Du Heng saw that although Su Shi was dressed in casual clothes, his appearance and temperament were first-class. He knew that he must be rich or noble, and he did not dare to make any mistakes for a while.
He walked up to Su Shi, clasped his fists and said, "I've met the young master."
Although the black plum soup has the effect of clearing the mind and refreshing the mind, Su Shi is used to taking a lunch break, and under the warm sun, sleepiness comes over him in waves, so he keeps yawning.
"Do we know each other?" Su Shi said lightly after yawning.
Du Heng said slowly: "I am Du Heng, the guardian of Dongyuan Zhiku. This Chen Ang has not repaid his debt, so he came to collect it as a last resort. If it disturbs the young master, I also ask the young master to pay attention."
"Dongyuan Zhiku?" Su Shi seemed to feel that the sunlight was a bit dazzling at this time, and his eyes narrowed into a thin line. He covered his eyes with his hands, looked at Du Heng, and continued: "Your debt collection has nothing to do with me, it's just Tian Ze's Dry, I just want to drink another bowl of plum soup."
Seeing that Su Shi had no intention of intervening, Du Heng breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "In that case, we three brothers don't dare to disturb the young master, so we will just wait here quietly."
Du Heng seems rude, but in fact he is careful.
As long as the noble prince didn't interfere, he wouldn't be able to lose Su Shi's face. These noble sons in the capital are all willful and domineering masters. If you offend these people, your life will be unhappy.
Besides, Chen Ang and his daughter are already caged birds, so there is no harm in waiting a little longer.
At this time, Chen Ang was panicked and only wanted to protect his daughter. His eyes were fixed on Du Heng, so he turned a deaf ear to Su Shi's words.
Su Shi had no choice but to shout loudly again: "Shopkeeper, let me have another bowl of plum drink."
Chen Ang finally came to his senses and saw Du Heng standing aside, seemingly extremely wary of Su Shi. He finally felt a little calmer, but he still didn't dare to take any action.
Chen Xiaolan poked her head out from behind her father and looked at Su Shi secretly. Su Shi smiled at her and raised the empty bowl in his hand to her.
Su Shi's soft eyes and kind expression gradually calmed down Chen Xiaolan's frightened and helpless heart, and she discovered that the fierce Du Heng was extremely afraid of Su Shi.
She quickly walked to the iron bucket, scooped out another bowl of plum soup for Su Shi, and then walked towards Su Shi with the bowl of plum soup.
Chen Ang was about to stop him, but Chen Xiaolan glanced at him and shook his head gently. Du Heng's two younger brothers also looked at Du Heng and asked him if he would take action.
Du Heng also shook his head slightly, signaling them not to act rashly.
In this way, Chen Xiaolan came to Su Shi in the eyes of everyone, and handed the plum soup to Su Shi with both hands.
Su Shi took the bowl, then smiled at Chen Xiaolan and said, "Eating soup alone is a bit boring. Can you talk to me?"
Chen Xiaolan nodded hurriedly. She was clever and guessed that Su Shi had a very noble status. If he was willing to help, they might be able to get out of the current crisis.
"May I have your name?"
"Chen Xiaolan."
Su Shi took a sip of the black plum soup, and then couldn't help but praise: "Let's go and remember each other from afar, the west wind moves the Xiaolan. This black plum soup is delicious, and your name is also very nice."
Seeing Su Shi casually reciting a couplet of poems based on the little girl's name, the people who were watching the excitement couldn't help but look at him in surprise. But in a remote place, a pair of picturesque girls looked at him intently. His eyes were full of surprise and admiration.
Su Shi didn't even pay attention to the expressions of the people around him, so naturally he couldn't notice Qin Nan among the crowd.
At this time, Su Shi took another sip of soup and continued to ask: "What happened at home? Why is there debt?"
Seeing Su Shi mentioning the sad past, Chen Xiaolan's eyes immediately became moist. She hurriedly wiped the corners of her eyes with her sleeves and told Su Shi what happened to them.
Chen Ang originally ran a small shop in the east of the city. Although he could not become rich, he could still make the family have enough food and clothing, and the family of three was happy.
The incident happened two years ago. Chen Xiaolan's mother Yun Niang was seriously ill. Chen Ang and Yun Niang had a deep love for each other and wanted to be treated at all costs. However, although Yun Niang saved her life later, she also became ill and the family's savings were all depleted.
After saving her life, Yun Niang became weak. Not only was she unable to work, but she also needed someone to take care of her. More importantly, Yun Niang had to take medicine every day to save her life. These medicines were extremely expensive, and Chen Ang gradually became unable to make ends meet.
In the end, Chen Ang had no choice but to mortgage the shop to Dongyuan Quality Bank to borrow a sum of money for Yun Niang to recover from her illness.
Although Yun Niang tried her best to stop it, and even tried to commit suicide several times to avoid dragging down Chen Ang and his daughter, she was discovered and stopped by her daughter several times.
After dragging on for more than a year, Yun Niang still passed away. As a result, Chen Ang owed a huge debt that could not be repaid even if the store was foreclosed.
Seeing that it was time to pay back the money, Du Heng and his younger brother came to collect the debt in the past few days. Seeing that Chen Ang really couldn't come up with the money, he asked him to use his daughter to pay off the debt.
This made Chen Xiaolan extremely scared, because she knew that the women who were mortgaged to the pledge bank would either be tortured to death or sold into a brothel.
Su Shi's expression had always been lazy. After listening to it, he seemed to feel a little bored, and he couldn't help but yawned two or three times.
However, Chen Xiaolan knelt down in front of Su Shi, kowtowed to Su Shi and cried: "If the young master is willing to help, Xiaolan is willing to be a slave and a maid, and serve the young master all his life."
Compared to being sold to a warehouse, being a slave to the son of a wealthy family is the best choice.
Su Shi was noncommittal. Although he had wanted to help the father and daughter out of trouble just now, he had not thought about intervening in the matter. After all, no matter in any peaceful and prosperous age, the majority of people were poor. How much could Su Shi help alone.
However, when he glanced at the vendors unintentionally, he couldn't help but feel something in his heart.
He suddenly looked at Chen Xiaolan and said, "How much money do you still owe?"
Du Heng suddenly felt something bad in his heart. He didn't expect that this noble young master would actually interfere in this matter under Chen Xiaolan's crying, which made him feel a little troublesome.
Although Chen Ang would never be able to pay off the money he owed in his lifetime, this amount of money was nothing more than a grain of dust in the eyes of these noble men.
Du Heng's eyes flickered, and there was a hint of sinisterness in his eyes, but he said with a smile on his face: "This family is already in ruins. The young master has a noble status, why bother with these people."
Su Shi was unmoved and asked him, "How much do they owe?"
Seeing that Su Shi couldn't get enough oil and salt, Du Heng could only grit his teeth and said, "Ninety-eight taels."
Su Shi thought for a while and said, "Not much, but not too little."
Du Heng immediately hit the snake and put it on the stick, and said with a smile: "That's right, this little girl is not worth fifty taels anyway. Why should the young master do such a loss-making business?"
Then Du Heng's smile condensed on his face, because at this time Su Shi slowly took out a one hundred tael silver note.
Du Heng looked at the one hundred taels of silver note bitterly, and for a moment he didn't know what to do.
Because his young master wants people, not money. If he goes back with money instead of people, he may not be able to save his legs.
