Chapter 22 – The Jiang family raise money

Jiang Zhen tied Yang Jing’s upper body firmly with a rope and took Yang Jing into the kitchen. Then he ate the biggest meal since arriving to this world. After all, after so much trouble, he was hungry.

Old lady Jiang had already prepared lunch a long time ago. It was probably because Jiang Chengxiang would come back today and bring the yamen official back that she made it quite rich.

A pot of delicious white rice was cooked in the big iron wok, and on top of the steamer rack was a bowl of bacon, a bowl of steamed eggs, a bowl of garlic, and uncooked green vegetable tofu next to it.

Jiang Zhen ate an egg every day these days. At night, he and Zhao Jinge would eat some small fish and shrimps together, but they haven’t eaten meat for many days. When he saw the bowl of bacon cut into thin slices and steamed, he smelled the aroma of meat and felt he could eat the whole pot of rice with bacon.

With chopsticks, he stuffed a piece of bacon into his mouth and immediately got a bowl of rice.

Those little fish and shrimps that are boiled without oil and salt, they really don’t taste good. Although he ate them every day for his own body’s sake, he has been fed up with them for some time, but this bacon is different . . .

With bacon, Jiang Zhen ate two bowls of rice in one breath before he reluctantly put the chopsticks down. Drinking porridge all year round, Eldest Jiang’s stomach has shrunk, so he could have two more bowls of rice, but eating too much would affect his actions. So in the end, he endured it.

Anyway, with the yamen officer in his hands, he didn’t have to worry about not having enough to eat.

During Jiang Zhen’s meal, in the drying yard outside the Jiang house, the Jiang family were discussing with the village head and some other villagers what to do next.

All of them had the same ambition to not let the outside world know that Jiang Zhen had kidnapped a yamen officer, let alone report it to the other officials. If they angered Jiang Zhen, Jiang Zhen would make things even worse!

In this case, they could only try their best to meet Jiang Zhen’s conditions.

“Forty silver coins! Even if our family sell me we would not receive 40 silver coins!” Old lady Jiang sat on the ground crying for help. She really didn’t want to pay.

The Jiang family had a good life, and their family was well off, but 40 silver coins. . . they couldn’t take it out at the moment.

A few months ago, their family still had 60 silver coins, but Jiang Chengxiang took 30 for the bride price, and spent another 20 to buy all kinds of things in order to be able to marry decently. In this moment, old lady Jiang only had 7 or 8 silver coins in her hands.

“I still have some silver at home. I’ll get it later. We need to gather enough money to give him anyway,” Jiang Chengxiang said. After all, Yang Jing was still in Jiang Zhen’s hands.

“Third, how much money do you have?” Butcher Jiang asked.

“I don’t have much money in my hands, but Shufen does. I should be able to get 10 silver coins,” Jiang Chengxiang said. His work pay in the county town was not low, and he received two silver coins every month, but he had only worked for two years in total, so he naturally hadn’t saved much silver. When he married Zhu Shufen, the Zhu family originally set the bride price at 40 silver coins, but old lady Jiang was only willing to pay 30, so he had to pay the remaining 10 silver coins himself.

In the end he had no money, but Zhu Shufen did.

Butcher Jiang immediately became upset. “You have only 10 silver coins. Your mother and your second brother are estimated to have 10 silver coins together. Where can we find 40 silver coins?”

“This knife killer is trying to kill us! How can you be paid for working for your own family?” When old lady Jiang heard Eldest Jiang expose his family, she cried even more. She didn’t want to take money out at all.

In the past, Jiang Chengxiang would certainly coax old Madam Jiang at this time, but today he was not in the mood at all.

Bowing to the people around him, Jiang Chengxiang said, “Ladies and gentlemen, our family can’t take out 40 silver coins at this moment. I wonder if we can borrow some from you?” When he discussed this matter publicly, he had already decided to borrow money from the people around him.

All the people in the village were here. If one family lent some, the other families would lend too. As long as they raised the money now, they would be able to repay it later.

“Chengxiang, I’ll lend you five silver coins,” the village head Jiang Ping said. “I’m just a farmer. There are still several little boys in my family. I can’t take out any more.”

If he was not the village head, and if he was not scared that Eldest Jiang would kill the yamen officer, Jiang Ping would not take out five silver coins.

Obviously, it was the Jiang family who was so bad to Eldest Jiang that they forced him to become a madman. How could they still be allowed to not take out the money?

When Jiang Ping opened his mouth, several other Jiang family members more of less agreed to lend money. Most of them were willing to lend 2 or 3 silver coins, and a few – only 1 or 2.

In a short time, including the Jiang family’s own 20 silver coins, they put together 37 or 38 silver coins.

Those in the village who had a good relationship with the Jiang family were willing to lend money, but those who had a very general relationship with them were unwilling to do so. Who knows how long it would take for the Jiang family to repay the money when they borrowed so much this time?

However, even if they were unwilling to lend money, they were willing to contribute with something else. A villager who often went to work at the dock said, “Jiang Chengxiang, my family is poor, and I don’t have any money, but I have a lot of strength. That shabby thatched hut in the west of the village is completely uninhabitable. I am afraid you will need to rebuild the walls before moving in. I’m good at it.”

“He takes money and still asks for the house. That bastard really has a thick face!” old lady Jiang cursed again.

The land in the west of the village was neither large nor fertile. It was usually planted with vegetables and beans, and the thatched cottage had been uninhabitable for a long time. For the Jiang family, neither of these two things were worth anything, but even so, old lady Jiang was reluctant to give them to Jiang Zhen.

In fact, Butcher Jiang was also reluctant, but he was really afraid of Jiang Zhen . . . With a sigh, Butcher Jiang took some people to the west of the village to have a look. But before he could speak, he saw Jiang Zhen dragging Yang Jing out of the kitchen.

“If I had known that bastard would be so hateful I would have given birth to him in the toilet and drowned him in a basin of water!” Old lady Jiang didn’t see Jiang Zhen, so she still scolded him, “Why doesn’t he just die? His life is like a plague!”

“Stop talking!” Butcher Jiang shouted at old lady Jiang and looked at Jiang Zhen nervously.

Jiang Zhen pulled Yang Jing and looked at the people outside with a smile. When old lady Jiang saw him, her voice stopped abruptly, as if she was being strangled.

“I remembered that the cottage was too dilapidated, and it would take a lot of effort to renovate it. You’d better build for me a new house next to it. There should be two big houses facing south, and there should be no shortage of iron pots in the thatched house facing north . . .” Jiang Zhen made a lot of demands, and finally said, “You’d better not try cutting corners. If you don’t do a good job, I may have to cut off a few pieces of meat from this official.”

After that, Jiang Zhen took a knife and made a few cuts on Yang Jing’s face.

Yang Jing, who had his face cut open by Jiang Zhen, which made his whole face bloody, looked extremely miserable and let people believe in Jiang Zhen’s words.

This evil star really dared to cut human flesh!

“Elder Brother, we will build the house for you. If you have something to say, just say it, but don’t be impulsive . . . ,” Jiang Chengxiang hurriedly said and felt deep regret. If he had known that his eldest brother was such a man, he would not have offended him.

“If you want me to talk well, then hurry up and do something!” Jiang Zhen said coldly. “By the way, my household registration, make an independent one for me. I don’t want to have any relationship with your family!”

Seeing Jiang Zhen’s fierce appearance, Jiang Chengxiang subconsciously stepped back a few steps.

Jiang Zhen was in a good mood when he looked at his doglike look. But when he looked up, he unexpectedly saw Zhao Jinge looking at him outside the crowd.

Jiang Zhen: “. . .”

He was going to tell his Jinge that he’s actually a very reasonable person. Was it too late?

Jiang Zhen was a little worried but soon his heart calmed down. Zhao Jinge looked at him worriedly without a trace of disgust or hate.

He knew that his Jinge liked him very much and would not hate him.

Jiang Zhen wanted to laugh. He coughed twice before he could contain his laughter. In the end, he didn’t show a sinister expression anymore to frighten people; instead, he pushed the tied up Yang Jing into Jiang Chengxiang’s house and said to the people outside, “I’ll sleep for a while. You’d better get things done for me quickly!”

With that, Jiang Zhen slammed the door shut.

Zhao Jinge looked at the closed door worriedly. Jiang Zhen, that guy actually stirred trouble with the yamen officer. Is he going to be ok?

Zhao Jinge was working for the Zhao Dahu family as usual today, but when he was halfway through his work, he suddenly heard that something had happened to the Jiang family.

What happened to the Jiang family? Will Jiang Zhen be alright? Even if he didn’t come to talk to him, he would always walk a few laps in front of him. At noon, Jiang Zhen, who would usually come to call him for dinner, didn’t even show his shadow today. Zhao Jinge could not help but worry.

No longer in the mood to work, he informed the Zhao Dahu family and went back to the village, only to see the doorway of the Jiang family surrounded by a lot of villagers.

Before he could find out anything, Zhao Jinge saw Jiang Zhen come out of the hall with a yamen officer, and it was the yamen officer who had suffered a lot . . .

What’s going on here?

Zhao Jinge watched Jiang Zhen enter Jiang Chengxiang’s house and asked a ger who had come to see the excitement.

“It seems that the third brother Jiang brought a yamen officer back home and wanted to put the eldest Jiang in jail. As a result, the eldest Jiang caught the yamen officer.” The ger looked uneasily at Zhao Jinge, who was almost like a man, and sighed. “What can be done now? There is a person who fought a yamen officer in our village. Do you think those government officials, who will come to our village, will collect more taxes in the future?”

“This eldest Jiang is too much. He not only fought against his father, mother, and brothers, he even started a fight against the yamen officer!” someone interrupted next to them.

“Yes, this man is too much! I don’t think old lady Jiang is wrong either. He’s really a jinx. No wonder old lady Jiang wanted to find a yamen officer to catch him,” someone whispered.

“Keep your voice down and don’t let that evil star hear you!” someone whispered timidly.

All of them lived together. Until now, none of them had been afraid of Jiang Zhen.

People in the village were worried about offending the people in the yamen and getting in trouble. But when Zhao Jinge heard their words, he was worried about Jiang Zhen and was disgusted with the Jiang family.

What should he do now? Should he visit Jiang Zhen? Help him out a little bit?

“Jinge, what are you doing here? Come home with me.” Zhao Liu also came to see the commotion. Unexpectedly, she saw her own son here. She took Zhao Jinge’s hand, took a few steps forward, and said, “Eldest Jiang is crazy. He even fought with the yamen officer. Let’s go back quickly, so we won’t be caught in this trouble.”

Zhao Jinge saw his mother’s thin body tremble, so he stopped himself from walking toward Jiang Zhen and turned back.

“Jinge, don’t go out with Eldest Jiang anymore and don’t take his fish. We can’t afford to offend such evil stars.” Zhao Liu dragged her son home. After walking for a long time, she said this to her son.

My son has been very close to Eldest Jiang these days, but he can’t do that anymore.

“Mother, he’s not a bad guy.” Zhao Jinge could not help defending Jiang Zhen.

“Mother saw it today. He can kill his own father. . . We can’t afford to have such a person in our family. It’s better to stay far away.” Then Zhao Liu added, “And . . . no one in our village likes him now.” They could never go against the villagers.

Zhao Jinge moved his lips but remained silent. For the sake of his parents, he can’t go to meet Jiang Zhen in the daytime. But. . . why not go over at night?