Jin Laoda, the man called "Boss Jin", rolled up his sleeves and cursed incessantly, "When the hell did you give me twenty taels? This twenty taels was my drinking money when I left home. You dare to plot against your grandfather? I think you're tired of living."
"You bully, when have you ever carried money when you go out? You have already embezzled more than a hundred taels of silver from us. Are you trying to force us to death..." Although trembling with fear, the woman was still indignant and cursed him.
This was simply too much. Their family had paid back over a hundred taels bit by bit during this time. But each time these people said they were only paying the interest for the day, the debt had not decreased at all, and it had even increased.
"Your grandfather naturally doesn't need to carry money... Are you still daring to meddle in my business? Do you want to crawl into my pants? It's a pity you are too old, grandfather doesn't fancy you!" Jin Laoda said, raising his hand to prepare to use force.
Seeing the slap Jin Laoda swung, the woman closed her eyes in terror. She knew she had angered this bully and there would be no good outcome for her.
If her husband and children had not fallen ill a while ago, they would not have resorted to borrowing money at exorbitant interest. But the situation at the time was very precarious. They had not only spent all their family savings but also borrowed from all the relatives and friends they could.
The woman's heart was in her throat, but the expected pain did not come. When she opened her eyes trembling, she saw Jin Laoda's face full of pain.
And his thick wrist, which he had raised to strike, was tightly gripped by the little girl behind her, who looked so well-behaved. She was actually at a disadvantage?
Su Muqing saw Jin Laoda's pained expression and increased the force of her grip. "You keep saying 'I' and then 'grandfather', what exactly do you want to be? You dare to get into trouble without even clarifying your seniority!"
Jin Laoda's face turned ashen with pain, and his body was drenched in sweat. "I... I... no! Grandfather's..." With every word he spoke, the woman opposite him increased her strength.
"Don't call me grandfather, I don't have such an ugly grandson! If my granddaughter had a grandson like you, she would surely be too embarrassed to even leave the house," Su Muqing said with some disdain, then she concentrated her power at her fingertips. As she withdrew her hand, she inflicted two small bloody holes on Jin Laoda's arm.
Although the wounds were not large, they were thoroughly pierced through. The piercing pain was in no way diminished.
"Ah~ My hand, my hand is ruined..." Jin Laoda clutched his wrist and fell to the ground, screaming.
The woman turned and helped her husband up. Su Muqing walked up to Jin Laoda, reached into his chest pocket, and took out the 20 tael silver notes she had paid.
Su Muqing handed the silver notes to the woman behind her and said sarcastically, "So, an ugly grandson really doesn't carry money when he goes out! Not even a copper coin, and you still dare to snatch the silver notes given by your granddaughter? You're quite bold!"
Seeing their leader being beaten, the others brought by the big man could not tolerate it. They swarmed towards the two of them.
Seeing the scene before her, Wan Yan'er excitedly rubbed her hands. After being cooped up for more than half a month, she finally had a chance to fight. She quickly drew the short whip from her waist and flicked it out with a "swish~".
The man who charged at the forefront was heavily whipped across the face, and a bloodstain immediately appeared on his face. The man cried out in pain and stumbled backward, knocking over two of his companions.
What followed was Wan Yan'er's skillful whip-wielding performance. With one whip per man, a pile of wailing men lay on the ground in no time.
It was at this time that Lu Yuzhi and the others emerged from the crowd. It turned out that they were worried about the two girls going shopping alone, so they did not return to the inn to wait but followed them quietly. Only after the two girls had finished playing did they step forward to deal with the aftermath.
The group walked into the shop. Lu Yuzhi reached out to tidy Su Muqing's slightly disheveled hair, his fingers gently brushing her perky little nose. His gaze and actions were full of infinite affection.
Ke Bina walked up to Wan Yan'er and said with a hint of disdain, "Vicious woman, your strength isn't good today! They only have marks on their bodies, not even a trace of blood. When did you become so gentle? Why weren't you so merciful when you fought with me?"
Wan Yan'er flicked the whip in her hand forcefully into the air, making a "chua~" sound. "What do you know? The environment here is so narrow, my young lady's long whip can't be fully deployed, so I had to use this less lethal short whip."
At this moment, an old man with white hair walked out from the back of the shop. He was the woman's father-in-law, the master craftsman of this shop, and a renowned old silversmith.
Seeing the chaotic scene in the shop and the ruffians lying on the ground, the old man understood everything. If this matter was not handled properly today, their family might not be able to continue living in Moon Blue City.
Tears welled up in the old man's eyes, and he took out a blackened and yellowed piece of paper from his sleeve. Seeing this, the young man hurried forward and knelt at the old man's feet. "Father, this is the family business you worked hard for your whole life. You can't just give it away like this!"
"Child, you haven't fully recovered yet, get up quickly. It's fine if the silver shop is gone. As long as our family can be together, this old man will be at peace." The old man held the frail middle-aged man.
Seeing that the old man had taken out the property deed, Jin Laoda got up from the ground, dragging his arm. "Hmph! If you old fossil had taken out the property deed earlier, there wouldn't have been so much trouble! You've implicated your grandfather in a beating. Today, you won't be able to take anything from this shop. Hurry up and scram!"
Seeing Jin Laoda start to clamor again, Wan Yan'er snatched the property deed from the old man's hand. "Old man, how much money does your family owe him? Didn't they already pay back over a hundred taels? Why do they still have to use the house as collateral?"
Seeing Wan Yan'er, a delicate young woman, the old man was afraid she would be retaliated against by Jin Laoda and his gang. "Little girl, quickly hand over the property deed to him, and don't bring trouble upon yourself!"
"Old man, just speak your mind if you have any grievances! Don't be afraid. When faced with such injustice, how can one stand by idly? Besides, what this young lady likes most is to deal with scoundrels like them who bully and dominate the market!" Wan Yan'er stuffed the property deed she had snatched into Ke Bina's embrace.
Then, she drew her whip back and struck Jin Laoda. It landed precisely on his mouth, instantly swelling his lips to a high, glossy, and rosy appearance.
"You damn... you little wench, why did you hit me for no reason? I did lend them money, and he took out the property deed voluntarily, I didn't force him..." Jin Laoda was already questioning his life after being beaten today. He covered his swollen lips and looked at the people in the room with some grievance.
He didn't know where these people had come from. This was how they had always done business: lending money to others at high interest, and if they couldn't repay, they would use shops or houses as collateral. Wasn't paying back debts a matter of course?
"How much money did you all borrow from him?" Su Muqing asked the woman beside her.
"Since last year, my family members have been continuously ill. We spent all our savings and borrowed from all the relatives we could. In the end, we had no choice but to borrow money at exorbitant interest from Jin Laoda. In total, we borrowed over 80 taels. However, we have paid him over a hundred taels intermittently, but he always holds onto the IOU, saying that we are paying the interest for the day, or he simply doesn't admit that we have paid. Finally, he added a little more each day, and it kept increasing, until he said we owed him several hundred taels of silver. And he would bring people to cause trouble at the shop every few days, disrupting our business." The woman started to cry sadly as she spoke. For the past half a year, they had been greatly tormented by these people.
They had thought of reporting to the authorities, but every so often, that Jin Laoda would bring a large group of thugs to surround them, saying that they hadn't repaid the money and the interest had increased, and they needed to clearly write it on the IOU.
If they refused to write, Jin Laoda would bring people to beat and smash, and even threatened to kill their entire family. Fearing for their family's safety, they were forced to sign new IOUs every time.
Therefore, even after reporting to the authorities, as long as Jin Laoda produced the IOU, the officials would accuse them of not wanting to repay the money and falsely accusing others. The woman had even been beaten three times for this matter, losing both face and dignity.
To put it bluntly, these people were loan sharks. If they calculated it according to their terms, you would never be able to pay off the debt in your lifetime.
Hearing the woman's words, Wan Yan'er was furious. She walked up to Jin Laoda and stepped on him. "How much money did they borrow from you? And how much did they repay later? You'd better tell me honestly!"
Jin Laoda's head was stomped on fiercely. He didn't want to say anything, but this damned woman's strength was truly immense, stomping his head until it felt like it was about to explode. "Borrowed... borrowed eighty taels, repaid... repaid one hundred and forty taels..."
Hearing Jin Laoda admit it himself, Wan Yan'er stomped on him a few more times. "Shameless! You borrowed eighty and repaid one hundred and forty, almost doubling it, and you still dare to cause trouble at their shop! Take out the IOU!"
Seeing her raise her foot again, Jin Laoda quickly dodged, raising his injured arm. With his other hand, he fumbled in his back pocket for a long time before pulling out a folded paper.
Wan Yan'er took the paper and unfolded it for examination. It was indeed an IOU. She then handed it to the woman and her family to see if it was the correct one. The woman's husband took it, identified it carefully, and then nodded.
"You have already repaid the money you borrowed, so burn this IOU!" Wan Yan'er said, taking out a lighter from her person. It was a gift Su Muqing had given her before.
Seeing the young girl press the lighter twice and the paper catch fire, the woman's family quickly handed over the IOU to be burned. Jin Laoda watched helplessly as the IOU was burned. Every time he came to cause trouble before, he brought the IOU with him, and he never thought that today he would encounter such a situation.
After burning the IOU, Wan Yan'er called out behind her, "Bring paper and pen! It's time for our Boss Jin to write an IOU."
Ke Bina saw Wan Yan'er extend her hand towards him. The vicious woman dared to order him around! He slapped her hand away, then stepped forward, tore off a large piece from the front hem of Jin Laoda's clothes, and cut a gash on his index finger.
Jin Laoda cried out in pain! His hand was really unlucky today. This was the second injury, and if it continued like this, he would bleed out.
Wan Yan'er snatched the torn cloth and threw it onto Jin Laoda's head, making him write another IOU. "I'm not as black-hearted as you. You extorted sixty taels more from them and kept harassing their family. Charging you forty taels in interest isn't excessive, is it? Just write an IOU for one hundred taels!"
Jin Laoda was a bit confused. He had come to collect a debt, but now he was being made to write an IOU? "Old... I... I only recognize a few words, I can't write..."
"You can't write and you dare to learn to be a loan shark," Wan Yan'er cursed and kicked him again.
Jin Laoda, who was already traumatized, quickly rolled to the side. Why was this female overlord targeting only him? There were so many people lying around, why did she act as if she couldn't see them?
Lu Yuzhi gave Leng Ren a look. Leng Ren stepped forward, took Jin Laoda's hand, and wrote word by word: Jin Laoda owes Wan Fu Silver Shop one hundred taels of silver, as evidence. Then he had him press his fingerprint on it. After the bloodstains dried, the IOU was handed to Wan Yan'er.
Wan Yan'er looked at the blood IOU and nodded with satisfaction, then held it between two fingers and handed it to the woman and her family. "Here! This is his IOU. If he dares not to repay the money, you can report him to the authorities! With a blue background and red characters, he won't be able to deny it!"
"Thank you, thank you..." The woman's family quickly knelt down and kowtowed to Wan Yan'er and the others, insisting on returning the twenty tael silver notes that Su Muqing had just given them.
In the end, they naturally did not accept it. Moreover, before leaving, Su Muqing gave the woman a small bottle of diluted spirit spring water, which also contained a qi-replenishing pill.
She had just checked the woman's husband with a detector and found that he had pneumonia. Her child also had the same illness. She hoped the spirit spring water would bring some help to their family.
It was almost ten o'clock at night, and they had lost the desire to continue shopping. The group then headed back to the inn.
After sweating all over from shopping in the evening, they returned to their rooms, took a bath, and Ke Bina asked the shopkeeper to bring some large ice blocks. The group then sat together and played cards for a while before returning to their respective rooms to rest.
When they woke up the next morning, Su Muqing first put all the purchased items from last night into her spatial dimension. When Wan Yan'er came in, she asked where the items had gone. Su Muqing casually said that Leng Ren and the others had already sent them to the boat.
Their original plan was to spend another day shopping in Moon Blue City and then set off at night. However, it was too hot during the day, and the direct sunlight was blinding.
So, they eventually changed their plans. After breakfast, they had the inn's carriage take them to the pier. After the shopkeeper loaded the prepared supplies onto the boat, they set sail from Moon Blue City.
For the next ten-plus days, life at sea proceeded in an orderly fashion. They encountered a few storms occasionally, but they were all safely avoided thanks to the solid experience of the old captain and his crew.
While on the boat, Su Muqing often worried about how the construction of Huaxia City was progressing and what was happening at Zheng Yi Mountain.
Alas! If only her mobile phone could be used in this small world. Then she could call anytime to inquire about their progress. Unfortunately, she had tried before, and it didn't work.
Let's turn to another matter.
After more than a month of galloping on horseback, Old Third finally rushed back to Zheng Yi Mountain in Songlin County. By then, Xu Fu had learned of Lu Yuzhi's plan and was making preparations according to the content of his letter.
When Su Minghui heard that Su Muqing planned to build a city, and even potentially a country in the future, he was so shocked that he sat down on the ground. Building a city? Building a country? This, isn't this treasonous... If they were caught, they would be beheaded!
Xu Fu saw that Su Minghui's expression was not very good, but he could understand. If it were during the time of the former emperor, and someone told him to defect to another country, he would probably fight to the death.
He stepped forward and patted Su Minghui on the shoulder. "The Great Yu Dynasty today is no longer the Great Yu Dynasty of the past. As you have seen from last year until now, the government has been indifferent to the refugees. Qing girl is leading us to save ourselves! If you are unwilling, then I will lead people to Huaxia City alone."
Seeing that Su Minghui was hesitating, Old Third was anxious. If his future father-in-law did not agree to go to Huaxia City, what would happen to his marriage with Cui Ping? "Village Chief Uncle, Su girl has finally gained the support of those people in the no-man's-land. Besides, we are not saying we must rebel. If the court doesn't care about the lives of us common people, are we going to continue living like rats in caves from now on?"
Su Minghui sat on the chair and pondered for a long time. For the past period, he had been running around. First, it was to find a place to build a village, and second, to see which officials were willing to accept refugees.
However, they had visited all the surrounding counties. The drought was getting worse, and the refugees were increasing. But the government officials simply ignored them, or were simply powerless to manage so many. It was said that even Suining Prefecture, which they had looked at favorably before, was now experiencing drought...
After thinking it through, Su Minghui clenched his fist, thinking of the dwindling water sources in the caves. What they said was right. Qing girl was saving them. If what Leng San said was true, then Huaxia City was the only place where they could all survive.
"Alright! We will listen to Qing girl and go to Huaxia City!"
In the following days, everyone began to pack their belongings one after another, arranging for some villagers to follow the Huo family army's small team to Huaxia City first. Su Minghui and Xu Fu stayed behind to receive refugees.
However, they did not accept everyone and conducted simple tests. Perhaps one test could not reveal a person's true character, but doing something was better than doing nothing. Those whose character was exposed at the first test could not be accepted either.
Meanwhile
Huaxia City had undergone nearly two months of intensive construction and had changed significantly from before. The first things being built were several large shelters, which were essentially rows of large rectangular concrete houses.
Next were the construction of the three major military camps. The earliest to be built was the firearms camp, located in the former Thousand Poison Sect. The second military camp, a general one, was built at the border with Changning Prefecture. The third site had not yet started construction; it was planned to be built in a more remote naval camp to defend against surrounding small island nations.
Leng Si and the others were initially not very proficient in using cement and modern materials, and they wasted quite a bit of stuff. Later, they studied diligently and pored over the thick stack of instruction manuals left by Su Muqing, and gradually they got better and better. Even the old craftsmen in the city praised them.
The cement walls were just as effective as stone walls and did not require the laborious extraction of stone. The houses built according to Su Muqing's method were also exceptionally sturdy. Moreover, they built houses quickly and well with these materials. In short, they had gone from being unenthusiastic to highly recommending them.
Tong Lesheng had also contacted several city guards in Cangmu County. Over the years, he had accumulated quite a bit of connections as a guide. These soldiers, receiving meager salaries, were already tired of their jobs.
However, they would not believe his words at face value. After discussing it, they took time to conduct an on-site inspection of the former no-man's-land. They found that the changes here were indeed significant.
Therefore, they agreed with Tong Lesheng that the soldiers would hold on for a while longer. After sending the people on the road to the no-man's-land, they would also move their families to Huaxia City.
After traveling at sea for more than forty days, the group finally arrived in the Tianzhao Kingdom on December 20th. The two boats docked at the capital of the Tianzhao Kingdom - Shengrong City.
As soon as they disembarked and before they could even stretch, they were surrounded by a group of officers. To be precise, the officers surrounded Ke Bina and his retinue.
Su Muqing and the others stared at the scene with wide eyes. What was going on? Wasn't Ke Bina the only son of Prince Kebite? Why was he surrounded by officers in his own country?
Regardless of the reason, Su Muqing and the others quietly shifted their positions, trying to stay as far away from Ke Bina as possible, lest they be arrested as accomplices later.
At this moment, another group of officers rushed towards them from the front. In the middle was a particularly spacious and luxurious carriage, pulled by five horses alone. It was evident that only royalty or nobles with special privileges could afford to use it.
The guards beside them stepped forward and lifted the carriage curtain. Then, someone immediately stepped forward and knelt on the ground to serve as a footstool. Su Muqing and the others saw a middle-aged man descend from the carriage. The man looked to be in his forties, with a heroic and noble appearance, his eyebrows reaching his temples, and his features well-defined. He was a proper handsome uncle.
However, upon seeing Ke Bina, the "川" character lines between his brows seemed to deepen. Su Muqing felt that this man seemed to be suppressing his anger.
Looking at his face, she had the impulse to hang Ke Bina up and beat him. Indeed! The first words the man spoke confirmed her guess.
"Rebellious son! You dare to come back! I will break your dog legs today!"