Seeing that He Xing still didn't understand what he meant, Qi Peng could only say helplessly, "Your elder brother is not an idiot. When he comes to his senses, he might find someone to trouble him again. If he encounters them, then it will be... Trouble."
"And these two people helped us do this kind of thing. Do you think we can threaten them? They won't threaten us with this kind of thing. When he reports you and I team up to defraud your brother of his money, do you think we can still stay here?" Here?"
After hearing what Qi Peng said in such detail, He Xing finally understood Qi Peng's painstaking efforts.
He didn't expect Qi Peng to think of this. He patted Qi Peng's shoulder and said, "You are still thoughtful. I didn't even think of this."
Qi Peng was too lazy to talk nonsense. He just said, "Let's go first and visit Chen's house."
He Xing nodded naturally.
…
As for the Chen family, now that Chen's father has been imprisoned and the family's property has been confiscated, the big Chen family has ended up with its talents withered and its ancestral home in ruins.
The only ones who can stay in the Chen Mansion are some relatively loyal family sons. There are only six or seven of them now. Compared with the forty or fifty people who were the Chen family before when it was prosperous, there are forty or fifty slaves and long-term and short-term workers. Everything today is naturally not enough.
But even so, the Chen family is still having a hard time. After all, including the masters, there are still more than a dozen people in the Chen family.
Although more than a dozen people don't need wages, more than a dozen mouths are waiting for food.
There are only four masters among these dozen people, one old and two young. Only Chen Yan, the one in the middle, could still find some work.
However, first of all, she is a woman, and secondly, she has no skills to make a living, so all she can do is go to the wine shop to solicit customers and sell some drinks.
In fact, if possible, she would even consider going to a place like Jiaofangsi. Anyway, she drinks a lot of wine and pays little attention to those things, and she can make money there quickly.
If possible, she could even use her status as the former daughter of the governor to attract a wave of customers.
It's a pity that the old grandmother cannot accept her to do this, and Ye Ronglian also does not allow her to do such a thing.
It's ridiculous to say that he clearly told them not to see each other again that day, but when he wanted to sell himself, he sent someone to find him and told him not to go to that place. Didn't he come to the door so precisely because he had been spying on him secretly?
Although she probably wouldn't have taken Ye Ronglian's dissuasion seriously in the past.
However, he now owes him five thousand taels. Considering that this man can be regarded as his financial sponsor, it seems that he should give him a few points of face.
So she can only come and go here and work as a wine concubine in those small wine shops.
Fortunately, she is actually quite smart, and her appearance is also good-looking, and her little mouth looks like it has been covered with honey.
Therefore, she also gained a certain reputation in the wine shop. Now she can barely manage to make a family of more than ten people eat a hot meal.
But this was obviously still far from enough to eat, and there was almost no money left from the money she earned every day.
So she has been wondering whether to pay off the debt first with the five thousand taels she got from Ye Ronglian, or use part of it to do some small business.
However, when she came back from work today, she found that her creditors from the past few days were sitting in front of her house again. She knew that there was no room for her to change her mind.
And when she walked into the Chen Mansion, everyone immediately looked at Chen Yan.
The leader even said, "Miss Chen, I wonder if you have the money to return our money today?"
Someone took the lead, and others naturally followed up and questioned Chen Yan.
Although Chen Yan's grandmother is here, she is clearly unable to cope with so many people.
She also looked at Chen Yan, asking about the progress of the loan with her eyes.
Fortunately, Chen Yan did not disappoint. She said directly, "Of course. In fact, I have already borrowed the money. Don't worry, I will return the money to you one by one."
After saying this, Chen Yan only waved to the maid to find Chen Lang who had been studying the sages' books. This was the agreement between Chen Yan and Chen Lang.
He can't eat and drink for free during these days.
He also has to do the Chen family's work.
However, Chen Yan did not embarrass him and let him do what he was good at, such as keeping a ledger for all the people who owed money. Now that the ledger was in Chen Lang's hands, Chen Yan naturally told these people not to worry, she was only one Someone first goes to Chen Lang's place to settle the accounts. After the accounts are settled, the maid next to Chen Lang will calculate the money to him.
Seeing that Chen Yan no longer shied away, and since everyone had received the last amount of money, everyone stopped making trouble. Everyone just happily received the money and left.
Among this group of happy people, Chen Yan probably couldn't be considered happy.
When everyone is sent away, all the money returns to their respective wallets.
Chen Yan also looked at the maid Hong'er who was handing out money just now.
"Hong'er, how much money do we have left on hand now?"
Hearing Chen Yan's question, Hong'er immediately shook her head and said, "Miss, the result is not good. After we paid back all the money just now, we actually don't have a penny in our hands anymore. That is to say, the old lady still has A few dozen taels of silver."
Hearing this, Chen Yan immediately asked, "How come there are only a few dozen taels of silver left? Didn't my grandmother still have a hundred taels a few days ago?"
Upon hearing Chen Yan's question, the maid immediately lowered her head in embarrassment.
"Miss, the money you earn is not enough for daily expenses. The old lady doesn't want you to be under too much pressure, so she has been secretly subsidizing our family."
As soon as she heard this, Chen Yan felt very uncomfortable in her heart. In the past, she had never experienced this kind of life where a penny could stump a heroic man.
And she actually never wanted to use her grandmother's money again.
After all, her grandmother was getting older and might get sick in the future. She originally wanted her to keep the 100 taels for herself to pay for disease prevention and treatment.
However, my grandmother still used her last bit of money to support the family.
Thinking of this, Chen Yan felt a little uncomfortable.
However, Hong'er only comforted Chen Yan at this moment and said, "Miss, don't be too depressed. Fortunately, haven't all our debts been paid off? In the days to come, we will definitely get better and better, and our families In fact, having children doesn’t mean you have to stay at home. Now, unlike in the past, we can also go to work to support ourselves.”
Hearing Hong'er's words, Chen Yan felt a little moved. She immediately said, "Actually, I also meant this, but since you said so, I will do as you said. You go and gather everyone." Come over for a meeting!
Facing Chen Yan's instructions, Hong'er nodded, and soon all the ten people in the mansion arrived.
None of them knew what Chen Yan was going to say.
And Chen Yan only spoke at this time, "Now our Fuyin's house has encountered very bad things. I think everyone should also know that our house really has no money. If we don't make money, I'm afraid I can't survive this life. And I alone can't make enough money to feed a dozen people, so I want to ask you to go out with me to make money, even if you only make half of your own food, I The pressure can also be much reduced. I wonder if you have any opinions on my proposal?"
Then Chen Yan seemed to have considered another situation, so she just said, "Of course, if you don't want to stay here, I don't have any objection. You can directly ask me for your body deed, and I will directly give it to you." The body deed will be returned to you."
However, after hearing Chen Yan's words, no one in the audience asked for the body deed to be returned to them.
After all, most of these people are actually older. Except for a few people who stay here because of feelings, more people go because they really have no place.
Although the Chen family was in dire straits, they still had a roof over their heads and a hot meal.
However, not many people responded to Chen Yan's call to go out to work. After all, some of them were tired of just doing their own jobs in the government. At this moment, they had no extra time to work elsewhere. , and some young women are not all as willing to go out as Chen Yan, so letting them go out to work wouldn't mean letting them belittle their own reputations.
After Chen Yan said these words, many people complained about their difficulties, and only one Hong'er was willing to go out to work. This Hong'er was the maid beside the old lady. Now she stays here purely to repay her kindness.
So she only took the initiative to support Chen Yan, "This is a good suggestion from the young lady. Don't you always complain that you don't have enough food? Let's all go out and earn some money. The pressure on the young lady will be much less, and we can also have enough to eat. Or do you think you can just do it?" Starve to death like this.”
Chen Yan only followed and said, "Guys, if you are willing to stay, you must treat us as family. I can't ask you to do the same thing as me. It's just that the family needs to be built together."
"You said that the work in the house is heavy, and I understand what you mean, but let me tell you this, when my grandmother passes away, this house will no longer belong to us, so I don't think we all need to vigorously maintain this house. , just sweep and clean the few rooms you live in to maintain basic hygiene. In this way, you don’t have to spend time here, and you can also have time to go out and do things, right? And the money you earn does not need to be subsidized to me. , you can leave anytime you want."
Hearing that Chen Yan had said this, it was obvious to everyone that they finally had some autonomy, and they finally wanted to go out on their own to see if there were any other possibilities.
And when they were thinking like this, Chen Lang actually became the first one to stand up.
He suddenly said, "Sister Yan, let me go out to work."
Chen Yan didn't expect that this child would be the first to respond to her call, and to be honest, she didn't even count Chen Lang among those who went out to work. After all, this child was just a child in her eyes.
A child's top priority now is to accept support from others honestly and grow up well.
So she rejected Chen Lang's proposal without even thinking about it.
"That won't work. You go to work? Who wants you? Don't you want to take the honors exam to help your parents? How can you take the honors exam when you go to work?"
After hearing Chen Yan's scolding, Chen Lang just lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes covering his thoughts.
"Sister Yan, please stop talking. I know your good intentions, but my sister and I can't just be freeloaders here. Besides, don't I know how to settle accounts? I can be the accountant."
"As for fame, sister, my father's sentence has been handed down. My father and mother will be exiled to Yelang, and our direct relatives are not allowed to take the scientific examination, so I can't take this road anyway. .”
Hearing Chen Lang say these words, Chen Yan felt a little sour in her heart for a moment.
