Leng Yi volunteered to light a fire again, saying that he had found the trick this time. Zhuo Qiaoniang smiled and did not argue with him. She took the wooden basin for washing vegetables and a dustpan of vegetables and went to the backyard to wash vegetables.

.

This time Leng Yi did not follow. He climbed out of the back window like a civet cat. Behind the window was an open space with an osmanthus tree as thick as an arm, covering their house like a big umbrella.

He walked around to the back of his master bedroom, opened the window, rolled in, went up to the beam, took off the bag of bloody clothes, returned to the kitchen, and stuffed the clothes into the blazing stove. Soon,

The small bag of clothes turned into ashes.

Although he knew that he did not light up the fire before because there was too much firewood, but understanding the theory does not mean that he can operate it well. As a result, he still made the kitchen full of smoke and did not light the fire.

stand up.

At this time, he heard voices outside, which seemed to be those of a mother-in-law and a maid. The room was choked by thick smoke, and he wanted to go out to hide, so he coughed and got out of the kitchen, stood on the porch and rubbed his eyes.

I heard an old woman's voice at the corner door of the backyard saying: "Madam, you have to be conscientious. We worked hard here for you. We couldn't get a penny for several months. All the money was misappropriated by your officials."

We didn’t say anything to make up for the loss of the stolen tax money, but now, your officials can buy you such a nice silver hairpin! I’m afraid our money has been wasted by you, right?”

A little maid said in a sharp voice: "That's right, if you have money to buy hairpins for your wife, but if you don't have money, you can give us monthly payments. We are all human beings and we have to live!"

Zhuo Qiao Niang blushed, lowered her head, holding the silver hairpin in her hand, tears welling up in her eyes.

A woman said: "No, we have to go to the old man to ask for money!"

"Let's go!"

Several women and maids shouted and turned around, only to see Leng Yi standing there with a sullen face. They were used to the cowardice of the former Xianxian County, but now they saw Leng Yi with lightning eyes and standing with his hands behind his back majestically, and they couldn't help but lose their arrogance. One of them lost their arrogance.

Hide behind the other person.

Leng Yi said: "How much do I owe you?"

"My 1,700 Wen!" "My 1,400 Wen!"...

They all said it in a nonchalant manner, with their heads lowered one by one.

"Is there any evidence?"

"No, Mr. Dong has accounts there." An old woman pretended to be brave and said.

"Go and call Mr. Dong and bring the accounts and money."

"I'll go!" said a little maid and ran out.

Soon, Mr. Dong came in with an account under his arm and a handful of silver coins in his hand.

Leng Yi took out all the money from his pocket and handed it to Master Dong: "Let's see if it's enough to clear their accounts!"

Master Dong took it, weighed it, and said, "It should be enough."

"Okay then - can I fire them?"

Mr. Dong hurriedly apologized and said with a smile: "Of course you can. If you pay for it, you can fire it yourself."

"That's good," Leng Yi said to several maids and servants: "After paying the bill, take your things and leave immediately!"

Several maids and women looked at Leng Yi in surprise. It is not easy to find a job these days. If they can get money, of course they are willing to continue working here. An old woman stepped forward and said with a smile: "Master, we will work hard in the future.

It’s alive, we still want to do it here…”

"But I don't want to invite you anymore!"

Mr. Dong hurriedly tried to show off to the maids and women and motioned them to go out. Although the maids and women got the money, they lost their jobs. They were all very depressed. They did not dare to say anything more and went back to their rooms with their heads lowered.

I packed my simple things and followed Mr. Dong out.

When Leng Yi was talking, Zhuo Qiao Niang didn't dare to interrupt. After they all went back to their rooms to tidy up, she whispered to Leng Yi: "Guardian, why don't we keep them here?"

"I will not tolerate anyone bullying you, no matter what the reason or who it is!" Leng Yi said flatly.

Zhuo Qiaoniang looked at him, and her eyes became gentle.

Leng Yi slowed down and said, "I'm afraid the debts we owe are more than this, right? Who knows if there will be money to pay their wages in the future. Besides, just the two of us don't have much work, so we don't need to hire such people for the time being.

If you have too many servants, wait until you have money later."

Zhuo Qiaoniang smiled and nodded lightly.

With the help of Zhuo Qiao Niang, Leng Yi finally lit up the fire on the other stove. Zhuo Qiao Niang was cooking and stir-frying, but Leng Yi couldn't help him, so he could only watch and follow her.

Zhuo Qiaoniang was very shy and just listened to Leng Yi's words while busy, smiling from time to time.

Their dishes are very simple, only one plate of green vegetables and one plate of tofu. There is not even a meat dish.

Leng Yi smiled bitterly and said, "Why is there no meat?" As soon as he finished speaking, he felt something was wrong. He was already in debt, so how could he still have money to eat meat? Seeing Zhuo Qiao Niang's uneasy look, it seemed that this was

As if it was her fault, Leng Yi quickly changed his mind and said with a smile: "We are still in debt, so it is right to live a tighter life. Eat and eat!"

Zhuo Qiaoniang forced a smile, brought the food to the main room, and the two of them sat down to eat.

Leng Yi was a carnivore and couldn't eat without meat, but this time he pretended to eat with gusto and ate every last grain in the bowl. He still looked like he was still unsatisfied. Zhuo Qiao Niang couldn't help but grin.

Laughed.

This smile revealed a row of neat little teeth and two pointed little tiger teeth, which looked particularly beautiful against her slightly dark skin.

Zhuo Qiaoniang noticed that her husband was looking at her intently. She looked a little shy, lowered her head and started to clear the dishes.

Leng Yi was about to help clean up when he heard someone shouting at the door: "Dong Weng! Dong Weng!"

The voice was Master Dong. Why didn't the concierge come in to report it? He stood there shouting. Leng Yi immediately remembered that all the maids and women in the inner house had been sent away by him. He quickly agreed, walked out and said: "

come in!"

Master Dong then hurried over with the tent in his arms. He bowed and said, "Dong Weng, all the debts owed to the servants in the inner house have been paid. They have all been sent away. This is the remaining money, and there is one more

Two or seven cents." After that, he walked up the steps and handed the remaining silver to Leng Yi.

"Very good." He took the silver coins and put them into his arms. Seeing that Mr. Dong was not leaving and was hesitant to speak, Leng Yi said, "Is there anything else?"

Mr. Dong secretly gritted his teeth and said with a cautious smile: "Just now, the student paid off the debts of some women and maids. The yamen's agents and clerks saw it, so... I asked the student to tell Dong Weng,

this……"

Hearing his hesitation, Leng Yi understood immediately and said, "Are they also collecting debts?"

Mr. Dong was very embarrassed and said: "The students have already told them that the elder had no choice but to embezzle everyone's money, and he will definitely pay it back later. If there is money now, the elder will definitely return it to everyone, so they should not be impatient."

.They were also very reasonable and didn’t say anything else.”

Leng Yi looked at the account book in his hand and said, "You have records of all the debts I owe, right?"

Mr. Dong hurriedly handed over the account book in his hand and said: "This is all recorded."

Leng Yi walked into the main room with the ledger, sat down, read it slowly, closed the ledger, and smiled bitterly. The magistrate he replaced could be said to have misappropriated all the money in the yamen.

, including the remuneration of the master in front of me, has not been paid for several months. In addition, I still owe a lot of debts outside, some of which are even loan sharks. All the debts added up are simply an astronomical figure!

What did this guy do with so much money? He caused his wife to be humiliated by the maid and mother-in-law.

Leng Yi was thinking about this question in his mind, thinking about how to get the answer from Master Dong. Master Dong had already spoken first, saying: "Dong Weng, we only made up a small part of the last batch of stolen taxes.

, the prefect has urged me several times, saying that if I don’t make up for the outstanding taxes, I will have no choice but to break up and take the matter to court.”

Tax theft?

Leng Yi's heart skipped a beat. No wonder he owed so much debt. It turned out that the taxes had been stolen, so he had to borrow money to compensate. For the court, everything else was easy to talk about. It was the taxes, which were the emperor's money.

That is absolutely indispensable. It is really miserable to have borrowed so much money and only repaid a small part of it.

Seeing the uncertainty on Leng Yi's face, Mr. Dong whispered again: "We still have 70% of the taxes receivable this year that have not been collected. It is not long before the end of the year, so we must find a way quickly."
Chapter completed!