Chapter 18: Delicate Flower Chapter 58
Chapter 58 – Capture
However, there’s pros and cons to everything.
Although the Qu brothers were trustworthy, they were expensive.
For a simple request, it would cost at least 8 or 10 taels of silver. And if it was something difficult, it would cost around 20 to 30 taels of silver.
Yu Tang was now facing the same predicament as she had before – a lack of funds!
In fact, she was even more impoverished now than in her previous life.
In her past life, she still had some dowry to pawn off, but now, she only received at most one silver tael from her parents as an allowance. Furthermore, if she spent it all, she had to give an explanation for it.
Just the other day, she secretly hired some people for Wei Xiaoshan’s matter. As it was only a small task to gather some easily accessible information, it didn’t matter who helped. Even so, there wasn’t much left of the silver she saved, so she certainly couldn’t hire the Qu brothers.
If only she could earn money like the others!
Yu Tang was deeply frustrated.
She sat with her elbows crossed before the window, looking out at the chrysanthemums that would soon bloom in the courtyard. She stared motionlessly, but in her head, she was rapidly thinking of suitable solutions.
In her previous life, after she grew suspicious of the Li family, she investigated their family affairs, keeping a close eye on their movements. It was then that she learned that women too could start and manage businesses, especially those women in Suhang. Many people invested their personal funds into the maritime business. If the vessel returned safely to shore, they could earn enough silver to buy a house. Even if the vessel did not return, the losses incurred would only be a small amount, akin to the cost of buying rouge and cosmetic powders.
However, in order to enter the business, you had to have connections.
You would have to either rely on your father or brother’s business, or on your relationships with members of the clan.
Otherwise it’s easy to be fooled.
Take for example, if you had invested your funds in a ship and its crew, and six months to a year later, the ship was said to have been shipwrecked, with no survivors, all the silver you invested would be gone.
But of course, there’s always exceptions.
Jiang Ling, the daughter of the Jiang family in Suzhou City, married at the age of 16 to the young master of the Yu(于) family, who she was engaged to since childhood. Unfortunately, at the age of 17, she became a widow.
She was different from ordinary women who were only interested in petty fights within the inner courtyard. After the Yu family’s decline, so as to provide for her elderly mother-in-law and younger brother-in-law, she decisively sold her dowry, and invested a significant amount into her younger brother Jiang Chao’s ship and crew and joined in the maritime business. Jiang Chao seemed to be favored by the god of wealth. Everything was smooth-sailing and the ship never met with any trouble. In just 5 to 6 years, the Jiang family was transformed from being just an ordinary merchant family to becoming the richest family in Suzhou City. The Yu family also profited from this and became one of the foremost wealthy families in Suzhou.
Before Yu Tang’s death, the Jiang family was ambitiously climbing further, trying to secure a place as a favored merchant for imperial court.
Seeing this, the Li family grow jealous.
The Li and the Lin family had occasionally lost a significant amount of money in the maritime business due to accidents at sea.
Li Duan however, was unconvinced, saying “Jiang Chao’s business rose to such a peak, undoubtedly, countless people must have approached him to form alliances. Although Jiang Chao is a little late to the game, but with the sizeable number of prestigious officials’ families in Suhang as our competitors, our family really can’t hold a candle to them.”
Lin Jue then urged Li Duan to dote on Gu Xi more, saying “Don’t lose the watermelon just to pick up a sesame seed. Your eldest brother-in-law despite his young age was already promoted as the Ministry of Justice. Therefore, don’t be foolish and lose sight of what’s more important.”
Clearly, the watermelon meant Gu Xi, and the sesame seed was Yu Tang.
Li Duan listened to his advice, and for a while, he showered Gu Xi with affection. Yu Tang was greatly relieved and thought Li Duan had finally given up on her, but who knew that after half a year, Li Duan returned to his old ways, and began to lust after her once again.
She felt bad for Gu Xi and was envious of Jiang Ling’s support from her maternal family’s brothers. With great difficulty, she managed to invest 50 taels of silver in Jiang Chao’s fleet of ships under Ah Cam’s name.
After two years, the fleet returned safely, and Yu Tang earned 400 taels of silver.
At that moment, she was over the moon with joy, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep and didn’t know what to do with the sudden windfall.
It was all thanks to this extra silver that she was able to hire the Qu brothers, and finally managed to escape from Madam Lin and Li Duan and leave the Li family.
Calculating the time now, the Jiang family had not made their fortune yet. Currently, after this New Year, it was a difficult time for Jiang Chao. He was just starting to organize a fleet of ships and crew members, and was going around convincing people to invest.
If she could seize this opportunity and become one of the earliest investors of the Jiang family, wouldn’t she too be able to make a fortune like the Yu(于) family?
Yu(郁) Tang sighed.
After all is said and done, it still boils down to one thing – money.
Where can she obtain the silver to join in the Jiang family’s business……
Yu Tang was thinking hard over this when when someone threw a flower at her.
The flower struck her on the nose and jolted her from her thoughts.
She looked up and saw it was Yu Yuan.
“What’s the matter?” Yu Yuan asked with a smile. He couldn’t contain his joy as his eyes shone with mirth.
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Yu Tang’s eyes immediately brightened up.It’s true she didn’t have much funds, but couldn’t she just borrow some?
Yu Yuan was in a really good mood, even if Yu Tang requested him to piggyback her around Lin’an city twice, he would happily oblige, let alone this simple request of funds.
Yu Tong sneakily added, “I want fifty taels of silver!”
“Ah!” Yu Yuan, who was reaching into his sleeves, froze for a moment, “Why do you need so much silver?”
He didn’t have that much personal savings either!
Yu Tang replied with a smile, “Then how about thirty taels? You’re about to get married. After that, you will be someone else’s husband, and not solely my brother anymore. In the future, it will be difficult for me to ask things of you, so can’t you accede to my request?”
Yu Yuan blushed slightly as he replied, “It’s not possible to be married immediately; we still have to wait until next spring. This is Mrs. Wei’s intention, as she was afraid that if the marriage was done in haste, it would invite unwanted gossip about Lady Xiang. “
After hearing his reply, Yu Tang was stunned for a moment, saying “Brother, you haven’t even gotten married and you have already forgotten about me, your sister! You actually did not even refute what I said, to say that even after marriage you would still remain solely my brother!”
Yu Tang had previously heard from her mother that their two families arranged for the wedding between Yu Yuan and Lady Xiang to be held in the beginning of spring. However, she just did not expect Yu Yuan who was not even married, to be this biased towards Lady Xiang.
“No, no, that wasn’t my intention.” Yu Yuan stumbled over his words as he tried to defend himself, “I mean, since I am your elder brother, I will always be your elder brother. However, once Lady Xiang marries over, as she is still unfamiliar with our family, so it’s only right that we should treat her well.”
“It should be only brother who wants to treat her better, right?” Yu Tang continued to tease him, but in her heart, she felt really happy.
In her previous life, Yu Yuan had never defended Madam Gao like this.
It was apparent that Lady Xiang was the one that he adored and cherished in his heart.
In this life, her eldest cousin will definitely obtain happiness.
Yu Tang continued to tease him, saying “If you don’t give me the silver, I’ll go tell eldest aunt that after you marry and have a wife, you will neglect me as your sister.”
“No! Definitely not!” Yu Yuan said frantically. Although he didn’t know that mother in-laws and daughters-in-law often would be at loggerheads with each other just because of a few thoughtless words, even becoming mortal enemies, but he wanted to prevent his mother from misunderstanding Lady Xiang and thus disliking her. He quickly added “How much silver do you want to borrow? If you want more…… then there is none.”
He originally wanted to say that he wanted to use the extra silver to buy Lady Xiang a pearl headband or something as a present, however, upon seeing Yu Tang discontented look, he was afraid that he would say something wrong and make Yu Tang jealous, so he quickly swallowed his words, and changed what he intended to say.
Yu Tang was satisfied and murmured to herself. “It at least has to be 30 taels of silver.”
Currently, the Qu family’s brothers were only little renowned, and thus should not be as expensive as when she first approached them in her previous life. However, look at Yu Yuan’s reaction, she surmised that this would also be the last time she would ask him for silver. After marriage, it would be difficult to get anything from Yu Yuan as his possessions would rightfully belong to his wife and children. If she really were to borrow silver, she would instead have to go through Lady Xiang, and not Yu Yuan, and she definitely had to repay what she borrowed.
This was the experience she gained from her previous life.
However, instead of 30 taels of silver, Yu Yuan gave 10 taels of silver less, saying “I can only give you a maximum twenty taels, I have no more silver left.”
“Thanks a lot brother!” She immediately replied, “I will definitely treat Lady Xiang well in the future.”
“What nonsense are you saying?” Yu Yuan admonished Yu Tang, but he did not dare to really discipline her, fearing that she would become angry and treat Lady Xiang badly, so he hurried home and brought the silver over, saying, “Spend it wisely.”
The reason why Yu Tang allowed her father to report the matter to the magistrate was so as to draw out the perpetrator. As most of the fugitives kept in the Li family fields would have ran away, so if the two people who killed Wei Xiaoshan were among them, they would certainly have felt cheated, and would most likely find the Li family to ask for some silver before leaving.
Yu Tang nodded her head. Immediately she instructed Ah Cam to find the Qu Family’s Brothers, saying that if anyone came to find Li Duan for payment, they are to capture the person and send him to the back alley of QingZhu Lane. As the Qu family’s brothers were only just starting out, they had to establish their credibility and build their business, therefore, after agreeing, they would definitely start on her request at once and keep a strict eye on the movements of the Li Family day and night.
Yu Tang held the remaining twelve taels of silver left in her hand and was heartbroken.
The Qu family’s brothers were really expensive!
She was poor again.
But the Qu brothers were indeed reliable. Even before the double ninth festival, the Qu brothers had already gotten someone to bring her a message saying that they had caught two fugitives who had gone to Li Duan to ask for silver. However, these two people were also requested by someone else. The Qu brothers didn’t think that both Yu Tang’s and that other person’s request were for the same people. Although the other party made the request earlier than Yu Tang, but they did not pay the deposit. Therefore, even though Yu Tang’s request was later, but as she had paid the full amount in advance, they decided to give the 2 fugitives over to Yu Tang.
For a moment, Yu Tang got scared and was a little glad that she had formed a good understanding of the Qu brothers’ style due to her knowledge from her previous life. Otherwise, even if she had a plan, she still wouldn’t be able to catch the 2 fugitives.
She informed Wei Xiaochuan about it and together with Ah Cam, the 3 of the arranged to meet at the end of Qingzhu Lane.
As both Yu Tang and Wei Xiaochuan had not seen these two fugitives, Wei Xiaoshan’s matter was only based on inference and speculation. Wei Xiaochuan and Yu Tang, one in the open and one in disguise, began to interrogate the two people who had been beaten black and blue by the Qu brothers .
Unexpectedly, things went so smoothly, so much so that Yu Tang suspected that at this time the Bodhisattva was really on her side.
When Wei Xiaochuan questioned them, they quickly confessed that they were only following the Li family’s instructions to kill Wei Xiaoshan, so as to destroy the marriage plans between the Yu and Wei families. They also talked about their own personal grievances with the Li family, saying “Initially, we were only assigned do some chores, and thought that the Li family were reliable. However, who knew that once the magistrate officials came, the Li family didn’t do anything to help, forcing us to have to kill a few officials in order to escape. Now, the Li Family is afraid that we would sell them out, and so they sent people to silence us. We aren’t stupid, if they are going to be this way, we are going to drag them down with us!”
At the end of the conversation, the two fugitives even arrogantly shouted things like “If you have the ability, you should go find the Li family. We were only the tools, the Li family is the actual murderer! There’s no point in capturing us.” “Your Wei family looks you have a lot of brothers, but yet all of them were useless.”, “What can you do even if you catch us, do you dare to send us to the magistrate? The Li family is trying to sever the marriage of Lady Yu, so if you send us to the magistrate’s office, it is exactly what the Li family wants” and so on.
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