixty taels are for redeeming your daughter,’ he said, pointing at Luo Shi.
‘Ah! Thank you, sirs!’
Overjoyed, Luo Shi hurried to the cart and, together with Wen Lao Da, dragged the unconscious Wen Mei down.
‘No! No!’ Fang Shi’s eyes nearly split apart. Her Yue’er absolutely could not be sold to a brothel!
Thinking this, she no longer cared about anything else. She rushed back to her room and soon returned with four more silver ingots—forty taels exactly.
Old Madam Wen and the entire eldest branch stared in shock. The second branch was actually this wealthy?
‘Well, so you did have money. You should’ve taken it out sooner.’
Qian San gleefully snatched the silver and laughed loudly as he fondled the one hundred and forty taels now in his hands.
This trip had made him a fortune!
If he had only sold the two girls to a brothel, he would have earned at most five or six taels. Now he had made seventy taels in one go—it was like money falling from the sky.
Qian San shoved Wen Liyue off the cart and climbed back onto it. Then he glared fiercely at Fang Shi.
‘You’re lucky today. Try fooling me again, and I’ll strip you naked and hang you at the village entrance. Let’s go.’
The two slave traders tossed their money bags in the air and whistled as they left.
Just before leaving the gate, Qian San turned back and grinned at Wen Ye.
‘Ugly girl, thanks. If something this profitable happens again, remember to come find me.’
He had clearly recognized that Wen Ye was the one who had called them over at noon and had figured out that the whole scheme had been her design.
Wen Ye raised an eyebrow.
‘You’re welcome. If you want to thank someone, thank those three geniuses instead.’
The two slave traders departed with the silver, humming cheerfully all the way.